Early Life
Dellacroce was born in New York to Francesco and Antoinette Dellacroce, first generation immigrants from Veneto, Italy. He grew up in the Little Italy section of Manhattan. Dellacroce was a tall, broad-shouldered man who was usually chomping on a cigar. His nickname was "Neil", an Americanization of "Aniello". Due to his square-shaped face, some Gambino members nicknamed him "the Polack"—a nickname never used within his earshot.
Dellacroce had one brother, Carmine, and married Lucille Riccardi. The couple had a son, Armand, a Gambino associate, a son Ronald, and a daughter, Shannon Connelly. Dellacroce was the great uncle of John Ruggiero Jr., Angelo Ruggiero Jr. and Salvatore Ruggiero Jr. Dellacroce and his family originally lived in an apartment across the street from his social club in Little Italy. In later years, they lived in Grasmere, Staten Island.
As a teenager, Dellacroce became a butcher's assistant, but work was scarce and he took to crime. He was jailed once for petty theft.
Dellacroce sometimes walked around Manhattan dressed as a priest and called himself "Father O'Neil" to confuse both the police and rival mobsters. Dellacroce allegedly committed a murder dressed as the priest. He also allegedly used a body double for some public events. Dellacroce preferred to keep a low profile and was said to have a menacing stare. NYPD detective Ralph Salerno said that the only mobsters whose eyes frightened him were Dellacroce and Carmine Galante.
"You looked at Dellacroce's eyes and you could see how frightening they were. The frigid glare of a killer."
Read more about this topic: Aniello Dellacroce
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“I do not know that I meet, in any of my Walks, Objects which move both my Spleen and Laughter so effectually, as those Young Fellows ... who rise early for no other Purpose but to publish their Laziness.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)
“Oh sure, everyone goes back to the earth at some point, but life itself is a thread that is never broken, never lost. Do you know why? Because each man makes a knot in the thread during his lifetime: it is the work he has done and that’s what gives life to life in the long stretch of time: the usefulness of man on this earth.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)