Crime
May 31, 1799
Early Legislative History of New Jersey State Laws Concerning Wrecks
Overview In 1799, the New Jersey House of Assembly passed a new law entitled “An act concerning wrecks,” which would be revised and amended a number of times over subsequent years. The intent of the law was to establish that...
March 5, 1886
Samuel Johnson, Victim of a Lynching
Thousands of Black people were the victims of racial terror lynching in the United States between 1865 and 1950, including hundreds of lynchings that took place outside the South. Violent resistance to equal rights for African Americans led to fatal...
November 21, 1897
A Timeline of Vito and Anna Genovese in Monmouth County
Editor’s note: Vito Genovese was involved in criminal activities from his early years in New York City and continued to run the rackets even after he was finally behind bars for good. His nefarious deeds have been extensively chronicled elsewhere...
November 4, 1902
Laura Biggar, Fugitive Gold-Digger, Finally Turns Herself In
By John R. Barrows On November 4, 1902, nationally famous vaudeville stage actress Laura Biggar surrendered herself to Monmouth County authorities in Freehold, where she was placed under arrest, arraigned, and confined to the county jail there. She had arrived...
September 16, 1903
Whatever Happened to B.B. Ogden, the Fugitive Mayor of Keyport?
By today, September 16, everyone in Keyport finally realized that their mayor was gone. Missing. Disappeared. Vamoosed. Am-scrayed. On the lam, a fugitive from justice. In 1903, Benjamin B. Ogden was president of the Keyport town commissioners (a.k.a. mayor). He...
September 24, 1912
John Thompson Lovett Sr., the Small Fruit Prince of Little Silver
By John R. Barrows Editor’s note: The author is indebted to Timeline contributor and noted historian Randall Gabrielan, author most recently of Lost Monmouth County (The History Press, 2021), for sharing much of his research into John Thompson Lovett, as...
August 17, 1923
The Ku Klux Klan Recruits the Women of Monmouth County
On August 17, 1923, the Ku Klux Klan held its first-ever open-air initiation ceremony in New Jersey, in Allenwood, in Wall Township. With 900 men and 700 women in robes and hoods looking on, 434 women were welcomed into the...
November 25, 1923
End of the Line for Bill McCoy, King of the Rum-Runners
On November 25, 1923, Bill McCoy, possibly the most celebrated bootlegger of the Prohibition era, found his career as a smuggler at an end at the hands of the U.S. Coast Guard, off Sandy Hook. He was born William Frederick...
April 21, 1924
The Rum Line: The Beginning of the End of Bootlegging Along the Monmouth County Shore
On April 21, 1924, the United States Congress extended the territorial limit of U.S. jurisdiction in international waters from three miles to 12. The move was designed to enhance law enforcement efforts during Prohibition, especially in and around Monmouth County,...
October 16, 1929
Bootlegger Compound Raided in Former Middletown Home of Oscar Hammerstein Sr.
On October 16, 1929, at the height of Prohibition, federal agents raided an isolated house atop the ridge in the Navesink section of Middletown, overlooking Sandy Hook Bay (pictured above...the person in the photo is unidentified). Before 1920, the house...
March 30, 1932
Vito Genovese Takes a New Bride
On March 30, 1932, Vito and Giovaninna "Anna" Petillo (nee Vernotico) were married in New York. Anna ran nightclubs and gay bars in Manhattan during these years, some of which were not on the mafia books. It was the...
March 23, 1933
Gangster Al Lillien’s Unsolved Murder in Middletown Ends his Criminal Organization
On March 23, 1933, Alexander (Al) Lillien Jr. (born February 28, 1897), a "master liquor-runner,” was found murdered in his Middletown mansion. Lillien, 36, along with his brother William, controlled a bootlegging gang that extended from Montreal down to Virginia,...
September 8, 1934
SS Morro Castle: An Inferno at Sea, a Burning Hulk on the Beach, and Many Unanswered Questions
On September 8, 1934, the luxury passenger liner SS Morro Castle caught fire and burned during a raging storm off the coast of New Jersey, killing 137 passengers and crew members. The ship, en route from Havana to New York...
September 11, 1934
Two Doofuses from Long Island Go Souvenir Hunting on the Wreck of the SS Morro Castle
Editor’s note: On September 11, 1934, the S.S. Morro Castle was a blackened hulk resting just off the beach at Asbury Park, three days after coming to a rest there after a horrific fire at sea. The site of numerous...
June 28, 1935
Vito and Anna Genovese Move to Middletown
On June 28, 1935, Vito Genovese purchased a 35-acre (other accounts set it at 42 and 24 acres) property at 152 Red Hill Road in Middletown from Mrs. Florence Sperling. The estate was originally part of a large farm owned by...
December 13, 1935
Vito Genovese, American Citizen of Good Moral Character
On December 13, 1935, while the family was living in Middletown, Vito filed a petition to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. On November 25, 1936, his petition was granted and Vito became a U.S. citizen in New York City. On...
February 23, 1937
The Genovese Middletown Mansion Burns While Vito is in Exile in Italy
On February 23, 1937, the Middletown mansion that was home to "king of the rackets" Vito Genovese and his wife Anna, and their children, burned down. An oil burner was thought to be at fault, but the exact cause was...
August 27, 1944
Vito Genovese Returns to America, and to Monmouth County
On August 27, 1944, Vito Genovese was placed under arrest in Italy by U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division Agent Orange C. Dickey, who had recognized Vito from wanted posters. With the war nearing an end, Dickey had difficulty finding anyone who...
July 10, 1947
Vito Genovese Asserts Himself on the Monmouth County Docks
On July 10, 1947, Vito Genovese, Andrew Richard, and Louis and Dominic A. Caruso formed a new corporation called the Atlantic Highlands Wharf Company, that “handles freight and passenger transportation at the yacht harbor.” The company acquired the railroad pier...
March 26, 1950
Vito Genovese and His Son Run Into Trouble in Freehold
On March 26, 1950, Philip Genovese, 18, son of Vito and Anna, driving his father's car, crashed into a parked vehicle on Route 9 in Freehold, injuring five people. The initial newspaper report at the time erroneously stated that Vito was...
December 8, 1952
Anna Genovese vs. Vito Genovese
On December 8, 1952, Anna filed a lawsuit against Vito Genovese in Superior Court in Freehold, seeking $300 monthly “separate maintenance” financial support for her and son Philip, and $5,000 in attorney’s costs. In the initial hearing before the Chancery Court...
March 2, 1953
Anna Genovese, A Scorned Mob Wife, Testifies Under Oath in Open Court
On March 2, 1953, Anna Genovese took the stand in her “separate maintenance” case and testified before the judge in Superior Court in Freehold County Courthouse. Anna's attorney was Osie M. Silber, a deputy attorney general. She asked the judge for...
March 3, 1953
On Day Two of the Trial, Vito’s Witnesses Testify
On March 3, 1953, the second day of Anna Genovese's Freehold trial where she sought "separate maintenance" financial support from her estranged husband Vito, 22 witnesses were called who would testify mostly on behalf of Vito. Anna took the...
March 4, 1953
Vito Genovese’s Enemies Prevail In New Jersey Court
On March 4, 1953, just two days after Anna’s explosive open-court testimony, the Caruso Construction Company of Atlantic Highlands won a lawsuit against Vito seeking $32,724 for labor and supplies for the 130 Ocean Blvd. mansion, for which no payment...
November 14, 1957
The Meeting at Apalachin: The Beginning of the End for Vito Genovese
By the late 1950's, it was estimated that there were between 25 and 30 major organized crime families across the United States, with an army of approximately 5,000 “made men,” or formal members. On November 14, 1957, more than 100...
July 7, 1958
“King of the Rackets” Vito Genovese is Arrested and Convicted for Narcotics Crimes
On July 7, 1958, narcotics agents of the U.S. Treasury Department placed Vito Genovese under arrest at his home on Highland Avenue in Atlantic Highlands. Along with his longtime associates, Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, and Carmine Galante, Genovese was named...
June 3, 1959
Mafia Kingpin Carmine Galante Arrested in Holmdel
On June 3, 1959, New Jersey State Police officers arrested the notorious mob leader Carmine Galante after stopping his car on the Garden State Parkway in Holmdel. Camillo Carmine Galante (February 21, 1910 - July 12, 1979) was at that...
February 5, 1963
From the Fort Monmouth Stockade, Genovese Henchman Joe Valachi Breaks the Mafia’s Code of Silence
If we let him out on the street, he'd be dead in a half an hour. Unnamed federal agent, on the need to protect star mob witness Joe Valachi Vito Genovese was among the most feared mobsters in the history...
February 14, 1969
A Monmouth County Funeral for Vito Genovese
On February 14, 1969, Vito Genovese dies of congestive heart failure, at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri; he had been imprisoned at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, Kansas. An attorney for his estate said he...