Genovese Soldier Nicholas Martello

Nicholas Martello, also known as "Nicky Bulldog" was a soldier in the Genovese Family of Cosa Nostra. He was peripherally involved in a tragic shooting of a young child during a war between the notorious gangsters Dutch Schultz and Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll and was associated with some of the biggest names in the mafia, including "Trigger Mike" Coppola and "Big John" Ormento.

And while he mostly stayed out of the reach of the long arm of the law, Nicky Bulldog couldn't outrun the long arm of the mob, becoming one of many mobsters during the 1960s, including Tony Bender Strollo, who disappeared and were never seen again!

Nicholas (Nicky Bulldog) Martello - aka Nick Martello, The Bulldog, Bulldog Nick, Nicky Martin, and Nick Marrone - was born in Brooklyn, New York on April 7, 1907, to Sylvestro (Sylvester) and Maria (nee’ Tucci) Martello. He had two brothers and a sister named Carmine, Frederick, and Lena, respectively.

As children, the Martello family relocated to the Astoria section of Queens County. This is where the Martello boys were raised and where Nicky would first become familiar with “the streets.”

During his early years growing up around Astoria, Martello was still living with his parents and siblings at 42-08 Wilson Avenue. Years later, by the 1950s, Martello and his wife were residing a few blocks away at 42-06 25th Avenue.

At 5 feet 5 inches tall and 150 pounds, Nick Martello was described as having a short and stocky build. Hence, his lifelong nickname, “Bulldog.” He had jet-black hair he combed back and parted on the side that turned salt-and-pepper by his late forties. He was further described in police files as having brown eyes and a pronounced cleft chin.

FBI #54716, NYCPD #B-64621

A Late Bloomer

In 1951, at the ripe age of 44, Nicholas Martello married a young woman twenty years his junior, the former 24-year-old Clara Alvino. Nicky and Clara ended up not having any children of their own. And as it turned out, their marriage, for another reason altogether, would come to an abrupt end only seven years later.

By the early 1950s, Martello was believed to have become the owner-operator of the Paisano Bar & Grill, located at 304 East 14th Street in Lower Manhattan. Both local and federal law enforcement authorities say that this tavern was later the hub of a large-scale organized narcotics network that Martello played a key role in.

New York City Police sources also say that aside from his involvement in narcotics trafficking, Martello was also known to dabble in local gambling. They say he was deeply enmeshed in East Harlem’s numbers racket and was known to be a partner and financial backer of floating dice games up in Harlem.

In January 1952, a federal informant known only as T-33 specifically described Martello as “operating a large crap game at 414 East 116th Street, New York City.”

This informant further advised authorities that both Joey Rao and Michael Coppola had a piece of Martello’s crap game.

While on surveillance, agents with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics & Dangerous Drugs (FBNDD) reported that they would regularly track Martello from his Queens residence as he made the short daily drive over the Williamsburg Bridge into nearby Lower Manhattan where he would then regularly meet with his underworld associates at his gin mill, the Paisano Bar.

They further reported that when he wasn’t hanging around Downtown Manhattan, Nick could usually be found at Martello & Son Shoe Repair, located at 25-02 Steinway Street. This was a little business that he and his father Sylvester were partners in and was located just a few blocks away from the Martello family home in Astoria.

A Long "Yellow Sheet"

Martello’s lengthy police record started way back in 1926 when he was only 19 years old. Over the years, he was picked up for such unsavory offenses as rape, felonious assault, grand larceny (2.5-5 years in state prison,) assault and robbery, extortion, conspiracy, and several times for selling narcotics.

His last known arrest took place on October 15, 1958, when he was indicted once again for conspiracy to violate the Federal Narcotics Laws.

A Shocking Crime

As a young fella way back on July 28, 1931, while Martello was still listing his home address as Brooklyn, he figured into a very notorious incident in East Harlem that shook the City of New York to its very core.

A wild gangland shootout took place on E. 107th Street, a notorious block in East Harlem’s Little Italy neighborhood, that accidentally killed a little boy named Michael Vengalli and wounded four other children who were playing on the sidewalk at the time. It was referred to in the newspapers as “The Child Massacre.”

By accident, the New York City Police later learned that the intended target of that rubout was a 21-year-old hoodlum named Tony Trobino, of East 119th Street, who revealed his role in the incident almost immediately after getting picked up for robbing the manager of a local shoe store.

The tragic killing makes headlines.

The New York Police Department quickly held Trobino on a high bail as a material witness to the shooting, which occurred outside the Helmar Social Club, located at 208 East 107th Street.

Tony Trobino was a known gangster who told the cops that shortly before the shooting, he ditched the Bronx-based gang of the notorious Vincent (Mad Dog) Coll to join a different Harlem-based drug gang headed by a rival narcotics peddler named Rocco. Rocco was believed to have been part of the equally notorious Dutch Schultz Mob.

Trobine also told authorities that former friendly Coll and Schultz had parted ways and that Shultz had taken Trobino and several other associates along with him to Harlem. Afterward, Shultz immediately declared open war against Coll and his gang.

A Fallen Angel

According to Trobino’s initial written confession, he stated, “I was sitting alone in my parked automobile in front of the Helmar Social Club, 208 E. 107th St., when the gangsters started to fire from their automobile. I opened the door of my car nearest the sidewalk and dove to the street, making believe I was wounded. The shots seemed to keep coming for a long time. I crawled on my hands and knees to number 110, in front of the home of the little Vengalli boy.”

Trobino continued, “I picked the boy up and dove into the hallway. The children who had been hit were screaming, Then the car with the gunmen picked up speed and went toward 3rd Ave. I dropped the boy I had carried into the hallway and got into my own car and drove toward 2nd Ave.”

But after being repeatedly grilled by NYC Homicide Detectives, Trobino changed his verbal and written statements and admitted that Nicholas Martello was with him at the time of the shooting.

“I was in the parked car of Nicholas (Bulldog) Martello, in front of the Helmar Social Club when a car loaded with gunmen pulled up beside us and unleashed a volley of gunshots,” Martello told authorities.

“I dropped to the floor of the car and began to crawl out of the door to the sidewalk. All this time the shots continued. I heard the children screaming and saw the people running. As I crawled along the sidewalk I found a little boy. I picked him up and carried him into a doorway for shelter.”

The first eyewitness reports that came into the police indicated that Trobino had used the child as a shield to prevent from him getting shot himself during the shootout. But Trobino vehemently denied this.

An Unsung Hoodlum Hero?

Later, one police official said, “Let’s give the devil his due. What actually happened was that Trobino picked up the kid and dragged him into the vestibule to get him out of the line of gunfire. He probably tried to save the kid’s life.”

The NYPD held a news conference about the incident and told reporters they were on the hunt for Coll. Apparently, he had recently jumped bail after being arrested on a gun-carrying charge the previous month. Authorities said they had been searching for Coll and cracking down on other beer and narcotic racketeers ever since the shooting.

This tragedy so outraged Gotham City, that multiple rewards were offered for the capture, dead or alive, of the murderers of little Michael Vengalli.

The NY Daily News offered a $5,000 reward. The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association of the NYC Police Department offered $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers. Two more daily newspapers, The New York American and The World Telegram, pledged $10,000 and $5,000, respectively. The total reward topped out at $30,000. A whopping sum of money back in 1931.

Newspapers rally together to find the killers.

Despite the dead bodies of shot-up gangsters and racketeers dropping almost daily all over the streets of New York, the news of five innocent children getting shot during the wide-open beer wars and wanton gangland violence had completely shocked the city and forced local politicians and law enforcement to make a concerted effort, once and for all, to crack down on the racketeers and bootleg gangs.

The tragedy became a rallying cry for law and order. It was also one of the first times, but not the last, that Nick Martello would be publicly identified as a hoodlum and gangster.

On August 7, law enforcement officials reported that three of the gunmen had finally been identified and were all known to police. A second witness, who had secretly been taken into custody after being arrested on a technical charge, was grilled by police for several hours about the shooting before providing police with the names of the three shooters.

"Trigger Mike"

Supposedly, the second witness had been “on the scene” at the time of the shooting and had actually watched the car as it drove down the street blasting gunshots. The witness told police that he knew the three local men only as “Trigger Mike” Coppola, “Louie” and “Grecco.” The authorities said all three were known members of the Vincent Coll Gang.

Side Note: Michael (Trigger Mike) Coppola, of course, would go on to become one of the most important, and deadly, top members of the infamous Luciano/Genovese crime family.

The witness had also, apparently, jotted down the license plate number on the car and then called the police and reported the number. A police spokesman told newspapers that a squad of detectives from the East 104th Street Station, headed by Chief Detective Frank McLaughlin followed up on the leads.

But despite the shocking nature of the shooting and murder of an innocent little boy and all the hoopla and publicity given to this case, nothing would ever come of it, and nobody was ever truly brought to justice.

However, the incident did serve to put Nicholas Martello on the map.

The East Harlem Mob

Nick Martello’s list of known criminal associates reads like a who’s who of the New York City underworld. Nicky Bulldog seemed to have known everybody. He had close associates located in both Lower and Upper Manhattan, especially around the East Harlem area.

He numbered among his closest associates such mafiosi as East Harlem mob boss Michael (Trigger Mike) Coppola, and his partner, the equally notorious Joseph (Tough Joey) Rao as well as John (Big John) Ormento, Salvatore (Tom Mix) Santoro, Michael Rubino, Victor and Eugene (Gino) Tramaglino, Arnold (Allie) Romano, Pasquale (Patsy Jerome) Genese, and Harry (Blackie) Tantillo.

To a man, every name listed above was well-documented in the files of the NYCPD or the Federal Narcotics Bureau as a large-scale heroin trafficker and Mafia member.

Martello himself was described by agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics as “an important trafficker in the East Harlem section of N.Y.C. and on the Lower East Side; a leader of the Mafia, in charge of narcotics distribution for a group of these traffickers operating on the Lower East Side and in the East Harlem section of New York City, N.Y.”

Jumping Between the Raindrops...For a While

It appears that despite his lengthy criminal arrest record and the aforementioned bloody shootout in 1931, Nicholas Martello was otherwise able to operate quietly and successfully within the New York underworld in the coming years.

Until he wasn’t!

On March 5, 1967, it was reported in local newspapers that there had been a string of mysterious gangland killings and disappearances of mob figures over the previous seven years. Martello was one of those among the missing.

Also named as “missing” and presumed dead were Genovese Family underboss Anthony (Tony Bender) Strollo and Family soldier Fiore (Fury) Siano, a nephew of songbird Joe Valachi, who the mob feared would also open up like his uncle.

Another suspected victim of the mob’s wrath was Anthony (Bootsy) DePasquale. He had also only recently been indicted on a narcotics case and was also reportedly considered a poor risk by his confederates.

Other missing persons included two women, Nancy Sue Shelton and Barbara Delmar, who were described as “mob dolls.”

Still others missing from their usual haunts included Gambino capo and garbage rackets czar Vincent (Jimmy Jerome) Squillante, Gambino soldier and fellow garbage racketeer Joseph (Joey Surprise) Feola, and Gambino soldier Sebastian (Benny) Bellanca.

Two more casualties named were mob associate Morris Taubman and Bonanno Family soldier Salvatore (Little Sal) Giglio.

It should be noted that all of these men were known narcotics violators.

Suspected Stool Pigeon

The authorities suggested that Nicholas Martello’s permanent disappearance and presumed murder had to do with him having become a federal informer for the “junk agents” in an important New Jersey heroin trafficking case.

Like the others, it seems that Martello simply disappeared into thin air. “Nicky Bulldog” was never seen again!

His disappearance coincided shortly after his latest narcotics arrest, when he was nabbed along with other suspects, in November of 1958. Agents for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics admitted they believed Martello was murdered because the mob suspected he was a stool pigeon.

At the time of his disappearance, Vito Genovese Family soldier Nicholas (Nicky Bulldog) Martello was only 51 years old.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Genovese Soldier “Nicky Bulldog” was More Canary than Canine

You May Also Enjoy

Andrew Biondo

Sam (Sammy Feet) Falgiano – The Inner Tubes Don’t Count

Gaetano (Toddo) Marino – A Highly-Respected Brooklyn Capo

Welcome Back!

Create New Account!

Retrieve your password

Are you sure want to unlock this post?

Are you sure want to cancel subscription?