Leopoldo Lauritano

Alias: Leo Lauritano

Born: 1872

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Leopol­do Lau­ri­tano owned a cof­fee house at 133 Navy St, Brook­lyn. The cof­fee house was used as the head­quar­ters 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.

In May 1917, Ralph ‘The Bar­ber’ Daniel­lo, a mem­ber of the Brook­lyn based Navy St gang, began to tell the police every­thing he knew about Lau­ri­tano, the Navy St crew and the recent murders.

Lau­ri­tano, received a twen­ty one year sen­tence for manslaugh­ter in 1918. On 12th Jan­u­ary, 1926, after serv­ing only seven and a half years, he was paroled from Sing Sing. He was imme­di­ate­ly rear­rest­ed under an indict­ment that had been served in 1918 in con­nec­tion with the mur­der of Giuseppe Ver­razano. On Thurs­day 14th, Judge Selah B. Strong, dis­charged Lau­ri­tano on a writ of habeas cor­pus. An action that caused an open argu­ment between the Kings Coun­ty DA, Charles Dodd, and Judge Strong.

Lau­ri­tano returned to court in Feb­ru­ary 1927, he was tried at the Brook­lyn Supreme Court under Judge James Cropsey. He was charged with per­jury dur­ing the trial of Antho­ny Paret­ti, where Lau­ri­tano had stat­ed he did not know the defen­dant or his asso­ciates. The ADA, James Cuff, man­aged to pro­duce a photo of Lau­ri­tano in the Navy St café with fel­low gang mem­bers, thus prov­ing his tes­ti­mo­ny false. Lau­ri­tano received five years in Sing Sing.