Ralph "The Barber" Daniello (1886–1925) was a New York criminal who belonged to the

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, be ...

Navy Street Gang and participated in a major gang slaying. Daniello eventually became an informant and helped destroy the Camorra crime gangs in Brooklyn.

Early life

Daniello's real name was Alfonso Pepe. In Italy he was arrested for attacking a woman and on suspicion of involvement in a murder.Raffaele Daniello
GangRule.com After his escape from prison in 1906 he made his way to the French port of

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

, from which he sailed to New York where he was smuggled in illegally.Di Marco Murder Is Again Described
The Daily Standard Union, March 7, 1918 In New York, Daniello became a low-level criminal who participated in labor

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and of ...

and

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

. He was involved in the 1913

Labor slugger war The Labor Sluggers War was a 15-year period of gang wars among New York City labor sluggers for control of labor racket (crime), racketeering from 1911 to 1927. This began in 1911 with the first war between "Dopey" Benny Fein and Joseph Rosenzweig ...

Mafia-Camorra War

In 1916 he became involved in the Mafia-Camorra War. He was a member of the Navy Street Gang, made up primarily of Italians from

Naples, Italy Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. In November 1916, Daniello participated in the ambush murders of

Nicholas Morello Nicolò Terranova (1890 – September 7, 1916), also known as Nicholas "Nick" Morello, was one of the first Italian-American organized crime figures in New York City he succeeded Giuseppe Morello as boss of the then Morello Gang in 1909 and was suc ...

and

Charles Ubriaco Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

on a New York Street.Camorra: The Navy Street Gang
GangRule.com These killings were part of an ongoing gang war between the

Morello crime family The Morello crime family () was one of the earliest crime families to be established in the United States and New York City. The Morellos were based in Manhattan's Italian Harlem and eventually gained dominance in the Italian underworld by defea ...

, part of the traditional Sicilian mafia, and the Brooklyn Camorra, a

Neapolitan Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to: Geography and history * Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city * Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...

crime organization. During this era, a crime organization would usually consist of individuals from the same clan, village, or region in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. In later years, the gangs would be based more on individual families and would allow any Italian to become a full member.

In hiding

After being acquitted on

robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

and abduction charges, Daniello decided it wasn't safe to stay in New York. In May 1917, Daniello and his girlfriend fled to

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

. In July 1917, the

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

(NYPD) police issued a warrant for Daniello's arrest for the May 7 murder of Louis DeMarro in

. Meanwhile, Daniello and his girlfriend were running low on money in Reno. He wrote the Camorra Gang asking for help, but they ignored his requests. Daniello was eventually arrested in Nevada and

extradited Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...

back to New York.Confession May Clear 23 Feud Murders
The New York Times, November 28, 1917

Informant

Facing

indictments An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of an ...

on murder, grand larceny and

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

, Daniello began to tell the police about the Navy Street crew and its connection to the Morello and Ubriaco murders. He provided evidence about 23 murders. Several Grand Juries issued 21 indictments in November 1917.Nelli, ''The Business of Crime''
pp. 133-134
/ref>Indict Twelve In Murder Conspiracy
The New York Times, December 1, 1917 New York prosecutors offered Daniello a deal if he would testify against

Alessandro Vollero Alessandro Vollero (1889 - 1959) was a New York mobster and a high-ranking member of the Neapolitan Camorra Navy Street gang in Brooklyn. Vollero served as a lieutenant to gang boss Pellegrino Morano during the Mafia-Camorra War of 1916. Born i ...

, the Camorra leader. Daniello, who had attended several high level meetings with Vollero, agreed to the deal. In 1917, Vollero was extradited to New York and indicted in the murders of Morello, Umbracio and Manhattan gambler George Verrizano (which Daniello later claimed he had participated in). Daniello's testimony, along with that of "Johnny the Left" Esposito, Tony Notaro, and other Navy Street and Coney Island gang members, led to Vollaro's conviction. The conviction of Vollero and his associates marked the end of both the Navy Street Gang and the Brooklyn Camorra organization.

Death

Because of the abuse he received after testifying at the trial against Vollero, Daniello was moved to a different prison. He received a suspended sentence in consideration of his testimony. However, shortly later he was arrested for assaulting a man in Coney Island. Daniello claimed he shot the victim thinking that he had been sent on a vendetta from his former associates of the Navy Street gang. He was sentenced to five years in prison. Released in 1925 he was shot in his saloon, near

Metuchen Metuchen ( ) is a suburban Borough (New Jersey), borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The borough is a commuter town of New York City, located in the heart of the Raritan River, Raritan Valley reg ...

, New Jersey.

References

* Asbury, Herbert. ''The Gangs of New York''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928. *Nelli, Humbert.
The Business of Crime: Italians and Syndicate Crime in the United States
'. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981. *''Tells Of New York "Murder Syndicate"; Daniello Confession Leads to 17 Indictments Alieged Gang Accused of 23 Killings--Controlled Italian Gambling''. Boston Daily Globe 01 Dec 1917 *''Last Of Old Gang Shot From An Auto; Ex-Convict Sole Survivor of Band Depleted by Killings and Electric Chair''. New York Times 17 Jun 1929