Gaetano Del Gaudio

The Neapoli­tan Del Gau­dio broth­ers were involved in gam­bling in East Harlem, but also had con­nec­tions with the Brook­lyn based Navy St gang. Nicolo Del Gau­dio, brother to Gae­tano and owner of a bar­ber shop on E104th, was killed in Octo­ber 1914. The killing was attrib­uted to the pow­er­ful Gio­sue Gal­lucci, after Del Gau­dio had become dis­pleased with his share of the East Harlem graft and demanded more.

Fol­low­ing the killing, Gae­tano Del Gau­dio, acquired a body­guard named George Espos­ito. Espos­ito had pre­vi­ously been a body­guard to Gal­lucci, but he defected to work for Del Gaudio. Esposito was killed whilst he walked down E108th on 8^th Novem­ber, 1916. Later that month, at 3am Novem­ber 30^th Gae­tano Del Gau­dio was shot and killed. He had been serv­ing cof­fee to two men in his restau­rant at 2031 1^st Av, when he was blasted by a shot­gun that been placed against the his restau­rant win­dow. He was taken to the Flower Hos­pi­tal where he claimed to know the iden­tity of his killer, but refused to name him.