Catalano thread

[B.]

We were discussing the Catalanos in the LoVerde thread so I wanted to start a thread on them to see what all we know about them.

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- Toto Catalano was born in Ciminna in 1941 and is said to have come to NYC in 1966 where along with his brothers he engaged in legitimate business, starting a bakery and pizzeria at some point. He may have fled the post-Ciaculli pressure that provoked many mafia-linked figures into leaving for other countries though this intersected with the second wave of Italian immigration, organic reasons prompting many Sicilians to emigrate.

- Sal Vitale said one of the reasons Catalano was taken down as acting boss of the Bonannos is because he was originally made in Italy and there was a belief that members made overseas had split loyalties. Obviously Catalano was welcomed into the Bonanno Family and there doesn't seem to have been an issue with him being a capodecina but I guess, if we take Vitale's info into account, there were misgivings in 1980s NYC about an acting boss having been first made in Sicily. Other sources have given his limited English as a reason for stepping down.

- A 1989 Congressional report also says Catalano was a member of the Ciminna Family and a "street boss" of the Bonannos. He hasn't been identified at any of the known 1970s Bonanno ceremonies so it does seem possible he was made in Ciminna and transferred given we know formal transfers were possible. There is also Rosario Naimo's info about Paul Castellano asking Partinico boss Nene Geraci for permission to bring Sicilian members into his organization and multiple NYC Families subsequently being allowed to bring ten Sicilian mafia members in.

- Catalano's cousins Salvatore "Saca" and Onofrio Catalano are confirmed to have been made in Ciminna but didn't transfer. Like Toto, Saca moved to NYC in the 1960s where he associated with the Gambino Family and helped arrange Buscetta's entry and stay in North America and New York with assistance from Carlo Gambino. Saca was linked to a drug trafficking network in the early 1970s between the US, Sicily, Montreal and Mexico along with Bonanno member Frank Cotroni, Boccadifalco member Filippo Casamento, Porta Nuova member Tommaso Buscetta, and San Giuseppe Jato member Alfredo Bono. Saca Catalano's phone number was found in Gambino member Riccard Cefalu's phone book after the latter's 1981 arrest and they also found a note with Saca's cousin Sal's phone number in Cefalu's possession.

- Sal, Domenico, and Vito's father was named Pietro and Saca and Onofrio's father was named Antonino. I assume they were brothers but am not positive whether the two sets of Catalanos were first cousins though that is my assumption.

- Tommaso Buscetta provided a list of Sicilian mafia members and bosses for various Families during his cooperation and for Ciminna a "Giuseppe Catalano" was listed as Ciminna boss with Saca Catalano as a member. He didn't list Saca's brother Onofrio who we know became Ciminna boss, so was this a mistake and he was referring to Onofrio or was there an actual Giuseppe Catalano who had also been boss of Ciminna?

- At some point Saca spent time back in Palermo selling rugs where he met Dr. Gioacchino Pennino and talked to him about Nicola Gentile and Pennino's uncle Toto LoVerde, an early Chicago boss murdered in 1931. It's possible the Catalanos are related to early Chicago member Domenico Catalano from Ciminna or otherwise had connections to the Chicago Ciminna colony which could explain him knowing these details. Pennino also met with Saca's brother Onofrio Catalano who became boss of Ciminna. Sal Catalano also had ties to Chicago according to cooperator Luigi Ronsisvalle.

- Toto, Saca, and Onofrio Catalano all attended Giuseppe Bono's 1980 NYC wedding. Sal's brothers Vito and Domenico also attended. The Sixth Family says Toto's brothers were also mafia members but I've never seen evidence of that although the brothers obviously had deep social and familial links to the mafia. Sal and his brothers are at a table with Bonanno member Santo Giordano and associate Domenico Tartamella while Saca and Onofrio are photographed at a table with San Giuseppe Jato member Giuseppe Ganci, Bagheria member Francesco Castronovo, and member (which Family?) Gaetano Mazzara, the latter of which was murdered in the mid-1980s.

- At some point in the mid-to-late 1970s Sal Catalano took over the decina of Pietro Licata, who was identified as a mafia member in San Cipirello during the 1930s by the Fascist government. Buscetta testified that Saca Catalano told him around 1974 that his cousin was a capodecina in the Bonanno Family but it's likely his timeline was off, as Catalano would have been promoted in 1976 at the earliest. Licata dealt with extensive legal issues in Sicily over the years due to his involvement with the Sicilian mafia before ultimately moving to the US. It's not known who exactly recruited Catalano into the Bonannos but Licata is a good candidate as they were both from outlying Palermo towns and were tapped into Cosa Nostra there. Most of what's known of their crew has roots in Castellammare and Trapani, previous captain Giuseppe Buccellato likely having been made in Sicily too and crew member Santo Giordano being the marital nephew of Castellammare leader Nino Buccellato and the son of a Castellammare member. Licata's son Giovanni continued to closely associate with Catalano after his father's murder, even traveling to Sicily, and was eventually made into the Bonannos in the 1990s.

- It is believed Sal Catalano was part of the conspiracy to murder Carmine Galante in 1979. Crew member Santo Giordano's fingerprint was found on the car used in the murder and may have been the man observed standing guard by the car with a rifle while the massacre took place. Ater the murder, Lefty Ruggiero told Joe Pistone that Catalano was now "street boss of the zips". In this capacity he look to have provided de facto representation to the NYC-based Sicilians in the Bonanno Family, Sicilians in the Montreal decina, and Sicilian men of honor living in the states who affiliated with the Bonannos.

- By Fall of 1980, Sal is elected acting boss of the Bonannos and is observed meeting with Paul Castellano. Some have alleged this was in connection with heroin trafficking but it appears it was actually related to the murder of Vito Borelli, with Catalano seeing the murder as an opportunity to regain the Bonanno Family's standing in New York by assisting Castellano. Catalano's role as acting boss was temporary as by the time of the three captains murder in Spring of 1981 he has stepped down, reasons including limited English and what Vitale said about Catalano's prior affiliation with Sicily. Rising tension between the Giaccone-Indelicato faction and the Rastelli loyalists may have played a role too, the Sicilians finally siding with the Rastelli group by May of 1981.

- Catalano's role by 1981 is less clear. He presumably remains capodecina of the "Knickerbocker" crew but in May 1981 Santo Giordano, a member from that crew, is identified by Massino as a capodecina himself. Was Giordano an acting captain for Catalano, did he officially take over the same crew, or was he promoted independently? Massino also said Giordano was helping run the Family. Catalano remains a leading figure in international heroin trafficking operations but I can't recall anyone saying specifically what his official status was in the Bonannos between 1981 and 1984.

- Sal Catalano was revealed to be the operational leader of the US side of the Pizza Connection heroin network. He traveled to Sicily in this capacity and supervised / facilitated operations in America with his power extending internationally in collaboration with other factions including most prominently shelved former Cinisi boss Gaetano Badalamenti and his relatives. The operation included countless made members of the Sicilian mafia as well as members of the Bonanno Family and it intersected with Gambino-linked figures as well. I won't go into much more detail as this network is well-known and heavily publicized.

- At some point, Catalano visits Sicily where he is said to have married a woman whose surname is also Catalano, her father and brother being named Salvatore like Sal and his cousin Saca. I don't know if this was a blood relative but it is significant that Sal returned to Sicily to marry a paesan in his hometown.

- One of Sal Catalano's known hangouts was the Grimaldi Bakery in Ridgewood. He and Giuseppe Ganci were seen there frequently. On one occasion, the FBI surveilled Riccardo Cefalu in a car outside while Ganci met with Vito Grimaldi inside the bakery. It's known from another source that Domenico Cefalu was also close to the Bonanno members in Queens. The 1981 heroin case showed that the Cefalus were partnered with members of the Brancaccio Family in Palermo.

- Giuseppe Ganci was one of Sal Catalano's closest associates, this being well-known thanks to the Pizza Connection case. Ganci was a capodecina in the San Giuseppe Jato Family (a comune that adjoins Pietro Licata's hometown San Cipirello) and Ganci had previously been business partners in an NYC pizzeria with San Giuseppe Jato boss Antonino Salamone before Salamone moved to Brazil. Ganci was also a close associate of DeCavalcante capodecina Frank Polizzi who was a paesan from San Giuseppe Jato and related to Bonanno elder Tony Riela. Ganci and Sal Catalano also ran a pizzeria together and were completely inseparable.

- A source reported that Sal Catalano used a small airplane piloted by a friend of Cesare Bonventre for drug trafficking. This could be Santo Giordano who owned his own small airplane and piloted it. He was from Castellammare like Bonventre and in Catalano's crew. He participated in the Carmine Galante murder, helped set up the 1981 three captains murder where he was crippled by friendly fire, then later died in a plane crash.

- In 1983, Saca Catalano was murdered in New York by someone riding in his car with him. Some published accounts say Sal Catalano likely ordered his cousin's murder because Saca was using heroin and that Cesare Bonventre was believed to be the killer. This is certainly possible but I'm not sure what the original source is and there are many reasons Saca Catalano might have been targeted during this period given he was a close friend of Buscetta and that circle was under threat by the Corleonesi even in the US. I've read online that his brother Onofrio (Ciminna boss) was also part of an anti-Corleonese faction and may have been murdered though I haven't found much about his involvement in the conflict or established the facts.

- Sal Catalano is given a massive prison sentence in the Pizza Connection case and little is known of his communication with active members during his incarceration. Cesare Bonventre is killed in 1984 for defying Rastelli and much of Catalano's circle is incarcerated. Elements of the Sicilian faction remain through capodecina Gerlando Sciascia, Baldo Amato, and select others. Sciascia spent periods on the Family's ruling panel but overall the Sicilian faction's influence was limited. We know some form of Sicilian faction has re-emerged in the Bonannos with ties to the Castellammare Family but the members are mainly younger and Catalano's name has not been linked to them.

- After his release from prison, Catalano returns to his native Ciminna where he currently lives. In 2016, Catalano attended the funeral for Frank Cali's mother in Ciminna, where she came from. She was a Scimeca which is a common name there.

- In 2018, Catalano was surveilled driving from Ciminna to Passo di Rigano where he met with boss Tommaso Inzerillo. Just moments before, Inzerillo had been with Francesco and Giovanni Inzerillo but took a walk to meet with Catalano. Along with being Passo di Rigano boss, Tommaso was also arrested in the subsequent case that netted members of the Gambino-Inzerillo clan in the US and Sicily. Though Catalano has not been linked to criminal activity and his attendance at the Cali funeral may have been social or familial in nature, his meeting with Inzerillo shows that he remains tapped into the mafia network especially the dominant NYC-Palermo branch under Passo di Rigano/Torretta figures.

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I'm hoping someone can provide more detail on Onofrio Catalano and exactly what he was up to and what his fate was after becoming Ciminna boss. I'm also curious if someone can confirm a Giuseppe Catalano was another Ciminna boss or if this was a mistake and it referred to Onofrio. I don't think anyone would be surprised if other Catalanos were members and leaders in Ciminna but it is difficult to find info on the small Family there.

[Ridgewood 79]

The source said fillipo navarra is married to catalanos niece not Anthony and that the Cali incident was not at the wedding ( you know where the source was told he was related to fillipo s new wife a.ka. catalanos niece) I mean if your gonna write a novel on the sources of an off the record debriefing at least get it right and secondly let him know next time ( simple courtesy)

[Dwalin2014]

In the book "Il codice Provenzano" by Salvo Palazzolo and Michele Prestipino, it's said that in 1995 Onofrio Catalano turned himself in; here is the link to the book and the quote:

https://archive.org/stream/SalvoPalazzo ... o_djvu.txt

Che gran traffico tra una sponda e l’altra del fiume San Leonardo,
tra Vicari e Ciminna. Un traffico che durava da anni. Almeno da
quando, nel 1995, il latitante Onofrio Catalano, condannato quale
capomafia di Ciminna, aveva pensato bene di andarsi a costituire.
Forse occorreva rendere meno pressante la presenza delle forze di
polizia. Perché in zona c’erano altri due latitanti di maggior rango,
Spera e Provenzano. Ma il gran traffico non era comunque passato
inosservato.

Translation of the bold part of the text:

At least since when, in 1995, the fugitive Onofrio Catalano, convicted for being the mafia boss of Ciminna, had seen fit to turn himself in.

Not sure what happened to him later, but obviously he avoided being killed by the Corleonesi.

However, here there is a mention about some of his property being seized in 2006
https://mafiazero.blogspot.com/2006/06/ ... i.html?m=1

[motorfab]

- Catalano's cousins Salvatore "Saca" and Onofrio Catalano are confirmed to have been made in Ciminna but didn't transfer. Like Toto, Saca moved to NYC in the 1960s where he associated with the Gambino Family and helped arrange Buscetta's entry and stay in North America and New York with assistance from Carlo Gambino. Saca was linked to a drug trafficking network in the early 1970s between the US, Sicily, Montreal and Mexico along with Bonanno member Frank Cotroni, Boccadifalco member Filippo Casamento, Porta Nuova member Tommaso Buscetta, and San Giuseppe Jato member Alfredo Bono. Saca Catalano's phone number was found in Gambino member Riccard Cefalu's phone book after the latter's 1981 arrest and they also found a note with Saca's cousin Sal's phone number in Cefalu's possession.

If I may, here is some points regarding the Sicily/Sout America/Canada drug ring:

-Alfredo Bono was a Bolognetta member. But Bolognetta was part of the San Giuseppe Jato mandamento.

-At least until 1972, Lucien Sarti was the main drug supplier of this network. Sarti was one of the top lieutenants of Auguste Ricord, a Corsican drug kingpin active in Paraguay, and Sarti. It's a strong possiblily that Ricord/Sarti's supplier at that time was Jean-Jé Colonna (future big boss of South-Corsica) and the drug was made by the chemist Henri Malvezzi.

-Buscetta was arrested with several members of the Sarti crew in 1972 including Michel Nicoli, Christian David & Claude Pastou. Pastou and Nicoli later testified against Ricord and Buscetta.

-Giuseppe "Pino" Catania Ponsiglione, associate of Buscetta & Frank Cotroni/Guido Orsini/Santo Mendolia aslo flipped and testified against them in exchange of a light sentence. As he's not the smartest guy of the world, he was caught again in 1989 for drug trafficking in Juarez, Mexico.

-Lucien Sarti, while on the run, was killed in April 1972 by Mexican police while trying to force a road blockade

-I have spoken about it on several occasions here, but Michele Zaza & Gaetan Zampa took over the drug ring and worked closely with Bono, Antonino Salamone, and therefore the Catalano cousins. According to Francesco Marino Mannoia, Alfredo Bono was a degenerate gambler and the profits from drug sales were among other things to pay off these casino debts. In this regard, when Salamone was not in Brazil, he assiduously frequented the casinos of the Côte-d'Azur while he was actively sought in Italy.

-The Cuntrera brothers were also heavily involved with this

I have always found all the connections linked to this network between Sicily, Marseille, Montreal, South America and the USA fascinating, always interesting in my opinion to reconstruct all the links in the chain

I hope I haven't drifted too far from this excellent, very comprehensive thread concerning the Catalano family, great job B.

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-Concerning Onofrio Catalano, I saw an article which I think I remember repeats what Dwalin said above. I'll try to find it and post it here tomorrow.

-I have a Giuseppe Catalano listed as boss of Ciminna during the 80s. I'm pretty sure Buscetta or Leonardo Vitale are the sources for this. But I think it's Buscetta

[PolackTony]

However, here there is a mention about some of his property being seized in 2006
https://mafiazero.blogspot.com/2006/06/ ... i.html?m=1

I note that the land and company that was seized from Onofrio Catalano in ‘95 were under the name of his son, Giuseppe. This would suggest that he may have had an older relative, perhaps an uncle, named Giuseppe Catalano, which could be the one that Buscetta named as Ciminna boss (if Buscetta wasn’t actually referring to Onofrio).

As a side note, there was also an Onofrio Catalano who was named as a more recent boss of Bagheria, though I’m not sure exactly what hears his tenure encompassed. Given that it’s a common and widely distributed surname, I wouldn’t presume that there was any relation, so it’s probably just a funny coincidence.

[B.]

-Alfredo Bono was a Bolognetta member. But Bolognetta was part of the San Giuseppe Jato mandamento.

-I have a Giuseppe Catalano listed as boss of Ciminna during the 80s. I'm pretty sure Buscetta or Leonardo Vitale are the sources for this. But I think it's Buscetta

Excellent, thank you my friend.

Giuseppe Bono was the boss of Bolognetta where the Bonos were from but I was listening to Buscetta's testimony a couple nights ago and he said Alfredo was made with San Giuseppe Jato. Maybe Felice knows the story.

The info on Giuseppe Catalano definitely comes from Buscetta as he identified him as a Ciminna boss when he flipped but curious if someone else mentioned it too. I'd be surprised if Onofrio and the two Salvatores were the only Catalanos made there.

[Shellackhead]

Is he still alive?

Another thing, he was acting boss? I heard he was demoted because his english wasnt good

[felice]

hello B., give me some more days and I can add more details, I will have a refresh on my documents. Anyway yes, Alfredo Bono was the consigliere of the San Giuseppe Jato family but let's say he took the rank due to his brother because his gambling addictions were not seen so well, plus he was a good earner with heroin and that's why the Brusca's kept him close.

Vito Catalano b.1945 (not Salvatore's brother) was the mayor of Ciminna and also made man in the local mafia family, in the last docs about some investigations regarding Ciminna territory there was no mention of Onofrio Catalano. Anyway I will double check it.

Regarding Salvatore...well, I know and he knows he has been put under rigid control since he came back to Sicily, I was told he really didn't meet anyone for the first years, just his stricts relatives. Then you know, dna is dna, he started to meet with several people with mafia's background (not so hard in Ciminna anyway) and later also with people from Palermo and other villages.

Ciminna family was part of Bolognetta's mandamento for some years when Bolognetta was able to be a mandamento itself, otherwise it has been always replying to San Giuseppe Jato mandamento or nowdays to Belmonte Mezzagno/Misilmeri.

The Belmonte Mezzagno capomandamento just flipped some years ago, Salvatore Bisconti, tons of info are coming from his affidavits.

Salvatore Catalano "Saca" was very close to Carlo Gambino who also used him for a couple of hits outside of commission and families rules.

[motorfab]

Here is the dedicated article that I dedicated to Onofrio Catalano published in the newspaper La Sicilia, March 4, 1995. It recounts the surrending of Catalano that Dwalin mentions above. I struggled a bit to translate some parts, so I hope it will be readable for you...

Otherwise, I also post the original article in Italian.

"Onofrio Catalano surrendered to the Caltanissetta police: today he will be questioned
A boss's surrender After 11 years on the run, he becomes a “man of honor”

PALERMO — “My name is Onofrio Catalano and I am wanted. Open the doors.”

Prison officers at the “Malaspina” prison in Caltanissetta almost didn’t believe it their ears. Yes he was in the process of receiving a boss who had been sought after for several years, member of the interprovincial commission of Cosa Nostra.

Yesterday morning they rushed to the capital of Nisseno to the person in charge of the “Captured” Section of the Provincial Carabinieri Command of Palermo an official of the mobile team.

For the two investigators, Catalano was among the first of the mafia leaders sought. Fifty-eight years old, from Ciminna (an agricultural center about thirty kilometers from Palermo) Onofrio Catalano had been in hiding since the summer of 1984 when an arrest warrant was issued of the Palermo investigating court, then led by advisor Antonino Caponnetto, on the accusation of mafia-style criminal association and drug trafficking.

At the same time the declarations came out from the first repentants who indicated Catalano as one of the “Mammasantissima” of the provincial mafia. Vincent Marsala, the son of Mariano, boss of Vicari, (disappeared with the white lupara method) filled pages and pages on the organization chart of the mafia “families” of Baucina, Ciminna, Ventimiglia and Sicily. And the name of Onofrio Catalano was one of the "men of honor" of the region.

Catalano was sentenced by the maxi trial court to six years in prison for mafia association. A sentence confirmed on appeal and before the Court of Cassation.

Eleven years of flight would have guaranteed Ciminna's boss a thick web of complacency, of friends and supporters. It seems that he was never far from his place of origin and that he remained for long periods also in Palermo. It seems some time ago that the head of the Ciminna mafia had escaped capture. For a time they did not fall on him, the Ros Carabinieri, found one of the many dens used by the fugitive “hot”.

Whoever investigates seeks to decipher the sensational decision of Catalano and his reason for the choice of Caltanissetta. It is not difficult to connect the Catalano decision with Armed “clashes” continue in Palermo and its province. Why? The boss from Ciminna, at the end of the 1970s had business relations with Antonina Contorno, the aunt of Totuccio and mother of Gaetano Grado, mafioso whose only son was killed Thursday morning in Palermo. Perhaps Onofrio Catalano feared "transversal revenge", given that the “Corleonesi” clan “swore” to kill relatives, friends, acquaintances and how many, even remotely, They had connected business relations with the family of "Coriolanus de la Floresta".

This is of course a hypothesis. One of many conjectures that have come out in these hours, after Ciminna's boss decided to surrender. But today the boss Palermo could explain the reasons for the surrender to the Nisseni judges who they will question."

[B.]

Thank you both.

It does sound like Onofrio was opposed to the Corleonesi or at least sympathetic with their enemies. Saca was a close friend of Buscetta and Onofrio was business partner of the Contornos with no indication they turned on them.

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Last Days of the Sicilians says Saca Catalano was a heroin addict and that Catalano, Ganci, and others in their circle were on FBI bugs seeming unsurprised about the murder. Sal Catalano referred to Saca as "Alessandro" (his son's name) when he told Ganci about Saca's murder and when Sal talked about it with Ganci then Ganci talked about it with Frank Polizzi they referred to it in vague terms. It also says Cesare Bonventre attended the funeral. I didn't see anything in the wiretaps or info provided that clearly indicates Sal's guilt or Bonventre's involvement as a shooter. Those mentioned talked about it the way any Sicilian mafiosi are going to talk about an event like that, obviously not wanting to be taped talking in detail about Sal's cousin's murder.

Maybe Sal and Bonventre did kill Saca, whether for their own reasons or on behalf of the Sicilian mafia, but would need to know where the information from as there aren't many sources in a position to know. Last Days of the Sicilians doesn't outright say that from what I see, they just discuss how Sal and his circle were guarded when talking about it and didn't seem shocked.

Not sure where the heroin theory comes from either. The book says Saca had been observed by LE acting erratic and then jumps to him being a heroin addict. Again not dismissing the possibility, only wondering if LE had evidence he was an addict or if this was just a guess based on him being a heroin trafficker and acting strangely. Given something was going on that led to him being targeted for death he could well have been acting erratically because he was paranoid and having a mental breakdown over the situation.

It says he had lived in Marlboro, NY. The Marlboro/Newburgh area had an old Sicilian colony with mafia ties especially to the Bonannos and DeCavalcantes but it goes back further to the Morello counterfeiting operation in nearby Highland. In 1988, a Domenico Catalano was arrested in an international drug trafficking operation with the Sicilian mafia and he lived in Marlboro on the same street Saca had. The book says he was of no "close relation" to Sal Catalano but would be a wild coincidence if there's no connection.

[motorfab]

I was recently doing some research on the "First Mafia War", and it seems that Toto Catalano was arrested a first time in New Jersey where he was a "mechanic" but managed to escape from the interpol agents, and a second one in Weil Otterbach, Germany in 1966. No idea what happened to him after that, but I guess not much since he was quickly in New York afterward.

I don't know if the info is useful or if the article I read is accurate, but I don't remember reading that anywhere else

[TSNYC]

Any idea where the meeting between Catalano and Castellano took place? Who else was in attendance. Would love to read that surveillance report