Harry "The Hunchback" Riccobene (July 27, 1909 – June 19, 2000) was a high-ranking member of the

Philadelphia crime family The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Philadelphia Mafia, the Philly Mob or Philly Mafia, the Philadelphia-South Jersey Mafia, or Bruno-Scarfo family is an Italian-American Mafia family based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formed and ...

who became a major figure in the Scarfo-Riccobene gang war that followed the 1981 death of boss

Philip Testa Philip Charles Testa (April 21, 1924 – March 15, 1981), also known as "The Chicken Man", was an Italian-American mobster known for his brief leadership of the Philadelphia crime family of the Italian-American Mafia. He became boss of the Phila ...

. He was born in

Enna Enna ( or ; grc, Ἔννα; la, Henna, less frequently ), known from the Middle Ages until 1926 as Castrogiovanni ( scn, Castrugiuvanni ), is a city and located roughly at the center of Sicily, southern Italy, in the province of Enna, towering ...

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

, to Mario Riccobene, Sr. and Anna Cimmari. His father, Mario, left Philadelphia to search for a job working in the coal mines in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

and joined him in 1913. His father eventually found work as a stonemason in

South Philadelphia South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south and the Schuylkill River to the west.1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

. By the 1960s he was separated from his wife Evelyn and is the stepbrother of Mario (Sonny), Robert and Enrico Riccobene. He spoke in a high pitched voice and as he grew older he donned a long white beard. One prospective juror for one of his criminal trials described him as looking like "A little Santa Claus." His legitimate businesses includes television tube companies in Philadelphia,

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as en ...

and Richmond, Virginia. His arrest record included carrying a concealed weapon, larceny, and possession of narcotics. At one point, Riccobene spent time in prison on a narcotics conviction. A longtime underworld figure in Philadelphia, Riccobene became a

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

under

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...

mob boss

Salvatore Sabella Salvatore Sabella (; July 7, 1891 – 1962) was an Italian-born crime boss of the Philadelphia crime family in the 1920s. Early life Sabella was born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, on July 7, 1891, who became a butcher's apprentice as a youn ...

in 1927. Riccobene witnessed the rash of violence that started with the unsanctioned murder of Philadelphia crime boss Angelo Bruno and his replacement by Philip "Chicken Man" Testa. After running the family for one year, Testa was killed by a nail bomb at his home. Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo then became family boss. Riccobene led a faction against Scarfo for control of family operations in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Scarfo

Consigliere Consigliere ( , ; plural ) is a position within the leadership structure of the Sicilian, Calabrian, and Italian-American Mafia. The word was popularized in English by the novel '' The Godfather'' (1969) and its film adaptation. In the novel, a ...

Frank Monte informed his crew that he was going to kill Riccobene and take over his loansharking and illegal gambling operations. Monte approached

Mario Riccobene Mario "Sonny" Riccobene (1933- January 28, 1993, New Jersey) was a member of the Philadelphia crime family. He later became a federal witness after his son committed suicide with the fear of being killed by Nicodemo Scarfo and his fellow gangsters ...

, Riccobene's half-brother, and demanded that Mario set up Riccobene to be killed. However, Mario betrayed Monte by telling Riccobene about the plot. Infuriated, Riccobene ordered Mario and hitmen Joseph Pedulla and Victor DeLuca to instead kill Monte, to "... get them before they get us." Between August 1982 and January 1984, Scarfo was imprisoned in a Texas penitentiary for gun possession. During that time, Riccobene began to form another faction that opposed Scarfo. Mario, Pedulla, and DeLuca camped out in a van near Monte's parked Cadillac, waiting for him to come outside. Several hours later, Monte emerged and started getting into his car. Pedulla fired on Monte three times, killing him. Later on, the men unsuccessfully attempted to murder

Salvatore Testa Salvatore "Salvie" Testa (March 31, 1956 – September 14, 1984), nicknamed "The Crowned Prince of the Philadelphia Mob", was an Italian-American mobster who served as a caporegime and later acting underboss for the Philadelphia crime family. Te ...

, Phil Testa's son, but this time they were arrested by police. Harry's brother Mario became a government informant. Riccobene was indicted on charges of

first degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

. During the trial, Riccobene denied any involvement in organized crime and said that he tried to prevent the three men from committing violence amid "unfounded rumors" of death threats made against them by Scarfo. Despite this, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2000, Harry Riccobene died from sepsis at the State Correctional Institute at Dallas, Pennsylvania.

References

Sources

* Sifakis, Carl. ''The Mafia Encyclopedia''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. * Sifakis, Carl. ''The Encyclopedia of American Crime''. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2005. * ''Blood and Honor: Inside the Scarfo Mob - The Mafia's Most Violent Family'' by George Anastasia, 2004, * Bureau of Narcotics, U.S. Treasury Department, "Mafia: the Government's Secret File on Organized Crime, HarperCollins Publishers 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Riccobene, Harry 1909 births 2000 deaths American gangsters of Sicilian descent American crime bosses Italian crime bosses Italian gangsters Italian emigrants to the United States Philadelphia crime family American people who died in prison custody Italian people who died in prison custody People convicted of murder by the United States federal government American people convicted of murder Prisoners who died in United States federal government detention Gangsters sentenced to life imprisonment