[1] In his later years, Vanella became a businessman and union organizer operating from the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City, where he became fondly known as the "Mayor of James Street."

[2] One of his neighbors was a young John Torrio, recently arrived to the United States with his widowed mother from Irsina, from the same region in the province of Matera, and whose stepfather was running an illegal moonshine still across the street from Vanella's home.

[19][20][21][22][23][24] Newspapers at the time reported that Vanella was affiliated with the "Black Hand"—a pre-Mafia form of extortion attributed to Italian men from Calabria and Sicily who would send anonymous notes to their victims emblazoned with a feared old country symbol.

[25][26][27] The State's Attorney alleged that Vanella, identified as "Rocco Venille," had been hired by local property owners in a botched attempt to assassinate a senior vice police inspector.

"[30][31][32] Over the next few years he organized and ultimately became president of the Ragpicker's Union, as well as a Democratic district captain on the Tammany Hall staff of Thomas F. "Big Tom" Foley.

[35][36] Torrio, who came in from Chicago to serve as Vanella's best man, reportedly travelled in a private train car with fifty of his own guests in tow.