Hearing 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)

Printed pages 227 to 233 of Part 1 (NCJRS PDF pages 241 to 247), October 2, 1963.

The police record. Sergeant Ralph Salerno of the New York Police Department read: “It indicates at 3:50 p.m. … September 10, 1931, Salvatore Maranzano … was shot and stabbed to death in the office of the Eagle Building Corp., in a suite of rooms including 925 and 926, at 230 Park Avenue, which is at 46th Street, New York City. Perpetrators were four unknown men posing as police officers. There were four gunshot wounds and six stab wounds, a knife and two pistols were recovered.” The record goes on, “The four stab wounds were in the abdomen of the body,” so the count of stab wounds differs within the reading. Salerno said the case had not been cleared, that Bobby Doyle was “apprehended by the transit officer who caught him coming out of the building” and held as a material witness, that the description came from witnesses waiting outside the room, and that no one was indicted.

James Le Pore. Salerno also read: “On the same day, at 5:45 p.m., James Le Pore, also known as Jimmy Marino, … while standing in the doorway of a barbershop at 2400 Arthur Avenue in the Bronx was shot six times in the head and body, causing his death. The case is active.” He said, “It has never been solved,” and that he had no record of other killings that day. Valachi had testified that a man he called Nick “told me that Jim Marino got hit and a couple more in Jersey,” and named one of them as “Sam Monica,” an underboss in Newark under “Don Steven.” The New Jersey bodies are the subject of Bergin’s testimony of October 9.

Valachi’s account. Valachi was not there. He testified that Bobby Doyle told him “there were four Jews went up there, and they posed as policemen”; that they took Maranzano into another room, he went for a pistol, “and they were forced to use a shot on him before they cut his throat.” He said “Red Levine” told him six years later that he had been there, and that Maranzano had Vincent Coll “ready to shoot Charley ‘Lucky’ and Vito Genovese” at that meeting; the men leaving met Coll’s group coming in and “waved them away, ‘Beat it, the cops are coming.’” Valachi then said he met Genovese, who told him “We made it by minutes,” and that he was put under Tony Bender as his new lieutenant. A page later he summed it up: “In such short time, less than 4 months, I traveled three families” (printed page 234).

Four or five. The police record says four men; so does Valachi’s hearsay. The FBI’s history page says Luciano sent “five men dressed as police officers to Maranzano’s office to murder him” (FBI history page), and a 1965 FBI Legal Attache letter reports a source saying “two killers” in policemen’s uniforms (Legat Rome, 1965). None of these records settles the number. A 1931 Bureau of Investigation report in the Maranzano file concerns papers found in the office suite afterward.

Valachi’s statements are hearsay testimony and not findings, and no one was charged with either killing in this record. The police record prints Maranzano’s and Le Pore’s home addresses; they are not repeated here. The passage that follows, on Raymond Patriarca at printed pages 234 and 235, is filed separately as Valachi on Raymond Patriarca.

Page images: printed p. 232 (stored above), p. 228 and p. 233.