Considered one of the founding members of the old Salvatore (Charlie Lucky) Luciano crime family, for almost four decades, Pellegrino was recognized as the overall “territory boss” for Westchester County, a sprawling and very lucrative area located just north of New York City proper.
With Pellegrino’s retirement in the 1950s, one of his most trusted soldiers by the name of Vincent (Jimmy) Angelino was quietly selected to succeed him as the crew’s new “capo di decina.”
With his ascension to a capo’s post, Angelino inherited one of the largest regimes of what had now been renamed the Vito Genovese Family. He now assumed control over a vast and very lucrative racket territory stretching from the North Bronx, through all of Westchester County to the southern tip of Putnam County.
The crew’s activities ran the gamut from horse and sports bookmaking to policy numbers and the Italian lottery, shylocking, extortion, thefts and the fencing of stolen goods, counterfeiting, business infiltration, and narcotics.
Jimmy Angelina had suddenly become a very important man.
