William Balsamo - Young Al Capone. The Untold Story of Scarface in New York, 1899-1925

TOMMASSO, WHERESA MY bacile ? muttered the rotund, five foot, four inch tall Maria Adamo as her seventeen-year-old approached. Knowing his mother always did her wash at this time of day, the youngster figured out just what she was looking for.

I dont know, Mama, I havent seen the washbasin. Maybe you left it in the yard, he replied, with a sheepish look on his face. He wouldnt dare let on that hed seen one of his brothers carrying it in the hallway earlier that morning. The thirty-eight-year-old mother of five boys and two small daughters was remarkably youthful-looking despite her many childbirths, but this morning the usually patient, mild-mannered lady was more than a little agitated. She threw her arms in the air and began mumbling a repetitive round of profanity, concluding with putana diavalo (whore of the devil) as she walked outside the doorway and circled the yard once again. Maria, dressed in a loose-fitting beige dress covered with a spotless white apron that she had sewn for herself, was becoming resigned to the fact that someone had stolen her new metal washtub.

Ima keep it right here, where it stay alla time, Maria complained, while pointing to a nail protruding from a wooden beam close to the door that led to the yard.

The Adamos apartment consisted of two separate levels, the basement and the parlor floor of a rented, three-family house at 125 Navy Street where she resided with her large brood and her husband, Francesco, a short, husky dock worker who walked with a limp, his abnormal gait the result of an injury sustained four years prior while toiling on Brooklyns Pearl Street piers.

Tommasso Tommy Adamo left his bewildered mother and took a stroll up the block in search of his younger brothers, thinking they might have taken the rather large basin for one reason or another. Just as he expected, Tommasso found them at the corner of Navy and Tillary Streets. Sixteen-year-old Gerardo, thirteen-year-old Johnny Boy, and the youngest of the Adamo boys, eleven-year-old Francescoknown as Juniorwere hanging out with their clique, called the Navy Street Boys. It was May 12, 1907.

This youthful brotherhood consisted of the previously mentioned Adamo brothers and several other local toughs, including the Capone brothers: Ralph, almost fifteen; twelve-year-old Salvatore (known as Frankie); and the youngest of the group, chubby Alphonse, who was just past the tender age of eight. Alphonse was taller and heavier than most of the other kids his age. He looked like a boy of eleven and the older guys accepted him in the gang as sort of a mascot.

The unchallenged leader of this group of roughnecks was nineteenyear-old Frank Nitto, a tough cookie who was squat (five feet, five inches in height), good with his fists, and much more dangerous when he wielded a weapon. Frank Nitto would gain notoriety later in life as Frank The Enforcer Nitti. It was Franks strong leadership, combined with his boldness during rumbles, that helped make the Navy Street Boys truly feared among other youth gangs of that era. Not only on their own turf but also throughout the borough of Brooklyn, all one had to do was mention Im with Navy Street and that alone caused other youngsters to cower and make tracks. The supercharged fraternity, consisting of mostly Italian Americans, were cliqued up with some of the toughest street gangs around and the time for a little teamwork was fast approaching.

Some of the others who were destined to play a role in the impending rumble on the side of the Italians were Franks brother, Lally, James Filezee DeAmato, Rocco Rocky Mangano, Tough Tony Caputo, and around a dozen others.

Did any of you see Mamas wash basin? Tommasso asked as he approached the gang. He directed the question to his youngest brother, Junior, who was seated, cross-legged on the wooden steps of the house where Tony Caputo lived. Shes going nuts looking for it because she wants to wash some of Papas work clothes.

Junior Adamo bore a blank expression and remained tight-lipped as the hoodlum commander, Frank Nitto, who was leaning against a corner lamppost with his right shoulder, hesitated for a moment, then lit a cigarette, which hung from his lips, and took a drag. Sucking the smoke deep into his lungs, Nitto held it for a moment, and then exhaled the nicotine fog into the gentle breeze.

Shell get it back in good shape as soon as we finish using it. When the shits over! Nitto barked, and then softened his tone reassuringly with, You have my word on that, Tommy.

Tommasso sighed a little, but his anxiety was allayed when little Alphonse disclosed the fact that Frank told him to hide the basin under the stairs in the hallway of his house and furthermore, young Capone promised that he would protect the tub.

The oldest Adamo brother, arriving late on the scene, was not aware of the war council that he had unexpectedly interrupted. The gang was upset because one of the guys in their clique, Rocky Mangano, recently had a family member, an aunt, insulted by some local Irish hooligans. The young Irish toughs thought it was funny to sneak up behind this dark-haired lady, who in this particular neighborhood was undoubtedly Italian, and lift up her skirt to expose her bloomers.