John Russomano

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Nation­al­i­ty: Italian

Died:

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John Rus­so­mano was the nephew of famed Harlem gang­ster, Gio­sue Gal­luc­ci.

On Decem­ber 15th, 1912, a peace meet­ing had been arranged between Gal­luc­ci and Aniel­lo Prisco. Prisco was killed at the meet­ing by two bul­lets to the head, fired by Rus­so­mano. The police later released him after they believed his story of self defence.

On Feb­ru­ary 18th, 1913, Rus­so­mano and his body­guard, Capa­lon­go, were shot stand­ing in the door­way of his home at 329 E109th. Capa­lon­go died instant­ly, Rus­so­mano was shot in the arm, break­ing the bone. He later told police that he had not heard the shots, the police sus­pect­ed the killers had used silencers to help them escape eas­i­ly. Although no one was arrest­ed for the killing, it was thought that the shoot­ing was arranged by Ama­dio Buonomo in revenge for the killing of his friend Prisco.

35 Ital­ians were arrest­ed in late July 1913, in con­nec­tion with pol­i­cy games. Most were charged with aid­ing and abet­ting pol­i­cy shops and some were charged under the Sul­li­van law. Rus­so­mano was arrest­ed along with Gal­luc­ci and Joseph ‘Chuck’ Naz­zaro, all were charged with car­ry­ing con­cealed weapons. Rus­so­mano man­aged to delay his trial until March 27th, 1914, when the Gen­er­al Ses­sions court would find him guilty and send him to Sing Sing for seven years.