Alfred Mineo

Alfredo "Al Mineo" Manfredi (pronounced "mee-NAY-oh") (? - November 5, 1930) was a Brooklyn based New York mobster, who headed a strong American Mafia crime family during the Castellammarese War. Mineo's organization would eventually become the present-day Gambino crime family.

Background
In the early part of the 20th century, New York had five Sicilian crime families. With the imprisonment of powerful Sicilian Mafia boss Giuseppe Morello in 1910, Salvatore D'Aquila immediately emerged as a new Italian underworld power in New York City, mostly in Brooklyn but also in Manhattan, and by the mid 1910s was the top New York Mafia boss. As young man, Mineo, whose Mafia faction was based on the east side of the East River in Brooklyn became part of this gang. D'Aquila's continued rise within the New York Mafia climaxed when he announced himself Morello's successor as the "Boss of Bosses" around 1916, but with the advent of Prohibition other Mafia crime families began to gain power and influence, and cemented their positions around the city. One of these crime families was the former Morello crime family, which had been taken over by Joseph "Joe the Boss" Masseria around 1920. Former boss Giuseppe Morello was released from prison approximately the same time, and quickly aligned himself with Joe Masseria against boss Toto D'Aquila.

D'Aquila family
Al Mineo would continue his rise within the New York Mafia and eventually become D'Aquila's second in command or underboss, and lead the crime families Brooklyn faction. As rivalries and animosity grew between the D'Aquila and Masseria factions, Mineo would eventually find himself in a precarious position. D'Aquila had previously sentenced Morello to death upon his release from prison, along with his ally Umberto Valenti, but through the intervention of Pittsburgh Mafia leader, Nicola Gentile, the death sentence on Morello and Valenti was revoked. With Valenti now in his debt, D'Aquila used this opportunity to recruit the feared Mafia leader in order to oppose the new Masseria-Morello alliance. Al Mineo faced the chance of losing power and influence within the D'Aquila crime family to Valenti, but in 1922 Valenti was murdered by Masseria-Morello forces. By the mid 1920s Mineo and his top lieutenant, Steve Ferrigno began to asses their position within the D'Aquila organization, and understood at this time that the new power in New york was Joe Masseria, so Mineo secretly began to align himself with Masseria.

Family takeover
On October 10, 1928, while standing next to his car, just down the road from his home in the Bronx, Toto D'Aquila, the New York Mafia's "Boss of Bosses" was murdered by gunmen as his family watched in horror. Having recently aligned himself with boss Joe Masseria, Mineo more than likely played a direct role in planning the murder of his boss D'Aquila. After declaring his allegiance to Masseria and showing his distorted loyalty by betraying his former boss, Mineo's place atop the D'Aquila crime family leadership was cemented. By this time Mineo had secured his Brooklyn interests and would now command one of the larger Manhattan based Mafia groups in New York, and with Ferrigno as his second in command and based in the Bronx, the Mineo crime family would control a number of profitable rackets such as bootlegging, gambling, numbers and extortion.

Castellammarese War
Strong rivalries continued between various New York Mafia crime families and factions, the most heated rivalry being the one between Mineo's Manhattan based allies in the Masseria crime family and those in the Brooklyn based Castellammarese clan, a group of mafiosi from the Sicilian seaside town of Castellammare del Golfo, who rose to prominence during Prohibition and would become extremely independent and eventually oppose the dominance of boss Joe Masseria and his supporters like Mineo. The rivalries and animosities between the two groups would eventually come to a head and a war within the Italian underworld would erupt and drag every Mafia crime family and faction in New York into the conflict.

What became known as the Castellammarese began in early 1930 and would drag on for the better part of two years as New York Mafia leaders Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano fought for dominance over the New York rackets. Mineo felt secure being aligned with Joe Masseria, who led the most powerful New York Mafia crime family and was recognized as the most influential crime boss in the city. The Masseria-Mineo alliance quickly gained the upper hand in the war as their forces began to move on Castellammarese controlled territories and rackets members, eliminated rivals with every opportunity they could get, but on August 15, 1930 the tide began to change when Masseria's top advisor and war chief, Giuseppe Morello was killed. Mineo was named Masseria's new war chief and strategist, and quickly surmised that the Castellammarese were gaining more support and more ground as the war dragged. Mineo felt the only solution was to find and kill Maranzano before he could kill Masseria, this being the only sensible solution to end the war and re-establish dominance over the New York Mafia.

Death
Oon November 5, 1930, Mineo and his lieutenant Steve Ferrigno were shot and killed in the courtyard of an apartment building on Pelham Parkway in the Bronx. Earlier in the week, several Maranzano gunmen had rented a first floor apartment in the building. Their actual target was Masseria, who had been observed entering the building earlier in the week. However, when the gunmen saw Mineo and Ferrigno in the garden, they seized the opportunity and shot both of them from the apartment window.

After Mineo's death, Francesco "Frank" Scalice became crime family boss. He immediately switched allegiance from Masseria to Maranzano, who was emerging as the winner in the gang war. It has been theorized that Scalise had arranged a secret deal with Maranzano to murder Mineo and become the organization boss, but Maranzano forces were able to eliminate Mineo without Scalise's help. On April 15, 1931, Joe Masseria was murdered in a Brooklyn restaurant and the Castellammarese War was over.

No one was ever charged in the Mineo shooting. In 1963, government witness Joseph Valachi claimed that Girolamo Santuccio was one of the gunmen.