| Guarino Moretti | |
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Willie Moretti during one of his outbursts at members of the Kefauver Committee. |
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| Born | 1894 Bari, Puglia, Italy |
| Died | October 4, 1951 Cliffside Park, New Jersey, U.S. |
Guarino "Willie" Moretti (1894 - October 4, 1951) was an underboss of the Genovese crime family and a cousin of family boss Frank Costello.
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Born Guarino Moretti in Bari, Puglia, Italy in 1894, Moretti came to America in the early 1930s to join his family in New Jersey.
From 1933 to 1951, Moretti, in association with Joe Adonis, Settimo Accardi and Abner Zwillman, ran lucrative gambling dens in New Jersey and Upstate New York. His operations were based out of his homes in Hasbrouck Heights (located in Bergen County, New Jersey, just outside of New York City) and Deal (located in Monmouth County, New Jersey along the Jersey Shore).[1]
In 1950, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Organized Crime started an investigation known as the Kefauver hearings, named after its chairman, Sen. Estes Kefauver. Along with other members of Genovese family, Moretti, by then widely known by his alias "Willie Moore," was called to testify. Moretti was the only one who cooperated with the committee. While the other mobsters refused to testify by repeatedly invoking the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provides legal protection against self-incrimination, the garrulous Moretti told jokes, spoke candidly, and generally played it up for the cameras. In doing so, he was violating the Mafia code of silence, known as omertà.
In the 1940s, Moretti became friends with singer Frank Sinatra. Sinatra's first wife, Nancy Barbato, was a paternal cousin of John "Johnny Sausages" Barbato, a veteran sidewalk soldier for Moretti. In 1947, Sinatra sang at the wedding of Moretti's daughter. According to testimony from Moretti, he helped Sinatra arrange performances in return for kick-backs. It was also rumored that Moretti persuaded band leader Tommy Dorsey to release Sinatra from his contract by threatening to kill him. This incident inspired the similar incident in The Godfather [2]
In the late 1940s, Moretti become acquainted with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The two comedians were performing at Bill Miller's Riviera nightclub in Fort Lee, New Jersey. In earlier years, Moretti and Abner "Longy" Zwillman were watching the club's cardroom when it was previously owned by Ben Marden. In 1947, Martin and Lewis, Sinatra and Milton Berle did command performances at the wedding of Moretti's daughter.
As it was being alleged that Moretti's mental condition was possibly deteriorating from advanced stage syphilis,[3] it was feared he was becoming too talkative. An open contract was placed by the mob commission to have him killed. According to informant Joe Valachi, it was considered a "mercy killing". On October 4, 1951, four hitmen, believed to belong to Albert Anastasia, took Moretti to lunch at Joe's Elbow Room Restaurant in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. As they were dining, one or more gunmen opened fire, mortally wounding him. He was 57 years old.
On the day of Moretti's murder, Martin and Lewis had a lunch date scheduled with Moretti. However, earlier that morning, Lewis learned that he had contracted the mumps and both men totally forgot about lunch. Later, while trying to reach Moretti to apologize and explain, they learned he was dead from the television news (Lewis 2005).
| Business positions | ||
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| Preceded by Frank "Chee" Gusage |
Genovese crime family Underboss 1937-1951 |
Succeeded by Vito Genovese |
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