The Life and Death of Gambino Capo Joe Scalici

Joe Scalici was the younger brother of the infamous Don Cheech Scalici and served as a capo in the Gambino/Anastasia Crime Family . He lived a good, successful, and lofty criminal career until Don Cheech was murdered in 1957 .

Frank Scalici's assassination would lay the groundwork for a series of interlocking events over the next several weeks and months that would change the face of the Mafia in New York City forever. And Joe was a pivotal factor in those events.

This biography looks at the life and times of Giuspeppe (Joe) Scalice and includes a rare, one-of-a-kind wedding photograph from a family album exclusive to Button Guys .

Joe Scalici - Early Life

Giuseppe (Joe) Scalici - aka Joseph Scalise, Joseph Scalice, Joseph Scala, and Joe Scalice - was born in 1905 in Palermo, Sicily (an alternate dob is listed as 1889) to Giacomo and Giovanna (nee’ Caviglia) Scalici.

By the early-mid 1910s, Joe Scalici was said to have immigrated along with his parents and five siblings to the United States through Ellis Island in the City of New York. The Scalici family settled up in the Bronx in the Crescent Avenue section which, at that time, was an area rife with newly-arrived fellow Sicilian nationals.

This area soon became the Scalici brothers' permanent new home as well as their underworld fiefdom and stomping grounds.

Joe Scalici

Joe was one of five brothers. The oldest was Salvatore, who everybody called “Turiddo” or Sam. The most infamous of the brothers was Francesco, who was more commonly called Frank, Ciccio, or “Cheech.” Then there was Giacomo (Jack) and Giovanni (John). They also had a sister named Providenza Polizzi. The siblings lived near one another in the same Italian neighborhood.

The Scalicis were known to operate close together in both legitimate business and in illegitimate criminal activities.

Salvatore (Turiddo) Scalici

Giacomo (Jack) Scalici

A Racketeer Yo-Yo Ride to Power

Joe was a younger brother to Francesco (Don Ciccio) Scalici, a notorious Mafia leader who ruled over Bronx County for decades. Better known as “Don Cheech,” at one time he had been the boss of their entire Mafia Family when he was installed as Capo Famiglia during the late 1920s after the deaths of former bosses Salvatore (Toto) D’Aquila and Manfredi (Al) Mineo.

Don Cheech was a close associate and ally of Castellammarese boss Salvatore (Don Turiddo) Maranzano to whom he was thought to owe his lofty appointment. With Maranzano’s murder in 1931, the newly formed Mafia “Commission” stepped Scalici down in favor of Vincent Mangano.

In happier days Don Cheech Scalise and his “compare” Lucky Luciano pose for photos in Italy.

Mangano went on to head the borgata from approximately 1931 until his disappearance and presumed murder in 1951 at the hands of the notorious Albert (The Lord High Executioner) Anastasia, who then took over as the new boss of the Family.

Upon Anastasia’s elevation to boss, he reinstated Frank to the underboss position. This move appeased the borgata’s large so-called Sicilian faction. Once he became underboss, Frank then elevated his brother Joe to the position of “capo” over their Bronx-based regime.

FBI #482146

Getting Established

Joe Scalici stood 5-feet 7-inches tall and was a welterweight at 145 pounds. Considered a good-looking man, Joe had thick dark-brown hair he swept back, brown eyes, and a dark-Mediterranean olive complexion. He was also known to have been a very dapper dresser.

Into adulthood, especially after starting his underworld career, Joe Scalici often spelled his surname as Scalice which was a slight variation from how his older brother Frank spelled it as Scalise. In fact, over the years, each of the brothers spelled it at times variously as either Scalici, Scalice, Scalise, or Scalisi.

By the late 1920s, Joe met and quickly fell in love with a beautiful young Sicilian girl named Isabella LaBue. Isabella, whom Joe affectionately called Bella, soon became his bride. On January 23, 1930, Joe and Isabella were wed in an elaborate marriage ceremony and formal Mass held in a Roman Catholic Church.

Afterward, they enjoyed a huge wedding reception held in their honor that was well-attended by many top mafiosi of the day, including Cosa Nostra figures from out of state. Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Scalici then left for a week-long honeymoon the day after their wedding.

(Bronx-1930) Newlyweds Joe and Isabella with the wedding party

Side Note: In a rare, one-of-a-kind wedding photograph from a family album exclusive to Button Guys, both the groom and his groomsmen all wore formal black tuxedos which (for those in the know) was a clear sign of a high-echelon “Mafia” wedding (especially in those days.) In this unique photo, Joe is seen sitting beside his new bride Isabella to his right. His “best man” and oldest brother Salvatore (Turiddo) is sitting directly next him on Joe’s left. In the upper back row are his groomsmen in tuxedos as well as Isabella’s maids of honor.

Upon returning from their honeymoon, the happy couple soon started a family of their own which eventually grew to three children, two boys they named Jack and Philip, and a daughter named Jeannine.

The Scalici family also bought a nice house to raise them in. Joe and Isabella chose a newly built single-family home located at 2305 DeMeyer Street in the Pelham Gardens section of The Bronx. It was a spacious two-story colonial-style house set on a lovely manicured corner property.

Joe encouraged Isabella to furnish it as she wished which she did, beautifully, and this is the home where the Scalici family lived for years to come.

2305 DeMeyer Street, Bronx, NY-2

Scalici's Rackets

By the early 1940s, Joe Scalici had gone into the construction business with his brother Frank. In actuality, he helped Frank control their borgata’s lucrative “construction rackets” all across the city.

Joe was registered as being employed “on the books” of a very prominent, mobbed-up construction firm based out of the Corona section of Queens by the name of Mario & DiBono Construction Company. It was a firm that also listed his brother Frank as the vice president.

Mob Trivia: More than thirty years later in 1990, the elder DiBono’s son, Gambino Family soldier Louis DiBono, was found shot to death in the front seat of his blood-stained automobile in the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center Buildings in Manhattan.

At the time of his death, Louis DiBono held a lucrative multimillion-dollar construction contract to renovate the Towers. Louis had since taken over control and operation of the business from his deceased father (a former mafioso himself) and had changed the name to Mario & DiBono Plastering Company. DiBono’s gangland murder came at the hands of then-Gambino Family boss John Gotti, who gave the order to have DiBono killed after the hapless soldier had incurred Gotti’s wrath over some perceived minor slight.

The end of Louis DiBono

Since at least the 1920s, Joe and his brothers were all thought to be deeply enmeshed in the New York underworld. They operated primarily in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan sections of the city and were engaged in such lucrative rackets as alcohol bootlegging, policy numbers, the Italian lottery, high-stakes Ziganette games, floating crap games , extortion, a neighborhood “protection” racket, and labor union racketeering in the construction field, among other industries.

A 1950s Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (FBNDD) report named the Scalici brothers as also being deeply involved in a massive Trans-Atlantic heroin smuggling network and wholesale distribution ring headed by Frank. Joe was listed as being active in narcotics as well.

The authorities said that, through the years, Joe also functioned as the enforcement arm and contract killer for his brother Frank and, by extension, the Mangano/Anastasia “Family” as required of him.

Enjoying a Lofty Perch

Of the five brothers, Joe was thought to have been subservient in rank only to Frank himself. Joe reputedly served as “capo” over their Bronx faction with his brothers Turiddo, Jack, and John all reportedly serving as “soldiers” in their regime.

One of the main locations in The Bronx the Scalici brothers used as a headquarters was Jack’s Candy Store located at 597 Crescent Avenue. Run by their brother Jack, this nondescript little storefront served as the suspected headquarters for a decades-long alcohol bootlegging ring the brothers ran, a “drop” point for a Bronx-wide numbers betting racket, and the coordinating and distribution center for multi-kilo heroin loads transacted between mob figures of different New York families.

Started in the 1920s Prohibition Era, this “untaxed” alcohol-bootlegging operation operated well into the 1960s and was thought to have earned millions of dollars during its more than forty-year run.

Our Friends in The Bronx

Known associates of Frank and his brothers included such important early bosses as Manfredi (Al) Mineo, Salvatore (Charlie Lucky) Lucania, Francesco (Frank Costello) Castiglia , Vincent Mangano, Albert Anastasia, Carlo Gambino, and other top hierarchy figures like Giuseppe (Joe Bandy) Biondo, and Francesco (Frank) Castellano.

Besides his brothers a shortlist of mafiosi Joe associated with over the years included key members of their Bronx crew like Paul and Giuseppe Gambino, Joe Scalici’s brother-in-law, Giacomo (Jack) Scarpulla and his son Angelo Scarpulla, Pasquale (Patsy) Matranga, David (Papa Dave) Amodeo, Giovanni Maugeri, Luigi (Lou Mora) Morici , Vincent (Jimmy) Caronna, Matthew (Joe) Cuomo, Frank (Frank Miller) Luciano, Rosario (Charlie Brush) Dongarra , and Nicholas (Benny) DiBene.

But as a top “capo di decina” of the Family, and the brother of Frank, Joe had access to, and interacted with, virtually every top mafia figure in New York. After all, the Scalici brothers had been highly respected mafiosi for decades. Frank had served at the very pinnacle of Mafia power time and again through the years. So by proxy, the Scalici brothers all enjoyed a wide-ranging “respect.”

Don Cheech Gets Dumped!

In the early afternoon hours of June 17, 1957, Frank Scalise drove to his brother’s Crescent Avenue candy store as was his daily habit. After he and Jack discussed any pressing “business,” the two of them walked down the block to dine at a favorite Italian restaurant of theirs. After a delicious “pranzo” together, the brothers kissed goodbye and Jack departed the restaurant. But it was a beautiful sunny day out, so Frank decided to take a leisurely stroll along the avenue and maybe do some shopping.

“Don Cheech” was a very well-known persona in the neighborhood and was greeted accordingly by numerous local residents as he made his way down the street. He eventually stopped at a small fruit and vegetable market to look around. He was inside picking out some fresh peaches for only a few minutes when two unidentified men hurried in behind him.

Both men, of similar height and stature and clad in similar outfits of dark pants and white sleeveless shirts, each pulled out a .38 caliber revolver and opened fire. The fifty-five-year-old underboss was struck five times before he collapsed to the ground, bleeding profusely from his wounds. Francesco (Don Ciccio) Scalici was dead before he even hit the sawdust-laden wooden floor of the shop.

His two assailants then quickly ran out of the store and made their escape in a waiting getaway car idling for them at the curb. It was all over within seconds.

Daily News photos taken only minutes after the shooting inside the store show the underworld boss in a bloody heap. A new photographer took a second picture showing the moment several anguished Scalici brothers rushed into the store after hearing the sounds of gunfire from down the block and receiving word of what had happened. The heartbreak is clearly evident on their faces in that very candid photograph.

-The end of “Don Cheech” Scalise

Anguished relatives cry out upon seeing Frank’s bullet-riddled body

With Blood in His Eyes

Upon discovering his brother had been massacred, Joe Scalici felt more than just anguish and heartbreak. He instantaneously also saw red. He had blood in his eyes. He cursed his brother’s killers and immediately swore loudly for all to hear that he’d avenge Frank’s murder no matter what.

But shortly afterward when he finally cooled down a bit and could think straight, Joe realized that Frank had been slaughtered at the direction of their own Family boss Anastasia. The four remaining brothers, Turiddo, Jack, John, and Joe, had since made several inquiries within the Family and discovered who had really been behind their brother’s execution.

Joe panicked and went into hiding, fearful that he too would now be murdered for swearing revenge.

Subsequently, his three brothers still on the street reached out to Carlo Gambino and other important members of their Sicilian faction in an effort to try and intercede with Anastasia regarding the murder contract he put out for Joe’s life.

Getting Double-Banked

After the pleadings of then-consigliere Carlo Gambino, Joe Bandy, and other top members of their Family, Anastasia gave them his solemn word that no harm would befall their amico Joe Scalici. Satisfied with the boss’ response, Gambino and the others sent word to Joe through his brothers that all was forgiven and he could now safely return home to his wife and kids.

He was also told to mind his own business and make no further inquiry as to who the actual shooters of Frank had been, but he could, once again, go about his business as usual without any fear of underworld reprisal.

The next day after receiving the good news, Joe returned home to The Bronx and did as he was told. He kept to himself and went about his own business.

But several weeks later on September 7, 1957, Joe Scalise disappeared from his Bronx neighborhood after leaving his residence early that morning about 9:30 a.m. to do some local shopping in the area. When he didn’t return home that evening or the next day, the 52-year-old mafioso was declared missing by his wife Bella.

The New York City Police Department put out a city-wide “Missing Persons Alarm” almost immediately afterwards. But, of course, it did no good, Joe was already “gone,” and he wasn’t coming home again.

News of Joe Scalici's disappearance and presumed murder

Machiavellian Mafia Machinations

Law enforcement authorities and mob historians alike have debated the actual reasons for Frank Scalici’s murder since the day it happened. Theories have run the gamut from it being payback for his involvement in a narcotics deal gone wrong after Scalici failed to reimburse his mafia brethren for a seized heroin shipment he had guaranteed which cost them a bundle, to him having become too powerful for his own good, to him selling coveted Mafia memberships to the highest bidders in his Bronx neighborhood. This last theory has been regurgitated for many decades.

The prevailing wisdom is that Frank, in possible partnership with Albert himself, was selling these highly desired “buttons” to men unworthy of Cosa Nostra membership for upwards of $50,000 each. It is theorized that Anastasia had his underboss killed as a punishment or to possibly cover up his own involvement in such a forbidden practice.

But regardless of the true reason or reasons behind his murder, one thing is for certain - Frank’s assassination would lay the groundwork for a series of interlocking events over the next several weeks and months that would change the face of the Mafia in New York City forever.

Settling a Score...Sicilian Style

Shortly after Frank’s murder and Joe’s disappearance, Family boss Albert Anastasia was assassinated at the Park Sheraton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan by members of the Sicilian faction under the direction of Carlo Gambino and other Family leaders. The plot began and was quickly set in motion after Joe’s murder. Anastasia had broken the pact and commitment he had made to Gambino and other Palermo-based Sicilians by not honoring his sworn word that no harm would ever befall Joe.

“Friends” pay Albert a visit!

Then innocently, by extension, Gambino and the others sent word to their old amico that it was now “safe” for Joe to return to his Bronx neighborhood and return home to his wife and three children.

Joe was told that all was forgiven. That no harm would come to him. Word was that Albert understood Joe’s heartache and his knee-jerk reaction to his brother Frank’s murder. That, after all was said and done, Cosa Nostra was still Cosa Nostra, and this was “The Life” they had chosen. Joe and his brothers were relieved to receive that good news. But they had been lulled into a false sense of security.

By leaving that safe-house, Joe had only made himself a sitting duck for mob assassins. Anastasia never had any good intentions of “forgiving” Joe. That was not in Albert’s nature. As the former boss of the infamous “Murder Inc.” of Brownsville, Brooklyn, he was a heartless killer. In Albert’s mind, for having threatened him, Joe Scalici simply had to go. There were no two ways about it.

Mob lore has it that a notorious Bronx-based capo by the name of Vincent (Jimmy Jerome) Squillante carried out the dirty work along with soldier Arthur (Chink) Leo and several others. An Anastasia favorite, Squillante was suspected of having invited Joe Scalici to his home in The Bronx where the hit team killed and dismembered him. A noted garbage racketeer, Squillante then allegedly had his victim ground to pieces in a garbage compactor and disposed of in a landfill.

This event set into motion the historic plot to kill Anastasia. It was reputedly decided and organized within days of Scalici’s disappearance and presumed murder.

Vincent (Jimmy Jerome) Squillante

Arthur (Chink) Leo

Anastasia’s own sensational assassination took place within minutes after he sat in the barber’s chair that infamous morning inside the Park Sheraton Hotel barber shop for a quick shave and trim. No sooner had the barber covered Albert’s face with a hot towel, than several gunmen strolled into the shop and opened fire on the volatile mob boss. They quickly ventilated their former leader and then just as quickly disappeared into Manhattan’s morning rush hour.

The debt owed had been paid and the “vendetta” had been settled once and for all. Albert Anastasia was no more!

The Cream Always Rises to the Top

Subsequently, within days of Anastasia’s execution, then-consigliere Carlo Gambino was formally elected by the membership and ratified by the Commission as the “official” new boss of the borgata, which eventually became known as the Carlo Gambino Family.

The Gambino Family would go on to run smoothly for the next two decades under Carlo’s leadership. Thereafter, as was his wishes, Gambino’s cousin and longtime “acting boss” Paul (Big Paul) Castellano was elected to the boss position. Castellano continued running the family in the tradition of Carlo until he too was plotted against and assassinated at the hands of a brash, young capo named John J. Gotti…But that's a tale for another day.

Endnote: Joe’s former Bronx-based regime was later reassigned by Carlo Gambino to one of Scalici’s relatives. Former crew soldier Giacomo (Jack) Scarpulla was named the new “capo” of their Bronx faction.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

The Life and Death of Capo Giuseppe (Joe) Scalice

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