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Posts Tagged ‘Salvatore Maranzano’

Lucky Luciano, Dutch Schultz, Owney Madden, Mad Dog Coll, Vincent Coll, Salvatore Maranzano, Mayor Jimmy Walker, Harlem Baby Massacre, Michael Vengalli, Joey Rao, Joseph Bonnano, Big Frenchy DeMange, Peter Coll

Accused of murdering a fifteen-year-old boy during a drive by shooting, Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll (far right) and his mob yucked it up with reporters during the trial.

Location: 312 West 23rd Street

Status: Standing

 

By February of 1932, there wasn’t a soul in New York who didn’t want Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll on a slab in the morgue. The psychopathic egg had blow torched every bridge in gangland, and now Coll had to die

 

Powerful Enemies

 

During Prohibition’s heyday, Coll and his mob amassed a legendary list of underworld adversaries such as Lucky Luciano, Dutch Schultz and Owney Madden. First to join Coll’s list was the Beer Barron of the Bronx, Dutch Schultz, Coll’s former employer.

 

Paid to protect Dutch’s beer trucks, Coll, suffering from delusions of grandeur, decided to hijack the shipments instead. Schultz responded by putting the blast on Mad Dog’s kid brother and all out war erupted in the spring of 1931.

 

Lucky Luciano, Dutch Schultz, Owney Madden, Mad Dog Coll, Vincent Coll, Salvatore Maranzano, Mayor Jimmy Walker, Harlem Baby Massacre, Michael Vengalli, Joey Rao, Joseph Bonnano, Big Frenchy DeMange, Peter Coll , Petland Discounts, 312 West 23rd Street.

Now a Petland Discounts store, 312 West 23rd Street played host to Coll’s brutal machine gun murder.

 

Racketeer Without a Racket

 

Without a racket to fund his war against Dutch, the freelance gangster hatched the incredibly idiotic plan of kidnapping wealthy bootleggers like Big Frenchy DeMange, best friend of Hell’s Kitchen’s resident vice lord and owner of the Cotton Club, Owney Madden, whose nickname just happened to be “Killer.”

 

Coll made a clean sneak from the crime, shaking $50,000 out of Madden, but the Mad Dog wasn’t done by a long shot.

 

On July 28, Coll and his chopper squad loaded their tommy guns, jumped into a sedan and strafed the Helmar Social Club, headquarters of Schultz policy boss, Joey Rao. Machine gun gun bullets cut down five children, killing Michael Vengalli along with two Schultz heavies.

 

The Making of Mad Dog

In response to the brutal crime, New York Mayor Jimmy Walker dubbed Vincent Coll, “Mad Dog,” but Coll wasn’t finished alienating the powerful. In September of 1931, Salvatore Maranzano hired Coll to bump off Lucky Luciano.

 

However, Luciano’s men beat Coll to the punch, arriving a few minutes earlier to dispatch Maranzano. Coll walked away from the scene smiling and with yet another nemesis.

 

Vincent_-Mad_Dog-_Coll

Mad Dog Coll

 

Joseph Bonnano noted in his autobiography, A Man of Honor,

 

“Luciano told me he was forced to strike against Maranzano after learning that Maranzano had hired Vincent Coll to kill Luciano.”—Joseph Bonnano

 

Owney Madden Puts Mad Dog Coll on the Spot

 

With the police hounding him and every mob in New York hunting him, Coll checked into the Cornish Arms Hotel on 23rd Street. On February 8, he walked into the London Chemist drugstore (now Pet Land Discounts) located at 312 West 23rd Street. Waiting for a phone call from Owney Madden to discuss a truce, Coll walked straight into an ambush.

 

Lucky Luciano, Dutch Schultz, Owney Madden, Mad Dog Coll, Vincent Coll, Salvatore Maranzano, Mayor Jimmy Walker, Harlem Baby Massacre, Michael Vengalli, Joey Rao, Joseph Bonnano, Big Frenchy DeMange, Peter Coll , Petland Discounts, 312 West 23rd Street.

Gangland put Mad Dog Coll on the spot at 312 West 23rd street at the London Chemists.

Phone Booth Massacre

 

When Coll entered a phone booth and spoke with Madden, the trap was sprung. Outside, a large limousine roared up to the curb, spilling out three gangsters.

 

Lucky Luciano, Dutch Schultz, Owney Madden, Mad Dog Coll, Vincent Coll, Salvatore Maranzano, Mayor Jimmy Walker, Harlem Baby Massacre, Michael Vengalli, Joey Rao, Joseph Bonnano, Big Frenchy DeMange, Peter Coll , Petland Discounts, 312 West 23rd Street.

The bullet riddled phone booth in which Mad Dog Coll was cut down. (Library of congress )

 

Two of the torpedoes covered the door, while a third drew a Thompson submachine gun from his trench coat, walked up to Coll’s phone booth and sprayed it with lead, killing the psychopathic, twenty three year old Coll instantly. According to the New York Evening Post:

 

“How many shots were fired is not known. Some witnesses said fifteen others said fifty. As the killer backed out of the store, the door of the booth opened slowly and Coll’s body pitched forward, three bullets in the head, three in the chest, one in the abdomen and eight and the arms and legs.”—New York Evening Post, 1932

 

The murder of Vincent Coll remains unsolved.

 

Lucky Luciano, Dutch Schultz, Owney Madden, Mad Dog Coll, Vincent Coll, Salvatore Maranzano, Mayor Jimmy Walker, Harlem Baby Massacre, Michael Vengalli, Joey Rao, Joseph Bonnano, Big Frenchy DeMange, Peter Coll , Petland Discounts, 312 West 23rd Street, london chemists

A New York City police officer standing in front of the drugstore where gangster Vincent Coll was murdered. (Photo Library of Congress.

 

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Location: 1500 Broadway

Status: Demolished

 

They called themselves the Broadway mob. Members of the gang rubbed shoulders with high society, supplying the most exclusive speakeasies in New York with top-shelf, uncut booze. From their offices at the now demolished Hotel Claridge, located at 1500 Broadway, Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Segal and Frank Costello would go from street gang to the masters of dry New York, making themselves multi-millionaires in the process.

Hotel Claridge, Lucky Luciano, Salvatore Luciana, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, 1500 Broadway, Bugsy Segal, Salvatore Maranzano, Joe Masseria, Joe The Boss Masseria, Giuseppe Masseria, Prohibition, Rum Running, Arnold Rothstein, The Brain of Broadway, Broadway, Stork Club, Silver Slipper, 21 Club, Scotch, Broadway Mob, Last Testament of Lucky Luciano, Rector’s, 1500 Broadway, 44th Street, prohibition, Speakeasies,

 

Located in the heart of Times Square, on the east corner of 44th and Broadway, the Claridge Hotel was built in 1910 and according to the 1917 Real United States and Canada Pocket Guide,

 

“ Claridge’s Hotel, formerly Rector’s…was the great theatrical and bohemian after-theater restaurant…”

 

By 1922, Orwell Maximillian Zipkes purchased the hotel, adding a two-story arcade with shops and offices that Lansky, Luciano, Segal and Costello would use to build their empire.

 

Like a league of extraordinary criminals, the gang’s success came from the Broadway Mob’s remarkably diverse hoodlum resumes. Costello was the talker, forging the alliances with Tammany Hall that allowed the mob to steal at will and carry concealed weapons, legally.

 

The psychopathic Bugsy Segal provided the muscle, killing and beating anyone who stood in their way. The bookworm, Lansky, existed as a behind the scenes strategist and human adding machine, making the gangsters wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. Its leader, the oldest member of the gang, was Lucky Luciano, a gangland heavy who oozed reptilian charm.

 

Hotel Claridge, Lucky Luciano, Salvatore Luciana, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, 1500 Broadway, Bugsy Segal, Salvatore Maranzano, Joe Masseria, Joe The Boss Masseria, Giuseppe Masseria, Prohibition, Rum Running, Arnold Rothstein, The Brain of Broadway, Broadway, Stork Club, Silver Slipper, 21 Club, Scotch, Broadway Mob, Last Testament of Lucky Luciano, Rector’s, 1500 Broadway, 44th Street, prohibition, Speakeasies,

In the 1920s, the Hotel Clairidge served as Lucky Luciano’s headquarters.

Lansky’s Law

Guided by Luciano’s charisma and Lansky’s financial acumen, the gang became rumrunners. They heisted furs and stuck-up banks to fund liquor shipments of the purist scotch in town, purchased from the Brain of Broadway, Arnold Rothstein.

 

The small time gangsters’ moxie captured A.R.’s attention, and an internship in crime ensued.

 

Meeting With The Mentor

Rothstein mentored the gang from his booth at Lindy’s, teaching them how to dress, how to speak and how to conduct themselves in high society. According to the Last Testament of Lucky Luciano, Luciano recalled:

 

He [Rothestein] taught me how to dress…how to use knives and forks…about holdin’ a door open for a girl, or helpin’ her sit down…”

 

In exchange for the mentoring, Lansky, Luciano and Costello served as Rothstein’s muscle, protecting his alcohol and narcotics shipments.

 

Purist Booze in Town

They travelled abroad as Rothstein’s purchasing agents, buying direct from distilleries in Scotland, keeping the Stork Club, The Silver Slipper, The 21 Club and the rest of Broadway’s high-end speakeasies swimming in hooch.

 

Pet Gangsters

By the height of prohibition, Pet gangsters were all the rage, and Luciano, Costello, Lansky and Siegel were the coolest mob in town. Suave, wealthy and deadly, they dated Ziegfeld Girls and slept with heiresses, earning them a privileged spot as the darlings of New York high society.

 

Luciano recalled:

 “Within a year, we was buyin’ influence all over Manhattan, from lower Broadway all the way up to Harlem.”

 

Mafia Talent Scouts

But the Broadway Mob had other, less reputable, admirers. A secret criminal society mostly unheard of in America, known as the Mafia, had their eyes on Luciano, the only Sicilian member of the gang.

 

Both the Masseria Crime Family and the Maranzano Crime Family knew that whomever controlled Luciano, controlled the Broadway Mob and their fat bankrolls and political connections. Masseria would eventually win Luciano’s loyalty. He was then upgraded to a floor of suites in the Hotel Pennsylvania, but for the rest of his life in American; however, Luciano maintained an unofficial office at the Hotel Claridge. The hotel was demolished in 1972.

 

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Salvatore Maranzano, Helmsley Building, New York Central Building The Helmsley Building is the site of the Salvatore Maranzano Murder.

230 Park Ave.

Status: Landmarked

By the fall of 1931, Salvatore Maranzano had clawed his way to the pinnacle of the New York underworld, one bullet riddled corpse named Giuseppe at a time. During the 1930-31 Castellammarese Mafia War, the Julius Caesar obsessed mob chieftain and his allies roved the Five Boroughs in bulletproof Cadillacs, equipped with swivel mounted belt-fed machine guns, popping Giuseppes like squirrels.

First to eat lead was Giuseppe “The Clutch Hand” Morello, the claw fingered capo de tutti capo of the New York Mafia, and his aide, Giuseppe Pirariano. Next to be fitted for pine overcoats by Maranzano’s torpedos were Giuseppe “Fat Joe” Pinzolo and Giuseppe “Joe the Baker” Catania, leaving behind one last living Giuseppe. Maranzano’s arch rival: the corpulent, bullet dodging, Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” Massaeria.

GiuseppeMasseria Giuseppe “Joe The Boss” Masseria was the last Giuseppe to feel Maranzano’s bite.

Walking with Vanderbilts

Working with the vigor of a machine age tycoon, Maranzano put the blast to last of his rivals, convinced Lucky Luciano to betray his overlord, Joe the Boss, and unified the American Mafia, like Rockefeller had monopolized oil. And like Rockefeller, Gotham’s newest kingpin needed a headquarters befitting his swollen ego, a command center that projected opulence and power and sophistication, a place where Maranzano could rub shoulders with Vanderbilts, stock brokers, and advertising execs.

That place was the New York Central Railroad Building at 230 Park Avenue.  A sky-scraping, neo-renaissance, 32 story spire, rising out of the center of Park Avenue, the New York Central Building (now the Helmsely Building), as it was then called, towered over Grand Central Station, giving William K. Vanderbilt II’s office a majestic panorama of the city. It would be a picturesque spot for a gangland assassination.

HelmsleyBuilding2Web After unifying the the American Mafia, Salvatore Maranzano moved his offices to the New York Central Railroad Building, a place where he could rub shoulders with stock brokers and Vanderbilts.

A Vast Criminal Empire

From the 9th floor office of his Eagle Building Corporation, Maranzano oversaw a vast criminal empire of speakeasies, hard cider farms, and a fishing fleet that fronted for a $20 million a year immigrant smuggling network. However, a scant three months into his reign, the empire began to crumble. IRS agents were battering down the doors, the INS wanted him deported, and Lucky Luciano wanted him dead, a problem Maranzano hoped to remedy at 2:00pm, September 30, 1931.

Helmsley_Building Now known as the Helmsley Building, The New York Central Building would be a picturesque location for the murder of Salvatore Maranzano.

Double Booking A Meeting with Death

It seems Maranzano had double booked a meeting with Luciano to coincide with a courtesy-call by noted machine gun artist, freelance assassin, and all around psychopath, Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll. But as usual, Lucky was lucky.  A four man team of Murder Inc. shooters from Meyer Lansky’s and Dutch Shultz’s mobs arrived on Luciano’s behalf, beating Coll to the punch.

Salvatore Maranzano, Lucky Luciano, Mad Dog Coll, Joe the Boss Masseria, Maranzano’s office was in the New York Central Building, 230 Park Avenue.

Whipping out detective’s badges, the revolver brandishing assassins howled, “We’re the police,”  before lining-up everyone in the office against a wall. Snapping open switchblades, they stormed Maranzano’s private chamber, hoping to silently eliminate the mob boss, but their target proved tougher than a billy goat.

Murder_Inc Yelling, “We’re the police” Four Murder Inc. gunmen posing as plain clothes detectives stormed Maranzano’s office.

Maranzano Tough as an Old Billy Goat

A flurry of rights and lefts knocked the fedoras from the gunmen’s heads, and they let Maranzano have it, stabbing him six times and pumping five bullets into his body as Mad Dog Coll made his way up to Maranzano’s office. The gangsters scrambled down the steps, bumping into Coll as they ditched their revolvers and bloody knives, before disappearing into the crowds of Midtown. Lucky Luciano was now the new king of the New York underworld.

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