On this day the man widely considered the first Mafia boss of New Orleans, dies at his sister in laws home on Moss St., in New Orleans. Charles “Millionaire Charlie” Matranga, succumbs to natural causes at the age of 86, at approximately 12:15 am on the morning of Thursday, October 28, 1943.

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Born in Monreale Sicily in 1857, he is brought to New Orleans, in 1858. Over the next three decades his family are players in the New Orleans Mafia struggles for domination over the city.

Matranga survives the lynching in the Orleans Parish Prison in 1891, (apparently with the aid of the man who was chiefly responsible for the organization of that lynching, William Parkerson,) and goes on to consolidate power in the years after. He retires in 1922, handing power over to Corrado Giacona.

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His obituary listed him as a retired stevedore for the United Fruit Company, and for Standard Fruit & Steamship Company.

He was laid to rest on October 29, 1943 in Metairie Cemetery.

On this day in 1943, the man widely considered the first true Mafia boss of New Orleans drew his last breath at his sister-in-law's home on Moss Street, passing from this world in the quiet hours of the early morning. Charles "Millionaire Charlie" Matranga succumbed to natural causes at approximately 12:15 am on Thursday, October 28, 1943, aged 86, leaving behind a legacy that had shaped organised crime in America's most colourful and corrupt city for the better part of half a century.

Born in Monreale, Sicily in 1857, Matranga was brought to New Orleans as an infant in 1858, arriving in a city already teeming with Sicilian immigrants and simmering ethnic rivalries. Over the following decades, the Matranga family emerged as fierce contenders in the brutal power struggles that defined the New Orleans underworld. The conflict with the rival Provenzano faction was particularly savage, resulting in open street violence and multiple murders that drew the attention of the city's police chief, David Hennessy. When Hennessy was assassinated in October 1890, widely attributed to Matranga's associates, the ensuing hysteria culminated in one of the most notorious incidents in American criminal history.

In March 1891, following the acquittal of several Sicilian defendants, a mob of vigilantes led by prominent attorney William Parkerson stormed the Orleans Parish Prison and lynched eleven Italian men. Remarkably, Matranga survived, reportedly with Parkerson's quiet assistance — a detail that speaks volumes about the complex web of alliances that characterised New Orleans politics of the era. Rather than retreating into obscurity, Matranga used the aftermath to consolidate his grip on the city's docks, rackets, and Sicilian community, operating with the kind of patient cunning that would later define bosses like Lucky Luciano on the national stage.

For the next three decades, Matranga presided over a tightly controlled criminal organisation rooted in the waterfront labour trade. His legitimate cover was suitably unremarkable — his obituary listed him as a retired stevedore for the United Fruit Company and the Standard Fruit and Steamship Company. In 1922, he stepped aside, handing control to Corrado Giacona, making him one of the earliest American mob bosses to oversee a structured succession of power. He was laid to rest on October 29, 1943, in Metairie Cemetery.

Matranga's significance to American Mafia history cannot be overstated — he was the prototype, a founding figure who helped establish the organisational blueprints that later bosses across the country would follow.