THE BLACK HAND FORUM

[quote=PolackTony post_id=284207 time=1727190174 user_id=6658]
Bon boulot. Really excellent work here, as always.

To follow up on Failla. Do you know his birth year, or at least his reported age as of 1939? This wasn’t reported in any of the US articles I saw mentioning the bust of him and Robert Lord that year, but I’m hoping you saw it somewhere in the French coverage of this. There are a couple of candidates in NYC and Chicago that could be him (note that the coverage in the American press stated that Failla was born in Italy but was naturalized as a US citizen).
[/quote]

Merci beaucoup mon ami :)

After checking, I have 2 articles from the French press which say that he was 41 years old in 1939. Indeed I should have thought of specifying this in the article...

A detail to be taken with big a pinch of salt, Failla would have spent time in the Sing-Sing penitentiary. I did not include it in the article because I simply did not find anything in the newspapers talking about this conviction (a Joe Failla was arrested in 1921 in Nebraska for bootlegging but he was just kicked out of that state), and the French-speaking newspapers tended to put everyone in Sing-Sing (according to them the Mancuso brothers had been sent to Sing-Sing which seems to be false)

Bon boulot. Really excellent work here, as always.

To follow up on Failla. Do you know his birth year, or at least his reported age as of 1939? This wasn’t reported in any of the US articles I saw mentioning the bust of him and Robert Lord that year, but I’m hoping you saw it somewhere in the French coverage of this. There are a couple of candidates in NYC and Chicago that could be him (note that the coverage in the American press stated that Failla was born in Italy but was naturalized as a US citizen).

Ok so they were in the NE Williamsburg area. Very likely they were in the Bonanno orbit.

[quote=B. post_id=283811 time=1726711332 user_id=127]
A+

Do you know where the Mancusos lived in Brooklyn? Williamsburg and Bushwick attracted Alcamesi along with Castellammaresi and other Trapanese paesans, be curious if they were there. With that in mind, also interesting they were cousins of Parrinos from Alcamo given the Bonanno/Detroit Parrinos were from Alcamo.

Do you know where Failla was from in Sicily or where he lived in the US in the 1920s?

Thank you.

--

Omar -- Mikey Mancuso's heritage is Salernitan / Campanian so no relation to these Sicilians.
[/quote]

Thanks !

Salvatore lived at 62 Kingsland Avenue, I don't know about his brothers

Unfortunately I don't know where Giuseppe Failla was previously before landing to the 9 rue Mansart. In addition to Mexico he seems to have contacts in New York, so I assume he was there. I haven't found any articles on him before 1939, but I'll try to do some digging.

----

Note: except for Parrino which is a familiar name thanks to Joe and Rosario (relatives?), the other Italian names are unknown to me. I would love to know more about "Jim Raspanti" if that is his real name.

Thanks for clearing that up and for all the references guys!

A+

Do you know where the Mancusos lived in Brooklyn? Williamsburg and Bushwick attracted Alcamesi along with Castellammaresi and other Trapanese paesans, be curious if they were there. With that in mind, also interesting they were cousins of Parrinos from Alcamo given the Bonanno/Detroit Parrinos were from Alcamo.

Do you know where Failla was from in Sicily or where he lived in the US in the 1920s?

Thank you.

--

Omar -- Mikey Mancuso's heritage is Salernitan / Campanian so no relation to these Sicilians.

[quote=OmarSantista post_id=283745 time=1726606137 user_id=6842]
Really cool article Fab. Couple Questions: If Serafino got 40 years in France May 1936 how was he serving time in prisons in the U.S. for example Leavenworth to Atlanta to Alcatraz until deportation for him to Italy in 1947. Giuseppe getting 40 years on December 13 1936 in the U.S. makes sense for him to be getting moved from prison to prison.(40 yrs Salvatore May 10th 1935 is just insane, all 3 brothers sentenced to 40 years at some point is just mind boggling) Did any of them serve the full 40 years, the timelines can get confusing for me after trying to process what I'm reading.

Giuseppe Mancuso having been deported for Illegal entry or molestation is interesting because he was made after that back in Italy. In your article it says the person he molested was a sailor who also reported hm for opium trafficking. My question is do you think the newspaper journalists were right over the bureau, if so do you think Joe Mancuso was a closeted bi person as sailors are traditionally males especially in those days.

Is there a picture of Angelo DiCarlo, the lucchese member turned Corleone consigliere

The Liberale Parrino in handcuff picture is too good, he looked like he knew he got away with it and was fine getting arrested because it was so many years later.

I'm curious about the Faila character, him being a bootlegger in the 1920's U.S. only peaks interest as for what kind of connections he had in the U.S. You mentioned Nicola Gentile and Alfonso Attardi, those would be big Mangano family connections for Serafino. I wonder what if any relation there is to Jimmy Brown Faila as the network connections track to the Gambino's. Do you know of any familial connection between these Mancuso's and the Bonanno boss today or is their ancestry just from a similar region in Trapani. Thanks a lot
[/quote]

Thank you very much for the feedback!

I will try to answer your questions as best I can:

-Serafino Mancuso was arrested, tried and sentenced in New York, not in France (maybe I explained it badly, if so my bad). Serafino & Salvatore each served a little over 10 years in prison in the USA before being deported

According to the Alcatraz files I posted at the end of the article (and here https://theblackhand.club/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6785&start=195), they were also under deportation proceedings by the immigration services. I suppose it was cheaper to deport them rather than keep 2 prisoners in detention.

-I'm not sure to understand your question for Giuseppe Mancuso (sorry), it seems that the google translator on the article makes it think of a sex crime, is that it? This is not the case, it is a kidnapping case, the kidnapped guy would have denounced Mancuso for opium trafficking. Thank you, I will try to modify this passage, it is clear in French but apparently not in English (I think it is the word "molesté" that poses a problem, in French it also has the meaning of mistreated or keeping someone prisoner)

You are also asking me if the press is informed by the police? Without hesitation yes. Even though some journalists have a lot of imagination, most of the time their main sources are cops or thugs.

-Nothing could be easier for Angelo DiCarlo, Justin Cascio wrote an article about him and there is a photo :) https://mafiagenealogy.com/2017/02/20/the-first-great-wars/

If you have the FBN book, Angelo's profile is on page 787. Calogero is on page 426

-For Parrino, ironically he had just been convicted when the photo was taken. He would have shouted just before "there is no justice here, I'm innocent"

-Failla is an enigma to me. I thought he was previously in Chicago because the first time I heard about him he was described as a buddy of Al Capone. But you know the press, every time someone trafficked alcohol it was necessarily a subordinate of Capone ... lol. We talk about it a bit here with PolackTony (it's also thanks to him that I got on the Mancuso/Zirano trail later, thanks Tony) https://theblackhand.club/forum/viewtopic.php?p=240672&hilit=failla#p240672

I think it was mainly Gennaro Caputo aka "Jean" or "John" who was connected with Gentile & Attardi rather than the Mancusos, but the link, even very indirect, deserved to be noted I think.

No idea if Peppino was a relative of James Failla, and I've never really been interested in Michael Mancuso, so I don't know at all if he was related to the Mancusos of Alcamo (the name is also quite common)

Really cool article Fab. Couple Questions: If Serafino got 40 years in France May 1936 how was he serving time in prisons in the U.S. for example Leavenworth to Atlanta to Alcatraz until deportation for him to Italy in 1947. Giuseppe getting 40 years on December 13 1936 in the U.S. makes sense for him to be getting moved from prison to prison.(40 yrs Salvatore May 10th 1935 is just insane, all 3 brothers sentenced to 40 years at some point is just mind boggling) Did any of them serve the full 40 years, the timelines can get confusing for me after trying to process what I'm reading.

Giuseppe Mancuso having been deported for Illegal entry or molestation is interesting because he was made after that back in Italy. In your article it says the person he molested was a sailor who also reported hm for opium trafficking. My question is do you think the newspaper journalists were right over the bureau, if so do you think Joe Mancuso was a closeted bi person as sailors are traditionally males especially in those days.

Is there a picture of Angelo DiCarlo, the lucchese member turned Corleone consigliere

The Liberale Parrino in handcuff picture is too good, he looked like he knew he got away with it and was fine getting arrested because it was so many years later.

I'm curious about the Faila character, him being a bootlegger in the 1920's U.S. only peaks interest as for what kind of connections he had in the U.S. You mentioned Nicola Gentile and Alfonso Attardi, those would be big Mangano family connections for Serafino. I wonder what if any relation there is to Jimmy Brown Faila as the network connections track to the Gambino's. Do you know of any familial connection between these Mancuso's and the Bonanno boss today or is their ancestry just from a similar region in Trapani. Thanks a lot

New article dedicated to the Alcamo mafiosi Giuseppe, Salvatore & Serafino Mancuso.

From the 1930s to the mid-1960s the three brothers were responsible for importing hundreds of kilos of heroin thanks to their connections on both sides of the Atlantic. They were notably connected (among others) to mobsters such as Frank Coppola, Vincenzo Rimi, Salvatore Zizzo, Antoine Zirano, Anthony Giardano or Antoine Cordoliani

https://unehistoiredecrimeorganise.blogspot.com/2024/09/les-freres-mancuso-de-alcamo-new-york.html

[quote=AustraliaSteve post_id=282490 time=1724702243 user_id=2480]
Is this looking from a historical(1890s-1900s) or “modern” (1940s to “today”)? Both would be mad reads, especially the latter with how it slowly went extinct etc.
[/quote]

Modern, let's say late 1950s to early 1970s. Possibly the 1980s, I'm not sure yet where this will take me

I remember a conversation here with B, Angelo & Antiliar where we disagreed on what Greg Scarpa said about the number of members in the mid 1960s. Colombo supposedly told him that the New Orleans borgata only had 5 members.

[quote=motorfab post_id=282489 time=1724689429 user_id=5417]
That's a lot of "fuck" for just one post haha ​​ ;)
[/quote]

(*cough*) Sorry mate, my inner Aussie appears when I get too worked up 😉

[quote=motorfab post_id=282489 time=1724689429 user_id=5417]
I also have an article planned on the membership of the New Orleans mafia but I'm leaving it on hold for the moment to come back to it later.
[/quote]

Is this looking from a historical(1890s-1900s) or “modern” (1940s to “today”)? Both would be mad reads, especially the latter with how it slowly went extinct etc.

That's a lot of "fuck" for just one post haha ​​ ;) Don't forget to include yourself among the good searchers on the forum, your site is great

And yes I had started writing about Melbourne, but I was inspired these days to write about the Mancuso brothers, I will come back to the article later, especially since it has been a while since I wrote about a vendetta.

I also have an article planned on the membership of the New Orleans mafia but I'm leaving it on hold for the moment to come back to it later.

So many things I want to talk about...

Fuck yeah Fabien. Your articles are awesome and I’m pumped for your work on these upcoming projects. Hearing successes and Ws from the guys here is always awesome for me; the Mob Archeologists are essentially established as a brand, I still come across B’s substack in the wild (usually Reddit) and i absolutely love the fact that TBHF is considered the gold standard forum that features researchers, writers and academics from around the globe.

Fuck, sorry for the wall of text. Love your work brother. Bounce of me if you need to anytime re: Cusack related stuff. Looking forward to that piece too! ✌️❤️

[quote=B. post_id=282450 time=1724611179 user_id=127]
Didn't know you had Italian ancestry. Time to trace your lineage haha.

Yeah, no doubt members of the short-lived Europe-based mafia groups would have been Sicilian-born. Tunis may have existed as far back as the late 1800s and was disbanded in the 1940s so possible some members were born there but of course to Sicilian parents.

I've got no basis for thinking Paris had a branch but I'd imagine there was some kind of Sicilian immigrant colony there -- Joe Bonanno visited his cousin there for example, who was an artist, but in terms of an actual colony I've never seen anything. Interesting you mentioned the Mancusos having ties there though as they were Alcamese so between them and a Bonanno cousin it makes me wonder if there was some kind of immigrant element from Trapani.

Greatly looking forward to the article on the Mancusos and I'm very excited your article for the Valachi issue is going to be happening and you'll be exposed to a wider audience.
[/quote]

lol nothing very gangsta I'm afraid, my ancestors were from the north of Italy, from the regions of Venezia and Lombardy ;)

I also hope to gain a wider audience thanks to the Informer article.

I am aware that I am talking about subjects that are a gray area for many, but we have here a fairly extensive criminal history that is just waiting to be rediscovered. And as is often the case it is connected to the mafias in Italy and the USA/Canada ...

You can see with articles like the one on Ricord that most things are connected to each other. I'm not saying this because I'm French (let's be honest it's largely ignored here too), but I find it pretty crazy that all these cases involving mafiosi around the world are forgotten, or worse, shunned by people

So if at least I manage to interest a few people, I am happy too :)

I am also very grateful to Sol for letting me do my promo here and to Thomas Hunt for offering me to write an article, it is as surprising as it is gratifying

Didn't know you had Italian ancestry. Time to trace your lineage haha.

Yeah, no doubt members of the short-lived Europe-based mafia groups would have been Sicilian-born. Tunis may have existed as far back as the late 1800s and was disbanded in the 1940s so possible some members were born there but of course to Sicilian parents.

I've got no basis for thinking Paris had a branch but I'd imagine there was some kind of Sicilian immigrant colony there -- Joe Bonanno visited his cousin there for example, who was an artist, but in terms of an actual colony I've never seen anything. Interesting you mentioned the Mancusos having ties there though as they were Alcamese so between them and a Bonanno cousin it makes me wonder if there was some kind of immigrant element from Trapani.

Greatly looking forward to the article on the Mancusos and I'm very excited your article for the Valachi issue is going to be happening and you'll be exposed to a wider audience.