Sam Trapani (died 4 November 1938) was an Italian-American mafioso and caporegime in Chicago's Morello crime family during the Prohibition era. A loyal lieutenant of Don Ennio Salieri, he was forced to turn on his friends Tommy Angelo and Paulie Lombardo in 1938, killing Lombardo at his apartment, but being shot dead by Angelo at the city art gallery that same day.
Biography[]
Samuel Trapani was born in Sicily, Italy, and his family immigrated to the United States when he was young. They settled in Chicago, Illinois, where Trapani became involved with the Peppone crime family and then Don Ennio Salieri's family after Don Felice Pepponi's demise in 1921. Trapani became a made member of the Salieri crime family and was partnered with soldato Paulie Lombardo; on 22 September 1930, Trapani and Lombardo forcibly recruited cab driver Tommy Angelo as an associate while fleeing Morello crime family hitmen, and, a day later, they protected Angelo from retaliation by the Morellos and recruited him into the Salieri family. The three became best friends, but, while Angelo and Lombardo would become close-knit and later embark on side-adventures, Trapani was fiercely loyal to Don Salieri. When, in 1938, Don Salieri discovered that Lombardo and Angelo had carried out a bank robbery without his permission, that Angelo had spared the consigliere Frank Colletti despite being given his contract, and that he had spared Trapani's prostitute lover Michelle despite being ordered to bomb her brothel, Salieri had Trapani turn on his former friends. Trapani shot Lombardo twice in the head at his apartment and then met up with Angelo at the city's art gallery, promising to help Angelo escape. He offered to do what Angelo had done with Colletti - falsely reporting their deaths - but Angelo, upon hearing that Trapani had killed Lombardo, sternly refused. This resulted in a fight, and Angelo succeeded in killing Trapani and fleeing Chicago with his family, entering the Witness Protection Program to escape Salieri's wrath.