Joseph Catania
Giuseppe "Joe the Baker" Catania was a Sicilian-born American mobster murdered during the Castellammarese War of 1931 in New York City.
Early life
[edit]Giuseppe was born October 1, 1902, in Palermo, Sicily to Antonio Catania and Francesca La Scala.[1] He emigrated to New York City with his parents and older brother in 1903.[2] By 1905 the family consisted of his parents, older brother Calogero (aka "James"), younger brother Andrew, grandparents Calogero Catania and Anna Montala' Catania, and aunts Antonette Catania and Josephine Catania.[3] His father ran a Manhattan bakery, and Giuseppe became known as "Joseph" and "Joe the Baker" in later years.[4]
Organized crime
[edit]| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Organized Crime in America. Synopsis of the criminal life of Joe "the Baker" Catania, Nov 3, 2022, YouTube |
Giuseppe and Calogero became followers of their uncle Ciro Terranova and the Morello crime family.[4] During Prohibition he took control of the Italian bread industry in the Bronx[5] and achieved some level of notoriety when it was revealed a judicial officer "had been friendly with Terranova and Joseph Catania for years and socialized with them...through the Tepecano Club"[6] and may have been a middleman in judicial corruption.[7]
In 1930 two separate organized crime factions began attacking each other. Known as the Castellammarese War, it pitted mobsters allied to Salvatore Maranzano against those allied with Joe Masseria.[8] Catania was allied with the latter,[9] had been hijacking Maranano's liquor trucks[10] and ultimately was shot by Maranzano loyalists in front of a candy store in the Bronx on Feb. 3, 1931.[11] His death may have been engineered to bring a speedy conclusion to the Castellammarese War,[12] and he died two days later at Fordham Hospital in New York City.[13] Terranova funded an elaborate funeral, with forty cars to carry the floral displays.[14][15] He is buried at old St. Raymond's cemetery in the Bronx.[16]
References
[edit]- ^ Birth records of Palermo, Italy, vol. 455, no. 108.
- ^ Passenger manifest of S.S. Trojan Prince, departed Palermo, Sicily, on April 15, 1903, arrived New York on May 1, 1903.
- ^ New York State Census of 1905, New York County, Assembly District 32, Election District Special no. 3.
- ^ a b Critchley, D. (2008). The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891–1931. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
- ^ Cinotto, S. (2013). The Italian American Table: Food, Family, and Community in New York City, p. 109. United States: University of Illinois Press.
- ^ Hunt, T. (2016). Wrongly Executed? - The Long-forgotten Context of Charles Sberna's 1939 Electrocution, p. 84 Google Books
- ^ Landolfi, F. (2022). Politics, Police and Crime in New York During Prohibition: Gotham and the Age of Recklessness, 1920–1933. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
- ^ Van`t Riet, Lennert, David Critchley and Steve Turner. (2013). "Gunmen of the Castellammarese War - Part 5: A lifetime of tangling with the law: Salvatore 'Sally Shields' Shillitani," Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement, April 2013.
- ^ Valachi, Joseph. (1968). The Real Thing - Second Government: The Expose and Inside Doings of Cosa Nostra by Joseph Valachi, Member Since 1930, unpublished manuscript, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, p. 323-328.
- ^ Cook, F. J. (1966). The Secret Rulers: Criminal Syndicates and how They Control the U.S. Underworld. United States: Duell, Sloan and Pearce. Google Books
- ^ May, A. R. (2009). Gangland Gotham: New York's Notorious Mob Bosses, p. 372-373. United States: ABC-CLIO.
- ^ Cawthorne, N. (2009). The Mammoth Book of the Mafia. United Kingdom: Little, Brown Book Group.
- ^ Landolfi, F. (2022). Politics, Police and Crime in New York During Prohibition: Gotham and the Age of Recklessness, 1920–1933. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
- ^ 10,000 at funeral of 'Joe the Baker,'" New York Times, p. 30. New York, New York. Feb. 8, 1931.
- ^ Miley, Jack. (1931). "$35,000 funeral puts thug in last spot," New York Daily News. p. 6. New York, New York. Feb. 8, 1931.
- ^ Dress & Vanity Fair. (1935). United States: Condé Nast.
