Vincent (Jimmy Angelo) Angelino: Shadowy Genovese Capo

Vincent (Jimmy Angelo) Angelino was a shadowy and little-known Cosa Nostra capo in the Genovese Family. Despite his early proclivity as an accomplished gunman, his quick rise up the underworld ladder, and getting exposed by mob songbird Joe Valachi during the 1963 U.S. Senate hearings, for many years, Jimmy Angelina successfully headed a major faction of the Genovese borgata while quietly remaining in the shadows.

Jimmy’s wild shenanigans quickly developed his street reputation, and he soon attracted the attention of a highly-respected and influential Calabrian-born criminal by the name of Rocco (The Old Man) Pellegrino, who was the acknowledged “power” in the local underworld. Pellegrino took a liking to the brash young hoodlum and took him under his wing. It is believed that this is where Angelino first got his start in the Mafia, under Pellegrino’s criminal tutelage and guidance.

Vincent (Jimmy Angelo) Angellino - aka James Angellina, Jimmy Angelina, and Vincenzo D. Angelino (TN) - was born in Naples, Italy on August 15, 1905. He was one of four children of Domenico and Lucia Angelino. His two brothers were named Antonio and Giovanni, and his kid sister was named Carmelina.

The Angelino family immigrated to New York City in 1911 and settled up in the Bronx where they shared a cramped apartment at 690 East 189th Street.

The Angelino kids attended the New York City School system, but Jimmy quit school when as an 11-year-old in the 6th grade and took odd jobs to earn money for his family. By the time he was in his teens, Angelina was already working as an independent produce dealer.

By his late teens, Jimmy was described as having grown to 5-6 feet tall and weighing in at about 150 pounds. He had a light complexion and medium-brown eyes and hair he wore swept back.

Jimmy Angelina

When Jimmy was about 19 years old, he met a pretty Italian girl from nearby Yonkers named Laura Louise Santamoreno. They started dating, and by 1925, decided to get married. The young couple eventually had two sons, three years apart, named Dominick and James Jr. The boys were named after their grandfather and father, respectively, following a long-standing Italian tradition.

Six years later, on July 29, 1931, Angelino took the oath and became a naturalized citizen of the United States of America.

By 1940, Jimmy and Laura had relocated their young family to a newly rented apartment at 2505 Lorillard Avenue in the Bronx. He had also parlayed his previous experience working in the produce trade into a thriving new enterprise and was now listing himself as the commissioned brokerage “agent” and owner of his own produce company. Jimmy had also gone into another new business venture and was now operating as a “boxing manager” representing professional prize fighters.

It seems that 1940 was a very busy year for our boy. That October, while WWII was raging in Europe, he also registered for the U.S. draft. A decade later, by 1950, Jimmy relocated his wife and family once again, moving to 2454 Tiebout Avenue.

Over the past decades, from the 1920s through the 1950s, it seems that Jimmy Angelina had also focused on developing some other useful "skills" that came in very handy. These “skills” allowed the New York City Police Department to get to know him quite well. So did the Federal Bureau of Investigation who carried him in their files as Case #68293.

The Street..."La Strada"

Jimmy was a very wild kid…with big ambitions. By the time he was a teenager, he had already been drawn to the street life and into criminal activity. And judging from his record, over the next decade or so, Angelina dove head first into what can only be described as the actions of a devout gunman and hardened hoodlum.

Through the years Angelina compiled a very lengthy police record. So much so, that by the time he was still in his mid-twenties, he had already been arrested over eighteen times…and Jimmy was just getting started.

His yellow sheet reads as follows:

1924 - grand larceny

1926 - In Boston, MA, breaking and entering

1927 - vagrancy & burglary

1927 - armed robbery

1927 - grand larceny

1927 - burglary

1927 - auto theft

1927 - attempted burglary

1927 - loft burglary

1927 - attempted rape

1928 - burglary

1928 - armed robbery and grand larceny

1928 - assault

1929 - burglarizing a loft safe

1929 - burglary, armed robbery

1930 - burglary

1931 - vagrancy

1931 - charged with attempted robbery and felonious assault after he and several accomplices were captured after they had a gun battle in New Rochelle with police officers.

Jimmy’s wild shenanigans quickly developed his street reputation, and he soon attracted the attention of a highly-respected and influential Calabrian-born criminal by the name of Rocco (The Old Man) Pellegrino, who was the acknowledged “power” in the local underworld. Pellegrino took a liking to the brash young hoodlum and took him under his wing. It is believed that this is where Angelino first got his start in the Mafia, under Pellegrino’s criminal tutelage and guidance.

La Societa Onorata

Immigrating from Italy to the U.S. in 1905, within a few years, Rocco Pellegrino had become one of the most powerful underworld figures in New York City. Pellegrino quickly established himself and was soon widely recognized as a feared member of Calabria’s Societa’ Onorato, “The Honored Society,” which was the precursor organization to the Calabrian N’drangheta.

Pellegrino settled his young family in a comfortable home up in White Plains, at 20 Corrigan Avenue, just north of New York City itself. He eventually also opened up a small bake shop called the Pellegrino Bakery from where he would headquarter his rackets and oversee a growing band of young hoodlums drawn from the Calabria and Campania regions of Southern Italy’s mainland.

Among other criminal pursuits, during these early years, Pellegrino and his gang were active in liquor bootlegging, armed robberies and loft burglaries, Blackhand-styled extortions and shakedowns, counterfeiting, gambling, contract murder….and narcotics.

Rocco Pelligrino

Another unique feature of this legendary mafioso was the fact that despite Pellegrino himself being based in White Plains, by the 1930s-1940s, he and several of his key men were able to gain ironclad control over the burgeoning waterfront industry and docks rackets in Lower Manhattan. These rackets alone brought in millions of dollars a year in illicit profits.

Regarding his involvement in narcotics trafficking, by the early 1950s, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (FBNDD) listed Rocco Pellegrino as being among the most important importers and wholesale distributors of hard narcotics in the United States.

By at least the mid-1930s, Pellegrino and his men were believed to have joined up with the newly formed Cosa Nostra established in 1931, which was an amalgamation of all Italian hoodlums, be they Sicilian, Calabrian, Neopolitan, or otherwise.

Now considered part of one monolithic entity, Pellegrino became one of the original “capo di decina” nominated within the formidable Luciano crime family and was given official control over the wide swath of territory he was already in control of anyway, which included such lucrative areas of plunder as the Upper Bronx, Yonkers, New Rochelle, East Chester, White Plains, and Tarrytown as well as the rest of Westchester County and beyond.

During his time in power, he arguably headed one of the largest and most important “regimes” of the Luciano Family, with dozens and dozens of formally inducted “soldiers” and hundreds more crew associates. Besides Angelino, other important men considered to be part of Pellegrino’s criminal fiefdom included such future underworld notables as Nicholas (Cockeyed Nick) Rattenni, Modesto (Mickey Morris) Barra , his brother, Joseph Barra, Tommy Milo, and John (Johnny Futto) Biello, to name but a few.

Taking Over

With his mentor’s retirement from active underworld duty in the 1950s, it is believed that Angelina was bumped up to a capodecina position and tapped to take over the regime Rocco Pellegrino formerly headed.

By the time Angelina became the crew captain, this particular regime of the newly named Vito Genovese Family had grown to epic proportions. They now controlled numerous moneymaking enterprises in both criminal activity and quasi-legitimate industries which generated untold millions of dollars annually into the Family coffers.

The crew’s reach now spanned from The Bronx and Yonkers into White Plains, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Port Chester, Mamaroneck, Mt. Kisco, Katonah, Croton-on-Hudson, Peekskill, and many other towns and little villages throughout Westchester County.

Jimmy Angelina now led a continent of sophisticated mafiosi whose activities ran the gamut from horse and sports bookmaking, policy numbers and the Italian lottery, shylocking, extortion, varied heists and thefts, the fencing of stolen goods, currency counterfeiting, business infiltration, garbage industry racketeering, and narcotics. Jimmy had become a very important mafioso.

For the next decade or so, Jimmy oversaw his crew without much fanfare or publicity. He preferred instead to remain in the shadows. He was a low-key guy whose style of management proved to be very successful.

The Changing of the Guard

James Angelina died on January 24, 1967. He was only 61 years old. His beloved wife Laura, also born in 1905, lived on for another twenty-five years, passing away in May of 1992 at age 87.

With his passing it was believed the Genovese Family hierarchy decided to split the regime he headed into several smaller crews, elevating former soldiers like Nick Rattenni and Rudy Santobello to oversee the new regimes.

In the coming years, several more former soldiers were elevated to caporegimes and given their own crews, including such iconic mafiosi as Matteo (Matty Brown) Fortunato, Lawrence (Larry Black) Centore and Joseph (Joe Beck) Lapi.

During the past sixty years, others have also been tapped to head these regimes. But regardless of who is appointed as overseer, these very same crews continue to operate unimpeded to this very day.

Coming up next, we will be posting up a one-of-a-kind heirarchy chart that lists the known membership of Jimmy Angelina’s regime. Button Guys has researched and named 271 hoodlums, including 42 inducted soldiers and another 229 crew associates, some of whom were later proposed for formal Cosa Nostra membership as soldiers themselves in future years. Watch for it!

Until next time..."The Other Guy"

Vincent (Jimmy Angelo) Angelino: Shadowy Genovese Capo

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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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