Although the port city of Baltimore, Maryland is a bustling and thriving metropolis with a current population topping 600,000 residents (in 1950 they had 950,000) and has a greater metropolitan regional population of over 2.8 million, this vibrant city never had a full-blown “resident” Mafia Family to call their own.
There have been many gangsters and racketeers active on Baltimore’s streets spanning over 70 years, but the majority of those underworld figures were either of Jewish lineage or various other ethnicities operating as independent racketeers devoid of any central command, so to speak. Although the Italian underworld would eventually gravitate to the city and become active as well, it wasn’t until the 1940s that New York’s old Vincent Mangano Family first officially planted their flag on its soil to stake a claim to the territory.
Family underboss Francesco (Don Cheech) Scalici personally oversaw the decision to expand into the State of Maryland and hand-selected several key soldiers from his Bronx-based regime to relocate out to Baltimore to spearhead new territory and expand their borgata’s reach and influence.
Among the New York City-based mafiosi who first chose to relocate there or were “sent” by Scalici was Palermo-born soldier Luigi (Lou Mora) Morici. He was joined by several other trusted family members like Thomas (Reds) Aversa, Vincenzo (Jimmy Russo) Caronna, and Francesco (Don Cheech) Dabbene. These few men would form the original nucleus of the expansion.
At the personal request of future Calabrian-born boss Albert Anastasia, by the early 1950s, the newly formed Baltimore “crew” under Morici was instructed to start inducting more local men of Calabrian heritage like Anastasia. By this point in time, Morici had been elevated to an official “capo di decina” status within the Anastasia Family and was now recognized as the most powerful Mafia figure in Baltimore.
Over the next few years, their membership ranks would continue to grow until it’s believed the “Morici” crew numbered approximately a dozen men. In the coming years, another half-dozen racket guys were formerly absorbed and “made” into the crew as soldiers.
By the early 1960s, Morici had taken ill, and as his health continued to deteriorate, by the mid-1960s, it’s believed he decided to “step down” as crew leader. With the approval of his superiors back in New York, Morici named as his successor Calabrian-born soldier Frank Corbi as the new “capo di decina” of the Baltimore crew.
