13 Places Where Mobsters Got Whacked: Then & Now

Throughout the years, many infamous mobsters have met their demise in locations that have since become legendary in the underworld. From dimly lit street corners to glamorous restaurants, these places bear the marks of history where power was ruthlessly stripped away. But what has become of these notorious locations? We take you through 13 places where mobsters were whacked — exploring what they were like then and what has become of them now.

1. Park Central Hotel: 870 Seventh Avenue, New York

Albert Anastasia — Lord High Executioner of Murder Incorporated and boss of the Gambino crime family — was sitting in a barber’s chair at the Park Sheraton Hotel on 870 7th Avenue on 25 October 1957 when his bodyguard conveniently took a walk. Whether his bodyguard knew what was coming is still debated.

Out of nowhere, two men rushed the barbershop and unleashed a barrage of bullets. Anastasia leapt from the chair and charged at the men — but in the panic and confusion he was attacking their reflections in the barber’s mirror, not the men themselves. He was hit multiple times and died at the scene.

What happened to the building? The hotel changed its name from the Sheraton in the 1970s and was renamed the Park Central Hotel in the 1990s. It still stands and operates today.

2. The Half Moon Hotel: Coney Island, Brooklyn

Abe Reles — the Murder Incorporated killer turned government witness known as Kid Twist — was being held under police protection at the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island in 1941. He was about to provide testimony that would have sent Albert Anastasia to the electric chair. Instead, Reles was found dead on the hotel’s roof, having apparently fallen from room 623 on the sixth floor.

With no evidence of who killed him — if anyone did — charges against his associates were dropped and the death was ruled accidental. The mob’s nickname for the incident was “the canary who could sing but couldn’t fly.” Most historians believe he was thrown from the window to prevent his testimony.

What happened to the building? The Half Moon Hotel was demolished in 1995.

3. Rao’s Restaurant: 455 E. 114th Street, New York

This legendary East Harlem restaurant — open since 1896 and notoriously impossible to get into — has seen bodies turn up in suitcases down the block and was the scene of one of the more unusual mob murders in recent history. A few days before Christmas in 2003, Lucchese soldier Albert Circelli began heckling Broadway actress Rena Strober’s performance. Louis Barone told him to show some respect. Circelli responded with a graphic threat. Barone pulled out his .38 and shot Circelli once in the back.

Barone was convicted and received a 15-year sentence. Rao’s is very much still open — and still just as impossible to get a reservation.

4. Sparks Steakhouse: 210 E 46th Street, Manhattan

Thomas Bilotti drove Paul Castellano to a prearranged meeting at Sparks Steakhouse on the evening of 16 December 1985. A hit team assembled by John Gotti was waiting near the restaurant entrance — Gambino soldiers Vincent Artuso, Salvatore Scala, Edward Lino, John Carneglia and possibly Leonard DiMaria. Just yards away, a backup team including Dominick Pizzonia, Angelo Ruggiero and Anthony Rampino stood by.

As both men stepped out of the car, gunmen rushed them and fired multiple times. John Carneglia delivered the fatal shot to Castellano’s head. Gotti watched from a car nearby and assumed the Gambino throne that same evening.

What happened to the building? Sparks Steakhouse remained open for over three decades, becoming a tourist landmark for mob enthusiasts. It finally closed permanently in 2019.

5. Columbus Circle: 59th Street and Broadway

On 28 June 1971, a rally for Joe Colombo’s Italian-American Civil Rights League drew a crowd of around 100,000 at Columbus Circle. As Colombo was about to take the stage, Jerome A. Johnson — a gunman posing as a press photographer — stepped forward and shot Colombo three times in the head at point-blank range. Johnson was immediately shot dead, presumably by a Colombo bodyguard.

Colombo didn’t die at the scene. He was rushed to hospital and remained in a coma for seven years, finally dying in 1978. The shooting is widely believed to have been ordered by Joseph “Crazy Joe” Gallo, who was himself killed at Umberto’s Clam House less than a year later.

What happened to the area? Columbus Circle has remained largely unchanged for nearly a century and continues to be one of New York’s busiest public spaces.

6. Umberto’s Clam House: 132 Mulberry St, New York

The date was 7 April 1972 — Joey Gallo’s 43rd birthday. Gallo was celebrating with his family at Umberto’s Clam House in Little Italy at 4:30am when four gunmen rushed in and fired over 20 shots from .32 and .38 revolvers at his table. Gallo was hit in the back, arm and leg. He overturned a table to draw fire away from his family, made it to the door of the restaurant and collapsed on the street outside, dying shortly after.

What happened to the building? The restaurant closed in 1999 due to financial difficulties and reopened in 2000 a few doors north at 132 Mulberry Street (from the original 129). The original space is now occupied by the Italian restaurant Da Gennaro.

7. Nuova Villa Tammaro: 2715 West 15th Street, Coney Island

Joe the Boss Masseria — along with his bodyguards and Lucky Luciano — arrived at the Nuova Villa Tammaro seafood restaurant at 3pm on 15 April 1931. It was a favourite haunt of Masseria’s. Luciano excused himself from the card game they were playing to visit the bathroom — the pre-arranged signal for the hitmen to enter. Masseria was shot four times. He was found with a bloody ace of spades in his right hand.

What happened to the building? The Villa Tammaro is now occupied by Banner Smoked Fish at 2715 West 15th Street.

8. S.M.C. Cartage Company: 2122 North Clark Street, Chicago

The site of the St Valentine’s Day Massacre on 14 February 1929 — where seven members and associates of the Bugs Moran gang were lined up and shot by Capone-hired killers — became one of the most famous crime scenes in American history. The bullet-marked bricks from the inside north wall were purchased by Canadian businessman George Patey in 1967. He later displayed them in a wax museum, attempted to sell individual bricks online, and died in 2004 having never revealed how much he paid for them at auction.

James Clark’s body being removed from the scene.

Patey’s niece inherited the remaining bricks and sold them to the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, which opened on 14 February 2012 — the 83rd anniversary of the massacre. The wall, while no longer complete, remains the original surface against which the seven men were killed.

What happened to the building? The garage was demolished in 1967. The site is now a car park next to a senior living facility.

9. Joe and Mary’s Italian Restaurant: 205 Knickerbocker Ave, Bushwick, Brooklyn

Joe and Mary’s Italian Restaurant: 205 Knickerbocker Ave, Bushwick, Brooklyn.

On 12 July 1979, Carmine Galante was assassinated just as he finished eating lunch on the open patio at Joe and Mary’s Italian-American Restaurant. Dining with him were a Bonanno capo, the restaurant owner (his cousin), a Bonanno soldier and his two Sicilian bodyguards, Baldassare Amato and Cesare Bonventre. Three masked gunmen entered and opened fire with a shotgun and handguns. Galante and two companions were killed. His bodyguards walked out entirely unharmed — fuelling strong suspicion that his own crime family had sanctioned the hit.

What happened to the building? The building became boarded up and abandoned.

10. The Palace Chophouse: 12 E. Park St., Newark, New Jersey

After Dutch Schultz defied the Commission by attempting to carry out an unsanctioned hit on prosecutor Thomas Dewey, the Commission ordered his murder. On 23 October 1935, hitmen Charles Workman and Mendy Weiss — acting on orders from Louis Lepke Buchalter — entered the Palace Chophouse. Schultz was shot in the men’s room. He staggered out and sat at a table rather than die in the bathroom. He was taken to hospital and died the following day, delivering hours of feverish, incoherent ramblings that were recorded verbatim by a police stenographer.

What happened to the building? The building has since been demolished.

11. William F. Schofield’s Flower Shop: 738 North State Street, Chicago

Dean O’Banion had inadvertently signed his own death warrant by insulting Angelo Genna over a gambling debt — refusing to cancel it despite Al Capone‘s recommendation to do so as a professional courtesy. Frankie Yale and gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi visited Schofield’s flower shop under the pretence of collecting a floral order, using the visits to memorise the store layout.

On the morning of 10 November 1924, O’Banion was clipping chrysanthemums in the back room. His bodyguard Louis Alterie had failed to show up that morning — too hungover. Yale entered with Scalise and Anselmi. “Hello boys,” O’Banion greeted them. Yale shook his hand in a clasped death grip while Scalise and Anselmi fired six shots — two in the chest, two in the cheeks, two in the throat.

What happened to the building? The shop was demolished in 1960 and the area became a parking lot next to the Holy Name Cathedral.

12. Holy Name Cathedral: 730 N Wabash Ave., Chicago

In autumn 1926, Capone sent his best hitmen to the Hymie Weiss headquarters on State Street. Two gunmen hiding in a nearby rooming house opened fire with a submachine gun and shotgun at Weiss and his three associates as they approached the entrance. Weiss was fatally hit and began to fall. In the blind panic that followed, his own confused bodyguard Sam Pellar drew his .38 and accidentally fired at the already-dying Weiss on his way to the ground. Some bullets even chipped the cornerstone of the Holy Name Cathedral directly across the street.

What happened to the building? The Holy Name Cathedral still stands today, complete with the bullet chips in its cornerstone.

13. Avenue Recreation Bowling Alley: 805 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago

Machine Gun Jack McGurn — who had helped orchestrate the St Valentine’s Day Massacre — was machine-gunned down at the Avenue Recreation bowling alley at 805 North Milwaukee Avenue on 15 February 1936. The date was not coincidental: it was the day after the seventh anniversary of the massacre. Three hitmen, believed to be North Side Gang members acting in retaliation, stormed the building, ran to the second floor and opened fire at close range with machine guns.

What happened to the building? The bowling alley no longer exists. A furniture supply store occupies the site today.

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