The mafia was well known for their long standing ability to get away with murders. When someone breaks a rule they may have to pay with their life. Sometimes, the mafia has failed miserably in carrying out the hits. These men were high level targets and the consequences of failing to kill them proved to be deadly.
How Charles Luciano became Lucky
Charles “Lucky” Luciano was a rising young star in the New York City underworld in 1929. He was the leader of a group of up and coming mobsters known as the Young Turks. The Turks consisted of a bunch of future mafia legends: Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino, Joe Adonis, Tommy Lucchese, Joe Bonanno and Joe Profaci.
The New York mafia at that time had two main bosses, Joe “The Boss” Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. The men were arch enemies and the battle between them was leaving bullet riddled bodies on the city streets on a weekly basis. Lucky was working for Masseria at this time. Masseria was the definition of what they called a “mustache Pete”.
That year, Maranzano decided to make a move on Masseria’s young superstar. One day, Lucky was snatched by Maranzano’s men at gunpoint and thrown into the back of a limousine. He was viciously beaten and stabbed in the face. Somehow, Luciano managed to get away from his attackers. He was forever scarred by the incident and had a permanent droopy eye.
It was after this incident that he earned the nickname “Lucky” from his mafia peers. Luciano did not back down after the attack, instead he decided that he was going to take over the New York underworld and make it a more sophisticated empire than just groups shooting at each other in the streets. He had a vision that didn’t include the two current bosses.
He had Masseria killed first in 1931. His plans would not get off the ground if Joe the Boss was around. Then later that year, he killed Maranzano. After this he rallied the Young Turks and created the mafia commission. A ruling board that would mediate disputes between the 5 different families. This turned the mafia into the bonafide kings of organized crime.
Greg Scarpa’s war comes home
In 1991, a cold war was underway in the Colombo Family. Acting boss “Little Vic” Orena was attempting a hostile takeover of the family from imprisoned boss Carmine “The Snake” Persico. After polling the family captains, about 75% of them sided with Orena. When word reached Carmine in prison, a hit team was dispatched but failed to kill Orena, starting a war.
Orena responded by sending a team of shooters to kill Persico’s top hitman and loyalist, Greg “The Grim Reaper” Scarpa. On the morning of November 18, 1991, they waited outside Scarpa’s home until he came out with his daughter Linda and her infant child. They took off in two different cars with Linda behind Greg’s car.
At the intersection, the shooters jumped out of their van and began firing at Scarpa’s car. They hit the car several times, and hit Linda’s car which was stuck in the middle of the shootout with her baby. Everyone survived but Scarpa went ballistic and vowed right in front of his own family that he would kill the entire Orena faction.
It was just a couple weeks later that Scarpa started fulfilling his promise. He killed Vincent “Vinny Venus” Fusaro outside of his home hanging Christmas lights. Scarpa and his crew didn’t stop. They went out every night looking for Orena supporters and killed 4 more of them over the next few months. Eventually, the Orena side was forced to back down.
Scarpa would not be able to enjoy the spoils of victory for long. He had AIDS and then lost his eye in a shootout before going to prison. He died in a prison hospital bed in 1994 from the disease. A year later, it was revealed in a courtroom that the notorious hitman Scarpa had been a 30 year FBI informant..
The McLaughlins fails to kill Buddy McLean and starts a war
The McLaughin brothers were the most feared Irish thugs that ever walked the streets of Charlestown, Massachusetts. The leader Bernie McLaughlin was a hitman for the Italian mafia. Brother Ed “Punchy” McLaughlin was an ex boxer and rabid street fighter. The other brother George was the least imposing of the three.
One night George got beaten to a pulp by some Summerville gang members for harassing one of their girlfriends. Bernie reached out to Winter Hill boss James “Buddy” McLean to set the two gangsters up for death. Buddy was having no part of it. He let McLaughlin know that his brother was a jerk and deserved the beating he got. He refused to help and Bernie was livid.
The next day, McLean found a bomb planted under his car, which his wife and child were going to be driving on that day. This started an all out war that would rage for years. Buddy McLean had the psychopath Joe “The Animal” Barboza and the Winter Hill Gang on his side. The McLaughlins had a group of shooters, most notably the feared Hughes brothers, Steve and Connie.
The first to die was Bernie McLaughlin, shot dead by Buddy McLean on Halloween day 1961. Buddy and Barboza killed several more men over the next 3 years. On October 20, 1965 they gunned down Punchy McLaughlin. Now two of three brothers were dead, it looked like McLean was winning, then 11 days later he was killed.
Barboza continued hunting the McLaughlin side after Buddy’s death. He killed both Hughes brothers in 1966. He would then get into some legal trouble which caused him to become a witness against the mafia. His false testimony put several innocent people behind bars. The war was over by the late 1960s but some 60 young men had been killed.
“Donnie Brasco” gets the contract on Bruno Indelicato
This contract never was going to be fulfilled from the beginning. It was 1981 and there was a bloody civil war going on in the Bonanno Family. Two factions of capos were at war. On one side was Sonny Bleck Napolitano and Joe Massino, two up and coming capos. On the other side was Dominick “Big Trin '' Trinchera, Philip Giaccone and Alphonse “Sonny Red” Indelicato.
On May 5th, Sonny Black and Massino called a meeting with the three capos. When they got there they were met by a hail of gunfire and all three were killed. There was one last piece of business to complete the takeover, they had to find and kill Sonny Red’s son Anthony “Bruno” Indelicato. Bruno was a drug addicted hitman guaranteed to strike back.
Bruno had killed many people in the past. He was later convicted in the famous killing of Bonnano Family acting boss Carmine “The Cigar” Galante. He was no easy target and the Massino side could not rest easy until he was off the streets for good. For now, he had disappeared. The job of finding and killing Indelicato went to Donnie Brasco.
Donnie had been a high earning member of Sonny Black’s crew for 6 years. Sonny had confidence that Donnie would do the job and in turn, it would be Donnie’s ticket to become a made man in the Bonanno Family. But there was one big problem. Sonny and the rest of the crew had no idea that Donnie was really undercover FBI agent Joseph Pistone.
Pistone had been sent on a mission years before to infiltrate the Italian mafia. He earned his way into their trust by posing as a skilled jewel thief. Over the years, his operation yielded tons of evidence that would be used against the family. When the murder contract came down, the FBI decided to quickly pull the plug on Donnie Brasco.
Bruno was found by authorities before the Massino side could get to him. Sonny Black and Tony Mirra were both killed for vouching for Donnie Brasco. The other men involved all got long prison sentences and the Bonanno Family was thrown into chaos. One man who escaped the Donne Brasco scandal was Joe Massino who later became boss, then a cooperating witness.
A sloppy miss on Fat Pete Chiodo
The failed hit on “Fat Pete” Chiodo and the attacks on his family represents one of the darkest chapters in the history of the New York mafia. The long time claim has always been that the mafia only kills each other and not innocent family members. Those norms meant nothing to guys like Lucchese Family boss Vic Amuso and former underboss Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso.
Fat Pete was a Lucchese captain. He was a high level union fixer who had killed and beaten enemies of the family. In 1991, Chiodo was hit with RICO charges and decided to plead guilty in hopes of a lighter sentence. This infuriated Amuso and Casso, who then ordered that Chiodo be killed. Gaspipe and Fat Pete had been friends for a long time before this.
Chiodo was ambushed and shot 21 times on May 8, 1991. Amazingly, doctors credited Chiodo’s 400 plus pound physique that helped to absorb the damage and he survived. While he was recovering, Casso and Amuso sent word that his family would be killed if he cooperated. This disgraceful behavior and the threat against his family led Chiodo to do just that.
Fat Pete showed up for court in a wheelchair that September and testified against the Lucchese Family. His family would suffer as a result. Chiodo’s sister was shot and her husband killed on March 10, 1992. Three more of his relatives got killed in the next year, including his cousin who was stabbed 40 times. All this violence and doublecross did not help Amuso and Casso.
They both ended up going to prison for life. Fat Pete was called in to testify later against Chin Gigante and several other mobsters. Because of his cooperation, Chiodo did not serve any prison time for the RICO conviction and quickly disappeared into the witness protection program. Casso died from covid-19 complications in 2021 and Amuso still sits behind bars.