Michele Fiore (1894 - 1933)

Born 23 Sep 1894 in Mercato San Severino, Salerno, Italy

Died 12 Apr 1933 at age 38 in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Justin Cascio [send private message]

Biography

Michael Fiore is born 23 September 1894^[1] in Mercato San Severino^[2], Salerno province, in the Campania region of Italy. He is the son of Gennaro Fiore and Immaculata Troisi.^[3]

Michele Fiore, 17 (b. 1894), a seaman, appears in Line 3 of the manifest of the Principe Di Piemonte, arriving in New York on 22 September 1911. He was born and last resided in Mercato S.S. and leaves his father, Gennaro, in Italy. He is going to Springfield, MA to join his brother, Vincenzo Fiore, at 277 Water St.^[2]

Michael spends much of his adult life incarcerated.^[4]

Michael Fiore, age 22, born 23 September 1894 in Salerno, Italy, registers for the WWI draft from the Jail House in Springfield, MA on 5 June 1917. His address is 91 Union, in Springfield, MA. He has black hair and brown eyes, is of medium height and build. He is unmarried. He signs his name “Michel Fiore.” Michael is an unemployed baker.^[1]

Michael becomes an associate of Pasqualina Albano Siniscalchi Miranda, a twice widowed bootlegger, and Michael's sister-in-law. His brother, Vincent, is married to Pasqualina's sister.

In the fall of 1932, Michael serves as "muscle" for a "policy game" (a kind of illegal lottery) in Waterbury, CT, according to local police. The game was to be run by Springfield interests in competition with an established game. The gang left Waterbury after a week or two of activity, under nearly constant police surveillance.^[5]

Michael is with Pasqualina when she is killed in a spray of gunfire in the early morning hours of 12 November 1932. He is standing outside the car when a car carrying the unidentified gunmen, armed with sawed off shotguns and an automatic pistol, drives past. Michael sustains a bullet wound to his elbow that keeps him hospitalized for more than a month.^[6] Federal officers try to have him deported but he is released from the Hampden County Jail to await a final hearing. Local police warn him that his life is in danger, but Fiore resists being deported.^[7]

Michael, recently released from Weathersfield CT State Prison, is considered by police to be the primary target, and the motivation a "racket" of some kind. After the shooting, Michael, 37, of 28 Union St., Springfield, refuses to cooperate with the police investigation.^[6] (Wethersfield is just south of Hartford.)

28 Union Street does not appear in this 1910 map of the South End of Springfield. If it did, it would be near the intersection of Water Street. Today, the neighborhood has been altered by Interstate 91, which runs where Water Street once did. Cascio-10 21:38, 22 June 2017 (EDT)

Death of Michael

The following April, Michael is shot to death in a barber shop. Michael, who lives at 1234 Columbus Ave at this time, is having his hair cut in the barber shop of Alphonse Ienatto (actually, "Ienacco") on Columbus Av. at the time. His killer reaches out his hand to him and says, "Hello, Mike," before pulling a pistol from a hip pocket and firing three times.^[8] The first bullet slits Fiore's throat, and he "deliberately" slides from the barber chair to the floor, then tries to crawl to the rear of the shop. His assailant follows and fires again through Fiore's breast, killing him.^[9]

A companion, Dominic Rascigno, 32, of 18 Banks Pl, is wounded when one of the two gunmen fires on him.^[9] The coverage calls Michael a "trusted lieutenant of Mrs. Pasqualina Miranda, Springfield’s ‘Bootleg Queen’ who was murdered last November." At the time of his murder, deportation proceedings were pending.^[8] Michele Fiore’s death in Springfield in 1933 appears in the Death Index. His death record is in vol. 79 p. 518.^[10]

A couple days after Michael's death, it's reported that, while he was a patient in hospital recovering from the 1932 shooting, he made "atheistic statements." As a result, he is buried in unconsecrated ground in St. Michaels Cemetery in Springfield.^[4]

That summer, a large whiskey still is discovered in Suffield, CT, and linked to Fiore, who is said to have been "interested" in the operation.^[11]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm. Registration State: Massachusetts; Registration County: Hampden; Roll: 1674437; Draft Board: 2
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897. Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls. NAI: 6256867. Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36. National Archives at Washington, D.C.Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication T715, 8892 rolls. NAI: 300346. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.Supplemental Manifests of Alien Passengers and Crew Members Who Arrived on Vessels at New York, New York, Who Were Inspected for Admission, and Related Index, compiled 1887-1952. Microfilm Publication A3461, 21 rolls. NAI: 3887372. RG 85, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives, Washington, D.C. Index to Alien Crewmen Who Were Discharged or Who Deserted at New York, New York, May 1917-Nov. 1957. Microfilm Publication A3417. NAI: 4497925. National Archives at Washington, D.C. Passenger Lists, 1962-1972, and Crew Lists, 1943-1972, of Vessels Arriving at Oswego, New York. Microfilm Publication A3426. NAI: 4441521. National Archives at Washington, D.C.
3. ↑ "Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DRLS-VT2?cc=1469062&wc=3PMS-MNL%3A1063291701 : 17 February 2016), > image 493 of 1212; State Archives, Boston.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} MURDERED FIORE BURIED: CHURCH REFUSES MASS Daily Boston Globe (1928-1960); Apr 16, 1933; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Boston Globe pg. A18
5. ↑ FIORE WAS "MUSCLE MAN" LAST FALL FOR POLICY GAME Daily Boston Globe (1928-1960); Apr 13, 1933; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Boston Globe pg. 22
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} SILENCE DELAYS SLAYING INQUIRY: Springfield Man Refuses to Violate ... Special Dispatch to the Globe Daily Boston Globe (1928-1960); Nov 13, 1932; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Boston Globe pg. A12
7. ↑ “Fiore Murdered In Barber Shop.” Published in The Springfield Republican (MA) on 31 August 1933. P. 4.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} BOOTLEG LEADER SLAIN IN SHOP: Michael Fiore Shot to Death in ... Special Dispatch to the Globe Daily Boston Globe (1928-1960); Apr 13, 1933; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Boston Globe pg. 22
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} “Police Unable To Find Clew In Fiore Crime.” Published in Springfield Daily Republican on 13 April 1933. P. 1+.
10. ↑ Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Death Index, 1901-1980 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: Department of Public Health, Registry of Vital Records and Statistics. Massachusetts Vital Records Index to Deaths [1916–1970]. Volumes 66–145. Facsimile edition. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.
11. ↑ “Murdered Man is Linked With Big Still, Seized By Raiders at Suffield, Ct.” Published in The Springfield Republican (MA) on 31 August 1933. Pp. 1+.