Rise To Power
When Ignazio "the Wolf" Lupo and Ciro's brother Giuseppe were sent to prison on counterfeiting charges, Ciro, Vincent, and Nick filled the power vacuum. They soon rose to be the top gangsters of Italian Harlem, running the Morello family.
Ciro earned his nickname, "the Artichoke King", by purchasing artichokes at $6.00 a crate from California, then selling them in New York at a 30-40% profit. Ciro's violent reputation preceded him, frightening vegetable sellers into buying them.
In 1916, Joe DiMarco, a gambling joint operator, challenged the power of Ciro and the Morellos. The Morellos then conspired with the Navy Street Gang to kill DiMarco and gave the job to Leo Lauritano, the Navy Street leader. Lauritano in turn passed the job on to Mike Fetto. Fetto went to DiMarco's club to kill him. However, Fetto couldn't identify DiMarco and so he returned without finishing the job. The job was then given to John "Jonny Left" Esposito, with Fetto as his assistant. Espocito couldn't find Dimarco, so he killed Charles Lombardi instead. Fetto eventually caught up with DiMarco and murdered him.
In another account of the Mafia-Camorra War, Fetto shot Lombardi thinking he was DiMarco. A third Morello associate in the room, Giuseppe Verrizano, ended up killing DiMarco.
Read more about this topic: Ciro Terranova
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