Harry Riccobene

Who was Harry Riccobene?

Harry 'The Hunchback' Riccobene was a high-ranking member of the Philadelphia crime family who became a major figure in the short, but violent, gang war that followed the 1980 death of boss Angelo Bruno.

Born in Enna, Sicily, to Mario Riccobene Senior and Anna Cimmari. His father, Mario, left Philadelphia to search for a job working in the coal mines in West Virginia and joined him in 1913. His father eventually found work as a stonemason in South Philadelphia. In 1925, Harry's biological mother died of unknown causes and Mario adopted his two nephews, Robert and Mario Jr. after their own mother died during the 1918 flu pandemic. He was born with a slight curvature of the spine that has been suspected of having been caused by lordosis, kyphosis or Pott Disease. He was 5'1" tall and weighed 136 pounds with brown hair and eyes and had a hunchback from a birth defect that earned him the moniker "Harry the Hump." By the 1960s he was separated from his wife Evelyn and is the stepbrother of Mario, Robert and Enrico Riccobene. He spoke in a high pitched voice and as he grew older he donned a long white beard. One prospective juror for one of his criminal trials described him as looking like "a little Santa Claus." His legitimate businesses includes television tube companies in Philadelphia, Yonkers, New York and Richmond, Virginia. His arrest record included carrying a concealed weapon, larceny, and possession of narcotics. At one point, Riccobene spent time in prison on a narcotics conviction.