Mafia on the Bayou, The Carlos Marcello Family

A NEW RELEASE:


Down in "The Big Easy," as the City of New Orleans is commonly referred to, is a very different animal from the rest of the United States.

It's alligator-filled swamps made it a very unlikely place to find Sicilian mafiosi in Italian-made alligator shoes.

But that's exactly what took place. In fact, Louisiana was to arguably become one of the very first birthplaces and settlements of Cosa Nostra in the country....This is their story!

https://thenewyorkmafia.com/2021/07/02/mafia-on-the-bayou-the-marcello-family-of-new-orleans-la/

Who Killa the chief??

A lot of Italian immigrants came in through the Gulf. It's the reason there were Italians in Tampa and Texas as well, although they couldn't just go anywhere. Places like N.O., Galveston, and Tampa were progressive for their times. Catholics weren't very welcome in protestant regions of the country then and Italians weren't considered to be "pure white" in the Dixie South.

Thats very true

The Matrangas were behind it. There is some evidence to suggest they were the shooters, however the evidence is weak. Tony Matranga was known as both hot headed and not very bright. He was his brothers Charles Matranga right hand man. Two of their cousins are said to have been shooters, who fled to Texas after the shooting, most likely to Galveston. According to the Marchesi family, Gaspare learned years later that one of the shooters had fled to New York City, and another had fled to Austin, Texas, and were from the Matranga faction, did not say family, so they were not related to the Matrangas. John Williams one of the state witnesses had been employed by the Matranga family around 1886 to 89 working either at the bar, or the brothel. The Matranga also had cops on their payroll, I have not come across any of them involved in the shooting but there was a lot of cover ups or at least evidence going missing against the Matrangas. David Hennessy, is said to have evidence of the Provenzanos innocents at a trial coming up for them, weather this was true or not we will never know, but consider how each faction had cops on their payrolls, it is not hard for me to believe that is the case and NOPD who were on the Matranga payroll got rid of ths evidence and said there was nothing to sustain those claims.

It was allegedly the Mafia/Black Hand powers that be there. As Vacari said, there was a competition for control of the wharf/docks. And although Hennessy was a top cop, he was allegedly sympathetic to one side over the other. So history would have us believe he was at least a biased, if not a dirty cop. And he paid with his life.

Frank Gagliano, Anthony Carolla, Joe Gagliano, and Joseph Marcello, Jr. photographed by FBI surveillance outside of Frank’s Deli in the early 90s.

https://louisianamafia.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/gagliano.jpg?w=344&h=266

great photo

Hennessy knew the Matrangas well and had problems with them, Tony and Salvatore especially when he was a young detective. Giuseppe Esposito had connections to Sicily, New York City, New Orleans, Tampa, and New Jersey. New Orleans while Hennessy was following up leads to Esposito, him and Tony Matranga are said to have come to blows, and was the start of animosity between the parties. Hennessy busted his ass while an officer, not much data on why he let some of the criminals go, but what is know about the other he let go were they were BS callers, and not strong evidence. I see no signs of corruption on Hennessy part. He was arrested for killing New Orleans Chief of Detectives Thomas Devereaux, but was found not guilty do to self defense. There is some evidence that Devereaux was corrupt and was on the Matranga payroll, he was known to have lunch with Charles Matranga occasionally. Hennessy left the force and went into a private firm in the city, and had minor interactions with the Matrangas until 1888 when he came back on the force as Chief and problems started over again for him and the Matrangas. The Matranga-Provenzano war, he was fair in handling of criminals, but I have to believe he was a little biased as he sure did put a target on Tony Matranga back.

Very good article. "Bobby Kennedy's Justice Dept. kidnapped Marcello" is only a slight exaggeration:

Like many Sicilian Mafiosi, Marcello entered the US illegally from Tunis, which had a big Sicilian population in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He had the money and legal muscle to fight deportation--all he had to do was show up at the INS office in New Orleans with his lawyer to get an extension. But at his first visit in 1961, he was met by Justice Dept. lawyers, who claimed that he had a fake Guatemalan passport. With his lawyer protesting, Marcello was handcuffed, marched to a government airplane, and flown to Guatemala City. The government there, tipped off by the Justice Department, declared him persona non grata, marched him to the border with Honduras, and dumped into a jungle, where he was expected to die. He was able to get to a village and contact his people in Louisiana, who sent a shrimp boat to bring him back to the US. He was promptly arrested and charged with illegal entry. He was tried and acquitted on...November 22, 1963

"Is it true? Is it false...that the Mafia conspired to remove Kennedy from office by violence? These things are lost to history...We will never know for sure."

How very true! Given the passage of 58 years, the death of so many people who were in the know or might have been in the know, and the loss or destruction of so much possible evidence, the only certainty about the Kennedy assassination is that the case will never be closed.

Great additional information Turnbull. Thanks for that.

And thanks for the compliment. Glad you liked the story.

The guy who wrote this article is a moron that has never been in the south and barely absorbed his source material (which was likely Wikipedia) on NOLA and Marcello.

After Hennessey killed Thomas Devereaux and got off, he was not lynched. He may have been killed by friends of Devereaux. The stories of the Mafia doing the murder grew over the past 20 years with the publication of a book about it, that was slanted against the men lynched. If the Sicilians had done it, they would never have ben found not guilty in that city in that time period. After the lynching President Roosevelt congratulated the lynch mob.

One of the theories was that Domonik O'Malley was involved in killing Hennessey. O'Malley was good friends with Devereaux. Anything is possible but I doubt it.

Do you have any more on the O'Malley theory? Thanks.

No, just one of those that was floated along the same lines as the friends of Devereaux being responsible for Hennessey'death. There really wasm't anything to back it up as I recall.

If anyone is interested, we here at ButtonGuys will be re-releasing a revised and newly expanded expose' I did on Carlos Marcello and the New Orleans borgata soon (possibly in the next week or two).