The Rise of the Genovese Crime Dynasty
The Genovese crime family‘s origins can be traced back to the late 1800s when waves of poor Italian immigrants began arriving in New York in search of better opportunities. Many of these early immigrants settled in the overcrowded tenement slums of lower Manhattan, which became breeding grounds for petty crime and illegal rackets.
One standout from this era was a street hoodlum named Giuseppe Morello, who by the early 1900s had used extortion and threats of violence to gain control of Italian immigrant rackets in east Harlem. Morello ran his nascent criminal gang along traditional Sicilian mafia lines, demanding a "tribute" from Italian merchants and laborers in exchange for protection.
Morello’s enterprise caught the eye of an ambitious gangster named Charles Luciano, who saw immense money-making potential in Morello’s mafia-style approach. Luciano, an Sicilian immigrant born in 1897, had grown up in the slums of lower Manhattan and was no stranger to street crime himself.
Where Morello used brute force to extract tributes, Luciano preferred more subtle means like bribery, extortion and political kickbacks. Luciano also understood the importance of maintaining friendly relationships with non-Italians, especially Jewish gangsters like Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello and Bugsy Siegel.
This willingness to work with outside groups was a hallmark of Luciano’s leadership style – and it strongly contributed to his later success.
The Prohibition Windfall
A major turning point for New York’s Italian mobsters came with the enactment of Prohibition in 1920. The banning of legal alcohol sales proved to be an unprecedented business opportunity for criminals like Luciano, who created bootlegging operations to quench the public’s thirst for liquor.
Within a few short years, mob-affiliated speakeasies and underground distilleries popped up across New York, producing millions in illicit profits. The wealth enabled Luciano and other mafia bosses to bribe the right politicians, policemen and judges to look the other way from their illegal liquor trade.
Flush with cash, Luciano also expanded into other rackets like gambling houses, narcotics and forced prostitution. Many gangland historians credit this era with turning the Italian American mafia from a loose group of street gangs into a sprawling, organized criminal network willing to dabble in any profitable vice.
The Ruthless Rise of Vito Genovese
No history of the Genovese crime family is complete without discussing Vito Genovese’s iron-fisted leadership in the mid-20th century.
Genovese’s criminal career began in the 1920s as a gunman and enforcer for mob bosses Joe Masseria and Charles Luciano. Genovese’s penchant for vicious violence rightfully earned him a feared reputation on the streets.
By the 1930s, Genovese’s star was rising within the Masseria crime family. So much so that when boss Joe Masseria demanded Genovese divorce his wife and marry Masseria’s cousin, Genovese quickly arranged for assassins to murder his own wife’s husband.
The coldblooded murder impressed Masseria enough to promote Genovese to underboss of the organization. Around the same time, Genovese also helped facilitate Luciano’s takeover of the Masseria group – a move that landed Genovese in prison for a narcotics conviction shortly thereafter.
Upon his release in the mid-1940s, Genovese returned to find the Luciano group (now the Genovese family) run by Frank Costello. Over the next decade, Genovese quietly built support within the family before making his move to take over in 1957.
True to his ruthless nature, Genovese arranged the failed assassination attempt on boss Frank Costello – an attack that convinced Costello to relinquish power rather than risk more violence.
The Golden Era of the Genovese Crime Family
With Vito Genovese now firmly in control, the late 1950s marked the beginning of the most successful era for the Genovese crime family. Under Genovese’s leadership, the organization grew into the wealthiest and largest of the Five Families of New York. Genovese himself also became one of the most powerful mafia bosses in the United States.
The Genoveses’ formula for success relied less on violence and more on corruption, kickbacks and establishing power over labor unions. With this business-oriented approach, Genovese mobstersinfested the NY waterfront, the Garment District and construction industries. Mob control over these unions allowed Genovese captains to siphon millions from union pension funds and taxes.
The loan sharking, illegal gambling and drug rackets also generated huge profits. The Genovese crew’s stranglehold over the numbers lottery in Harlem alone produced over $35 million per year. With wealth and power rivaling Fortune 500 companies, Genovese could even influence mayors, governors, congressmen and judges. Within a decade, the Genoveses became the role model for sophisticated organized crime groups across the nation.
The Perilous Ambition of Mikey Galante
Greed and ambition are ever-present threats within any criminal organization, however. And Michael “Mikey Galante” Galante was the embodiment of both qualities.
The youngest of mob boss Vito Genovese’s capos, Mikey Galante’s crew dominated the Greenwich Village area through violent intimidation. Despite being a top earner for the family, Galante was not content with his standing. His open desire to move up the mob hierarchy was a constant source of friction with the Genovese administration.
Galante’s insubordination reached new heights in the early 1970s when he allegedly ordered over a dozen murders without permission, attracting massive law enforcement heat on the Genovese family. When boss Thomas Eboli confronted Galante over his wild captain, it cost Eboli his life. Galante’s crew killed Eboli in 1972 – shocking the Genovese leadership.
With his reckless ambition destabilizing the careful Genovese infrastructure, Galante sealed his own fate. In 1979, gunmen shot Galante dead at a restaurant, likely on orders from new Genovese boss Frank Tieri. The brazen mob execution made headlines across the world.
The Difficulty of Replacing a Legend
Frank Tieri took control of the Genovese organization following Eboli’s murder in 1972. While a seasoned capo, Tieri could never match the status of predecessor Vito Genovese.
Law enforcement pressure also ramped up dramatically for organized crime groups in the 1970s. Tieri’s convictions on illegal gambling and tax evasion reflected law enforcement’s new tactic of building cases through financial crimes rather than murder allegations.
Tieri’s successor, Vincent “Chin” Gigante, proved more adept at evading prosecution over his 30-year tenure. His most famous tactic was wandering Greenwich Village dressed in pajamas and a bathrobe, mumbling incoherently to feign mental illness.
While the eccentric behavior earned Gigante the street name “The Oddfather,” law enforcement was not fooled by the act. The FBI finally made headway when several high-level Genovese turncoats testified that Gigante was manipulating all family business from behind the scenes.
The Chin Goes Down for Good
The most devastating blow for boss Vincent Gigante came in 1997 when captain Vincent “Fish” Cafaro became an FBI informant – the highest-ranking mafia defector up to that time.
For over a decade, Cafaro’s Genovese crew generated tens of millions from traditional mob rackets. But when Gigante refused to share more drug profits with Cafaro, the captain turned against the entire Genovese administration by wearing a wire for the FBI. Cafaro’s damaging testimony directly implicated Chin, underboss Venero Mangano and consigliere Louis Manna in several murders and extortion schemes.
The evidence was the knock-out punch law enforcement needed. After decades of futility, federal prosecutors finally convicted Vincent Gigante of murder and racketeering in 1997. At age 70, Gigante would die in prison seven years later – ending the long criminal career of the Oddfather.
The Unraveling of the Genovese Empire
Cafaro’s cooperation opened the floodgates on Genovese turncoats. Sammy “the Bull” Gravano, Anthony Spero and Michael “Mikey Cigars” Coppola all became stool pigeons in the late 90s. The damning testimonies allowed the Feds to dismantle much of the remaining Genovese leadership over the next decade.
Weakened and rudderless, the Genovese family has faded from prominence over the last 20 years. splintered into small autonomous crews. While still active, the Genoveses no longer possess the wealth, reach or power it commanded for most of the 20th century.
The fall of the Genoveses serves as a cautionary tale on the unsustainable nature of violent organized crime empires. In the end, the qualities that allow mafia organizations to grow inevitably contain the seeds for their destruction as well. For the once-mighty Genovese dynasty, greed, ambition, rivalry and betrayal brought their long criminal reign to an unceremonious end.