 Although newspaper accounts report Pioggi (spelled "Poggi") was employed as a clerk in a Coney Island hospital with no criminal record, Pioggi apparently became associated with members of the Five Points Gang during their decade-long gang war with the Eastman Gang.On the night of May 14, 1908, Pioggi was confronted by Zwerbach and Vach Lewis over a Coney Island dance hall girl, Carrol Terry, and eventually forced to jump out the first-storey window of a saloon.After returning to rival Five Points Gang leader Paul Kelly, Pioggi returned to the saloon and lured the two into the street where they were ambushed by members of the Five Points Gang and gunned down.