Reina crime family
| Also Known As | Reina Family Reina borgata Reina Gang (historical shorthand) |
|---|---|
| Origins | |
| Founding Location | East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City |
| Territory | East Harlem The Bronx |
| Lineage | |
| Predecessor(s) | Morello organization Corleonesi network |
| Successor(s) | Gagliano crime family Lucchese crime family |
| Profile | |
| Structure | Sicilian Mafia borgata with a strong Corleonesi element |
| Activities | Ice distribution and related businesses Construction and hoisting interests Factional violence and murder |
| Politics | |
| Leader | Gaetano “Tommy” Reina (to February 1930) Bonaventura “Joseph” Pinzolo (Masseria-backed claimant, 1930) Tommaso Gagliano (faction leader and successor) |
| Notable Members | Tommaso Gagliano Gaetano “Tommy” Lucchese Stefano Rannelli Vincent Rao Joseph “Pip the Blind” Gagliano |
| Activity | |
| Status | Continued under Gagliano and later Lucchese |
| Years Active | c. 1910s–1930 (Reina-led phase; exact separation date uncertain) |
The Reina crime family was an East Harlem and Bronx Mafia borgata led by Gaetano “Tommy” Reina until his killing in February 1930. It emerged from the broader Corleonesi and Morello milieu but became a genuinely separate organization. The exact date and mechanism of separation are not securely documented; early association does not establish one formal founding meeting or declaration of independence.[1]
“Reina Family” and “Reina borgata” are retrospective historical terms. The organization continued after Reina under Bonaventura Pinzolo's brief, contested leadership and Tommaso Gagliano's ultimately successful faction, eventually becoming the family later named for Gaetano “Tommy” Lucchese.
Corleonesi and Morello roots
[edit]Reina was born in Corleone and belonged to the extended social and criminal environment around Giuseppe Morello. His family had marriage connections with Morello's relatives, while Reina, Angelo Gagliano and Jack Dragna appeared together in the investigation of poultry dealer Barnet Baff's 1914 killing.[1] Their appearance in one investigation establishes association and allegation, not a complete early membership list or the founding date of a separate family.
East 107th Street laundries, saloons and residences connected Reina and the Gaglianos with Morello relatives and associates during the 1910s. Critchley nevertheless treats the later Reina Family as a distinct borgata primarily active in East Harlem and the Bronx.[2] The defensible genealogy is therefore a Corleonesi-derived branch that became organizationally separate—not simply another name for the 107th Street Mob.
Business base and organization
[edit]Reina became a prosperous wholesale ice dealer, and the family is widely associated with the Bronx ice-distribution trade. A contemporary report described him as a “wealthy wholesale ice dealer” when he was killed in 1930.[3] The legitimate trade provided livelihood, neighborhood influence and business relationships; it should not be converted automatically into proof that every ice dealer or relative belonged to the Mafia.
Figures later associated with the family also held interests in laundries, construction and hoisting. Tommaso Gagliano worked in the Columbus Wet Wash Laundry milieu, while members or relatives later participated in the Five Boro Hoisting Company.[1] Individual narcotics, extortion or violence allegations should not be generalized into a complete family activity list without period-specific evidence.
Reina's killing and Pinzolo succession
[edit]Reina was shot after leaving an apartment building at 1521 Sheridan Avenue in the Bronx on the night of February 26, 1930. Contemporary reporting identified two unknown assailants but did not establish who ordered the murder.[3] Later Mafia accounts attributed it to Giuseppe Masseria's effort to control the family; that interpretation is reported as retrospective evidence rather than a judicial finding.[4]
Masseria backed Bonaventura “Joseph” Pinzolo as Reina's successor. Much of the existing membership remained loyal to a faction around Gagliano and Gaetano Lucchese. Critchley notes that the family initially made no collective move to avenge Reina because some members considered his killing partly “justified”; this underlines internal division rather than unanimous succession.[1]
Pinzolo was killed in a Manhattan office on September 5, 1930. The evidence supports a contested leadership imposed through Masseria's coalition and then overturned—not a stable new “Pinzolo family” replacing the Reina organization.
Gagliano and Lucchese continuity
[edit]Gagliano's faction gained control during the Castellammarese War. The organization subsequently became conventionally known as the Gagliano family and later the Lucchese crime family. The change involved leadership succession and wartime realignment rather than three unrelated organizations being founded in turn.
This branch is important to the genealogy of the early New York Mafia: the Morello organization did not feed only into the Masseria–Luciano–Genovese strand. A separate Corleonesi-derived Reina–Gagliano strand developed toward the Lucchese family.[1]
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 David Critchley, The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891–1931 (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 86–103, 147–148 and 174–181.
- ↑ Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime, pp. 147–148.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 “Wealthy Ice Dealer Slain in Doorway”, The New York Times, February 27, 1930.
- ↑ Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime, pp. 174–175.