Ciro Terranova

Ciro Terranova (police photo, 1930)

Ciro “Artichoke King” Terranova (* 1888 Corleone , Sicily , † February 20, 1938 Manhattan in New York City ) was a member of the US Mafia clan in New York City, later classified as the “ Genovese family ” .

Family relationships

Ciro Terranova was either a younger half-brother or a younger step-brother of Giuseppe Morello . According to the first half-brother variant, Giuseppe and Nicolo "Nick" would be the eldest sons of Angela Piazza, who then had two more sons with Ciro and Vincent Terranova . After the second step-brother variant, Vincent and Ciro followed their mother Rosalia Terranova into the Morello family, where there was also the older brother Antonio Morello . In general there is confusion about the number of brothers, as there is supposed to be another Peter Morello , who is now considered identical to Giuseppe, who in turn was also known as Joe Morello . Ciro himself added to the confusion when he identified "Nick" as Nicholas Terranova after his murder.

Ciro thus belonged to the Morello family , which can be considered the forerunner of the Genovese family .

biography

Giuseppe "Peter" Morello had moved from Corleone to New York City in 1892 and six months later Ciro followed with the rest of the family: d. H. Father and mother, sister Salvatrese (but possibly four other sisters), his older half-brother Nicolo "Nick" Morello , and his brother Vincent Terranova .

They had been in New York City for over a year, but the family made no progress in their careers. Giuseppe Morello went to Louisiana to live with a cousin of the family, and here too the entire family followed him with Ciro two months later. Giuseppe and his father worked there on a sugar cane plantation for about a year , then went to Bryan, Texas as a cotton picker, but gave up the job when family members fell ill with malaria .

In 1896 the family was back in New York City. Again it was Giuseppe and his father who initially worked as pavers, possibly also running a small coal shop there. In 1898 they opened a pub on 13th Street and soon after opened a second on Stanton Street . Like his brother Vincent, Ciro grew up in the gang milieu of East Harlem; In 1900 his older (step-) brother Antonio and his (step-) father were killed in a shootout. At this point, his brother Vincent was already the boss of a street gang that hovered around 107th Street.

On June 11, 1900, Giuseppe "Peter" Morello was sentenced together with Calagero Meggiore to a fine of 5,000 US dollars for possession and distribution of counterfeit money. The conviction was the result of an intelligence operation carried out when poor quality counterfeit $ 5 bills appeared in Brooklyn and North Beach .

After his release, Giuseppe opened a restaurant together with Ciro Terranova in the back of the inn at 8 Prince Street , with Ciro working as a waiter; the front part was managed by Antonio Russo . The adjoining house No. 9 was the import shop of Ignazio Saietta , the boss of the Black Hand Gang , with whom Giuseppe now re-entered the counterfeit money business. This time, however, the quality of the notes was excellent. There are many indications that the forgeries were made in Italy, so Vito Cascio Ferro could have been the necessary contact person to the Sicilian Mafia . This later triggered the Castellammare War by sending more Sicilians to New York City .

After the imprisonment of Giuseppe Morello and Ignazio Saietta for spreading counterfeit money in 1910, Ciro rose to lieutenant in the gang of thugs of Giosue Gallucci , after whose death in 1915 Ciro became the leader. Ciro got his nickname because of his forcibly enforced monopoly on the import of artichokes to New York City, which made him a classic " Mustache Pete ".

After the murder of his brother Nicholas Morello , many of his men now joined Ciro Terranova, who allegedly even led to the Capo regime under Joe Masseria during the 1920s, while his brother Giuseppe "Peter" Morello was considered his consigliere , but also could be quite active.

After the murder of Peter Morello and then Joe Masseria , the final point in the Castellammare War , Terranova, especially under the new boss, was considered demotivated and unnerved; In any case, his own involvement in illegal activities was less pronounced than that of other gangsters. Even the police later sorted him out of the files in this regard.

From 1935 he lived only on his artichoke monopoly , a source of income that, however, also dried up in December of the same year. The monopoly fell to Michael Coppola in 1936 . The authorities tried to keep him out of Manhattan ; only in 1937 was Ciro Terranova allowed to return. He died on February 20, 1938 at the age of 49 after a stroke .

He was buried in the Calvary Cemetery in Queens County (New York) in a family grave, in which his brother-in-law Ignatius Lupo (aka Ignazio Lupo or Ignazio Saietta ) was later buried.

Movie and movie quotes

In the US TV series The Untouchables from 1959, Ciro Terranova is played by the actor Jack Weston .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thomas Hunt: "Clutch Hand" Confusion. 2002 on archive link ( memento of the original from January 23, 2012 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. 
2. ↑ Ciro Terranova on www.mugshots.com (English)
3. ↑ Ciro Terranova ( Memento of the original dated November 12, 2006 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. Biography on www.onewal.com (English)  
4. ^ Ciro Terranova in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 7, 2015.