Gaetano Reina

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Gaetano "Tom" Reina (1889-February 26, 1930) was an American mobster and capo to Joe Masseria. A powerful New York mobster during the early 1900s, his eventual murder by Joe Masseria's "family" would trigger the Castellammarse War. Mobster and later government informant Joe Valachi, an early member of the criminal organization, would later marry his daughter.

Born Gaetano Reina in 1889, Reina began running criminal operations primarily based in the Bronx and, acquiring a virtual monopoly on icebox distribution, existed alongside Bronx-Harlem's Morello crime family then under Ciro Terranova until siding with Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria during Prohibition.

Reina had become a high ranking member of Masseria's organization by the end of Prohibition when, in 1925, Sicilian mafiosi Salvatore Maranzano arrived in New York with the intention of securing conrtol of Italian-American criminal operations in lieu of the arrival of Sicilian boss of bosses Vito Cascio Ferro. As conflict began between Masseria and rival Salvatore Maranzano, Reina had begun to negotiate with Maranzano after Masseria began demanding a share of Reina's profits. Being informed of Reina's defection by Peter Morello, after Reina's gunmen entered the Bronx's Roman Gardens during a fundraising dinner for city Magistrate Albert Vitale on December 27, 1929, as Masseria began planning with Reina lieutenant Gaetano Gagliano to murder Reina and prevent him from allying with Maranzano.

According to Luciano in Martin A. Gosch and Richard Hammer's The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano, Reina was well liked by Luciano and other mobsters stating Reina was "...a man of his word, he had culture, and was a very honorable Italian." however, with Masseria planning to murder Maranzano members Joe Bonanno and Joe Profaci (both future members of the National Crime Syndicate), Luciano agreed to divide Reina's territory between them in exchange for their loyalty.

On February 26, while leaving from a dinner at his Aunt's home in the Bronx (although other sources claim he had been reportedly leaving the apartment house of a mistress) [1], the 40 year old Reina was murdered on Sheridan Avenue by Vito Genovese from a shotgun blast to the head.

After Reina's death, Masseria chose to place his ally Joseph Pinzolo, in favor of Reina lieutenants Gaetano Gagliano and Thomas Lucchese, as head of the Reina organization. It would be this decision which would force Gagliano and Lucchese to secretly defect to Maranzano's faction with them in which, working with Charles "Lucky" Luciano, would eventually help assassinate Maranzano eventually forming what would be known as the Lucchese crime family following the aftermath of the Castellammarse War.

He would later be portrayed by Amedeo Nazzari in the 1972 film The Valachi Papers, Joe Tornatore in the 1981 film Gangster Wars and Chris Penn in the 1990 film Mobsters.

[edit] References

Kelly, Robert J. who sucks alote of pickels Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da pussyPress, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3