Mobster – Joey Adonis

Joe Adonis (born Giuseppe Antonio Doto; November 22, 1902 – November 26, 1971), was a New York mobster who was an important participant, along with Charles “Lucky” Luciano, Frank Costello, and Meyer Lansky in the formation of the modern National Crime Syndicate.

http://bloodlettersandbadmen.com/2015/01/mobster-joey-adonis/

Thanks for this B&B. I´m glad of the fact that there are people out there who find these early days of the Mafia interesting and are willing to go that extra mile to inform and letting youngsters of today be aware of the intriguing history of the mob. Being a member of this and other Mafia discussion forums, I can see a decline of interest in topics related to the era when the Mafia was at its peak of power.

Regarding Adonis, I´ve always been interested what rank he held. I don´t think his rank has ever been confirmed by a crime historian, at least not to my knowledge. I know the Valachi charts show that Adonis had been a captain and that his crew was taken over by Alo. But I wonder how reliable that piece of info really is? Originally, Adonis seems to have been Brooklyn based before moving his interests to NJ. Alo´s crew consisted primarily of guys based in East Harlem and the Bronx. So that´s weird. Another kinda funny statement I´ve seen made by an informant says that Adonis was never made. But I can´t believe this informant was correct. Some speculate that Adonis may have been the consigliere while Costello headed the Family. I say it´s possible. But who can tell for sure? Another possible scenario is that Adonis may have been assaigned directly with Costello or any of the other two top guys. This kind of set up (the boss or another member of the administration having guys directly put with them) is more/was more common than we think. Regardless of his rank, he seems to have been a powerful member with a lot of clout.

Thank you for this. Your videos rock. I appreciate the rare rare photos and video footage of the subjects featured therein. Keep on going.

What I would like to know is what the Italian authorities were questioning Adonis about. Probably trafficking. Funny how when certain mobsters were deported, this just served to facilitate their illegal trafficking operations.

Thank you for the kind words. To address the issue "was he made" I'm just not sure. One would have to think so, however, remember the National Crime Syndicate (NCS) had, as its board of directors, Jews and Italians. Dutch Schultz was considered one of its most powerful members at one time.

Joey A. may have been made, but we assume Luciano, Costello and others went through the same ritual made men went though in the 60s and 70s. Valachi appears to be the primary source for this conclusion.

Meyer Lansky, Busgy Siegel, Irving Wexler (aka Waxy Gordon), and others all sat on the syndicates board - which some historians also call the commission.

It can get confusing sometimes as to who as who. It was the NCS who voted to take the Dutchman out after he defied their order NOT to kill Thomas E. Dewey. Did the NCS included the Five New York Families? Was it more powerful or did the Five Families operate independently? What about the Chicago Outfit? It appears they were independent of the Five Families and sometimes of the NCS.

I would love your thoughts!

Again, I appreciate the kind words. All I could find was the interrogation was related to "mob activities." If you can find anything more and can document it, please let me know.

Nice one BB.

When Kefauver questioned Adonis and asked him why he moved from Brooklyn to NJ he said ''Because the climate's better there'' lol

b and b. ive always had the understanding that Chicago was a family unto its own. that they had their own commission, Kansas city, Milwaukee, all the west coast, were under Chicago's wing,

am I wrong to think that the Chicago outfit had vast operations outside the U,S, under giancana. ive always heard their reach was far beyond what the new York families had.

correct me if im wrong.

Albert Anastasia was not Adonis' subordinate. They were both part of different families.

Happy New Year HK!
I'd like to think that Joe Adonis was the go between guy for all five NY families, Pittsburgh, what was left of the Camorra in Jersey, like a consigliere with acting boss power. Two in one. Very powerful. What do you think?

What was his connection to Pittsburgh?

Nice work B&B, although I think it's somewhat misleading to say Al Capone was 'childhood chum' of Frankie Yale. Ioele/Uale/Yale six years older and Al's literal boss, perhaps semi-mentor, tho' less so than Johnny Torrio. Frankie Yale a special interest and still poorly served by historians so just a head's up.

Also, regardless of Doto/Adonis' exact position, what most folks don't realize or don't recognize amid the array of facts and speculation is that Yale, Doto/Adonis and Frank Costello were ALL politically savvy, which means they were supporters of the reigning Democratic clubs, judges, etc.

"Murder Inc." the Turkus/Feder book is such a fucking mess both formally and tonally (it also omits much important info about 1930s Brooklyn politics/justice and how that led to William O'Dwyer becoming D.A.) it confuses much more than it clarifies but... within that morass are the answers we're looking for, or at least some of them.

I haven't looked into it, but I am thinking Joe Adonis was a major Heroin trafficker along with Luciano and Joe Biondo and the rest.

The reason I suspect this is because Joe Adonis was leading or co-leading the Broadway Mob. As one of the principal investors in that bootlegging enterprise, he had serious cash flow. It's hard to imagine someone like him moving from bootlegging back into just gambling and shylocking. Costello was the big gambler. So was Lansky. It's on record. Not saying Adonis had no interests in those areas, maybe he did. But it doesn't seem like someone of his stature could play a lesser role in those areas to people like Costello and Lansky and still maintain his status. That's why I think his cash cow was heroin.

If it was, then we would expect to find him going back and forth between Italy and the United States before he was deported. Maybe even France or Turkey.

EDIT: Here is a hint from American Mafia dot com:

"Mafia informant Joseph Valachi stated that Adonis - who directed criminal activity at the Brooklyn docks alongside Albert Anastasia and ran a Brooklyn eatery, Joe's Italian Kitchen on Carroll Street and Fourth Avenue - was among those targeted for elimination by Maranzano after the conclusion of the Castellammarese War in 1931. After Maranzano was assassinated later that year, the Mafia reorganized. Adonis became a major player in the reorganized underworld, though his precise role in the hierarchy is hazy."

From American Mafia Blogspot

That's pretty much a open and shut case there as far as I am concerned. If Adonis was helping Anastasia supervise the waterfront, then he was a dope smuggler. Everyone knows that the two largest families dominated the waterfront, the Anastasia and Luciano families. Joe Adonis might have been the Luciano family dope traffic supervisor at some point. Basically he looks like he was one of the early "drug capos" which were employed by bosses to oversee that part of the family's revenue.

If true, then this means his "deportation" partly served to help facilitate Adonis' business activities.

Probably he was in risk of serious indictment in the United States and someone pulled strings to turn it into a deportation...like Luciano's. This helped a lot of accomplices get rich and stay rich. It kept the grease flowing.

Good point about Yale. He's sometimes referred to as a Masseria capo but I'm yet to see any historical basis. It seems a bit like he ran his own family. Not to mention Capone killing him seems kind of dubious...not to get off topic, if you have a take on those ^ PM me! I'm pretty interested.

I´m not sure this National Crime Syndicate and its board of directors even existed. At least not in the way of a combination of Jewish gangsters and LCN, including the Chicago outfit. I´m sure representatives from the two groups met to discuss crime and share ventures but a joint, formal ruling body seems far fetched to me. I could be wrong because I do not know much about Jewish organized crime but I can´t remember any of the Italian informants telling about a National Crime Syndicate.The info I´ve got on Schultz´s murder is that it was discussed and settled among the bosses on the Italian Commission (LCN).

Anything is possible. One way to find out I guess is to read his FBI files and see what is in there. I know Faithful has his files so perhaps he can cut in here and share info on this.

And of course, Happy New Year to you too AG! Let 2015 be a nice and joyful one!

exactly. Waxey Gordon on a Comission? Never. He was part of the bootlegging big7 BUT that was just a business arrangement. no real power in the sense of a director on a board of directors, each with an army behind. Chicago communicated more or less closely with NY until the late 50's i would say. Probably because of Appalachin they lost some trust in the new york families. From then on, there were no rackets shared with each other (to my knowledge), except for gambling in Vegas, what was considered from the beginning as "open territory". Everybody was on its own. But even there they only shared the city, not specific casions. and bugsy siegel wouldn't let go of the wire service and that didn't sit quite well with the outfit aswell.
Maybe, back to the so called National Crime Syndicate, if it existed it only existed for some small time. From '29 until '31. When Capone was gone, so was the NCS.

Chicago was not under the rule of the Five Families. Then again neither was New Orleans (Marcello), Florida (Trafficante'), or. New England (Patriarca).

Gus Russo in his books "The Outfit" notes that unlike New York which had five families battling over turf all the time, Chicago was unified as a result of one sixty second shooting on Valentine's Day in 1929.

I hope I'm doing this right. I am trying to respond to a specific quote by mickey2.
I like what you wrote, "Maybe, back to the so called National Crime Syndicate, if it existed it only existed for some small time." If the Syndicate did exist, it would appear that the better reorganized Italian/Sicilian Borgata's took over the Syndicate at some point and completely dominated. Meyer Lansky being the last Jew who really had any power.

Thanks my friend.

Chicago was not under the rule of the Five Families. Then again neither was New Orleans (Marcello), Florida (Trafficante'), or. New England (Patriarca).

Gus Russo in his books "The Outfit" notes that unlike New York which had five families battling over turf all the time, Chicago was unified as a result of one sixty second shooting on Valentine's Day in 1929.

Later on no doubt. But I believe at the beginning of the syndicate (if it even existed) Anastasia was under Luciano, Lepke Buchalter, and others who could give orders to Murder, Inc.

I don't think there was ever a National Syndicate, based on the fact that if you weren't in the mafia, you had no vote.

HK you know who is another name that is overlooked Frank Erickson the guy who did the books for a lot of these guys.
Here's something I found. My Pops told me about a club in Cliffside down the street from his house so I looked it up. Found out that it was allegedly run by the Purple Gang out of Detroit. Now that just seems strange. The link: probably Erickson.

Murder Inc to me seems equally farfetched. Whose to say it wasn't a media creation and we weren't actually looking at the Buchalter gang?

All the Ocean Hill wiseguys that were tried and fried right alongside them?

Absolutely! The info was so insufficient back then the media wrongfully labeled Buchalter´s gang as killers for every known mobster back then. The ambitious and successful prosecutor Burton Turkus helped spreading the myth just to feed his own ego it seems not only by putting himself jn the middle of a "crusade" against a "nationwide gang of killers" but also by writing a book about his experiences. The myth of "Murder Inc" still lives today...sadly. My opinion is that Buchalter´s gang was supervised in some way by elements within the Mafia, just like the Wasties were in the 1970s/1980s. It is said that Anastasia was a member of "Murder Inc". That´s just a ridiculous claim. He was not more a member of "Murder Inc" than Paul Castellano or Nino Gaggi was a member of the Westies.



Yeah. But I wouldn´t call them "wiseguys" if you know what I mean. Welcome to the boards LurkerGuy!

Were the Bernstein brothers of the Detroit Purple Gang affiliated in any way with Joe Adonis ?

Possibly yes. Adonis definitely had connections to Detroit. In 1950 Estes Kefauver discovered that Adonis had a very lucrative contract with Ford Motor Company. If I remember correctly, Adonis was the only one who was allowed to transport their cars to dealerships on the east coast.

funny. i was just thinkin about orderin' turkus' book from the 50s about murder inc. also, chris cipollinis new book[1], also named "murder inc" is out next month, ill definitely read this one also. As to Anastasia - i dont know. yet.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Inc-Christian-Cipollini/dp/1939521270/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

I read Turkus book last year. I really liked it. I would love to see your review. Just remember, he was dealing with the info he was getting at the time. Its easy, in retrospect, to play Monday morning quarterback.

Is it true that the infos/transcriprts that Abe Reles had given to the government disappeared?

Yeah the police threw him out the window his body was found 50 feet from the window

Was any of the Italian members of Murder Inc a made member of Cosa Nostra? I was told Louis Capone was probably made.

Frankie Carbo, perhaps.

Jack Parisi made in to the Anastasia Family then transferred to Scranton.

Yes he had the cars at the Ford Plant down in Edgewater, NJ. Ford's man Harry Bennett needed Adonis to keep guys from unionizing. What racket wasn't Adonis in...the guy was into everything. Thnx HK.

I agree.

He was also a convicted rapist.

There is plenty of gangsters with that on their record though.

There never was a MURDER INC. This has been one of the most
persistent, hard to quash mob myths to come down the pike. The myth
arose and was perpetuated for several reasons, including the almost
complete ignorance that existed half a century ago about the inner
workings of Cosa Nostra, the political ambitions of law enforcement
officials, and good old-fashioned media sensationalism.

There were a number of murders committed by a motley group of mainly
Jewish gangsters based in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Most of
the killings had to do with battles over rackets of the garment
industry in Manhattan and had nothing to do with Cosa Nostra. When
gang leader Lepke Buchalter (right) came under great legal pressure,
like many mob bosses of the 1980's and 1990's, he lost his cool and
began rubbing out anyone who he thought might testify against him.
There never was a group of hired killers waiting for contracts from
the Bosses of Cosa Nostra. The main focus of all the convicted killers
was making money from the rackets.

The Cosa Nostra connection to some of these so-called MURDER INC. men
came from the fact that they were very loosely connected to Albert
Anastasia. If the Jewish guys were going to whack someone they would
check with Anastasia to make sure the murder wouldn't interfere with
any of his schemes. It was a political move and a smart one
considering the power that Cosa Nostra had. From this has come the
legend that Anastasia (left) headed MURDER INC.

The book MURDER INC. was written by Burton Turkus and Sid Feder. First
published in the early 1950's, it has been re-released by DaCapo
Press. Turkus was an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn who
prosecuted many of the killers. No one understood Cosa Nostra back
then and Turkus simply got some things wrong. He knew there was some
kind of national structure to organized crime but he overestimated its
organizational structure. Like many, Turkus was thinking along the
lines of a legitimate national company that had clearly defined roles
and job descriptions.

There is an excellent explanation of MURDER INC. in the book, "East
Side West Side," by Professor Alan Block.

Some of the colorful names of the many killers mentioned in the
Turkus/Feder book include:

Abe (Kid Twist) Reles
(Blue Moon) Magoon
Harry (Pittsburgh Phil) Strauss
Harry (Happy) Maione
Albert (Tick Tock) Tannenbaum
Frank (The Dasher) Abbandando
Motel (Bugsy) Goldstein

I think it was Allan May in his ridiculously expensive book, Gangland Gotham, said he did researched Adonis background and police record and found nothing about this. He traced it to a single author and later authors simply repeated it.

Yes, the 7 men sent to the electrical chair ( including Lepke) were all a figment of the imagination, and Abe Reles accidently fell out of his window with 24/7 police protection.

Yea, if you had a reading comprehension ability above about a 2nd grade level- you wouldnt have come away with this retarded, semi-illiterate impression.

Jesus our public schools suck.

Article from Gangland News in 1998:

There never was a MURDER INC. This has been one of the most
persistent, hard to quash mob myths to come down the pike. The myth
arose and was perpetuated for several reasons, including the almost
complete ignorance that existed half a century ago about the inner
workings of Cosa Nostra, the political ambitions of law enforcement
officials, and good old-fashioned media sensationalism.

There were a number of murders committed by a motley group of mainly
Jewish gangsters based in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Most of
the killings had to do with battles over rackets of the garment
industry in Manhattan and had nothing to do with Cosa Nostra. When
gang leader Lepke Buchalter (right) came under great legal pressure,
like many mob bosses of the 1980's and 1990's, he lost his cool and
began rubbing out anyone who he thought might testify against him.
There never was a group of hired killers waiting for contracts from
the Bosses of Cosa Nostra. The main focus of all the convicted killers
was making money from the rackets.

The Cosa Nostra connection to some of these so-called MURDER INC. men
came from the fact that they were very loosely connected to Albert
Anastasia. If the Jewish guys were going to whack someone they would
check with Anastasia to make sure the murder wouldn't interfere with
any of his schemes. It was a political move and a smart one
considering the power that Cosa Nostra had. From this has come the
legend that Anastasia (left) headed MURDER INC.

The book MURDER INC. was written by Burton Turkus and Sid Feder. First
published in the early 1950's, it has been re-released by DaCapo
Press. Turkus was an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn who
prosecuted many of the killers. No one understood Cosa Nostra back
then and Turkus simply got some things wrong. He knew there was some
kind of national structure to organized crime but he overestimated its
organizational structure. Like many, Turkus was thinking along the
lines of a legitimate national company that had clearly defined roles
and job descriptions.

There is an excellent explanation of MURDER INC. in the book, "East
Side West Side," by Professor Alan Block.

Some of the colorful names of the many killers mentioned in the
Turkus/Feder book include:

Abe (Kid Twist) Reles
(Blue Moon) Magoon
Harry (Pittsburgh Phil) Strauss
Harry (Happy) Maione
Albert (Tick Tock) Tannenbaum
Frank (The Dasher) Abbandando
Motel (Bugsy) Goldstein

Yet there was a reason that the Cosa Nostra used Lepke's hitmen and not their own for the Dutch Schultz hit. Doesn't this show at least some links between them?

Exactly.. also, a couple of members were sent out west to assist Bugsy. The label "Murder Inc" has a Madison Avenue appeal to it, but saying it didn't exist or a myth is absurd. The number of murders and the extent of their activity were most likely exaggerated but it certainly did exist.

It took an incredible amount of clout to get to Abe Reles. What power, aside from gravity, was behind his death and why so eager to silence him?

As he is stating in his article
There never was a group of hired killers waiting for contracts from
the Bosses of Cosa Nostra. The main focus of all the convicted killers
was making money from the rackets.

Now that may be true but that doesn't mean that there weren't men being clipped left and right. These were stone cold killers.

Do not let Capeci or whoever wrote that article fool you into thinking these men wouldn't whack you as soon as look at you for getting in the way of their business of making $$$$ money.

It was a separate entity from Cosa Nostra. I'll take the word of Reles and other corroborating informants over what it was, than authors writing revisionist articles with no good evidence to back anything.



This restaurant was adjacent to Duke's Bar and Grill. Willie Moretti and Adonis would be at Duke's frequently. Carl Sifakis gives the wrong address in his books. I don't know why the Detroit Purple Gang would be located next door, maybe gambling wire related?

I think you and I may be talking about two different places. This was not next to Duke's.

There was a place called the 85 club or something like that. According to the FBI Vault, the address was adjacent to Dukes. Maybe they had interests in more than one establishment.

That does sound like the right club.

I think there was a Murder Inc, but they never called themselves that...only the media did.

Someone here said that "Murder Inc" was probably just the Lepke crew. Well of course that's what it was. The only thing here that is unlikely is the idea that a group of killers was just sitting around in Brownsville waiting for murder contracts to come through and didn't have any other rackets going on.

If "the Lepke crew" was Murder Inc, then maybe everyone under Lepke was part of it. That's not just the Brownsville "boys", that's also the Garment District in Manhattan also.

One more thing. Capeci's article mentions Blue Moon Magoon. That might be correct, but the appellation I always read was Blue Jaw Magoon.

I don't think the number of killings is exaggerated as much as the number of killers may have been underestimated. I don't believe for one minute that everyone from Murder Inc was prosecuted and or apprehended.

I doubt anyone ever believed that.

problem with this is that there's testimony that there actually were contracts and those guys were yellow of greed if another hitter "stole" their contract and killed the specific guy first.



sure. but most of those guys only had killing and narcotics.



that sounds reasonable.

Nice catch. He was called Blue Jaw Magoon because of his 5 o'clock shadow. If someone can't get that information right, why should I believe anything else?

I don't see how any author today can have "inside information" to what occured 80 years ago. Unless they have 100 year old informants in nursing homes feeding information, it's all biased opinion we're entitled to disagree with. The information provided by Reles and others is the best available IMO. As far mafia informants, Joe Valachi acknowledged its existence but said mafia and murder inc did not collaborate, which was true generally though there may have been exceptions.