Manhattan Mafia Guide (31 page)

Verrazano was originally set up to be killed alongside Nicolas Morello and “Charles” Ubriaco during an ambush in Brooklyn on September 7, 1916, but he did not make the trip for some reason, so Neapolitan crime boss Pellegrino Morano sent his men after the Sicilian a month later to finish the job.

Morano was later convicted of the September 7 murders of Morello and Ubriaco and deported back to Italy by 1919.

W
OLOSKY
, D
AVID

Northwest Corner of First Avenue and East Sixteenth Street

The body of bookie and ex-con David Wolosky, also known as David Kaye, was found by a beat cop at this location at about 1:30 a.m. on April 19, 1972. He had been shot three times in the back elsewhere and dropped off in front of the Beth Israel Hospital on this corner.

In Wolosky’s pockets were three sets of identification, several gambling slips and some loose change. He had at least ten prior arrests, including felonious assault and grand larceny.

It was the city’s eighth gangland slaying and umpteenth shooting in three weeks—including the Joey Gallo murder on April 7. Just the night before Wolosky was murdered, Thomas Graziano (nephew of the legendary boxer) had been shot in the abdomen at First Avenue and East Twelfth Street. He survived.

APPENDIX

MAPS AND CHARTS

Included here are some materials to give a better sense of the stories in this book and help you navigate through the primary neighborhood’s discussed.

New York’s “Five Families,” officially christened in 1931.
Lower East Side History Project
.

East Harlem map.
Lower East Side History Project
.

East Harlem map, part two.
Lower East Side History Project
.

Greenwich Village map. Lower East
Side History Project
.

East Village map.
Lower East Side History Project
.

Little Italy map.
Lower East Side History Project
.

Little Italy map, part two.
Lower East Side History Project
.

Fourth Ward, Lower East Side
map. Lower East Side History Project
.

Structure of a Mafia family.
Lower East Side History Project
.

Districts of Manhattan primarily discussed in this book.
Lower East Side History Project
.

NOTES

P
REFACE

1
.
New York Times
, “Must Stop Outrages by the Black Hand,” January 26, 1908.

2
.
Tri City Herald
[Richland, WA], “Valachi Testimony Rated Best Show on TV Network,” October 2, 1963.

I. P
ROFILES

3
. Some sources list Attardi’s birth as September 12, 1900, or April 1, 1892, and death as July 17, 1970.

4
. FBN memo dated December 13, 1938, NARA Record Number 124-90093-10099.

5
. According to the FBN, Attardi frequented “159 Christie Street near Delancey.” This could be the address to his shop.

6
. Feder and Joesten,
Luciano Story
.

7
. Messick,
John Edgar Hoover
.

8
.
United States of America, Respondent-Appellee v. Angelo Buia, Defendant-Appellant
., 236 F.2d 548 (2
^nd
Cir. 1956).

9
.
New York Times
, “11 Seized in Raid on Narcotics Ring,” August 10, 1962.

10
. United States Congress,
Organized Crime
.

11
.
New York Times
, “4 Get Prison Terms in Narcotics Cases,” October 5, 1955.