Nicola Gentile
Encyclopedia
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
mafioso
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
and an organized crime figure in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
during the 1920s and 1930s. He was also known for publishing his memoirs which, violating the mafiosi code known as omerta
Omertà
Omertà is a popular attitude and code of honour and a common definition is the "code of silence". It is common in areas of southern Italy, such as Sicily, Apulia, Calabria, and Campania, where criminal organizations defined as Mafia such as the Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita, and...
, revealed many details of the Sicilian and American underworld. Gentile was born in Siculiana
Siculiana
Siculiana is a town and comune in the province of Agrigento, Sicily, southern Italy, 13 km. west from the provincial capital Agrigento.-History:...
, a small village on the south coast of Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
in the province of Agrigento
Province of Agrigento
Agrigento is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy. It has an area of 3,042 km², and a total population of 454,370...
. He immigrated to the United States arriving in New York at age 18, in 1903. Gentile fled the country in 1937 while out on US$ 15 000 bail after an arrest for heroin trafficking and returned to Sicily to become a boss in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. In the US he was known as "Nick" and in Sicily as "Zu Cola" (Uncle Cola).
Arrival in the United States
After Nick Gentile arrived in the United States from Sicily in 1903 he quickly associated with the Black HandBlack Hand (blackmail)
Black Hand was a type of extortion racket. It was a method of extortion, not a criminal organization as such, though gangsters of Camorra and the Mafia practiced it.-Origins:...
during the early 1900s, Gentile would become a leader in America's early mafia and would later serve as a confidant for New York mobsters throughout the early part of the 20th century up until the Castellammarese War
Castellammarese War
The Castellammarese War was a bloody power struggle for control of the Italian-American Mafia between partisans of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and those of Salvatore Maranzano. It was so called because Maranzano was based in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily...
and the subsequent formation of New York's Five Families
Five Families
The Five Families are the five original Italian-American Mafia crime families which have dominated organized crime in America since 1931. The Five Families in New York remain as the powerhouse of the Italian Mafia in the United States.-History:...
under Charles "Lucky" Luciano in 1931. Gentile traveled the country as a troubleshooter and negotiator, known as the messaggero or substituto, relaying messages between crime families and mediating disputes and became part of New York Mafia Family led by Vincent Mangano
Vincent Mangano
Vincent Mangano , born Vincenzo Giovanni Mangano, also known as "The Executioner" as he was named in a Brooklyn newspaper, was the head of the Mangano crime family from 1931 to 1951. His brother Philip Mangano was his right hand man and de facto, or substituto, underboss of the crime family which...
and Joe Biondo, which later became known as the Gambino Family.
During Prohibition
Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
, Gentile was briefly involved in bootlegging
Rum-running
Rum-running, also known as bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law...
as head of criminal syndicates in Kansas City
Kansas City Metropolitan Area
The Kansas City Metropolitan Area is a fifteen-county metropolitan area that is anchored by Kansas City, Missouri and is bisected by the border between the states of Missouri and Kansas. As of the 2010 Census, the metropolitan area has a population of 2,035,334. The metropolitan area is the...
, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. In 1920 there was an attempt made on his life by his rival in Cleveland, mafia boss Joseph "Big Joe" Lonardo. Gentile left for Sicily, but not before he met with his New York allies. He decided to align himself with New York mafia bosses Rocco Valenti
Rocco Valenti
Rocco Valenti was a New York City gangster and prominent member of the Morello crime family during the early 1900s.-Mafia-Camorra War:Valenti joined the Neapolitan Navy Street Gang in the early 1910s...
and Salvatore Mauro against Salvatore "Totò" D'Aquila
Salvatore D'Aquila
Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila was a New York City mobster from the Mustache Pete-era and the first boss of the Gambino crime family....
and Joe Lonardo, who backed mafia boss, Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria in his bid to gain control of the Morello crime family
Morello crime family
The Morello crime family is the direct ancestor of the Genovese crime family, the oldest of New York City's Five Families.-From Corleone to America:...
in which Rocco Valenti and Joe Masseria were both high level members.
Gentile returned to the United States after several months in Sicily. His allies Mauro and Valenti were gunned down by Masseria forces in 1920 and 1922 ending the conflict and making Joe Masseria one of the top mafia bosses in New York. Gentile continued his criminal career in New York now aligning himself with the group of Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Gentile became involved with Luciano's narcotics operations. He was arrested in New Orleans in 1937 on drug charges. Soon after his arrest Gentile fled the country while out on US$ 15 000 bail and returned to Sicily.
Return to Sicily
In Sicily, Gentile rose to a high level position in the Sicilian Mafia. Nick His power and influence grew after the invasion of Sicily in 1943 (Operation Husky as he helped the military set up its civil administration – the American Military Government of Occupied Territories (AMGOT) – in the Agrigento province. He became involved in intelligence and the Sicilian separatist movement. Later he became an important canvasser for politicians from the Christian DemocratChristian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
party (DC – Democrazia Cristiana), who quarrelled for his support. Gentile later supported Christian Democrat Giuseppe La Loggia, who would become president of the autonomous region of Sicily from 1956–58, and is the father of Enrico La Loggia, a member of Forza Italia
Forza Italia
Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....
and a minister in the second government of Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
.
When Lucky Luciano
Lucky Luciano
Charlie "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian mobster born in Sicily. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for splitting New York City into five different Mafia crime families and the establishment of the first commission...
was extradited to Italy in 1946 he once again teamed up with Gentile in organizing drug routes to the US. Gentile had very good connections with well-known drug traffickers in Sicily. His son was married to the daughter of Pietro Davì, one of the leading figures in cigarette smuggling and illicit drug trade in Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
in the 1950s. Gentile and Luciano met New York gangster Joe Biondo in 1949. Biondo supervised the Gambino Family's heroin traffic. Davis, Mafia Dynasty, p. 101
Gentile provided information to the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
, through journalist Leonid Kolosov, during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
and remained a prominent figure in the Sicilian underworld throughout 1950s and 1960s. He was erroneously believed by some to have replaced Calogero Vizzini
Calogero Vizzini
Calogero Don Calò Vizzini was a historical Mafia boss of Villalba in the Province of Caltanissetta, Sicily. Vizzini was considered to be one of the most influential and legendary Mafia bosses of Sicily after World War II until his death in 1954...
as the head of the Sicilian Mafia.
Memoirs
Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta was a Sicilian mafioso. Although he was not the first pentito in the Italian witness protection program, he is widely recognized as the first important one breaking omertà...
emerged as the imporatant first pentito
Pentito
Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...
who broke with omertà
Omertà
Omertà is a popular attitude and code of honour and a common definition is the "code of silence". It is common in areas of southern Italy, such as Sicily, Apulia, Calabria, and Campania, where criminal organizations defined as Mafia such as the Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita, and...
and told Cosa Nostra's inside story. Gentile was already more explicit than Buscetta in his first confessions. Gentile undiffidently talked about his links with politicians for whom he acted as a canvasser.
According to crime reporter Hank Messick a resentful Gentile confessed to the FBI. In fact his memoirs were for sale in every bookshop in Italy. The FBI used Gentile's information to corroborate the testimony of former mobster turned government informant Joe Valachi
Joe Valachi
Joseph "Joe Cargo" Valachi , Italian American, also known as "Charles Chanbano" and "Anthony Sorge" was the first Mafia member to publicly acknowledge the existence of the Mafia. He is also the person who made Cosa Nostra a household name.-Career:Joseph Valachi was born in East Harlem, New York...
in 1963. The memoirs were shown to American Mafia turncoat Joe Valachi
Joe Valachi
Joseph "Joe Cargo" Valachi , Italian American, also known as "Charles Chanbano" and "Anthony Sorge" was the first Mafia member to publicly acknowledge the existence of the Mafia. He is also the person who made Cosa Nostra a household name.-Career:Joseph Valachi was born in East Harlem, New York...
who vouched for its accuracy and said Gentile 'wrote just the way it is'.
Gentile's fellow mafiosi didn't appreciate his candor and sentenced him to death, but the Catania
Catania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...
Mafia clan who had to kill him declined to do so, according to pentito Antonio Calderone. At the end of his days, Gentile was a pitiful figure who only survived through the pasta which his neighbours gave him.