Matranga family
The Matranga family (New Orleans Crime Family) was an Italian-American mafia family of the American Cosa Nostra with headquarters in New Orleans ( Louisiana ). It is arguably the oldest mafia syndicate in the United States , with criminal activities dating back to the late 19th century. The family has been inactive since 2006.
history
Battle of the Agnellos
The mafioso Raffaele Agnello , who emigrated from Palermo ( Sicily ) in 1860, became the underworld boss in the so-called "Little Palermo" of New Orleans in the mid-1860s. His gang of Palermitans got into conflict with a group of immigrants from Messina who enjoyed the support of a local gang led by Joseph P. Macheca . After a bitter and bloody feud, Agnello seemed to have defeated his rivals. However, he was ambushed and murdered in 1869.
His younger brother Joseph Agnello took over the leadership of the Palermo gang and continued to fight against the underworld rivals. In April 1872 he was murdered. Joseph Macheca now assumed the leading role in the Italian underworld of New Orleans.
Ascent from Matranga
When the Sicilian bandit Giuseppi "Vincenzo Randazo" Esposito was hunted by the Sicilian police after extorting a ransom and fled to France and later to the United States, he set foot in the Irish- and Jewish-dominated underworld of New York City after his failed attempt to New Orleans in the late 1870s and became part of Macheca's organization. He changed his name to Vincenzo Randazo, became a leading figure in New Orleans' underworld and his Lieutenant Joseph "Joe" Provenzano began to control the docks. In July 1881, however, Esposito was charged with murder, attempted murder, and robbery and was expelled back to Italy.
After Esposito was deported, the organization split into two factions. One was led by Macheca, his lieutenant Charles Matranga and his brother Antonino Matranga . The other faction was headed by Joseph Provenzano. In 1888 war broke out between the two groups. The local police chief David Hennesey supported the Provenzano faction, whereupon a squad of Matranga's men carried out an assassination attempt on Hennesey; however, he lived long enough to reveal the names of his attackers. Joseph Macheca, Carlo Matranga, and others were arrested for the Hennesey murder, but sixteen of the nineteen defendants were acquitted. The people were angry that the "criminal Italians" should get away with this murder and stormed the prison on March 14, 1891. Joseph Macheca was lynched and murdered by the crowd, along with others. These events were filmed in 1999 in Vendetta - The Gangs of New Orleans . Matranga, the alleged client, was unharmed. Charles Matranga's organization was networked with Mafia organizations in Florida and Southern California . A Matranga branch was located in the Los Angeles area and later relocated its activities to San Diego . In 1922, Matranga retired.
1922-1944
It is still not clear who actually took the lead after Matranga's resignation. Various sources indicate that Sylvestro "Sam" Carolla, who emigrated from Terrasini (Sicily) in 1904, took over the management from 1922 to 1947. Other sources say that Corrado Giacona was the head of the family from 1922 until his death in 1944, after which the management was transferred to underboss Frank Todaro for six months until his death and Carolla was the head for three years afterwards until he was expelled to Italy in 1947.
Carolla is believed to have waged war on rival smugglers by taking over Matranga's smaller smuggling operations and assumed full control of the smuggling business in New Orleans in December 1930 with the assassination of rival smuggling king William Bailey . In New Orleans, he gained considerable political influence and is said to have used as rumored its compounds Al Capone , the boss of the Chicago Outfit , in order to force 1929 Carolla to provide his organization with imported alcohol and thus the rival organization by Joe Aiello from Harming Chicago. When Capone arrived for a meeting at a New Orleans train station, Carolla reportedly ordered three privy police officers to disarm Capone's bodyguards and break their fingers, which is said to have forced Capone to return to Chicago and no longer assert any claims .
In 1930, Carolla was arrested in connection with the murder of a federal drug agent while on an undercover drug deal. Despite multiple police officers' testimony confirming that Carolla was in New York at the time of the murder, he was sentenced to two years in prison. A few months after his release in 1934, Carolla and Carlos Marcello , along with New York mobster Frank Costello of the Luciano family , whose New Orleans representative Phillip "Dandy Phil" Kastel and Huey Long , the Senator from Louisiana, were in Gambling operations, mostly involved with slot machines.
Carolla was imprisoned in Atlanta Federal Prison for two years on charges related to a drug offense in 1938 and was subsequently to be deported to Italy. However, his deportation was delayed by the US entry into World War II and so he continued to head the organization as head of the family for the next few years until he was deported in 1947.
Marcello regime
Thanks to his skills in greasing and collecting money, Frank Todaro's brother-in-law Carlos Marcello, with the support of Frank Costello, was able to assert himself at a mafia conference against the claim to the leadership of Carolla's son, Anthony Carolla , as the new head of the family.
Marcello controlled u. a. the law enforcement agency and political machine in Jefferson County, Louisiana, and gained control of Southern News and Publishing Co , the largest racing news service, with Joseph Poretto in 1948 . In the early 1950s, he expanded his business up for Dallas ( Texas off) and has been a close partner of Jack Ruby . Marcello skimmed the casinos in New Orleans as ordered. Later - when the mobsters became active in Las Vegas - he did the same there and later his assertiveness was also in demand in Florida in some real estate deals. Usually the Five Families and the Chicago outfit were a dominant influence on the smaller families in the rest of the United States. Marcello was apparently the kind of local boss who could get away from it.
Despite a number of gruesome murders that Marcello is believed to have been involved in, he was never convicted. Only in 1981 was it possible to prove something to Marcello when he and other people u. a. were charged with bribery. Marcello was sentenced to a long sentence and served in the Federal Correctional Institution, Texarkana , and his younger brother Joseph Marcello, Jr. was named acting boss while incarcerated. In the spring of 1989 Marcello suffered a series of heart attacks and he was released early and retired and Marcello, Jr. also resigned as an underboss.
The downfall
Anthony Carolla took over the management of the organization and named "Fat Frank" Gagliano his underboss. Both were indicted in 1994, along with Marcello, Jr., Fat Frank's son Joseph Gagliano, and family capo Sebastian Salvatore , in association with the New York City Gambino family , in a fraud case involving Worldwide Gaming of Louisiana, Inc "and the" Louisiana Route Operators, Inc. " of being involved and found guilty and detained within a year.
The family has been inactive since 2006. It is claimed that today they are just a clique of criminal Italians without a stable leadership, others believe that Joseph F. Gagliano is the new boss of the family and that they have increasingly withdrawn into the underground.
Historical tour
Head of the family
The head of a family can not always be identified so clearly; especially if another family member comes to the fore due to a prison sentence. The external view does not always make it easy to recognize a new head as such or to determine his exact term of office. In addition, a presidential system seems to be establishing itself to a certain extent; d. H. the head shifts his power more to a so-called “acting boss” and / or “street boss”, who in turn continue to recognize the head as such, even if he is, for example, in custody.
| Period | Surname | Nickname | Lifetime | Cause of death | annotation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1865-1869 | Raffaele Agnello | 1829-1969 | murdered on April 1, 1869 | ||
| 1869-1872 | Joseph Agnello | Peppino | 1833-1872 | murdered on April 20, 1872 | |
| 1872-1891 | Joseph Peter Macheca | JP | 1843-1891 | lynched on March 14, 1891 | |
| 1891-1922 | Charles Matranga | Millionaire Charlie | 1857-1943 | natural death | resigned |
| 1922-1944 | Corrado Giacona | 1877-1944 | natural death | ||
| 1944-1944 | Frank Todaro | 1889-1944 | natural death | ||
| 1944-1947 | Sylvestro Carolla / Carollo | Silver Dollar Sam | 1896-1972 | natural death | Imprisoned 1932–1934 and 1938–1940 / expelled in 1947 |
| 1947-1990 | Carlos Marcello (born: Calogero Minacori) | The Little Man | 1910-1993 | natural death | Imprisoned 1983–1989 |
| 1990-2007 | Anthony S. Carolla / Carollo | 1923-2007 | natural death |
Acting boss
- 1983–1990: Joseph Paul Marcello, Jr.
Underboss of the family
The underboss is number two in the criminal family, he is the deputy director of the syndicate. He gathers information for the boss, gives orders and instructions to the subordinates. In the absence of the boss, he leads the organization.
| Period | Surname | Nickname | Lifetime | Cause of death | annotation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1922-1944 | Frank Todaro | 1889-1944 | natural death | became boss in 1944 | |
| 1944-1953 | Joseph Poretto | Joe | 1906-1983 | resigned | |
| 1953-1990 | Joseph Paul Marcello, Jr. | 1924-1999 | natural death | became acting boss at the same time in 1983 | |
| 1990-2006 | Frank J. Gagliano | Fat Frank | 1930-2006 | natural death |
In the movie
- 1999: Vendetta - The Law of Violence : Joseph Macheca is played by Joaquim de Almeida , Charles Matranga is played by Gerry Mendicino and Joseph Provenzano is played by Richard Libertini .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Little Man is Bigger than Ever: Louisiana Still Jumps for Mobster Marcello . In: Life , April 10, 1970, pp. 30-37.
- ^ Raab 2005, p. 18th
- ↑ a b aboutthemafia - New Orleans mafia shows signs of life?
- ↑ The American Mafia - Who Was Who: Agnello, Raffaele (c1829-1869)
- ^ A b The American Mafia - New Orleans Bosses
- ↑ La Cosa Nostra Database - Joseph Macheca
- ↑ La Cosa Nostra Database - Charles Matranga
- ^ The American Mafia - New Orleans, LA
- ^ The American Mafia - Sylvestro Carolla
- ↑ Bio. - Carlos Marcello Biography
- ↑ The New York Times , March 31, 1981, p. 16
- ↑ The New York Times , July 8, 1981, p. 18
- ↑ "Carlos Marcello, 83, Reputed Crime Boss In New Orleans Area" , The New York Times , March 3., 1993