THE BLACK HAND FORUM

I agree that 1983 hearing was imperfect, though most of what's in the above excerpts can be contextualized or reinforced by other info. You make a good point about others' views of Stanfa, though one of the issues with him is he seems to have been viewed as a perpetual outsider by most of the family. Piccolo went along with Stanfa as boss, but Sparacio wanted another arrangement. Piccolo had also just been taped inducting members, had been dealing with Mike Ciancaglini's crew, and his cousin's regime had completely melted down; you have to figure Piccolo might have welcomed any shift in responsibility.

The biggest issue I have with the Bruno murder narrative is that most of what we have is gossip and circumstance. I always use the Bonannos as an example, where we have the boss, underboss, and multiple captains flipping yet there is still discrepancy on well-known murders: not only why someone was killed, but even who all the participants were. None of the later Philly witnesses had first-hand knowledge of the Bruno murder and their opinion does matter of course, but we're at a massive disadvantage without firsthand participants and even then there are missing pieces.

Looking at the Castellano murder, we have the main conspirators and the hit team, but Gravano also talks about other senior members who quietly went along with the plan but can't be called full-on conspirators. It's possible the Bruno murder had some high-level members who didn't plot the murder but quietly went along with it. Both Fresolone and Caramandi said Caponigro "hinted" that the Bruno murder was coming down the pipeline before it happened. If that's true and he was giving these associates a hint, we can only imagine what he may have said to made members.

An important part of this too is the rumor that Caponigro believed the murder was sanctioned by the Commission. If that's the case, he could have convinced any number of members to participate and they would have openly argued that their consigliere lied to them. The narrative zig-zags, where we have this idea the Bruno conspirators believed the murder was sanctioned, yet their behavior afterward doesn't suggest they truly believed that. Many question marks.

There are reports of Stanfa and Sindone meeting with Caponigro BEFORE the Bruno murder. Came out around Stanfa's trial. Then right after Bruno gets it, who meets with Stanfa but Sindone again more than once, one time with John Simone. I don't think Stanfa was with John Simone, though I wouldn't exclude the possibility. If Stanfa had a boss other than Sindone or even Simone, they would have been involved in the after hit meetings as well. Stanfa enjoyed a higher level position to the admin due to his relationship with Bruno, Gambino conneciton and Sicilian transfer. That is another piece that leads me to believe he reported to Sindone, due to his role in the hit. I also put large credence in what the prevailing feeling was in the underworld, that Stanfa was definitely involved in the move on Bruno.

The 1983 congressional hearing report was a pretty inaccurate document. It suffers from having little of the knowledge that came out from the flood of informants in the late 80's, early 90's and was chaired by a guy who didn't seem to know much about Organized Crime. That is one source you should take with a grain of salt, though it has some decent info. While Sindone is identified as a captain in that document, i am convinced he never was a captain. Does it matter? He was closer to Bruno than most of the captains were. But historically the role of captain was like a street boss of his guys, Sindone was a street boss for Bruno but didn't have a crew. Stanfa was close to Bruno through the 70's so theres that.

Leonetti identifies Snuffy Iannarella as being made. I think Caramandi refers to Faffy being the son of a made guy as well. I don't think there is a question there. He wasn't an associate of Esposito either and was proposed for awhile. I also think two of the four that Esposito proposed actually got made, one being Esposito's older son, who is identified as being made in the same shaky congressional hearings I think. If you read the reports and ignore the sequence of the dates of the reports, Maggio told Ernie Perricone more than Joe Scafidi knew entirely. It's hard to take to the bank that four got knocked down when Perricone said yes but two got approved and than Joe just repeats the same information he told Rocco previously and only adding the ceremony was only days away. I'd rely on Maggio "whole mess of guys comment" because he has more details and it comes from a better source. Peter Maggio is in a better position to know because he was with Bruno daily or semi-daily.

Speaking of the proposed 1969 ceremony, I know Frank Iannarella Sr was scheduled to be inducted there having been proposed by Testa, but are there any sources confirming his membership since then? I checked the quite comprehensive membership chart in the Pennsylvania Crime Commission 1990 report and he isn't listed there. I know four other guys proposed by Albert Esposito for that ceremony were knocked down for being too young, and Riccobene and Ernest Perricone were trying to blackball Sindone. Maybe they got Iannarella instead. At one point Riccobene suspected Iannarella of someone who had used narcotics and therefore was not a member.

A 1983 Congressional Hearing produced the following info:

[img]https://i.ibb.co/vjY0CKT/stanfa1.jpg[/img]

- This states Stanfa was a member of the Sicilian mafia before coming to the US and emphasizes his ties to the Gambino family. Keep in mind this was two decades before his relative Nino Giuffre cooperated and said he was sponsored into the Sicilian mafia by John Stanfa, so they must have learned from another source before 1983. I have seen a similar description of Stanfa and the Gambino brothers that may have originated from Italian investigators.

- First it points out that Stanfa was close to Bruno and his son-in-law Ralph Puppo. The Puppo reference is important, as Puppo's father Orlando was a made member and the Puppos came from Stanfa's hometown of Caccamo. This goes well with other accounts of Stanfa and Bruno having a close friendship.

- The last part is weird, though. Despite pointing out that Stanfa already had a close relationship to Bruno and his family for some time and had worked for them, it says he was "new" to Bruno around the time of the murder and had been vouched for by Tony Caponigro because of Stanfa's Sicilian mafia ties. They are correct about Stanfa's Sicilian mafia ties, but Caponigro was a Calabrian and didn't become consigliere until 1978. Stanfa was already well-established in Philadelphia before 1978 and it doesn't make sense that a Newark-based soldier of Calabrian heritage would have "vouched" for him because of the Sicilian mafia.

[img]https://i.ibb.co/Jss6mwM/stanfa2.jpg[/img]

- A second reference to Stanfa's Gambino ties, this time it is material as it connects to his car and employment. They don't call him a made member of the Gambino family but the wording almost suggests they believed that at the time. They were well aware that he was a mafia member either way.

[img]https://i.ibb.co/2vPRXNc/sindone2.jpg[/img]

- So despite FBI reports around this time referring to Sindone as a key member of the Bruno faction opposed to the Testa faction, here he was telling a top Testa faction associate that he offered Bruno and Testa an equal split of his operations if Bruno would let him retire.

[img]https://i.ibb.co/hL00tFm/chang4.jpg[/img]

- Says Frank Sindone was a captain by 1970 and sponsored Ciancaglini for membership. Note that this hearing also stated Riccobene was a captain, so they may have been mistaken on Sindone as well. We know Sindone was about to be made in 1969 but the ceremony had not taken place as of early 1970. If Ciancaglini was sponsored by Sindone that same year, they must have had multiple ceremonies.

[img]https://i.ibb.co/zNBMCbv/chang3.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i.ibb.co/2vLGsfK/chang2.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i.ibb.co/WWm6ZhD/chang1.jpg[/img]

- These accounts show there were FBI informants close to Ciancaglini in the early 1980s receiving information that would later be corroborated by witnesses like Caramandi and Delgiorno.

- We shouldn't assume all three informants are separate people. The FBI was known to pretend one informant was actually multiple informants in order to further mask the identity of the CI. It seems unlikely there were multiple FBI informants close to Ciancaglini during this short period.

- Informant 1 stands out. It says he knew Nick Scarfo, Joe Ciancaglini, and Pat Spirito, but then mentions hearing info on the hierarchy specifically from Ciancaglini and Scarfo without referring to Spirito. It suggests the informant could be a made member given that the boss and a captain told him who held official titles in the family. Informant reports will often refer to the informant himself as someone the informant is close to. This informant was close to Spirito and Ciancaglini, knew the formal hierarchy from the boss himself, and appears to have had firsthand knowledge of the family's "shakedown" operations which were being supervised by Ciancaglini using Spirito and a small crew of associates. I'm sure many people on the street knew this information at the time, but Spirito already has some red flags.

- I've previously suspected Spirito was an informant for several reasons. For one, an LE agent (FBI?) gave an account in which he said a made member of the Philly family was informing in the early 1980s but the informant was murdered. Despite being a willing participant in the Calabrese murder in 1981, Nick Caramandi described how Pat Spirito became unwilling to help with later murder contracts during the Riccobene war and would spend most of his time drinking and disparaging the leadership. Spirito had also been convicted on RICO charges in 1982.

- Spirito fits the profile of someone who would be susceptible to cooperation. With the agent's info about a member informant being killed around the time of Spirito's murder and the above excerpts from an informant close to Ciancaglini and Spirito who knew about their activities, it lends itself to the possibility that Spirito was an informant. If the FBI did split one informant into multiple informants for this report, that would make sense as informant two had knowledge of murder contracts during the Riccobene war. We know from Caramandi that Spirito was aware of many murder plots during the war and was given some of these contracts by Ciancaglini himself.

[quote=Ivan post_id=170917 time=1603076815 user_id=64]
[quote=Manhattan_ post_id=170831 time=1603013085 user_id=5737]
Forget Leonetti - Scarfo himself probably did not even know ! This all went down the way it did bc the WS thru Bobby Manna wanted Nick as Boss. Again Chin think about the bloodletting in the aftermath of Bruno and then Testa everyone involved brutally slain and or tortured but PC gets a pass from the WS ? 40 years later and no one can say for sure who the mysterious Genovese family friend of PC is ? PC got a pass bc he was down with the WS all along. Just by chance Bobby Mannas Hoboken headquarters was “ Casella’s Restaurant”
[/quote]

check out Oliver Stone over here
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A coup d'état with Niicky Scarfo waiting in the wings.


Pogo

[quote=Manhattan_ post_id=170831 time=1603013085 user_id=5737]
Forget Leonetti - Scarfo himself probably did not even know ! This all went down the way it did bc the WS thru Bobby Manna wanted Nick as Boss. Again Chin think about the bloodletting in the aftermath of Bruno and then Testa everyone involved brutally slain and or tortured but PC gets a pass from the WS ? 40 years later and no one can say for sure who the mysterious Genovese family friend of PC is ? PC got a pass bc he was down with the WS all along. Just by chance Bobby Mannas Hoboken headquarters was “ Casella’s Restaurant”
[/quote]

check out Oliver Stone over here

[img]https://i.ibb.co/dc8wt5L/sindone.jpg[/img]

JRH = Jimmy Hoffa

Thanks for going more into it, Dack. Scafidi was normally specific about ranks when he knew them but his 1975 description of Sindone as a "high-ranking member" might be exactly that -- a soldier with significant influence. That he met with Sindone and Testa together fits with what you shared as well.

That's right, the loanshark book wasn't just Buffalo but specifically Niagara Falls, where Simone had lived. No idea if Simone had any involvement but interesting connection. Bruno and Simone both had compaesani in Buffalo/NF and Magaddino was recorded saying he knew Angelo Bruno before he was a made member.

Re: partnerships. Bruno was recorded telling Magliocco in 1963 that everyone was offering him partnerships when he became boss and he was turning many of them down. He was a self-made man before he even became a member and seems to have focused mainly on his own business interests, definitely not the type to demand tribute. In the mid-1960s he decided to let the family start shaking down card games and gambling operations in South Jersey that weren't controlled directly by family associates. Pretty telling that he waited that long when you compare him to someone like Scarfo who immediately imposed a street tax / shakedowns.

The snippets of the wiretaps I've seen from the 70's would indicate most definitively that Sindone was direct with Bruno and there was no one in-between them. Sindone was Bruno's direct conduit to the some of the unions, not just when Bruno was in prison, including the Irishmans union. He reported Bruno's wishes direct to the union participants. Sindone purchased a $300,000 loan-sharking book in the mid-60's from a large loan shark in the Niagara Falls area. He caught a loansharking case in the 70's based upon the testimony of a rat who was with Russell Buffalino, who Sindone had a relationship with through Bruno. Sindone was the supervisor of Ciancaglini who was the collector of Sindone and Bruno's book and their portion of the numbers and loansharking business. Not just Bruno though, Testa was also receive money though this may have been the historical "elbow".

I suspect that Bruno used Sindone to borrow money and split the profits with Sindone. He was essentially Bruno's loanshark and got rich doing so.
It wasn't just Sindone, Bruno was partners in multiple crews operations. Instead of requesting tribute, hhe seems to have taken a partnership or invested money and when he didn't like an opportunity he stayed away but didn't ask for money from the member. He may have put Sindone in charge of those partnerships later in the 70's. There is little evidence that soldiers paid tribute direct to Bruno or that crews paid tribute, mostly they were partners with Bruno in particular operations (numbers and loansharking mostly) and he collected portions of their profits. This seemed to be the greatest change from Scarfo to Bruno and the real reason for Riccobene's break with Scarfo. '

The wiretaps seem to indicate that Bruno became a partner of Riccobene in the numbers in the early 60's and Bruno/Sindone lent him money/became partners to get him back in the loansharking rackets when he got out of prison in 68. Whether he was direct with Bruno, I thought initially he was under Skinny Razor before he went to prison in early 60's and when he got out he was autonomous or he reported direct to Bruno. By the mid-70's Bruno wasn't meeting with many people and was using Sindone as essentially a street boss. This was a large part of the rift between Bruno and Testa.

Glad you mentioned Chick Warrington. He was based near Bristol / Trenton, one of the family's top non-Italian associates. Remember that Joe Ciancaglini brought his associate Pat Spirito to Philadelphia from Trenton also. Both Warrington and Spirito were part of the RICO case with Ciancaglini.

I can't remember where I got the idea, but years ago I saw something that gave me the impression Sindone may have been under John Simone, or at least closely associated with him. I wish I could find the info that gave me that impression, but you mentioning Warrington reminded me that Sindone/Ciancaglini had interests near Trenton. The report that mentions Sindone's loansharking operations extending to the Buffalo area is also interesting given deep Simone's history there.

There's also the photo of Ciancaglini, Stanfa, Sindone, Bruno, Ippolito, and Simone I mentioned earlier. Could have just been a fairly random gathering of members, or could also indicate these guys were connected. Stanfa's presence would lend itself to Dack's theory that Stanfa associated with Ciancaglini and Sindone, or he could have just been there because he was a member close to Bruno.

I've got a couple of thoughts about the Sindone-Ciancaglini direct with the administration thing:

- When Rocco Scafidi was reporting on the making ceremony scheduled for 1969, he said that Sindone was being proposed by Bruno himself.
- The above would be a strong indicator that Sindone was assigned direct to Bruno upon being straightened out.
- In the early 1970s, Russell Wilmerton had borrowed money from Sindone and was seeking permission to lend it out to another individual. Wilmerton had to get permission not just from Sindone but also from Phil Testa.
- The Wilmerton loan is another indication that Sindone was direct with the administration, though it should also be noted that Bruno was incarcerated at this time and Testa was running the family for him.
- Sindone therefore could have been put with Testa while Bruno was in Yardville.
- Sindone sponsored Ciancaglini for membership, making it likely he would also be assigned direct to Bruno if Sindone already was.
- Ciancaglini was also observed on one occasion delivering a sum of cash direct to Bruno after visiting a numbers operation run by Harry Riccobene.
- Ciancaglini was a collector for a numbers game run by Testa and Sindone, oversaw an operation run by Charles Warrington (described as a Sindone associate), and collected cash from the Riccobene game.
- I don't know if Riccobene ever fully confirmed that he was reporting direct to Bruno during this time but it would seem like it if the description of his quasi-independence is accurate.
- Riccobene's comments retrospectively about Bruno however are less than glowing and his participation in the criticism of Bruno's process for replacing Joe Rugnetta as consigliere would make it look like he was not a die-hard Bruno loyalist.
- However, Frank Narducci also took part in this criticism only, according to Leonetti, to then side with Bruno in the feud with Testa in hopes of becoming underboss (and Riccobene's conflict with Scarfo makes it clear he certainly wasn't on his - Scarfo's - side).
- The flow of cash from Riccobene to Ciancaglini to Bruno could also make it appear that Riccobene was assigned to the boss.
- One could make the case then that there's a good chance that at least Sindone, Ciancaglini and Riccobene were reporting direct to Bruno by the late 1970s

[quote=dack2001 post_id=170841 time=1603027912 user_id=5291]
Sindone was identified as a captain a few times due to his close relationship with Bruno but its not by guys like Leonnetti and Caramandi, those who would be in a position to know. Historically speaking when Bruno got hit the closest members who flipped never spoke about Sindone as a captain or having a crew to reassign like they did with other "traditional" captains. The other captains besides Narducci had been in their seats for many years. Unless he was a captain without a crew, which I don't see precedent for in Philly, it is much more likely he was direct with Bruno. There is precedent for guys being direct with the boss. Caponigro was never a captain but he was direct with Bruno. Scarfo put the Crow and Charlie Iannece direct with him. The wiretaps from the racketeering trial make clear that Sindone handled Bruno's investments downtown.
[/quote]

Yeah, there was a ton of precedent for soldiers being with the admin. Reginelli, Rugnetta, and supposedly even Denaro all had soldiers direct with them. I was responding to where you said Sindone was a soldier direct with the admin but had Ciancaglini and possibly Stanfa, who were also soldiers, assigned to him:

[quote]Sindone was direct with Bruno but wasn't a capo. Ciancaglini reported to Sindone. I suspect Stanfa reported direct to Sindone also and both were in on the plot to kill Bruno. [/quote]

Ciancaglini was Sindone's main man, we know, but have you seen anything concrete that says Ciancaglini was actually assigned to him? Also what makes you think Stanfa was assigned to Sindone? I always respect your take on Philly, just wondering if you saw it somewhere or if it's a guess since you used definitive terms.

I have seen FBI reports from the mid-1970s that talk about how the family had split into the Testa-Scarfo faction and Bruno-Sindone-Simone faction. Just thought it was interesting they had two soldiers, Scarfo and Sindone, as the main players next to Testa and Bruno. Move forward a couple years, and Sindone is recording complaining about Bruno to Chucky Merlino, go figure.

Ditto

[quote=Manhattan_ post_id=170839 time=1603025687 user_id=5737]
WS initially wanted Nick Scarfo as Boss but Scarfo in a rare moment of humility deferred saying no - Phil Testa is next in line for the Boss position he deserves it. Little did he know that statement most likely got Phil Testa killed.
[/quote]

You're entitled to your opinion but I remain unconvinced until presented with evidence or a source that says otherwise