The Messina Brothers were five brothers who led a criminal organisation in London from the 1930s to the 1950s. Early life The father of the five Maltese Messina brothers was Giuseppe Messina (possibly born as Giuseppe Calabrese) from Linguaglossa in Sicily. In late 1890 he came to Malta and worked in a brothel in the notorious Strait Street (Triq Strada Stretta) in Valletta. He married a Maltese woman from Zejtun called Virginia Debono and had two sons Salvatore (born 20 August 1898, Ħamrun) and Alfredo ( born 6 February 1901, Ħamrun) He then moved to Alexandria in Egypt in 1905 where there was a thriving Maltese community and built a chain of brothels. The other three sons Eugenio (born 1908, Alexandria, Egypt), Attillo (born 1910, Alexandria) and Carmelo (born 1915, Alexandria) were born in Egypt. All the five brothers joined their father in running brothels and prostitution. In 1932 the Egyptian authorities expelled Giuseppe and his sons. The family returned to Malta as Giuseppe had Maltese citizenship. In 1934 Eugenio the third son of Giuseppe, moved to London with his French prostitute wife Colette. She helped establish the sex trade in London. The other Messina brothers followed Eugenio and established themselves in Soho, London. Gangsters On arrival in UK the Messina brothers took up English names. Eugenio became Edward Marshal, Carmelo became Charles Maitland, Alfredo became Alfred Martin, Salvatore became Arthur Evans and Atillio became Raymond Maynard. Properties were bought throughout the West End and businesses set up. They quickly became involved in their father's former trade and, during the years following the Second World War, imported women from Belgium, France and Spain. With a steady and highly profitable prostitution operation and adequate protection from members of the Metropolitan Police, the Messinas ran unchecked in the city. By the late 1940s they were operating thirty houses of prostitution on Queen Street, Bond Street and Stafford Street. The women handed over 80 per cent of their earnings to the brothers. By the 1950s the police estimated that at least 200 of London's most expensive prostitutes were Messina girls. Prosecution proved difficult as many of the women who worked for them had valid passports, making it hard to make a case for deportation of either the women or the brothers. Later they started recruiting local English girls by the age old technique of giving good looking girls a good time and possibly