Frankie Yale

Frankie Yale aka Frankie Uale (* 1893 in Longobucco , Calabria , † July 1, 1928 in New York City ) was an Italian mobster in New York. His birth name was Francesco Ioele .

biography

Early years

In 1901, at the age of eight, Yale and his family moved to New York City. His criminal career began as a teenager . Despite his average size, Yale was a feared pugilist and thief. In 1910 - Yale was 17 years old - he and his friend Booby Nelson hit a group of drunkards in a pool hall on Coney Island . Billiard sticks broke and billiard balls flew through the air.

Yale received its first sentence in 1912; he was placed under house arrest . Yale met John Torrio , who introduced him to the Five Pointers .

Boss in Brooklyn

In 1915 Torrio left Brooklyn for Chicago . Yale practically became its successor. His organized thugs collected the ice cream sellers among others . Yale also forced other traders to protect its organization and received protection money from them . The Yale cigars were a special variant . Yale made poor quality cigars and the dealers were more or less forced to buy them from him.

The Harvard Inn , a bar on Coney Island that he opened in 1917, served as Yale's headquarters . Behind the counter, Yale put Al Capone , whose role model he was at the time. Yale was occasionally prone to brutality; once furiously, he beat his younger brother to hospital. In this and similar ways he gave Capone an insight into organized crime with Italian characteristics.

Yale planned further expansion of its area in the piers of Red Hook, Brooklyn , but this led to a year-long battle with Irish gangs who had formed the White Hand Gang . In 1919 he sent Capone to Chicago because he had beaten the "White Hander" Arthur Finnegan almost to death after an incident and was now threatened in turn. On March 31, 1920, Yale murdered Dinny Meehan , the leader of the Irish "White Handers" (the name was supposed to annoy the Italians, who were generally called Black Hands in newspapers ).

Collaboration with Chicago

On May 11, 1920, Johnny Torrio and Capone took him to Chicago, where he was unknown, to murder Jim Colosimo . The police arrested him immediately, but the decisive witness then claimed to have mistaken him; apparently because he feared the revenge of the criminals.

Capone also resorted to Yale in the murder of Dean O'Banion . He had been President of the Unione Siciliana in New York since 1917 and took advantage of the natural death of Chicago President Mike Merlo , who died of cancer on November 8, 1924 , for the assassination . O'Banion, who had been granted a lucrative additional legal income from the numerous murdered gangsters with his flower shop, had a corresponding order for Mike Merlo. Given Merlo's natural death, there was nothing suspicious in it when the trio Yale, John Scalise and Albert Anselmi walked into O'Banion's store two days later on November 10, 1924 to collect the order. Yale, who was considered inconspicuous, shook hands with O'Banion and held it, his two companions then opened fire on the Irishman. Yale was arrested by the police but released because of an existing alibi .

From 1923 to 1925, after Yale's men had killed then White Handers leader Bill Lovett , a full-blown war took place between Yale and Richard Lonergan . So it was a good opportunity for Capone to equalize Colosimo and O'Banion. Lonergan and some of his gang are said to have been killed by Capone on January 26, 1925. As a result, the White Hand Gang disbanded .

In the spring of 1927 , Yale had an agreement with Capone; the Black Hands were to provide safe transportation of alcohol to Chicago for Capone. Yale, however, betrayed Capone, more and more alcohol deliveries simply disappeared until there was a clear shortage in Chicago. Also, a friend of Capone's, Filesy DeAmato, who was supposed to investigate the matter, was murdered.

The end

On July 1, 1928, Yale was the victim of a " drive-by shoot "; that is, his car was being chased in New York by a black Nash that was being shot at with .45 caliber pistols and Thompson submachine guns until his car came to a stop at a building where the killers completed the murder. This murder was the first case in New York where a Thompson was used for such an act, as in Chicago.

Who exactly sat in the Nash could not be clarified without a doubt until today. At the time, it was considered very likely that Jack McGurn was directly involved in the attack and there was speculation about the involvement of John Scalise and Albert Anselmi . Later information and testimony point to Fred Burke , Gus Winkler , Fred Goetz and Louis "Little New York" Campagna as the perpetrators, who were sent to New York on behalf of Capone.

Web links

• Frankie Yale at www.myalcaponemuseum.com (English)
• Frankie Yale at www.mugshots.com (English)
• Frankie Yale to www.onewal.com with photos from the crime scene (English)

supporting documents

1. ↑ Frankie Yale ( Memento of the original from April 2, 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. 

predecessor	Office	successor
Ignazio Saietta	President of the Unione Siciliana in New York City around 1918–1924	unknown (probably taken over by the Unione Siciliana in Chicago Anthony D'Angelo )