Vito Genovese was one of the most notorious mafioso to ever operate both in the United States and Italy and had a deadly reputation very early on in his career as a gunman and killer. He would rise up to become the right-hand man and capable underboss for decades to Salvatore (Lucky) Luciano, one of the master architects in the design of the modern Cosa Nostra.
In later years, with Luciano’s jailing and eventual deportation back to Italy, Vito would eclipse Frank Costello as boss of the old Luciano Family, seizing power and going on to lead the most powerful borgata in the United States. He was widely looked upon by both law enforcement and his mafia contemporaries as the “boss of all bosses.” To the present day, this organization still carries the name “Genovese” and has the “Neopolitan” flavor he brought to it.