Born in Corleone, Sicily, in 1867, Morello and his family settled in upper Manhattan near the turn of the 20th Century. In Italian Harlem, around East 107th Street, they established the Morello Mob (sometimes referred to as the 107th Street Gang). Morello also did some traveling to New Orleans and serves as a solid historical link between the two American metropolitan underworlds.
Giuseppe Morello teamed with downtown (Little Italy) Mafioso Ignazio Lupo, who was his brother-in-law, to eliminate competition and create a united Mafia throughout Manhattan. Some sources consider that Morello was subordinate to Lupo. Others state that the reverse was true. Authorities in the early 1900s were themselves confused.
The Morello-Lupo gang specialized in protection, Black Hand extortion rackets and counterfeiting. Morello appears to have been convicted of counterfeiting as a young man in Sicily.
Violence was commonly a part of their business, and the gang is said to have murdered dozens on a property near Italian Harlem that became known as the Murder Stable (this appears to be largely the stuff of legend).
Morello and Lupo cooperated with Sicilian boss of bosses Vito Cascio Ferro on the importing of Sicilian manufactured counterfeit American currency through the Brooklyn docks. The Secret Service was quickly on their trail, but the two gang leaders were well-insulated from the street level pushers of phony bills. (The arrest of gang associates appears to have led to the murder of Benedetto Madonia - what became known as the "barrel murder.")
Their luck ran out when they concocted a racket involving a money-losing real estate scam and needed to produce some home-made cash to pay off investors. The Secret Service nabbed them in 1909, and they began lengthy prison sentences the following year.
During the decade Morello and Lupo were in prison, their Mafia organization lost ground to rivals in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side. Morello lost a beloved son to street violence. The old 107th Street Gang was supervised by Morello's half-brothers Nicholas and Ciro Terranova. Nicholas was gunned down in 1916, however, and numerous Mafiosi attempted to sieze power.
By 1920, Giuseppe Morello was back in New York. One source claims that he opposed and fought against rising Mafia star Joe Masseria. That claim makes little sense, and its only known proponent is forced to suggest that Morello surrendered to Masseria TWO times in succession in order to explain some of the violence he says occurred during the Mafia civil strife. He also is at a loss to explain the extremely close relationship between Masseria and Morello just a few years later or the ongoing close relationship between Masseria and Morello's half-brother Terranova.
Morello was clearly in Masseria's camp when Joe the Boss eliminated self-proclaimed boss of bosses Toto D'Aquila in 1928. Masseria decided that a conservative Sicilian element in the new world Mafia was becoming rebellious, and he attempted to quiet the rebels by announcing that well respected Morello was the new boss of all bosses.
The 1930 assassination of Morello in his offices initiated a purge of Masseria puppet rulers in the New York Mafia that turned into the Castellamarese War.
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Nicholas Morello
Jan. 6, 1890, to Sept. 7, 1916.
(Nicholas Terranova)
Nicholas Morello oversaw the operation of the Morello Mob after the incarceration of Ignazio Lupo and Giuseppe Morello in 1910.
His biggest challenge was an invasion of sorts by Neapolitan Camorrists in Brooklyn. He and his lieutenant Charles Ubriaco went to Brooklyn to discuss peace terms with the Camorra leaders Pelligrino Morano, Vincenzo Paragallo and Allessandro Vollero on Sept. 7, 1916. The two were murdered on a Brooklyn street.
After Morello's death, his brothers Vincent and Ciro Terranova watched over the Mafia organization and eventually supported Joe Masseria as the supreme New York underworld boss.