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| Ciro Terranova | |
|---|---|
 New York City Police Department mugshot of Terranova | |
| Born | July 20, 1888 (1888-07-20) Corleone, Sicily, Italy |
| Died | February 20, 1938 (1938-02-21) (age 49) New York, New York, U.S. |
| Other names | "The Artichoke King" |
| Occupation | Gangster |
Ciro Terranova (Template:IPA-it; July 20, 1888 − February 20, 1938) was an Italian-born New York City gangster and one time underboss of the Morello crime family.
Early life
Terranova was born in the town of Corleone, Sicily. In 1893, Ciro moved to New York with his father, mother, four sisters, brothers Vincenzo and Nicolo to meet half brother Giuseppe Morello, who had arrived six months earlier. Years later, Ciro, Vincenzo, Nicolo, and Giuseppe would found the powerful Morello crime family.
Due to lack of work in the New York area, Terranova and his family only stayed there for about a year. They eventually traveled to Louisiana, where the father planted sugar cane, then moved to Bryan, Texas, where they worked as cotton pickers. After two years in Texas, malaria struck the family. They moved back to New York in 1896.
Return to New York
Ciro and Vincent went to school and worked at the family business, a plastering store, on evenings and weekends. Ciro later worked as a waiter at a restaurant owned by his stepbrother Giuseppe, at the rear of the Prince Street Saloon. In 1903, Giuseppe was charged with the barrel murders but released due to lack of evidence. After the trials ended in June 1903, the Morello crime family continued to deal with police searches and harassment. On one such occasion Ciro, Vincent, and his nephews Charlie and Nick Sylvester were arrested and held overnight. Another time, Ciro was arrested while trying to find a doctor for Charlie.
Rise to power
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When Ignazio "the Wolf" Lupo and Ciro's brother Giuseppe were sent to prison on counterfeiting charges, Ciro, Vincent, and Nick filled the power vacuum. They soon rose to be the top gangsters of Italian Harlem, running the Morello family.
Ciro earned his nickname, "the Artichoke King", by purchasing artichokes at $6.00 a crate from California, then selling them in New York at a 30-40% profit. Ciro's violent reputation preceded him, frightening vegetable sellers into buying them. Giuseppe Carulli one such vegetable seller, in Brooklyn, NY, stood up to Terranova refusing to buy his artichokes from Ciro ignoring various threats. Carulli and a few others siding with him successfully stood up to Ciro and refused to purchase artichokes until after the ban. Carulli went on to build a successful produce business opening multiple outlets in Brooklyn under the name Carulli and Sons delivering to restaurants and hotels in the New York area.
In 1916, Joe DiMarco, a gambling joint operator, challenged the power of Ciro and the Morellos. The Morellos then conspired with the Navy Street Gang to kill DiMarco and gave the job to Leo Lauritano, the Navy Street leader. Lauritano in turn passed the job on to Mike Fetto.
Accounts differ as to what happened next. In one narrative Fetto went to DiMarco's club to kill him but could not identify DiMarco and returned without finishing the job, which was then given to John "Jonny Left" Esposito, with Fetto as his assistant. Esposito likewise could not find Dimarco, so he killed Charles Lombardi instead. Fetto eventually caught up with DiMarco and murdered him.
In another account of the Mafia-Camorra War, Fetto shot Lombardi thinking he was DiMarco. A third Morello associate in the room, Giuseppe Verrizano, ended up killing DiMarco.
Change in power
After the DiMarco murder, the police arrested hitman John Esposito. Esposito then implicated Ciro, who was indicted on the two murders. However, the charges against Ciro were soon dropped. The reason was that the testimony against Ciro was given by co-conspirators and accomplices and under New York law outside corroboration was necessary. Two weeks after the DiMarco hit, but before his arrest, Esposito was ordered to kill Charles Ubriaco and Ciro’s half-brother Nicholas, who were discussing peace terms with rival gang members.
By 1920 the Morello-Terranova-Lupo rule was being challenged by Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria, an up-and-coming gangster. Vincent Morello was murdered on East 116 St. A powerful ally of the Morello Family, Umberto "Rocco" Valenti, was killed by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, then a member of the Masseria family. After Valenti's death, many of Ciro's men switched sides to Masseria. Even Peter Morello switched sides and became one of Masseria's most trusted lieutenants, even though the Masseria gang had killed his brother. When the dust settled, Ciro controlled the 116th Street Crew in Upper Manhattan and Masseria ruled the Bronx.
Castellammarese War
While the Castellammarese War was going on, Joseph "Joe Cargo" Valachi tried to patch up his friendship with Ciro and even befriended Ciro's driver. Tommaso "Tommy" Gagliano (who later became boss of the Lucchese crime family) then asked Valachi to take his side in the gang war.
Valachi's first assignment was to kill Ciro's driver; instead, Valachi killed Ciro's nephew, Joseph Catania. At Catania's funeral, Terranova swore revenge. Valachi also claimed to have killed Peter Morello, Ciro's half brother, but Lucky Luciano said that Albert Anastasia and Frank Scalise killed Morello.
On April 15, 1931, Masseria himself was murdered. The story that Terranova drove the killers to the Masseria hit, is a myth created and spread by Luck Luciano, one of the few survivors from these times, in order to serve his own purposes. Terranova inhereited his leadership position due to attrition rather than ambition and was not strong enough to hold it. Luciano and others whittled away his power over time, allowing him to keep control of the artichioke trade as a form of pension, hence his ironic title of "The Artickoke King".
During the early 1930s, New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia led a successful effort to decriminalize the artichoke trade, destroying Terranova's power base. By the time of his death, Terranova was reportedly impoverished.
Death
On February 18, 1938, Ciro Terranova suffered a paralyzing stroke. He died two days later at Columbus Hospital, at age 49, with his son and wife at his side. Ciro was the only one of the four Terranova brothers to die in bed. Ciro and his three brothers lie in bare graves in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York, not far from Joe Petrosino, who investigated them, or other Morello crime family members, such as Ignazio "Lupo the Wolf" Lupo.
Bibliography
- Critchley, David (2008). The Origin of Organized Crime: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931. New York: Routledge.
- Dash, Mike (2009). The First Family: Terror, Extortion and the Birth of the American Mafia. London: Simon & Schuster.
In popular fiction
- In the television series The Untouchables, Terranova is portrayed by Jack Weston.
References
- ^ "TERRANOVA DEAD; ONCE RACKET 'KING". New York Times. February 20, 1938. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
- https://www.newspapers.com/image/139031686/?terms=%22Ciro%2BTerranova%22
- ^ Dash, epilogue
- Dash, Mike (2009). The First Family: Terror, Extortion and the Birth of the American Mafia. London: Simon & Schuster. p. Epilogue, page 27. ISBN 978-1-84737-173-7.
External links
- Biography of Ciro Terranova on GangRule
- Ciro Terranova at Find a Grave
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| Preceded byVincenzo Terranova | Morello crime family Underboss 1916-1920 |
Succeeded byVincenzo Terranova |
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