NYC History: I myself am… strange and unusual.
After years of admiring the view of ancient headstones peeking up towards the Kosciusko Bridge on the BQE, I finally visited the grounds. Entertaining a Michiganian who’d make a fine addition to the The Endless family and in need of extra credit grave-rubbings for my Death class offered the perfect opportunity to spend a beautiful summer Saturday tip-toing through the tombstones. So we B43-ed it north and hit the broken walkways of industrial Greenpoint over Newton’s Creek into Long Island City into Calvary Cemetery.
Unbeknownst to us, we were mingling about the remains of a slew of NYC’s:
gangsters:
Anthony Carfano- Captain the Genovese crime family
Vito Bonventre- Mob Underboss in the 30′s
Gandolfo “Frankie Marlow” Curto- Top Mob Captain/part owner of the Cotton Club
Natale “Joe Diamond” Evola- Boss of the Bonanno crime family
Stefano Ferrigno- Underboss of Manfredi “Al” Mineo (a.k.a. Gambino)
Joseph “Socks” Lanza- Captain in the Costello/Genovese crime family
Ignatius “Lupo the Wolf” Lupo- “most vicious Black Hand leader America has ever known”
Joseph “Joe the Boss” Masseria- Top big whig, murdered by Bugsy Seigel, et al
Benjamino “Lefty Guns” Ruggiero- of Donnie Brasco fame
Ciro Terranova- the”Artichoke King” of New York City
Paul “Paul Kelly” Vaccarelli- Leader of the Five-Points Gang
merry pranksters:
Mary Louise “Texas” Guinan- speakeasy hostess
Bobby Harron- dapper silent movie
Eugene Higgins- mural artist
Patsy Kelly- Vaudevillian comedienne
Tess Gardella- played an Aunt Jemima in televsion commericials
Lillian Lorraine- tragic Broadway beauty
Claude McKay- Black poet/trailblazer
James Murray- actor turned alcoholic turned floating in the Hudson river
Una O’Connor- classic horror movie actress
Joseph Petrosino- first Italian detective, fought the Black Hand
Wini Shaw- another Broadway beauty
From Top to Bottom:
The Empire and angels
Two types of tombs
Aging Gracefully
Where’s Waldo?
All pictures: Joey, who hijacked my camera. Calvary Cemetery, St. Calixtus Division
