On this day in 1894 Guarino Moretti was born in Puglia, Italy. Better known as Willie Moretti, he played a part as underboss in the Genovese Crime Family through the 1940’s. With Hollywood connections and Frank Costello as a cousin Moretti was going places. Unfortunately, he got caught up in the 1950 Kefauver Hearings. Instead of taking the fifth like so many other mobsters called to the stand he didn’t and broke the code of Omerta publicly.

He was gunned down in a restaurant the following year.

Born on this day, February 24, 1894, in Puglia, Italy, Guarino "Willie" Moretti would go on to become one of the most colourful and ultimately tragic figures in the history of American organised crime. Emigrating to the United States as a young man, Moretti settled in New Jersey and quickly found his footing in the underworld, rising through the ranks with a combination of ruthless efficiency and a disarmingly gregarious personality that set him apart from many of his contemporaries.

Moretti aligned himself closely with the emerging power structure of the Genovese Crime Family, eventually serving as underboss and functioning as one of the most powerful mob figures on the Eastern Seaboard. His influence stretched across New Jersey, where he ran gambling operations and maintained firm control over the rackets, but his ambitions and connections extended far beyond state lines. He was a close associate and cousin by marriage of Frank Costello, one of the most powerful bosses in New York, and that relationship placed Moretti at the very heart of the national crime syndicate. He also maintained ties to Lucky Luciano, the architect of the modern American Mafia, and moved comfortably among the highest echelons of organised crime during its golden era.

Among the more remarkable chapters of Moretti's story was his alleged role in convincing a young Tommy Dorsey to release Frank Sinatra from his contract, reportedly by placing a gun barrel in Dorsey's mouth. Whether entirely true or embellished over the years, the story speaks to the kind of brazen, larger-than-life reputation Moretti had cultivated. His Hollywood connections and his natural charisma made him a well-known figure far beyond the criminal world.

His downfall, however, was equally dramatic. When Senator Estes Kefauver launched his landmark 1950 Senate hearings into organised crime, Moretti was called to testify. Where countless other mobsters stonewalled the committee and pleaded the Fifth Amendment, Moretti spoke freely, cracking jokes with the senators and offering candid, if sometimes vague, answers to their questions. Whether his unusual openness stemmed from the advancing syphilis that was said to be affecting his mental faculties, or simply from his irreverent nature, the damage was done. The bosses around him grew deeply uncomfortable.

On October 4, 1951, Moretti was shot dead at Joe's Elbow Room restaurant in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, in what many believed was a sanctioned hit approved by the Commission itself. His murder stood as a grim reminder that in the world of the Mafia, loose lips carried a fatal price, no matter how senior or well-connected the man doing the talking.