Antonio Morello
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Antonio Morello was one of the 3 Morello Brothers that established the Morello Crime Family, along with his brothers Nicolo Morello and Giuseppe Morello. And 2 half brothers Vincenzo "Vincent" Terranova and Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova after their arrival in the us in 1892.
The group was originally known as 107th Street Mob, and soon the Morellos quickly established dominance in the predominatly Italian neighborhood.
Allegedly Antonio Morello murdered mafioso Francesco Meli in December 1892, the Morellos usurped control of the Brooklyn dockyards and eventually parts of the Upper Manhattan and Bronx waterfronts. Continuing to support their allies Saietta's Black Hand organization, the Morellos would later be suspected of the "barrel murders", supposedly murder victims of the Black Hand, which would be seen regularly throughout the decade.
With the death of Antonio Morello in 1898, leadership of the crime family fell to Giuseppe Morello (although Saietta was considered the overall leader of the Manhattan mafiosi). Arrested the following year for counterfeiting and sentenced to three years' imprisonment, Giuseppe, following his release in 1902, and Saietta began a major counterfeiting ring with Sicilian mafioso Don Vito Cascio Ferro, printing $5 dollar bills in Sicily and smuggling them into the United States. Many of the later "barrel murders", particularly that of Giuseppe "Joe" Catania Sr. (whose body was found in July 1902), were thought to have been committed by the Morellos, who employed a large number of members of the counterfeiting operation.
