Aniello Dellacroce

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Aniello John “Mr. Neil "Dellacroce (born March 15, 1914 in New York City , † December 2, 1985 in Queens ) aka" Father O'Neil "and" The Tall Guy "was an American mobster and member of the Gambino of La Cosa Nostra . He rose to the underboss under Carlo Gambino .

Life

Early years

Dellacroce was the son of Francesco and Antoinette Dellacroce; both had immigrated from the Italian region of Veneto . Dellacroce grew up in Little Italy , Manhattan. The nickname Neil was an Americanization of the name Aniello . Dellacroce had a brother, Carmine. Aniello Dellacroce married Lucille Riccardi. The couple had a son, Armand (later also a member of the Gambino family), a son, Ronald and a daughter: Shannon Connelly.

As a teenager, he initially worked as an apprentice to a butcher , but dropped out of his apprenticeship and became a professional criminal . He was considered very traditional and absolutely loyal to the boss.

Dellacroce sometimes walked through Manhattan disguised as a priest and was called "Father O'Neil". He confused other mafiosi and the police. Allegedly he is said to have committed a murder in the priestly robe.

Ascent

In the late 1930s, he joined the Mangano family - later classified as the Gambino family. He quickly became a protégé of the underboss Albert Anastasia . After the disappearance of the head of the family Vincent Mangano , Anastasia became the new boss of the family and Dellacroce was promoted to the Capo regime with its own crew.

Dellacroce bought the Ravenite Social Club in Little Italy, which soon became a popular hangout for the Gambino family. On October 25, 1957, Anastasia was shot sitting in a hairdressing chair and the previous underboss Carlo Gambino took over the management of the family. A plot by Gambino, the boss of the Lucchese family Tommy Lucchese and the capo of the Luciano family Vito Genovese was suspected behind the murder .

Dellacroce, a close follower of Anastasia, remained loyal to Gambino and accepted his leadership. In 1965, Gambino replaced the aging underboss Joseph Biondo with Dellacroce.

In 1971 Dellacroce was sentenced to one year in prison for failing to testify in court.

In May 1972, Dellacroce was charged with tax offenses. In March 1973 he was sentenced to five years in prison for this.

Large parts of the Gambino family agreed that Dellacroce would be Gambino's successor. Nevertheless, on his deathbed in 1976, Gambino named Paul Castellano as his successor. Castellano represented rather the new type of mafioso, who dealt primarily with white-collar crime.

Gambino confirmed - to calm the minds - Dellacroce as underboss and he retained control of the family's street activities in Manhattan, such as racketeering etc., but de facto the family split when Castellano became boss.

The family split up

The La Cosa Nostra in New York was never on moral grounds against the trafficking of heroin or cocaine before but many old Mafiosi of the caliber Castellanos feared the rising pressure of persecution by the authorities and the impact within the organization itself. In addition, Mafia bosses had as Castellano their business and social activities partially legalized and turned into criminal businessmen. The “streetcrews” on site did not benefit from these deals and discontent spread among the ordinary members; especially since bosses like Castellano in return did not waive their share of the profits on the part of the members, but prohibited them from the lucrative drug business and left them to the Sicilian Cosa Nostra - against profit sharing ( Pizza Connection ).

With the loyal Dellaroce as the underboss, this split did not appear. On March 28, 1985, Dellacroce was investigated for criminal activities. He was one of the defendants in the 1985 Mafia Commission Trial . At this point, Dellacroca was already very ill and should not have another trial. He died in early December 1985. His death was followed by the boss's assassination two weeks later and John Gotti's takeover.

death

On December 2, 1985, Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce died of complications from lung cancer in the Immaculate Hospital (now closed) in Queens.

Dellacroce was buried in St. John's Cemetery in Queens .

Effects

Already in the early 1980s there had been growing tensions with Castellano, especially with John Gotti , who belonged to the faction of the underboss Dellacroce. Gotti and those around him rated Castellano's behavior as greedy and selfish. In addition, several members of the Dellacroce group had entered the drug trade despite the ban. Among these people, in addition to Angelo Ruggiero, was Gotti's brother Gene Gotti. Castellano's authority was thus called into question. But his support in the Manhattan faction also waned more and more, since its simple members had also long since entered the drug trade. Castellano was able to hold out, however, because the heads of the other four New York families also did excellent business because of him; In addition, Dellacroce held back his people, because he did not want a gang war.

When FBI wiretaps in 1983 linked thirteen members of the Gambino family to drug deals, the problem came to a head. The FBI had intercepted phone calls from Angelo Ruggiero, which also incriminated John Gotti and his brother Gene Gotti. Castellano pressed for access to the recordings in order to enforce his ban on drug trafficking, if necessary, and to enforce his authority. Attempts Ruggieros and John Gottis to dissuade Castellano from this with Dellacroce succeeded in 1984 and 1985, but ultimately failed because of Dellacroce's advanced cancer. In 1985 it became known that Castellano had been bugged for a long time by the FBI; He was now seen by many Mafiosi themselves as a risk factor, as it was feared that he could negotiate a deal with the public prosecutor under Rudolph Giuliani.

Castellano made the first serious mistake when he stayed away from the funeral of his deputy Dellacroce, probably out of fear of an assassination attempt. But this was seen as a lack of respect not only by many members of the Gambino family, but also by various high-ranking people from other New York families . John Gotti realized that now nobody would stand in front of Castellano anymore. In view of the alleged threat that Castellano would now take action against the remains of the Dellacroce Gotti crew - his absence was an indication of this - Gotti decided to take the initiative himself and planned to get rid of his boss.

On December 16, Gotti had the boss Castellano murdered in front of a steak house in New York and then became boss himself.

family

In April 1988, Dellacroce's son Armond died. He was hiding from law enforcement in the Pocono Mountains , Pennsylvania . He is said to have died of a cocaine overdose combined with cirrhosis of the liver.

Cultural reception

literature

  • Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia . Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
  • Jacobs, James B., Christopher Panarella, and Jay Worthington. Busting the Mob: The United States Vs. Cosa Nostra . New York: NYU Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8147-4230-0
  • Maas, Peter. Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia . New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997. ISBN 0-06-093096-9
  • Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires . New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8
  • Charley Rosen: The Wizard of Odds: How Jack Molinas Almost Destroyed the Game of Basketball . Seven Stories Press, New York 2003, ISBN 1583225625 .
  • United States. Congress. Senates. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi: Hearings Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs . 1988. ( Online in Google Book Search)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ralph Blumenthal: ANIELLO DELLACROCE DIES AGE 71; REPUTED CRIME-GROUP FIGURE . In: New York Times , December 4, 1985. Retrieved December 19, 2011. 
  2. ↑ "Aniello 'Mr. Neil' Dellacroce" ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Seize the night  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.carpenoctem.tv
  3. ^ "Aniello Dellacroce" La Cosa Nostra Database
  4. ↑ Arnold H. Lubasch: Reputed Crime leader indicted for Tax Evasion . In: New York Times , May 3, 1972. Retrieved December 19, 2011. 
  5. ↑ "MAFIA FIGURE GETS 5-YEAR SENTENCE" New York Times March 13, 1973
  6. ↑ "THE CITY; Reputed Deputy In Mob Is indicted" New York Times March 29, 1985
  7. ^ Neill "The Hat" Dellacroce Find A Grave
  8. ^ "Fugitive in a Mafia Case Turns Up Dead" New York Times April 7, 1988
  9. ↑ Article in the IMDB

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Dellacroce, Aniello
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dellacroce, Aniello John; Mr. Neil (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian-American criminal
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH 2nd December 1985
Place of death Queens