Curated playlist
Italian emigrants to the United States
- Vito GenoveseOn the 2nd of June 1958, Vito Genovese sat before the McClellan Hearings of the United States Senate on organized crime, called there under subpoena. He answered nothing. Instead, he cited his Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution…
- Amy AdamsAmy Adams finished work on a Steven Spielberg film in 2002 and then went a full year without a job. Careers that stall that early rarely end up looking like hers. Adams was born on the 20th of August 1974. She has since won two Golden…
- Enrico FermiEnrico Fermi won a Nobel Prize partly for new elements that were really fission products.
- Russell BufalinoRussell Bufalino was born Rosario Alfredo Bufalino on the 29th of October 1903 in Montedoro, Sicily. He grew up to be an Italian-American mobster, and he led the Northeastern Pennsylvania crime family for decades. People came to call it…
- Carlo GambinoCarlo Gambino spent more than fifty years in organized crime and was locked in a prison cell for less than two of them. In New York, his name now belongs to an entire Mafia family. The men around him were shot, jailed, forced into…
- Frank NittiFrank Nitti, born Francesco Raffaele Nitto, rests in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. His grave lies to the left of the main Roosevelt Road entrance, about 50 ft from the gate. To the right of that gate is the family plot of Al…
- Joseph BonannoJoseph Bonanno, nicknamed Joe Bananas, headed a New York crime family from 1931 until 1968. He took command at just 26, which made him one of the youngest bosses any crime family has ever had. On the 21st of October 1964, the day before he…
- Lucky LucianoLucky Luciano, born Salvatore Lucania, was arrested 25 times between 1916 and 1936 and spent no time in prison. The charges ranged from assault and illegal gambling to blackmail and robbery. Then a trial over a prostitution racket ended…
- Frank CostelloFrank Costello, an Italian-American crime boss, tried to keep his face off television during the Senate's organized crime hearings. The attempt backfired. Cameras settled on his hands instead, and his fidgeting and evasive answers played…
- Franco ModiglianiEconomist Franco Modigliani won a student prize from Mussolini himself. Later he fled Italy and won a Nobel Prize.
- Albert AnastasiaAlbert Anastasia was born Umberto Anastasio in Calabria, Italy, and died in a barber's chair in Manhattan on the 25th of October 1957. Along the way he collected the nicknames The Earthquake and The One-Man Army. Few figures in American…
- Lorenzo Da PonteLorenzo Da Ponte, born Jewish, took his name from a bishop. He later wrote the words for Mozart's Don Giovanni.
- Sonny FranzeseSonny Franzese walked out of the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Massachusetts, on the 23rd of June 2017, at the age of 100. On that day he was the oldest federal inmate in the United States, and the only centenarian in federal custody.…