Real Mafia Graveyards of New York (St. John’s Cemetery)
Exploring Some Famous (And Infamous) Mob Burial Grounds in New York City
When you hear the words mafia graveyard, your mind might conjure images of a rundown salvage yard in Canarsie, or some desolate South Jersey marshland. I will be taking a look at three different areas of New York City which became the resting place for some of the city’s most infamous as well as less well-known Mafiosi. One of them is a real cemetery, while the other two are a bit more shall we say makeshift.
In this post, I will be taking a look at St. John’s Catholic Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens. In the late 19th century, as space was becoming limited at Holy Cross Cemetery in Flatbush, Brooklyn, St. John’s Cemetery would be relied upon more and more to serve the burial needs of the parishioners of Brooklyn and Queens.
Today, it is the final resting place for some of the most well-known mob bosses in New York’s history. People such as Carlo Gambino, namesake of the Gambino Crime Family, one of the five organized crime families in New York City.
Gambino was a wily and cunning mob boss who after orchestrating the assassination of fearsome mafia heavyweight Albert Anastasia behind the scenes in 1957 became boss of the powerful family that still bears…
