| |
| Philip Tattaglia | |
| Biographical Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Born | November 4, 1878 ustica, Sicily |
| Died | August 1, 1955 Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Affiliation |  Tattaglia crime family
|
| Title(s) | Don |
Salvatore Philip Maria Tattaglia was a Sicilian mob boss who was the first Don of the Tattaglia crime family. Tattaglia was best-known for his involvement in pornography and prostitution, and was never perceived as a real threat to any other family. Tattaglia took over Little Italy in 1945, an unexpected move, but quickly lost all of his turf in Brooklyn to the Trapani crime family, and he was murdered on August 1, 1955, in the St. Sebastian Hotel.
Biography[]
Salvatore Philip Maria Tattaglia was born to Giacomo Tattaglia and Maria Aiello in the city of ustica palermo, Sicily as child of poor family. Tattaglia family immigrated to the United States with his family in 1890, and his last name was confused as Tattaglia by Ellis Island officials.
Tattaglia was loved by the women, who were impressed by his charm, and he was involved in prostitution and pornography as a young man. He made money off of these businesses, and founded the Tattaglia crime family. Tattaglia's criminal offenses were racketeering, prostitution, drug trafficking, murder, conspiracy, extortion, bribery, contract killing, loan sharking, money laundering, hijacking, fencing, theft, and fraud, as his family rose to become one of New York City's Five Families. Tattaglia constructed the Tattaglia Compound in the late 1920s, based in his territory of Brooklyn.
Philip Tattaglia's womanizing often led him to be distracted from business matters, and his Underbosses/sons Bruno Tattaglia and Johnny Tattaglia handled matters as the field commanders. In the 1930s, following the end of Prohibition, Tattaglia ran out of a source of money, so he invested in the drug trade, allying with Virgil Sollozzo in 1945 when he moved his organization to NYC. He made tons of money, while his sons took over Little Italy from the Corleone crime family.
Philip Tattaglia was enraged after Vito Corleone's son Michael Corleone murdered Sollozzo, and a mob war, the Five Families War, began. Tattaglia's son Bruno Tattaglia was murdered in 1950 in response to the shooting of Vito Corleone back in December 1945, and also for the murder of Frankie Malone that year. Aldo Trapani threw him into a cremation oven at Tito Morelli's, a funeral parlor where the body of Tattaglia Capo Piero Abruzzi would be cremated after a ceremony. Don Tattaglia ordered hitmen to kill Santino Corleone in September 1951, and they gunned him down at the Little Italy Toll Plaza.
The Commission in 1951
That month, Tattaglia met with Don Corleone and other members of The Commission, hoping to discuss an end to the Five Families War. Don Corleone gave assurance that as time went by and his position became stronger, that he would not attempt any individual vendettas. He was also forced to accept the drug trade in his territories, which scared away his politicians, forcing him to give some of his police protection to the other families. Meanwhile, the Tattaglias and Barzini crime family chiseled away at Salvatore Tessio and Peter Clemenza's territories in Brooklyn and The Bronx, and the Corleones were not allowed to retaliate, since their boss Michael Corleone ordered them to be patient, allowing the Tattaglias and Barzinis to have a false sense of security. Vito Corleone swore on his grandchildren's names that he would not go to war, but Michael Corleone plotted out his own actions, hoping to end all of the rivalries.
Death[]
Tattaglia is gunned down
Don Tattaglia was killed at the St. Sebastian's Hotel in Brooklyn by Corleone Capo Aldo Trapani, sent to murder him. Trapani bribed his bodyguard on the staircase to let him through, and the guards on the top floor were gunned down in a hail of bullets, and Tattaglia was shot in the head once by an Assassin's Pistol that Trapani wielded, without killing the escort service lady that Tattaglia used as a human shield. Tattaglia was succeeded as Don by Rico Tattaglia.