Brooklyn Camorra
 A 1918 Brooklyn Daily Eagle report on Camorra testimony; trial allegations are not a complete independent organizational chart | |
| Origins | |
|---|---|
| Founding Location | Brooklyn, New York City |
| Territory | Downtown Brooklyn and Navy Street Coney Island and southern Brooklyn |
| Lineage | |
| Subsets | Navy Street gang Coney Island gang |
| Profile | |
| Structure | Retrospective umbrella for two independently and jointly operating Campanian gangs |
| Activities | Gambling, policy and card games Robbery and burglary Extortion Cocaine sales (some individuals) Murder and violent enforcement |
| Politics | |
| Notable Members | Pellegrino Morano (Coney Island) Alessandro Vollero (Navy Street) Eugenio Bizzaro (Navy Street) Andrea Ricci (Navy Street) Leopoldo Lauritano (Navy Street) |
| Enemies | Morello–Terranova organization |
| Activity | |
| Status | Defunct |
| Years Active | c. 1915–1918 (two-gang combination; constituent roots were earlier) |
| Dissolved Date | 1918 |
| Dissolution Cause | Informant testimony Trials and convictions Factional collapse |
The Brooklyn Camorra is a retrospective umbrella for Neapolitan and Campanian criminal associations active in Brooklyn during the early twentieth century. Its two best-documented components were the Navy Street gang and Coney Island gang, which, in Critchley's wording, operated both independently and jointly while retaining different leaders and bases.[1] Recorded links to Camorra organizations in Italy were weak or nonexistent; “Brooklyn Camorra” describes local origin and courtroom usage, not a chartered branch commanded from Naples.
Structure and constituent gangs
[edit]Pellegrino Morano headed the Coney Island group from his Santa Lucia restaurant. Navy Street leaders included Alessandro Vollero, Eugenio Bizzaro, Andrea Ricci and Leopoldo Lauritano.[2] Testimony described bosses and workers, but other participants insisted Navy Street was “not officially a gang” because relationships were informal and members were not salaried. The umbrella should therefore not be presented with a single boss or fixed Brooklyn command chart.
The groups engaged in gambling, policy, card games, robbery, burglary and violent enforcement. Some Navy Street figures sold cocaine, but Critchley describes parts of that activity as entrepreneurial and independent rather than a centralized narcotics department. Participation in one business or meeting did not prove permanent membership in every Camorra operation.[1]
Mafia–Camorra conflict
[edit]Brooklyn Camorra figures initially cooperated with Sicilian and East Harlem criminals in some rackets. Their relations with the Morello–Terranova organization deteriorated as leaders competed over gambling, territory and revenge killings. Navy Street was reportedly divided over assassinating the Morellos, while Morano and Coney Island figures pressed for war.[3]
On September 7, 1916, gunmen killed Nicolo “Nick” Terranova and Eugenio Ubriaco in Brooklyn. The killings became a central event in the Mafia–Camorra conflict.[4]
Prosecutions and aftermath
[edit]Ralph Daniello's cooperation with investigators exposed murders, meetings and relationships within the Brooklyn groups. Trials in 1917–1918 produced long sentences for Morano, Vollero and others and destroyed the two gangs' existing leadership structures.[5]
The collapse did not produce a documented transfer of the Brooklyn Camorra to Salvatore D'Aquila. Critchley instead describes non-Sicilians gradually entering several formerly Sicilian organizations during the 1920s, with later alignments including Masseria- and Profaci-associated groups.[6] The safest description is diffuse integration of individuals and networks—not acquisition of the Navy Street and Coney Island gangs intact or a straight line from the Brooklyn Camorra to the Gambino family.
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 David Critchley, The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891–1931 (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 105–134.
- ↑ Humbert S. Nelli, The Business of Crime: Italians and Syndicate Crime in the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), pp. 129–134.
- ↑ Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime, pp. 112–118.
- ↑ “Two Die in Pistol Fight in Brooklyn Street”, The New York Times, September 8, 1916.
- ↑ “Camorra Secrets Revealed at Trial”, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 15, 1918, p. 18.
- ↑ Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime, pp. 132–135.