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 (diminutive form of Giuseppe) and his rivals the Castellammarese knew him as Peter Morello. He was famous for having a one-fingered deformed right hand that resembled a claw.

In the 1890s, Giuseppe founded a gang known as the 107th Street Mob and which would later evolve into the Morello crime family. Today the Morello crime family is known as the Genovese crime family and is the oldest of the Five Families in New York City.

Early life
Giuseppe Morello was born in Corleone, Sicily on May 2, 1867. His father Calogero Morello died in 1872 and his mother Angelina Piazza remarried one year later to Bernardo Terranova who was a member of the Corleonesi Mafia in Corleone. Bernardo and Angelina had three sons: Vincenzo (born 1886), Ciro (born 1888) and Nicolo (born 1890); and two daughters, Lucia (born 1877) and Salvatrice Terranova (born 1880). Critchley mentions Maria Morello-Lima (born 1869) as Morello's sister from the Morello-Piazza marriage and a possible third half-sister, Rosalia Terranova-Lomonte (born 1892-died October 14, 1915). The Morello and Terranova children grew up together and Bernardo may have facilitated Giuseppe's early induction into the local cosca, or Mafia clan. Crichley notes that Morello also had an uncle, Giuseppe Battaglia, who was a leader in the Corelonesi Mafia and who may have assisted in his nephew's passage. Giuseppe Morello married Maria Rosa Marvalisi (1867-1898) the couple had one son Calogero "Charles" Morello (born November 1892 in Corleone-died 1912).

The exact year of Morello's emigration to the United States is not certain. Dash writes that Morello emigrated in 1892 after becoming a suspect in a murder in Corleone and after his counterfeiting ring had been compromised. Despite his departure the Italian government brought a case to court and found him guilty of money counterfeiting. On September 14, 1894, he was sentenced to 6 years and 45 days imprisonment plus fine and deprived of the right to hold public office. It is possible that the sentence was handed down in absentia; according to Critchley it appears that Morello left Sicily for New York around this time.

Morello's three half brothers Nicolo, Vincenzo and Ciro, his stepfather Bernardo, his mother Angelina, his sister Maria, his half sister Rosalia, his wife Maria Rosa Marvalisi and son Calogero would arrive in New York on March 8, 1893. In the mid-1890s, Giuseppe Morello moved to Louisiana in search for employment and was joined by the other members of the Morello-Terranova family. The following year they moved to Texas and farmed cotton. After contracting malaria they returned to New York about 1897. Morello tried his hand in different business ventures, including failed investments in a saloon and a date factory. In 1898, Morello's wife Maria Rosa Marvalisi died. Sometime in the early 1900s Morello married Nicolina "Lena" Salemi (1884-1967), she stayed with him for the rest of his life. In 1902, he acquired a saloon at 8 Prince Street in Manhattan which was to become a meeting place for members of his gang.

Morello crime family
In the 1890s, Giuseppe founded the 107th Street Mob which would later evolve into the Morello crime family. In 1903, Ignazio "the Wolf" Lupo, the Sicilian Mafia boss in Little Italy, Manhattan married Morello's half sister Salvatrice.

Morello built his empire based on his merciless ordering of death sentences against everyone who dared to face him. Lupo, his main enforcer, was responsible for more than sixty murders in a 10 year period. The Morello family would frequently employ the notorious barrel murder system, dumping dismembered corpses into large wood barrels. The barrels would then be thrown into the sea, left on a random street corner, abandoned in a back alley or shipped to nonexistent addresses in another city.

Family business included extortion, loan sharking, Italian lottery, robbery and counterfeiting. Illegally earned money was then legitimized by legal businesses such as stores or restaurants owned by the family, making them the first crime family in town to organize this kind of money laundering. They also introduced revolutionary ways of extorting small amounts of money every week from business owners in exchange for "protection", as opposed to the theft of large amounts which might bankrupt them. This technique was adopted from Black Hand gangsters and it led to increased profits for the gang.

By 1905, Morello had created the largest, most influential Sicilian crime family in New York City, and was recognized as capo di tutti capi (boss of bosses) by Mafia leaders in other U.S. cities, according to Nicola Gentile.

Fall and return
Morello was found guilty of counterfeiting again in 1909 and along with his brother-in-law and second-in-command, Ignazio Lupo was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Morello maintained his position as the head of his crime family for approximately the first year of his sentence, during which time he hoped his sentence would be overturned on appeal. His appeals were not immediately successful and Morello became depressed as he lost his official position as boss of New York and all the influence he once held.

His half brother Nicolo took over control until 1916 when he was killed by the Napolitan Camorra boss in Brooklyn, Pellegrino Morano. Giuseppe's half brothers Vincenzo, as family boss, and Ciro, as underboss, were next to run the family business until the 1920s when former Morello family capo Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria took over Morello's operations in Manhattan and Salvatore D'Aquila took over in Brooklyn.

Trying to retake control of his empire, Morello, with the new nickname of Peter Morello, enlisted former family soldier Umberto Valenti in his battle against Masseria. After two failed assassination attempts against Masseria by Valenti a truce meeting was arranged between Morello and Masseria. Neither man showed up to the meeting in August 1922, however, and when Valenti tried to escape he was killed by Masseria gunman Charles Luciano. Morello decided to make peace with Masseria and shortly afterward allied himself with him. The peace allowed Masseria to take total control of New York with Morello as his consigliere and Luciano as one of his main lieutenants, running his own crew.

Castellammarese War and death
During the Castellammarese War, roughly between 1929–31, Masseria and Morello fought against a rival group based in Brooklyn, led by Salvatore Maranzano and Joseph Bonanno. Morello, an old hand in the killing game, became Masseria's "war chief" and strategic adviser.

One of the first victims of the war, Giuseppe Morello was killed along with associate Joseph Perriano on August 15, 1930 while collecting cash receipts in his East Harlem office. The identity of the assassin is still disputed. Luciano claimed it was the duo of Albert Anastasia and Frank Scalice, both hired killers at that time and future top members of Gambino crime family. Joe Valachi, a government informer, claimed it was the assassin Buster from Chicago, a character some people believed was invented by Valachi to hide the fact that he was the real killer.