35+ Famous Gangsters Nicknames

Why do mobsters have nicknames?

Mobsters or gangsters use distinct nicknames to refer to a certain fellow gangster without knowing or saying their real name.

These nicknames adds to their fame, makes them memorable and sometimes even inspire fear to their competitors.

Gangsters profit from having nicknames, even if they are unflattering. Even if their real name is known, using a nickname helps to conceal his identity from authorities or other outsiders.

Gamer nickname ideas: Let's see the baddest and most famous gangster nicknames

Famous gangsters nicknames are a great source for inspiration when looking for great gamer nickname ideas. If you don't know how to come up with a gamertag, take a look at the list below.

Real Famous Gangsters & Their Nicknames

"Scarface", "Big Al", "Al Brown" (Al Capone)

Probably one of the most famous gangster: Alphonse Gabriel Capone, often known as "Scarface," was an American mobster and businessman who rose to prominence as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit during the Prohibition era. His seven-year reign as a crime lord came to an end when he was sentenced to prison at the age of 33.

"Bugsy" (Benjamin Siegel)

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was an American mobster who was a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Siegel not only was influential within the Jewish mob, but along with his friend and fellow gangster Meyer Lansky, also held significant influence within the Italian-American Mafia and the largely Italian-Jewish National Crime Syndicate. Described as handsome and charismatic, he became one of the first front-page celebrity gangsters.

Siegel hated the nickname (said to be based on the slang term "bugs", meaning "crazy", used to describe his erratic behavior), preferring to be called "Ben" or "Mr. Siegel".

"Machine Gun" (Jack McGurn)

Jack "Machine Gun Jack" McGurn was a small-time boxer, Sicilian-American mobster and key member of Al Capone's Chicago Outfit.

"Chuckie The Typewriter" (Charles Nicoletti)

Charles Nicoletti, also known as "Chuckie the Typewriter", was an American mobster of the Chicago Outfit, who served as hitman under boss Sam Giancana before and after Giancana's rise and fall. Nicoletti was murdered on March 29, 1977.

By the late 1950s, along with Felix Alderisio, Nicoletti was one of the most feared triggermen in Chicago and was drawing attention from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Chicago police.

"The Wizard of Odds" (Donald Angelini)

Donald Angelini was a mobster nicknamed "The Wizard of Odds" with the Chicago Outfit, a criminal organization that specialized in gambling operations.

His mobster nickname "The Wizard of Odds" is clearly a reference to his involvement in gambling operations.

"Greasy Thumb" (Jake Guzik)

Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik was the financial and legal advisor, and later political "greaser," for the Chicago Outfit.

Guzik got into an argument with a freelance hijacker named Joe Howard, who slapped and kicked him around. Incapable of physical resistance, Guzik related to Capone what had happened. Capone charged out in search of Howard. Capone drew a revolver, jammed it into Howard's face, and, after several seconds, emptied it into him.

Jake Guzik appears in the HBO show Boardwalk Empire, wherein he is portrayed by Joe Caniano. His incident with Joe Howard was dramatized in an episode. In it, Guzik's bullying coincides with Capone's son being bullied in school, and it is the similarities between the two incidents that drive Capone to kill Howard.

"The Dasher" (Frank Abbandando)

Frank Abbandando (July 11, 1910 – February 19, 1942), nicknamed "The Dasher", was a New York City contract killer (hitman) who committed many murders as part of the infamous Murder, Inc. gang.

In 1928, Abbandando was convicted of beating a New York police officer and was sent to reform school in Elmira, New York, where he demonstrated skill at baseball and received the nickname "The Dasher".

"Sam Sings in the Night" (Salvatore Catalanotto)

Salvatore Catalanotto was an Italian-American mobster, and boss of Detroit's Unione Siciliana from 1920 to 1930.

The "Sings in the night" nickname is a translation of a close misspelling of his last name (from the Italian "canta la notte").

"Trigger Happy", "The Fixer" (Charles Fischetti)

Charles "Trigger Happy" was a Chicago mobster, Capone bodyguard and cousin.

The source of the nickname "Trigger Happy" is pretty obvious and it was his general MO for "fixing" things.

"Jimmy The Bear", "Big Bear" "Vinnie the Butcher" (Vincent Flemmi)

Vincent James Flemmi, also known as "Jimmy The Bear", was an Italian-American mobster who freelanced for the Winter Hill Gang and the Patriarca crime family. He was also a longtime informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was also the brother of government informant Stephen Flemmi.

He was called the bear due to his imposing stature.

"Momo", "Mo", "Mooney", "Sam the Cigar", "Sam Flood" (Sam Giancana)

Giancana was born in Chicago to immigrant Italian parents. As a youngster, he joined the 42 Gang and established a name in organized crime that drew the attention of the famous Chicago Outfit leaders. Giancana joined the Chicago Outfit in the late 1930s. From the 1940s until the 1950s, he was in charge of Louisiana's illicit gambling, illegal booze distribution, and political rackets. Giancana worked for the Outfit in Chicago's African-American lottery payment system in the early 1940s. Giancana took over as boss of the Chicago Outfit in 1957.

The character Mob Man from The X-Files episode "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", who is present at a planning meeting on the assassination of JFK, is likely based on Giancana.

"Chin", "The Oddfather", "Vinny","The Enigma in the Bathrobe", "The Robe", "The Real Boss of New York" (Vincent Gigante)

Vincent Gigante started out as a professional boxer before joining the Genovese crime family. Gigante was a shooter in the failed assassination of Luciano boss Frank Costello in 1957. He was sentenced to seven years in prison for drug trafficking in 1959 and became caporegime.

Gigante feigned insanity in an effort to throw law enforcement off his trail. Dubbed "The Oddfather" and "The Enigma in the Bathrobe" by the media, Gigante often wandered the streets of Greenwich Village in his bathrobe and slippers, mumbling incoherently to himself.

"Joey the Clown", "Joe Padula", "Lumbo", "Lumpy" (Joseph Lombardo)

Joseph Patrick Lombardo, also known as "Joey the Clown", was an American mobster and a high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit crime organization. He was alleged to be the Consigliere of the Outfit.

Lombardo got the nickname "The Clown" because of his joking way and other pranks, such as grinning big for mug photographs and leaving a 1981 court appearance at the federal courts building in Chicago with a Chicago Sun-Times newspaper in front of his face with a hole ripped out so he could see.

"Benny Squint", "Cockeyed Phil" (Philip Lombardo)

Philip Lombardo was the boss of the Genovese crime family from the late 1960s until the beginning of the 1980s.

Lombardo began his career as a soldier on Michael "Trigger Mike" Coppola's powerful 116th Street Crew in the East Harlem section of New York. During the 1940s, Lombardo served a brief prison stretch for narcotics trafficking, his only imprisonment. Due to his thick eyeglasses Lombardo earned the nickname, "Benny Squint."

"The Velvet Hammer", "The Velvet Glove" (Sam Maceo)

Salvatore V. "Sam" Maceo was an American business mogul, power broker, and racketeer in Galveston, Texas. Galveston rose to prominence as a nationally known vacation city during the 1920s and 1930s as a result of gambling, prostitution, and free flowing booze, vices that were available in the backrooms of restaurants and nightclubs, a period known as Galveston's Open Era. His group, known as the Maceo Syndicate or the Maceo Organisation, was involved in illicit gambling, prostitution, a numbers racket, and bootlegging, and he was the leader of it.

Maceo's authority peaked during Galveston's open age, when he rose to prominence as a major political figure and oil mogul, owning the Gulf Oil Properties. His attitude to governing his company has earned him the moniker "the Velvet Hammer."

"Iron Glove", "Papa Rose" (Rosario Maceo)

Rosario Maceo (Sr.), also known as Papa Rose or Rose Maceo, was an Italian-American businessman, power broker and crime boss in Galveston, Texas in the United States.

Sometimes known as the "Iron Glove", Rose was the top enforcer for the empire he and his brother formed.

"Don Stefano", "The Undertaker", "The Grand Old Man of La Cosa Nostra" (Stefano Magaddino)

Stefano "The Undertaker" Magaddino was an Italian-born crime boss of the Buffalo crime family in western New York. His underworld influence stretched from Ohio to Southern Ontario and as far east as Montreal, Quebec. Known as Don Stefano to his friends and The Undertaker to others, he was also a charter member of the American Mafia's ruling council, The Commission.

"Richard O'Coin", "The Cook", "The Executioner" (Johnny Martorano)

John James Vincent Martorano also known as "Vincent Joseph Rancourt", "Richard Aucoin", "Nick", "The Cook", "The Executioner", "The Basin Street Butcher", is an American former gangster and former hitman for the Winter Hill Gang in Boston, Massachusetts, who has admitted to 20 mob-related killings.

"The Clutching Hand", "The Old Fox" (Giuseppe Morello)

In the 1890s, Giuseppe founded a gang known as the 107th Street Mob, which would later evolve into the Morello crime family. Today the Morello crime family is known as the Genovese crime family and is the oldest of the Five Families in New York City.

Morello is often referred to as "Mafia Boss of Bosses Giuseppe Morello"

"Skinny Razor"

Felix DiTullio was a famous hitman in the Philadelphia crime family serving the Mafia boss Ralph Natale. He is a prominent character in the 20109 Scorseze movie The Irishman.

"Lefty", "Lefty Guns", "Lefty Two Guns" (Benjamin Ruggiero)

Benjamin Ruggiero was an American soldier in the Bonanno crime family. He is well known for his friendship and mentorship of FBI undercover agent Joseph "Donnie Brasco" Pistone.

Ruggiero earned his nickname "Lefty" from tossing dice left-handed while playing craps. He got the nickname "Two Guns" because when he went out on a hit, he liked to use two guns.

"The Perle Mesta of the Mob", "Quack Quack" (Angelo Salvatore Ruggiero, Sr.)

Angelo Salvatore Ruggiero, Sr. was a member of the Gambino crime family and a friend of John Gotti's.

Ruggiero was known as a constant chatter-box, given his nick name "quack quack", providing a running commentary on everything going on around him. Everyone who visited him had to endure endless gossip, complaints and general indiscretions.

"The Grim Reaper", "The Mad Hatter", "K.M. The Killing Machine" (Gregory Scarpa)

Gregory Scarpa Sr. nicknamed The Grim Reaper and also The Mad Hatter, was an American capo and hitman for the Colombo crime family and an informant for the FBI.

He was known as the Grim Reaper because if you did wrong and were in the life, or you hurt his family or anyone he cared about, it was his job to bring you death.

"The King of Wall Street" (Philip Abramo)

Philip Abramo, also known as "The King of Wall Street" and "Lou Metzer", is a caporegime in the New Jersey DeCavalcante crime family who was allegedly involved in security fraud and murder. He is the capo of the DeCavalcante family's crew in Miami, Florida, United States.

"Two-Knife" (Willie Altieri)

Willie "Two-Knife" Altieri (dates unknown) was an American gangster who served as the chief enforcer for Frankie Yale's Italian-American "Black-Hand" gang, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in 1920s New York City. He got his nickname after his preferred method of dispatching a victim. Willie had killed dozens of rival gangsters during the 1920s and was considered an important figure in the "Black-Hand" gang.

"The Earthquake", "The One-Man Army", "Mad Hatter", "Lord High Executioner" (Albert Anastasia)

Umberto "Albert" Anastasia was an Italian-American mobster, hitman, and crime boss. One of the founders of the modern American Mafia, and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder, Inc. organization, Anastasia eventually rose to the position of boss in what became the modern Gambino crime family.

Anastasia was one of the most ruthless and feared organized crime figures in American history; his reputation earned him the nicknames "The Earthquake", "The One-Man Army", "Mad Hatter" and "Lord High Executioner".

"The Peacemaker" (Alphonse Attardi)

Alphonse "The Peacemaker" Attardi was an American mobster involved in narcotics who later became a government informant. His front was ownership of an olive oil importing business.

"The Wig","The Toupee", "The Doberman", "Zombie Bilotti", "The Pitbull" (Thomas Bilotti)

Thomas "Tommy" Bilotti was an American mobster with the Gambino crime family who served as underboss for two weeks. It was this promotion that helped trigger the 1985 assassination of Gambino boss Paul Castellano; Bilotti would end up killed as well as part of the assassination.

"Sammy the Bull" (Sammy Gravano)

Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano is an American gangster who became underboss of the Gambino crime family. Gravano played a major role in helping the prosecution sentence John Gotti, the crime family's boss, by agreeing to testify as a government witness against him and other mobsters in a deal in which he confessed to involvement in 19 murders.

At 13, Gravano joined the Rampers, a prominent street gang in the neighbourhood. His bike got stolen and he found and fought the thieves himself. Some Mafia men saw this and one of them remarked on how Sammy fought "like a bull", hence his nickname "The Bull".

"Cadillac Frank" (Frank Salemme)

Francis Patrick Salemme, is an American mobster from Boston, Massachusetts who became a hitman and eventually the boss of the Patriarca crime family of New England before turning government witness.

"Ice Pick Willie" (Israel Alderman)

Israel "Icepick Willie" Alderman was a Las Vegas, Nevada casino investor and manager with ties to organized crime. Along with his associates Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Moe Sedway, David Berman, and Gus Greenbaum, he was involved in the El Cortez, the Riviera, the Flamingo, and the Las Vegas Club. Prior to living in Las Vegas, he was mob enforcer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he was given his nickname based on his perfection of the icepick method of murder. He ran a speakeasy in Minneapolis where he claimed to have committed eleven murders by stabbing his victims in the ear with an icepick. The victims slumped over the bar like drunks, giving Alderman the opportunity to drag the bodies out unquestioned. Alderman eventually went to prison for tax evasion.

Famous gangsters nicknames in movies

"Don Corleone", "The Godfather"

Probably the most famous gangster movie has to be the 1972 movie The Godfather.

"Don Corleone" is the name of the main character, the head of the Corleone family, played by the famous actor Marlon Brando. This also became a sort of a staple nickname and synonim for big boss.

Sam "Ace" Rothstein - Casino 1995

Samuel "Ace" Rothstein is the protagonist villain played by Robert de Niro of the 1995 crime film Casino. He is based off the real life Las Vegas casino executive and Mafia associate, the late Frank Lawrence "Lefty" Rosenthal.

Jimmy "The Tulip" Tedeschi - The Whole Nine Yards 2000

Character in the two comedy movies The Whole Nine Yards and The Whole Ten Yards, Jimmy is a Mafia hitman played by Bruce Willis.

Jimmy apparently got his nickname for leaving a tulip on his victims.

Jimmy "Two Times", Freddy "No Nose", Frankie "The Wop", Pete "The Killer", - Goodfellas 1990

Jimmy Two Times is a character presented in the movie Goodfellas. He apparently got that nickname because he said everything twice.

All these characters are all shown in a quite emblematic Martin Scorseze shot done in one continuous shot.

Frank "The Fixer", Joey "New Shoes" Siclione - Wise Guys 1986

Characters in the 1986 movie Wise Guys where Danny DeVitto does one of his best acting.

Mickey "Blue Eyes"

Hugh Grant plays an English auctioneer that proposes to the daughter of a Mafia kingpin, only to realize that certain "favors" would be asked of him. He is slowly drawn into the world of the Mafia, so when he needs a name, his blue eyes make the name for him.

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