by B. » Fri Apr 16, 2021 12:35 pm
Chris Christie wrote: ↑Fri Apr 16, 2021 6:04 am
We really don't know much of what DiLeonardo was doing though either, he wasn't involved in counterfeiting so the SS wasn't on him and if he met Cascioferro during this time, the agents failed to identify him. Now, the SS didn't capture everything so that's not indicative of anything. Cascioferro, aside from Morello and Boscarino (of Bisac.), he was friendly with Inzerillo (Resuttana) and others in Lower Italy, he even had one friend described as a French-Italian.
We just know Jimmy DiLeonardo wrote a letter to Cascio Ferro circa 1909 sending his regards and asking for an update on something unspecified (possibly the Petrosino murder). Then we have Michael DiLeonardo saying Cascio Ferro originally sent Antonino and Jimmy DiLeonardo to NYC. So we don't know the two DiLeonardos' activities in NYC during this period, but there was a relationship with Cascio Ferro.
B. wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 3:15 pm
Sicilians are quite proud of where they came from so there is that. But even more importantly, the mafia is an interpersonal organization that recruits through close friends and relatives. Given mobility at the time, we tend to see Families with membership all centered in one city or area. But if you're a member and you had the chance to deal with a stranger from your hometown or with another member from a different city, you'd likely choose the other member.
The question is how many people from a given hometown were truly strangers.
--
Not so much responding to you here, but just riffing on this thought:
- John Pennisi talked about how mafia members in his experience are "washwomen" and organizational gossip spreads quickly. I imagine this was especially true among compaesani. The letter between the elder Stefano Magaddino (the uncle in Castellammare) and Girolamo Asaro in NYC shows them discussing various people from their hometown. I'm sure this type of thing was necessary to mafia administration as well as gossip.
- Gentile said he went to Pittsburgh to join Gregorio Conti who he had never met in person, but the two had been exchanging letters for some time. He moved to Pittsburgh and joined that family following Conti's encouragement (obviously w/ approval from his previous boss). This was a pretty big revelation to me, as it shows a boss communicating with a member in another city that he only knew by reputation and the member decided to join him.
- Plays into what you said about this not being the Sopranos, where a highly desirable member like Gentile was not permanently leashed to a given boss, but could go elsewhere. Conti wasn't "poaching" members, just networking. Like you said, it's a fact that compaesani shared affilition in most cases and for that reason I don't think many people casually transferred around inside of a city like NYC, but it does show you that when a member had an opportunity in another city or other circumstantial reasons to transfer, they could. One reason I think the early mafia did not try to leash its members is because the bosses themselves were wealthy, either self-made or from an affluent blood family. This thread is a great example of this... many of these Palermo bosses were financially accomplished and influential regardless of the membership.
- When Vito Bruno moved to San Francisco, he was told to contact boss Francesco Lanza who set him up with an address to receive mail and a job. Lanza's father had been a boss in Sicily and he was a wealthy businessman. He doesn't seem to have told Bruno, "I'll get you a job, but when are you going to start kicking up envelopes, young man?" As a boss, he helped a member of the network become established in his city and maybe there were material perks for Lanza we don't know about, but that wasn't the basis of the relationship. The Bay Area families were among the most umimpressive "crime families" in the US, but they were impressive mafia networkers which kept their groups alive well beyond their expiration date as criminal groups.
- Imagine one of the remaining members from LA going to Philadelphia, contacting Joey Merlino and asking for help finding a job? Sounds crazy, but maybe not. Pennisi said Lucchese associate Pete Tuccio contacted Merlino on Instagram and because Merlino had briefly met Tuccio in NYC and heard he was a wild kid, we know he took him under his wing and they're in every other picture together from the past few years. Networking. Maybe Gentile and Conti were the 1910s equivalent of Instagram friends. Maybe when Vito Bruno contacted Lanza, Lanza checked their "mutual friends" list and decided to add him as a friend. Silly, but not that far off. Full circle back to compaesani, you have to imagine the chances of having a "mutual friend" within mafia compaesani was 99/100.
[quote="Chris Christie" post_id=191313 time=1618578283 user_id=69]
We really don't know much of what DiLeonardo was doing though either, he wasn't involved in counterfeiting so the SS wasn't on him and if he met Cascioferro during this time, the agents failed to identify him. Now, the SS didn't capture everything so that's not indicative of anything. Cascioferro, aside from Morello and Boscarino (of Bisac.), he was friendly with Inzerillo (Resuttana) and others in Lower Italy, he even had one friend described as a French-Italian.[/quote]
We just know Jimmy DiLeonardo wrote a letter to Cascio Ferro circa 1909 sending his regards and asking for an update on something unspecified (possibly the Petrosino murder). Then we have Michael DiLeonardo saying Cascio Ferro originally sent Antonino and Jimmy DiLeonardo to NYC. So we don't know the two DiLeonardos' activities in NYC during this period, but there was a relationship with Cascio Ferro.
[quote=B. post_id=191267 time=1618524929 user_id=127]
Sicilians are quite proud of where they came from so there is that. But even more importantly, the mafia is an interpersonal organization that recruits through close friends and relatives. Given mobility at the time, we tend to see Families with membership all centered in one city or area. But if you're a member and you had the chance to deal with a stranger from your hometown or with another member from a different city, you'd likely choose the other member.
[/quote]
The question is how many people from a given hometown were truly strangers.
--
Not so much responding to you here, but just riffing on this thought:
- John Pennisi talked about how mafia members in his experience are "washwomen" and organizational gossip spreads quickly. I imagine this was especially true among compaesani. The letter between the elder Stefano Magaddino (the uncle in Castellammare) and Girolamo Asaro in NYC shows them discussing various people from their hometown. I'm sure this type of thing was necessary to mafia administration as well as gossip.
- Gentile said he went to Pittsburgh to join Gregorio Conti who he had never met in person, but the two had been exchanging letters for some time. He moved to Pittsburgh and joined that family following Conti's encouragement (obviously w/ approval from his previous boss). This was a pretty big revelation to me, as it shows a boss communicating with a member in another city that he only knew by reputation and the member decided to join him.
- Plays into what you said about this not being the Sopranos, where a highly desirable member like Gentile was not permanently leashed to a given boss, but could go elsewhere. Conti wasn't "poaching" members, just networking. Like you said, it's a fact that compaesani shared affilition in most cases and for that reason I don't think many people casually transferred around inside of a city like NYC, but it does show you that when a member had an opportunity in another city or other circumstantial reasons to transfer, they could. One reason I think the early mafia did not try to leash its members is because the bosses themselves were wealthy, either self-made or from an affluent blood family. This thread is a great example of this... many of these Palermo bosses were financially accomplished and influential regardless of the membership.
- When Vito Bruno moved to San Francisco, he was told to contact boss Francesco Lanza who set him up with an address to receive mail and a job. Lanza's father had been a boss in Sicily and he was a wealthy businessman. He doesn't seem to have told Bruno, "I'll get you a job, but when are you going to start kicking up envelopes, young man?" As a boss, he helped a member of the network become established in his city and maybe there were material perks for Lanza we don't know about, but that wasn't the basis of the relationship. The Bay Area families were among the most umimpressive "crime families" in the US, but they were impressive mafia networkers which kept their groups alive well beyond their expiration date as criminal groups.
- Imagine one of the remaining members from LA going to Philadelphia, contacting Joey Merlino and asking for help finding a job? Sounds crazy, but maybe not. Pennisi said Lucchese associate Pete Tuccio contacted Merlino on Instagram and because Merlino had briefly met Tuccio in NYC and heard he was a wild kid, we know he took him under his wing and they're in every other picture together from the past few years. Networking. Maybe Gentile and Conti were the 1910s equivalent of Instagram friends. Maybe when Vito Bruno contacted Lanza, Lanza checked their "mutual friends" list and decided to add him as a friend. Silly, but not that far off. Full circle back to compaesani, you have to imagine the chances of having a "mutual friend" within mafia compaesani was 99/100.