Boston Gang Wars: Loans Sharks and Bookies: Vincent J. (Bittie) Vazza

VINCENT J. (BITTIE) VAZZA, 36                                                                     September 10, 1958 

Vincent Vazza, called “Bittie,” first came to the attention of the law when he got into trouble at age nine. After that, he did time in the Essex and Suffolk houses of correction. His criminal record involved charges for breaking and entry, larceny and gaming. He drove a late model, expensive sedan and was carrying $4,000 at the time he was last seen.

Ralph Vazza had not heard from his brother, Bittie, for three days.   Ralph and Bittie lived together in Revere. On the third day, September 12, 1958, a woman friend of Ralph’s called him at his home.

She told him she saw Bittie’s car parked near the waterfront in East Boston.

His car parked at the East Boston waterfront would not have been unusual because Bittie did his illegal business there. Like so many gangsters, Bittie was a former boxer, an ex-convict, and a high-pressure loan shark. He had been “loaning money to horse gamblers and longshoremen in recent months.”

Ralph got a ride to East Boston, got into Bittie’s car, and drove it back home. Driving into the driveway, he noticed the rear of the car riding low. Ralph checked the tires, under the car and then looked in the trunk. He found Bittie, rope or wire burns around his neck, lying dead on his side. He had been strangled by a heavy cord or light wire cable. Bruises on his face and stabs over this body showed his death was not without pain.

The location, East Boston, and the Italian rope trick point to a murder committed in the Mafia style. No one indicated whether he had a “surprised expression on his face.” Few clues existed to the identity of the murderers. More than one person was involved in the murder based on the type of strangulation as well as the location of Bittie’s vehicle. A backup vehicle was necessary for the killers to escape from the scene.

The police believed his strangulation was similar to that of our next victim. It was but  only in the sense a rope or wire was used. Otherwise, they differed greatly. The next murder involved the Chinese rope trick in which the victim strangles himself. One of the people questioned about the murder of Bittie was also a suspect in the murder of the next victim. The police believed there was a relationship. That, and the rope, suggested the hand of the North End.

It seems highly unlikely that Bittie’s murder was committed by someone who got in a fight with him when Bittie tried to collect on his loans. The evidence did not lean toward a spontaneous event but one in which some planning was involved. Most likely, the North End was consolidating its control or, as it would say, it was “maintaining discipline.”