Salvatore Cina

Sal­va­tore Cina was born in 1875, and arrived to New York in 1895 after flee­ing a mur­der. After a short stay he trav­elled to Tampa with Vin­cenzo Giglio and worked as a cigar maker for nine years. In Tampa he mar­ried Giglio’s sis­ter and went on to have two chil­dren with her . In 1904 he returned to New York and bought a farm in Mil­ton Turn­pike, High­land with Giglio his now brother-in-law. The prop­erty was described as 42 acre farm with two houses, three hay barns and a sta­ble. The farm was listed as hav­ing 500 vine plants, 1000 peach trees, 300 pear trees, 50 apple trees and 3000 plum trees.

In 1909, Cina was involved with a coun­ter­feit­ing ring run by the Morello gang. Cina and Giglio sup­plied food and accom­mo­da­tion for the coun­ter­feit­ing head­quar­ters in High­land. At the end of Feb­ru­ary, 1909 the gang had printed ten thou­sand sheets of the two dol­lar notes. Cina and his god­fa­ther Cecala trav­elled to Chicago, Buf­falo and Pitts­burgh to try and sell the coun­ter­feit currency.

After the work was com­plete Cina sold his farm and moved his fam­ily to Pough­keep­sie. He sold the farm for around $5000.

As the secret ser­vice cracked down on the gang Cina was fol­lowed all over New York and was often seen meet­ing with Giuseppe Morello. On Jan­u­ary 5^th, agents arrived at Giuseppe Palermo’s store, “Joe Palermo & Co.” 11 Duane Street, Pough­keep­sie. They arrested Cina and Giglio, then took Cina to his home at 20 Duane Street to per­form a search. In the result­ing trial that smashed the Morello gang, Cina was sen­tenced on the first count to 12 years hard labour and a $500 fine. On the sec­ond count, 3 years hard labour and a $500 fine. He was even­tu­ally paroled from Atlanta Pen­i­ten­tiary on 20^th June 1913.