Items related to The Nutmeg Mafia.: An Informal History of Organized...
An Informal History of Organized Crime in Connecticut.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
From the Author:
The book includes 110 Black and white photographs.
From the Back Cover:
SAMPLE CHAPTER (First 8,000 words, maximum allowed on this page)
Ralph "Whitey" Tropiano was born inNew Haven, August 15, 1912. The family lived mostly around Grand Avenue. In1919, his father, Biaggio, an immigrant from Naples and a barber by trade, wasarrested for his vague part in producing and selling wood grain alcohol duringthe temporary prohibition of 1919. Over 70 people were poisoned from the hoochwhich was traced to Sabatini's Cafe in New Haven. He was released after abombing destroyed the Café and any evidence the state may have had, but he wasarrested and jailed in 1921 on a narcotics charge, driving the family intopoverty.
Around 1922, Whitey's family movedto the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn, where his mother had relatives. Hisfather eventually joined the family in New York and died in 1953, a year afterhis wife, Lucia Vingiano, passed away.
Tropiano's was first pinch (He hadracked up 15 by 1944) came when he was 12 years old for stealing a bicycle.After that, he became a runner for local bottlers and in 1929, at age 16, herobbed a corner store and took a prison sentence.
The state prison system gaveWhitey, who had perhaps a fifth-grade education and was probably a functionilliterate, an intelligence test and somehow came to the remarkably wrongconclusion that the hood, who was the prison barber, was a "mental defective."
Under state law, a persondesignated as mentally defective could only be imprisoned for minor crimes andas a consequence, the extremely shrewd and highly intelligent gangster wasreleased from prison.
In Mid-October of 1933, Whitey andthree others made off with a truckload of silk valued at about a half of amillion dollars, kidnapping the hapless driver along with the load. He was tossed back into prison and releasedagain in 1938, when he was paroled to work in a Brooklyn bakery. The FBIfigured that it was probably around this time that Whitey started to work,occasionally, for Murder, Incorporated.
Murder Incorporated was theenforcement arm for the Underworld. Its killers were mostly made up of Italian-Americanand Jewish gangsters from Brooklyn. The recognized leader of the group wasLouis "Lepke" Buchalter and later by Albert Anastasia.
In total, its believed that MurderInc. killed between 400 and 1,000 people.
In 1945, he was now dubbed Whiteybecause of his preference for white suits, was sentenced to 14 years in SingSing prison for carrying a loaded pistol and two coils string of picture wire(For strangling).
He served a fraction of that time.The arrest came after Whitey was chased through the streets of New York by adozen squad car after he was found trying to murder another street hood namedCarlo Speracino. He had also tried to murder Ernest "The Hawk" Rupolo to keepBoss Vito Genovese out of jail. The fact that a court recognized that Whiteywas gunning for Rupolo and the ridiculously short terms he was serving inprison probably means that Whitey was already working as an associate of theProfaci organization.
According to what Whitey toldfederal agents, he was running a successful handbook operation, a profitablewire room and a loan sharking business when a thug from the Profaci Familypicked him up off the street and brought him to see Joe Profaci who offered himmembership in the family which had only been organized in 1928-1929.
Whitey said he turned Profaci downbecause "Membership in the family did not bring with it instant riches, and, infact, the members were expected to 'make it on their own. Membership meantsimply that you were assured no interference from outside individuals, that isbeing under the protective wing of the family, but on the other hand it meantsharing wealth with the family."
He added that after he declinedProfaci's offer, the cops began to harass his gambling operations. Because theywere not getting paid off by the mob to protect his operation, they weren'tmaking any money, they explained to him. Whitey said the harassment grew so badthat he closed down his gambling operation. One of Profaci's men againsuggested he join the family, but he said he again refused.
A mean, money hungry disciplinarian, he was widely hated withinhis own family. Making matters worse he demanded each member pay him $25 amonth up and above the percentage he was already taking from their variouscrimes and schemes. Profaci insisted that the money, about $50,000 a monththen, would be used to provide an income for his Soldiers families wheneverthey were sent to prison. But that was a lie. Profaci kept every penny of themoney for himself. Anyone who complained, about the tribute or virtuallyanything else, was killed.
His greed sparked the Gallouprising of 1959 when Profaci ordered the Gallo Brothers, a fraction within theProfaci organization, to murder a gambler named Frank Abbatemarco becauseAbbatemarco refused to pay Profaci anymore tribute. So Profaci told Larry andJoey Gallo that if they killed Abbatemarco, they could have his highlylucrative rackets. After the Gallo's murdered Abbatemarco, Profaci cheated themand keep the bulk of Abbatemarco's scams for himself. The Gallo's declared war that lasted,intermittently, until 1975. While it is true that working for Profaci, anotoriously greedy and abusive boss, had few benefits, it's doubtful that acommon street hood like Whitey would have turned an offer that would grant himvirtual autonomy in the underworld and eventually make him rich.
Ernest "The Hawk" Rupolo was alow-level thug who, in the 1930's, was used as a hitman for the Luciano crimefamily (Later renamed Genovese) In 1934, Vito Genovese ordered Rupolo andanother gangster named Willie Gallo to kill a gambler named Ferdinand "TheShadow" Boccia because Boccia had the audacity to demand his fair sharefrom a rigged card came he and Genovese had pulled off.
On September 19, 1934, Gallo andRupolo shot Boccia to death in Brooklyn and tossed his body into the HudsonRiver. After that, Rupolo was on the cop's radar and when he was locked up onanother mob related murder charge several years later, Rupolo assumed the Mafiawould get him cleared by leaning on the only witness to the crime. But the mobdid nothing. Rupolo was looking at fifty years in Sing Sing so he turned stateswitness and named Vito Genovese as an accomplish in the Boccia murder. Thejudge ruled the testimony unreliable. But in 1937, Genovese panicked and fledto Italy and Rupolo was given nine years for the Boccia murder.
In 1944, Rupolo named mobster PeterLaTempa as a corroborating witness to Bocia's murder and LaTempa, underpressure, agreed to testify against Genovese but only because LaTempa knew theextent of Genovese's power and never expected him to face justice. But in 1945,the US Army, which had arrested Genovese for running a massive black market,extradited him back to New York. LaTempa demanded protection and the StatesAttorney placed him protective custody in the Raymond Street Jail. It didn't doany good. He was dead in less than a week, having ingested enough rat poison tokill "At least eight horses, maybe more."The Genovese mob had somehow managed to slip the poison in LaTempa's gallstonemedicine.
Four days after the trial openedagainst, June 9, 1946, the bullet-riddled body of Jerry Esposito alongside ahighway just outside the city. Esposito was scheduled to appear as a surprisewitness in the case against Genovese.
With LaTempa and Esposito out ofthe picture, there was no one left to corroborate Rupolo's testimony......the governmentdropped its charges against Genovese.
Twenty years went by before the mobmurdered Rupolo. He was found dead on August 24, 1962, floating in Jamaica Bayin Queens. They had tied his hands behind his back and after shooting him todeath, sank the body by tying it to two concrete blocks.
Ralph "Whitey" Tropiano was born inNew Haven, August 15, 1912. The family lived mostly around Grand Avenue. In1919, his father, Biaggio, an immigrant from Naples and a barber by trade, wasarrested for his vague part in producing and selling wood grain alcohol duringthe temporary prohibition of 1919. Over 70 people were poisoned from the hoochwhich was traced to Sabatini's Cafe in New Haven. He was released after abombing destroyed the Café and any evidence the state may have had, but he wasarrested and jailed in 1921 on a narcotics charge, driving the family intopoverty.
Around 1922, Whitey's family movedto the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn, where his mother had relatives. Hisfather eventually joined the family in New York and died in 1953, a year afterhis wife, Lucia Vingiano, passed away.
Tropiano's was first pinch (He hadracked up 15 by 1944) came when he was 12 years old for stealing a bicycle.After that, he became a runner for local bottlers and in 1929, at age 16, herobbed a corner store and took a prison sentence.
The state prison system gaveWhitey, who had perhaps a fifth-grade education and was probably a functionilliterate, an intelligence test and somehow came to the remarkably wrongconclusion that the hood, who was the prison barber, was a "mental defective."
Under state law, a persondesignated as mentally defective could only be imprisoned for minor crimes andas a consequence, the extremely shrewd and highly intelligent gangster wasreleased from prison.
In Mid-October of 1933, Whitey andthree others made off with a truckload of silk valued at about a half of amillion dollars, kidnapping the hapless driver along with the load. He was tossed back into prison and releasedagain in 1938, when he was paroled to work in a Brooklyn bakery. The FBIfigured that it was probably around this time that Whitey started to work,occasionally, for Murder, Incorporated.
Murder Incorporated was theenforcement arm for the Underworld. Its killers were mostly made up of Italian-Americanand Jewish gangsters from Brooklyn. The recognized leader of the group wasLouis "Lepke" Buchalter and later by Albert Anastasia.
In total, its believed that MurderInc. killed between 400 and 1,000 people.
In 1945, he was now dubbed Whiteybecause of his preference for white suits, was sentenced to 14 years in SingSing prison for carrying a loaded pistol and two coils string of picture wire(For strangling).
He served a fraction of that time.The arrest came after Whitey was chased through the streets of New York by adozen squad car after he was found trying to murder another street hood namedCarlo Speracino. He had also tried to murder Ernest "The Hawk" Rupolo to keepBoss Vito Genovese out of jail. The fact that a court recognized that Whiteywas gunning for Rupolo and the ridiculously short terms he was serving inprison probably means that Whitey was already working as an associate of theProfaci organization.
According to what Whitey toldfederal agents, he was running a successful handbook operation, a profitablewire room and a loan sharking business when a thug from the Profaci Familypicked him up off the street and brought him to see Joe Profaci who offered himmembership in the family which had only been organized in 1928-1929.
Whitey said he turned Profaci downbecause "Membership in the family did not bring with it instant riches, and, infact, the members were expected to 'make it on their own. Membership meantsimply that you were assured no interference from outside individuals, that isbeing under the protective wing of the family, but on the other hand it meantsharing wealth with the family."
He added that after he declinedProfaci's offer, the cops began to harass his gambling operations. Because theywere not getting paid off by the mob to protect his operation, they weren'tmaking any money, they explained to him. Whitey said the harassment grew so badthat he closed down his gambling operation. One of Profaci's men againsuggested he join the family, but he said he again refused.
A mean, money hungry disciplinarian, he was widely hated withinhis own family. Making matters worse he demanded each member pay him $25 amonth up and above the percentage he was already taking from their variouscrimes and schemes. Profaci insisted that the money, about $50,000 a monththen, would be used to provide an income for his Soldiers families wheneverthey were sent to prison. But that was a lie. Profaci kept every penny of themoney for himself. Anyone who complained, about the tribute or virtuallyanything else, was killed.
His greed sparked the Gallouprising of 1959 when Profaci ordered the Gallo Brothers, a fraction within theProfaci organization, to murder a gambler named Frank Abbatemarco becauseAbbatemarco refused to pay Profaci anymore tribute. So Profaci told Larry andJoey Gallo that if they killed Abbatemarco, they could have his highlylucrative rackets. After the Gallo's murdered Abbatemarco, Profaci cheated themand keep the bulk of Abbatemarco's scams for himself. The Gallo's declared war that lasted,intermittently, until 1975. While it is true that working for Profaci, anotoriously greedy and abusive boss, had few benefits, it's doubtful that acommon street hood like Whitey would have turned an offer that would grant himvirtual autonomy in the underworld and eventually make him rich.
Ernest "The Hawk" Rupolo was alow-level thug who, in the 1930's, was used as a hitman for the Luciano crimefamily (Later renamed Genovese) In 1934, Vito Genovese ordered Rupolo andanother gangster named Willie Gallo to kill a gambler named Ferdinand "TheShadow" Boccia because Boccia had the audacity to demand his fair sharefrom a rigged card came he and Genovese had pulled off.
On September 19, 1934, Gallo andRupolo shot Boccia to death in Brooklyn and tossed his body into the HudsonRiver. After that, Rupolo was on the cop's radar and when he was locked up onanother mob related murder charge several years later, Rupolo assumed the Mafiawould get him cleared by leaning on the only witness to the crime. But the mobdid nothing. Rupolo was looking at fifty years in Sing Sing so he turned stateswitness and named Vito Genovese as an accomplish in the Boccia murder. Thejudge ruled the testimony unreliable. But in 1937, Genovese panicked and fledto Italy and Rupolo was given nine years for the Boccia murder.
In 1944, Rupolo named mobster PeterLaTempa as a corroborating witness to Bocia's murder and LaTempa, underpressure, agreed to testify against Genovese but only because LaTempa knew theextent of Genovese's power and never expected him to face justice. But in 1945,the US Army, which had arrested Genovese for running a massive black market,extradited him back to New York. LaTempa demanded protection and the StatesAttorney placed him protective custody in the Raymond Street Jail. It didn't doany good. He was dead in less than a week, having ingested enough rat poison tokill "At least eight horses, maybe more."The Genovese mob had somehow managed to slip the poison in LaTempa's gallstonemedicine.
Four days after the trial openedagainst, June 9, 1946, the bullet-riddled body of Jerry Esposito alongside ahighway just outside the city. Esposito was scheduled to appear as a surprisewitness in the case against Genovese.
With LaTempa and Esposito out ofthe picture, there was no one left to corroborate Rupolo's testimony......the governmentdropped its charges against Genovese.
Twenty years went by before the mobmurdered Rupolo. He was found dead on August 24, 1962, floating in Jamaica Bayin Queens. They had tied his hands behind his back and after shooting him todeath, sank the body by tying it to two concrete blocks.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherIndependently published
- Publication date2019
- ISBN 10 1686548923
- ISBN 13 9781686548925
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages256
- Rating
Buy New
Learn more about this copy
US$ 28.88
Shipping:
US$ 12.76
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Stock Image
The Nutmeg Mafia.: An Informal History of Organized Crime in Connecticut.
Published by
Independently published
(2019)
ISBN 10: 1686548923
ISBN 13: 9781686548925
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 256 pages. 11.00x8.50x0.64 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # zk1686548923
Buy New
US$ 28.88
Convert currency