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Victor Orena
Victor J. Orena (born August 4, 1934), also known as "Little Vic", is an American mobster who became the acting boss of the Colombo crime family of New York City. A challenge by Orena to boss Carmine Persico triggered one of the bloodiest Mafia wars of the late 20th century, and the last major mob war in New York to date. Early life Born in New York City, Victor Orena's father died when he was a child. Orena spent time in a reform school and eventually dropped out of high school. According to his son, Orena entered the mob life because the wiseguys he knew had risen from humble beginnings and had become big figures in his neighborhood. In the early 1970s, Carmine Persico, the boss of the Colombo crime family, allegedly had a few people " made" into his organization, even though the "books" had officially been closed since 1958, barring any new inductions. One of these men was Orena, who rose through the ranks and operated in Brooklyn, Long Island, and New Jersey primarily ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive with a respective county. The city is the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the United States by both population and urban area. New York is a global center of finance and commerce, culture, technology, entertainment and media, academics, and scientific output, the arts and fashion, and, as home to the headquarters of the United Nations, international diplomacy. With an estimated population in 2024 of 8,478,072 distributed over , the city is the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York City has more than double the population of Los Angeles, the nation's second-most populous city. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alphonse Persico
Alphonse T. Persico, known as Little Allie Boy or just Allie Boy (born February 8, 1954), is an American mobster who served as the official acting boss of the Colombo crime family from 1996 to 2019; he is the son of crime boss Carmine Persico. Background Alphonse T. Persico was born on February 8, 1954, in New York City. As a young child he grew up in South Brooklyn and Bensonhurst. Persico's father was Carmine Persico, a former boss of the Colombo family. Alphonse Persico has two brothers, Lawrence and Michael Persico. He was nicknamed "Little Allie Boy" to distinguish him from his father's older brother, who was also named Alphonse and was a caporegime (captain) in the Colombo family; he died in 1989. Alphonse Persico was married to Teresa Persico. Unlike some mafiosi, the young Alphonse Persico was a promising student who graduated from high school and was accepted into college at St. John's University School of Law. Instead, he quit St. John's after his sophomore year, presu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 consigliere is an advisor or counselor to the boss, with the additional responsibility of representing the boss in important meetings both within the boss's crime family and with other crime families. The consigliere is a close, trusted friend and confidant, the mob's version of an elder statesman. They are an advisor to the boss in a Mafia crime family, and sometimes their "right-hand man". By the very nature of the job, a consigliere is one of the few in the family who can argue with the boss, and is often tasked with challenging the boss when needed, to ensure subsequent plans are foolproof. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Commission (Mafia)
The Commission is the governing body of the American Mafia, formed in 1931 by Charles "Lucky" Luciano following the Castellammarese War. Capeci, Jerry. ''The complete idiot's guide to the Mafia'"The Mafia's Commission" (pp. 31–46)/ref> The Commission replaced the title of '' capo di tutti i capi'' ("boss of all bosses"), held by Salvatore Maranzano before his murder, with a ruling committee that consists of the bosses of the Five Families of New York City, as well as the bosses of the Chicago Outfit and, at various times, the leaders of other families, such as New England, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Detroit, and others. The purpose of the Commission was to oversee all Mafia activities in the United States and serve to mediate conflicts among families. Throughout the history of the Commission, the body has been involved in several incidents including the Apalachin meeting in 1957, a plot to kill several members of the Commission in 1963, and the Mafia Commission Trial in 1985. His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Bonanno
Joseph Charles Bonanno (born Giuseppe Carlo Bonanno; ; January 18, 1905 – May 11, 2002), sometimes referred to as Joe Bananas, was an Italian-American crime boss of the Bonanno crime family of New York City, which he ran from 1931 to 1968. Bonanno was born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, where his father was also involved in organized crime. At the age of three, Bonanno emigrated to New York City with his family, where he lived for about 10 years before he moved back to Italy. He later slipped back into the United States in 1924, by stowing away on a Cuban fishing boat bound for Tampa, Florida. After the Castellammarese War, during which Salvatore Maranzano was murdered in 1931, Bonanno reorganized most of the crime family as the Bonanno family. At age 26, Bonanno became one of the youngest-ever bosses of a crime family. In 1963, Bonanno made plans with Joseph Magliocco to assassinate several rivals on the The Commission (mafia), Mafia Commission. When Magliocco gave the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horse Murders
The show jumping horse killings scandal refers to an unverified number of insurance fraud cases in the United States between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s in which expensive horses, many of them show jumpers, were insured against death, accident, or disease, and then killed to collect the insurance money. Many of the killings involved racketeering, and numerous perpetrators were convicted of crimes. Overview It is not known how many horses were killed in this manner between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s, when a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation brought the horse killings to light, but the number is thought to be well over 50, and may have been as high as 100. In addition, in 1977, the heiress Helen Brach disappeared and was presumed by law enforcement agents to have been murdered by the perpetrators of these crimes, because she threatened to report their criminal activity to authorities; continuing investigations into Brach's death began to uncover the insuran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seattle Slew
Seattle Slew (February 15, 1974 – May 7, 2002) was a champion American Thoroughbred horse racing, racehorse who became the tenth winner of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United States), American Triple Crown (1977). He is one of only two horses to have won the Triple Crown while being undefeated in any previous race; the second was Justify (horse), Justify who won the Triple Crown in 2018 and is descended from Seattle Slew. Seattle Slew was the 1977 American Horse of the Year, Horse of the Year and a champion at ages two, three, and four. In the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century, ''Blood-Horse'' magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century Seattle Slew was ranked ninth. Joe Hirsch of the ''Daily Racing Form'' wrote of Seattle Slew's three-year-old campaign: "Every time he ran he was an odds-on favorite, and the response to his presence on the racetrack, either for a morning workout or a major race, was ele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carmine Sessa
Carmine Sessa, alias Carmine Marletta (born 1951), is an Italian-American mobster and former consigliere of the Brooklyn-based Colombo crime family, and played a key role in the family from 1991 to 1993. He later became a government witness. Biography Murders After becoming a government witness, Sessa admitted to personally murdering four people. In September 1984, Sessa murdered Mary Bari, a former girlfriend of then Colombo consigliere Alphonse Persico. When Persico went into hiding to avoid an indictment, the family decided to kill Bari out of concern that she knew Persico's location. Bari was lured into Sessa's social club Occasions on the pretext of a job interview. When Bari arrived, Sessa shot her three times in the head. In May 1988, Sessa murdered Anthony Bolino. Suspecting Bolino of robbing his dealers, Sessa shot him one time in the head on a street corner in Bayside. In November 1988, Sessa murdered Vincent Angellino, a top capo in the Colombo family. Angellino w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano Wire
Piano wire, or "music wire", is a specialized type of wire made for use in piano string (music), strings but also in other applications as Spring (device), springs. It is made from tempering (metallurgy), tempered high-carbon steel, also known as spring steel, which replaced iron as the material starting in 1834. Piano wire has a very high ultimate tensile strength, tensile strength to cope with the heavy demands placed upon piano strings; accordingly, piano wire is also used for a number of other purposes, including springs, surgical uses, and in special effects. History The oldest record of wire being made for musical instruments is from Augsburg in 1351.Dolge (1911, 124) Starting around 1800, the piano began to be built ever more ambitiously, with sturdier (eventually, iron) framing and greater string tension. This led to innovations in making tougher piano wire. In 1834, the Webster & Horsfal firm of Birmingham, United Kingdom brought out a form of piano wire made from c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Federal Bureau Of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement agency. An agency of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI is a member of the United States Intelligence Community, U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the United States Attorney General, attorney general and the Director of National Intelligence, director of national intelligence. A leading American counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of Federal crime in the United States, federal crimes. Although many of the FBI's functions are unique, its activities in support of national security are comparable to those of the British MI5 and National Crime Agency, NCA, the New Zealand Government Communications Security ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gregory Scarpa
Gregory Scarpa Sr. (May 8, 1928 – June 4, 1994), nicknamed the Grim Reaper and the Mad Hatter, was an American ''caporegime'' and hitman for the Colombo crime family, as well as an informant for the FBI. During the 1970s and '80s, Scarpa was the chief enforcer and veteran hitman for Colombo boss Carmine Persico. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for three murders in 1993 and died the following year. Biography Gregory Scarpa was born in New York, New York, on May 8, 1928. His parents were Salvatore and Mary Scarpa, first-generation immigrants from the village of Lorenzaga of Motta di Livenza near Treviso, Italy. He was raised in the working-class neighborhood of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. As a child living in the Great Depression, Scarpa helped his father deliver coal throughout the city. His older brother, Salvatore Jr., may have introduced Gregory to the Colombo crime family, which he reportedly joined in the 1950s. In the 1950s, Scarpa married Connie Forrest; she and Scarpa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loansharking
A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high or illegal interest rates, has strict terms of collection, and generally operates outside the law, often using the threat of violence or other illegal, aggressive, and extortionate actions when seeking to enforce the satisfaction of the debt. As a consistent or repeated illegal business operation or " racket", loansharking is generally associated with organized crime and certain criminal organizations. Description Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot use the legal system to collect such debts, thus they often resort to enforcing repayment by terms of blackmail and threats of violence. Historically, many moneylenders skirted between legal and criminal activity. In the recent western world, loan sharks have been a prominent feature of the criminal underworld. Loan sharking is not to be confused with predatory lending with extremely high interest rates such as payday or title loans, which is s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
