Sylvestro Carolla

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Silvestro or Sylvestro "Sam" Carollo [Carolla] (June 17, 1896-1972) was a leader of the New Orleans crime family. He transformed Charles Matranga's Black Hand gang into a modern organized crime syndicate.

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[edit] Early years

Born Silvestro Davide Carollo in Palermo, Sicily, Carollo immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1904. By 1918, Carollo was a high ranking member of the New Orleans Black Hand gang. In 1922, Matranga retired and Carolla became gang leader. Taking over Matranga's minor bootlegging operations, Carollo waged war against rival bootleggers. In December 1930, Carollo gained full control of bootlegging in New Orleans with the murder of rival William Bailey.

Carollo was married to Caterina Carollo and had two children, Anthony and Salvatore. He owned several businesses in the New Orleans area along with a cafe in Terrasini, Sicily.

[edit] Height of Power

As his power increased, Carolla gained considerable political influence in New Orleans. In 1929, boss Al Capone was trying to force Carollo to supply Capone's Chicago Outfit with imported alcohol and cut off his Chicago rival, Joe Aiello. Arriving by train in New Orleans to press his case, Capone was intercepted at the station by Carolla and several New Orleans policemen. Carolla's cops reportedly disarmed Capone's henchmen and then broke their fingers. Capone was forced to return to Chicago.

In 1930, Carollo was arrested for the shooting death of federal narcotics agent Cecil Moore during an undercover drug buy. Despite testimony by several New Orleans policemen that Carolla was in New York at the time of the murder, he was sentenced to two years in prison.

Released in 1934, Carollo negotiated a deal with New York mobsters Frank Costello and Philip "Dandy Phil" Kastel (and U.S. Senator Huey Long) to bring slot machines to New Orleans. The new mayor of New York, Fiorello La Guardia, had started attacking mob gambling establishments in that city and Costello thought that New Orleans might be a safer environment for them. Therefore, it was arranged that Carollo, with lieutenant Carlos Marcello, would run illegal gambling operations in New Orleans undisturbed for several years.

[edit] Deportation and Exile

In 1938, a narcotics arrest would signal the decline of Carollo's fortunes. After serving two years in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, the court ordered Carollo deported to Italy in 1940. However, this order was delayed when Italy declared war on the United States in 1941. Throughout World War II, Carollo was able to continue running the New Orleans crime family. At the end of the war, Louisiana Congressman Jimmy Morrison proposed a special bill in Congress making Carollo a naturalized citizen. If this bill had passed, the 1940 deportation order would have been automatically nullified. However, reporter and columnist Drew Pearson exposed this deal and the bill never passed. In April 1947, seven years after the original order, Carollo was finally deported.

Soon arriving in Sicily, Carollo organized a partnership with fellow exile Charles "Lucky" Luciano establishing criminal enterprises in Mexico. Briefly returning to the United States in 1949, Carolla was deported again in 1950. At this time, control of the New Orleans crime family reverted to Carlos Marcello. In 1952, Carolla was arrested in Italy for swindling and narcotics trafficking. Carolla lived in Palermo, Sicily until 1970, when he once again returned to the US. According to Life Magazine, Marcello had asked Carolla to come home to mediate disputes within the New Orleans mafia.

Despite another deportation attempt, Sylvestro Carolla continued to live in the U.S. until his death 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. ISBN 0-070-15779-0
  • Scott, Peter Dale. Deep Politics and the Death of JFK. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. ISBN 0-520-20519-7
  • Bureau of Narcotics, U.S. Treasury Department, "Mafia: the Government's Secret File on Organized Crime, HarperCollins Publishers 2007 ISBN 0-06-136385-5

[edit] External links