Alphonso Sgroia

Alias: The Butcher

Born: 19th July 1886

Nation­al­i­ty:

Died: May 1940

Where: Italy

Cause: Dis­ease

Alphon­so Sgroia arrived in New York in 1899, aged 13. In 1905, he stayed with his broth­er Bia­gio on 117th Street in Harlem. He later worked as a gun­man for the Neapoli­tan Navy Street gang.

On June 24th, 1916, a meet­ing took place at Coney Island between the Sicil­ian Morel­lo gang, the Neapoli­tan Navy Street gang and the Neapoli­tan Coney Island gang. The idea of the meet­ing was to dis­cuss the expan­sion of gam­bling dens in lower Man­hat­tan. A plan that led to a string of mur­ders across New York.

For his part in the killings, Sgroia was sen­tenced on June 17th, 1918. He received twelve years in Dan­nemo­ra for manslaugh­ter in the case of Nicholas Ter­ra­no­va. He went on to tes­ti­fy against his fel­low gun­men Paret­ti and Fevro­la, he was reward­ed with a short­er sen­tence and depor­ta­tion to Italy.

Back in Italy, Sgroia was mar­ried on May 10th, 1926. He con­tin­ued his trade as a butch­er, and went on to father nine sons.