by PolackTony » Wed Aug 25, 2021 11:13 am
At the most generous, there is simply nothing to indicate any familial link between Torrio and Moresco, apart from this longstanding narrative that he was her (or Colosimo’s) nephew. Seems pretty unlikely to me that that there was any unknown blood relation between her and Torrio, at least, as they didn’t even come from the same region in Italy.
A possible link could’ve been via Torrio’s stepfather, Salvatore Caputo, who was Calabrese. After Torrio’s biological father died, Torrio’s mother, Maria Castelluccio, emigrated to the US where she married Caputo in NYC. They had three more kids together. Caputo was a grocer and, reputedly, a bootlegger himself. According to his naturalization records, Caputo was from Zinga, Crotone, Calabria, and I don’t see any familial link between him and Moresco’s family (who, of course, were from Cosenza province). Vittoria did have a bunch of siblings, maybe one of them married someone related to Caputo, who knows, but when I looked into it I didn’t find anything.
My guess is that perhaps Torrio or someone else told people in Chicago that he was related to Moresco to explain his transfer there. My suspicion is that Colosimo and Moresco were linked to some old Camorra/Piccioteria-type of Southern Mainlander criminal network. Perhaps Caputo had some links to that world also, though certainly Torrio had other more clear-cut underworld connections such as Paul Kelly and Frankie Yale.
At the most generous, there is simply nothing to indicate any familial link between Torrio and Moresco, apart from this longstanding narrative that he was her (or Colosimo’s) nephew. Seems pretty unlikely to me that that there was any unknown blood relation between her and Torrio, at least, as they didn’t even come from the same region in Italy.
A possible link could’ve been via Torrio’s stepfather, Salvatore Caputo, who was Calabrese. After Torrio’s biological father died, Torrio’s mother, Maria Castelluccio, emigrated to the US where she married Caputo in NYC. They had three more kids together. Caputo was a grocer and, reputedly, a bootlegger himself. According to his naturalization records, Caputo was from Zinga, Crotone, Calabria, and I don’t see any familial link between him and Moresco’s family (who, of course, were from Cosenza province). Vittoria did have a bunch of siblings, maybe one of them married someone related to Caputo, who knows, but when I looked into it I didn’t find anything.
My guess is that perhaps Torrio or someone else told people in Chicago that he was related to Moresco to explain his transfer there. My suspicion is that Colosimo and Moresco were linked to some old Camorra/Piccioteria-type of Southern Mainlander criminal network. Perhaps Caputo had some links to that world also, though certainly Torrio had other more clear-cut underworld connections such as Paul Kelly and Frankie Yale.