Tommy Gagliano
? to c. 1951.
Gagliano rose to prominence along with Tommy Lucchese in the Bronx-based Mafia family of Gaetano Reina.
As trouble between Joe Masseria and the Brooklyn Castellammarese Mafia began in 1930, Reina's organization was divided. Reina outwardly sided with Masseria but his sympathies were with the Castellammarese. Reina's Feb. 26, 1930, assassination, probably at the hands of Masseria men, caused Gagliano, Lucchese and much of their organization to give their support to the Castellammarese.
Gagliano and Lucchese appear to have cooperated on the 1930 assassination of Joe Pinzolo, a Masseria puppet installed as Family leader after Reina's death.
Gagliano was officially recognized as boss of the old Reina group after the war ended in 1931. Lucchese served as his underboss until about 1951. At about that time, Gagliano is presumed to have died of natural causes. (The date of Gagliano's death is not certain.)
Note: A Gaetano Gagliano was known to law enforcement agencies during the 1950s as the leader of a drug smuggling ring with ties to New Orleans. It appears that Gaetano was too young to have commanded a Mafia clan in 1931, and it is not known if the two men were related. That Gaetano Gagliano was believed to be responsible for gang murders committed in New Orleans in the 1940s. He was deported in 1953. When he illegally reentered the U.S., he was jailed for a time in Danbury CT Federal Prison. He was once again deported in 1959.
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