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Stefano Ferrigno (May 12, 1900 – November 5, 1930) was a New York City mobster of Sicilian origin who led an important Italian criminal gang in the 1920s. Ferrigno was murdered along with Alfred Mineo during the so-called
Castellammarese War The Castellammarese War () was a bloody power struggle for control of the Italian-American Mafia that took place in New York City, New York, from February 1930 until April 15, 1931, between partisans of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and those of Salv ...
.


Early years

Ferrigno was born in Sicily and emigrated to the United States. During the 1910s, the teenaged Ferrigno joined New York's Italian underworld. Ferrigno worked his way up the ranks of the
Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...
, Brooklyn based Neapolitan
Camorra The Camorra (; ) is an Italian Mafia-typeMafia and Mafia-type orga ...
crime family led by Pellegrino "Don Grino" Morano and his top Lieutenant,
Alessandro Vollero Alessandro Vollero (1889 - 1959) was a New York mobster and a high-ranking member of the Neapolitan Camorra Navy Street gang in Brooklyn. Vollero served as a lieutenant to gang boss Pellegrino Morano during the Mafia-Camorra War of 1916. Born i ...
, who led the Navy Street Gang. It is not known why Ferrigno, a Sicilian, was affiliated with a
Neapolitan Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to: Geography and history * Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city * Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...
crime group, which in that era was highly unusual. A possible explanation is that Ferrigno grew up in the same Brooklyn neighborhood as the Neapolitans. Steve Ferrigno was the brother of Colombo crime family street soldier Bartolo (Barioco Bartulucia) Ferrigno, who was active in organized crime during the 1940s and 1950s. He served under the rule of Joseph Magliocco and was later implicated in drug trafficking and other crimes by government witness Joseph Valachi.


Emergence as a crime boss

In the 1920s, Ferrigno was a mid-level leader in the Brooklyn crime family of Salvatore "Totò" D'Aquila, the self-proclaimed "Boss of Bosses" of the New York Mafia. Ferrigno was deeply involved in bootlegging, the most lucrative criminal activity during the Prohibition era, as well as illegal gambling, extortion, and
prostitution Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...
. Labor racketeering became a profitable for all the Italian crime groups in New York. The D'Aquino family's access to the Brooklyn waterfront allowed Ferrigno and his associates to engage in cargo theft, extortion of the dockworkers, and exercise control over the
longshoremen A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes. After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number ...
's unions.


Rise to power

In 1928, D'Aquila was murdered on the orders of rival
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
Mafia Boss Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria. Ferrigno and Mineo had been business associates and allies of Masseria; it is possible they conspired with him to eliminate D'Aquila so they could become the new gang leaders. Whatever the exact circumstances, Masseria needed to place loyal supporters in D'Aquila's stead, and he therefore gave his support to Mineo and Ferrigno. In late 1928, Mineo became the boss and Ferrigno the underboss of the old D'Aquila gang. The two men controlled approximately 400 to 500 Mafia soldiers with their most lucrative criminal interests in Brooklyn and Manhattan. After bootlegging, illegal gambling on horse races, numbers rackets, and the Italian lottery were the biggest money makers for the gang. In 1931, this gang was incorporated into the Mangano crime family, later to be called the
Gambino crime family The Gambino crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the " Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the A ...
.


Castellammarese War

While Ferrigno ran his criminal activities, a group of Sicilian mafiosi from
Castellammare del Golfo Castellammare del Golfo (; scn, Casteddammari; la, Emporium Segestanorum or ) is a town and municipality in the Trapani Province of Sicily. The name can be translated as "Sea Fortress on the Gulf", stemming from the medieval fortress in the ...
led by
Salvatore Maranzano Salvatore Maranzano (; July 31, 1886 – September 10, 1931) was an Italian-American mobster from the town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, and an early Cosa Nostra boss who led what later would become the Bonanno crime family in New York City. ...
began to challenge the authority of Ferrigno's benefactor, Masseria. Once the conflict known as the
Castellammarese War The Castellammarese War () was a bloody power struggle for control of the Italian-American Mafia that took place in New York City, New York, from February 1930 until April 15, 1931, between partisans of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and those of Salv ...
officially broke out into open warfare by early 1930, there were deaths throughout America's Italian underworld.


Death

On November 4, 1930, a meeting of Masseria supporters was held in Ferrigno's Bronx apartment at 759 Pelham Parkway South. In attendance were believed to be a number of top Masseria and Mineo crime family members, including Mineo, Charlie "Lucky" Luciano,
Vito Genovese Vito Genovese (; November 21, 1897 – February 14, 1969) was an Italian-born American mobster who mainly operated in the United States. Genovese rose to power during Prohibition as an enforcer in the American Mafia. A long-time associate and ch ...
, Masseria, and Ferrigno himself. Maranzano faction members including Joe Profaci, Nick Capuzzi,
Joe Valachi Joseph Michael Valachi (September 22, 1904 – April 3, 1971) was an American mobster in the Genovese crime family who is notable as the first member of the Italian-American Mafia to acknowledge its existence publicly in 1963. He is credited wit ...
and a hitman known only as Buster from Chicago were observing the meeting from an apartment Valachi had rented across the courtyard. According to Valachi, in the night of November 5, 1930, Steve Ferrigno and Al Mineo left the apartment and walked across the courtyard, and the Maranzano men mowed them down with gunfire. Many organized crime historians and even a former Mafia boss,
Joseph 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, which he ran from 1931 to 1968. Bonanno was born ...
dispute Valachi's claim that a top boss such as Joe Profaci would be directly involved in the assassination of an underworld rival. Masseria was killed in a
Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...
restaurant in early 1931, and Maranzano was himself killed in September, marking the end of the Castellammarese War. The main beneficiary (and organizer of both hits) was Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, who established himself at the top of the New York Mafia. Ferrigno was buried in Calvary Cemetery in
Woodside, Queens Woodside is a residential and commercial neighborhood in the western portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is bordered on the south by Maspeth, on the north by Astoria, on the west by Sunnyside, and on the east by Elmhurst, ...
.


References

* Maas, Peter. ''The Valachi Papers''. Harper Collins, New York, 1968 * Bonanno, Joe and Lali, Sergio. ''A Man of Honor:The Autobiography of the Boss of Bosses''. Pocket Books, New York. 1983 * Sifakis, Carl. ''The Mafia Encyclopedia: Second Edition''. Checkmark Books, New York. 1999


Further reading

*Peterson, Robert W. ''Crime & the American Response''. New York: Facts on File, 1973. *United States. Congress. Senate. Government Operations Committee. ''Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics''. Washington, D.C., 1964


External links


The American "Mafia": Who Was Who ? - Steve Ferrigno
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrigno, Steve 1900 births 1930 deaths Burials at Calvary Cemetery (Queens) Murdered American gangsters of Sicilian descent Gangsters killed during the Castellammarese War Prohibition-era gangsters People murdered by the Bonanno crime family Deaths by firearm in the Bronx People murdered in New York City Male murder victims Italian emigrants to the United States