Vincent Mangano | |
Birth Name: | Vincenzo Giovanni Mangano |
Birth Date: | March 28, 1888 |
Birth Place: | Palermo, Sicily, Italy |
Disappeared Place: | New York, U.S. |
Disappeared Status: | |
Other Names: | "Vincent The Executioner" |
Relatives: | Philip Mangano (brother) |
Allegiance: | Mangano crime family |
Occupation: | Crime boss |
Predecessor: | Frank Scalice |
Successor: | Albert Anastasia |
Vincent Mangano (born Vincenzo Giovanni Mangano; pronounced as /it/; March 28, 1888 – disappeared April 19, 1951, declared dead October 30, 1961) was an Italian-born mobster also known as "Vincent The Executioner" as named in a Brooklyn newspaper, and the head of the Mangano crime family from 1931 to 1951. He was the brother of Philip Mangano.
Mangano was named head of what was then the Mineo family in 1931, following the Castellammarese War. He was one of the original bosses of the modern Five Families, the others being Joseph Bonanno, Lucky Luciano, Joe Profaci and Tommy Gagliano.[1]
Mangano made the waterfront his family's main income producer. He and his associates would threaten to prevent cargo from being loaded or unloaded if the shipping company refused to pay a tribute. This effort was helped by the family's control of Brooklyn Local 1814 of the International Longshoremen's Association; its president, Anthony Anastasio, was a member of the family.[2]
Despite being a mob power in his own right, Albert Anastasia was nominally the underboss of the Mangano crime family, under Mangano.[3] During his 20-year rule, Mangano had resented Anastasia's close ties to Luciano and Costello, particularly the fact that they had obtained Anastasia's services without first seeking Mangano's permission. This and other business disputes led to heated, almost physical fights between the two mobsters.[4]
Mangano's brother was found dead near Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn on April 19, 1951.[5] Vincent Mangano disappeared the same day. Both of them are believed to have been murdered on the orders of family underboss Albert Anastasia in Brooklyn as part of a coup in 1951.[6] Vincent Mangano's body was never found, and he was declared dead 10 years later on October 30, 1961, by the Surrogate's Court in Brooklyn.[7] No one was ever arrested in the Mangano homicide, but it was widely assumed that Anastasia had them killed.[8]