Background
Salvatore D'Aquila was born on November 1877 in Palermo, Sicily, and emigrated to America in 1906.
Salvatore D'Aquila was born on November 1877 in Palermo, Sicily, and emigrated to America in 1906.
He was an early captain within the Morello crime family in East Harlem. D'Aquila was arrested in 1906 and in 1909. Both times the charges were dropped.
In 1910, boss of bosses Giuseppe "the Clutch Hand" Morello was imprisoned and Salvatore D'Aquila separated from the Morello family. D'Aquila formed his own crime family and appointed himself the new boss of bosses. His crime family operated from East Harlem and the Bronx, where he rivaled the Morellos'.
D'Aquila expanded his crime family's power into Brooklyn and southern Manhattan's Lower East Side/Little Italy neighborhoods. In 1925, D'Aquila moved back into the Bronx. On October 10, 1928, D'Aquila was shot to death on Avenue A in Manhattan, aged 50.
After his murder, D'Aquila's family was taken over by Alfred Mineo.
The most prominent members of the D'Aquila family were Umberto Valenti, Alfred Mineo, Giuseppe Traina, and Frank Scalise.
