Alberto Clemente (15 July 1897–15 June 1951) was the Don of the Clemente crime family from 1929 to 1951. One of the most ruthless and selfish Mafia bosses on the Commission, Clemente was thoroughly disliked by the other families' bosses for his traitorous tactics and opportunistic nature. He was killed by Moretti crime family soldiers Vito Scaletta and Joe Barbaro in 1951 on orders from their boss Carlo Falcone.
Biography[]
Clemente being shot to death by Joe Barbaro.
Clemente was born in 1897 to an Italian family in Palermo, Sicily. From a young age, he was involved in mob activities through his uncle Silvio, a powerful mafioso in the area. In 1920, he murdered a police captain on his uncle's orders, and in 1926, he immigrated to the United States, settling in New York City. There, through his uncle's connections, he quickly established a variety of lucrative illegal networks, such as gambling, car theft and bootlegging. He eventually became a powerful crime boss, establishing his own family with the approval of the Commission in 1929. He oversaw his operations from Freddy's Bar in Little Italy, and also controlled various legitimate businesses such as a slaughterhouse and a cab company. During the 1930s Vinci-Moretti war, Clemente profited from the families' infighting and took over some of their businesses. In 1945, he welcomed up-and-coming mobsters Vito Scaletta and Joe Barbaro into his family, assigning them and his soldier Henry Tomasino on the hit on businessman Sidney Pen, who had cheated Clemente out of a cut of his distillery business. In 1951, Clemente learned of Don Carlo Falcone's drug trafficking operation, and tried to muscle in on his rackets. Falcone, discovering Clemente's plan, ordered him dead. Scaletta and Barbaro, now made men in Falcone's family, ambushed Clemente and his men during a meeting at a hotel, planting a bomb in his conference room and killing most of his subordinates, though Clemente escaped in his driver's car. The two chased him through the city, and after Scaletta riddled his vehicle with bullets, Barbaro approached it and killed his driver, before shooting Clemente to death in his passenger seat.