I was never really sure if Furnari has been convicted of rape until I found this little newspaper item. Now I know that it is true, although he was only convicted of attempted rape. Together with two other youngsters, Furnari was sentenced to a long prison term. This happened in 1943, when he was 19 years old. He still managed to get made once he was released from prison.

Published in New York PM Daily December 29, 1943:

"Judge Voices A Brancato"

"Jurist Expounds on Womanhood in Palermo"

"Kings County Judge Peter J. Brancato, who during the recent trial of a 14-year-old youth expressed approval of the old Western custom which gave the sheriff power to judge a man guilty and string him up, expressed a similar thought yesterday when he imposed heavy jail sentences on three young men found guilty of attempting to rape three girls during an auto ride.
"Had you committed the same crime in Palermo, a city that has deep respect for womanhood," Brancato said, "I dare say you never would have been brought to trial."
One of the defendants, Christopher Furnari, was sent to Sing Sing for 15 to 30 years. Nunzio Morrone and John Tellini each received 10- to 20-year terms."

Since this was pre 1980's he probably did 5 years.

I tried to find out when he was released but couldn´t find anything on that. Considering also his young age at the time, you may be right.

If they had done it in Palermo, I suspect instead of appearing in court they would have received backstreet .38 calibre vasectomys!

Nice find Hairy.

hairy that's cool article in some old fbi files(merry feral or what ever that site called) in the 60tys profaci and his brother inlaw were giving chris furnari photo's of the gallo gang he was like the hitman in Brooklyn young age to be dealing with bosses I don't think it was scarpa who was the informer in those pages either. it also said he was in the luchese family. so familes used each others soldiers for sneak jobs.is any photos of guy wheres he fort devens or butler. dam theres a lot of old mafia guys in those to prison hospitals. scarfo,snake,furnari,amuso playing cards. talking about all the people they killed well over in adx Colorado allie boy and vinny gorgeous can greet bulger when he gets there next week.hell on earth.

Thanks.

I´d like to add that Furnari was just a juvenile delinquent at the time of his attempted rape sentence. I highly doubt that he was a connected guy, even less on the record with any Mafia made guy at that point. If the Mafia sees potential in a youngster, that´s when they start to "school" him, or "groom" him as they say to get him on right track into what they consider being a man of honor. This probably happened after his release.



Yes. The MaryFerrell site is an excellent place for anybody who´s interested in the Mafia of the 1950s and 1960s. Loads of good stuff on there!

The tick was charged with attempted rape in a car? Six of them in a car kinda weird.

You'd think oldschool wiseguys wouldn't have condoned his rap as a attempted rapist.