Philly Daily ran my On Crime column today.
You can read the column via the link below or the following text:
Paul Davis: Retired cop looks back at the Philadelphia underworld – Philly Daily
Criminals in America come from all nationalities and ethnic groups.
But to quote the late, great humorist and novelists Mark Twain, “There is no distinctly American criminal class - except Congress.”
As a writer, I’ve covered crime, especially organized crime, for a good many years. I’ve interviewed former Philadelphia Cosa Nostra boss Ralph Natale, former Philadelphia Cosa Nostra underboss Philip Leonetti, former New York Cosa Nostra Colombo captain Michael Franzese, as well as many other lesser-known mobsters.
Being half-Italian on my mother’s side and having grown up in South Philly’s Italian neighborhoods, I’ve been aware of Cosa Nostra, the Italian organized crime organization, since I was a child. I grew up with kids who later became criminals and mobsters. Back in the early 1960s, I lived around the corner from the late Angelo Bruno, who was then the boss of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra organized crime family.
I also lived around the corner from the late Richard Zappile, the Italian American chief of detectives who fought the mob. I interviewed him later when he became the Philadelphia Deputy Police Commissioner.
Yes, Virginia, there are Italian criminals, but there also Italian cops.
One South Philadelphia Italian cop, now retired, has written an interesting book about Philadelphia crime. Retired Philadelphia police sergeant Gary Capunao (seen in the above photo) recently published “The Philadelphia Underworld: From the Colonial Waterfront to the Mid-Century Mob.”
I reached out to Gary Capuano and asked him why he wrote the book.
"I wrote this book because of my growing fascination with my ancestry and my desire to learn as much as possible about where my family came from,” Capuano replied. “Now that I am retired and have more time on my hands, I have spoken with relatives who have helped shed light on who my ancestors were and how our family arrived at where it is today. I am not going to state as fact that certain members of my family were involved in the underworld. However, based on what I have uncovered, several of them certainly appear to have crossed paths with it. "My paternal great-grandfather Michael reportedly fled Italy because he had done "something" - although no one ever explained exactly what that something was. After my great-grandmother died at a very young ag, Michael married the comare (Note: comare is an Italian word that means a godmother, a gossip or a female companion) who had been living on the third floor of their home. This was during the era of Philadelphia's notorious arsenic poisonings."
Capuano said his paternal great-grandmother Angelina had a brother named Cosmo, who was allegedly a numbers writer.
“In 1926, he was shot near Broad and Locust Streets. Family accounts also suggest that he was associated with the Eighth and Christian gang, in an area once known as Dope Row and Hi-Jack Row. A cousin on that side of the family, Carmine, lived in New York and was arrested in connection with what newspapers described as a $200 million narcotics ring in 1965. Another of my great-grandfathers served ten years at Eastern State Penitentiary for robbery, from 1930 until 1940. There were a handful of others whose names I have chosen not to reveal at this time. It is amazing what you can uncover when you begin digging into the past and actually take the time to speak with older family members. Now that I am older, I try not to judge people too quickly. People make decisions for many different reasons, and everyone has a story to tell.
Capuano said that growing up
in South Philadelphia, he knew people who were said to be members of various
organizations.
“Do I care? Not in the least. I treat people the way they treat me, and they have always treated me with respect. In “The Philadelphia Underworld, I wrote that I have often wondered why certain people chose the lives they lived. Was it truly a choice, or did the life somehow choose them? That question becomes even more complicated when we consider that the government now permits, regulates and taxes activities for which people were once arrested and imprisoned - gambling and marijuana being two obvious examples. Once the government found a way to profit from them, society’s view of those activities began to change.”
Capuano said the book begins
in the late 1600s and continues through 1960.
“It traces the evolution of
Philadelphia’s underworld - from the river pirates who preyed upon ships, cargo
and commerce along the Delaware River to the powerful organized-crime
syndicates that later operated throughout the city. I relied heavily on
contemporary newspaper accounts to reconstruct the people, places and events
covered within its pages. The Philadelphia arsenic ring is also featured in a
chapter of its own. I do not consider its participants members of traditional
organized crime, but they were most certainly organized. Their activities were
highly coordinated, and they profited immensely from the untimely deaths of
others.
“One person who especially fascinated me was Harry “the Hunchback” Riccobene. Despite being very small in stature, Harry appeared to possess tremendous confidence in himself and his abilities. My interest in him is also personal: Harry’s father and my great-grandfather Michael reportedly came to America together. My grandfather later served as Harry’s sponsor at his Confirmation, while Harry is said to have been the godfather of at least three of my great-aunts. Connections such as these do not prove that my relatives were part of the underworld, but they reveal how closely family history, neighborhood history and Philadelphia’s criminal history sometimes intersect. That intersection—and the questions it raises—is one of the reasons I felt compelled to write this book."
You can purchase “The Philadelphia Underworld” via the link below:
Amazon.com: The Philadelphia Underworld: 9798190617849: Capuano, Gary: Books
Paul Davis’s On Crime column appears here each week. He is also a contributor to Broad + Liberty and Counterterrorism magazine.
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