On this day in 1922 the New York mobster by the name of Umberto Valenti who was part of the D’Aquila Crime Family in the 1910’s was gunned down on the corner of Second Avenue and E. 12th Street.

The hit on Valenti was provoked due to the Valenti vs Masseria war in the early 1920’s. 48 hours before Valenti’s death he and his man drew fire on Joe Masseria as he was leaving his apartment at 80 2nd Avenue, Masseria managed to dive into a nearby store at 82 2nd Avenue as the gunmen chased after him.

Joe Masseria’s Apartment at 80 2nd Avenue

Luckily for Masseria the gunmen ran out of bullets from shooting up the shop and the windows and left the scene.

Perhaps even more lucky for Masseria was that he survived the hit despite two bullet holes in his straw hat and ringing in his ears due to the point-blank shooting. This is where Joe Masseria was given the title of the “The Man Who Can Dodge Bullets” … although less than 10 years later that title didn’t ring true.

After this attack on Masseria, he plotted to get back at Valenti, and on the afternoon of August 11, 1922 Valenti was meant to be attending a meeting at a cafe, but the meeting was an ambush, as he ran outside bullets hailed down on him (wounding an 8-year-old girl in the process).

Second Avenue and E. 12th Street

The killer behind the trigger was said to have been 24 year-old Lucky Luciano who at the time was part of Masseria’s family.

Valenti was 30 at the time of his death, and 3 days away from his 31st.

On this day in 1922, New York mobster Umberto Valenti was shot dead on the corner of Second Avenue and East 12th Street, bringing a bloody end to one of the more turbulent power struggles to grip the New York underworld in the years following the First World War. Valenti, who had risen through the ranks of the D'Aquila Crime Family during the 1910s, was just three days shy of his 31st birthday when his life was cut short on a summer afternoon in Manhattan.

The killing was the direct consequence of a bitter and increasingly violent war between Valenti and the ambitious Joe Masseria, a conflict that had been simmering for months and finally boiled over in spectacular fashion. Just 48 hours before Valenti met his end, he and his associates had made a brazen attempt on Masseria's life as the boss was leaving his apartment at 80 Second Avenue. The gunmen pursued Masseria into a nearby shop at number 82, unleashing a storm of bullets that shattered windows and riddled the storefront, yet somehow failed to bring down their target. When the shooting stopped, Masseria emerged shaken but alive, two bullet holes punched clean through his straw hat and his ears ringing from the close-range gunfire. It was this near-miraculous escape that earned Masseria the legendary street title of "The Man Who Can Dodge Bullets" — a reputation that, less than a decade later, would prove tragically hollow when his own allies turned on him.

Masseria wasted little time in plotting his revenge. On the afternoon of 11th August 1922, Valenti was lured to a café under the pretence of attending a meeting. The gathering was, in reality, a carefully laid ambush. As Valenti realised what was happening and bolted for the street, a volley of gunfire followed him out onto Second Avenue. Tragically, the chaos of the shooting wounded an eight-year-old girl caught in the crossfire — an innocent victim of a war fought entirely without conscience.

The man said to have pulled the trigger that day was a 24-year-old Lucky Luciano, then an up-and-coming figure operating under Masseria's wing. Whether or not Luciano fired the fatal shot, his involvement in the killing marked a significant moment in his own ruthless rise toward the top of organised crime in America, a climb that would eventually see him become one of the most powerful and influential mob figures in history.

The death of Umberto Valenti effectively consolidated Masseria's grip on the New York underworld for the years that followed, cementing the brutal truth that in the mob, peace was rarely offered — only enforced.