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 and it is our policy not to replicate that which already exists. This Timeline focuses on the life and times of Vito and Anna Genovese during the years that they lived in Monmouth County. The fuller story of Anna Genovese is every bit as fascinating as that of Vito, but most of her life takes place in New York City, and therefore, receives scant treatment here. A 2019 podcast called “Mob Queens” focused on exploring Anna’s life in great detail, and it is well worth the time for aficionados of the history of New York City’s nightlife, the evolving LGBQT community in Greenwich Village, as well as organized crime.
On November 21, 1897, Vito Genovese was born in Risigliano, Tufino, in the Province of Naples, Italy. On May 23, 1913, when Genovese was 15, his family immigrated to the United States and took up residence in Little Italy, Manhattan.
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 second marriage for both, with Anna’s first husband having been murdered just days before. Joe Valachi, a soldier in the Luciano crime family working for Vito, said that in 1932, Gerard Vernotico had been strangled on a rooftop in Greenwich Village by two men who were part of the Luciano family. A second body was also found on the roof, believed to have been an innocent bystander who accidentally witnessed Vernotico’s murder.
Twelve days later, Vito Genovese married Anna Petilla Vernotico, the grieving widow of Gerard.
The couple raised three children: Marie Vernotico Genovese, Anna’s daughter by her first husband; Nancy Genovese, Vito’s daughter with his first (and late) wife; and Philip Genovese, son of Anna and Vito.
Sources:
Frasca, Dom. (1959). King of Crime: The Story of Vito Genovese. Crown Publishing. Available: Dana Library, Rutgers University, Newark campus.
Maas, Peter. (1968). The Valachi Papers. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, N.Y.
The History of Organized Crime in the United States. https://mob-who.blogspot.com/2011/04/genovese-vito-1897-1969.html
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