Antonio "Tonino" Sandrelli (died 1931) was an American Mafia gangster who was affiliated with the Masseria crime family and the Maranzano crime family. Sandrelli was responsible for the murders of Gyp Rosetti and Joe Masseria, and he was murdered by Enoch Thompson due to his role in the Babette's Supper Club bombing of 1923 and for his disloyalty towards his bosses.
Biography[]
Masseria gangster[]
Sandrelli in 1923
Antonio Sandrelli was born in Sicily, Italy to a poor family. Sandrelli emigrated to the United States and settled in New York City, where he became affiliated with Joe Masseria's gang. Sandrelli became the second-in-command of Masseria's lieutenant Gyp Rosetti, and Sandrelli was forced to put up with Rosetti's angry outbursts. In 1923, Sandrelli assisted his boss during his war with Enoch Thompson, accompanying him during his blockade of Tabor Heights, New Jersey and helping him in carrying out the Babette's Supper Club bombing. However, he was found hiding in a closet at the shot-up Artemis Club (whose guards had just been massacred by Richard Harrow) by Thompson, who decided to have him kill Rosetti in exchange for letting him go free. Sandrelli, Rosetti, and two bodyguards met at the beach, and Sandrelli stabbed Rosetti to death as he urinated, killing his former boss and solving the issue. Thompson told Sandrelli that he would kill him if he returned to Atlantic City, and Sandrelli returned to Masseria.
Betrayal of Masseria[]
Sandrelli and Siegel in 1931
Sandrelli worked as one of Masseria's lieutenants for eight years, and he accompanied Masseria to a meeting with Thompson in Atlantic City in 1924 to discuss Masseria and Valentin Naricsse's involvement in the heroin trade in the city. Sandrelli later decided to assist Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Siegel during their intrigue against Masseria during the Castellammarese War, as he feared that he would be killed if he did not comply; he was preparing to betray the family for the second time. On 15 April 1931, Sandrelli and Bugsy Siegel gunned Masseria down at a Coney Island restaurant, and Sandrelli became a member of Salvatore Maranzano's mafia. Maranzano told Thompson that Sandrelli was a good person, and that his past betrayals should not define him.
Downfall[]
Tonino after being killed
Sandrelli once more became paranoid as he discovered that Luciano and his allies were planning to betray Maranzano as well, as he believed that they would kill him for his two betrayals. Thompson briefly ran into Sandrelli during a meeting with Maranzano, and he decided to meet with Sandrelli in private over dinner. He forced Sandrelli to tell him about Lansky and Luciano's role in the assassination attempt on him in Havana, Cuba, and Thompson told Sandrelli that he would give him a job the next morning. However, Sandrelli was stabbed in the back by Thompson's bodyguard Arquimedes instead, and his right ear was cut off as a trophy. His body was thrown at the doorstep of Lansky and Luciano's hotel, and a Havana postcard was left on his body to show Lansky that Thompson had murdered him.