Jul 01 2008
Godfather II Rosario ‘Ross’ Gangemi dies
ONE of Victoria’s veteran Calabrian mafia bosses has died of natural causes, aged 86.
Undercover police are expected to closely monitor mourners at Rosario “Ross” Gangemi’s Moonee Ponds funeral on Monday.
His death enables the Herald Sun to finally reveal Gangemi’s high standing in the mafia.
It also legally allows us to reveal that Gangemi was named by Italian police as ordering one of the infamous Victoria Market murders in 1963.
Gangemi served alongside Melbourne mafia godfather Liborio Benvenuto from the 1960s to the 1980s, possibly as his deputy.
Police intelligence files show he remained a respected and influential member until his death on Saturday in Coburg’s John Fawkner Hospital.
Canberra mafia cell boss Pasquale “Il Principale” Barbaro, who became a police informer in 1989 and was murdered the following year, was secretly taped by detectives naming Gangemi as one of Melbourne’s Calabrian mafia bosses.
A confidential 1991 Victoria Police report named Gangemi as one of the top 10 mafiosi in the state.
That same year, the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence identified Gangemi as one of the top 30 Italian organised crime bosses in the country.
Gangemi was born in Calabria in 1922 and arrived in Melbourne in 1951, quickly working his way up the underworld hierarchy.
Police allege Gangemi was involved in an extortion racket at the Melbourne wholesale fruit and vegetable market for more than 25 years.
“Rosario Gangemi is considered a senior member of the Benvenuto crime family, frequently nominated by informers as a leading contender for leadership of that crime family following the death of Benvenuto,” said the ABCI document.
When Liborio Benvenuto knew he was close to death he nominated Giuseppe “Joe” Arena to succeed him as Melbourne godfather.
Arena, 50, was shot dead by a rival faction six weeks after Benvenuto died in 1988.
Michele Scriva, another Gangemi associate, committed Melbourne’s first mafia hit, stabbing Giuseppe “Fat Joe” Versace 91 times in 1945. He later served years in jail for another murder.
Gangemi knew Melbourne underworld godfather Domenico “The Pope” Italiano, whose death in 1962 sparked a power struggle to take over the cell.
That in turn resulted in the deaths of Calabrian-born mobsters Vincenzo Angilletta and Vincenzo Muratore.
Their deaths in 1963 and 1964 became known as the Victoria Market murders.
Among the international experts brought to Victoria to help investigate the market murders was Italian police assistant commissioner Dr Ugo Macera.
He produced a still-secret report implicating Gangemi in the death of Angilletta.
The Macera Report, which has been seen by the Herald Sun, said: “Vincenzo Angilletta’s murder is the classic example of a killing decided by the mafia.”
Godfather II Rosario ‘Ross’ Gangemi dies - Keith Moor - July 02, 2008 12:00am - This story was found at: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,23955425-2862,00.html
