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Fascinating Facts About the Birth of the Italian-American Mafia

Khalid Elhassan February 13, 2025 17 min

Mafia - Lucky Luciano, who midwifed the birth of the modern Italian-American Mafia — Lucky Luciano, who midwifed the birth of the modern Italian-American Mafia. The Mob Museum

8. The Old School Gangster Who Gave Al Capone His Start

Mafia - Frankie Yale, right, and Al Capone were friends who eventually became enemies — Frankie Yale, right, and Al Capone were friends who eventually became enemies. National Crime Syndicate

Born in Calabria in southern Italy, and arriving in the US at age eight, Francisco Iole, better known as Frankie Yale (1893 – 1928), was an early New York Mafiosi and hitman, who once employed Al Capone in his operations. As a teenager, Yale joined the Five Points Gang, and quickly developed a violent reputation as a ferocious fist fighter and brawler. He was first arrested in 1912 at age nineteen for disorderly conduct. He started his organized crime career running a protection and extortion racket, and in 1913 was arrested for robbery and assault of a dry goods store. He walked after the store owner retracted his identification of Yale. By 1917, he had invested his racket proceeds into opening a bar in Coney Island, which became his base of operations.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.