Globe Artichokes
R & J Mazza Pty Ltd
Other Blogs ...
Wild at Heart
In summer the wild artichoke bursts into
bloom blanketing fields and meadows
with clusters of fern-like thistle plants.
Bud or Bloom?
Do we prefer to enjoy the globe
artichoke’s delicious flavour or
let the bud go to flower to show
off its amazing bloom?
How to Eat Artichokes
Eating globe artichokes is a
hands on affair, so when eating
them just enjoy them and
forget the rules of etiquette!
Healthy Habits
Eating globe artichokes is a
hands on affair, so when eating
them just enjoy them and
forget the rules of etiquette!
Artichoke History
The first artichokes had very
thorny exteriors, yet someone
dared to discover this
interesting-looking vegetable.
More Blogs...
Bud or Bloom?
Most people eat the artichoke buds while
other allow the plant to flaunt its spectacular
blooms.
Healthy Habits
It is a known fact that vitamin deficiencies and
poor habits can lead to a range of health
problems causing illnesses.
Globe Artichoke History
The globe artichoke is one of the oldest known
vegetable in ancient history which was
considered to be quite exotic.
How to Eat Globe Artichokes
Eating globe artichokes is a hands on affair, so
when eating them just enjoy them and forget
the rules of etiquette!
The Artichoke King & the Mafia
29th July, 2017
It seems that this humble-looking vegetable was once the centre of
attention in the black market and the criminal world. Known for its
notorious involvement with the Mafia, its infamy began in the 1920’s with
gangster Ciro Terranova “Whitey” also known as the Artichoke King.
In Sicily in the 1870’s, Ciro’s mother Angelina Piazza married Calogero Morello and
produced two children, Giuseppe (born 1867 and later known as Peter or ‘The Clutch
Hand’) and a daughter Maria. Calogero Morello died in 1872. A year later Angelina
married Bernardo Terranova, a member of the Corleone Mafia in Sicily, Italy. Angelina
had 6 children to Bernardo; Vincenzo, Nicolo, Rosalie, Ciro, Salvatrice and Lucia.
Ciro Terranova
Ciro Terranova was born in July 1988 in the town of Corleone, Sicily. In 1893, at the age of 5 he moved to New York with
his parents, four sisters and two brothers to meet his half-brother Giuseppe Morello, in East Harlem, Manhattan.
Giuseppe Morello had arrived six months earlier.
Apparently, Giuseppe escaped Sicily due to a murder suspicion in 1889
for the killing of police official Giovanni Vella. As a young man Giuseppe
became a member of the Corleone Mafia commanded by Paolino Streva.
By 1889, Morello became Streva’s right-hand man. At the time, local
police official Giovanni Vella was preparing to prosecute Streva but was
shot down in the street before he could do so.
Witness Anna Di Puma reported seeing Morello in the area when Vella was murdered. Di Puma was also
shot down to avoid her testifying in court. Fearing prosecution, Morello left for the United States. His
associates in Corleone ‘fixed things’ so a Vella political opponent Francesco Ortonello was convicted and
sentenced to life imprisonment for murder of Vella.
Giuseppe Morello
Not long after arriving in New York, Ciro’s
family travelled to Louisiana where his
father worked on a sugar cane plantation.
Ciro formed relationships with corrupt law enforcers, bankers, judges and politicians
and proved to them that there was an advantage in teaming up with the underworld.
He was also one of the first gangsters to get involved with the trade unions, being
influential in choosing the presidents and secretaries. Ciro also trafficked in narcotics,
and was credited by the authorities with giving cocaine the nickname ‘the white stuff’.
In 1922 Andrew Molera, a landowner in the Salinas Valley, California realised that he
could get triple rental money for his land if he encouraged the farmers to grow
artichokes instead of sugar beets. He knew the area’s loamy, well-drained soil and
ideal weather conditions would allow the globe artichoke to thrive in this environment.
He encouraged Italian farmers to grow globe artichokes which were then transported
to eager New Yorkers.
Ciro & Saietta worked out of an office near a
wholesale meat and produce market. In their
hometown in Sicily globe artichokes were
considered a delicacy and were highly prized
by the locals. Consumers were so enthusiastic
to purchase the artichokes that the New York
gangsters wanted a piece of the profits.
Ciro earned his nickname ‘The Artichoke King’ when he began his monopoly on the artichoke trade by buying artichokes at $6.00 per crate from
California and selling them in New York at 30-40% profit. Ciro’s violent reputation frightened the vegetable sellers from finding alternative buyers. His
gang terrorised distributors and producers. They also attacked the artichoke fields hacking down the plants with machetes in the dead of the night to
bring fear to uncooperating farmers.
On 18th February 1938 at the age of 49, Ciro Terranova suffered a severe stroke. He
died two days later at the Columbus Hospital paralysed and impoverished. Although
Ciro was the only of the four brothers to die in a bed, he died in underworld obscurity.
The brothers all lie in bare graves in the Queens cemetery in New York.
SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciro_Terranova
http://www.allanrmay.com/Ciro_Terranova.html
https://whatscookingamerica.net/History/ArtichokeHistory.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morello_crime_family
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Morello
http://www.cuesa.org/food/artichokes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiorello_H._La_Guardia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignazio_Lupo
Mayor Fiorello La Guardia
Photo: https://theundefeated.com/features/white-immigrants-
werent-always-considered-white-and-acceptable/
In 1903, Giuseppe was charged with the barrel murders but was released due to lack of evidence. This involved murdering and dumping dismembered
corpses into large wooden barrels which were either thrown into the sea, left in a random street or back alley, or shipped to a non-existent address in
another city.
Ciro had now lost his means of making money. In 1937 he lost his luxurious
home and entered receivership. He was impoverished and living on borrowed
money.
The following year they moved to Bryan, Texas where they
worked picking cotton. Two years later in 1896, malaria struck
the family so they moved back to New York. Ciro was only 8
years old. Years later they would form the ‘107th Street Mob’
(also known as the powerful Morello Gang).
On 8th May, 1922 Vincent Terranova was gunned down and killed on East 116th Street
in Manhattan His brother Giuseppe, Peter ‘the Clutching Hand’ Morello was murdered in
his office in August 1930.
1935 would be a turning point in Terranova’s prosperity. He was replaced with
other gangsters and his power nearly stripped. His only source of income
remaining was the globe artichoke business which would soon be ruined, not by
other gangsters, but from the mayor himself! These ‘artichoke wars’ escalated
to such a degree that it compelled the New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia to
take action. He led a successful effort to decriminalise the artichoke trade,
attempting to destroy Terranova’s power base.
On 21st December, 1935 La Guardia arrived at the Bronx Terminal Market at the
crack of dawn and with a fanfare of trumpets he declared them illegal and
implemented a ban on the sale, display or possession of artichokes. The
mayor’s announcement was printed in the newspaper the following day. Later
when the prices decreased the mayor lifted and ban and admitted that he
himself loved the vegetable!
Ciro and his brother Vincent went to school and worked at the family business (a plastering store) in the evenings and weekends. Ciro later worked as a
waiter in a restaurant for his half-brother Giuseppe. Their family business also included underworld rackets, such as extortion, loan sharking, Italian
lottery, robbery and counterfeiting. The illegally earned money was then legitimised by their legal businesses; stores or restaurants owned by the family.
By 1905, Morello had created the largest, most influential Sicilian crime family in New York and was recognised as capo di tutti capi (boss of all bosses) by
U.S. Mafia leaders.
Ignazio Lupo also known as Ignazio Saietta (his mother’s maiden name), but
better known as ‘Lupo the Wolf’ began the city’s most successful counterfeiting
ring with the powerful Sicilian Mafioso Don Vito Cascio Ferro. They had $5 U.S.
bills printed in Sicily and then smuggled them into the country in empty oil
cans. He was suspected of at least 60 murders, but he could not be arrested
due to lack of proof. Ciro became friends with Saietta then persuaded his sister
to marry Saietta. Once Saietta united with the Terranova/Morello clan, they
became a threatening underworld power in New York.
In 1909, Morello was finally found guilty of counterfeiting and was
sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. Typically, when a mafia boss is
sick, killed or imprisoned, a family member will take over the family
‘affairs’. So, when Saietta and Ciro’s brother Giuseppe were sent to
prison on counterfeiting charges in 1910, naturally brothers Ciro,
Vincent and Nick stood in for them to maintain order in the underworld.
They soon rose to be the top gangsters in the Italian Harlem hierarchy
running the Morello family.
The Morello Mob - NY Evening World, April 16 1903