America's First Mafia War

New Orleans, 1868-1872

Gastinel

In November 1868, Octave Belot appeared at the office of Arthur Gastinel, one of the New Orleans magistrates known as “recorders” (a minor judge but superior to a justice of the peace). Accompanying Belot were several witnesses who testified that they had been with Belot on a trip out of town during the week of Litero Barba’s murder. Recorder Gastinel found no basis upon which to charge Belot with the killing of Barba. He publicly announced that decision.

The local Messinesi, and the allied Trapanesi, began openly to attribute the murder to Raffaele Agnello. They believed Agnello’s close friend Alphonse Mateo, also known as Minafo, "did up" Barba on orders from the Mafia boss.

Agnello’s brother Joseph ("Peppino") tried to reassure the Messinesi. To illustrate the Agnello affection for the Messinian colony, Peppino held a large party at his home on Royal Street in mid-December. Little Palermo and Little Messina sent roughly equal numbers to the party.

The Matranga family and the rest of the city’s immigrant Monrealesi apparently avoided the event.

At first, the party guests were subdued. Food and drink were consumed, music was played, but there were few signs of genuine gaiety. As midnight approached and some guests began to leave, Joseph Banano, the guardian of Messinian interests after the death of Barba, cornered Alphonse Mateo and demanded to know the circumstances of Barba’s murder.

Mateo responded nervously and then suddenly reached down to pull a knife from under the leg of his trousers. At Mateo’s first movement, Banano took a quick step backward, raised a pistol and fired it directly into the crouching Mateo’s face. The bullet created a cavity where Mateo’s nose had been and exited from the back of the victim’s neck.

Banano and the remaining Messinesi rushed from the house as handguns opened fire all around them. Raffaele Agnello had his weapon drawn but did not fire until he had followed the crowd out of the house. Then he raised his large pistol and put a bullet into Banano’s back. Several of the Messinesi saw their leader go down, ran back to him and carried him home.

Macheca

Joseph Macheca appears to have sided with the Messinian faction in the ensuing feud, supplying them with weapons, ammunition and money. The morning following the Mateo and Banano shootings, a large number of booths at the French Market remained closed. Many of the Sicilian merchants, expecting another eruption of violence, stayed home. Giovanni Casabianca, of the Messina gang, and a couple dozen men carrying new Spencer repeating rifles arrived at the marketplace before dawn and waited for their rivals. But Agnello’s followers all had been tipped off. That morning, Casabianca appeared to hold the upper hand, but there were tough times ahead.

The Palermitani, who had fought for Macheca in the Innocenti organization abandoned him, siding with Agnello. Macheca must have been startled by their wholesale desertion and impressed by their absolute loyalty to their “Uncle Raffaele.” Over the winter, he would be awed by their level of organization as well as their determination.

The Messinesi quickly looked to return to business as usual, but the Palermitani would not have it. Armed bands loyal to Agnello gradually took back the marketplace and patrolled the levee in the French Quarter day and night. The Messinian merchants ceded the French Market. They brought their business instead to the Poydras Market about three miles away in the Faubourg Ste. Marie. Some became so fearful of Agnello’s organization that they migrated to a budding colony of Messinesi in Galveston, Texas. Raffaele Agnello, too, went into hiding and communicated with his men through his brother and a crew of bodyguards.

On February 15th, 1869, Joseph Agnello and a band of Palermitani, including Alphonse Mateo who had miraculously recovered from his serious head wound, stormed a Messinian home on Chartres Street between Dumaine and St. Philip. As they broke through the front door, they drew peculiar hinged shotguns, known as luparas, from beneath their coats and opened fire at everyone within. Giovanni Casabianca and Joseph Banano, who like Mateo had bounced back from his December wounds, were hit by slugs as they leaped out a rear door with friend Pedro Allucho and two other men.

The Messinesi were not seriously hurt. However, it was clear they would be safe nowhere in the Crescent City. The attack prompted Casabianca, Banano and Allucho to hide for a month with friends in Galveston. There is some indication that Agnello allies hounded them even in Texas.

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