Salvatore Mauro
? to 1920.

Mauro was one of the many little-known gangsters of the Prohibition Era. He was certainly involved in bootlegging. Some sources indicate that he organized a network of home wineries/distilleries in the days before Prohibition and jealously guarded that resource when Prohibition began.

He might have been a member of one of the Neapolitan Camorra groups in Brooklyn. At least two sources (but one may have drawn from the other) state that Mauro was a part-owner of a speakeasy with Umberto Valente, a big shot in the early Prohibition Manhattan Mafia and a gunman often used by Mafia boss of bosses Salvatore D'Aquila.

Whoever he was in life, in death Mauro became a stepping stone for the advancement of "Joe the Boss" Masseria. Masseria shot him dead in a gun battle on Chrystie Street in 1920. The killing resulted in the arrest of Masseria, but there was no trial. "Joe the Boss's" reputation and power were enhanced by the event.

© 2007 T.Hunt
The American "Mafia"