Michael (Trigger Mike) Coppola: Mr. Notorious

Considered an “original” who had been there to witness the very forming of Cosa Nostra, Michael (Trigger Mike) Coppola was thought to have been a very active shooter during the “Castellammarese War” of the late 1929 to 1931 era. See The East Harlem Regime of "Trigger Mike" Coppola for more information on Mike Coppola.

Michael (Trigger Mike) Coppola - aka “Little Mike” - was born on July 2, 1900, in New York City. (Some sources list his birth year as 1901.)

The family settled at 347 East 116th Street off First Avenue and later at 415 E. 118th Street. Originally out of East Harlem, he lived in Queens for a time at 32-31 112th Street in Corona.

Michael (Trigger Mike) Coppola

By 1947, Coppola was residing at 2421 Collins Avenue and operating out of a base in Miami, Florida. He resided for years at 4431 Alton Road in Miami Beach.

Coppola stood 5-foot 5-inches tall and weighed 155 pounds with brown eyes and thinning brown-grey hair.

FBI # 677976, NYCPD # B-54988, INS #A-10292316, MBPD # A-19227

His police record started in 1914 as a juvenile and included over 31 arrests for:

1914 - truant

1917 - petty larceny

1917 - burglary

1918 - grand larceny

1919 - attempted grand larceny

1921 - grand larceny

1921 - pickpocket

1922 - grand larceny (3.5 to 7 years)

1922 - disorderly conduct (6 months)

1926 - robbery

1926 - felony assault and burglary

1927 - felonious assault

1927 - homicide by gun

1928 - narcotics

1929 - grand larceny 1930 - assault and robbery

1931 - felonious assault with a gun

1932 - homicide by gun

1933 - vagrancy1933 - disorderly conduct (dice)

1933 - disorderly conduct (dice)

1933 - carrying a gun

1934 - disorderly conduct (dice) 1935 - carrying concealed weapon

1936 - vagrancy and material witness

1936 - carrying a gun

1942 - vagrancy

1944 - robbery with a gun

1944 - carrying concealed weapon

1952 - disorderly conduct (gaming)

1957 - vagrancy

Considered an “original” who had been there to witness the very forming of Cosa Nostra. Coppola was thought to have been a very active shooter during the “Castellammarese War” of the late 1929 to 1931 era.

Starting out under the control of Ciro (The Artichoke King) Terranova and his brothers, the Morello Family, he would soon rise to a position of power, becoming the leader of the regime with Terranova’s death in 1938.

Coppola was considered one of the most notorious top leaders of the so-called “East Harlem Mob” for decades.

Even after he relocated down to Florida, he still retained his iron clad control over the Harlem rackets utilizing (Fat Tony) Salerno, (Sharkey) Cupola, (Al Ross) Rosato, and several others as his “eyes and ears”.

This regime was considered one of the strongest crews in the city of any of the Five Families.

Police listed 19 top soldiers in the regime, each controlling a separate field of criminal endeavor.

They were active in nearly all criminal pursuits including gambling, shylocking, narcotics, labor union racketeering, and the garment center, etc.

International Brotherhood of Teamsters - Local #807 was also alleged to be under Coppola’s domination.

And its regime boasted some of the most important names in gangland including such mob luminaries as Frank (Cheech) Livorsi, Joseph (Tough Joey) Rao, Joseph (Joe Stutz) Tortorici, Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno, Alexander (Al Ross) Rosato, Pasquale (Little Patsy) Erra, Louis (Louie Dome) Pacella, Joseph (Joe Stretch) Stracci, and Philip Lombardo, among many others.

Additionally, he was affiliated and a contemporary of mob bosses Frank Costello, Tommy Lucchese, Meyer Lansky, and Joe Massei.

Once he settled in and was established in Miami, he came to quickly dominate much of the gambling activity and other rackets in the area.

Many Jewish bookmakers and other hoodlums fell in line immediately once they were approached by Coppola’s minions, knowing that to continue operating they would need to be “saddled up” with Trigger Mike.

Coppola made his headquarters at the Amvets Post #35 at 2225 Liberty Street in Miami Beach.

His base location later became the Midtown Social Club at 21st Street and Collins Avenue also in Miami Beach and another mob den of iniquity.

They would later make the Sea Gull Hotel their base of operations after the charter of the Amvets was revoked.

Among these Miami-based gamblers and “street” people were Pasquale (Patsy) Erra, Anthony Salerno (his closest friend), Max (Little Maxie) Eder, Joseph Morrison, Allie Harris, Rubin (Ruby) Lazarus, George Gordon, and Jimmy Coppola (his brother).

In September of 1962, Ann Drahmann, the former Mrs. Coppola, committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills at her hotel in Rome, Italy.

She had been instrumental in furnishing federal agents with inside information about Coppola that led to his income tax conviction.

She furnished additional inside info on how his racket operations ran. Ann had actually overseen several racket activities for Mike such as the numbers and illegal abortion rackets, etc., and saw for herself the enormous revenue he accumulated year after year.

Ann portrayed Mike Coppola as a sick and demented individual, a vicious man prone to torture, both verbal and physical abuse of his wife, and a twisted sense of existence in the underworld that later diminished him in the eyes of many of his mob contemporaries.

These revelations were publicly released and would create a lot of bad press for Coppola. Another reason why, in later years, he looked to fade back from the public.

In 1962, he received a jail term of one year and a day along with a $40,000 fine for an income tax evasion conviction.

The IRS also took a judgment against him for $1,086,872.85, and he was given four years probation after parole.

He died in a hospital in Boston on October 1, 1966. He was only 67 years old.

Until next time..."The Other Guy"

Michael (Trigger Mike) Coppola: Mr. Notorious

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Michael (Trigger Mike) Coppola: Mr. Notorious

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You May Also Enjoy

Genovese Soldier & Waterfront Rackets Boss: Philip “Philly Katz” Albanese

Genovese Capo Frank Iaconi and His Worcester, Massachusetts Regime

Frank (Farby) Serpico

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