THE BLACK HAND FORUM

[quote="West Coast1" post_id=223534 time=1647577881 user_id=5346]
[quote="Chris Christie" post_id=222006 time=1646032908 user_id=69]
What does this mean to people when they say the Mafia Americanized?

I have my own opinion but I want to hear what others think.
[/quote]

If someone is good with posting pictures, please post some before and after photos showing how guys dress now vs then.... I won't have to type anymore.

Just look at the clothes and tell me if they look like a boss or a street gang member
[/quote]

But I think this is worldwide, criminals don't wear Don Corleone suits anywhere anymore, even here in my country the bosses dressed one way in the 50's and they dress another way nowadays, things change.

[quote="Chris Christie" post_id=222006 time=1646032908 user_id=69]
What does this mean to people when they say the Mafia Americanized?

I have my own opinion but I want to hear what others think.
[/quote]

If someone is good with posting pictures, please post some before and after photos showing how guys dress now vs then.... I won't have to type anymore.

Just look at the clothes and tell me if they look like a boss or a street gang member

This conversation reminded me that an informant said that although Toto Riina had a lot of money, he was a guy who didn't dress well or care much for luxury, what he liked was power.

I might call some of this, especially in reguards to the Sicilians, Calabrians, and Naples mafiosi, during the 60s and 70s, not so much an Americanization, but a Coporatization of mafia structures, and operations. They started to become business focused, rather then exclusively territory/ Extortion based. It's the reason they initiated the Naples guys, and Calabrian families, to better expand the Tobacco trade.

Can look at Americanization through the lens of the boss position...

- First ~84 years of the Gambino Family's known existence had an official boss from Palermo citta with the exception of 6 years in the 1950s. 78 out of 84, with the 6 under Anastasia happening at least 50 years in is significant.

- First ~70 years of the Bonanno Family's known existence had an official boss from Trapani province (Camporeale, Castellammare, Salemi).

- First ~51 years of the Colombo Family's known existence had an official boss from metropolitan Palermo, longer if they split from Lupo and we include Magliocco who was unrecognized.

- First ~51 years of the Lucchese Family's known existence had an official boss from Corleone or nearby inland Palermo, with over 15 years after that led by an official boss from metro Palermo.

We see the influence of each Family's roots later, in some cases still today, but the 1960s-1980s are when we really start to see Americanization influence the selection of official boss. Available evidence shows the membership of these Families heavily (though not exclusively) reflected the same towns/regions as their bosses earlier in history, though there were elements in each Family that did not even early on (i.e. Gambino Family's Agrigento faction appears to go back to Lupo).

Can debate what qualities made each boss a candidate, but we know not all of these bosses had the exact some characteristics, personality type, and activities. They certainly weren't all chosen for being the biggest criminal mastermind. The common factor as to who qualified for boss is hometown, and in most cases they also came from an established mafia clan. Obviously other factors played a role in the selection of each individual, but the evidence strongly suggests you can't separate someone's origin from the politics of a Family even after Americanization began to change their internal make-up. Once the dam broke, though, it broke.

Not each Family around the US is the same either. The Genovese Family doesn't fit in as well with the others in NYC from what's known, and if we go around the US we can see some cities named non-Sicilians as official boss by 1930/1931 but those reflected different degrees of Americanization and local influence. Cleveland and Chicago named non-Sicilians as official rappresentante by that time, but Milwaukee remained almost exclusively Bagheresi and Palermitani throughout its existence and the leadership showed this. Seems Milwaukee could have easily taken more influence from Chicago and inducted larger numbers of non-Sicilians and non-clan members but they didn't. Detroit didn't either and their leadership continued to reflect the members' origins with an informant in the 1960s saying compaesani politics and the role of interrelation were still alive and well in that Family, which other evidence supports.

The breaking of these patterns in the boss position are a great example of full Americanization. The longer the organizations existed in the US, the more likely they were to induct members from different backgrounds and the backgrounds of bosses changed accordingly. Some groups welcomed these influences and others didn't, but everyone in the US was impacted and dealt with Americanization.

No question Joe Bonanno whitewashed who he was in his book and left out many of the darker/nastier things. If we look at the 1896 case where his uncle was ID'd as a mafia figure, the traditional Castellammarese were involved in vicious and petty crimes even back then.

That 1940s source knew them as the "Castellammarese gang" and compared them to the guys from "Montedoro" in Pittston. He said Bonanno was more vicious while Garofalo was the more smooth one. The Bonanno Family shows the most evidence of clan and hometown based membership, so no evidence Bonanno had a later epiphany and revised that side of it. Bonanno Family was a traditional organization in that they recruited heavily based on clan and hometown but brought in everyone from hardcore criminals to doctors based on these connections.

I definitely agree that Bonanno's views were impacted not only by age, but by the image he wanted to present to the world. Although, I don't think he was one way in the 40s and the other in the 80s(not that you were saying its that black and white). For example, there's that informant who said that Bonanno personally presided over his ceremony, and it was done traditionally. Contrast that with Willie Dara, who was made in 49/50 and had the verbal ceremony that we see from the 70s on.

B. made a good case that the first informant was Epifanio D'Angelo, who was Castellammarese. If Bonanno did preside over his ceremony, maybe it shows that he did adhere to tradition when it was his compaesani at least.

One thing to remember about Bonanno is that he started being "open" about himself when he was in his late 70's so his perspective may have changed. Joe B of 1920 may not have been the traditionalistic Castellammarese adhering to the tradition in a fair and just way. Others around him have described him as a devious hoodlum. His protege was Carmine Galante as B. pointed out in a call, which is very telling as to the type of man he was.

I think as you get older its human nature for some to look back on life and reflect, and in doing so you tend to care more about certain things that you scoffed at when you were younger.

I think what Felice shared about the current Torrettesi gives insight into the early culture -- a powerful faction in the Gambino Family from Torretta who maintain close ties to the Torretta Family and includes members of the Lucchese Family from Torretta and Sicilian mafiosi living in the US. He shared info that their politics are all intertwined and impact each others' relationships overseas and even includes guys raised in NYC like Mannino. That seems like the closest modern parallel to the relationships described by Gentile.

Interesting takes all around.

I guess I view Americanization differently. I would argue that an American rendition would be the rank of consigliere going from an elected position to a boss-appointed one.

I guess another question would be American Sicilianization because I see John Pennisi and other Staten Island denizens self-identifying as a "Brooklyn Crew" being an evolution of the same culture that breeded men from Sciacca self-identifying as such who were based in Brooklyn 100 years back.

The names, the types of crimes and circumstances may chance but the Mafia, as an organization and institution remains virtually unchanged, even after 4 generations of "the split" of Sicilians moving to America and carrying on vs Sicilians in Sicily who stayed.

You make good points but most of the Gambino guys with bloodlines who climbed the ranks had their own merit too. Guys who became high-ranking like Arcuri, Gambinos, DiLeonardo, Cali, the zips, etc. were accomplished in their own right. Not many of those guys got positions through nepotism alone... even Castellano had much more going for him than Junior/Peter Gotti when he became acting boss.

Barney Bellomo isn't that different given his father and it looks like grandfather were early members and Cafaro said Salerno took him in at his father's request. Bloodlines + merit. The Sicilian faction of the Gambino Family seems to run things similarly. It is pretty crazy though that the Genovese recruited guys from such different backgrounds and managed to thrive as a Cosa Nostra Family -- speaks to CC's point about how adaptable it can be.

Great posts all around in this thread!

It brings up a dichotomy I think about often, which model is better: the Genovese model or the Gambino model?

By that, I mean throughout the history of the Genovese family, it’s membership and leadership positions seemed to be determined by merit and very little by nepotism. Like, it almost diesn’t matter what a members bloodlines are, as long as they’re Italian they can be made and move up the ranks. There’s no Sicilian faction, just groups focused 100% on making money.

Then we have the Gambino family, which has a strong history of bloodlines being very important as they’re a much more traditional family in terms of connections to Sicily, etc. From Carlo Gambino, to Paul Castellano, to Frank Cali, many of their leadership have come from the powerful mafia royalty families of Palermo (Cali via marriage to an Inzerillo of course).

While there’s always been those leaders of the Gambinos who didn’t have the bloodlines and instead shot their way to the top, like Anastasia, Gotti, etc, the best leaders of the family seem to have been the old school Sicilians from those Palermo families. We also see nepotism being a bit more important in the family, etc.

So, two different families with two different models. The Genovese being less traditional and more open to non-Sicilians, but yet maintaining a level of secrecy and discipline that on the surface would make them seem like they’d be the most traditionally Sicilian of the families, instead of probably the least.

The Genovese are probably also the most Americanized of the five families, yet somehow are the most old school in terms of being quiet, low-key, and not bringing attention to themselves.

[quote=PolackTony post_id=222187 time=1646158114 user_id=6658]
Just to highlight what I see as potential major themes in what americanization might entail, as emerge from comments by Cabrini, B, CC, and others.

--The shift from use of Siclianu, to Italian, to English as an index of a broader transformation of a whole set of inter-connected cultural values related to the formation of a new Italian-American collective identity.

--Transformations in recruitment patterns and ideas concerning who is eligible for membership: from compaesani/familial networks originating in Sicily to local networks rooted primarily in criminal operations and Italian-American community life (with interactions between those of different Italian regional ancestries under a new, over-arching identity).

--A shift from "honor" to money as the primary aim and currency through which power circulates and accumulates (without going into the weeds here, I see this as akin to Max Weber's notion of value-rationality [values pursued for their own sake, as ends in and of themselves] vs. instrumental-rationality [values as means to a desired end]).

---Shifts in values regarding the relationship of the mafia to political authority and the state (excellent points made by Cabrini). I believe that in places where the American mafia actively and successfully sought significant political power (Chicago being the prime example), the nature of this was a product both of attitudes and practices brought over from Italy (and not necessarily just Sicily) and specific sets of opportunities and constraints offered by the political traditions (ethnic machine/patronage politics) in their new context. Even in Chicago, however, the mafia never sought to achieve overt political rule or to effectively subvert the official political system with its own structures (the implicit understanding was that an Italian would never be permitted to be mayor of Chicago, there was an ethnic division of labor in patronage politics), and certainly, the mafia never envisioned anything like political control at the national level. Rather, the mafia parasitized the local political system. Mafia political power in Chicago was a means to an end (protection from LE, opportunities to enrich themselves), not an end in and of itself. At the local level, at least, the government was not simply a distrusted threat (as in Sicily) but rather offered an array of opportunities and resources to be exploited by the mafia.

"Americanization" was, of course, not a binary condition. Rather, it was a set of interrelated processes, which played out over time and place differently depending on both local and national factors as well as the strategic decisions and cultural values held by individual members.
[/quote]

This is so Spot On. Couldnt have said it any better....

[quote=B. post_id=222025 time=1646049786 user_id=127]


- Made me think: in America we have mafia members who hate the federal gov but are flag waving patriots. Do some Sicilian mafia members have the same patriotism for Italy? I have zero idea but Italian nationalism may have developed more quickly among Sicilian mafiosi in America due to Italian-American solidarity than it did for Sicilian mafiosi in Italy. [/quote]


I wonder this about the Corleonesi. Their entire idea of him controlling an independent Sicily seemed so fucking stupid. You can imagine this type of moron repeatedly surfacing over the centuries, thinking Sicily better off as an independent nation, surrounded by powerful neighbors, and occupying a key strategic position in the Mediterranean. Island isolation probably is what got them invaded over and over...... how he couldnt see this is beyond me.....






[quote]- The professions thing still has a lot of questions. Impossible for us to analyze their psychology, but Dr. Martin Bonventre was a cardiologist and head of a Brooklyn hospital and Genovese member Dr. Danny Noto was head of the Passaic Board of Health. The current Brancaccio capomandamento is a surgeon who was head of a hospital like Bonventre. They might have served the mafia but they were accomplished in medicine and their positions were a resource beyond just extracting bullets in the middle of the night.[/quote]


Heres is two contemporary examples, one is Guttadauro himself, the other is from Naples, of mafiosi using the medical profession as a shield. One uses his position as a surgeon as a cloak, the other example, they just commandeered the whole hospital.......


Take particular note of Guttadauro. He gets involved in International Drug trafficking because it's within his realm of power, within his sphere of influence. He definitely doesnt confine himself to the medical profession. A woman gets into a dispute with a bank over 16 million Euros, and she doesnt sue, or pursue litigation. She calls on the Mafia. This is the average citizen. This type of thing doesnt exist in America
And it's not like he, say...... reaches out to a member of the Freemasonry, prominent in the financial services industries, and either ask a favor or service. Maybe the banker can be reached, an accommodation found? You expect some elegant, untraceable, MAFIA- LIKE solution, right? No.... hes all, " Send some guys to tune him up", this the local councilman or whatever...... very crude, very thuglike.


. You saw the same recently with Calvaruso, he gave equal importance to resolving a local robbery, as he did his investments in Brazil. Resolving disputes on the territory is a vaccum they have to fill, otherwise the courts look like the legitimate outlet to pursue justice.




[b]Giuseppe Guttadauro, from Bagheria to Axa: who is the "doctor" of Cosa Nostra[/b]
According to the indictment, Guttadauro ran a drug trafficking, frequented the Roman jet set and despised the new bosses

Lorenzo Nicolini
February 16, 2022

Brother of Matteo Messina Denaro's brother-in-law, already convicted of mafia definitively in 1996, 1999 and 2002 and now established in Rome after his release. Giuseppe Guttadauro, known as "the doctor", is a leading exponent of the Cosa Nostra in Palermo. A big shot arrested, along with his son last Sunday, February 13th.


The carabinieri del ros, with the support of colleagues from the provincial command of Palermo and the Sicily hunters squadron, reached him at his home in Axa, the "VIP" neighborhood stretched along Via Cristoforo Colombo, between Eur and Ostia . Here, Guttadauro - 73 years old - lives in an apartment near the central Piazza Eschilo and is now under house arrest. His son Mario Carlo, who was also arrested, ended up in prison.

The two, under investigation for mafia association, are challenged for belonging to the Cosa Nostra family of Palermo-Roccella, included in the Brancaccio-Ciaculli district. Giuseppe and Mario Carlo Guttadauro allegedly "intervened" on the most significant dynamics of the mafia district of Villabate-Bagheria.

[b]Who is Giuseppe Guttadauro[/b]
Former surgeon at the Civic hospital of Palermo, which earned him the nickname of "doctor", in 1984 he was arrested for the first time for mafia association. Arrested again in 1994, he became the head of the Brancaccio district after the arrest and consequent imprisonment of the mafia leaders of those who preceded him. Guttadauro was arrested in November 2002 during the anti-mafia operation called "Ice" during which Guttadauro himself received a further arrest warrant. On the occasion, the carabinieri of the ros, in the course of environmental interceptions inside the house of Guttadauro, recorded conversations between the latter and the former health councilor of Palermo.

For the Cuffaro case, Guttadauro was sentenced to 13 years and 4 months in prison. On March 3, 2012, the boss was released from prison for serving his sentence with a reduction for good behavior of 800 days. Now in Rome, but he did not want to retire. The investigations that led to his arrest last Sunday shed light on the movements and activities of Giuseppe Guttadauro. According to the investigators, he maintained contact with the Cosa Nostra also through his son, who "mediated" the interlocutions with the other suspects active in Palermo.

[b]
The desire for expansion[/b]
The wiretapping has also revealed the harsh criticism leveled by the "doctor" of the new generations of mafia members. [b]Guttadauro senior, according to the investigators' account, represented to his son the need to "evolve", while remaining anchored to the principles of the Cosa Nostra. [/b]Among the events in which the carabinieri recorded the intervention of Giuseppe Guttadauro also drug trafficking and relations with the pro-tempore top management of the Bagheria mafia family. Furthermore, Guttadauro would have planned a drug trafficking abroad, financed by some Palermitan associates, through an Albanian citizen, to obtain hashish and also providing a channel for the procurement of cocaine from South America.

[b]Relations with Roman environments[/b]
In this context, the Carabinieri del Ros also recorded the role of a flight attendant and councilor of the Democratic Party in the IX Municipality, in relations with Guttadauro. The latter was supposed to have transported € 300,000 to Brazil when the shipment of drugs from South America arrived in the Netherlands.

Finally, the investigations have also lifted the veil on the "consideration" that Giuseppe Guttadauro enjoyed even in certain circles in Rome. [b]In fact, he would have been asked to intervene, on the promise of a hefty remuneration, for the resolution of a dispute amounting to 16 million euros that a wealthy Roman woman had with a bank. Guttadauro, according to what the carabinieri reveal, would not hesitate to propose, in the event of an unsuccessful outcome of his intervention, "to pass to the de facto ways", instructing someone to beat up the people he believed were hindering the solution of the affair including the former Minister Mario Baccini, opposition councilor in the municipality of Fiumicino.
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Camorra, 126 arrests: “The hospital was the headquarters of the Secondigliano Alliance. The clan had a mole in the investigating magistrate's office in Naples "
Camorra, 126 arrests: “The hospital was the headquarters of the Secondigliano Alliance. The clan had a mole in the investigating magistrate's office in Naples "
Operation of the Gdf, seals on assets for a total of about 130 million: it is one of the hardest blows inflicted on the criminal cartel founded in the late 1980s by three bosses. Prosecutor Melillo: "They controlled the functioning of the San Giovanni Bosco hospital, from recruitment to contracts". Minister Grillo will ask for the dissolution of the heads of the hospital

of FQ | JUNE 26, 2019
The San Giovanni Bosco hospital in Naples was the "headquarters" of the Secondigliano Alliance. This was explained by the prosecutor of Naples, Giovanni Melillo, commenting on the anti-Camorra that has led to 126 arrests. An investigation that decapitated the Contini, Mallardo and Licciardi clans and led to the seizure of a large patrimony against the people affected by the precautionary measures issued by the investigating judge of Naples. "The men of the Contini controlled the functioning of the hospital, from hiring, to contracts, to trade union relations. The hospital had become the logistical base for criminal plots, as well as for insurance scams through the preparation of false medical certificates, "Melillo said during the press conference of the maxi-blitz. Health Minister Giulia Grillo will ask for the dissolution of the heads of the hospital for mafia infiltration from the National Committee for Security and Public Order tomorrow, Thursday.

In addition to the arrests, carried out throughout Italy and in some foreign countries, the operation led the Finance Police to seal movable and immovable property attributable to the Alliance clans for a total of about 130 million euros. This is one of the hardest blows inflicted by the police and the judiciary against the criminal cartel founded at the end of the 1980s by the bosses Edoardo Contini, known as "ò Romano", Francesco Mallardo, nicknamed "Ciccio 'e Carlantonio" and by Gennaro Licciardi, aka “à scign”.

"A mole in the investigating judge's office" - The investigation has reconstructed how the Contini clan was able to anticipate and prevent the actions of the judiciary and law enforcement agencies thanks to a network of supporters including an employee of the Office Gip of the Court of Naples. It is Concetta Panico (ended up under house arrest), related to Antonio Pengue (in prison), one of the alleged affiliates of the clan. The latter, through the Panico, in 2014, became aware in advance of the issuance of a custody order for 90 alleged members of the Contini clan. Managing the network of supporters was the Contini group, headed by Antonio Muscerino. On that occasion, Pengue received reassurances that neither he nor Muscerino was among the suspects. All this emerges from some interceptions. In essence, Panic emerged from the investigations, through unauthorized access to the system, was able to view, on January 15, 2014, the list of recipients of the precautionary measures that were then carried out.

"Money from those who hosted refugees" - The blitz affected not only the province of Naples and other Italian regions but also several foreign states, where the military forces - through Interpol - made use of the collaboration of the local forces of police. The investigations, coordinated by the Neapolitan District Anti-Mafia Directorate, led to the charges against the suspects of numerous crimes ranging from mafia-type association to drug trafficking, extortion, usury, money laundering and other serious crimes. In fact - according to the anti-mafia prosecutors Ida Teresi, Alessandra Converso and Maria Sepe coordinated by the deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Borrelli - the hierarchical structures within the Secondigliano Alliance were reconstructed and the numerous crimes committed by the affiliates were documented, "indicators of the stubborn ability of intimidation exercised on the territory ". Furthermore, according to investigations, the Contini clan took a share of the money that a Neapolitan hotelier received from the Campania Region to host the refugees. This demonstrates, said the Naples police chief, "the agility of the clan, able to exploit migratory flows in its favor". A fringe of the Contini clan was responsible for this particular business.

The bosses? They were also women - Women were also at the head of the Secondigliano Alliance: the investigation confirmed the top role of the three Aieta sisters (married to Edoardo Contini, Francesco Mallardo and Patrizio Bosti, ed) and Maria Licciardi (sister of the late boss Gennaro Licciardi and the only member of the top management to have escaped the blitz). Not only did they carry out the task of keeping in touch with the bosses at 41bis but they made important decisions for the life of the powerful criminal cartel that controlled the illicit activities in some districts of Naples and that they had also set up important entrepreneurial and commercial activities through nominees. all Italy.

Even a lawyer among the suspects - Among the suspects there is also a well-known Neapolitan lawyer who has Patrizio Bosti among his clients: he is accused by some collaborators of justice of having held up an interlocution between the boss Edoardo Contini, 41bis, and the high-ranking affiliates of the homonymous clan. This morning the police carried out searches in his offices. The Anti-Mafia District Directorate of Naples disputes the external competition in the Mafia association to the criminal lawyer. The Prosecutor's Office asked that the lawyer be notified of a precautionary measure, a request rejected however by the investigating judge of Naples Roberto D'Auria.


https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2019/06/26/camorra-126-arresti-contro-lalleanza-di-secondigliano-ospedale-san-giovanni-bosco-era-la-sede-sociale-dei-clan/5282330/




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I think its a mixture of changing cultural values and the endless connection via cell and social media. Cultures are diluted now. Values have evolved. Small clans of people of a unique decent are all but gone.