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Birth: 1896
When his father passed away his mother remarried a man named Bernardo Terranova. Together with her new husband she at least had 3 sons and daughters, amongst them were Vincent (b.1886), Ciro and Nicholas Terranova. It is believed that Giuseppe Morello was allready working with his future partner in crime, Ignazio Saietta, during the 1880's. In 1889 Morello and an accomplice murdered a police official in orders of the Mafia, a murder which would hunt him for another 20 years. Morello left for America in 1892 or 1893, most likely to escape conviction. He probably entered the country under a false name and with false documents. He went to live in Manhattan. Six months later, in the spring of 1893, the rest of the Morello-Terranova family traveled to America including his half-brothers. The family resided in New York for about a year before moving to Texas. By 1896 the family returned to Manhattan. This is were it all began.
The discovery was made by a woman who happened to pass by. Inside the barrel sat the corpse of Benedetto Madonia, the brother-in-law of Giuseppe Di Primo, a jailed Morello member. Both Saietta and Morello were arrested but were soon after released. A couple of days later another 8 men were arrested, amongst them was Vito Laduca. However, charges were dropped and when the trial was finished the Morello's were often searched and harassed by the police. Ciro Terranova, his brother Vincent, their nephew Charlie and Nick Sylvester were arrested ones while they were heading back home from work without doing anything wrong. Morello gave up his restaurant and also Saietta closed his import store. Together they opened a real estate company which was called the 'Ignazio-Florio Association'. When Giuseppe Di Primo got out of Sing Sing prison he wanted revenge for the murder of Madonia. First by talking to investigator Joseph Petrosino and later by murdering Tommaso Petto. Vito Laduca, who moved back to Italy, was given the task to murder Di Primo but was murdered instead in 1908, possibly by Di Primo. One year later 'super cop' and Morello enemy Joseph Petrosino was murdered in Palermo, Sicily. Vito Cascio Ferro, the old associate of Morello, was credited with the murder. It is possible though that the murder occured as a favor to Giuseppe Morello.
Now with both leaders put behind bars, there was need for new leadership. The Terranova brothers were appointed to lead the gang. Ciro Terranova had allready establish political contacts which made it easier to do business. Ciro's main business was his monopoly of artichokes, this lead to his nickname 'The Artichoke king'. He sold this Italian delicacy at very high prices. With this they earned fortunes. Violence however lay just around the corner.
and expanding his businesses, it is still unclear who exactly was in charge of the Morello Family. Probably Masseria pulled the strings while Morello, who was in his 60's, became the second in command. In fact, Masseria and Morello didn't hate each other as claimed by a couple of books, but reputedly had a solid relationship according to Joseph Bonanno. During the late 1920's Masseria was getting more and more suspicious of the growing number of Castellammarese natives in America and especially in Brooklyn. The Castellammarese where a close knit organization and operated in Williamsburg. During prohibition both groups would often hijack trucks from each other. Masseria tried to let the Castellammarese pay tributes to him, but they refused. Led under the command of Salvatore Maranzano they raged into an infamous war against the Morello/Masseria gang. This war was dubbed the Castellammarese War and all over the country Mafia groups would take sides. It was also a time of bloodshed as many found their death. Important Castellammarese members such as Gaspar Milazzo (murdered in Detroit 1930), Vito Bonventre (murdered in Brooklyn 1930) and Joe Aiello (murdered in Chicago 1931) were killed. But also Masseria lost allot of important members such as original Morello leader Peter Morello (murdered in Harlem, 1931), Joseph Catania (murdered in the Bronx 1931) and Al Mineo (murdered in the Bronx 1930). Masseria was eventually betrayed by his own lieutenant, Charles Luciano, and was murdered in a Coney Island restaurant on April 15, 1931, which ended the war. His arch enemy Salvatore Maranzano was now the new Boss of Bosses. Maranzano divided the 5 families in New York and every boss of a family had to pay tributes to the Capo di tutti Capi, Maranzano. Charles Luciano became the new boss of the former Morello organization, which was now known as the Luciano Family.