Francesco "Frankie Yale" Ioele (22 January 1893-1 July 1928) was an Italian-American gangster and a part-time hitman for the Chicago Outfit during Prohibition. Yale became one of the most powerful gangsters in Brooklyn as the leader of the "Black Hand", but he was assassinated by Al Capone's men when he became too powerful.
Biography[]
Yale in 1922
Francesco Ioele was born in Longobucco, Calabria, Italy on 22 January 1893, and his family came to the United States in 1900. In 1909, Ioele adopted the American name of "Frankie Yale" and became known as a fearful New York brawler and thief, being suspected of homicide in 1912. Yale ran the ice delivery trade of Brooklyn and opened the Harvard Inn in 1917, and one of the employees at the inn was Al Capone. Yale and Capone became associates, and Yale managed the Chicago Outfit's fronts in New York City while Capone and the rest of the organization moved to Chicago. In May 1920, Yale personally travelled to Chicago to assassinate James Colosimo, and he also carried out several murders during a gang war with the White Hand Gang affiliate of the Irish Mob on the Brooklyn docks. In November 1924, Yale headed to Chicago and assassinated Irish mob boss Dean O'Banion, and he assassinated Irish mob boss Richard Lonergan back in Brooklyn a year later.
By the mid-1920s, Yale was one of the most powerful gangsters in all of Brooklyn. At this point, he began to cut his ties to the Chicago Outfit, and his relationship with Al Capone deteriorated. Yale began hijacking the Chicago Outfit's booze shipments when they arrived in New York City, and the Chicago Outfit's spies confirmed this. On 1 July 1928, Yale was chased down by Chicago Outfit gunmen in a car chase, and the Outfit's men succeeded in trapping his car. One of the hitmen fired buckshot straight at Yale's head, killing him instantly.