Vincent Mangano (born Vincenzo Giovanni Mangano; ; March 28, 1888 – disappeared April 19, 1951,
declared dead October 30, 1961) was an Italian-born mobster also known as "Vincent The Executioner" as named in a Brooklyn newspaper, and the head of the
Mangano crime family
The Gambino 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, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Ame ...
from 1931 to 1951. He was the brother of
Philip Mangano.
Vince as head of the Gambino family
Mangano was named head of what was then the Mineo family in 1931, following the
Castellammarese War
The Castellammarese War () was a bloody power struggle for control of the Italian-American Mafia that took place in New York City, New York, from February 1930 until April 15, 1931, between partisans of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and those of Salv ...
. He was one of the original bosses of the modern
Five Families
The Five Families refers to five major New York City organized crime families of the Italian American Mafia formed in 1931 by Salvatore Maranzano following his victory in the Castellammarese War.
Maranzano reorganized the Italian American gangs ...
, the others being
Joseph Bonanno
Joseph Charles Bonanno (born Giuseppe Carlo Bonanno; ; January 18, 1905 – May 11, 2002), sometimes referred to as Joe Bananas, was an Italian-American crime boss of the Bonanno crime family, which he ran from 1931 to 1968.
Bonanno was born i ...
,
Lucky Luciano
Charles "Lucky" Luciano (, ; born Salvatore Lucania ; November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian-born gangster who operated mainly in the United States. Luciano started his criminal career in the Five Points gang and was instrumenta ...
,
Joe Profaci
Giuseppe "Joe" Profaci (; October 2, 1897 – June 6, 1962) was an Italian-born New York City Cosa Nostra boss who was the founder of what became the Colombo crime family. Established in 1928, this was the last of the Five Families to be organi ...
and
Tommy Gagliano
Thomas Gagliano (born Tommaso Gagliano; ; May 29, 1883 − February 16, 1951) was an Italian-American mobster and boss of what U.S. federal authorities would later designate as the Lucchese crime family, one of the " Five Families" of New York ...
.
Mangano made the waterfront his family's main income producer. He and his associates would threaten to prevent cargo from being loaded or unloaded if the shipping company refused to pay a
tribute
A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conqu ...
. This effort was helped by the family's control of Brooklyn Local 1814 of the
International Longshoremen's Association
The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) is a North American labor union representing longshore workers along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, Puerto Rico, and inland waterways. The ILA h ...
; its president,
Anthony Anastasio
Anthony Anastasio (; born Antonio Anastasio, ; February 24, 1906 – March 1, 1963) was an Italian-American mobster and labor racketeer for the Gambino crime family who controlled the Brooklyn dockyards for over thirty years. He controlled Brook ...
, was a member of the family.
Feud with Anastasia
Despite being a mob power in his own right,
Albert Anastasia
Umberto "Albert" Anastasia (, ; ; September 26, 1902 – October 25, 1957) was an Italian-American mobster, hitman, and crime boss. One of the founders of the modern American Mafia, and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder, Inc. organizat ...
was nominally the underboss of the Mangano crime family, under Mangano. During his 20-year rule, Mangano had resented Anastasia's close ties to Luciano and Costello, particularly the fact that they had obtained Anastasia's services without first seeking Mangano's permission. This and other business disputes led to heated, almost physical fights between the two mobsters.
[Davis, pp. 62-64]
Disappearance
Mangano's brother was found dead near
Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
Sheepshead Bay is a neighborhood in southern Brooklyn, New York City. It is bounded by Ocean Parkway to the west; Avenue T and Kings Highway to the north; Nostrand Avenue and Gerritsen Avenue to the east; and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. S ...
on April 19, 1951.
Vincent Mangano disappeared the same day. Both of them are believed to have been murdered on the orders of family
underboss
Underboss ( it, sottocapo) is a position within the leadership structure of certain organized crime groups, particularly in Sicilian, Greek, and Italian-American Mafia crime families. The underboss is second in command to the boss. The underbo ...
Albert Anastasia
Umberto "Albert" Anastasia (, ; ; September 26, 1902 – October 25, 1957) was an Italian-American mobster, hitman, and crime boss. One of the founders of the modern American Mafia, and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder, Inc. organizat ...
in
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 ...
as part of a coup in 1951.
New York, Family - Gambino (Mangano)
/ref> Vincent Mangano's body was never found, and he was declared dead 10 years later on October 30, 1961, by the Surrogate's Court in Brooklyn. No one was ever arrested in the Mangano homicide, but it was widely assumed that Anastasia had them killed.
See also
*List of people who disappeared
Lists of people who disappeared include those whose current whereabouts are unknown, or whose deaths are unsubstantiated. Many people who disappear are eventually declared dead ''in absentia''. Some of these people were possibly subjected to enfo ...
References
Further reading
*Bonanno, Joseph. ''A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003.
*Capeci, Jerry. ''The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia''. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002.
*Davis, John H. ''Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family''. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.
*Jacobs, James B., Christopher Panarella and Jay Worthington. ''Busting the Mob: The United States Vs. Cosa Nostra''. New York: NYU Press, 1994.
*Mannion, James. ''101 Things You Didn't Know About The Mafia: The Lowdown on Dons, Wiseguys, Squealers and Backstabbers''. Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2005.
*Milhorn, H. Thomas. ''Crime: Computer Viruses to Twin Towers''. Boca Raton, Florida: Universal Publishers, 2005.
*Raab, Selwyn. ''Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires''. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005.
*Schatzberg, Rufus, Robert J. Kelly and Ko-lin Chin, ed. ''Handbook of Organized Crime in the United States''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1994.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mangano, Vincent
1888 births
1950s missing person cases
1951 deaths
1951 murders in the United States
Bosses of the Gambino crime family
Gambino crime family
Gangsters from Palermo
Italian emigrants to the United States
Murdered American gangsters of Sicilian descent
Missing gangsters
Missing person cases in New York City
Murder, Inc.
People murdered in New York (state)
Male murder victims
Prohibition-era gangsters
Unsolved murders in the United States