15 of the Most Famous Italian Gangsters

15 of the Most Famous Italian Gangsters

Originally published by Vanessa R on May 2022. Updated by Charity K on May 2023 and Vanessa M on February 2024.

Mob bosses have long piqued the public’s interest, having been immortalized in Hollywood films like The Godfather. However, real bosses were at the forefront of enormous and brutal smuggling, laundering, bootlegging, sex work, drug, kidnapping, and murder enterprises behind these fictional descriptions.

The arm of organized criminal networks, which is typically deeply hierarchical, far-reaching, and difficult to infiltrate, often stretches deeper than the state and operates as a form of quasi-law enforcement. As a result, gang mafia commanders have a reputation for being untouchable.

The following are 15 of history’s most brutal, renowned, and feared Italian gangsters.

Read more about famous gangsters here.

1. Al Capone

Al Capone by Chicago Bureau from Wikimedia Commons

Al Capone was the most prominent crime boss in Chicago from 1925 to 1931. Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1899, and as a young man joined the James Street Boys gang, where he met his mentor Johnny Torrio. He accompanied Torrio to Chicago and eventually assisted him in running his bootlegging operation.

His use of severe brutality to maintain power, as well as the extremely public killing of his opponents in the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929, earned him the moniker “Public Enemy No. 1.” In 1931, the government was able to send Capone to prison for tax evasion after rising public pressure to do so. Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison (of which he served eight), but he suffered a stroke and died of a heart attack in 1947.

2. Bugsy Siegel

Bugsy Siegel Gangster by KirkAndreas from Wikimedia Commons

Bugsy Siegel was born in 1906 in Brooklyn, New York, and was most known as a mafia hitman and enforcer, though he also ran his own rackets. Siegel got involved in bootlegging and gambling as a close friend of Meyer Lansky, and later co-founded Murder, Inc., the mob’s enforcement arm.

Siegel relocated to California in 1936 and began inventing rackets for mob bosses on the East Coast. During his time there, he began wooing Hollywood celebrities and, as a result of his good looks and charisma, he achieved some notoriety. He eventually began establishing casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada and pocketed part of the mob monies intended for construction costs with the help of his lover Virginia Hill. Lansky and other East Coast executives were enraged by Siegel’s disloyalty and ordered a hit on the hitman. Siegel was killed by a volley of bullets at his girlfriend’s home in Beverly Hills in 1947 when he was 41 years old.

3. Lucky Luciano

Lucky Luciano mugshot by New York Police Department from Wikimedia Commons

Lucky Luciano, who was born in Sicily in 1897 and raised in New York City, was a key figure in the formation of the National Crime Syndicate and is widely regarded as the mastermind behind modern organized crime in America, thanks to his establishment of the Commission, the organization’s governing body, in 1931. As the head of the Genovese crime family throughout that decade, Luciano rose to become the most powerful mob boss.

After years of pursuing Luciano, District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey was finally able to put the gangster behind bars in 1936 for his prostitution operations. Luciano was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison, but he was able to reduce his term by assisting the US Navy’s security procedures during WWII. He was deported back to Italy in 1946, where he continued to conduct his narcotics enterprises in the United States. He died of a heart attack in an airport in Naples in 1962.

4. John Gotti

John Gotti by FBI New York from Wikimedia Commons

John Gotti, known as “The Dapper Don” for his love of nice clothes and media attention, rose to become America’s most powerful gangster boss in the 1980s. Gotti, who was born in Queens, New York, in 1940, was notorious for his rash behavior, which he displayed after ordering a hit on his Gambino mafia boss, Paul Castellano, in 1985. Gotti took over after the assassination and made millions in a variety of illicit operations, including loan sharking, prostitution, illegal gambling, and narcotics distribution.

Despite his many escapes from prison during the 1980s, giving him the moniker “Teflon Don,” the feds continued to pursue and build a case against him. Gotti was finally apprehended in 1992 with the help of his second-in-command, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, for a number of crimes, including five charges of murder (one of which was Paul Castellano), tax evasion, and racketeering. He died of throat cancer at a federal prison in Missouri in 2002.

5. Vito Genovese

Vito Genovese by Phil Stanziola from Wikimedia Commons

Vito Genovese is credited with both empowering and compromising the American mafia at the end of his rule, according to his voracious thirst for money and power. Genovese was born in 1897 in the province of Naples and migrated to Manhattan as a teenager. During Prohibition, he rose to power and worked closely with Luciano, assisting him in the establishment of the Commission.

Genovese escaped to Italy to evade a murder prosecution and set up heroin activities in the United States from there. He backed Benito Mussolini’s fascist activities during WWII but was finally apprehended and sent to the United States to face a murder charge. Genovese was released free after a crucial witness for the trial was slain, and he went on to clean house, murdering a number of his adversaries without hesitation and reestablishing his authority among New York City’s crime organizations.

Genovese was sentenced to prison in 1958 for possessing and distributing narcotics, and he died of a heart attack 11 years later in a Missouri prison.

Click here to read more about other famous crime families.

6. Frank Costello

Frank Costello by Al Aumuller, from Wikimedia Commons

Frank Costello was born in Cosenza, Italy in 1891 and grew up in East Harlem, eventually becoming the 104th Street Gang’s leader. In the 1920s, Costello teamed up with Luciano and became involved in gambling and bootlegging, establishing operations in both New York and the South. Costello began obtaining significant political power on the local level as Luciano’s closest economic associate, and once Luciano went to prison for running a prostitution ring, he finally became the major syndicate head.

Costello had his own run-ins with the law in the 1950s, serving time in prison for contempt and subsequently tax evasion by the US government. In 1957, he was shot in the head on the orders of Genovese, a rival New York mob boss. Costello miraculously survived and resumed his operations, but with significantly lessened power. Costello died at the age of 82 after suffering a heart attack.

7. Tony Accardo

Tony Accardo by Associated Press from Wikimedia Commons

Tony Accardo was born in Chicago in 1906 and became a protege of Al Capone, who helped him advance through the Chicago Crime Syndicate’s ranks. Accardo became the head of the Chicago Outfit in 1947, and he continued to live a life of crime for decades after that. Accordo enhanced the mob’s profits by shifting the mob’s focus away from extortion and illegal labor and toward smuggling narcotics and using slot machines and call girl services.

Accardo was accused of a number of killings over his criminal career, spanning from his suspected involvement in the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929 to his alleged retaliatory murder spree in retaliation to a home robbery in 1978, although he was never found guilty. Instead, in 1960, Accardo was charged with tax evasion, a charge that would later be overturned. After retiring from the mafia and becoming the last true boss of the Chicago Outfit, Accardo invoked the Fifth Amendment to refuse to testify against the organization during Senate investigations. In 1992, he died of heart and lung problems.

8. Sam Giancana 

Sam Giancana’s place in mob history is legendary, owing to Giancana’s insatiable curiosity about American politics. Giancana, who was born in Chicago in 1908, was the Outfit’s leader from 1957 until 1966 after boss Accardo announced his retirement. Giancana’s brutal personality made him legendary in the underground, and it was reported that by the age of 20, he had committed at least three murders and had been arrested over 70 times.

With his ties to Joseph P. Kennedy, who sought his assistance in securing votes in Illinois for his son John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1960, Giancana was said to be enraged when JFK gave his newly appointed Attorney General brother Robert F. Kennedy the go-ahead to prosecute organized crime. To this day, conspiracy theories abound that JFK’s assassination was staged by the mob, and more specifically, by Giancana himself.

9. Paul Castellano

Paul Castellano was the godfather of New York City’s most powerful crime family, the Gambino crime family, and was noted for his commercial acumen, which led mafia boss Carlo Gambino to choose him as his successor.

He mostly supervised operations from his estate in Staten Island after becoming the Gambino crime family’s leader, living lavishly and demanding larger dues from his underlings. This infuriated Castellano’s squad, particularly those who didn’t agree with his ascension, including Gambino member Gotti.

Indicted and charged on federal and state levels, Castellano was assassinated in 1985 by the volatile Gotti, who thought Castellano would get rid of him for surreptitiously selling narcotics, which the latter prohibited. Because the murder was unintentional, many mafia figures blamed Gotti for the Gambino crime family’s subsequent demise.

10. Giovanni Brusca

Giovanni Brusca (Italian pronunciation: [dovanni bruska]; born February 20, 1957) is an Italian gangster and former member of the Sicilian Mafia’s Corleonesi clan. He was a key figure in the 1992 assassinations of Antimafia Commission prosecutor Giovanni Falcone and businessman Ignazio Salvo, and he once claimed to have carried out between 100 and 200 murders.

Brusca had been sentenced to life in prison in his absence for his involvement in the Mafia and many murders. In 1996, he was apprehended, turned pentito, and his sentence was reduced to 26 years. Brusca was freed from prison in 2021.

After watching The Godfather it is safe to say that we now know where the directors got their ideas from. 

Read more about famous gangsters from different countries here.

11. Joe Masseria

Giuseppe Masseria also known as Joe the Boss was born on January 17, 1886. He was an early Italian-American Mafia boss in New York City. He was the boss of the Genovese crime family which is one of the New York City Mafia’s Five Families from 1922 to 1931. Masseria became cap dei capi in 1928 when he was selected to replace D’Aquila.

Masseria was involved in the Castellammarese War which was a power struggle for control of the Italian-American Mafia that took place from February 1930 until April 1931.

12. Stefano Magaddino

Known as the Undertaker was born on October 10, 1891. He was an Italian-born crime boss of the Buffalo crime family in western New York. His influence in the underworld stretched from Ohio to Southern Ontario.

In 1917, Magaddino orchestrated the murder of a Detroit gangster Felice Buccellato. For fifty years, he was a dominant presence in the Buffalo underworld and was the longest-tenured boss in the history of the American Mafia.

13. Vincente Gigante

Phil Stanziola, World Telegram staff photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Vincent Louis Gigante was born on March 28, 1928. He was known as The Chin in the Genovese crime family. Between 1944 and 1947, he was a professional boxer who fought in 25 matches. Gigante was the shooter in the failed assassination of long-time Luciano boss Frank Costello.

Gigante rose to power during the 1960s and 1970s and by the time 1981 came around, he became the family’s boss while Anthony Salerno also known as Fat Tony served as the front boss during the first half of the 1980s.

14. Anthony Salerno

Also known as Fat Tony was born on August 15, 1911. He was an American mobster who served as underboss and front boss of the Genovese crime family in New York City. Salerno controlled the largest numbers racket operation in New York which grossed up to $50 million per year.

His headquarters were at the Palma  Boys Social Club in East Harlem and worked in the areas surrounding the city. On April 20, 1978, he was sentenced to six months in federal prison for tax evasion and illegal gambling.

15. Anthony Corallo

Also known as Tony Ducks was born on February 12, 1913. He was an American mobster and boss of the Lucchese crime family in New York City. In 1943, he was appointed as a caporegime of his own crew which was a big accomplishment for a man in his early 30s.

Corallo was arrested at least 12 times for various crimes from 1941 to 1960. The Lucchese family was amazed at his ability to avoid convictions and gave him the nickname Tony Ducks.

Click here to read more about other famous crime families.

10 Best & Safe Places to Stay in Rome, Italy

1. Trastevere

Alessandro Cossu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

This charismatic district in Rome reads like a romantic novel, with its enchanting narrow cobblestone streets and medieval allure. As the sun sets, it transforms into a colorful canvas of cultural vibrancy. Trastevere, known for its bohemian ambiance, has a plethora of charming eateries and traditional trattorias that serve an authentic taste of Roman cuisine.

The vibrant nightlife here is a kaleidoscope of laughter and music that attracts both locals and visitors. In general, the area is safe. As dusk falls, Trastevere’s timeless charm captivates, making it an ideal retreat for those seeking the essence of the Roman spirit and a vibrant, unforgettable experience.

2. Spanish Steps (Piazza di Spagna)

The Spanish Steps, located in the heart of Rome’s Piazza di Spagna, are a symbol of sophistication and timeless allure. Surrounded by luxury shopping streets, this central area promises high-end fashion and elegant boutiques. The iconic Spanish Steps, a grand staircase adorned with azalea blooms in spring, serve as both a gathering place and a breathtaking spectacle.

Just a short stroll away is the enchanting Trevi Fountain, a Baroque masterpiece that captivates with its grandeur. The Piazza di Spagna district expertly blends opulence and historic charm, providing a sublime taste of Rome’s glamorous and artistic spirit.

3. Pantheon

Roberta Dragan, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Choosing accommodations near the Pantheon reveals a fascinating fusion of history and modernity in the heart of Rome. The Pantheon, a triumph of ancient engineering, stands as a majestic neighbor, its iconic dome dominating the skyline. The surrounding area reverberates with the footsteps of bygone eras, complete with cobblestone streets and charming squares.

Modern amenities seamlessly blend with the timeless architecture, resulting in a harmonious balance of the ancient and contemporary. Staying here not only provides a central location for exploring Rome’s historical treasures, but it also immerses visitors in an environment where the past and present coexist harmoniously.

4. Navona Square (Piazza Navona)

This jewel in the heart of Rome captivates visitors with its grandeur and lively atmosphere. The square, surrounded by exquisite Baroque architecture, is a masterpiece in its own right, with Bernini’s iconic Fountain of the Four Rivers as its centerpiece. This historic neighborhood has a vibrant atmosphere, with street performers entertaining and artists showcasing their talents.

Charming cafes line the perimeter, inviting visitors to enjoy the moment amidst the architectural splendor. Quaint shops offer one-of-a-kind finds, resulting in the ideal combination of cultural richness and commercial allure. Piazza Navona is a testament to Rome’s artistic and social vitality, as well as a captivating destination for exploration and leisure.

5. Monti

John Samuel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Monti, an eclectic Roman neighborhood entices it with its effortlessly cool and trendy vibe. It sits between the Roman Forum and the Colosseum, connecting ancient history and modern chic. Cobblestone streets lead to a treasure trove of boutiques, vintage shops, and art galleries, providing an unforgettable shopping experience.

The aroma of delectable cuisine permeates the air, as a variety of dining options line the alleys, ranging from traditional trattorias to trendy eateries. Monti’s artistic spirit, combined with its proximity to the iconic Colosseum, creates a magnetic enclave where the past coexists peacefully with contemporary flair, resulting in an immersive and unforgettable Roman experience.

6. Vatican City

Nestled in the heart of Rome, Vatican City beckons as a tranquil haven for visitors drawn to the splendors of St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums. Accommodation in this sacred enclave provides privileged access to the Vatican’s spiritual and artistic treasures.

As the sun sets, Vatican City transforms into a tranquil retreat, providing a welcome respite from the bustling city center. The quiet streets and ambiance invite contemplative strolls, creating a sanctuary where historical echoes reverberate. Staying here provides not only unparalleled access to religious and cultural landmarks but also a peaceful escape from the city hustle.

7. Campo de’ Fiori

Carlat82, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

This charming historic square is a thriving hub of cultural and culinary delights. A daily market transforms it into a sensory feast, with stalls selling fresh produce, flowers, and artisanal goods. The square’s charm extends to the surrounding alleys, which are lined with quaint shops and a variety of restaurants and bars.

This neighborhood is a bustling hub of activity and an ideal starting point for discovering the city’s treasures. During a leisurely walk, iconic landmarks such as Piazza Navona and the Pantheon emerge, creating an immersive experience that combines history, gastronomy, and vibrant street life.

8. Esquilino

Esquilino is a vibrant and multicultural neighborhood in Rome that unfolds as a fascinating tapestry of diversity. It is conveniently located near the bustling Termini Station and serves as a welcoming gateway to the city’s diverse offerings. Esquilino, with its rich cultural diversity, offers a variety of international cuisines, vibrant markets, and lively streets.

The neighborhood’s cosmopolitan atmosphere extends to its lodging options, which offer a diverse selection to suit a variety of preferences and budgets. Staying in Esquilino not only gives visitors easy access to transportation but also immerses them in a vibrant urban landscape where global influences blend seamlessly with Rome’s timeless charm.

9. Aventine Hill

My Past from Norway, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Aventine Hill, one of Rome’s historic seven hills unfolds as a tranquil haven, providing respite from the city’s hustle. This elevated enclave has a tranquil ambiance, creating a more peaceful environment for those looking for a retreat. At its heart is the enchanting Orange Garden (Giardino degli Aranci), where fragrant citrus trees frame breathtaking views of Rome’s iconic skyline.

The garden’s allure extends to the nearby keyhole view of St. Peter’s Basilica, which provides a picturesque setting for reflection. Choosing Aventine as a base not only ensures a peaceful stay but also provides access to hidden gems and panoramic views that define Rome’s timeless allure.

10. Testaccio

This authentic Roman gem entices foodies with its diverse culinary offerings and genuine local ambiance. This neighborhood is known for its traditional character and attracts visitors with a vibrant food market, Mercato di Testaccio, where stalls sell fresh produce, regional delicacies, and artisanal goods.

Beyond the market, Testaccio is a gastronome’s paradise, with a variety of restaurants serving authentic Roman cuisine. From classic trattorias to trendy eateries, the neighborhood provides a delicious journey through traditional flavors. Immerse yourself in Testaccio’s culinary heritage, where each dish tells a story about time-honored recipes and a steadfast dedication to the essence of Roman gastronomy.

In the heart of Rome’s rich tapestry, these ten enchanting neighborhoods provide not only lodging but also an immersive journey through history, culture, and modernity. From the lively Trastevere to the timeless Pantheon district, each location has its distinct charm. Safety, authenticity, and proximity to iconic landmarks combine to ensure a memorable stay in which every cobblestone step echoes the eternal spirit of Rome.