Michael Coppola
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| Michael Coppola | |
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| Born | 1904 New York, USA |
| Died | October 1, 1966 Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
Michael "Trigger Mike" Coppola (1904 - October 1, 1966) was a New York mobster involved in narcotics as well as headed many of the Luciano-Genovese criminal operations from the late 1930s until the early 1960s.
Born in 1904, Coppola entered the ranks of the New York mafiosi with a reputation as a sadistic and violent gunman during Prohibition and, following the end of the Castellammarese War, was a high ranking member of Charles "Lucky" Luciano's organization. In 1936, following the conviction of Luciano on prostitution charges and later Underboss Vito Genovese's fleeing the country on a murder charge, Coppola was left in charge of the Luciano crime family criminal operations including a monopoly on New York's artichoke supply and Harlem's numbers racket, worth over $1,000,000 a year.
Despite the former Luciano gunman's rise to power, Coppola's trouble in his personal life would be a source of ongoing problems throughout his life. After his marriage to his first wife Doris Lehman in 1943, according to Coppola's second wife Ann Coppola, her death was claimed to have been the result of overhearing Coppola's plans to assassinate New York Republican Party political activist Joseph Scottoriggio in response to his opposition to Marcantonio. Reportedly murdered by her husband a day after giving birth to prevent her from testifying against him (her scheduled testimony was postponed due to her pregnancy); Scottoriggio would later be murdered in 1946.
In 1960, Coppola was one of eleven men officially listed in the Black Book by Nevada state officials, barring his entry into the state.
That same year Ann Coppola filed for divorce, supposedly due to Coppola supplying drugs to her daughter, and later agreed to testify against Coppola in an income tax investigation. As a result Coppola ordered several gunmen to kidnap and assault her. Found severely beaten on the an isolated beach, Ann Coppola continued on with the investigation.
In April 1961, Coppola was indicted on four counts of income tax evasion and, following a mistrial, Coppola pled guilty where he was fined $40,000 and sentenced to serve four years and placed on an additional four years probation after he had served his sentence ([1]).
Ann Coppola herself, who claimed she also suffered mental and physical abuse from Coppola, fled to Europe with $250,000 of the crime families’ money following Coppola's imprisonment for tax evasion in 1962. While staying in Rome, Italy, she sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (with certain portions addressed to then-U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy) detailing the criminal activities of the Luciano crime family as well as a letter to the incarcerated Coppola before committing suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills.
Following his release from Atlanta Federal Prison in 1963, Coppola was unable to regain his previous power and lived in obscurity until his death at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts three years later.
[edit] References
- Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000, (ISBN 0-313-30653-2).
- Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Facts On File Inc., 2005, (ISBN 0-8160-5694-3).
[edit] Further reading
- Mills, James. The Underground Empire: Where Crime and Governments Meet, 1986.
- Binda, Lawrence. The Big, Bad Book of Mike: Rogues, Rascals and Rapscallions Named Michael, Mike and Mickey, Lincoln, Nebraska: iUniverse, 2003, (ISBN 0-595-28772-7).
[edit] External links
- [2] The Tortured Soul of Ann Coppola by Allan May
| Preceded by Dutch Schultz |
Policy racket in New York City circa 1935-1948 |
Succeeded by Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno |
