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Joseph Pinzolo

Bonaventura "Joseph" Pinzolo (1887-5 September 1930) was boss of the Lucchese crime family in 1930, succeeding Gaetano Reina and preceding Tommy Gagliano. Pinzolo was murdered during the Castellammarese War in 1930.

Biography[]

Bonaventura Pinzolo was born in 1887 in Sicily, and he moved to New York City during the late 1890s. In 1908, as a Black Hand extortionist, he was arrested for attempting to bomb 314 East 11th Street to collect protection money from the owner. Pinzolo decided to rat out his boss, the Camorra leader Giuseppe Costabile, but he refused to testify againt him, leading to him being imprisoned for 5 years. In 1930, he took over the future Lucchese crime family from Gaetano Reina after his murder, and Pinzolo aligned himself with Salvatore Maranzano in opposition to Joe Masseria and his faction of the American Mafia. On 5 September 1930, he was murdered outside of a fruit importation company's building by Girolamo Santuccio.

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