East Harlem History: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The good: The late, great Vito Marcantonio, the area's long time progressive Congressmen and a person deserving of a documentary movie treatment. He's pictured in the left of the picture attached. The bad, certain elements surrounding Rao's (the trendy restaurant) and the underbelly of Pleasant Ave. Pellegrino, a Rao's co-owner, is often seen as a FBI agent pursuing Tony Soprano. The ugly? Maybe Ms Maurer once did a workshop there. I've been looking for a family East Harlem connection in vain, but I think I've got something-coming soon. Here's more on the bad: The 1910 king of East Harlem rackets, Giosue Gallucci, ran a number of businesses along this stretch of East 109th Street. At 318 E 109th sat a bake shop owned by Gallucci, who lived in the apartments upstairs and used the shop's backroom as a headquarters. Gallucci also ran a coffeehouse at 336 E. 109th Street. It was there that Aniello "Zopo" Prisco allegedly gunned down Tony Zaccaro and Giuseppe Jacco and that, in later years, Gallucci and his son Luca were themselves killed by rivals. A gambling establishment at the corner of 109th Street and First Avenue was also reportedly the property of Gallucci. In addition to these business ventures, Gallucci extorted protection money from produce merchants on 109th and 110th Streets and ran a lottery. Also here's a recent voice article on east harlem controlled labor corruption by the Voice's Tom Robbins.