Salvatore D'Aquila

Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila (Italian pronunciation: [salvaˈtoːre ˈdaːkwila]; November 7, 1873 – October 10, 1928) was an early Italian-American Mafia boss in New York City of the D'Aquila crime family, what would later become known as the Gambino crime family.

Salvatore D'Aquila was born on November 7, 1873, in Palermo, Sicily, to Salvatore D'Aquila and his wife Provvidenza Gagliardo. D'Aquila emigrated to the United States in 1906 and became an early captain within the Morello crime family in East Harlem. D'Aquila was arrested in 1906 and in 1909; both times the charges were dropped. In 1910, boss of bosses Giuseppe "the Clutch Hand" Morello was imprisoned and Salvatore D'Aquila separated from the Morello family. D'Aquila formed his own crime family and was appointed the new capo dei capi. His crime family operated from East Harlem and the Bronx, where he rivaled the Morellos'.

D'Aquila expanded his crime family's power into Brooklyn and southern Manhattan's Lower East Side/Little Italy neighborhoods. The most prominent members of the D'Aquila family were Umberto Valenti, Manfredi Mineo, Giuseppe Traina, and Frank Scalise. In 1920, after Giuseppe Morello was released from prison, D'Aquila tried to have him and his closest allies murdered. In 1925, D'Aquila moved back into the Bronx.

On October 10, 1928, D'Aquila was shot dead on Avenue A in Manhattan, aged 54. After his murder, D'Aquila's family was taken over by Manfredi Mineo.

• Black Hand (extortion)

Citations

Sources

• Critchley, David (2009). The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891–1931. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781135854935.
• Hunt, Thomas (2016). Wrongly Executed? - The Long-forgotten Context of Charles Sberna's 1939 Electrocution. Whiting, Vermont: Seven Seven Eight. ISBN 978-1-365-52872-9.
• Hunt, Thomas; Critchley, David; Van't Reit, Lennert; Turner, Steve (October 2020). "Nicola Gentile: Chronicler of Mafia History". Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement: 5–41.
• Warner, Richard; Santino, Angelo; Van't Reit, Lennert (May 2014). "Early New York Mafia: An Alternative Theory". Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement. Retrieved 28 May 2016.

• D'Aquila biography on The American Mafia website
• La Cosa Nostra Database "Salvatore D'Aquila"
• Salvatore D'Aquila at Find a Grave
• Struggle for Control – The Gangs of New York, article by Jon Black at GangRule.com
• 1928 D'Aquila photos