Aniello Prisco

Aniello Prisco, 37, nick­named “Zopo the Gimp” due to a dis­abil­ity, was much feared gang­ster in Harlem. He arrived from Italy in 1905 and lived at 2133 1^st Avenue. He was tried for mur­der on var­i­ous occa­sions, includ­ing the death of Pasquarella Spinelli, but was always aquit­ted due to lack of evidence.

On Decem­ber 15^th, 1912, Prisco was shot and killed. A meet­ing had been arranged between Gio­sue Gal­lucci and Prisco at a bar­ber shop belong­ing to the Del Gau­dio broth­ers on E104th St. How­ever when the meet­ing drew close, Gal­lucci feigned ill­ness and sent his man, Capa­longo, with a mes­sage that Prisco would have to travel to see Gal­lucci at his bak­ery on E109th. Prisco agreed and made his way to the bak­ery at around mid­night, once there he was killed by two bul­lets to the head from Gallucci’s nephew John Rus­so­mano. Gal­lucci told the police that Prisco had been shot in self defence, and that Prisco had been try­ing to black­mail him at the time of the killing. John Rus­so­mano was later released when the police believed his story of self defence.