Josue Gallucci dominated Italian Harlem in New York City from roughly 1910 until his death in 1915, rising from a Naples-born immigrant to become the most powerful Italian figure in the neighborhood, a position cemented by his political ties to Tammany Hall. He was known as the undisputed king of Little Italy, yet his reign was marked by constant violent challenges. Despite his power and political connections, Gallucci himself was a target of Black Hand extortion attempts, and his rule was frequently contested by rival gangs. His death in 1915 sparked what became known as the Mafia–Camorra War, a brutal conflict fought over the lucrative illegal lottery rackets he left behind.
Gallucci was born in Naples, Italy, on December 10, 1864, to Toluca Gallucci and Antonia Cavallo. Known by the nickname “Lucerello,” he first arrived in New York City on the SS Werkendam from Rotterdam on March 11, 1892. Records suggest he returned to Italy at some point, leaving again on July 24, 1896, according to an Italian police report. That same report claimed Gallucci was rumored to have murdered a man just before his arrival in New York, an allegation he publicly denied.
In April 1898, he was arrested in connection with the murder of Josephine Insula, whom police portrayed as his lover. The arrest took place while he was operating a fruit wagon, and police described him as a young grocer and express man with a store at 172 Mott Street. Gallucci claimed he had no reason to kill the woman and provided an alibi; a grand jury later dismissed the charges. NYPD Detective Joe Petrosino, who led the investigation, urged his superiors to seek more information from Italy.
The police prefect of Naples described Gallucci as a dangerous criminal from the category of blackmailers, who had been under police surveillance and charged multiple times with theft, blackmail, and other crimes. Gallucci’s brothers had even more extensive criminal histories in Italy. Vincenzo Gallucci was imprisoned twice and convicted 16 times for assault, attempted murder, and other crimes. Francesco Gallucci was convicted six times for attempted murder, theft, and police assault.
Vincenzo was shot in New York City on November 20, 1898, supposedly on the orders of an Italian secret society similar to the Mafia, and died the following day. Francesco D’Angelo and Luigi Larossa were charged with his murder; both pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received sentences of 20 and 15 years respectively. According to Petrosino, the Galluccis were just three of more than 1,000 Italian criminals from Naples and Sicily who had settled in New York City. They attracted little police attention because they generally robbed their own people, and Italian victims rarely cooperated with authorities.
The Galluccis could not be deported because they had been in the country for more than a year. Gallucci built a network of businesses in Little Italy and East Harlem, starting on Mulberry Street and later moving to 318 East 109th Street, a three-story brick house with a bakery and attached stable. Following the 1910 arrest of Sicilian-American Mafia leaders Giuseppe Morello and Ignazio Lupo on counterfeiting charges, Gallucci became the undisputed boss of Little Italy. He owned several tenements in the area and controlled the coal and ice business, cobbler shops, olive oil trade, and an illegal lottery in Italian neighborhoods.
He was one of the most powerful money lenders in the area, with tight control over the policy game, and he used Neapolitan and Sicilian street gangs as enforcers. Gallucci ran the Royal Italian Lottery’s New York office, which was actually a front for his own policy game, selling thousands of tickets every month throughout Harlem. He operated the lottery from his basement and had agents in many cities with large Italian populations. A grand drawing was held once a month with a single prize of one thousand dollars, though winners were frequently robbed of the payout.
The majority of Gallucci’s income came from his control of policy gambling in Harlem, along with various gambling houses and brothels located in the section known as Little Italy. According to police accounts, Gallucci gained near immunity from law enforcement by aligning himself with Tammany Hall, the Democratic political machine that ruled Manhattan politics almost unchallenged. Tammany Hall controlled the city’s police and bureaucracy, which awarded construction contracts and licenses. Gallucci delivered a significant number of ballots through his ability to mobilize the vote in Harlem and register immigrants.
The New York Herald described him as certainly the most powerful Italian politically in the city, exceptionally active during campaigns. His political connections provided him some measure of protection from police interference. Salvatore Cotillo, the first Italian-born justice of the New York Supreme Court, grew up in Italian Harlem and later recalled that to Gallucci, everyone was either a hireling or a payer of tribute. It was considered a concern in the neighborhood if you were looked down upon by Gallucci.
When Gallucci was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, Cotillo was asked to testify as a character witness on his behalf but refused, distancing himself from the local underworld. Gallucci allegedly told a reporter from the New York Herald: “I have been accused of being interested in horse thieves, blackmailing, extortion from shopkeepers, bomb explosions, kidnapping of children, and other crimes including murder. My enemies are lying. They are jealous of my prosperity.
I am blamed for every criminal deed which takes place here, but it is not the truth. ” He added that many of the murders in the area resulted from quarrels among blackmailers themselves: “They gamble, which leads to fighting, and they dispute the division of spoils. If a leader thinks another is trying to become boss, that man is marked for death. ”
On November 14, 1909, Gallucci’s elder brother Generoso was shot dead in the back room of the family bakery.
An assassin walked in and called out his name; when Generoso appeared, he was shot and killed. One year earlier, in December 1908, Generoso had arrived in New York from Italy, having escaped from prison after serving 23 years of a life sentence for the murder of two men. He shared an apartment on East 109th Street with Josue and his sister-in-law Assunta. Soon after his arrival, police received complaints about extortion practices, but plaintiffs dropped charges when told they would have to confront him in court.
Police believed the killing may have been connected to Generoso’s blackmailing activities. The Gallucci bakery had been attacked only a few months earlier, with bullets smashing through a window. Some informants claimed Josue himself had been responsible for his brother’s killing; Josue blamed the murder on Aniello Prisco, a feared Harlem gangster. For the next two years, the rivals clashed frequently with occasional killings.
Prisco led the Black Hand gang and accused Gallucci of invading his territory. A 1917 police report based on testimony from gangster and informant Ralph Daniello described Gallucci’s position around 1912: he was in charge of various gambling games and received a percentage of proceeds from the sale of stolen horses and artichokes. The report stated that anyone who did not pay this percentage would be assaulted, receive blackmail letters, or be killed. A Sicilian faction, including the Morello brothers and their cousins, worked in conjunction with Gallucci, who at all times had been recognized as king.
Despite his power, Gallucci was not immune to Black Hand extortion. He was frequently threatened, his windows were shattered, and he had been wounded numerous times. Prisco’s gang of Neapolitan Blackhanders gunned down several members of Gallucci’s entourage in 1911 because he refused to make protection payments. On December 15, 1912, during a meeting at Gallucci’s bakery, Prisco was shot by Gallucci’s nephew and bodyguard John Russomanno.
Russomanno was not charged with murder because he claimed self-defense. Gallucci also faced pressure from authorities responding to the wave of murders, bombings, and blackmailings. In July 1913, he was among more than 40 people arrested in Mulberry Bend and upper Harlem in a crackdown on illegal gambling known as the policy game, led by Assistant District Attorney Deacon Murphy and Deputy Police Commissioner George Dougherty. Police described him as the leader of Italian criminals in Harlem, stating that his consent was required before anything out of the ordinary could be done there.
He was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, a Sullivan Act violation, and released on ten thousand dollars bail. The case never reached court, a result many attributed to his political connections. Gallucci was also involved in violent fights with rival gangs over control of illegal rackets. The Neapolitan Del Gaudio brothers were involved in illegal gambling in East Harlem and had connections with the Brooklyn-based Navy Street gang, but Gallucci allegedly denied them permission to operate a lottery.
Nicolo Del Gaudio attempted to kill Gallucci but failed, then fled Italian Harlem. He returned in October 1914 and was killed. Gallucci was blamed for the murder, but no charges were filed. With his prestige dwindling, Gallucci struggled to maintain control as the war with Prisco’s old gang raged on and rival lotteries began to emerge, threatening his dominance.
He had decided not to hire bodyguards again after a string of fatal shootings; being a bodyguard for Gallucci was considered dangerous work, as ten of them had been killed. Meanwhile, the Morello gang had split with Gallucci and formed an alliance with the Brooklyn Camorra gangs. On May 17, 1915, Gallucci and his son Luca were shot in a coffee shop on East 109th Street in Italian Harlem, a business Gallucci had recently purchased for his son. Gallucci was hit in the stomach and neck; his son was shot through the stomach while trying to defend him and died the next day.
The funeral for Gallucci’s son was the largest Harlem had ever seen up to that point, with the last carriages still leaving the church when the hearse arrived at the cemetery. Gallucci refused to speak with police, claiming he would settle the case himself, but he died three days later on May 21 at Bellevue Hospital.