Scene and body of Giuseppe Parrino, NYPD 13634D, Courtesy of The New York Municipal Archives
LAST MEAL: THE GIUSEPPE “JOE” PARRINO MURDER (JANUARY 19, 1931)
Being a Joe Masseria loyalist was hazardous to your health in 1930. At the beginning of 1931, that still held true. The Castellammarese War would be over by April but a few Masseria men wouldn’t survive long enough to make peace. Parrino’s brother, Sam, had been murdered in Detroit in May 1930, allegedly on orders from Giuseppe Morello in partnership with Detroit’s Cesare “Chester” LaMare. For reasons lost to history, Parrino still chose to align himself with Masseria and the men who likely had a hand in his brother’s death. His loyalty was rewarded with taking over the family formerly headed by Nicolo Schiro (known today as the Bonanno crime family). Schiro had fled back to Sicily once the war heated up.
And much like the Joseph Pinzolo and the Reina family, the remaining Schiro family members did not take kindly to Parrino’s leadership appointment and plotted his permanent ouster.
On January 19, 1931, Parrino was dining at the Bel Tiza restaurant located at 100 W. 40th St. with two unidentified men. A lone assassin walked in and shot Parrino, delivering at least one headshot and a bullet that pierced the victim’s heart. Parrino crumpled to the floor while his dinner guests hid under the table. The other patrons, too frozen to move, would later state the assassin tossed his weapon to the floor and coolly left without pursuit.
Scene and body of Giuseppe Parrino, NYPD 13634A, Courtesy of The New York Municipal Archives
