To all Sho 'nuff Mob Study readers everywhere, we extend our unmitigated "WELCOME." We urge publishers who read our series to send us a complimentary copy of any recently, and/or soon-to-be, released organized crime book.
In the order in which they are received, the books will be read, then reviewed, and subsequently, cited in upcoming editions of the series. We ask only that our book donors remain patient.
Thank you.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
In Today’s column: MOB BOSSES WHO WERE DIAGNOSED WITH TERTIARY SYPHILIS, PART 1; 'JOEY THE CLOWN,' 'LEPKE,' AND 'BIG JOEY’ and GOOMBA AND SUICIDE.
Timothy Daniel "Big Tim" Sullivan (July 23, 1862-August 31, 1913) was the street level political boss of New York City's Five Points district, i.e. its Sixth Ward. Through his links to Tammany Hall, Tim Sullivan emerged not only as the Sixth Ward's elected representative but, also as an Irish vice lord and mob boss.
As T. J. English (February 15, 2005) says, in Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish-American Gangster, ReganBooks, ISBN: 0060590025:
"It is perhaps a minor quirk of history that Big Tim Sullivan, boss of what used to be the Five Points, benefactor of the Whyos, dispenser of shoes to the homeless, five-time assemblyman, state senator and U.S. congressman, never made it to the glory days of Prohibition" (p. 105).
Big Tim Sullivan could have become the grand sachem, i.e. boss, of Tammany Hall. But, he did not want the job. He preferred to be the man behind the man, i.e. the real power broker.
"Although Sullivan's close relationship with Tammany's various grand sachems enhanced his standing and paved the way for his business successes, his true power did not come from above. It came from below---from the streets. As the Lower East Side district that he represented evolved, Sulllivan learned to speak a few words and phrases in Italian, Yiddish, and Cantonese. In perhaps the most ethnically diverse district in the entire United States, he made friends among saloon keepers, businessmen, shopkeepers, and mobsters of every nationality" (Ibid., p. 107).
Big Tim Sullivan As Irish Mob Boss And Vice Lord
Big Tim Sullivan's whole enterprise was based on muscle and patronage. "Within a few short years, Sullivan was the most powerful politician in lower Manhattan. Although an avowed teelotaler with not so much as an arrest for loitering on his record, his power was based largely on his mastery of the art of the shakedown. Local merchants, gambling bosses, pimps, liquor vendors, saloon keepers, and gangsters were required to buy tickets to Big Tim's clambakes, chowder suppers, and summer outings at College Point" (Ibid., p. 40).
The reformers who hated Big Tim Sullivan claimed he made his money from protecting gambling and prostitution. Big Tim's political career was instrumental to the development of the criminal careers of such underworld notables as Monk Eastman, Paul Kelly and Arnold "The Brain" Rothstein, to mention a few names. Arnold Rothstein (1882-1929) was a Big Tim Sullivan protégé.
T. J. English (February 15, 2005) gives us a definition of "mob boss" that applies especially well to men like Big Tim Sullivan.
"The term 'mob boss' originated in Five Points and refers to a form of spontaneous political activity known as a mob primary. Mob primaries comprised the most basic form of political organization known to man. They were initiated by an aspiring political leader merely standing on a milk crate or soap box and orating until he had gathered a crowd, or mob, who was willing sign a petition on the man's behalf declaring him a candidate for political office. The mob pledged its vote to the orator, who was usually a saloon keeper willing to offer free drink, a sandwich, a cellar mattress to sleep on, or all of the above in exchange for a vote. The type of voter most willing to enter into this arrangement was usually a rough character-----a bum, a homeless person, a thief or a gangster. Thus, the mob boss, or mobster, became the leader of a less than savory constituency that was, nonetheless, a powerful force capable of swinging many local elections" (Ibid., p. 26).
The relationship between a mob boss and the most prominent gang of his ethnicity during his time is, oddly enough, a symbiotic one.
"For some people, the notorious reputation of the gang was a godsend. An ambitious ward boss or Tammany assemblyman, for instance, rose or fell in the political arena based on his ability to deliver, which translated into bodies, which translated into votes. Votes were a primary particle of survival in the big city. Votes fed the hungry, gave solace and power to the weak, and, more importantly, opened the door to a vast multitude of patronage jobs that the Irish were determined to use as stepping stones up and out of the slums of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and elsewhere. Nobody enforced the will of the bosses and delivered votes better than a gang" (Ibid., pp. 38-39).
At the time the Big Fellla was ascending the latter of social mobility, the Whyos were the most prominent Irish gang in New York.
The Whyos
The Whyos were an Irish gang that got its name from the bird-like call its members utilized. Because they were one of the most vicious gangs of the 1880's, the Whyos are historically important and must not be overlooked.
In the history of organized crime, the Whyos constitute one of the first gangs to market their services, e.g. blackjacking, mayhem and murder. The prices ranged from two dollars for a simple punching to one hundred dollars--and--up for murder. This is a successive approximation to a modern, twenty-first century mob. This is a part of the socio-cultural evolution of organized crime.
In terms of the social evolution of gangs, the Whyos were antecedent to the emergence of both the Five Points Gang and the Eastman gang.
Big Tim Sullivan As An Elected Representative
Big Tim Sullivan was born in 1862 in the Five Points section of New York's Lower East Side. Big Tim started work as a newsboy, eventually rising to become a United States Senator. He never left the neighborhood, even after he became rich and powerful and the area went from being predominantly Irish to Jewish and then Chinese and so on.
By 1890 Tammany Hall put Big Tim Sullivan in charge of the Italian and Jewish newcomers. He was responsible for making sure they voted "correctly" and that those who were involved in crime paid regularly. Big Tim Sullivan's position gradually expanded from district leader to overlord of vice and gambling while his territory grew from the Bowery, then Manhattan south of Fourteenth Street, and finally the whole island.
But, Big Tim started out representing Five Points, arguably the roughest place in the United States if not the entire world. He had the job of keeping his area safe for Tammany Hall. The Big Fella gained his powerful political standing by delivering the democratic vote on Election Day. In return, the Big Fellow looked out for his contituents. He saw to it that coal and food were delivered to the needy. He helped his needy constitutents to get jobs or legal assistance when necessary.
Big Tim Sullivan served as a bartender and eventually owned six bars. He was also a gang leader, and; he was elected to the New York State Assembly at the tender age of 23. To Big Tim, politics was a profession, not just a "calling" to which he reluctantly responded.
New York's Bowery was the domain of the Eastmans, a Jewish gang led by Monk Eastman, né 'Edward Osterman.' Monk Eastman sometimes used an Irish surname, "Delaney."
"Primary among Big Tim's unofficial associates was the leader of the Five Points gang, Paul Kelly, an Italian Immigrant whose real name was Paulo Antonini Vaccarelli. The Five Pointers were a sprawling Italian gang that would give rise to some of the most noted mafiosi of the Prohibition era. In a testiment to Big Tim's powers of accommodation, he was also on good terms with the Five Pointers' main rival, the Eastmans, a predominately Jewish gang led by the indomitable Monk Eastman, a brawny, monosyllabic brute of a man. The gangsters helped Big Tim out on election days; in return, he used his influence with local magistrate judges to help them evade conviction. They were also allowed to run their various rackets free of harassment from local police. It was through his associations with the Eastman gang that Sullivan established a relationship that would be his link with the city's bootlegging empire of later years" (Ibid., pp. 107-108).
The Five Points gang of Paul Kelly, né 'Paolo Vaccarelli,' and the Eastmans gang of Monk Eastman collected protection money from gambling joints and were available as sluggers for hire, particularly at election time.
The Five Points Gang
In the opening years of the twentieth century, the Five Pointers were New York's most important gang. The Five Points Gang had a great impact on twentieth century American organized crime.
The Five Points Gang is important because of the historical significance of several of its cohorts. If there had not been a Five Points Gang, there might never have been an American Mafia, at least not one as we know it today. No Five Points Gang, no Paulo Antonini Vaccarelli, a/k/a "Paul Kelly," no Johnny Torrio, no Frankie Yale, no Salvatore "Charlie Lucky" Luciano nor Al Capone.
Throughout the years, the Five Points Gang increased in size by incorporating smaller gangs into its ranks. Members of the Plug Uglies joined in 1900. In those days it was not unusual for gangs to have a youth division, and in 1905 Paul Kelly took the James Street Gang on board. The James Street Gang were a group of delinquent youths who were lead by "Little" Johnny Torrio, and later by Frankie Yale (real name Fraancesco Ieole, Uale). Under Kelly's leadership, these thugs became known as the Five Points Juniors. Both Torrio and Yale graduated to the senior gang, and in later years---during the Prohibition---became two very successful bootleggers.
So, Paul Kelly was Johnny Torrio's mentor. Johnny Torrio is a twentieth century American criminal mastermind. Charlie Lucky was among the first to practice the tenets of the twentieth century American Mafia.
Still another significant Five Pointer was Al Capone. Al Capone's mentors were Johnny Torrio and Frankie Yale. In 1918, when he relocated to Chicago at the behest of Big Jim Colosimo, Johnny Torrio brought Al Capone along with him. The rest is history.
With the advent of the Prohibition era, as ambitious members gradually went their separate ways, the Five Points Gang slowly lost power. It is not clear how long the gang survived but, by 1920, they no longer commanded the fear and respect of people who lived in Manhattan's Five Points district.
A state of continuous warfare existed between the members of the Eastman's and those of the Five Points Gang.
The Eastmans
Monk Eastman had established his kingdom by 1900 with more than twelve hundred warriors under the Eastman banner. The Eastman headquarters was a dive on Chrystie street, near the bowery, where they stockpiled sling-shots, revolvers, blackjacks, brass knuckles, and other tools of gang warfare. Their main sources of income were derived from houses of prostitution, stuss games (a form of faro), political engagements, blackjacking services, and the operations of pickpockets, footpads, and loft burglars. Tammany Hall, the political power in New York City, frequently engaged the services of Eastman to bring in the votes at election time. In return, Tammany Hall lawyers bailed Eastman out whenever he got arrested.
Paul Kelly and Monk Eastman were arrested many times without serious consequences. Since they kicked up to him, they both enjoyed Big Tim's protection.
Monk Eastman's feud with Paul Kelly began over a strip of territory between Mike Salter's dive on Pell street and the Bowery. Eastman claimed domain over the territory from Monroe to Fourteenth streets and from the Bowery to the East River. Paul Kelly and his Five Points Gang believed that their kingdom included the Bowery and any spoils found in this area. Eventually, the constant feuding caused the downfall of both Monk Eastman and Paul Kelly.
Never forgetting his origins, the "Bowery Senator" established for his constituents an annual Christmas dinner. Those constituents did not forget him either: after his death, Big Tim Sullivan's constituents and other friends prayed for the repose of his soul.
Keeping the Big Fella's Day
How did the Big Fellow gain his constituent's unyielding support? One method Big Tim used was his establishment of February 6 as "Big Tim Sullivan Day." All over Manhattan's Lower East Side, the teeming immigrant neighborhood, the word went out that, if you were a kid and needed a pair of shoes, you could get them courtesy of Big Tim Sullivan.
Big Tim said the reason he did that is that when he was a little boy, when he was in school, his feet were sticking through his soles and a kindly public-school teacher took pity on him and, on February 6, bought him a new pair of shoes. We don't know if that account is true or not. What mattered for the people on Manhattan's Lower East Side was that, inspite the poverty they and their children suffered, they nevertheless were able to acquire a brand new pair of shoes on Timothy D. Sullivan Day. Were they going to spend a lot of time worrying about where the money came from to pay for all those new shoes? Johnny had a decent pair of shoes, and that fact endeared Timothy D. Sullivan to Johnny's parents.
Big Tim Sullivan, of course, made his constituents satisfied in many other ways. He made Columbus Day a New York State holiday, and that pleased his Italian constituents. The Big Fella fought to regulate and control gas prices, and that pleased poor people. He was able to get the Sullivan Law passed, making it illegal to carry concealed weapons. See: "Congressional Biography" at http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S001061
I guess the main characteristic of the Big Fella’s personality that helped to make him professionally successful was the perception his constituents had that “Timothy Daniel Sullivan is one of us.”
Timothy Daniel Sullivan's Decline and Death
Freedom is the right to feel that "I must become a victim of the shake down." Therefore, it is better to be "shaken down by a member (and/or members) of my own reference group" than it is to be "shaken down by a person (and/or persons) who is a member of some other reference group."
"Given The Big Fella's stature for so many years, his decline and death was sad and ignominious. His decline started in 1912, when Sullivan was diagnosed with tertiary syphilis, an unfortunate disease for a man who often bragged over the years that he was clean as a whistle in his personal habits. He started to become forgetful and, at times. delusional; he was losing his mind. In the summer of 1913, he was institutionalized for a few weeks at a sanitarium then moved to a home on Eastchester Road in the Bronx. It was necessary to assign several guards to watch over him. Occasionally Big Tim eluded his guards and frequented his old haunts along Broadway and the Bowery. Patrons would see a pajama-clad man in the corner of a saloon and say, "My God, that man looks like Tim Sullivan. Could it be? is that Tim Sullivan?" And, then, poof, in the bat of an eye, the man would be gone.
Finally, on a September night, Big Tim disappeared after exhausting his guards by playing cards with them all night. Later, the body of a fifty-year old man was found on the rails near the Westchester freight yards. How it got there, nobody knew. An engineer on duty claimed that the man was already dead before he was run over by a train. The corpse lay in the morgue for a few days before it was identified as Timothy Daniel Sullivan.
Big Tim's funeral was attended by everybody who was anybody----three U.S. senators, a delegation of twenty members of the House of Representatives, justices of the New York Supreme Court, the Police Commissioner, the boss of Tammany Hall, not to mention asorted shoulder hitters, homeless people, and mobsters, They were sorry to see him go, but they might have been even sadder to learn that old Dry Dollar Sullivan would not be around to truly enjoy the fruits of his labors. In the following decade, Prohibition would transform the underworld, bringing in untold riches----and Big Tim, the man who helped lay the foundation, never even made it to Opening Day" (Ibid., pp. 108-109).
The search for Joseph "Joey The Clown" Lombardo is reminiscent of the search for Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the Syndicate boss, years ago.
In the American Mafia hierarchy, Lepke was second only to Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky. He was the paramount labor racketeer of his day. For six years, Lepke functioned as the head of Murder, Inc., the national crime syndicate's enforcement arm. As many as 100 corpses have been attributed to Lepke himself, while those under his control may have slain hundreds more.
Lepke was also a major drug trafficker having inherited Arnold "The Brain" Rothstein's drug rackets after The Brain was whacked.
In July 1937, Lepke and Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro went underground with the help of their close friend Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastasia. Lepke was resigned to remain in hiding for the long haul, Gurrah, on the other hand, was ill and turned himself in on April 14, 1938.
With the focus of the manhunt solely on Lepke, the reward for his capture reached $50,000. His face appeared on posters, movie screens, and in newspapers across the country. Lepke had become the most wanted man in America.
While he was on the lam, Louis Lepke eventually learned somethings. He learned about the primacy of the criminal organization, i.e. that EVERYBODY in the mob is EXPENDABLE. Whether he is a soldier or a capo regime or a capo crimini, everybody makes mistakes and anyone
can be punished for making those mistakes.
It was costing the mob too much money to continue to hide Lepke. In his flight, Lepke was under the protection of Albert "The Mad Hatter"
Anastasia. Albert Anastasia advised Lepke to not turn himself in to the authorities but, rather, to stay on the lam.
Gaetano "Three Finger Brown" Lucchese convinced Lepke that it would be best if he give himself up to J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI. On the night of August 24, 1939, Lepke Buchalter turned himself in to federal custody. Walter Winchell, the radio reporter, was in Hoover's company when Lepke turned himself over to the authorities. Lucchese told Lepke, "If you give up to the feds, they will not prosecute you for homicide." Lepke found out the hard way that Three Finger Brown's words were not true.
The federal government indicted Lepke on narcotics offenses for his involvement in a drug smuggling ring involving Jacob "Yasha" Katzenberg, a drug dealer formerly associated with the late Arnold Rothstein. Lepke was sentenced to 14 years in Leavenworth Federal Prison; a sentence that was on top of the time he already owed the U.S. government for breaking his bail in 1937.
Lepke was then tried in New York State Court on charges of racketeering in the baking industry. Lepke was found guilty of the charges and sentenced to 30 years, which would not begin until after his 14 years for the federal sentence.
Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, the mob rat, one of Murder, Inc.'s top guns, revealed its operations and leadership. Kid Twist corroborated Lepke's involvement in the murder of Joseph Rosen, a candy store clerk.
On November 30, 1941, Lepke Buchalter was found guilty of murder. Two days later he was sentenced to death, the execution was to be carried out at the Sing Sing Federal Prison during the first week of January, 1942. Five postponements brought Lepke additional time up to March 2, 1944. Lepke was given a two day reprieve.
On Saturday, March 4, 1944, when Louis "Lepke" Buchalter was electrocuted at Sing Sing, he became the only major Syndicate boss to be executed. Lepke Buchalter still holds this distinction.
The feds had wanted Joseph "Big Joey" Massino to die by lethal injection if he was found guilty of ordering the 1999 murder of Bonanno Cosa Nostra Family capo Gerlando "George from Canada" Sciascia. Shortly after his conviction during the summer of 2004 on racketeering and seven other murders, Big Joey Massino apparently said "To hell with omertà" and became a jailhouse snitch.
Big Joey secretly recorded conversations with Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, the Bonanno acting boss, implicating his underling in another gangland murder. Now, Vinny Gorgeous Basciano is the one who is eligible for the death penalty.
The fact that Big Joey Massino has flipped is reminiscent of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter as well. The underworld shook in the wake of Lepke's voluntary return to custody. All the hoods asked themselves, "Will Lepke cut and roll?"
If Lansky had cooperated, a lot of guy's would have been hurt. Lepke could have corroborated damning information about the underworld’s "Luciano," "Lansky," "Joe Adonis," "Albert Anastasia," "Johnny Torrio," on and on... Lepke could have implicated a number of "legitimate," upperworld people, too. But, Lepke, unlike Big Joey Massino, was a STAND UP GUY.
In its Wednesday, May 4, 2005 edition, the Chicago Sun reported that Joseph “Joey the Clown” Lombardo “is believed to be the author of an impassioned letter that surfaced” on Tuesday, May 3, 2005 “declaring his innocence and stating: ‘I am not hiding to avoid the charges against me.’"
The letter was directed at U.S. District Court Judge James B. Zagel, who is handling the case targeting unsolved mob murders, gambling and extortion. It's signed "Joe Lombardo A Innocent Man."
As The Clown explained to Judge Zagel, "I am no part of a enterprise or racketering . . . have no part in the poker machines, extorcinate loans, gambling and what ever else the indictment says," the letter reads. "About the 18 murders in the indictment, I want you to know that I was not privy before the murders, during the murders, and after the murders, and to this present writing to you."
The Clown points out to Judge Zagel that, while he maintains his innocence, when he is apprehended he wants to be apprehended ALIVE. That’s no joke.
"I am not a violent man in anyway shape or form. I do not own or have any weapons of any kind. if the F.B.I. should find me I will come peacefully and no resistence at all."
The Clown seems to be in good humor, as usual. He probably misspelled some of his words on purpose. The letter is The Clown’s way of showing that the underworld in the nation’s west and Midwest is still under the control of the Chicago Outfit.
After he is apprehended or decides to voluntarily place himself in the custody of the federal government, The Clown will be tried. He’s up against a mob turncoat and maybe forensic evidence. If he is found “guilty” and sentenced to death, will The Clown, like Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, walk the GREEN MILE silently, or, as Joseph “Big Joey” Massino did, will The Clown cooperate with his accuser's?
On Monday, April 25, 2005, prosecutors unsealed a 9-count, 41-page racketeering conspiracy indictment. Agents from the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service began arresting the accused in Illinois, Florida and Arizona that morning.
The indictment was years in the making. The Federal Bureau of Investigation dubbed their probe "Operation Family Secrets." For the first time in history, the entire "Chicago Outfit" was deemed a criminal enterprise under federal racketeering laws.
Fourteen reputed mob members and associates were indicted on charges of plotting at least 18 murders, some going back as far as 1970. Of the 14 men who were rounded up, there were several who have for years been reputed to be among the city's top level of organized crime leaders.
Frank "Goomba" Saladino, 59, who formerly lived in Freeport and Rockford, Illinois was one of the men that federal agents sought to arrest on that day. However, federal agents found Frank Saladino dead in the hotel room where he was living in Hampshire in Kane County, Illinois. When the authorities arrived to arrest him that day, they found that Saladino had apparently died of natural causes. The Rock River Times noted in it's May 4-10, 2005 issue that results of the autopsy won't be available for about another three weeks. That brings us to the first week of June.
It is possible that Frank "Goomba" Saladino committed suicide. But, I think it unlikely that Saladino killed himself. What did the Frank "Goomba" Saladino autopsy show? The Rock River Times noted in it's May 4-10, 2005 issue that results of Frank Saladino's autopsy won't be available for about another three weeks. That brings us to the first week of June.
Among alleged members and associates of the American Mafia, there aren't many verifiable cases of official "suicide."
Abner "Longy" Zwillman's death was ruled a "suicide." After Dutch Schultz's death in 1935, Longy Zwillman took over The Dutchman's criminal operations as the press began calling Zwillman the "Al Capone of New Jersey." However, Longy Zwillman often sought to legitimize his image, offering a reward for the return of the Lindbergh baby in 1932, and contributing to charities, including $250,000 to a Newark slum clearing project.
Shortly after taking over Schultz's operations, Longy Zwillman became involved in local politics, eventually controlling the majority of local politicians in Newark for over twenty years. During the 1940s Longy Zwillman, along with his long time associate Willie Moretti, dominated gambling operations in New Jersey.
As Donnie Brasco A/K/A Joe D. Pistone (March 1, 2004) tells us in The Way of the Wiseguy, Running Press Book Publishers; Book & CD edition, ISBN: 0762418397,
"Testifying before a grand jury will get you killed. If summoned, you got to go, but once you're there, do not testify. The last thing in the world you want to do it testify against mobsters, unless you are ready to enter witness protection and never speak to any of your loved ones again" (p. 29).
During the 1959 McClellan Senate Committee hearings on organized crime, Longy Zwillman was issued a subpoena to testify before the Committee. However, shortly before he was to appear before the Committee, on February 27, 1959, Longy Zwillman was found hanged in his West Orange, New Jersey residence.
But, it may have been that Vito Genovese orchestrated Longy Zwillman's assassination. Suspecting that the elderly gangster had agreed to become a government informant, Meyer Lansky may have given the Italian Mafia permission to take out Longy Zwillman.
Police found bruises on his wrists, supporting the theory that Longy Zwillman's arms had been tied before he was hanged. In this scenario, the hitmen bound his arms, attached a noose around his neck and to a beam and made Longy Zwillman climb a ladder to eternity. The hitmen kicked the ladder out from under Longy Zwillman's feet. As his legs swung, the hitmen unbound Longy Zwillman's arms.
Before leaving the scene of the crime, the last thing the hitmen did was to put the ladder back under Longy Zwillman's dangling body. Là, maintenant nous avons un "suicide!"
Frank Nitti committed suicide. A bullet to the head. But, as John J. Binder (May 1, 2003) tells us in The Chicago Outfit (Images of America), Arcadia Publishing, ISBN: 0738523267, "Nitti was in ill health when he took his own life and, according to information in some circles, was suffering from cancer. This helps explain his action, which was unusual for a gangster. During that era, many victims of cancer committed suicide rather than live in prolonged pain" (p 64).