Lo Monte Gang
| Also Known As | Lamonti gang (Secret Service rendering) Lo Monte family (historical shorthand) |
|---|---|
| Origins | |
| Founding Location | East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City |
| Territory | East Harlem |
| Headquarters | 227 East 107th Street (meeting saloon) |
| Lineage | |
| Predecessor(s) | Morello organization Corleonesi-centered network |
| Successor(s) | Morello–Terranova East 107th Street phase (overlapping personnel; not a simple corporate merger) |
| Profile | |
| Structure | Corleonesi-aligned Mafia faction within and around the Morello organization |
| Activities | Murder planning and factional violence Policy gambling (Tommaso Lo Monte, 1915) Labor and business connections |
| Politics | |
| Leader | Fortunato “Charles” Lo Monte (reported c. 1912–1914) |
| Notable Members | Tommaso “Thomas” Lo Monte Nicolo “Nick” Terranova (allied Morello leader, not proven subordinate) |
| Activity | |
| Status | Disrupted by the killings of Fortunato and Tommaso Lo Monte |
| Years Active | c. 1912–1915 (separately visible faction) |
The Lo Monte Gang was an East Harlem Mafia faction associated with the Morello organization and its Corleonesi-centered network. Secret Service reporting in 1913 called it the “Lamonti gang of Harlem” and treated it as one of four identifiable New York Mafia groups.[1] “Lo Monte Gang” and “Lo Monte family” are historical shorthand rather than demonstrated public self-names.
Origins and relationship with Morello
[edit]The Lo Montes came from Villafrati in Palermo province. Vincenzo Lo Monte immigrated in 1889, followed by his wife Caterina Cappellano and sons Gaetano—later known as Tommaso or Thomas—and Fortunato. The family settled around East 109th Street among relatives, plasterers and figures connected with Giuseppe Morello.[1]
By 1905, Fortunato lived in the same East 106th Street tenement as Morello. A 1909 letter to Chicago Mafia leader Rosario Dispenza listed Thomas and Fortunato among men signing collectively as “All of Corleone.”[2] The wording reflects their alignment with the Morello–Corleonesi circle; it does not make Villafrati their birthplace or prove that every Lo Monte relative belonged to a criminal organization.
Separate faction, 1912–1914
[edit]Archival researchers reconstruct Fortunato as having been elected to lead the reduced Morello borgata around February 1912, after Morello's imprisonment made an early return unlikely. This is a later reconstruction from Secret Service intelligence, not a surviving election record or formal charter.[3]
Secret Service informant Salvatore Clemente met Lo Monte and Terranova figures at a saloon at 227 East 107th Street, which agents called “Lomonte's saloon” or the “Lomonte brothers saloon.” A June 1912 report implicated Thomas Lo Monte and Nick Terranova in the killing of Rocco Cusano, while another report described Fortunato and the Terranovas planning a separate murder for gambler Giuseppe DeMarco.[1] These were intelligence allegations and are not presented as convictions.
After Giuseppe Fontana was killed on November 4, 1913, the Secret Service was told that the killing had been carried out by Manfredi Mineo's Brooklyn group and members of the Harlem “Lamonti gang” associated with the Terranovas. The informant described four gangs: Mineo, Schiro and Lo Monte working together, with Salvatore D'Aquila's Harlem organization opposed to them.[1][4]
This supports treating the Lo Monte group as a separately visible faction. It does not prove a clean secession from a centralized Morello family, since the Lo Montes remained relatives, allies and operational partners of the Terranovas.
Killings and dissolution
[edit]Fortunato was ambushed in East Harlem in May 1914 and died at Harlem Hospital. Gang Rule identifies Umberto Valenti, Accursio Di Mino and Joseph Biondo as the reported gunmen and attributes the order to D'Aquila; that attribution remains a historical reconstruction rather than a conviction for commanding the murder.[1]
After Giosue Gallucci's killing in May 1915, Thomas took control of Gallucci's policy game and continued meeting Terranova figures around First Avenue and East 116th Street. Thomas was shot and killed outside a saloon on October 13, 1915. His killer, Antonio Impelluso, was convicted and executed, but did not reveal who hired him.[1]
The brothers' deaths ended the Lo Monte faction as a separately visible formation. Surviving relationships remained within the broader Morello–Terranova milieu; the group did not become an independently continuous modern crime family.
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Jon Black, “The Lo Monte Brothers”, Gang Rule, July 6, 2024, citing Secret Service daily reports, civil records, court files and contemporary newspapers.
- ↑ David Critchley, The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891–1931 (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 52–54, 89–100.
- ↑ Richard Warner, Angelo Santino and Lennert Van't Reit, “Early New York Mafia: An Alternative Theory”, Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement, May 2014, pp. 52–61.
- ↑ Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime, pp. 154–157.