In the popular culture, through the help of songs, police novels, but especially through the help of the multitude of Hollywood movies, the Mafia has received an apparent human image, based on urban myths that offers honor and respect. Powered by the entertainment industry, the Mafia was liked by entire generations, and many times gangsters like Al Capone or Lucky Luciano were looked upon as real heroes. However, the real history of organized crime is very different. [Editor - Especially Jews love their criminals, it is very Talmudic you know, see this The Purple Gang - Jewish Organized Crime - J-Grit.com and number 5. in this article below.]
It is a dark and bloody history. To be made a mafioso and then to climb the ladder and become a capo someone had to literally step on bodies, on dozens and dozens of bodies. As higher they got, as bigger the massacre was, because the position and business had to be protected. So, each Mafia boss had an army of hitmen working for them.
During the Mafia’s glory days, between 1930 and 1940, in the United States, people talked about a professional criminal association, Murder Inc, as it was named by the press, which allegedly was the armed arm of the National Crime Syndicate, the gangsters group started by Charles “Lucky” Luciano, Meyer Lansky and other Mafia bosses that tried to reproduce the pyramidal system of the Cosa Noastra on US soil. Murder, Inc, was the arcade that gathered or inspired the most fierce hitmen, fanatic soldiers of the bosses or real psychos and serial killers that have found the perfect environment on the street to express their criminal outbursts.
The list that is going to be presented below, is a relative one. Crime was an usual action, it was part of the day to day life of Mobsters. Many killings occurred in group confrontations, and the police did not found it easy to discover who shot the fatal bullet. Even so, they are the most prolific Mafia hitmen!
10. Salvatoare “Salvie” Testa ( 1956 – 1984 )
Murders: more than 15
Affiliation: Scarfo Family ( the most powerful mafia family in Philadelphia )
The most known assassination: Rocco ” Boom Boom” Mancini. In 1982, one year after Mancini killed Slavie’s father by bombing the restaurant where Tesla senior was eating dinner, Salvatore got his revenge by shooting Mancini three times in a parking and shoving new year’s crackers in his mouth to signify Mancini’s specialty: explosives
A very violent man, being also known as “The uncrowned prince of the Philadelphia Mafia”, Salvatore is liked by the supreme Philadelphia Mafia boss, Nicodemo Scarfo, even since he was a young man, helping him in war for supremacy, a war between the Scarfo and Riccobene mafia families that ended up with a lot of people dieing. He is named capo when he was only 26 and becomes the main target of Riccobene’s hitmen. He survives 17 assassinations attempts, but he is eventually killed in 1984 by Scarfo himself, who has starting to fear the fact that “Salvie” is becoming more and more powerful.
9. Joseph “The Animal” Barboza ( 1932 – 1976 )
Murders: 26
Affiliation : The Patriarca Mafia Family ( Providence, Rhode Island and Boston )
The most known assassination: Cornelius and Stevie Hughes. In 1966, Barboza’s best friend, Vincent “The Butcher” Flemmi is almost killed in a gun fight with the Hughes brothers. “The Animal” hunts them down for 6 months, during which time he brutally tortures and executes many friends and family members of the Hughes family to find out where they are hiding. Eventually, the Boston hiding place of the Hughes brothers is revealed, and Barboza catches them and tortures them for days before killing them.
Barboza, former professional boxer, was very violent and impulsive, performing even acts of cannibalism and necrophilia with his victims. The nickname “The Animal” was given to him in a Reverse city club, where he drank a lot and the Italian owner of the club, an elder person, invited him to step outside and Barboza started to slap him around. Henry Tameleo, a capo bastone of the Patriarca family, ordered: ” I do not want you to slap this man anymore. I do not want you to ever touch him again”. Angered, Barboza snapped against the old man, he brutally bitten his ear off and chewed it and swallowed it. Then he told Tameleo: ” Look, I have not put my hands on him!”. Very little details are known about Barboza’s last years. Starting with 1967, he becomes a FBI informant, and in 1970 he is the first mobster that enters the Witness Protection program, after he helped build a case against Raymond Patriarca and testifies against other mafia bosses.
8. Salvatore “Sammy The Bull” Gravano ( born 1945 )
Murders: 28
Affiliation: Colombo and Gambino families
The most popular assassination: Frank Fiala. In 1982, drug dealer Fiala, makes a 1,000,000 dollar offers to Gravano to take over the Plaza Suite, one of the most appreciated New York clubs. The two do not get along during the transaction, and Fiala threatens Salvatore with an Uzi gun, puts two Doberman dogs on him and humiliates him in this office. “Sammy The Bull” manages to escape and organizes an ambush, killing all of Fiala’s men and shoots Fiala to death. Despite eye witnesses, friend Loborio “Louie” Milito confesses to the murder and goes to jail in Gravano’s place.
He started off as a petty thief and he ended up being the right hand of the famous Mafia boss John Gotti, who made him sotto capo and Gambino family consigliere. Despite the high ranking position he had in the Gravano family, Gotti used him to solve his dirty work. Although Sammy “The Bull” killed “only” 28 people, he is suspected of other 100 killing attempts he made on behalf of John Gotti. Eventually, Gotti, Gravano and other mafia bosses were arrested, and after spending one year in jail, Gravano becomes an FBI informant, testifying against John Gotti in 199.1.
He joined the Witness Protection Program, changed his appearance, but he blew his cover after deciding to appear on TV, write books and becoming a Mafia Hollywood consultant. He says that he is not afraid of dieing.
7. Frank “The Dasher” Abbandano ( 1910 – 1942 )
Murders: 30
Affiliation: Murder, Inc
The most known assassination: George Rudnick. Abe Reles, former Murder Inc, hitman and intermediary between the association and National Crime Syndicate, finds out that George Rudnick, Brooklyn loan shark, became an informant for the police and hires Abbandando to kill him. Abbandando brutally kills Rudnick, using a machete.
Abbandando was one of the most prolific Murder, Inc hitmen. Because there were a lot of hitmen “working” during that time he started to take jobs for low pay, and most his contracts were brokered by Abe Reles. In 1940, Abe became a police informant and rats on Abbandando. The killer is sentenced to death and he is executed on February 19, 1942.
6. Harry “Pittsburgh Phil” Strauss ( 1909 – 1941 )
Murders: 35
Affiliation: Murder, Inc
The most known assassination: Irvin “Puggy” Feinstein. Feinstein, a petty mobster involved in illegal gambling tried to steal a business that belonged to Albert Anastasie, one of the most prominent members of the Gambino family. Anastasia contacted Abe Reles, who gave the contract to Strauss. He sadistically tortured Feinstein before he killed him.
Harry “Pittsburgh Phil” Strauss was one of the most sadistic Mafia hitmen, being a specialist in torture. It is said about Strauss that he never walked with a gun on him if he wasn’t “Working”. He had the same fate as Abbandando – Reles rated on him and he got the electric chair.
5. Abraham “Kid Twist” Reles ( 1906 – 1941 )
Murders: 50
Affiliation: Murder, Inc
The most known assassination: Meyer, Irving and William Shapiro. The Shapiro brothers, being threaten by Abe’s fulminating success, rape his girlfriend and then set up an ambush. “Kid Twist” managed to escape and starts planning his revenge. Irvin is caught after a spectacular freeway chase and shot to the head. Two months later, Reles sees Meyer on the street and shots him in the head also. Three years later, Kid Twist finds William: he kidnaps him from the street, takes him to a hiding place where he tortured him then buried him alive.
Abe Reles was the most fierce Murder, Inc killer. and he also managed to gather around him the most sadistic Jewish group of New York hitmen: Harry Maione, Frank Abbandando, Harry Strauss, Martin Goldstein, Irvin Nitzberg, Philip Cohen, Emanuel Weiss, Buggsy Coldstein and others. Caught by the police in 1940, he realized that if he does not rat he is going to get the electric chair. His biggest mistake was that he also revealed the name of his employers, besides the names of the hitmen he used, exposing many Mafia bosses. Their trail was supposed to start on November 12, 1941. To protect his interests, Frank Costello, the boss of the Genovese family, offered a 100,000 dollars reward for Abe’s head. In the morning of the trial Reles is killed.
4. Frank McErlane ( 1893 – 1932 )
Murders: 30
Affiliation: The Saltis-McErlane gang, Al Capone ( Chciago )
The most known assassination: Spike O’Donnell. In 1925, during Prohibition, in Chicago, the Saltis-McErlane gang enters into a conflict with the O’Donnell gang. After a bloody street war, with dozens of victims in both camps, Frank McErlane gets his hands on a prototype machine-gun ( Thompson ). He follows Spike O’Donnell until he stops in front of a pharmacy then kills him in cold blood. The police was so unfamiliar with the machine gun that they did not knew what to write in the murder report.
3. Giuseppe “Pino Scarpuzzedda” Greco ( 1952 – 1985 )
Murders: around 80
Affiliation: Greco and Corleonesi clans
The most known assassination: General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa. Another one of his famous assassinations was the one of Rosario Riccobono, the Palermo mafia boss. He was a powerful ally of the Corleonesi family, but when he was no longer useful, Salvatore Riina decided to get rid of him, because Riccobono knew his secrets and weaknesses. So, he invited Riccobono along with his most important 8 men to a barbecue. They were all killed whine Riina was watching.
2. Giuvanni “Il Porco” Brusca ( born 1957 )
Murders: between 100 and 200
Affiliation: Corleonesi Clan
The most known assassination: Anti Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone.
1. Leoluca Bagarella ( 1942 )
Murders: more than 300
Affiliation: Corleonesi clan
The most known assassination: The chief of Palermo Police, Giorgio Boris Guiliano. In the 70′s, Giuliano, started to investigate the drug business the Cosa Nostra was doing. In 1979, Giuliano even made a visit to the FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, to consult with the american experts. Returned from the US, he got his hands on a series of documents that proved that banker Michele Sindona was laundering money for the Mafia. It is believed that Giuliano was about to uncover one of the biggest Mafia businesses in history, however he didn’t got around to it. In the morning of July 21, 1979, while he was drinking an expresso at the Lux bar in Palermo, he was shot to death by the hitman sent by the Corleonesi family, Leoluca Bagarella, probably the most prolific hitman that ever worked for the Mafia.
Short URL: http://www.xianet.net/?p=5626
