Nicholas Morello

Nicholas Morello
Born
Nicholas Terranova

1890
Corleone, Sicily, Kingdom of Italy
DiedSeptember 7, 1916(1916-09-07) (aged 25–26)
New York City, U.S.
Cause of deathMurder by gunshot wounds
OccupationCrime boss
PredecessorGiuseppe Morello
SuccessorVincenzo Terranova
Parent(s)Bernardo Terranova(father)
Angelina Piazza(mother)
RelativesVincenzo Terranova (brother), Ciro Terranova (brother), Giuseppe Morello (half brother), Ignazio Lupo (brother in law) Salvatrice Terranova (sister)
AllegianceMorello crime family

Nicolò Terranova (1890 – September 7, 1916), also known as Nicholas "Nick" Morello, was one of the first Italian-American organized crime figures in New York City. He succeeded Giuseppe Morello as boss of the then Morello Gang in 1909 and was succeeded by Vincenzo Terranova in 1916. Along with his half-brother Giuseppe Morello and brothers Ciro and Vincenzo Terranova, he founded the Morello crime family, and was later one of the participants in the Mafia-Camorra War of 1915–17.

Terranova was born in Corleone, Sicily, in 1890 to parents Bernardo Terranova and Angelina Piazza. In 1893, Terranova emigrated from Sicily with his family, including his brothers Ciro and Vincenzo, arriving in New York on March 8, 1893.[1] In 1903, Nicolo's sister Salvatrice Terranova married Ignazio "the Wolf" Lupo, who was running the Black Hand organization in Little Italy, Manhattan.[1] Lupo went on to become underboss of the Morello crime family. In 1910, when Lupo and Giuseppe Morello were arrested for counterfeiting, Terranova, now known as Nicholas Morello, became the boss of the Morello crime family.

Nicholas Morello rose far above his relations to realize that the Americanization of the gangs would have to give birth to a great criminal network, each of its components at peace with the others and in concert controlling all the rackets in the country. In fact, Nicholas Morello should have had an easier time organizing crime in America than Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky would later, but he found himself too mired down by old-country conflicts.[2]

While Nicholas Morello Sicilian gangs controlled the rackets of East Harlem and Greenwich Village in Manhattan, the Brooklyn Camorristas, immigrant criminals from the Camorra gangs of Naples, extended their power in Brooklyn, collecting protection money from Italian storekeepers, coal and ice dealers and other businessmen, as well as operating rackets on the Brooklyn docks.[2]

In 1915, Brooklyn Camorra leader Pellegrino Morano, a man who had his own dreams of expansion, began moving in on the Morello family's Manhattan territory of East Harlem and Greenwich Village. After a Neapolitan ally of the Morello family, Goisue Gallucci was killed in East Harlem. The more forward-looking Nicholas Morello thought it foolish to continue such old battles and offered to make a peaceful settlement. Pellegrino Morano took such a move as a sign of weakness and spurned the offer. By 1916 the warfare was so intense that only the most hardy mafiosi or Camorrista dared cross the East River into the other's domain. They usually returned home in a hearse.[2]

Surprisingly, that same year Pellegrino Morano announced he was in favor of Nicholas Morello's call for an armistice. Morano invited Morello to come to Brooklyn to discuss terms, of course guaranteeing Morello safe conduct. Morello proved wisely cautious and for six months did no more than dicker about holding such a peace meeting, though he realized he would have to go if he hoped to advance his master plan.[2] The war between New York's Sicilian Mafia and Neapolitan Camorra lasted for over two years.

  1. ^ a b Critchley, David (2008). The Origin of Organized Crime in America : the New York City Mafia, 1891-1931. London: Routledge. pp. 51–54. ISBN 978-0-415-99030-1.
  2. ^ a b c d Sifakis, Carl (1999). The Mafia Encyclopedia Second Edition - From Accardo To Zwillman. New York: Checkmark Books. pp. 52 of 254. ISBN 0-8160-3857-0.