Talk:August Del Gracio

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Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. You can locate your hook here.No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Dclemens1971 talk 15:31, 15 September 2025 (UTC)

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• Comment or view
• Article history

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• ... that the first ever "field test" subject of the joint OSS–FBN search for a truth serum during World War II was an Italian American mafia enforcer named August Del Gracio?

• Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/12/129E144131F2E093FB1E441C737ACF92_SearchForTheManchurianCandidate.rtf.pdf

• • ALT1: ... that during WW2, a special agent of the FBN named George Hunter White field tested a potential truth serum on the unwitting August Del Gracio, a mob enforcer for Lucky Luciano? Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/12/129E144131F2E093FB1E441C737ACF92_SearchForTheManchurianCandidate.rtf.pdf
  • Reviewed:

Created by Guylaen (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has fewer than 5 past nominations.

Guylaen (talk) 18:59, 24 July 2025 (UTC).

• Comment: Not a review, but I bolded the article you are nominating in the hook. Warm Regards, Miminity (Talk?) (me contribs) 03:47, 17 August 2025 (UTC)
• I don't think I've seen gangsters on DYK before, Guylaen! Fresh, long enough, cites sources, without any neutrality or copyright issues apparent to me. I do see some issues, though:
  • The dates and places of birth and death, the nicknames, and the spouse's name are not cited.
  • The article ends abruptly; do we know if he talked after the "truth serum"? And what happened to him in the end? We should at least conclude with information about his death.
  • The hook checks out, but could it not be simpler? Because of the unfamiliar acronyms I find myself losing interest in what could otherwise be a very fun hook.
    Surtsicna (talk) 13:39, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

@Guylaen: Please address the above. (@Surtsicna:, on the subject of gangsters, you may be interested to know that I considered bringing Frankie Fraser to GA for the hook "that Frankie Fraser spent 42 years in prison before his music career", but I'm not sure I'll be doing that.)--Launchballer 12:43, 4 September 2025 (UTC)

So... my main problem to begin with was that spelling out the acronyms was too many characters for the hook. OSS is pretty well-known though. FBN, not as much anymore, even though it used to be a household name, which is a shame, because Federal Bureau of Narcotics takes up so much space. I'm just not sure how to rescue this.

Maybe just remove the names of the OSS and the FBN? Like:

ALT2: "...that the first ever "field test" subject of a truth serum was an Italian American mafia enforcer named August Del Gracio?" Guylaen (talk) 05:10, 5 September 2025 (UTC)

Yes, that looks much better, Guylaen. Really, really good in fact. Could you address the other two points as well? Surtsicna (talk) 06:53, 5 September 2025 (UTC)

Well, I found the birthdate using Ancestry.com. Every time he entered through Ellis Island from Cherbourg or Bremen he would have to go through processing, and his birthdate is written down there.

Umm... I have genuinely misplaced the source on his death date because my external hard drive got corrupted, and I remember it took me like a full week to find a source that had anything about his death date. Gods I don't want to start that search again, but it looks like I have to.

As for his nicknames, they're in all of the old newspapers and in Anslinger's book. "Little Augie" is the most common name, for example, if you do a search in Newspaper Archives for August Del Gracio, Little Augie pops up in most of the articles. The name "Little Augie the Wop" is found in several places, including here: https://www.thehistoryreader.com/historical-figures/lucky-luciano-wwiis-operation-husky/

The other two nicknames I found in the Napa Sentinel from 1991, a series of articles written by Harry Martin and David Caul. Guylaen (talk) 09:47, 5 September 2025 (UTC)

Great we have the sources for the nicknames, but they should be cited in the article, not here. I do not think ancestry.com is a reliable source. I would rather directly cite whichever source they cite, if they cite any. Surtsicna (talk) 10:57, 5 September 2025 (UTC)

@Guylaen: Please address the above.--Launchballer 10:37, 14 September 2025 (UTC)

I have referenced the sources.

The League of Nations file listed in the external links actually has his birthdate on page 5, so this is the ref for that.

Also, turns out Napa Sentinel is not trustworthy, even though the name sounds like a legit newspaper, it was actually a tabloid. They had also ran stories on things like black helicopters and UFO abductions, meaning they're not reliable. (I'm adding Harry V. Martin to my list of TBW's [to be written].)

However, another League of Nations case file lists almost every alias he has ever used, so that is now the reference.

However... for the life of me I can't remember where I found his death information, so I have deleted it. Guylaen (talk) 12:51, 14 September 2025 (UTC)

I have found a blogger here who says he died in 1949 from cancer and I will try and email them to find their source: https://mafiamembershipcharts.blogspot.com/2016/01/genovese-family-bios-of-early-members.html Guylaen (talk) 13:22, 14 September 2025 (UTC)

I have found a death cert for an August Del Gaizo from April 21, 1949... but it says he was 52 when he died, which is the wrong age. I also found that the Del Gaizo spelling is where I found a reference to his death on ancestry.com... but the user there does not cite any source for that death date. https://www.fromthepage.com/display/display_page?page_id=34969305 Guylaen (talk) 13:45, 14 September 2025 (UTC)

Hi @Guylaen, Launchballer, and Surtsicna: I just jumped into the article and added details on the end of the "truth serum" session. (Del Gracio got extremely high and apparently really went into detail on how to run a drug business!)

So, apart from the death date (which has been removed due to lack of source) I think this article looks good!

On the hook: the detail about Lucky Luciano is why I clicked into this DYK nom. I think that a famous name and the "mafia" or "mob" enforcer title draws people in even if they don't know Luciano. The coolest details are 1. truth serum 2. US government did it without consent. 3. mafia. ALT2 loses the US government and consent details I propose:

ALT3: ... that the first "field test" of a potential truth serum by the U.S. government was on the unwitting August Del Gracio, a mafia enforcer for Lucky Luciano?

This spread the intrigue. Truth serum first then gov then mafia. Plus if someone clicks into the article the meeting was kind of about Luciano so that detail doubly works. - SquawkGuard (talk) 11:56, 15 September 2025 (UTC)

"Lucky Luciano" wants trimming. If you're happy with ALT3a: ... that the first field test of one potential truth serum by the U.S. government was on an unwitting mafia enforcer?, I'll assess it.--Launchballer 11:27, 15 September 2025 (UTC)

Yeah, you're right! I love me Lucky Luciano, but your ALT3a is the best. I'm not the nominator, but I think if @Guylaen: likes the hook I think it's ready to be assessed. Thanks Launchballer – SquawkGuard (talk) 11:54, 15 September 2025 (UTC)

Checks out, though I removed the quote marks from the hook as they weren't necessary and duplicated a citation per WP:DYKHFC. Also, this needs a lead section, though this isn't a DYK issue.--Launchballer 12:00, 15 September 2025 (UTC)

Hook looks good to me. Sorry everyone this took me so long to get done. Life and all that. Anyways, not sure when I might have the time to do a lead section and expand out fully into an article. There is quite a bit of stuff out there on him, but I have this giant list of TBW's to get through first. Guylaen (talk) 12:35, 15 September 2025 (UTC)

• Comment. Going to promote this but am wikilinking to truth serum and changing a to one, since the source only indicates this was the first field test of marijuana-laced cigarettes as a truth serum, not that it was the first field test of a truth serum generally. Dclemens1971 (talk) 15:31, 15 September 2025 (UTC)

German legal issues

I get the impression from the sources that he was arrested in 1931 but sentenced in 1937, which seems a long interval; perhaps this could be clarified. Jontel (talk) 05:44, 23 September 2025 (UTC)

DYK wording

IMO, 'an unwitting Mafia enforcer' is someone who is a Mafia enforcer but doesn't realise he is one. 62.73.72.101 (talk) 11:38, 23 September 2025 (UTC)