Good Killers Gang

Good Killers Gang

Error creating thumbnail: File with dimensions greater than 12.5 MP A lineup published during the 1921 case; the source identifies Stefano Magaddino, Vito Bonventre, Bartolo Fontana and Giuseppe Lombardi, while two other figures are detectives
Origins
Founding Location	Brooklyn, New York City
Territory	Brooklyn Connections to Detroit, Buffalo and Castellammare del Golfo
Lineage
Parent Organization	Castellammaresi network (hometown and kinship milieu, not a formal parent corporation)
Profile
Structure	Case-defined crew or overlapping vendetta network; enforcement-arm status disputed
Activities	Vendetta killings and murder conspiracies Intimidation and coerced violence Arson allegations
Politics
Notable Members	Stefano Magaddino (identified in the case) Vito Bonventre (identified in the case) Bartolo DiGregorio (identified in the case) Giuseppe Lombardi (identified in the case) Mariano Galante (identified in the case) Francesco Puma (identified in the case)
Activity
Status	Case-era network disrupted by arrests and flight
Years Active	c. 1916–1921 (vendetta and case period; not a proven permanent gang)

The Good Killers Gang, usually called the Good Killers in historical accounts, was a label applied during a 1921 investigation into Castellammarese vendetta killings connecting Sicily, Brooklyn and Detroit. It operated within the wider Castellammaresi hometown and kinship milieu, but the evidence does not establish a formally chartered “Good Killers Gang” under a permanent parent organization.

1921 case and membership

The case developed after Bartolo Fontana confessed to the killing of Camillo Caiozzo and described a series of murders tied to conflict between the Bonventre–Magaddino and Buccellato sides of Castellammare del Golfo. Thomas Hunt and Michael A. Tona describe the accused circle as immigrant mafiosi of the Bonventre and Magaddino families and their allies.

Fontana identified Stefano Magaddino, Bartolo DiGregorio, Vito Bonventre, Giuseppe Lombardi, Mariano Galante and Francesco Puma as figures who compelled or authorized the Caiozzo killing. These were confession and prosecution allegations; the list should not be converted automatically into a complete membership roll or formal rank chart.

Organizational status

Hunt and Tona interpret the Good Killers as one crew or an enforcement arm within a wider Castellammarese syndicate. David Critchley expressly cautions that there was no evidence establishing the Killers as the enforcement arm of one unified syndicate that later evolved directly into the Brooklyn, Buffalo and Detroit crime families.

The safest description is a case-defined, kin-connected vendetta crew overlapping with the existing Williamsburg Mafia organization. It was not a separate organization that later merged wholesale with a “Schiro Gang.” The Schiro family already existed before the 1921 case, and Magaddino and Bonventre were blood-family names rather than corporate gangs.

Relationship to the Schiro family

Several people identified in the Good Killers investigation belonged to or associated with the Castellammarese milieu from which Schiro's borgata recruited. Shared personnel and kinship support overlap and assistance in particular crimes; they do not prove that every Good Killers defendant was inducted into Schiro's family or that the Schiro family was created by a 1921 merger.