Messina Brothers

Messina Brothers
Founded by Giuseppe Messina
Founding location Valletta, Malta
Years active 1900s-1950s
Territory London in England, Malta, Alexandria in Egypt and Sanremo in Italy
Ethnicity Italian, Maltese
Membership (est.) 6
Criminal activities Prostitution

The Messina Brothers were five brothers who led a criminal organisation in London from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Early life

The father of the five Maltese Messina (Debono) brothers was Giuseppe from Linguaglossa in Sicily. In late 1890 he came to Malta and worked in a brothel in Valletta. He married a Maltese girl and had two sons Salvatore and Alfredo. He then moved to Alexandria in Egypt in 1905 where there was a thriving Maltese community and built a chain of brothels. The other three brothers Eugenio, Attillo and Carmelo were born in Alexandria. Their real family name was Debono. All the five brothers joined their father in running brothels and prostitution. In 1932 the Egyptian authorities expelled Giuseppe and his sons and the family returned to Malta as Giuseppe had Maltese citizenship. In 1934 Eugenio the third son of Giuseppe, born in 1908 moved to London with his French prostitute wife Colette. She helped establish the sex business in London. The other Messina brothers followed Eugenio to London and established the family in Soho.

The Messinas and the London Underworld

On arrival in UK the Messina brothers took up English names. Eugenio became Edward Marshal, Carmelo became Charles Maitland, Alfredo became Alfred Martin, Salvatore became Arthur Evans and Atillio became Raymond Maynard. Properties were bought through out the west end and businesses set up. They quickly became involved in their father’s former trade and, during the years following the Second World War, imported women from Belgium, France and Spain. With a steady and highly profitable prostitution operation and adequate protection from members of the Metropolitan Police, the Messinas ran unchecked in the city. By the late 1940s they were operating thirty houses of prostitution on Queen Street, Bond Street and Stafford Street. Prosecution proved difficult as many of the women who worked for them had valid passports, making it hard to make a case for deportation of either the women or the brothers. Later they started recruiting local English girls by the age old technique of giving good looking girls a good time and possibly promises of marriage followed by being induced into prostitution. Attilio Messina reportedly stated to the press: "We Messinas are more powerful than the British Government. We do as we like in England."

Downfall

In the late 1940s Duncan Webb, a crime reporter on the tabloid newspaper The People, began writing articles claiming that information was being leaked from Scotland Yard to Alfred Messina and on 3 September 1950 the paper published a front-page article by Webb describing prostitution in the West End, including interviews with more than 100 prostitutes, and revealing names, dates, photographs and other information crucial to any police investigation.

The activities of the Messinas soon gained the attention of Scotland Yard, which formed a special investigative task force under Superintendent Guy Mahon to engage in an aggressive campaign against them. By the end of the 1950s the Messinas had been forced to flee the country. Alfredo Messina was imprisoned on bribery and prostitution charges. Attilio was sent to prison for 4 years on 9th April 1959 and on his release went to live in Italy.

Eugene and Carmelo Messina eventually resurfaced in Belgium living in a 10 bedroom flat at Avenue Louis in Brussels. They were arrested, and taken to court on 23 June 1956 on charges of procuring women, illegal possession of firearms, possessing fake passports and entering Belgium illegally. They were convicted and imprisoned partly because of testimony given by detectives from Scotland Yard. The Police forces of Italy, France, Belgium and UK were involved in the investigations and evidence collection for the prosecution of the brothers. Eugene was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. Following his release from prison he went to live in San Remo in Italy. He later married Maria Theresa Vervaere on 12th March 1970 and died the same day. Carmelo was found sitting in a car in Knightsbridge in October 1958. He was arrested for being an illegal immigrant and received a six month prison sentence. After completing his prison sentence he was deported to Italy where he died in 1959 and brother Alfredo died at Brentford in 1963.The remaining brother, Salvatore Messina, went into hiding perhaps in Switzerland and was never apprehended.

Messina brothers may have laid the foundation for Maltese gangsters, pimps and criminals in Soho. Some of these were Amabile Ricca, brothers Joseph and Francis Xavier Farrugia, Joseph Spiteri, Phillip Ellul, Victor Spampinato, George Caruana, Emmanuel Attard, Big Frank Mifsud (1976), Victor Micallef (1970s) , Joseph Mifsud(1970's), Emmanuel Bartolo(1970s), Jan Aguis(1983), Vincent Calleja (1983) etc. Some were jailed, some died, some fled. Some are back in the Maltese sun but still running prostitutes, albeit more discreetly than in the sixties, when the women had to hustle for work on the streets rather than through photo cards in public phone booths. Some may be in business in Soho but keep a low profile.

See also

References

Further reading

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