Vincent Alo was born in East Harlem, New York on May 26, 1904, the son of immigrant parents from the Calabria Province in Southern Italy. He came of age as a prominent bootlegger, gunman, and racketeer during the “Roaring Twenties” era.
By the early 1930s, he was a formally inducted “original” member of what became the Luciano Family, headed by boss Salvatore (Charlie Lucky) Luciano.
By the early 1940s, Alo was bumped up to a “capo di decina” and put in charge of a large Bronx-based regime that grew to include dozens of soldiers and hundreds more criminal “associates” of various ethnicities who dabbled in a diverse criminal portfolio.
Alo was considered to be an intimate and contemporary of such iconic Mafia figures as Luciano, Vito (Don Vitone) Genovese, Francesco (Frank Costello) Castiglia, Giuseppe (Joe Adonis) Doto, Anthony (Little Augie Pisano) Carfano, and Frank Erickson.
Around 1936, he migrated down to South Florida along with his close friend and partner, Jewish mob boss and gambling kingpin Meyer Lansky.