Morello crime family
Former Boss Giuseppe Morello
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| Founded by | Giuseppe Morello |
|---|---|
| Founding location | Italian Harlem, New York City |
| Years active | 1890s-1922 |
| Territory | Italian Harlem |
| Ethnicity | Sicilian |
| Criminal activities | Racketeering, Counterfeiting, Extortion, Conspiracy and Murder |
| Rivals | Camorra in New York |
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 defeating the rival Neapolitan Camorra of Brooklyn.
The Morello family traces back to Corleone, Sicily. In 1865, Calogero Morello married Angelina Piazza who gave birth to two children: Giuseppe Morello (born May 2, 1867) and Maria Morello-Lima (née Morello, born c1869). Calogero Morello died in 1872, and one year later Piazza remarried to Bernardo Terranova. The new marriage produced five children: three sons, Vincenzo (born 1886), Ciro (born 1888), and Nicolo (born 1890), and two daughters, Lucia (born 1877) and Salvatrice (born 1880). Critchley mentions a possible third sister of the Terranovas, Rosalia Lomonte (born 1892 - died October 14, 1915).
In 1892, Giuseppe Morello emigrated to the United States. On March 8, 1893, Giuseppe's family arrived in New York: his wife Maria Rosa Marvalisi, his mother Angelina Piazza, his stepfather Bernardo Terranova, his half-brothers Ciro, Nicolo, and Vincenzo, and his half-sister Rosalia. The Morello-Terranova family lived in New York for a while before moving to Louisiana, then Texas, and by 1896 the family was back in New York City.
The brothers returned to New York and became known as the 107th Street Mob (sometimes called the Morello Gang) dominating East Harlem, Manhattan, and parts of the Bronx. Giuseppe Morello's strongest ally was Ignazio Lupo, a mobster who controlled Little Italy, Manhattan. On December 23, 1903, Lupo married Morello's half sister, Salvatrice Terranova.
The Morello-Lupo alliance continued to prosper in 1903, when the group began a major counterfeiting ring with powerful Sicilian mafioso Don Vito Cascio Ferro, printing $5 bills in Sicily and smuggling them into the United States. Many of the later "barrel murders", particularly that of Giuseppe "Joe" Catania, Sr. (whose body was found in July 1902), were thought to have been committed by the Morellos, who employed a numerous members of the counterfeiting operation.
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Wikipedia