# Joseph Catania

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/people/joseph-catania/

Shot six times near 647 Crescent Avenue in the Bronx on February 3, 1931, and died in Fordham Hospital, according to the New York police record read into the 1963 Senate hearings. Valachi testified that Maranzano would not make peace until "Joe Baker" was killed.

The staff chart, Exhibit 8, has a box for "James Catania," alias "Joe Baker," marked "Murdered Feb 3, 1931." The police record names him "Joseph Catania." Both forms are given as printed; the heading follows the police record.

The police record gives his age as 29, which would put his birth about 1902; no record opened gives a birth date. The printed time, 11:45 p.m., does not match Valachi's account of a morning ambush; both are left as printed. No role or family is set: Valachi calls him a "soldier," which is a label on a chart, not a finding. His home address, printed in the police record, is not repeated here.

## Sources

- Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics, Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Hearings, Part 1 (1963): https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/119303NCJRS.pdf