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Vito Di Giorgio
Vito Di Giorgio (; March 19, 1880 – May 13, 1922) was an Italian-born crime boss based in Los Angeles. Originally from Palermo, Sicily, Di Giorgio lived most of his life as a grocer in New Orleans, where he was also an active Black Hander. While he lived in Los Angeles, he was known as a wealthy food importer. He survived two shootings, only to be killed while visiting Chicago in 1922. Early life and New Orleans Born to Filippo Di Giorgio and Giuseppa Casabianca in Borgetto, Sicily, in 1880,Baptism of Vitus di Giorgio, 21 March 1880, "Italia, Palermo, Diocesi di Monreale, Registri Parrocchiali, 1531-1998," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-D123-P4C?cc=2046915&wc=MG3C-DPD%3A351041401%2C351041402%2C351200401 : 20 May 2014), Borgetto > Santa Maria Maddalena > Battesimi 1880-1885 > image 49 of 291; Archivio di Arcidiocesi di Palermo (Palermo ArchDiocese Archives, Palermo). Di Giorgio came to the United States around 1904. After a brief stay in New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Borgetto
Borgetto ( Sicilian: ''Lu Burgettu'') is a small mountain Italian town of the Metropolitan City of Palermo in Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi .... As of 2012 Borgetto had an estimated population of 7,394. The town overlooks the northern coastline of Sicily. History The origins of Borgetto are disputed. The two largely accepted theories are that Borgetto was set up as vantage point over the Mediterranean Sea by Arab invaders. Thus, comes the root of Borgetto, Burj, which translates to tower in Arabic. Borgetto is the combination of Burj (tower) and -etto (a suffix meaning small in Italian). The other theory is that Borgetto was set up by the Greeks as Greek ruins are commonplace throughout Sicily. This theory, however, is based on theory as opposed to fact. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicola Gentile
Nicola Gentile (; June 12, 1885 – November 6, 1966), also known as Nick Gentile, was a Sicilian mafioso and an organized crime figure in New York City during the 1920s and 1930s. He was also known for publishing his memoirs which, violating the mafiosi code known as '' omerta'', revealed many details of the Sicilian and American underworld. Gentile was born in Siculiana, a small village on the south coast of Sicily in the province of Agrigento. He immigrated to the United States arriving in New York at age 18, in 1903. Gentile fled the country in 1937 while out on $15,000 bail after an arrest for heroin trafficking and returned to Sicily to become a boss in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. In the US, he was known as "Nick" and in Sicily as "Zu Cola" (Uncle Cola). Arrival in the United States Gentile was born on June 12, 1885 in Siculiana, Sicily, Italy. Gentile immigrated to the United States in 1903, where he quickly associated with the Black Hand during the early 20th century, Gentil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organized Crime
Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a form of illegal business, some criminal organizations, such as terrorist groups, rebel forces, and separatists, are politically motivated. Many criminal organizations rely on fear or terror to achieve their goals or aims as well as to maintain control within the organization and may adopt tactics commonly used by authoritarian regimes to maintain power. Some forms of organized crime simply exist to cater towards demand of illegal goods in a state or to facilitate trade of goods and services that may have been banned by a state (such as illegal drugs or firearms). Sometimes, criminal organizations force people to do business with them, such as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for "protection". Street gangs may ofte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Southern Ontario. With a population of 278,349 according to the 2020 census, Buffalo is the 78th-largest city in the United States. The city and nearby Niagara Falls together make up the two-county Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which had an estimated population of 1.1 million in 2020, making it the 49th largest MSA in the United States. Buffalo is in Western New York, which is the largest population and economic center between Boston and Cleveland. Before the 17th century, the region was inhabited by nomadic Paleo-Indians who were succeeded by the Neutral, Erie, and Iroquois nations. In the early 17th century, the French began to explore the region. In the 18th century, Iroquois land surrounding Buffalo Creek ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central city of the Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the Missouri–Kansas state line and has a population of 2,392,035. Most of the city lies within Jackson County, with portions spilling into Clay, Cass, and Platte counties. Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a port on the Missouri River at its confluence with the Kansas River coming in from the west. On June 1, 1850, the town of Kansas was incorporated; shortly after came the establishment of the Kansas Territory. Confusion between the two ensued, and the name Kansas City was assigned to distinguish them soon after. Sitting on Missouri's western boundary with Kansas, with Downtown near the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, the city encompasses about , making ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of California cities by population, fourth most populous in California and List of United States cities by population, 17th most populous in the United States, with 815,201 residents as of 2021. It covers a land area of , at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second most densely populated large U.S. city after New York City, and the County statistics of the United States, fifth most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. Among the 91 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco was ranked first by per capita income (at $160,749) and sixth by aggregate income as of 2021. Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include ''SF'', ''San Fran'', ''The '', ''Frisco'', and '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salvatore Maranzano
Salvatore Maranzano (; July 31, 1886 – September 10, 1931) was an Italian-American mobster from the town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, and an early Cosa Nostra boss who led what later would become the Bonanno crime family in New York City. He instigated the Castellammarese War in 1930 to seize control of the American Mafia, winning the war after the murder of rival faction head Joe Masseria in April 1931. He then briefly became the Mafia's ''capo di tutti capi'' ("boss of all bosses") and formed the Five Families in New York City, but was murdered on September 10, 1931, on the orders of Charles "Lucky" Luciano, who established an arrangement in which families shared power to prevent future turf wars: The Commission. Early life Salvatore Maranzano was the youngest of 12 children born to Domenico Maranzano and Antonina Pisciotta. Five of his siblings lived to adulthood: Mariano, Angelo, Nicolo, Giuseppe, and Angela. As a youngster, Maranzano had wanted to become a priest a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behind New York County (Manhattan). Brooklyn is also New York City's most populous borough,2010 Gazetteer for New York State . Retrieved September 18, 2016. with 2,736,074 residents in 2020. Named after the Dutch village of Breukelen, Brooklyn is located on the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crime Family
A crime family is a unit of an organized crime syndicate, particularly in Italian organized crime and especially in the Sicilian Mafia and Italian American Mafia, often operating within a specific geographic territory or a specific set of activities. In its strictest sense, a ''family'' (or ''clan'') is a criminal gang, operating either on a unitary basis or as an organized collection of smaller gangs (e.g., ''cells'', ''factions'', ''crews'', etc.). In turn, a family can be a sole "enterprise" or part of a larger syndicate or cartel. Despite the name, most crime families are generally not based on or formed around actual familial connections, although they do tend to be ethnically-based, and many members may in fact be related to one another. Origins The origins of the term come from the Sicilian Mafia. In the Sicilian language, the word ''cosca'', which is the crown of spiny, closely folded leaves on plants such as the artichoke or the thistle, symbolizes the tightness of relat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicolo Schiro
Nicolo "Cola" Schiro (born Nicolò Schirò; ; September 2, 1872April 29, 1957) was an early Sicilian-born New York City mobster who, in 1912, became the boss of what later become known as the Bonanno crime family. Schiro's leadership of the gang would see it orchestrate the "Good Killers" murders in New York, New Jersey, and Detroit. Schiro's gang also controlled gambling and protection rackets in Brooklyn, engaged in bootlegging during Prohibition, and printed counterfeit money. A conflict with rival mafia boss Joe Masseria would force Schiro out as boss, after which he returned to Sicily. Early life Nicolò Schirò was born on September 2, 1872, in the town of Roccamena, in the Province of Palermo, Sicily to Matteo Schirò and his wife, Maria Antonia Rizzuto. His father's family came from the Arbëreshë community of Contessa Entellina. A few years later, Schiro's family moved to his mother's hometown in nearby Camporeale. Schiro immigrated to the United States in 1897. B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kansas City Crime Family
The Kansas City crime family, also known as the Civella crime family or Kansas City Mafia, is an Italian-American Mafia family based in Kansas City, Missouri. History Early history The Italian-American organized crime family began when two Sicilian ''mafiosi'' known as the DiGiovanni brothers fled Sicily to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1912. Joseph "Joe Church" DiGiovanni and Peter "Sugarhouse Pete" DiGiovanni began making money from a variety of criminal operations or rackets shortly after their arrival. Their fortunes greatly improved with the introduction of Prohibition, when they became the only group bootlegging alcohol in Kansas City. Their rackets at this time were controlled by John Lazia, who later became the leading figure when the organisation expanded. The gang was given virtually a free hand to operate by their boss Tom Pendergast, head of the Pendergast Machine that controlled Kansas City's government at the time. Under Pendergast, Kansas City became a wide-open t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rosario DeSimone
Rosario DeSimone (; 11 December 1873 – 15 July 1946) was the head of an Italian crime family during the 1920s to 1940s that was the predecessor to the Los Angeles crime family of the American Mafia. Rosario was the father of the future California mob boss, Frank DeSimone. He is not to be confused with the Chicago Italian Timothy Rosario DeSimone. Biography DeSimone was born in Salaparuta, Sicily, Italy, on 11 December 1873. He initially settled in New Orleans before moving to Pueblo, Colorado. In Pueblo he was part of that city's Mafia organization, and was evidently well-respected. He became a close ally of Vito Di Giorgio in Los Angeles. Upon Di Giorgio's death in Chicago in 1922, DeSimone took power. His empire spanned over Los Angeles County. His rule in Los Angeles was brief, and he stepped down around 1925. He later became a legitimate businessman who settled in Downey, California. DeSimone died of natural causes in 1946, and is buried in Calvary Cemetery. Family D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
