The Murder Stables

History

A col­lec­tion of run-down tim­ber frame struc­tures once stood at the cor­ner of New York’s First Avenue and East 108^th Street. A maze built from sheet iron, pack­ing boxes and dis­card­ed house wreck­age. The land housed a board­ing sta­ble encir­cled by a com­bi­na­tion of junk shops and wagon stor­age. Fol­low­ing a series of killings in the loca­tion, they became col­lec­tive­ly known as the “Mur­der Sta­bles”. ¹Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. Dec 12, 1915

In 1898, the Cullen & Dwyer stone and gran­ite com­pa­ny occu­pied the land. Head­ed by quar­ry own­ers, John Cullen and Thomas Dwyer, the busi­ness was involved with numer­ous projects in New York City, includ­ing the con­struc­tion of a new entrance to the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Muse­um of Art. The com­pa­ny erect­ed build­ings and sta­bles in the yard to accom­mo­date its rapid growth. As a per­son­al project, an employ­ee secured part of the land to con­struct a 51ft motor­boat which he later launched in the Harlem River.²New York Times (NYT). Feb 26, 1898. p.10Insurance Maps of the City of New York. Brom­ley, George W. and Brom­ley, Wal­ter S. Atlas of the City of New York Man­hat­tan Island. Plate 40, Part of Sec­tion 6, … Con­tin­ue reading

In 1901, Thomas Dwyer left the com­pa­ny, and the stone works were later shut down. John Cullen kept Cullen & Dwyer oper­a­tional as con­tract­ing busi­ness, work­ing from an office on the east side of the block. Cullen later pur­chased the land and passed own­er­ship to his daugh­ters. A 1918 study of their hold­ing showed it yield­ed lit­tle income and stat­ed: “the low frame build­ings are unsight­ly and dan­ger­ous and should be raised. They are a men­ace to the new law ten­e­ments to the west of them.” The esti­mat­ed value of the real estate bare­ly changed over a ten-year peri­od.³NYT. Oct 17, 1901 New York Tri­bune. Mar 15, 1910Block sketch­es of New York City. Clara Byrnes. New York: Rad­bridge Co Inc, 144 Pearl St., 1918New York City Record Office. Annu­al record of … Con­tin­ue reading

An Aus­tri­an gov­erness was attacked in June 1905, while mak­ing her way back to her employer’s res­i­dence. She had stopped on East 108^th Street to ask for direc­tions when she was dragged inside the sta­bles and robbed of her dia­mond jew­el­ry. Her screams alert­ed the police who arrest­ed Anto­nio Leta­so, a local 22-year-old dri­ver. They also detained the stable’s night­watch­man as a wit­ness. Leta­so received a nine-year sen­tence in Sing Sing prison for the attack.⁴Evening Telegram. June 12, 1905. p.2
New York, U.S., Sing Sing Prison Admis­sion Reg­is­ters, 1865 – 1939. #55771

In Octo­ber, the entire struc­ture was burnt overnight. Sta­ble man­ag­er, Joseph Barel­la, lost over ten hors­es in the blaze. Occu­pants in neigh­bor­ing build­ings were forced to jump to safe­ty. The total dam­age was esti­mat­ed to be around $5,000.⁵The Boston Globe. Sep 27, 1905
The Sun. New York. Sep 28, 1905

In 1906, the sta­bles were destroyed in anoth­er fire that start­ed in a rag shop belong­ing to black­smith Nun­zio Squil­lante. The flames quick­ly spread from East 108^th down to East 107^th Street. Sev­er­al fire­men were injured try­ing to save the hors­es from the blaze. Once again, the adja­cent res­i­dents were forced to flee and some were injured by fur­ni­ture being urgent­ly tossed from apart­ment win­dows. This time the loss­es were esti­mat­ed at around $10,000.⁶New York Tri­bune. Jan 8, 1906
NYT. Jan 8, 1906
The Sun. New York. Jan 8, 1906. p.12

The haz­ardous mix of tim­ber shacks, rag stor­age and black­smiths were a clear dan­ger. In April 1909, yet anoth­er fire dam­aged the prop­er­ty. A junk shop and six adjoin­ing rag-filled shacks caught fire. Hun­dreds of rats escaped into the neigh­bor­hood after the fire­men tore up floor­ing to free their Bat­tal­ion Chief who had become trapped. The owner of the destroyed junk shop was Pasqua Musone⁷New York Her­ald. Apr 26, 1909. p.6
, a stocky Neapoli­tan woman who would become a noto­ri­ous fig­ure in East Harlem.

Pasqua Musone

Pasqua Musone made the jour­ney to the US in 1892 at the age of 36. She like­ly trav­eled from the town of Mar­cianise, Cam­pa­nia, twen­ty miles north of Naples.⁸Ship: Hin­dous­tan. July 6, 1892. New York, U.S., Arriv­ing Pas­sen­ger and Crew Lists (includ­ing Cas­tle Gar­den and Ellis Island), 1820 – 1957New York Mar­riage cer­tifi­cate: Man­hat­tan #14403. (Tomas­so Lener) … Con­tin­ue read­ing In 1895, her daugh­ter Con­cetta was mar­ried to Michelle Lasco, also from Mar­cianise. He ran his own black­smith shop on East 107^th Street next to the Cullen & Dwyer stone yard.⁹New York Mar­riage cer­tifi­cate: Man­hat­tan #17498 (Con­cetta Lenere) Trow’s New York City direc­to­ry, 1897 – 1898. p 825The New York Times. Mar 9, 1898. p.10U.S., Pass­port Appli­ca­tions. Michele Lasco … Con­tin­ue read­ing By 1904, Pasqua had start­ed to build her prop­er­ty port­fo­lio. Togeth­er with her son-in-law, she pur­chased prop­er­ty on First Avenue, con­sist­ing of a one-story tim­ber frame build­ing and the adja­cent vacant lot.¹⁰Real estate record and builders’ guide. New York: F. W. Dodge Corp. Vol. 73. March 12,1904. p.567 (2113 – 2115 First Av.) (Lasco had pre­vi­ous­ly leased the prop­er­ty for his wagon busi­ness in 1899: … Con­tin­ue reading

Her pur­chas­es were con­ve­nient­ly locat­ed just south of her home at 345 East 109^th Street. She lived with her sec­ond hus­band Pietro Spinel­li, who worked at a fish store locat­ed on the family’s new prop­er­ty. Her chil­dren Tomas­so and Nicol­i­na Lener, were born to her first hus­band Domeni­co Lener who had passed away in Italy. Tomas­so left home in 1907 after he was mar­ried at St. Lucy’s Church on East 104^th Street.¹¹New York State Pop­u­la­tion Cen­sus, 1905; A.D. 33 E.D. 05; City: Man­hat­tan; Coun­ty: New York. (345 E 109^th) Hunt, Thomas, ‘Spinelli’s killing sparked Mur­der Sta­ble leg­ends’ The Amer­i­can Mafia, … Con­tin­ue reading

By April 1909, Pasqua was the owner the junk shops con­nect­ed to the East 108^th Street sta­bles. In June, she spent $1,000 extend­ing and remod­el­ing an adja­cent prop­er­ty at 2097 First Avenue. It was an old stone struc­ture hous­ing the 300 seat Elena Cin­e­mato­graph the­atre, with the offices of Cullen & Dwyer locat­ed on the sec­ond floor. Pasqua and her hus­band were both involved in the man­age­ment of the the­atre, and by August the fam­i­ly had relo­cat­ed to accom­mo­da­tion above the audi­to­ri­um.¹²New York Her­ald. Apr 26, 1909. p.6Real estate record and builders’ guide. New York: F. W. Dodge Corp. V. 83 June 19, 1909. p.1250Block sketch­es of New York City. Clara Byrnes. New York: Rad­bridge Co … Con­tin­ue reading

Pasqua earnt the sobri­quet of “The Hetty Green of Harlem” for her wealth and thrifty busi­ness man­ner (The real Hetty Green was a rich, miser­ly busi­ness­woman of the era). She was said to walk the same route each day mak­ing per­son­al inspec­tions of her prop­er­ties, trust­ing their man­age­ment to no one.¹³New York Daily Tri­bune. Mar 21. 1912 p.2

On August 24^th, while the the­atre improve­ments were being com­plet­ed, Pasqua’s daugh­ter Nicol­i­na mar­ried Gae­tano Napoli­tano. He ran his own butch­er shop in the Bronx hav­ing arrived from Cam­pa­nia in 1897. The pair were wed in a civil cer­e­mo­ny in the City Hall, wit­nessed by Nicolina’s step­fa­ther. Their choice of a civil cer­e­mo­ny upset Pasqua. She pre­vent­ed the pair from liv­ing togeth­er until they were wed in a reli­gious cer­e­mo­ny and Napoli­tano could prove his finan­cial worth.¹⁴New York Mar­riage cer­tifi­cate: Man­hat­tan #17326. (Nicol­i­na Lener) 1910 Unit­ed States Fed­er­al Cen­sus. New York. Bronx. AD 32, ED 1469. (1739 Zegra Av.) New York Mar­riage cer­tifi­cate: Man­hat­tan #14403. … Con­tin­ue reading

Two days after the wed­ding, Pasqua trans­ferred own­er­ship of her First Avenue real estate to her daugh­ter as a gift. How­ev­er, Napoli­tano ended the rela­tion­ship. The press spec­u­lat­ed his fail­ure to secure a dowry and quar­rels with his new mother-in-law had caused him to leave. Eight months later, cen­sus records list­ed him as being sin­gle.¹⁵The Sun. New York. Oct 30, 1911. p.2The Sun. New York. Mar 21, 1912. p.3NYT. Oct 30, 1911. p.20Real estate record and builders’ guide. New York: F. W. Dodge Corp. v. 84 Jul-Dec 1909 Index. p.460(The … Con­tin­ue reading

There was yet anoth­er fire on Jan­u­ary 30^th, 1910, caus­ing an esti­mat­ed $1,500 worth of dam­age to the cen­tral sta­bles. The loss was report­ed under Pasqua’s name, reveal­ing her own­er­ship, or at least part-ownership, of the liv­ery busi­ness as well the junk shops. Her the­atre was also fac­ing prob­lems. Although the venue had been grant­ed an enter­tain­ment license, it was referred to the author­i­ties for breach­ing fire reg­u­la­tions. Just months later, a major fire was nar­row­ly avert­ed after police spot­ted two men flee­ing from the build­ing. The stage had been doused in kerosene, but the flames were quick­ly extin­guished before any seri­ous dam­age was done.¹⁶New York Her­ald. Feb 1, 1910. p.14Entertainment license grant­ed to Aris­tide Car­bone: The City Record: Offi­cial Jour­nal. New York: V.37. Oct 6, 1909. p.1The City Record: Offi­cial Jour­nal. New York: … Con­tin­ue reading

A week later, the the­atre was host­ing a vaude­ville show for around two-hundred patrons when a small explo­sive device was tossed through a win­dow. Pan­icked cries of “Black Hand” caused the excit­ed crowd to rush for the exits, leav­ing sev­er­al peo­ple seri­ous­ly injured in the result­ing stam­pede. The police dis­missed the inci­dent as a prac­ti­cal joke, as the device was sim­i­lar those thrown dur­ing Ital­ian street cel­e­bra­tions.¹⁷New York Her­ald. Mar 15, 1910. p.4
York Dra­mat­ic Mir­ror. Mar 26, 1910. p.8
New York Tri­bune. Mar 15, 1910. p.1 Pasqua con­tin­ued with her prop­er­ty invest­ments and began to pur­chase plots out­side of Harlem. In Octo­ber, she acquired land locat­ed next to an old mar­ble quar­ry in the town of Eastch­ester.¹⁸Unit­ed States, New York Land Records, 1630 – 1975. Westch­ester. Grantor index (Eastch­ester) 1898 – 1931.
The Daily Argus. Oct 5, 1910

She had more trou­bles in July 1911. The First Avenue fish store where her hus­band Pietro worked was auc­tioned under fore­clo­sure. The clo­sure was like­ly con­nect­ed to a court judge­ment that had been brought against her just weeks ear­li­er. The court rul­ing had ordered one of her prop­er­ties to be vacat­ed, with her debt list­ed as being owed along with Aniel­lo Prisco.¹⁹Real estate record and builders’ guide. New York: F. W. Dodge Corp. V.88. Jul 8, 1911. p.22 & Jul 15, 1911. p.60Real estate record and builders’ guide. New York: F. W. Dodge Corp. V.88. Jul 8, … Con­tin­ue reading

Prisco was a noto­ri­ous vio­lent crim­i­nal, who lived at 2133 First Avenue on the block adja­cent to the fish store. He was nick­named ‘Zoppo’ (lame) after a gun­fight with ‘Scar-faced Char­lie’ Pan­dolfi shat­tered his leg and left him with a per­ma­nent limp. His fre­quent ter­ror­ism of the neigh­bor­hood led to his nick­name becom­ing a syn­onym for black­mail or bru­tal crimes in East Harlem. A week after his court judge­ment with Pasqua, he was caught car­ry­ing a con­cealed weapon and sen­tenced to six months impris­on­ment.²⁰The Evening World. Dec 16, 1912
The New York Press. Dec 16, 1912. New York Death Cer­tifi­cate. Man­hat­tan #35154
New York Evening World. Dec 16, 1912
NYT. Dec 17, 1912

Nicolina & Frank Monaco

Fol­low­ing the trou­bles with the the­atre and the clo­sure of the fish store, the fam­i­ly moved back to East 109^th Street. Pasqua’s daugh­ter, Nicol­i­na, had pre­vi­ous­ly been roman­ti­cal­ly involved with the crim­i­nal Frank ‘Tough Chick’ Mona­co. Born in the US, his par­ents had arrived from Cam­pa­nia in the 1880s and set­tled in Harlem close to the sta­bles. He was described as the last of a tri­umvi­rate that held the dis­trict in ter­ror and was said to have been a “for­mer Lieu­tenant of Paul Kelly in Harlem.” Accord­ing to the police, the pair would fre­quent­ly quar­rel. Nicol­i­na had lodged com­plaints against Mona­co on sev­er­al occa­sions, but the police took no action as they con­sid­ered it to be a domes­tic prob­lem.²¹Unit­ed States Cen­sus of 1910, New York State, New York Coun­ty. W 12, ED 286. (2066 First Av.) New York State Pop­u­la­tion Cen­sus, 1905; City: Man­hat­tan; Coun­ty: New York (400 E107th St.)New York … Con­tin­ue reading

On Octo­ber 6^th, Mona­co, who had recent­ly com­plet­ed his parole from Elmi­ra refor­ma­to­ry, killed an acquain­tance of Nicol­i­na. He chased Michael Bar­baro, a noto­ri­ous horse thief, after spot­ting him loi­ter­ing in his sta­bles. Later that day, he shot Bar­baro three times after meet­ing him in a First Avenue saloon. Mona­co was arrest­ed and held on $5,000 bail.²²New York Evening World. Oct 31, 1911
The Sun. New York. May 24, 1909
1910 Unit­ed States Fed­er­al Cen­sus. Elmi­ra, Chemu­ng, New York. W 7, ED 28. (Inmate Frank Monaco) 

After post­ing bail, Mona­co went to Nicolina’s home on East 109^th where he was killed in a bru­tal and sus­tained attack that left him with eigh­teen stab wounds. Nicol­i­na walked to the East 104^th police sta­tion and calm­ly con­fessed to the mur­der. The police escort­ed her back to her res­i­dence, which was found in a wild state of dis­or­der with Monaco’s body lying on the floor. She was charged with homi­cide and remand­ed in cus­tody by the coro­ner.²³NYT / New York Evening World / The New York Call / The Sun. New York / Oct 30, 1911

Nicolina’s story was report­ed in the fol­low­ing day’s head­lines. She claimed that sev­er­al months back she had been assault­ed by Mona­co. He had taken her to Westch­ester to help to locate her estranged hus­band but had instead held her cap­tive in a remote build­ing for sev­er­al days. Nicol­i­na stat­ed that she man­aged to escape and made her way back to Harlem. She added that she had killed Mona­co for attempt­ing to steal her family’s sav­ings.²⁴Ibid.

The author­i­ties were doubt­ful of her story. After per­form­ing the autop­sy at Belle­vue Hos­pi­tal, the coroner’s physi­cian said, “I can­not see how it was pos­si­ble for this girl to find the strength to make the pro­longed fight evi­denced by the man’s con­di­tion … in my opin­ion, no woman of her slight strength could carry through such a fero­cious attack.” An inspec­tion of her cloth­ing revealed they were only light­ly marked, but some­body involved in such a fight should have been heav­i­ly blood stained.²⁵NYT / New York Evening World / The New York Call / The Sun. New York / Oct 30, 1911New York Her­ald / New York Evening World / Oct 31, 1911New York Mar­riage cer­tifi­cate: Man­hat­tan #17326. (Nicol­i­na … Con­tin­ue read­ing She also claimed that she had required help locat­ing her estranged hus­band in Westch­ester, but his fam­i­ly address was record­ed on her mar­riage certificate.

There were also prob­lems with her state­ment that she acted alone. Monaco’s body was found pinned under a 400lb safe that she could not have moved by her­self. A wit­ness who passed the apart­ment before the mur­der recalled see­ing four hats placed on a table, but they had all later van­ished. The police thought Nicol­i­na was shield­ing the real killers. They sus­pect­ed she had lured Mona­co to her apart­ment where he was mur­dered in revenge for shoot­ing Bar­baro the horse thief. Despite their con­cerns, the coroner’s court acquit­ted Nicol­i­na and she returned home.²⁶New York Her­ald / New York Evening World / Oct 31, 1911
NYT. Mar 21, 1912

The police­man who had taken Nicolina’s state­ment re-told the story in 1951.  Describ­ing Nicol­i­na as a pleas­ant and mild-mannered daugh­ter of fish-store owner, he claimed she had lured Mona­co to her home using “coo­ing words” where he was killed for attempt­ing to extort her moth­er.²⁷Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. Jun 19, 1951

Pasqua and her fam­i­ly moved to 335 East 108^th Street, direct­ly across from the stable’s entrance. Five rel­a­tives kept the apart­ment under close guard. They received let­ters warn­ing that Monaco’s mur­der would be avenged and threat­ened them with death if they dared to ven­ture out­side. Var­i­ous sta­bles with con­nec­tions to Pasqua were set ablaze. She had want­ed to attend Harlem’s thanks­giv­ing cel­e­bra­tions, but friends advised her it would be too dan­ger­ous. Her iso­la­tion began to make her para­noid and she would often wake at night think­ing some­one had bro­ken into her home.²⁸The New York Press. Mar 21, 1912. p.1 & 3
New York Her­ald. Mar 22, 1912

In Decem­ber 1911, the Secret Ser­vice were informed that the Ter­ra­no­va broth­ers had opened a black­smith shop “in a shan­ty in 107^th Street near 1^st Avenue.” ²⁹U.S. Nation­al Archives and Records Admin­is­tra­tion, RG 87, Daily Reports of Unit­ed States Secret Ser­vice Agents, William Flynn Vol. 33. Dec 12, 1911. It was most like­ly locat­ed in the same yard as Pasqua’s sta­bles. The Ter­ra­no­va broth­ers were Nico­lo, Vin­cent and Ciro, half-brothers of Giuseppe Morel­lo the recent­ly incar­cer­at­ed ‘boss-of-bosses’ of the US Mafia.

Murder in the Stables

Pasqua felt that her death was inevitable and told her daugh­ter they would both even­tu­al­ly be killed. On March 9^th, 1912, she trans­ferred own­er­ship of her land in Eastch­ester to her son Tomas­so.³⁰The New York Press. Mar 21, 1912. p.3
Unit­ed States, New York Land Records, 1630 – 1975. Westch­ester. Grantor index (Eastch­ester) 1898 – 1931 Eleven days later she ven­tured out­doors. She made her way over to the sta­bles, reas­sured by the knowl­edge that her hus­band was already on the premis­es. Nicol­i­na was keep­ing watch from her apart­ment win­dow when she spot­ted two men fol­low­ing her moth­er. It was too late to warn her, they shot Pasqua killing her instant­ly and made their escape towards Sec­ond Avenue.³¹New York Her­ald. Mar 21, 1912
The New York Press. Mar 21, 1912. p.1

A large crowd of excit­ed locals tried to force their way into the sta­bles before being dis­persed by the police. Nicol­i­na and her step­fa­ther were taken to the East 104^th police sta­tion. A dis­traught Nicol­i­na described the two killers to the police, who rec­og­nized them as being close asso­ciates of the late Frank Mona­co. Twenty-five detec­tives were sent out in search of the killers.³²New York Her­ald. Mar 21, 22, 1912

Two days later the police arrest­ed Luigi Laz­za­zara, a middle-aged horse deal­er and part-owner of the sta­bles. Nicol­i­na had impli­cat­ed him in the mur­der dur­ing her affi­davit, and other wit­ness­es had seen him open the stable’s doors to aid the killer’s escape. How­ev­er, he was even­tu­al­ly released due to lack of evi­dence.³³New York, New York, City Direc­to­ry, 1911
New York Her­ald. Mar 24, 1912
The Sun. New York. Mar 23, 1912
New York Tri­bune. Feb 20, 1914. p.1 He was later placed on trial for horse theft and his sta­bles put under sur­veil­lance on the sus­pi­cion it was shel­ter­ing stolen hors­es.³⁴New York Tri­bune. Feb 20, 1914. p.1
NY Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions. 1912. #91763 The Peo­ple vs. Andrew Rege and Luigi Lazzazzara

Horse theft had become so wide­spread that insur­ance com­pa­nies stopped offer­ing poli­cies. One insur­er com­ment­ed “I came to the con­clu­sion that steal­ing hors­es had become an orga­nized insti­tu­tion rather than a pri­vate indus­try.” It was esti­mat­ed that five hors­es and wag­ons, each worth around $800, were stolen every day in New York. The hors­es were dis­guised by trim­ming their manes and tails, and any dis­tinc­tive were marks con­cealed with dye. Sim­i­lar­ly, wag­ons were chopped, recon­fig­ured, and repaint­ed.³⁵NYT. Apr 23, 1911. p.9 Dur­ing a meet­ing of the Horse Own­ers’ Pro­tec­tive Asso­ci­a­tion in 1913, the orga­niz­er cel­e­brat­ed the decline of horse theft in the city and named the “Laz­za­zarro gang” as hav­ing been key oper­a­tor.³⁶NYT. Apr 7, 1913. p.2

The next sus­pect to be detained was Aniel­lo ‘Zoppo’ Prisco who had been recent­ly released from prison for a con­cealed weapon charge. He was arrest­ed on June 18^th, 1912, after the police had rec­og­nized him from Nicolina’s descrip­tion of her mother’s killers. He was indict­ed for homi­cide and tried by a Grand Jury. How­ev­er, he was dis­missed in Sep­tem­ber after sev­er­al key wit­ness­es failed to appear; includ­ing Nicol­i­na who had fled to Italy for her safe­ty.³⁷The Evening Telegram. Oct 3, 1912. p.9
The New York Evening World. Oct 3, 1912. p.13
Waausau Daily Her­ald. Dec 23, 1912
The Peo­ple of The State of New York vs Aniel­lo Prisco. #89082 (Dock­et) 9 Aug 1912

Pasqua’s mur­der remained unsolved. Joe Valachi, who grew up on East 108^th Street and was part of the crowd that pushed into the sta­bles, recalled the events in his 1964 mem­oirs. He claimed that Pasqua had killed Mona­co for assault­ing her daugh­ter, and that a Mona­co asso­ciate took revenge after being released from prison . Valachi’s ver­sion of events ties with the facts that Prisco had been in prison at the time of Monaco’s killing and was released short­ly before Pasqua’s mur­der.³⁸Man­u­script Files Relat­ed to ‘The Real Thing: The Expose and Inside Doings of Costa Nos­tra’, 1964 – 1964. John F. Kennedy Library

Aniello Prisco

Later that year, Harlem gang­ster Anto­nio ‘Sharkey’ Zarac­ca was involved in shootout with man known as ‘Coney Island’ Joe. Zarac­ca went into hid­ing but was tracked down on Sep­tem­ber 2^nd, 1912, and killed in Café Degli on East 109^th Street. ‘Coney Island’ Joe and his fel­low attack­ers man­aged to escape the area before the police arrived.³⁹New York Her­ald. Sep 3, 1912
New York Tri­bune. Sep 3, 1912. p.2 A month later Prisco was arrest­ed on East 108^th Street as sus­pect. He was arraigned before the coro­ner but, once again, dis­charged due to lack of evi­dence.⁴⁰New York Call. Oct 4, 1912. p.3
Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. Dec 16, 1912. p.4

The Deputy Police Com­mis­sion­er had received new infor­ma­tion con­nect­ing Prisco to Pasqua’s killing. Anony­mous tip-offs declared that he had been hired for the job by Gio­sue Gal­luc­ci, a pow­er­ful crim­i­nal leader with strong polit­i­cal con­nec­tions. The infor­mants claimed that Gal­luc­ci had been angered by Pasqua’s readi­ness to pass infor­ma­tion to the police since the death of Mona­co.⁴¹The Evening Telegram. Oct 3, 1912. p.9
NYMA, DA Record of Cases #95249, The Peo­ple vs. John Rus­so­mano (Memo in ref­er­ence to the char­ac­ter of the defendant.) 

At around mid­night on Decem­ber 15^th, Prisco walked into Gallucci’s bak­ery on East 109^th Street. Short­ly after his arrival, he was fatal­ly wound­ed after being shot by Gallucci’s nephew John Rus­so­mano. On his lawyer’s advice, Gal­luc­ci took his nephew to the coroner’s office, where he casu­al­ly con­fessed to killing Prisco. He claimed the shoot­ing was done in self-defense after Prisco had attempt­ed to rob his uncle at gun point. Rus­so­mano was charged with homi­cide and his bail was set at $5,000, which was speed­i­ly fur­nished by a Harlem real estate deal­er. Five days later the killing was deemed jus­ti­fi­able homi­cide and Rus­so­mano was dis­charged.⁴²New York Sun. Dec 17, 1912. p.16. New York Tri­bune. Dec 17, 1912. p.16. The Evening News. Dec 17, 1912. Waausau Daily Her­ald. Dec 23, 1912United States Cen­sus of 1910, New York State, New York … Con­tin­ue reading

The Dis­trict Attor­ney and the press told a dif­fer­ent ver­sion of events lead­ing to Prisco’s death. They claimed that Prisco had gone to Gal­luc­ci with demands for more money: “You have not been giv­ing me any­thing of what you have been get­ting for some time, I am down and out, I am now a bum”. It was also said that the pair had arranged to recon­vene the fol­low­ing day at a shop belong­ing to Nico­lo Del­Gau­dio. How­ev­er, Gal­luc­ci feigned ill­ness sent one of his men, Anto­nio Vivo­lo, to a the­atre on First Avenue to locate Prisco with instruc­tions for him to meet as his bak­ery.⁴³Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions for New York Coun­ty, The Peo­ple of the State of New York against John Rus­so­mano. March 20, 1914 NYMA, DA Record of Cases #95249, The Peo­ple vs. John Rus­so­mano (Memo in … Con­tin­ue reading

Amedio Buonomo

Two months after Prisco’s assas­si­na­tion, his allies retal­i­at­ed. On Feb­ru­ary 18^th, 1913, Gal­luc­ci, Rus­so­mano, and Vivo­lo were ambushed out­side of 329 East 109^th Street. They were shot with a rifle equipped with a Maxim Silencer, a new device that had been devel­oped in Con­necti­cut. Vivo­lo died instant­ly, Rus­so­mano was wound­ed and sent to Belle­vue Hos­pi­tal. Gal­luc­ci man­aged to escape seri­ous injury when a bul­let passed through his coat sleeve.⁴⁴The Evening World. Feb 18, 1913. p.9
NYMA, DA Record of Cases #95249, The Peo­ple vs. John Rus­so­mano (Memo in ref­er­ence to the char­ac­ter of the defendant.) 

Gal­luc­ci exact­ed revenge on those con­nect­ed with the attack. Charles Marone, sus­pect­ed of being one of the gun­men, was later killed in a saloon. Nico­lo Del­Gau­dio, whose name was linked to the attack, trav­elled to Naples, and was later shot down after return­ing and demand­ing more money from Gal­luc­ci. The first to be killed was Ame­dio Buonomo, an asso­ciate of Prisco. He was described as a man of impor­tance in Harlem’s Lit­tle Italy, and a “leader of a coterie of men”.⁴⁵New York Her­ald. Dec 6, 1913. p.7New York Tri­bune. Oct 20, 1914Court of Appeals. The Peo­ple of the State of New York against Alessan­drio Vollero, Case on Appeal. Vol 1. (1918) 226/587 PT1. p.473The … Con­tin­ue reading

Lit­tle is known about Buonomo. He was born in 1884, to Gen­eroso Buonomo and Grazia Mora­no. In 1895, he trav­elled to Boston from Pra­to­la Serra, Cam­pa­nia.⁴⁶Ship: Tar­tar Prince. Mar 26, 1900. New York, U.S., Arriv­ing Pas­sen­ger and Crew Lists (includ­ing Cas­tle Gar­den and Ellis Island), 1820 – 1957. He had appeared briefly in the papers two months after Monaco’s mur­der in 1911, when he was shot in a fight in Thomas Jef­fer­son Park. Twen­ty men, includ­ing some that had trav­elled from Philadel­phia, had agreed to meet in the park for a pre-arranged fight. Wit­ness­es said the bat­tle was a vendet­ta, while oth­ers said it was a fight over a girl. One of those injured was a noto­ri­ous char­ac­ter known as ‘Tough Louie’ Brin­disi who used to run a saloon on Water Street in Bridge­port, Con­necti­cut. Buonomo was taken to the hos­pi­tal, and gave his address as Westch­ester Avenue, a remote and unde­vel­oped part of the Bronx.⁴⁷Utica Her­ald Dis­patch. Dec 19, 1911. p.1
Bridge­port Evening Farmer. Dec 23, 1911. p.1
The Sun. New York. Dec 19, 1911. p.1

Fol­low­ing Gal­luc­ci’s mur­der of Prisco, Buonomo had pur­chased a chain­mail vest for his per­son­al pro­tec­tion. On April 5^th, 1913, he made the fatal mis­take of leav­ing home with­out his armor. He was gunned down on East 113^th Street close to Thomas Jef­fer­son Park. Five days later, his impres­sive funer­al pro­ces­sion made its way from his home on Madi­son Avenue. Head­ed by a 42-piece band, it was formed of over hun­dred car­riages and guard­ed by a sim­i­lar num­ber of detec­tives. The police arrest­ed ‘Dia­mond Joe’ Vis­er­ti as a sus­pect for his mur­der. Vis­er­ti was a friend of the Ter­ra­no­va broth­ers who would later make his for­tune in boot­leg­ging. He was even­tu­al­ly released due to a lack of evi­dence. (Vis­er­ti used to live at 335 East 108^th Street, the same build­ing as Pasqua. His mar­riage in 1911 was wit­nessed by Antonet­ta Spinel­li, like­ly con­nect­ed to Pasqua.) ⁴⁸The New York Her­ald. Apr 6 & 10 & 11, 1913
The Evening World. Apr 11, 1913. p.10
The Sun. New York. Apr 30, 1913. p.5
New York Evening World. Apr 29, 1913
Mar­riage Cer­tifi­cate (Man­hat­tan) #21340

The police stat­ed there had been six “mys­te­ri­ous street mur­ders”, and ten shoot­ings since the attack on Gal­luc­ci. The press referred to them as a war between the “Russomanno-Gallucci” and “Prisco-Buonomo fac­tions”. The tit-for-tat con­flict con­tin­ued when Joe DeMar­co, was wound­ed on April 14^th. DeMar­co was an ally of the Ter­ra­no­va broth­ers and ran the grain and feed store attached to the sta­bles. Two days later, Pietro Mar­ti­no was shot while enter­ing his home on East 117^th Street. He had been sus­pect­ed of hir­ing the men who killed Buonomo. Two weeks later, Gallucci’s fac­tion was cred­it­ed with the shoot­ing of three peo­ple out­side the Elena the­atre once man­aged by Pasqua Musone.⁴⁹The Sun. New York. Apr 19, 1913
The New York Her­ald. Apr 17, 1913
The Sun. New York. Apr 19, 1913
The New York Her­ald. Jul 21, 1916. p.1
NYT. Apr 27, 1913
Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. Dec 12, 1915

Vice Ring

Prisco’s death trig­gered a wide-ranging inves­ti­ga­tion that would even­tu­al­ly ensnare Gal­luc­ci. NY Dis­trict Attor­ney Whit­man, had setup a homi­cide bureau to inves­ti­gate mur­ders in the city, inter­view­ing wit­ness­es and gath­er­ing evi­dence first­hand: “Some of the more impor­tant con­vic­tions we have been able to obtain have been the direct result of either myself or my assis­tants being prompt­ly on the scene of a crime.”⁵⁰New York Her­ald. Oct 5, 1913. Third Sec­tion. p.3 Assis­tant Dis­trict Attor­ney Mur­phy, was work­ing at the bureau when he opened an inves­ti­ga­tion in Prisco’s death. It would later lead to the dis­cov­ery of a city-wide vice ring “respon­si­ble for about one mur­der a week”.⁵¹The Times Demo­c­rat. Aug 2, 1913. p.3

Both fac­tions of the war had con­nec­tions to the city’s vice trade. Buonomo’s broth­er, ‘Chica­go Joe’, was part of a “white slave” gang. He was sen­tenced to death in 1912 for killing a woman he had traf­ficked from New York to Chica­go, where he was said to be a friend of vice-king Jim Colosi­mo of the Chica­go mob. Gal­luc­ci was also linked the trade and referred to as “King of the White Slavers”, he ran a broth­el close to his bak­ery on East 109^th Street.⁵²The Berk­shire Evening Eagle. Oct 29, 1912. p.3New York Tri­bune. Oct 24, 1912. p.2U.S. Nation­al Archives and Records Admin­is­tra­tion, RG 87, Daily Reports of Unit­ed States Secret Ser­vice Agents, … Con­tin­ue reading

In July, Assis­tant D.A. Mur­phy decid­ed the most suc­cess­ful way to break up the vice ring would be to arrest the lead­ers for gam­bling vio­la­tions. After weeks of plan­ning, twenty-five detec­tives raid­ed pol­i­cy shops in Harlem and Mul­ber­ry Street. Among the forty arrests were Gal­luc­ci and his nephew Rus­so­mano, who were both held for car­ry­ing con­cealed weapons. Gal­luc­ci was released on $10,000 bail while Rus­so­mano was sen­tenced to three to six years at Sing Sing prison.⁵³The Times Demo­c­rat. Aug 2, 1913. p.3The Evening World. Jul 26, 1913New York Her­ald. May 18, 1915. p.7New York, Sing Sing Prison Admis­sion Reg­is­ters, 1865 – 1939. #64408Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions for New … Con­tin­ue reading

The Dis­trict Attorney’s office received sev­er­al let­ters of con­grat­u­la­tions. One let­ter signed by Harlem busi­ness own­ers stat­ed: “On last Sat­ur­day a big num­ber of the worst men belong to the worst gang of the world were arrest­ed. The head man of this gang that was also arrest­ed the name is Gesule Lugariel­lo, alias Gal­luc­ci. He is the head man Ital­ian Lot­tery. He is the man who gives the order to his men to kill.” Anoth­er let­ter con­firmed that Gal­luc­ci had been respon­si­ble for the death of Ame­dio Buonomo.⁵⁴ NYMA, DA Record of Cases #95249, The Peo­ple vs. John Rus­so­mano (Memo in ref­er­ence to the char­ac­ter of the defendant.)

The Last Vendettas

Two years after the death of Pasqua Musone, the sta­bles were still man­aged by of her old busi­ness part­ner Luigi Laz­za­zara. Although he had been arrest­ed in con­nec­tion with her mur­der, he had man­aged to escape con­vic­tion. He final­ly met his end on Feb­ru­ary 19^th, 1914. He was mak­ing his way past 2106 First Avenue when he was stabbed to death by Ange­lo Lasco, a broth­er of Pasqua’s son-in-law. The police found Lasco near­by, drunk, and blood­stained. A detec­tive over­heard him mut­ter­ing to him­self: “Now, I’ve made as mess of this thing”.⁵⁵NYT / New York Tri­bune / New York Her­ald. Feb 20. 1914Ship: Citta Di Milano. Dec 10, 1902. New York, U.S., Arriv­ing Pas­sen­ger and Crew Lists (includ­ing Cas­tle Gar­den and Ellis Island), 1820 – 1957U.S., … Con­tin­ue reading

The war had left Gal­luc­ci and his allies with dan­ger­ous enemies.

• Andrea Ricci was a part­ner of Prisco but had been in jail for horse theft at the time of his friend’s mur­der. He left Harlem and became a leader in the Brook­lyn Navy Street gang and was later ini­ti­at­ed into the Camor­ra.⁵⁶The Brook­lyn Daily Times. Nov 14, 1917. p.1Court of Appeals. The Peo­ple of the State of New York against Ange­lo Gior­dano, Record on Appeal. Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions. 231/633 PT1. People’s exhib­it … Con­tin­ue reading
• John Manci­ni, who stole hors­es with Ricci, later became an induct­ed mem­ber of the Coney Island Camor­ra group.⁵⁷Court of Appeals. The Peo­ple of the State of New York against Alessan­drio Vollero, Case on Appeal. Vol 1. (1918) 226/587 PT1
• Pel­le­gri­no Mora­no was an uncle of Ame­dio Buonomo. He lived on East 116^th Street and ran a liquor store near to Buonomo’s cof­fee shop but was forced to leave Harlem. He later led the Camor­ra group in Coney Island and demand­ed retal­i­a­tion against the Ter­ra­novas for the mur­der of his nephew.⁵⁸Unit­ed States Cen­sus of 1910, New York State, New York Coun­ty. W 12, ED 323. (306 East 116^th) Trow’s New York City direc­to­ry, Aug 1910. p 1029 “Beer 2218 2^d Av” Critch­ley, David (2009) The Ori­gin … Con­tin­ue reading
• Alessan­dro Vollero, a boss in the Navy Street gang, sought ret­ri­bu­tion for the killing of Nico­lo Del­Gau­dio, his “fel­low towns­man” from Grag­nano, Cam­pa­nia. Anoth­er Navy Street leader from Grag­nano was Leopol­do Lau­ri­tano, he mar­ried Delgaudio’s widow who had sworn a vendet­ta against her husband’s killers.⁵⁹The Daily Stan­dard Union Brook­lyn. Mar8, 1918. p.9
  New York Mar­riage cer­tifi­cate: Man­hat­tan #123324
  The Stan­dard Union Oct 12, 1916. p.3
• Andrew Rege, who stole hors­es with Pasqua’s old busi­ness part­ner Luigi Laz­za­zara, relo­cat­ed from Harlem to Brook­lyn. He aided the Navy Street gang with the killing of a Gal­luc­ci asso­ciate.⁶⁰NY Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions. 1912. #91763 The Peo­ple vs. Andrew Rege and Luigi Laz­zaz­zara
  Evening World. Nov 17, 1916. p.19

Gal­luc­ci was assas­si­nat­ed in May 1915 in his son’s East 109^th Street café. One of the gun­men was Andrea Ricci, Prisco’s old part­ner and then boss of the Navy Street Gang. Gal­luc­ci had been betrayed by his own allies and body­guards who assist­ed the Brook­lyn gang with its first killing. It was pri­mar­i­ly an effort to gain con­trol over his crim­i­nal empire, but many those involved also sought revenge for the deaths of their asso­ciates. Mafiosi Joe Valachi, later recalled Gallucci’s funer­al, describ­ing it as “one of the biggest of all the ones I saw around this time.” The pro­ces­sion was com­prised of 150 car­riages, and the roofs, fire escapes and door­ways along its route were teem­ing with curi­ous onlook­ers.⁶¹Court of Appeals. The Peo­ple of the State of New York against Ange­lo Gior­dano, Record on Appeal. Court of Gen­er­al Ses­sions. 231/633 PT1. People’s exhib­it #1 (State­ment of Leopol­do Lau­ri­tano. Mar … Con­tin­ue reading

Most of the key fig­ures involved in the war were dead or incar­cer­at­ed. The Brook­lyn Camor­ra, who had worked with the Ter­ra­no­va broth­ers to assas­si­nate Gal­luc­ci, con­tin­ued the rela­tion­ship and began work on expand­ing their gam­bling oper­a­tions in the city.

The Stables

Not all the shoot­ings and mur­ders that occurred in the vicin­i­ty of the sta­bles were con­nect­ed to the hos­til­i­ties with Gal­luc­ci. Giuseppe Gan­dol­fo, who had run a wagon busi­ness on the premis­es since 1910, was wound­ed in 1914 for rea­sons unknown.⁶²New York Tri­bune. Apr 10, 1914. p.2
Polk’s (Trow’s) New York copart­ner­ship and cor­po­ra­tion direc­to­ry, bor­oughs of Man­hat­tan and Bronx. New York. 1910. p.310 For­tu­na­to and Gae­tano Lo Monte, who ran the grain and feed store on the cor­ner of premis­es were both killed in a Mafia war with Toto D’Aquila. Their store then passed to Frank Badola­to, who had run the Ignatz Flo­rio Co-operative with Mafioso Giuseppe Morel­lo.⁶³Warn­er, San­ti­no, Van‘t Riet. Early New York Mafia An Alter­na­tive The­o­ry. The Informer. May 2014. Thomas Hunt. R.L. Polk & Co.‘s Trow gen­er­al direc­to­ry of New York City. New York City direc­to­ry, … Con­tin­ue read­ing Ippoli­to Greco, who ran the sta­bles in 1915, was gunned down out­side the premis­es. He had been con­nect­ed to the killing of Bar­net Baff, a case that spawned the sen­sa­tion­al term “Mur­der Sta­bles” in the head­lines. The car used in the killing of Bar­net Baff was said to have belonged to “Scar-faced Char­lie” Pan­dolfi, the same man who had shat­tered Prisco’s leg in a gun­fight.⁶⁴New York Her­ald, Oct 8, 1915. p.1
New York Tri­bune. Oct 28, 1919. p.22

John Cullen, the owner of the land, later con­vert­ed the old sta­bles into a garage. He leased the prop­er­ty to John Rumore, a Morel­lo gang asso­ciate who ran an under­tak­er busi­ness next to the city block.⁶⁵The Brook­lyn Daily Eagle. Dec 17, 1922. p.42
The Sun. New York. Aug 2, 1924. p.16

The term “mur­der sta­bles” lin­gered in the press for decades to come. In 1939, The New York Sun, used the term in a light-hearted Sat­ur­day quiz, ask­ing its read­ers to name the loca­tion of the infa­mous shacks.⁶⁶The New York Sun. Nov 11, 1939. p.14 The entire city block was demol­ished and remod­eled in 1961 as part of the Franklin Plaza project.⁶⁷https://zola.planning.nyc.gov/l/lot/1/1678/1#15.8/40.790775/-73.935674