Giuseppe "the Clutch Hand" Morello (; May 2, 1867 – August 15, 1930), also known as "the Old Fox", was the first boss of the Morello crime family and later top adviser to Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria. He was known as Piddu (Sicilian diminutive form of Giuseppe) and his rivals the Castellammarese knew him as Peter Morello. His father Calogero Morello died in 1872 and his mother Angelina Piazza remarried one year later to Bernardo Terranova, who was a member of the Terranova Mafia clan of Corleone. Bernardo and Angelina had seven known children: two sons named Vincenzo (the first, born in 1874, died at age two; the second was born in 1886), Ciro (born 1888), Nicolò (born 1890), Lucia (born 1877), Salvatrice (born 1880), and Rosalia (born 1892, died October 14, 1915). The Morello and Terranova children grew up together and Bernardo may have facilitated Giuseppe's early induction into the local cosca, or Mafia clan. Author David Crichley notes that Morello also had an uncle, Giuseppe Battaglia, who was a leader in the Corleonesi Mafia and who may have assisted in his nephew's passage. the couple had two children: a daughter, Angela (born 1891 and died 1892), and a son, Calogero "Charles" Morello (born November 1892 in Corleone-died 1912). In the mid-1890s, Giuseppe Morello moved to Louisiana in search of employment and was joined by the other members of the Morello-Terranova family. The following year they moved to Texas and farmed cotton. In 1902, he acquired a saloon at 8 Prince Street in Manhattan which was to become a meeting place for members of his gang. who stayed with him for the rest of his life.
The youngest of his three half brothers, Nicolo Terranova, took over control until 1916, when he was killed by the Neapolitan boss in Brooklyn, Pellegrino Morano, as well as Tony Parretti as part of the Mafia–Camorra War. Morello's remaining two half brothers Vincenzo Terranova and Ciro Terranova, took over as boss and underboss and ran the family until Morello's release from prison.
Newly released from Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in 1920 and trying to retake control of his empire, Morello found himself considered a threat to his former captain, now turned Mafia boss, Salvatore D'Aquila, who, within a year of Morello's release, ordered Morello killed.
Morello, along with a number of others now under orders of death by D'Aquila, fled to Sicily for a spell. One of these men, a former D'Aquila gunman, Umberto Valenti, went after Morello and his chief protector and ally, Giuseppe Masseria, in order to regain the favor of D'Aquila.
A war ensued and, after much violence and some prominent deaths among the mafiosi involved, Valenti was killed by Masseria gunmen (some say including or solely Charles Luciano) in August 1922.
Castellammarese War and death
During the Castellammarese War, between 1930 and 1931, Masseria and Morello fought against a rival group based in Brooklyn, led by Salvatore Maranzano and Joseph Bonanno. Morello, an old hand at killing, became Masseria's "war chief" and strategic adviser. Joseph Valachi, the first made man in the American Mafia to turn state's evidence, identified Morello's killer as a Castellammarese gunman he knew as "Buster from Chicago".
Filmmaker Martin A. Gosch's The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano, a purported autobiographical account of Charles Luciano of disputed authenticity, claims that Luciano orchestrated Morello's murder.