1919 in organized crime
# 1919 in organized crime

## Events

* Cleveland Black Hand leader Rosario Borgio and three others are convicted of the murder of several Akron police officers and executed.
* Al Capone leaves New York, after an altercation with a member of the White Hand Gang, going to Chicago, where he becomes a top lieutenant to Johnny Torrio.
* Recently imprisoned criminal Joe Valachi encounters inmate and future mentor New York mobster Alessandro Vollero.
* Salvatore Sabella becomes leader of the Philadelphia crime syndicate.
* Frank Costello forms a novelty company which makes Kewpie dolls in punchboard games. By the following year Costello had made $80,000 ($1.4 million today), which he used to become a bootlegger at the start of Prohibition.
* July 29 – New York labor slugger Johnny Spanish is killed by three unidentified gunman possibly including rival gangster Nathan Kaplan.

## Births

* James "Jimmy Brown" Failla, senior caporegime for the Gambino crime family and labor union racketeer
* Gennaro Jay "Jerry" Angiulo, former Patriarca crime family underboss
* January 14 – Giulio Andreotti, Italian Prime Minister and mafia associate
* April 21 – Licio Gelli, Italian mason and mafia associate

## Deaths

* May 22 – Rosario Borgio, Cleveland Black Hand leader
* July 29 – Johnny Spanish, Five Points Gang member and labor racketeer
