Willie Moretti showed up at Joe's Elbow Room in Cliffside Park, New Jersey a little before noon on October 4, 1951. He chatted with a group of men in Italian, and then somebody asked the restaurant's waitress to step away to fetch a menu. Within minutes, the longtime Mafia underboss was dead, gunned down on the dining room floor.

But it wasn't Moretti's enemies that had caught up to the gangster after years of wrongdoing. It was the man's close friends. Listen to learn more about why the Mafia silenced one of its most beloved figures.

Sources for this episode:

Ashbury Park Press (Sept. 25, 1988: Robert V. McMenimen)
Daily News (Sept. 30, 1986, excerpt from Kitty Kelley's book)
The Record (Dec. 21, 1981)
The Record (August 31, 1981, Mark A Stuart)
The Record (May 11, 1975)
The Record (Oct. 10, 1974)
The Herald News (August 29, 1974(
Ottawa Journal (November 15, 1972)
Press and Sun Bulletin (Nov. 19, 1971)
Daily News (Sept. 13, 1964)
The Record (August 23, 1963)
News Journal (Oct. 9, 1963)
Courier News (Jan. 7, 1960)
Philadelphia Inquirer (Nov. 11, 1952)
The Record (Oct. 5, 1951
Herald News (Oct. 5, 1951)
His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra by Kitty Kelley

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Murder at Lunchtime: The Mob and Willie Moretti 24:55

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Murder at Lunchtime: The Mob and Willie Moretti