The Morello Crime Family: America's Original Gangsters

Like most institutions, the American Mafia evolved over time. Before the formation of the five families and its current structure in 1931, there was a forty year period that started with one man named Peter Morello.Show more

Morello was a made man in Sicily who fled to America after being wanted for murder. He brought with him the criminal values that enabled him to create an underground empire that would later split into the families that became today's mafia.

Music by FSM featuring ESCP

The Morellos: America’s First Crime Family

The Italian-American Mafia has become a firm part of American culture with its modern structure of five New York Families being established in 1931 at the end of the violent Castelmaresse War. Italians began immigrating to America in large numbers during the 1870s, and while the Sicilian Mafia may have existed for centuries in the old world, it was not until the 1890s when criminals in America began to become organized.

The first mafia family in New York City traces its humble beginnings to immigrant Giuseppe Morello who gave himself the English name of Peter. Peter Morello arrived to New York in 1892 and the following year, three of his brothers crossed the ocean to join him in East Harlem. They formed a gang called the 107th Street mob and quickly began to dominate Italian neighborhoods in Manhattan and the Bronx.

The group became allied with Little Italy crime lord Ignazio “the wolf” Lupo. Morello’s sister married Lupo in 1903 and the two gangs became united as a family. They would make money through protection rackets, gambling, stealing, and prostitution. One of their trademarks for dealing with rivals and threats were what became known as barrel murders.

For a barrel murder, a victim would be killed and their body would be stuffed into a barrel for concealment. Sometimes the barrels would be dumped on the chance that no one would bother to open it and see what’s inside. Other times they would be shipped using fake names to non-existent addresses in faraway cities where the victims would be unknown John Does and likely never be solved.

Another favorite source of income for the group were Black Hand Letters. A Black Hand Letter was a preemptive ransom note informing a target that harm would come to them or their loved ones unless a payment was made.

During their first wave of power, Peter Morello became allied with powerful Sicilian Mafioso Vito Cascioferro and they two began an international counterfeit money operation where fake five dollar bills were produced in Sicily and shipped to Morello who would then distribute them. By 1909, Morello was the undeniable boss of bosses of the Sicilian-American Mafia with many soldiers and captains working under him.

But 1910 would mark the high point for Morello and Lupo’s power. They were arrested for their counterfeiting operation, found guilty and each sentenced to twenty-five and thirty years. With the boss gone, leadership fell to Morello’s cousins the Lomonte Brothers but by 1915, both brothers were dead from gunshot wounds.

The 1910s were a period of turmoil for the Morello Family. A war between the Camorra organization, Italian gangsters from Naples based in Brooklyn, would be deadly and destructive for both sides between 1915 and 1918. It ended with the destruction of the Camorra with remaining survivors integrated into the Morellos. But the Morellos lost a lot of men, including then leader Nicholas Morello.

With a weakened central management, some powerful captains decided to split away from the Morellos and turn their factions into independent families. Thomas Reina became independent in 1920 with territory in the Bronx and East Harlem. His new empire would eventually become known as the Luchesse Family.

Salvatore D’Aquila split from the Morellos in the 1910s and initially had territory in East Harlem and the Bronx before he later spread into lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. By the 1920s, he was New York’s Boss of Bosses. His organization would later become the Gambino Crime Family. Much of Ignazio Lupo’s early organization left with him.

Another prominent captain at the time in the Morello Family was Joe Masseria. As Masseria grew in power, D’Aquilla became more and more threatened by the Morello Family and the power they still had. In 1922, D’Aquilla premptively struck out against the family and murdered then boss Vincenzo Terranova. Masseria filled the vacuum, becoming the new boss, and proving the wisdom of the old expression: you’re better off with the devil you know.

In 1928, Masseria had D’Aquila ambushed and murdered on Avenue A in Manhattan. He was succeeded by Masseria’s ally Manfredi Mineo.