Sylvestro Carolla

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Sylvestro "Sam" Carolla (born Silvestro Davide Carolla) (1896-1972) was the leader of the New Orleans crime family transforming predecessor Charles Matranga's Black Hand gang into a modern organized crime group.

Born in Sicily, Carolla immigrated to the United States when his parents in 1904. By 1918, Carolla had become a high ranking member of Charles Matranga's Black Hand organization eventually succeeding him following Matranga's retirement in 1922. Assuming control of Matranga's minor bootlegging operations, Carolla waged war against rival bootlegging gangs gaining full control following the murder of William Bailey in December 1930.

Gaining considerable political influence within New Orleans, he used his connections when, in 1929, Al Capone traveled to the city demanding Carolla supply the Chicago Outfit with imported alcohol instead of Chicago's Sicilian Mafia boss Joe Aiello. Meeting Capone as he arrived at a New Orleans train station, Carolla, accompanied by several police officers, reportedly disarmed Capone's bodyguards and breaking their fingers forcing Capone to return to Chicago.

In 1930, Carolla was arrested for the shooting death of federal narcotics agent Cecil Moore which took place during an undercover drug buy. Despite his support by several New Orleans police officers who testified Carolla was in New York at the time of the murder, he was sentenced to two years. Released in 1934, Carolla negotiated a deal with New York mobsters Frank Costello and Philip "Dandy Phil" Kastel, as well as Louisiana Senator Huey Long to bring slot machines into New Orleans following New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia's attacks on organized crime. Carolla, with lieutenant Carlos Marcello, would run illegal gambling operations undisturbed for several years.

Carolla's legal problems continued as he was scheduled to be deported in 1940 after serving two years in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, following his arrest on a narcotics charge in 1938. Although delayed following the US's entry into World War II, Carolla would continue to control the New Orleans crime family for several years before a campaign, begun by reporter Drew Pearson, exposed an attempt by Congressman Jimmy Morrison to pass a bill awarding Carolla with American citizenship (thereby making deportation illegal). Finally forced to leave New Orleans, Carolla would finally be deported in April 1947.

Soon arriving in Sicily, Carolla organized a partnership with fellow exile Charles Luciano establishing criminal enterprises in Mexico. Briefly returning to the United States in 1949, he was deported the following year as control of the New Orleans crime family reverted to Carlos Marcello. Living in Palermo, Sicily until 1970, Carolla once again returned to the US. According to Life Magazine, he was asked to return by Marcello, who needed him to mediate disputes within the New Orleans mafia. After a subsequent attempt to deport him failed, he died a free man in 1972. His son, Anthony Carollo, remained active in the New Orleans Mafia family for many years. At the time of his arrest and conviction in the FBI's "Hardcrust" Sting in the mid 1990s, Anthony Carollo had become the boss of the Family.

[edit] Further reading

Davis, John H. Mafia Kingfish: Carlos Marcello and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. New York: Signet, 1989.
Scott, Peter Dale. Deep Politics and the Death of JFK. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.