Sebastiano DiGaetano
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Sebastiano DiGaetano (; c. 1862 – disappeared March 1912) was an Italian-born
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...
of what would later become known as the
Bonanno crime family The Bonanno crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the " Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, and in the United States, as part of the criminal phenomenon known as ...
. He briefly attained the title ''
capo dei capi ''Capo dei capi'' (; "boss of hebosses") or ''capo di tutti i capi'' (; "boss of all hebosses") or ''Godfather'' ( it, Padrino) are terms used mainly by the media, public, fiction writers and law enforcement community to indicate a supremely po ...
'' (English: "Boss of bosses") of the Sicilian-American mafia, after
Giuseppe Morello Giuseppe "the Clutch Hand" Morello (; May 2, 1867 – August 15, 1930), also known as "The Old Fox", was the first boss of the Morello crime family and later top adviser to Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria. He was known as ''Piddu'' ( Sicilian ...
had been convicted of counterfeiting money in 1910. DiGaetano stepped down as boss of his crime family in 1912, and disappeared shortly thereafter.


Early days

Sebastiano DiGaetano was born in the town of
Castellammare del Golfo Castellammare del Golfo (; scn, Casteddammari; la, Emporium Segestanorum or ) is a town and municipality in the Trapani Province of Sicily. The name can be translated as "Sea Fortress on the Gulf", stemming from the medieval fortress in the h ...
in Sicily in c. 1862, to Arcangelo DiGaetano and Angela DiBenedetto. He first arrived in the United States on October 24, 1898, with his wife and daughter joining him in 1901. By 1908 the DiGaetano family had moved from
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
to the Williamsburg section of
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 ...
, with Sebastiano becoming a barber. DiGaetano's daughter, Angelina, married Joseph Ruffino, who was arrested for burglary in 1913 along with future mafia boss
Joe Masseria Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria (; January 17, 1886April 15, 1931) was an early Italian-American Mafia boss in New York City. He was boss of what is now called the Genovese crime family, one of the New York City Mafia's Five Families, from 1922 ...
.


Brooklyn crime boss

DiGaetano is believed to have become the boss of the Williamsburg-centered mafia sometime in 1909 or 1910. DiGaetano first came to the attention of authorities in December 1910, when he was arrested under suspicion of orchestrating the kidnappings of eight-year-old Giuseppe Longo and seven-year-old Michael Rizzo for ransom. The charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence. A few months later, Salvatore Clemente, a
Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...
informer who was a counterfeiter in the Morello gang was summoned to a meeting with DiGaetano. DiGaetano told Clemente to refrain from his counterfeiting activities until another mafioso, named Carmelo Codaro, who was suspected of disloyalty was "disposed of." DiGaetano was able to dictate orders to a member of a different mafia crime family because he had been made a temporary ''capo dei capi'', or "Boss of bosses", after the previous one,
Giuseppe Morello Giuseppe "the Clutch Hand" Morello (; May 2, 1867 – August 15, 1930), also known as "The Old Fox", was the first boss of the Morello crime family and later top adviser to Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria. He was known as ''Piddu'' ( Sicilian ...
, had been imprisoned in
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
on counterfeiting charges. DiGaetano had assumed that role due to his relative weakness as a crime boss. Morello had been hoping that would allow him to continue to dominate the New York mafia from prison. However, the arrangement had collapsed by 1912 which led to Salvatore D'Aquila being selected as a permanent replacement as ''capo dei capi''. In March 1912, DiGaetano stepped down as boss of his crime family and was soon replaced by Nicolo Schiro. Clemente claimed that DiGaetano was stepping down because he had "lost his nerve". Shortly after he stepped down as boss, DiGaetano disappeared; some researchers believe he and his wife may have returned to Italy.


See also

*
Black Hand (extortion) Black Hand ( it, Mano Nera) was a type of Italian extortion racket. Originally developed in the eighteenth century, Black Hand extortion came to the United States in the later nineteenth century with immigrants. Black Hand was a method of ex ...
* Crime in New York City * List of people who disappeared


Notes


References

Citations Sources * * * * *


External links


The American Mafia - ''Boss of Bosses''
{{DEFAULTSORT:DiGaetano, Sebastiano 1862 births Year of death missing 1910s missing person cases American gangsters of Sicilian descent Capo dei capi Bosses of the Bonanno crime family Italian emigrants to the United States People from Castellammare del Golfo Missing gangsters