1919 in organized crime

Events

• Cleveland Black Hand leader Rosario Borgio and three others are convicted of the murder of several Akron police officers and executed.
• Al Capone leaves New York, after an altercation with a member of the White Hand Gang, going to Chicago, where he becomes a top lieutenant to Johnny Torrio.
• Recently imprisoned criminal Joe Valachi encounters inmate and future mentor New York mobster Alessandro Vollero.
• Salvatore Sabella becomes leader of the Philadelphia crime syndicate.
• Frank Costello forms a novelty company which makes Kewpie dolls in punchboard games. By the following year Costello had made $80,000, which he used to become a bootlegger at the start of Prohibition.
• July 29 - New York labor slugger Johnny Spanish is killed by three unidentified gunman possibly including rival gangster Nathan Kaplan.

  Births

• James "Jimmy Brown" Failla, senior caporegime for the Gambino crime family and labor union racketeer
• Gennaro Jay "Jerry" Angiulo, former Patriarca crime family underboss
• January 14 - Giulio Andreotti, Italian Prime Minister and mafia associate
• April 21 - Licio Gelli, Italian mason and mafia associate

  Deaths

• May 22 - Rosario Borgio, Cleveland Black Hand leader
• July 29 - Johnny Spanish, Five Points Gang member and labor racketeer