Vito (VG) Genovese – Don Vitone aka “The Old Man” – was born on November 21, 1897, in Roccarainola, in the Recigliano, Naples region of Italy. He was reared and educated only to the American equivalent of the fifth grade. He immigrated to this country as a boy of 16 years old and was naturalized in 1936. Vito stood at 5-feet 7-inches tall and weighed a slim 150-pounds. He was olive complected, had dark brown eyes and straight jet-black hair which turned salt and pepper as he aged. As an older man, he wore tinted horn-rimmed glasses, which were a trademark of his. They covered his eyes and a stare that could be unnerving. The ice-cold stare of a born killer.
Vito Genovese started his criminal career stealing merchandise from pushcart vendors and running errands for mobsters. His criminal activities included gambling, Italian lottery rackets, shylocking, extortion, labor racketeering, strong arm and murder, heroin trafficking, business and nightclub infiltration, and counterfeiting.
Vito had an extensive string of arrests dating back to his youth. Beginning in 1917 for gun possession, which was his first arrest at the age of 20. His arrests pop off the pages and slowly describe a mafioso with little conscience or remorse and one not to be toyed with. His yellow jacket clearly showed his propensity for violence and that he was a gunman and killer from the start of his criminal career.
