Introduction
- Until the Last Testament of Bill Bonanno was published in 2011, few if any researchers were aware of a mafia family in Birmingham, Alabama. Though his last book was not perfect and his track record as an author has some questionable statements, Bill Bonanno spoke to his father at length about US mafia history and was able to provide us with some interesting new details about the US mafia.
- Bill describes a Birmingham mafia family comprised entirely of elderly men by the mid-1930s. He says the family asked the Commission for permission to disband when the youngest living member turned eighty-years-old; he adds that the only "prospect" for membership was seventy-four. He states that the remaining Birmingham members were assigned to Tom Gagliano in the Bronx, though it's unclear if he's suggesting they became remote members of Gagliano's family or if he was simply a point of contact for them. Regardless, Bill says that by 1938 all of the members had died.
- This was the entirety of Bill's statement and leaves more questions than answers. However, some connections have been made and we have at least a small glimpse of several individuals who can be connected to an early Alabama mafia presence, in particular a couple of mafia figures from Ribera, Agrigento, the hometown of many DeCavlacante members as well as several early Chicago mafiosi. We are forced to speculate about the mafia involvement of these men to some degree in order to discuss them, though it is informed speculation.
- Early newspaper reports refer to "Black Hand" and in some cases even "mafia" activity from Sicilians in Birmingham and surrounding labor / farming colonies. Because we have no member sources who could tell us definitively who is a member and who isn't, we have to look at the context and connections certain individuals have in order to determine their candidacy. There are strong indications that the individuals mentioned below were "mafiosi" -- if nothing else a product of the international mafia subculture.
- As for activities, newspapers reported that Alabama's Italian and Sicilian colonies had counterfeiting, gambling, and organized labor, all of which would have been ripe for mafia control or manipulation. A few murders were suspected of having "Black Hand" and "mafia" ties. We have no way of knowing the degree the Birmingham mafia was involved in illegal activities, though most mafia groups were similar in their approach to legitimate and illegitimate activities within their colonies, so we can presume Birmingham was not an exception though they may have run into the same troubles as the Dallas family in that they couldn't gain the traction to dominate rackets on a large scale. Their early disbandment in US mafia history suggests their activity was limited. In terms of legitimate activity, we know that the Riberesi in the Birmingham area were farmers and most Sicilian immigrants in Alabama were hard laborers.
Pasquale Amari
- Prior to emigrating to the US, Pasquale Amari (b.1865) served approximately ten years in prison between 1893 and 1903 for stabbing a man to death at a card game in Ribera. The victim allegedly owed Amari money, indicating Amari was involved in gambling and/or "moneylending" in Sicily, and the murder appeared to be premeditated. Amari was described as having a shortened index finger; the cause of the injury is unknown but he was said to have had it prior to serving his prison sentence.
- Amari shares his surname with fellow Riberesi and early DeCavalcante boss Filippo Amari and future underboss/acting boss Gioacchino Amari, who both maintained ties to Ribera after coming to the US. I can't determine a direct relation between Pasquale and the younger Amaris, though their shared surname, tight-knit Riberesi roots, and mafia connections lend themselves to possible connections. There is another, older Gioacchino Amari alleged to have been involved in the mafia in Ribera also. The Amari name has been listed by historians as one of the first surnames established in the village of Ribera.
- Pasquale Amari's wife, ten years his junior, was Giuseppa Schittone, whose mother was a Giacobbe. Schittone was likely a cousin of Amari, as Amari's mother shared the name Giuseppa Schittone. While an exact relation to the Schittone-Giacobbes can't be determined, the Giacobbe name connects to other Riberesi mafiosi in the US and Sicily. Some examples:
* Chicago mafioso Philip Bacino listed Carmelo Giacobbe of NYC as an "uncle" on immigration records upon his arrival to the US. Side note, but Bacino's older brother Luciano Bacino was a member of the Ribera mafia family identified by Italian investigators.
* Carmelo Giacobbe's younger brother Lorenzo has been identified by LCNBios as an early DeCavalcante member and he was the father of DeCavalcante member Joseph Giacobbe Sr. and grandfather of member Joseph Jr. Carmelo's relationship to Phil Bacino and the mafia membership of his brother, nephew, and great-nephew could indicate Carmelo Giacobbe was a mafioso himself.
* Lorenzo Giacobbe also served as a naturalization witness for the father of Bonanno member Antonio Adamo, from Santa Margherita di Belice, Agrigento.
* The above NYC Giacobbes lived in Connecticut for a time in the 1910s, where the DeCavalcantes would later have strong ties, before returning to NYC.
* Information supplied by Felice referenced Giacobbes who were part of the Ribera mafia family and maintained ties with relatives in the DeCavalcantes.
(Phil Amari and Phil Bacino in Ribera for the opening of the San Giuseppe orphanage)
- In 1913, the 47-year-old Pasquale Amari entered the United States where he listed his arrival contact as Domenico Mule, the son of his sister, living in NYC. Future Chicago boss Pasquale Lolordo from Ribera was living in Manhattan at this time and was married to the daughter of a Domenico Mule (b.1860) who also lived in NYC at the time. It's unlikely Pasquale Amari's nephew Domenico Mule would be older than he was, as Lolordo's father-in-law Domenico Mule was five years Amari's senior, though it can't be ruled out and the commonality of their names could also suggest another connection. If nothing else, we can see that Riberesi mafia figures in both Birmingham and Chicago were connected to men with the name Domenico Mule in NYC.
- Following his arrival in NYC, Amari soon traveled to Alabama where his sister and brother-in-law Giuseppe Caterinicchia were already living as farmers outside of Birmingham. Amari's family would arrive approximately one year after he settled in Alabama and Pasquale would continue to make a living as a farmer, the business of his brother-in-law.
Giuseppe Caterinicchia
- Amari's brother-in-law Giuseppe Cateriniccha (b. 1861) was also from Ribera and came to the US via New Orleans in the late 1890s. Caterinicchia would settle in Alabama area where he established a farm in remote Russellville but maintained a PO Box in Birmingham.
- A 1923 secret service record shows mail communication between Giuseppe Caterinicchia and Boston mafia boss Gaspare Messina, who would later become interrim capo dei capi after Joe Masseria. Messina sent Caterinicchia $77.50, which today would be worth over $1162. Given that Caterinicchia was not from the same hometown as Messina and we have no other reason to connect them, his receiving mail and a not-insignificant amount of money from a mafia boss elsewhere in the US is an indication that Caterinicchia was a mafioso with stature in the Birmingham group.
(Thank you to Chris Christie for this SS record)
- Though Caterinicchia's communication with Gaspare Messina involved a PO Box in the city of Birmingham, available records show that he lived in the rural farming community of Russellville, Alabama. Three of Giuseppe's Caterinicchia's children were born in Russellville, where the future wife of NJ DeCavalcante member Joseph Cocchiaro, Nellie Spinelli, also of Riberese heritage, was born.
- The Spinellis have been listed as relatives of the Caterinicchias and Amaris during their time in Alabama, which is unsurprising given their Riberesi heritage and proximity in a small rural area. The Spinellis, led by father Pasquale Spinelli, later moved to Elizabeth, NJ, where several Riberesi families, including the Merlos and Riggis, had settled around the turn of the 20th century. Like the Riberesi in Alabama, the Merlos ran a farm in New Jersey. Pasquale Spinelli has never been identified as a mafia member, though his close connection to Riberesi mafia figures in Alabama and his daughter's marriage to a mafioso in Elizabeth could make him a candidate for both the early Birmingham and DeCavalcante families.
- Early records for leading NJ DeCavalcante member Salvatore Caterinicchio show that he and his immediate relatives in Manhattan/NJ used the alternate spelling Caterinicchia. To this day, there are both Caterinicchias and Caterinicchios of Riberesi heritage in the Elizabeth area. There were also Caterinicchias from Ribera in Chicago.
Marital Ties
- One of Pasquale Amari's daughters married a Renda, while another married a Sacco. Rendas from Ribera ended up in New Jersey and connect to the DeCavalcante family as well, though I can't determine where the Alabama Rendas were from. Saccos in New Jersey were connected to the DeCavalcantes because of their pork store in Elizabeth, but the NJ Saccos are Calabrian while the Alabama Saccos were Sicilian, so the name is simply a coincidence.
- Another Amari daughter married a Vincenzo Mangiaracina, though they used the modified last name Mangina in all future records. One Amari son married a DeFranco , while another married a non-Italian.
- Pasquale Amari's son-in-law Jake Sacco was a witness at both the Mangiaracina/Amari and Amari/DeFranco marriages and records suggest a connection between the Amaris, Saccos, and Mangiaracinas going back to Sicily. Jake Sacco's mother was an Amari and according to immigration records, Sacco's uncle was Giuseppe Mangiaracina (b.1874), who later used the last name Mangina/Mangino like Amari's son-in-law Vincenzo and was himself married to yet another Amari. Jake Sacco's brother Vincenzo was married to a Mangiaracina/Mangina. This group was very insular and tight-knit.
- The Caterinicchias were also married into the Mangiaracinas. Francesca Caterinicchia, daughter of Giuseppe, married a Baldassare Mangiaracina in Russellville.
- I haven't confirmed the exact hometown, but the Saccos and Mangiaracinas may have come from Castelvetrano or nearby on the southwest Sicilian coast. The Mangiaracinas of the Kansas City mafia family were from Castelvetrano and their grandson/nephew Joe Gurera would hide out in Birmingham for a period of time later on, suggesting he may have had existing ties to the area. However, the Mangiaracinas' ties to the Amari name in Sicily could point to them being Riberesi or from a nearby village as well, though I haven't come across that surname among the usual Riberesi names.
- Within a couple of generations the descendants of the Amari-Caterinicchia clan intermarried with many non-Italians and don't appear to have maintained ties to Riberesi in other parts of the US though it is difficult to know for sure.
Membership Considerations
- Caterinicchia and Amari's sons, sons-in-law, and other younger men associated with this clan were likely not mafia members, as the Birmingham mafia was said by Bill Bonanno to have had only elderly members by the 1930s and chose to disband as a result. However, Bill's info is not completely correct if Caterinicchia and Amari were in fact members, as Bonanno said the youngest member was in his 80s in the 1930s and all died by 1938. Both Amari and Caterinicchia were younger than that and lived past 1938, with Amari dying in 1944 and Caterinicchia making it until 1958.
- If Bill Bonanno was mistaken on this small detail it wouldn't be surprising, as there is little chance that he or even his father would have a perfect memory of a family that was disbanded in the mid-1930s. While Birmingham may have had surviving members past 1938, we can be confident in his account that the family was no longer around.
- The fathers and older relatives of Caterinicchia and Amari's sons-in-law could very well have been mafiosi given the amount of intermarriage between children of Sicilian mafia members in the early US and Sicily. Given Giuseppe "Joe Mangina" Mangiaracina's relation to two of Pasquale Amari's sons-in-law and close relationship with the Amari-Caterinicchia clan, he could be considered a candidate for membership.
Other Potential Members and Connections
- Domenico Giambrone's destination was Birmingham after arriving in New Orleans in 1903 from Palazzo Adriano, Sicily. Giambrone would go on to be an early mafia leader in St. Louis.
- Cigar shop owner Joe Rametta/Ramatta spent time in Birmingham and was in contact with Morello member Salvatore Clemente in connection with the latter's counterfeiting ring. The nature of econtact with mafia figures suggests he was a mafioso himself. A Joe Rametta ended up in Chicago, where Clemente also spent time, but I don't know if it is the same one or someone else as I'm having difficulty finding records for the Birmingham figure. Joe Rametta's wife was from Santo Stefano Quisquina and had relatives in Tampa, where Rametta himself had lived and where boss Ignazio Italiano was from Santo Stefano Quisquina.
- In 1904 a Sicilian named Francesco Cirrincioni (Cirincione?) killed a Salvatore Pompinella, described as the "head" and "leader" of the New Palermo Italian colony near Mobile, Alabama. Pompinella allegedly owed Cirrincioni a debt that he wouldn't or couldn't pay.
- Andrea Pilato was brutally knifed to death in Birmingham in 1907, a murder believed to have been carried out by the "Black Hand". Investigators noted that it was not a robbery. Pilato appears to have been from Burgio, Agrigento, a town with close ties to Ribera. Pilato was dressed well and believed to be a figure of some wealth who had only recently arrived to the US two or three weeks previous. The murder was believed by investigators to have been a "vendetta" with origins in Italy. Three murders had taken place over the previous two years in the same Italian colony under "mysterious circumstances."
- Investigators from New Orleans and the East Coast were sent to Birmingham in 1908 to investigate whether or not a "Black Hand society" existed there. The local Italian colony vehemently denied this and the investigators apparently couldn't find proof of the "Black Hand".
- A local Italian newspaper editor named SR Gurino attempted to bring a large group of Italian laborers into Birmingham this same year and was met with anonymous threats from local non-Italians, including a letter insinuating that the same thing could happen to him that happened to the executed mafiosi in New Orleans. A short time later he was charged with grand larceny in Mississippi. A year later he, along with sixty other Italians, started the "Italian National Club."
- In 1908, Salvatore "Sam" Scannella/Scannello was arrested for "highway robbery" and during his arrest a companion named Luigi Tomasino was killed by police. Figures in the local Italian community stated that Tomasino was a member of the mafia and Scannella was a young man under the mafioso's influence. Tomasino came from Sutera, Caltinissetta, where many Birmingham immigrants came from. Scannella was from Casteltermini, Agrigento. One article refers to the young Scannella himself as a "mafia member."
- Merchant Salvatore Salerno of Pratt City, Birmingham, was killed in 1904, with a man named Francesco Gardino and Salerno's own nephews working together as the prime suspects. Gardino came from Bisacquino, Sicily, having fled to the US after killing thirteen law enforcement officers in Bisacquino along with his brother Andrea, who committed suicide after being detained.
- Future Gambino consigliere Joe N. Gallo was born in Bessemer, Alabama. His father was from Bisacquino, like the above mentioned Gardino. After moving to NYC, Joe N. Gallo had a close relationship with the Rumores, also of Bisacquino heritage. Other Sicilians in Bessemer, Alabama where Joe N. Gallo's family lived were from Bisacquino, including a group of Rumores. The Bisacquino Rumores of NYC would be in the same crew as Gallo. The Gallos appear to have been connected to a couple different branches of the Rumores in both Alabama and NYC which is interesting. As the info about Gardino and the Gallos/Rumores would suggest, Alabama was a landing spot for many Sicilian laborers from Bisacquino.
- He doesn't say it in connection with the Birmingham family, only Sicilian immigration in general, but in Bill Bonanno's book he points out that Birmingham had a high concentration of immigrants from Palermo who worked as laborers. This makes sense and would explain the "New Palermo" name of the Italian colony. Given how many mafia connections there were in Palermo, it is probable that this population of Palermitani provided some of the membership in early Birmingham.
Conclusion?
Not easy to make one, only that we can be sure there was a Birmingham mafia family and it likely included some of the above names among others we will never know. I question Bill Bonanno's highly-specific statement that the youngest member turned eighty in the mid-1930s and they all died by 1938, but we have Bill Bonanno to thank for shedding some light on the existence of this family and clearly they were long gone by the time the FBI began investigating US mafia families.
Along with the Riberesi figures, researching names in newspaper records indicates that some Sicilian criminals in Alabama came from other Agrigento towns. Given the tight-knit Agrigento network that was in place throughout early US mafia, it is not surprising that there would have been a core of Agrigentini mafiosi in Birmingham. Nicola Gentile, who traveled extensively along the Agrigento network in both the US and Sicily, never mentions a Birmingham group. He doesn't mention the Riberesi in New Jersey, either, even though he traveled to Canada with a friend from Ribera. However the information he provided doesn't reflect the extent of his knowledge, only the larger beats of his life in the mafia.
Joe Bonanno didn't mention Birmingham in his book either, but again there is no way he could have included every piece of mafia gossip he ever heard in a single autobiography. He must have told his son Bill about Birmingham which is how it ended up in his Last Testament. At the end of the day, who cares about a small family that broke up in the mid-1930s when all of the other families were hitting their stride? I guess I do. I'm always interested in these footnotes and anomalies in mafia history.
