Giuseppe Morello
Born: 1870 in Corleone, Sicilia
Died: 1930 August 15
In 1892 Giuseppe Morello arrived in New York from Corleone. Six months later his family arrived including his mother, step-father, four sisters, his brother Nicolo and his two step-brothers, Ciro and Vincent Terranova. All four brothers shared the same mother, Angela Piazza. The family stayed in New York for around a year, but suffered from the lack of available work. Morello travelled to Louisiana to stay with a cousin, and within two months the family followed him. The father and Morello worked, for about a year planting sugar cane before moving on to Bryan, Texas. They worked in Texas as cotton pickers, but left after two years when the family was hit with Malaria. In 1896 they arrived back in New York.
Morello, who worked with his father as an ornamental plasterer, eventually opened a coal basement, but sold that after a year and around 1898 opened a saloon on 13th Street, soon followed by a second saloon on Stanton Street. Due to bad business he closed the Stanton Street Saloon and sold the one on 13th Street. He then opened a date factory, and employed around fifteen people, the business ran at a loss and was closed.
On June 11th 1900, Morello was arrested along with Colagero Meggiore. They were accused of selling counterfeit money and held on $5000 bail. The arrests had grown out of a Secret Service investigation that began when counterfeit $5 bills were being passed in Brooklyn and North Beach. Morello and Meggiore were believed to be the suppliers of the money, which was described as being printed on very poor paper with crude workmanship. Morello later walked free from court.
Giuseppe Morello’s next business move was the opening of a restaurant at the rear of the 8 Prince Street saloon, his younger brother, Ciro, worked as a waiter. The front saloon was then owned by Antonio Russo. Lupo held his import business next door at 9 Prince Street.
In January 1903 a counterfeiting case called the ‘Morristown Fives’ opened. Five dollar bills were being replicated in precise imitation to the currency issued by the National Iron Bank, Morristown, NJ. Giuseppe De Primo was arrested in Yonkers on New Years Eve 1902, Morello and Lupo were charged with passing counterfeit money, but the other suspects refused to implicate them and they walked free.
Benedetto Madonnia, brother-in-law to the jailed De Primo, was murdered in April 1903. The case became known as ‘The Barrel Murder’ after Madonnia’s body was found cut and stuffed into an old barrel, in East 11th Street. Morello and Lupo were again arrested, they were eventually cleared due to lack of evidence.
After the trial had finished in June 1903, the whole Morello family were searched and hounded on a regular basis. One night, Ciro Terranova was travelling home from work with his brother Vincent, nephew Charlie and Nick Sylvester when they were all arrested and kept overnight. On another occasion Ciro and Nicholas Morello were arrested whilst trying to locate a doctor for Giuseppe’s son, Charles. Following the Barrel Murder trials Morello gave up his restaurant interest and briefly moved into the olive oil business at 628 138th Street.
In 1904, Giuseppe Morello and Lupo started a real estate company, The Ignazio Florio Association, they were involved in the construction and selling of properties in Harlem. The company office was based at 630 E138th Street, also the home of Giuseppe Morello. With the brothers as presidents and largest stockholders, the company lasted for around four years but went out of business in 1908 and was later investigated by the Bankers Association of America.
On February 11th, 1909, Giuseppe Morello relocated to 207 E107th street. His current home/office at 630 138th Street was built by his failed real estate company, the Ignazio Florio Corporation, and the building had to be handed over to the company receivers. After Morello moved from his home a meeting of the shareholders was held and the 630 E138th house was sold. E107th street would be a welcome area to Morello, number 231 was one particular address that contained many important names - Giovanni Rao who ran the feather shop on the ground floor and was father to Joey Rao, Steve LaSalle lived there and also Angelo Gagliano who ran a saloon at 277 E107th with Ippolito Greco. Further along on E107th was Salvatore Romano the Morello family doctor, Romano’s mother had been the midwife for Morello’s mother in Corleone.
On April 29th 1909, the Morello wife had another child, but just three months later Giuseppe Morello lost his father to old age.
On November 15th, 1909, secret service agents met with officer Carraro from the police and went to 207 East 107th, here they arrested Giuseppe Morello in connection with a counterfeiting ring in Highland, New York. He was taken from his bed with a loaded .44 calibre revolver. Morello was placed in the front room with his son whilst the agents searched the house, Morello passed two letters to his wife to hide but Carraro spotted them and informed the agents, they then found a further four letters hidden inside a baby’s diaper. In the resulting court case Morello was sentenced on the first count to 15 years hard labour and a $500 fine. On the second count, 10 years hard labour and a $500 fine.
In January 1911, almost one year after his imprisonment for counterfeiting, Giuseppe Morello was reported to have spoken to the Attorney representing the US authorities. In the hope of shortening his sentence he supplied information about the murder of Lieutenant Petrosino. Morello later withdrew his statements and refused to sign them. The contents of the talks were never officially released, but it was claimed that he had pointed to Carlo Costantino for the murder of Petrosino.
Later, seen as a chief strategist to Masseria, Morello was murdered during the Castellammarese war.