Vincenzo "the Tiger of Harlem" Terranova (May 1886 – May 8, 1922) was a

gangster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

and an early

Italian-American organized crime The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian American criminal society and organized crime group. The organization is often referred to by its mem ...

figure in the United States. He succeeded

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 ...

as boss of the then Morello Gang in 1916 and was succeed by

Giuseppe 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 t ...

in 1922. He served as

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, a ...

and

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 ...

of 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 ...

, today known as the

Genovese crime family The Genovese crime family, () also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American M ...

, the oldest of the

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 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Terranova was born in

Corleone Corleone (; scn, Cunigghiuni or ) is an Italian town and ''comune'' of roughly 11,158 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily. Several Mafia bosses have come from Corleone, including Tommy Gagliano, Gaetano Reina, Jack Dragn ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

in 1886. He was the first son of Bernardo Terranova, a member of

the 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 ...

in Corleone, and his wife Angelina Piazza. Angelina had a son from a previous marriage,

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 ...

, and would later give birth to Vincenzo's two brothers,

Ciro Terranova Ciro Terranova (; July 20, 1888 − February 20, 1938) was an Italian-born New York City gangster and one time underboss of the Morello crime family. Early life Terranova was born in the town of Corleone, Sicily. In 1893, Ciro moved to New Yor ...

and Nicolo Terranova. Vincenzo, Nicolo and Ciro along with other relatives emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York on March 8, 1893. Giuseppe Morello had immigrated to New York the previous year and sometime in the 1890s founded a gang known as the 107th Street Mob, which evolved into the

. His three half brothers would eventually join him in this enterprise.

Death

On May 8, 1922, Vincenzo Terranova was gunned down in a

drive-by shooting A drive-by shooting is a type of assault that usually involves the perpetrator(s) firing a weapon from within a motor vehicle and then fleeing. Drive-by shootings allow the perpetrator(s) to quickly strike their target and flee the scene before ...

near his home on East 116th Street in

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 ...

. Terranova's murder is generally attributed to

Umberto Valenti Umberto "The Ghost" Valenti (August 14, 1891 – August 11, 1922) was a Sicilian-born New York City gangster and prominent member of the D'Aquila crime family during the 1910s. He is frequently confused with Rocco Valenti, a Camorra gunman of th ...

, a notorious hitman for the D'Aquila crime family who was trying to seize control over the family. Vincenzo and his three brothers lie in bare graves in Cavalary Cemetery in Queens, New York, not far from

Joe Petrosino Joseph Petrosino (born Giuseppe Petrosino, ; August 30, 1860 – March 12, 1909) was an Italian-born New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer who was a pioneer in the fight against organized crime. Crime fighting techniques that Petrosino ...

, who investigated them, and other

members, such as Ignazio "Lupo the Wolf" Lupo.

References

1886 births 1922 deaths 1922 murders in the United States Italian emigrants to the United States Murdered American gangsters of Sicilian descent Genovese crime family Bosses of the Genovese crime family People murdered in New York City Male murder victims Deaths by firearm in Manhattan Prohibition-era gangsters {{crime-stub