33 Gangster Names And The Notorious Men Behind Them

It was before the infamous bootlegging king of Chicago took over the Windy City that he made an indecent remark to a woman. Her brother left Capone with new scars — and a nickname he hated.

Capone died of cardiac arrest in 1947, after complications from pneumonia, a stroke, and syphilis.

His target was bootlegger Joseph Rao, but the ensuing gunfight saw a five-year-old boy killed in the crossfire. It was New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker who dubbed him a "Mad Dog." Coll was murdered outside of a drugstore in 1932.

Testa was murdered during the Ides of March, killed by a nail bomb planted under his front porch. It sparked a mob war, and inspired Bruce Springsteen’s "Atlantic City" lyrics: "Well they blew up the Chicken Man in Philly last night/And they blew up his house too."

His nickname came from his regular purchase of all the artichokes that came into New York, before selling them for as much as thrice the price. After two strokes, Terranova died of heart failure, or of “a broken heart” as another mafioso, Joe Valachi, would later claim, at age 49, in February 1938.

On the other hand, he did illegally sneak into the United States from Sicily and violated the Mafia's code of secrecy when he published a tell-all book and appeared on 60 Minutes. He died of heart failure in 2002.

When Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in the 1970s, Giacalone's name garnered more attention — as he was in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters that opposed Hoffa's wish to returning to their ranks. Giacalone died of heart failure in 2001.

Salemme was suspected of murdering a federal witness, a Boston nightclub owner, in 1993, decades before vital evidence could imprison him. Finally, in 2016 they found the remains. Salemme remains behind bars.

Angelini was sentenced to 37 months in prison in 1989 as a result of illegal gambling charges. He died in 2000.

He garnered his nickname after FBI Special Agent William Roemer referred to him as "that little pissant." Unfortunately for the media, they couldn't use the term — leading to the shortened moniker. The murderous gangster was found dead and half naked in an Indiana cornfield in 1986.

Capone allegedly said, "Boy, this kid's a real Joe Batters."

The other moniker was birthed by the city's press after Accardo was photographed with a large tuna he caught on a fishing trip. He died in 1992 — after which the executive director of the Chicago Crime Commission, Robert F. Fuesel, said the Capone era had finally ended.

The nickname stemmed from the famous chinchilla attire he was photographed in, drawing comparisons to the 1972 blaxploitation classic about a black pimp and cocaine dealer.

The World War I veteran worked at a resort upstate that was routinely frequented by Jewish mobsters from Manhattan. His nickname came from the fact that he just couldn't shut up — with his restless nervousness reminding New York mobster Jacob Shapiro of a clock.

Tannenbaum died in 1976.

Johnson was convicted in New York for conspiracy to sell heroin in 1951, and died of congestive heart failure in 1968.

Not only was he an essential part of the Castellammarese War in the 1930s, but he also survived an assassination attempt and successfully retired before the U.S. Senate indicted him.

Costello died of a heart attack in February 1973, and was buried in Queens, New York.

Gigante failed to murder Frank Costello, yet scared him enough to make him retire. Convicted of racketeering and murder conspiracy in 1997, Gigante died in a federal prison in 2005 and was buried in anonymity in New York. His relatives still earn $2 million per year as gainful employees of corporations on the New Jersey waterfront.

Maranzano became capo dei capi, or "boss of all bosses," before Charles "Lucky" Luciano murdered him, fearing a hit on his life. Luciano was right to act first as Maranzano had planned just that. "Little Caesar" died in September 1931.

Others believe it was his gambling, or a simple mispronunciation of his last name, that made the moniker stick. He became the biggest crime boss in America when Salvatore Maranzano died. Luciano himself died of a heart attack in Naples International Airport in 1962.

Bulger purportedly hated the name, and preferred to be called "Boots" for his penchant for wearing cowboy boots. He was a subject of the CIA's LSD experiments while incarcerated in the 1950s, and beaten to death in prison in 2018.

While his nickname holds no particularly engrossing backstory, his life and crimes — as chronicled in the hit-series Boardwalk Empire — are certainly enthralling. Johnson died in December 1968 at a convalescent home of natural causes.

With a business savvy that led him to transform organized crime from primitive disarray to a corporate-like network, the nickname was more than apt. With a fortune estimated to be $50 million, Rothstein was assassinated at the age of 46 in November 1928 after refusing to pay $320,000 he'd lost during a poker game two months prior.

From ice picks to bullets, nothing was off the table for Anastasia. He was assassinated in October 1957, aged 55, gunned down while relaxing in a barber's chair.

Those who knew him said he was always the first to shoot when things got hectic. Given his high temper and tendency toward spontaneous violence, fellow gangsters gave Siegel the moniker, believing he was "crazy as a bed bug."

As he became head of the Morello family in the late 1920s, the nickname was fairly direct. He replaced Salvatore D'Aquila to become capo dei capi, or "boss of all bosses," in 1928. He was murdered by Lucky Luciano and his men during a meeting in a Coney Island restaurant in April 1931.

He was born in Sicily but made his mark in New York City, rising from a petty criminal to a powerful figure in the American Mafia. He was arrested in 1977 for extortion, but remained head of his crime family until he was 90 years old. Bufalino died in a Scranton nursing home in 1994.

It was a 1920 arrest for auto theft when one of the booking officers noticed Lucchese's deformed hand — caused by an industrial accident that saw his right thumb and forefinger amputated. The officer compared Lucchese with Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown — a famous baseball pitcher.

He died of a brain tumor in July 1967 at home in Long Island.

Castellano was one of the 61 high-ranking mobsters who attended the infamous Apalachin meeting, before authorities raided it and arrested everyone.

Castellano succeeded Carlo Gambino in 1976 and became a boss, but was murdered in December 1985 at a steakhouse in Manhattan. It's believed John Gotti oversaw the hit, and watched it happen from a car parked across the street.

The non-Italian was dubbed as such for operating in a predominantly Italian organization, yet was portrayed by Italian-American Robert De Niro in the titular film, The Irishman. Sheeran died in December 2003 at 83 years old.

Unfortunately, "The Teflon Don" wasn't entirely impervious. In 1992, he was convicted on multiple charges, including the murder of five people, and sentenced to life in prison. Gotti died in June 2002 at the age of 61 from throat cancer.

A few neighborhood gangsters watching this squabble noticed that Gravano never backed down, took on numerous people at once, and fought "like a bull." After a long career in the Colombo family, he became a made man himself, and helped John Gotti kill Paul Castellano before testifying against Gotti in 1993.

Gravano was released from prison in September 2017.

Kuklinski died in March 2006 of cardiac arrest after 18 years behind bars.

Brusca once claimed he had killed between 100 and 200 people. Buscetta said Brusca was "a wild stallion but a great leader." He has been imprisoned since 1996 for multiple murders.