THE BLACK HAND FORUM

When a group of old timers in the DeCavalcante family complained to Sam about not getting their due, Sam told them they were now more respected and free to express themselves than in the previous 40 years.

An offhand comment that shouldn't be taken as an exact fact (i.e. something significant happened in ~1925) but would suggest the DeCavalcante family go back at least that far.

In a conversation between Sam and John Riggi, Riggi mentions how some of the family "old timers" tried to get Sam killed but Nick Delmore didn't go for it. The old timers wanted him dead for being too "independent". Would be interesting to know who some of these members were.

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A couple possible members mentioned in the tapes who to my knowledge haven't been fully identified:

- Sam was mediating an ongoing marital issue involving a Frank Perrone and his wife, the daughter of imprisoned DeCavalcante member Nick Quarino. The book notes that Frank's father Jerry Perrone was a DeCavalcante member like Quarino. I wondered if they confused this with Gambino captain Frank Perrone, but it's clear that Sam DeCavalcante had full authority over Jerry and Frank Perrone, gives them orders, etc. Perrone could be a phonetic name.

- Another DeCavalcante member was an old timer "Joe Patrino", who was staying in Italy. His son was causing problems and it sounds like the son temporarily joined the father in Italy but returned to the US where he continued to cause issues. As a result, Sam ordered "Patrino" back from Italy and told him if he returned to Italy he had to bring his son. DeCavalcante discussed this with NYC DeCavalcante soldier Pietro Galletta, who was related to "Patrino" and had a low opinion of the son. Nobody from the list of confirmed members jumps out, but "Patrino" is probably from Ribera given the Galletta relation. "Joe Patrino" owned a mansion.

B. wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 5:15 pm A bug in Angiulo's office on Prince Street in January 1981.

Lol I get that. I mean where can I find the transcripts? Mary Ferrel?

That's right, Phil Bacino's mother was a Triolo. So the guy Cavita mentioned that was arrested with him in Illinois in 1940 was probably a relative, same with the Manhattan woman named Triolo who went with him and his wife/son in 1948.

Lorenzo Giacobbe was the father of DeCavalcante member Joe Giacobbe and may have been a capodecina based on info Felice found. Carmelo was Lorenzo's brother and would appear to be an uncle via marriage, maybe to Bacino's mother's sister. I suspect Carmelo Giacobbe was an early DeCavalcante member like his brother. Lorenzo lived in Connecticut during the 1910s where there was a small Ribera colony, which could tell us something about the origins of the DeCavalante CT faction (which by the 1960s had no known Riberese member, though we don't have comprehensive info).

The early boss(ses) of the DeCavalcantes could have lived in Manhattan, we can't be sure. That appears to be where the first Riberesi colony was by 1892, then it filtered into the Flatbush and Astoria areas. 1904 is when I can confirm DeCavalcante family relatives settled in Elizabeth but there may have been other Riberesi there I don't know about.

We know Phil Bacino maintained close ties to the DeCavalcantes, particularly Louis LaRasso (who was too young to have known Bacino when Bacino lived in NYC) and Phil's son John met his future wife while visiting Elizabeth for a wedding. LaRasso, who appears to have been the DeCavalcante family's liaison to Chicago via Bacino, helped arrange the wedding as they discuss on the DeCavalcante tapes.

What was interesting is Sal Caterinicchio, who phone records show maintained contact with Bacino's restaurant, adamantly felt the DeCavalcante family should pay for John Bacino's wedding. He cited the example of the DeCavalcantes footing the bill for Frank Majuri's daughter's wedding, but Sam said they did that because Majuri was an underboss/member of their own family. Caterinicchio was an old timer, though, so maybe he still saw Bacino as one of their own -- they were paesani if nothing else.

Something, too, is that Sam DeCavalcante asked the Commission to send a representative of each family to the wedding, which he says they agreed to do. We don't have any records to support whether this happened, but the fact that it was even discussed is very interesting. Doesn't seem like it was standard practice to request high-level representatives at a wedding between a soldier's son and a civilian's daughter, but Sam felt it was important to include Commission representation to honor Bacino.

Would appear the Bacinos had a history in the Ribera family. Phil's older brother Luciano was a Sicilian man of honor there, so for all we know Phil may have been a man of honor already when he entered the US. Phil's arrival contact in the US was the brother of a DeCavalcante member and he seems to have quickly gotten involved in mafia affairs.

Some things to note about Phil Bacino. First, he would have been relatively young in 1930. He was born on January 4, 1902, to Giovanni Bacino and Palma Triolo in Ribera. Second, he migrated only in 1923, arriving in New York on July 10 and staying with his uncle Carmelo Giacobbe at 343 East 48th Street in Manhattan, between 1st and 2nd Avenue near Mid-Town. So his age at birth and immigration is similar to Joe Bonanno's. In 1928, however, when he was arrested at the Cleveland Mafia meeting on December 5 he was living in Chicago. He reported staying with Filippo Cusumano at 2321 W. Ohio Street. His 1930 census record was unavailable last time I checked, but in 1935 he was living in Calumet City. In 1928, Carmelo Giacobbe, born 1875 in Ribera, lived at 411 East 60th Street in Manhattan. On Giacobbe's 1921 arrival record he reported that his wife in Ribera was Palma Triolo (other records say his wife was Corinda, who lived in Italy with their daughter Anna). He would be staying with his brother Lorenzo at 341 East 48th Street. Carmelo returned to Italy on August 31, 1948, and died in Ribera on December 8, 1948.

Lorenzo "Lawrence" Giacobbe was 15 years younger than Carmelo, but arrived earlier. He was born in 1890 and in the 1920 census lived at 409 East 60th Street. He married Jenny LaBella and they eventually moved to Connecticut. The Giacobbe brothers were sons of Antonio Giacobbe and Anna Caternicchia.

Palma Triolo Bacino, born in 1871, arrived on November 16, 1933, and would stay with her son Filippo (Phil) at 14 163rd Street, in Calumet City.

A bug in Angiulo's office on Prince Street in January 1981.

Where did the excerpt from Larry and Jerry come from?

Accidentally posted this in another thread a few days ago, meant to be here:

- A Ribera colony existed in NYC by 1892. A group of Carubias and Gallettas arrived to NYC that year, both surnames that produced Riberesi members of the DeCavalcante NY faction. Others from Ribera also arrived in NYC that year and throughout the 1890s.

- Pre-1900s immigration data is lacking in detail, so the colony may have existed before 1892, this is just what I could find. Doesn't guarantee there were mafia members in this colony yet, but there are familiar NYC-based mafia surnames from Ribera by the early 1890s.

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Since this is kind of a general DeCavalcante history thread, a couple interesting things from the DeCavalcante tapes I haven't seen mentioned:

- Sam says when Phil Amari was deposed as boss, the Commission didn't approve an official boss for around a year afterward. Nick Delmore was the acting boss during that time and was finally approved as boss.

- Pete Colletti, described by DeCavalcante as an "old guy" and a "mustache pete", visited DeCavalcante in January 1965 and gave him $5000 to invest in loansharking. He was described as having been with Nick Delmore and then DeCavalcante, and was a retired former employee with a labor union (probably Local 394). Seems likely he was an older member. Can't narrow him down in records, but the last name speaks for itself.

Another comment from the DeCavalcante tapes I'm trying to figure out... at one point Sam refers to Settimo Accardi as his cousin. He only refers to him as "Settimo", but he goes into Settimo's partnership with Carlo Gambino in the gas stamp racket of WWII. We know from other sources that Accardi and Gambino were partners in this racket.

Can't help but feel like we're missing a big chunk of info about Sam DeCavalcante's background:

- His father came from Monreale/Palermo, while his maternal grandfather came from Palermo and lived in Naples for a time.
- His self-described "uncle" Nick Delmore was from Nicosia in Enna province.
- His self-described "cousin" Settimo Accardi came from Vita, Trapani.

- A source in Joseph LoLordo's FBI file thought the Rizzo DeCavalcantes came from the same Sicilian hometown as the LoLordos (Ribera) and that their fathers were friends in Sicily. The source could easily have been mistaken, but given all of the other connections the Rizzo DeCavalcantes had across the island, it doesn't seem that crazy that a Ribera connection existed in Sicily, maybe social if nothing else. It could also explain how they ended up with the Elizabeth family.

- Settimo Accardi himself is surrounded by mafia relatives. Bonanno members Vincent Morsellino and Michael Adamo are described as his cousins, and his brother-in-law was Tunis/Lucchese mafioso Joe Abate. Settimo's brother Giuseppe Accardi arrived to the US accompanying D'Aquila capodecina Accursio Dimino in the early 1920s. Giacomo Accardi, a mafia figure from the same part of Trapani, headed a cattle rustling ring in the 1930s in partnership with mafia groups from Palermo, Trapani, and Agrigento provinces... maybe a relative of these Accardis.

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So Sam DeCavalcante and Settimo Accardi have plenty of connections, just nothing obvious that connects the two of them.

DeCavalcante's father came from nobility and was a wealthy businessman, and the upper classes tended to be more well-traveled. His maternal grandfather was obviously well-traveled, a Palermo doctor who lived in Naples.

If Sam does have a relation to Accardi, like he said, it could be another connection between the DeCavalcante and Lucchese families and it could also play into a connection between the Newark and DeCavalcante families.

I was skimming through the DeCavalcante tapes again, and what's interesting is he tells Jack Panels Santoli that he (Sam) could have gotten made with "Albert" (Anastasia) as well as "Joe Bruno." Sam was living in Trenton at the time, so I guess he felt he could have been made into any of the three families active in Trenton.

There is the other conversation with Genovese members where Sam says he almost got made with "Joe Bruno," and it sounds like they're actually talking about Joe Ida, as they say "Joe Bruno" is still alive in Italy; Bruno was long dead and never returned to Italy, while the description fits Ida perfectly. In this conversation Sam also says "Nardone" wanted to make him initially -- this could be phonetic for "Nazzone", John Avena's nickname. He says at one point he could have been made 30 years earlier, which would have been when Avena was alive.

Sam says when Philly wanted to make him, his father instead stepped in and had him inducted into the DeCavalcantes.

With this in mind, Richie Boiardo's FBI file implies Nick Delmore was inducted in the same ceremony as Boiardo in the 1940s after WWII. I've wondered if it was a joint ceremony between the DeCavalcantes and their Commission representatives the Genovese, but given that Sam could have been inducted by the Gambino and Philadelphia families, I'm wondering if Delmore was in fact inducted first as a Genovese member and transferred. Despite the alleged relation to the Rizzo DeCavalcantes, Delmore's associations and "MO" were overwhelmingly Genovese early on.

Could tell us something about the DeCavalcante family, too. On one of the tapes they talk about Sam's organization is far more exclusive about who they induct compared to the NYC families. Could explain why Sam "almost" got inducted by two other families and Delmore may have been inducted by the Genovese (or at least with their participation/influence).

B. wrote: ↑Tue Apr 20, 2021 4:34 pm The problem is that even the Corleonesi being the "first" has become its own folklore, but in that case with outsiders. I've never actually seen an account from a mafia member who thinks men from Corleone formed the "first family" and as more evidence comes out, it becomes clear they were an important faction/network that produced leaders and a boss of bosses, but they weren't the first nor only show in town.

It also depends on the POV. There is the source connected to St. Louis / Detroit who said the men from the Favarotta neighborhood of Terrasini were the most dominant group of paesani in all the mafia, and they are right this group formed an important leadership class, especially in those midwest cities, but outside of Detroit and St. Louis you weren't going to hear anyone putting it that way. If this informant was our only source, we'd probably think men from Terrasini were more influential in mafia history than they were (and they were still highly influential anyway).

Another question mark in early DeCavalcante history is Frank Rizzo DeCavalcante. On the DeCavalcante tapes, Sam implies his father was responsible for inducting some of the old time members. We know from a comment on the DeCarlo tapes that the elder DeCavalcante held the rank of capodecina, so he may have been a ranking member for decades before he died, making him the earliest known DeCavalcante member to hold the rank of captain or higher. The Rizzo DeCavalantes were from Monreale/Palermo and lived in Westfield, near Elizabeth, so Frank may have joined this family because of where he lived in New Jersey or maybe there was an early Palermitani element in the family that is lost to time.

Palermo was the port city and it was Palermitans who were among the first Sicilians to arrive. Sciacca likely a close second. Followed with or by Trapani.

Anyways, between this and our other conversations it made me contact DiLeonardo and ask him about D'Aquila/first boss and whether he was told that or its something he heard of later and turns out, he was told that. But as he explains it, he was told that in the context of there being no one before him who wielded the type of power D'Aquila had, he didn't interpret it as them saying D'Aquila founded the Gambino Family.

If in the year 1920 there was some national consolidation of groups into larger Families, that happened under D'Aquila's watch. Combined with the fact that NY remained five families rather than 20 (the numbers would have justified that amount) is a lasting result of D'Aquila's reign, even if it was by design or indifference.

And again, six months after "D'Aquila is in a war against Lo Monte, Mineo and Schiro" Lo Monte was killed and multiple sources (Gentile, Clemente) both stated that no one knew who did it. There's more to this story but stopping right here, it's amazing and speaks to the potential diplomatic prowess that D'Aquila had for a rival to be murdered half a year later and the power to squash anyone to openly accuse him of it.

Anyway, we're back to square one regarding this Jersey business.

The problem is that even the Corleonesi being the "first" has become its own folklore, but in that case with outsiders. I've never actually seen an account from a mafia member who thinks men from Corleone formed the "first family" and as more evidence comes out, it becomes clear they were an important faction/network that produced leaders and a boss of bosses, but they weren't the first nor only show in town.

It also depends on the POV. There is the source connected to St. Louis / Detroit who said the men from the Favarotta neighborhood of Terrasini were the most dominant group of paesani in all the mafia, and they are right this group formed an important leadership class, especially in those midwest cities, but outside of Detroit and St. Louis you weren't going to hear anyone putting it that way. If this informant was our only source, we'd probably think men from Terrasini were more influential in mafia history than they were (and they were still highly influential anyway).

Another question mark in early DeCavalcante history is Frank Rizzo DeCavalcante. On the DeCavalcante tapes, Sam implies his father was responsible for inducting some of the old time members. We know from a comment on the DeCarlo tapes that the elder DeCavalcante held the rank of capodecina, so he may have been a ranking member for decades before he died, making him the earliest known DeCavalcante member to hold the rank of captain or higher. The Rizzo DeCavalantes were from Monreale/Palermo and lived in Westfield, near Elizabeth, so Frank may have joined this family because of where he lived in New Jersey or maybe there was an early Palermitani element in the family that is lost to time.

B. wrote: ↑Tue Apr 20, 2021 1:24 pm

Antiliar wrote: ↑Mon Apr 19, 2021 2:12 pm My guess would be that Elizabeth started in the 1910s/1920s period, although the earliest leaders that we have are Stefano Badami (although nothing specifically connects Badami to Elizabeth except for his Corleonese heritage) and Phil Bacino, who's reign must have been very brief, then Phil Amari. Badami was a third cousin of Giuseppe Morello, but that may or may not be relevant. He was also a fifth cousin once removed to the father of Frank Majuri, whose father Calogero was born in Corleone. Calogero Majuri appears to be the Calogero Maggiore who was arrested with Morello for counterfeiting in 1900.

While it's easy to focus on the Ribera angle, I think the Corleone angle deserves more attention, too.

- Calogero Majuri appears to have been close to Giuseppe Morello, at least an associate of the Morello family. If Majuri is in fact Calogero Maggiore, as he seems to be, he also listed Morello as a relative during his conterfeiting arrest.

- The Majuris and Bellomos are cousins. Unlike many (most?) of the Corleonesi the Bellomos ended up with the Masseria/Genovese family. The Bellomos ended up with the former Terranova crew, Morello's brother. That the Bellomos would go with Masseria/Morello and be part of a crew that began under Terranova suggests their loyalty was to the old Morello faction, not the Reina group. Given the relation between the Majuris and Bellomos, plus the Majuris' own apparent ties to Morello, they may have been aligned with this faction themselves.

- The Genovese boss served as the Commission avugad for the DeCavalcante family before the Gambinos assumed control over them. Many of these Commission avugads represented groups where there was a longstanding tie, even before the Commission existed (Bonanno->San Francisco went back to Nick Schiro and Lanza; Lucchese->Los Angeles went back to Gagliano and Dragna, both Corleonese affiliated in NYC). This could be a sign that the DeCavalcante and Genovese family share a deeper connection.

- Stefano Badami arrived to the US with Tom Gagliano's brother-in-law and listed his arrival contact as Tom Gagliano. Antiliar finding that Badami was distantly connected to the Majuris is interesting, too, given Frank Majuri used the alias "Gagliano".

The Corleonesi angle is something that I can say that I completely underestimated when it comes to the deeper history of Jersey, so I’m glad that you’re emphasizing it. Again, I think it’s possible that part of what informed these claims about the DeCavs being one of the oldest families is some internal mafia folklore that connected them to the Morello-Corleonesi network. So while it’s not true for the borgata in a formal sense, there is something to the older NJ mafia being part of one of the foundational networks that gave rise to the Genovese and Lucchese, of course.

I personally find the question of internal mafia oral history fascinating. Not as an objective account or transparent window on to “what really happened”, but in a sort of anthropological sense — how they make sense of themselves, how they invoke the past in light of the present, and what that in turn says about their values and identities within a relatively closed subculture.

Antiliar wrote: ↑Mon Apr 19, 2021 2:12 pm My guess would be that Elizabeth started in the 1910s/1920s period, although the earliest leaders that we have are Stefano Badami (although nothing specifically connects Badami to Elizabeth except for his Corleonese heritage) and Phil Bacino, who's reign must have been very brief, then Phil Amari. Badami was a third cousin of Giuseppe Morello, but that may or may not be relevant. He was also a fifth cousin once removed to the father of Frank Majuri, whose father Calogero was born in Corleone. Calogero Majuri appears to be the Calogero Maggiore who was arrested with Morello for counterfeiting in 1900.

While it's easy to focus on the Ribera angle, I think the Corleone angle deserves more attention, too.

- Calogero Majuri appears to have been close to Giuseppe Morello, at least an associate of the Morello family. If Majuri is in fact Calogero Maggiore, as he seems to be, he also listed Morello as a relative during his conterfeiting arrest.

- The Majuris and Bellomos are cousins. Unlike many (most?) of the Corleonesi the Bellomos ended up with the Masseria/Genovese family. The Bellomos ended up with the former Terranova crew, Morello's brother. That the Bellomos would go with Masseria/Morello and be part of a crew that began under Terranova suggests their loyalty was to the old Morello faction, not the Reina group. Given the relation between the Majuris and Bellomos, plus the Majuris' own apparent ties to Morello, they may have been aligned with this faction themselves.

- The Genovese boss served as the Commission avugad for the DeCavalcante family before the Gambinos assumed control over them. Many of these Commission avugads represented groups where there was a longstanding tie, even before the Commission existed (Bonanno->San Francisco went back to Nick Schiro and Lanza; Lucchese->Los Angeles went back to Gagliano and Dragna, both Corleonese affiliated in NYC). This could be a sign that the DeCavalcante and Genovese family share a deeper connection.

- Stefano Badami arrived to the US with Tom Gagliano's brother-in-law and listed his arrival contact as Tom Gagliano. Antiliar finding that Badami was distantly connected to the Majuris is interesting, too, given Frank Majuri used the alias "Gagliano".

Here's an aspect of this, probably obvious to everyone, but worth pointing out:

- Most of these guys don't have great knowledge of the organization's history. It's amazing that a 1970s informant was told Tom DiBella's father had been the boss of that family pre-Profaci. It doesn't seem to have been common knowledge and the informant was only told because Tom DiBella had just been elected boss himelf... just a little fact along the lines of, "Hey did you know Tom's Dad was a boss back in the day, too?" Nothing more than that.

- When Dr. Gregory Genovese was forced to testify about his organization crime connections, he didn't know the full name of his father's hometown. He got "Castellammare" right but he added in a second part that was wrong, nothing like "del Golfo". He also thought his mother-in-law's maiden name was Abruzzo and the court had to tell him it was LaBruzzo. None of that is crazy or anything. His father probably referred to his hometown simply as "Castellammare", and why should he have his mother-in-law's maiden name perfectly memorized? But imagine if he was our only source... what he said was not egregiously wrong, but it was wrong enough that we would be looking in a completely different direction if we didn't have other sources on that info.

- Tommaso Buscetta believed the mafia started in the middle ages. As great as his knowledge was for the era in which he lived, there is no evidence the mafia existed that early. Other reputable sources have made similar statements about the mafia's origin. We can't definitively prove them wrong, and maybe it's true from a certain point of view, but there is no evidence the mafia as we know it is that old.

- Someone on here spoke to Sammy Gravano and it was incredible how little he knows even about Gambino family history. John Gotti didn't make him pass a history test to become underboss. Gotti didn't have to pass one to become boss, for that matter.

- Contrast that with DiLeonardo, who can recall figures long before his time that were active in the 1910s-1920s. But he had relatives active back then and he associated with the descendants of early members. There was an unbroken chain of oral history and not every detail is perfect or comprehensive, but for a young guy made in the late 1980s, he knows a lot about the history, especially those connected to his crew.

- The DeCavalcantes are interesting because the Riberesi in the family are mostly interrelated and have been part of the mafia for generations going back to Sicily. There is likely an unbroken chain of oral history among them, like DiLeonardo and his crew, but in their case it seems to be the nucleus of an entire organization.

- With the last point in mind, we have to remember that none of the Riberesi have ever cooperated and we are relying on the following sources:

^ Non-Sicilian Patriarca underboss from Boston.
^ Non-Riberese NYC captain made in the 1980s
^ Non-Riberese Las Vegas/NJ captain made in the 2000s
^ Lucchese underboss made in the 1980s (might not even be referring to DeCavalcante family, re: "La Chiesa")

If Joe Merlo Jr. cooperated, he might not give us a perfect history, but he's Riberese and his family has been in Elizabeth for almost 120 years. He's related in some way to the Majuris, Schifillitis, Riggis, and LaRassos, probably among others. He still might not get the history completely right, but he might have a slightly different or more detailed spin on the "DeCavalcantes are one of the oldest US families" story that shows up in different times and places.

I think Tony was alluding to this, but the Riberesi in Elizabeth/NYC probably trace their mafia heritage directly back to Sicily. If that's true, they might see their existence as one continuous group from Sicily that simply "branched" out from when they formed a family in NJ/NYC/CT. Of course, other groups could say the same thing, but given the DeCavalcantes were less diluted and isolated themselves, they may simply be more aware of it. If they told people they were one of the oldest families, it's not like many people could or would challenge them or press them for specifics. Just an idea to consider.

Felice shared info that when Jake Amari and Pino Schifilliti visited Ribera, they were allowed to attend a formal meeting of the Ribera family. We know members from Ribera also transferred in and out of the DeCavalcantes over the years. While there are lines between these famiies, they blurred them at times. Who knows how this could have colored their perspective when it comes to their own origin.

For all we know there was a Riberesi colony in early New Orleans that was recognized as its own small family and this group later moved to the NJ/NYC area.

He was jealous that Sam invented the first family. Kidding... no idea.