Symbolism in Mafia Murders

Some times the mafia is using symbolic messages as a sign on their murders,usually to place their members in order or to put fear in their rivals.Heres some examples....

Machine gun Jack McGurn was gunned down, while bowling, by three men with machine guns. The identity of the hit men and motive is not known. However, two theories are widely accepted: 1) Revenge for McGurns’ supposed involvement in the Valentine’s Day massacre. 2) Silencing heavy drinker and braggart McGurn by the South Side gang. Curiously, a poem was found in his right hand and a nickel in his left.McGurn had been known to press nickels into his victim’s hands.

Antonio Caponigro (aka Tony Bananas) who ordered the killing of Angelo Bruno with out the approval of the mafia commision, was himself killed just a few weeks later in retaliation.Caponigro and his brother-in-law Alfred Salerno were taken to an isolated house in the mountains of upstate New York where they were tortured for days before finally being killed.300 dollar bills were found stuffed in his mouth and anus to symbolize greed. The Philadelphia Family went into decline after Bruno’s death.

Rocco Marinucci's body was found a year to the day after Phil Testa's death, with firecrackers stuffed into his mouth and throat. An informant later told police that Marinucci had killed Testa, and that Testa's son, Salvatore, had killed Marinucci in revenge, using the firecrackers to symbolize the bomb used on Testa.

Sonny Black Napolitano was also less lucky. Seventeen days after Joe Pistone came up with the news that hes an undercover fBI agent,Sonny disappeared.His bullet-ridden body was found in a bag on Staten Island, his hands cut off, the punishment for violating Mafia security.

Sam Giancana was shot once in the mouth and 5 times in the neck or under his chin as a message for silence.He was about to testify infront of the Senate Committee.Joey Aiuppa may have feared Giancana would reveal everything he knew about Chicago mob operations.

At one point during his “career,” Bruno Facciolo was a made man and a full member of the Lucchese crime family. He’s even been associated with the murder of Thomas “Two-Gun Tommy” DeSimone .In 1990, however, he was lured into a garage by two detectives moonlighting as hitmen, stabbed repeatedly, then shot to death. A dead canary was then stuffed in his mouth because it was believed he was an informant – which, as it turns out, he wasn’t.

Retired FBI agent John Connolly, is currently serving a 10 year prison sentence after being convicted on charges of racketeering and Obstruction of Justice in regards to his actions protecting FBI Informants/organized crime figures who were part of Boston’s "Winter Hill Gang" run by fugitive "Whitey" Bulger.In 2005, Connolly was charged with the First Degree murder of World Jai Alai President John Callahan, who in 1982 was found dead in the trunk of his car with a dime on his chest, a Mafia warning to it’s members not to "drop a dime" on associates by ‘snitching’ to law enforcement.

Joey Cantalupo in one of his interviews said that Joe Colombo's father Anthony Colombo,was a Cosa Nostra soldier who was found dead in car together with his mistress with his dick cut off and placed in his mouth.It was a sign that he was fooling around with another made guy's wife.

Also when a thief stole jewel-studded crown from a Brooklyn church,Joe Colombo found the thief and forced him to return it.The thief complied,but kept three diamonds from the crown. Soon afterwards,the body of the thief was found with a rosary wrapped around his neck as a message.

This is not a murder but Frank Abbandando J. gave a powerful capo in the Colombo crime family the middle finger and although his life was spared,his middle fingers were severed by a dull knife and sent to him preserved in vinegar.

If any1 has any other examples to add to this list,please feel free to contribute.Cheers

"Sonny Black Napolitano was also less lucky. Seventeen days after Joe Pistone came up with the news that hes an undercover fBI agent,Sonny disappeared.His bullet-ridden body was found in a bag on Staten Island, his hands cut off, the punishment for violating Mafia security."

This is Mafia Urban Legend created by the Feds and Pistone. Massino testified that Sonny Black was killed because Sonny Black was making moves to take over the family and not because of Brasco. If that was the case, why was Lefty, the guy who really took Brasco around by the hand, was allowed to live in prison for 20 years and died as a free man?

I think that the feds snatched him right before getting whacked

they were going to kill Lefty apparantley but the feds snatched him on his way to the meeting where they thought he was going to be killed.

Roselli's decomposing body was found in a 55-gallon steel fuel drum floating in Dumfoundling Bay near Miami, Florida. Roselli had been strangled and shot, and his legs were sawn off. According the theory, Roselli had revealed too much about the Kennedy assassination and Castro murder plots during his Senate testimony,

According to phil leonetti, back in the day scarfo shot and stabbed a guy named Caruso but Angelo Bruno specifically wanted the guy strangled as a symbol to show he had talked disrespectfully to Joe Rugnetta

Thanks for the info

I heard a story about Crazy Joe Gallo.
Some guy had taken a girl out for the night and at the end of the evening when the guy didn't get the sex he thought he was due he beat the girl badly, breaking her teeth and eye socket.
The girls rather angry father went to Joey Gallo for justice.
Joey had two guys bring the culprit to his headquarters on President street.
He was taken into the basement where Joey kept a Mountain Lion in cage.
He asked the guy which hand he had used to beat the girl with.
The guy responded he used his right hand and so Joey and his men made the guy stick his right hand into the cage where the hungry Mountain Lion turned it into mincemeat!
Dunno if this is true but knowing Joey Gallo I can believe it!

Many thanks for putting this story GaryH.

I also dont know how true is this,cuz you can never know what went on with Ricky Kuklinski.Story goes that while committing a mob-related murder Kuklinski removed the tongue of a victim and rammed it into his anus to send a message for the mob.I dont have any info on who was the victim.

Colombo Capo Charles Panarella supposedly once made a guy eat his own balls before killing him.
Later in life, Panarella was exiled to Las Vegas after his crew complained to Carmine Persico that he was an abusive Capo.

That makes me believe the balls eating murder!

(If anyone has any info on that please post)

Buffalo Mafia Member Alberto Agueci threatened to break the Mafia’s code of silence by informing on his bosses about their involvement in an international heroin smuggling ring.On Thanksgiving Day November 23, 1961 the body of Buffalo Mafia Member Albert Agueci 39, who was also known as “the Baker” of 21 Armitage Drive in Scarborough, Canada was found in a field near Rochester NY.Over thirty pounds of flesh cut from his body, his limbs and jaw broken, and his teeth knocked out. A length,of clothesline was knotted around the neck, his hands were bound behind the back with barbed wire, his genitals had been hacked off and stuffed into his mouth.According to the coroner’s report, his fatal torture had been spread over a number of days. The body had been doused with gasoline and set afire. Grass and undergrowth were burned for a radius of 6 to 8 feet around him.

Sounds worse than the Action Jackon murder!

Yeah you r right about that.God knows what kind of terror that guy was goin through

Is that story about frank jr.having his middle fingers cut off true?never heard it before.his dad was a powerful capo at 1point rite?didn't the gallo revolt start because they didn't get frank sr.rackets after his murder

Dont know how true is this,but theres a story goin around that he had some beef with the Colombos and that he showed a sign of disrespect.Plus his nickname was "Fingers" i think

After joe the boss maseria was killed there was an ace of diamonds in his hand in that famous photo, they tried to sell as some kind mafia symbol, but then it came out that a photographer staged it to be dramatic.

Chris Rosenberg is famous for his unauthorized fuckup by killing few columbian drug dealers over a drug deal.After this the columbians wanted revenge and everything fell on Roy Demeo.On May 11, 1979,Chris sat on the table with his associates,DeMeo pulled a pistol and shot Chris in the head,wounding but not killing him. After that Anthony Senter finished the job.Rosenberg's body was not dismembered or made to disappear.The Colombians had demanded that his murder make the papers otherwise they would not believe it had actually occurred.Roy's men placed Rosenberg's body in his car and riddled it with bullets.

Sammy Cesario or "Sammy the Fish" who was a low level soldier/associate in the Chicago outfit who was dumb enough to marry Milwaukee Phil Alderisio's girlfriend after the FBI sent Alderisio to the joint.Cesario,thinking he could reason with a lunatic egomaniac like Alderisio,took a trip down to Atlanta to get the murderers blessing to marry his former girlfriend. Milwaukee Phil gave the couple his blessing.However,right after Alderisio fell dead from a heart attack in prison.The contract he issued on Cesario was resumed and in October of 1971,somebody kicked the shit out of Cesario and after it put a bullet into Sammy's head.You just dont fuck around with another made man's wife,or in this case,girlfriend.

Did Sammy actually marry Alderisio's mistress? I don't remember that it went that far?
Anyway, they killed Sammy right on Polk St. in the Taylor St. neighborhood right by his house.

IDK, if there was any symbolism in that, they probably just sawed off his legs to fit him the barrel as a means of disposal. Interestingly, the existence of the New York mafia first came to public attention in a spat of "barrel murders" the Morellos did circa 1909, that's what led Joseph Petrosino to investigate the Sicilians and Camorra in NYC.

There are many infos indicating that really happened.There also another info sayin that Sammy's wife or Phils girlfriend was also murdered,but im not sure about that.

(This was originally posted by Oobatz)Joseph "Joe Jelly" Gioelli, one of Joey Gallo's top enforcers during the Profaci war, was invited on a deep sea fishing trip out of Sheepshead Bay. He was killed, dismembered and dumped in the ocean.

The next day a car drove by the Gallo headquarters and tossed out a package containing Joe Jelly's coat wrapped around some dead fish. The Sicilian message sent in that case was that "Joe Jelly now sleeps with the fishes ."

a dead fish?? it means luca brasi sleeps with the fishes.

Yeah,the Godfather movie has a lot of stuff from the Gallo gang in it

I forget the name of the victim but Anneillo Dellacroce once beat a man tied to a chair to death with a mallet hammer. When the cops found the body they initially thought the man had been decapitated and the head was missing. It was during the autopsy it was discovered the smashed in skull had been beaten down into the chest cavity. This was in the mid 50's.
I read about this in a book called Gangland International by James Morton. It was quoted by the detective who investigated Dellacroce for the murder but is the only time I've ever seen any info on this killing.

Lefty was arrested by the FBI and put into protective custody because they knew the mafia had put a contract on his life. Lefty refused to cooperate with the FBI and the Bonnano gave him a pass. He was sentenced to 20 years in jail, served 11, was released in 1992 and died at age 68 in 1994.

On thing I always wondered was what, if any, significance did the lamp found atop Roy DeMeo's body have?

I think I read somewhere that the lamp belonged to him. It was from his house and he was taking it to get fixed or something. Not sure where I got it from but I think it was from his son's book.

I think it was from murder machine?

Pino Greco cut off Salvatore Inzerillo's son's hand before killing him so "he wouldn't have used it to avenge his father".

probably, I read the two one about the same time.

seemed like vic amuso and casso had a thing for there hits birds,dick shots, neck tie. leting the rest of the family know whats up.