Vito Genovese
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Prison mugshot of Vito Genovese, taken shortly before his death of natural causes. |
Vito Genovese (
November 27,
1897 â€"
February 14,
1969) was a mafioso who rose to power in America during the
Castellammarese War to later become leader of the
Genovese crime family.
Genovese started his
Mafia career serving
Joe Masseria and worked with people like
Lucky Luciano,
Meyer Lansky,
Bugsy Siegel, and
Frank Costello.
In April
1931, Luciano orchestrated the assassination of
Joe Masseria. Vito Genovese was one of the four shooters involved in the hit on his former employer. Later that year, Luciano also arranged a hit on Maranzano, and established himself as the paramount gangster in the
United States.
After World War II, Genovese began a murder spree to gain new status in the underworld, taking advantage of Luciano being in exile in
Italy. Facing a murder charge (of
Ferdinand "The Shadow" Boccia) in
1937, Genovese was forced to flee to Italy as well.
When he later returned to the States, all the witnesses to his murder spree had disappeared. He remained a free man, and attended the infamous
Havana Conference in
1946, where he got involved in a scrap with Luciano and got three of his ribs broken.
Now Genovese had control of Luciano's family and sought to strengthen his hold. He reportedly co-ordinated the
Apalachin Meeting where he expected to be named Boss of Bosses.
Unfortunately for him, the meeting (
November 14,
1957) went horribly wrong. New York State Trooper
Edgar Croswell had been watching the house in which the meeting was supposed to be held, because he was suspicious of the owner,
Joseph Barbara.
When he checked the licence plates of the cars coming in and out, he found enough reason to set up a road block on the only road leading up and from the house on the hill. The attendees, who actually had nothing to worry about (because they were committing no crime), panicked and fled the house, thereby calling attention to themselves and making national headlines.
Genovese was blamed for the fiasco and before he could move to take advantage of the situation Lansky and Luciano set him up on a huge drug smuggling deal.
In
1959, Genovese was sent to prison, where he died in
1969.
*
Genovese Article on Gangland News *
Apalachin Meeting on Gangland News*
Vito Genovese
