Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime
Printed page 223 of the 1963 hearings, Part 1 (NCJRS PDF page 237): Valachi recalls seeing the headline "Park Avenue Murder" and reading that Maranzano had been killed in his office that afternoon.
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Hearing of October 2, 1963, pp. 220–224: "We have to go to the mattress again," Maranzano's list, and the "Park Avenue Murder" headline

Valachi testified that shortly before his death Maranzano told him "We have to go to the mattress again," gave him a list of names, and was to meet Genovese and Luciano at his office the next afternoon; Valachi was told by phone not to come, and learned of the killing from a newspaper headline, "Park Avenue Murder." Uncorroborated testimony.

Date
1963-10-02
Kind
hearing
Source
National Criminal Justice Reference Service, scan of the printed hearings (NCJ 119303)
Retrieved
2026-10-12
Rights
A work of the United States Senate, printed by the Government Printing Office. Public domain in the United States. 17 U.S.C. § 105. The NCJRS cover sheet records reproduction permission as "Public Domain / U.S. Senate."

Printed pages 220 to 224 of Part 1 (NCJRS PDF pages 234 to 238), October 2, 1963. Valachi testified that Maranzano told him to come to his house on Avenue J, where Maranzano said: “We have to go to the mattress again.” Valachi explained: “The ‘mattress’ means we have to go back to war, that is what it means.” He said Maranzano “can’t get along with Charley Lucky, Vito,” and gave him a list: “We have to get rid of these people.” Valachi recalled the names as “Al Capone, Frank Costello, Charley Lucky, Vito Genovese, Vincent Mangano, Joe Adonis, Dutch Schultz,” and agreed there were ten or twelve (printed page 221).

He said Maranzano was to have a last meeting “at 2 o’clock in the office tomorrow” with “Vito Genovese and Charley Lucky at the office on 46th Street” (printed page 222). Valachi said he asked him not to go. He was told to call the office at a quarter to two; “Charley Buffalo answered the phone. He said that everything was all right. He said I need not go down.” He spent the day in Brooklyn and got back “about 12:30 or 1 o’clock in the morning.” Soon after, he said, three men he had proposed were shot at near their corner in Harlem and left with only “powder marks.”

At home he looked at the newspaper: “I see a headline, ‘Park Avenue Murder.’ I jump at it. I knew we had the office on Park Avenue. That is the first time I read about Maranzano being killed in his office that afternoon” (printed page 223). He gave no date: “Senator, I never remember those dates.” The police record read later the same day gives September 10, 1931, at 230 Park Avenue (pp. 227–233). Valachi places the office both “on 46th Street” and “on Park Avenue”; the police record says “230 Park Avenue, which is at 46th Street.”

The list of names is Valachi’s memory of what Maranzano said and is not corroborated in this record. These are a witness’s sworn answers, not findings. The headline Valachi saw is not filed; no newspaper page of September 1931 has been cleared for this archive.

Page images: printed p. 223 (stored above), p. 220 and p. 222.

itemHearing of October 2, 1963, pp. 227–233: Valachi's account of the killing of Salvatore Maranzano, and the police records of September 10, 1931 (Maranzano at 230 Park Avenue; James Le Pore at 2400 Arthur Avenue)Sgt. Ralph Salerno read the police record: at 3:50 p.m. on September 10, 1931, Salvatore Maranzano was shot and stabbed to death in the office of the Eagle Building Corp., rooms 925 and 926, 230 Park Avenue at 46th Street, by "four unknown men posing as police officers." The same day at 5:45 p.m. James Le Pore was shot dead at 2400 Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. Valachi gave a hearsay account of the killing.itemHearing of October 2, 1963, pp. 214–218: the "score" of the war, Maranzano's meeting on Washington Avenue ("the boss of all bosses, which is myself"), and the banquetValachi testified that the score was "we lost 1 and they lost from 40 to 60," described a meeting of 400 to 500 people in a hall on Washington Avenue in the Bronx where Maranzano declared himself "the boss of all bosses," named the bosses he recalled being designated there, and described a five-night banquet he understood raised $115,000. Testimony, not findings.itemFBI Vault: Salvatore Maranzano (Final), with a 1931 Bureau of Investigation reportAn 18-page FBI file whose main serial is a Bureau of Investigation report made at New York on 10/9/31 about immigration papers found in the office suite at 230 Park Avenue where Maranzano was killed.itemHearing of October 2, 1963: Valachi's testimony and police recordsValachi continued his account of the 1930 to 1931 gang war. Police witnesses from Hartford and New York testified to records the subcommittee set beside his statements.