Carlo Falcone

Falcone, 1951

**Carlo Falcone** (1905 — September 26, 1951) was an Italian-American gangster and the boss of the Falcone Crime Family in New York City. An Italian immigrant from Sicily, Falcone became mob boss Tomaso Moretti's Caporegime and main advisor, but double-crossed Moretti in 1933 during his war with Don Frank Vinci, when he aligned with Vinci's Consigliere Leo Galante and had a bomb planted under Moretti's car, killing him. Afterwards, Falcone took control over the family and became a wealthy and notorious entrepreneur while expanding his illegal empire, which he supervised from The Maltese Falcon bar in Manhattan. During a period of instability in 1951, Falcone conspired with killing Don Alberto Clemente and attempted to murder Frank Vinci as well, but was stopped by his renegade Soldier Vito Scaletta, who confronted Falcone and his men in his observatory, and along with his longtime partner Joe Barbaro, shot Falcone to death after a shootout, getting rid of his family in the process.

## Early life

### Childhood and early career

Carlo Falcone was born in 1905 in Sicily, Italy, to Tomas Falcone and Lily Benvenuti. He had two siblings, Xaviero and Anna, and he and his family immigrated to the United States in 1913, settling in New York City. There, Falcone soon began getting involved in organized crime through his relation with the Moretti Crime Family and Don Tomaso Moretti. Falcone aided Moretti during Prohibition by running his bootlegging operation, importing high-quality alcohol from Canada with fellow *mafioso* Eddie Scarpa. Falcone had become Moretti's highest-ranking capo by the time of the Vinci-Moretti War in 1931, and he helped in the fight against Don Frank Vinci and his Family.

### Betrayal and rise to power

After two years of warring conflict between the Vinci and Moretti families, Falcone believed the war had dragged on for too long and was interrupting the natural flow of business, believing the old-school Moretti was wasting his Family's resources and manpower over his own resentment. As such, he decided to strike a deal with Vinci's Consigliere, Leone "Leo" Galante, who with the help of Falcone, devised a plan to get rid of Moretti. They organized a scheme to plant a bomb under Moretti's vehicle through Vinci Family enforcer Steve Coyne, and as Moretti walked out of his residence and got inside his car on June 29, 1933, he died in a fiery explosion, ending the dispute with Vinci. Afterwards, Falcone rose to become boss of Moretti's old organization, taking control of all his operations and ruling crime in the city under a new name.

## Boss

### Organization, businesses and influence

With his newfound control over New York City's illegal businesses, Falcone began establishing his influence over as many areas as possible; firstly, he became a philanthropist and divvied up vast amounts of his wealth to various legitimate organizations and foundations, including the construction of the Zavesky Observatory, which was built in a spot with full views of the entire city. He also opened up the Maltese Falcon bar in Midtown Manhattan, which was mainly used as a base of operations for his Family. A Mafia modernist, Falcone realized that, since their criminal organization became wealthy through bootlegging, another illegal racket was needed to bring in money, so he expanded into narcotics trafficking.

## 1951

After Vito Scaletta saved three of Falcone's men from being murdered by Luca Gurino, Carlo brought Joe and Vito into the family and had them made. After he found out Alberto Clemente was trying to steal his customers in the drug trade he sent Joe and Vito to kill him. They bombed Clemente's hotel, which resulted in the death of Clemente and his men, which finished the Clemente family for good. Vito vouched for Henry Tomasino and brought him into the family but, after discovering Henry was a informant, he set his sights on killing Vito for "vouching for a rat".

## Death

On 26 September 1951 Carlo set a meeting with Vito Scaletta at the observatory. Unknown to Carlo, Vito had been informed of the plan by Leo Galante and chose to kill Carlo. Carlo had convinced Joe Barbaro to kill Vito, promising him the position of Capo if he killed him. When Vito walked in he and Joe both turned their guns on Falcone and shot him dead.