Nicola Gentile

Nicola Gentile was a Sicilian Mafioso who traveled the United States as a sort of underworld handyman. Born in Sicily in 1884, he arrived in the U.S. at age 19. He was a confidant of New York Mafiosi from the early 1900s through the Castellamarese War and aided Charlie Luciano in the administration of his New York empire in the 1930s.

He made a number of trips across the national criminal network and briefly served as boss of crime groups in Kansas City, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

In 1937, facing narcotics charges, he returned to Sicily. Back in his homeland, he decided to talk about and write about his Mafia experiences. U.S. federal officials gathered as much information as possible from Gentile. They were later able to use the data as corroboration for the tales told by Mafia squealer Joe Valachi.