They say death comes in threes. For Christiana Magnasco, that was the reality she had to face within her own small family: a holy trinity of death, destruction, and bad choices.
She was the mother of Joseph “Joe Mags” Magnasco, the subject of our story—but to understand his end, we have to start at the beginning.
Joseph Anthony Magnasco was born in New York City on February 5, 1925.
And the first tragedy in the Magnasco Family happened when Joe was only five years old.
His father, Pietro, was a Brooklyn racketeer and a union organizer for the Pastry Makers Union. In January 1930, he was arrested for the November 1929 murder of a man named Michael Lanzaroni, who had been shot four times by a passing car as he was standing in front of a bar.
The court eventually dropped the case against Pietro for lack of evidence, but the streets don’t need a jury.
Four months later, in May, Pietro kissed Christiana goodbye and hopped into a car with friends at 4:00 AM. A few hours later, his bullet-ridden body was found on a roadside in Whippany, New Jersey. The police report noted a chilling ritual: his hands were folded across his chest, and his hat was placed at his feet. Two of Magnasco’s friends were arrested and charged with his killing.
A message sent and received.
