by antimafia » Mon Jun 06, 2022 11:44 pm
B. wrote: ↑Mon Jun 06, 2022 1:25 am
Incredible work. Way beyond anything I hoped to find.
2. Girolamo's still-alive sister-in-law Maria Sciara Guarraggi, who is married to Gerlando, is indeed the daughter of the Pietro Sciara who was killed in Montreal on Feb. 14, 1976. She is one of five children born to Sciara and Rosalia Triassi, who was injured but survived when Sciara was gunned down. The most important piece of information that helped confirm the biological relationship -- and I never expected this type of item to be definitive -- will be found at
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1032524 ... ia-sciara/.
Had no idea a daughter was injured in the shooting, much less this one.
While now there are various accounts of when the Siculiana-born Sciara moved to Cattolica Eraclea (CE) to live, what is relatively certain is that he and his wife, along with some their children, lived in CE and that some of his and Rosalia's children married individuals with ancestry from CE whose surnames are associated with mafia activity in that town and outside of it, including in Canada and the US. I haven't yet established whether Sciara's wife was born in Siculiana, CE, or elsewhere. It should be noted that last century, intermarriage between men and women of different comuni in Sicily was not unheard of, especially when photos became more readily available and affordable to the working poor: a man and woman often got married based on whether they liked the photo of the other person that had been exchanged. This photo exchange was also practised in the diaspora, and it could be the case that the woman was still in Italy, while the man was abroad.
Educational about the photos, great to know that. From what I've found there was more intermarriage between different villages in that part of Agrigento than elsewhere in Western Sicily. Nick Gentile's account shows mafiosi from those villages all saw each other as compaesani. The mafia connection gave even more incentive to intermarry.
Pierre de Champlain has written that Sciara was a made member of the Siculiana Family who fled to Canada to avoid Italian authorities who were searching for him so as to put him in prison and have him undergo the harshest possible conditions again.
Do you think he's one of the members who transferred? Violi was recorded talking about the process for a Sicilian member to transfer to the Bonanno Family in Canada and we know Sciara was a close ally of Violi when he was killed.
Maria Sciara was not present when her father was practically decapitated; only Sciara's wife, Rosalia Triassi, was. On the night he was murdered, Sciara and Rosalia had watched
The Godfather at the then Riviera Theatre owned by Vic Cotroni's sister Palmina Puliafito. Sciara was killed in a parking lot shortly after he and his wife exited the movie theatre (this theatre was later turned into the infamous Solid Gold strip club of which Moreno Gallo was a manager). A newspaper report in
The Gazette (Montreal) that was published almost four weeks after the murder indicates that Sciara's wife grappled with the assailants. A report published two days after the murder, in the same paper, indicated that Sciara's wife was wounded in the right arm and taken to hospital for treatment.
Last century, a Sicilian man of "honour" didn't really need to ask for his future wife's father for her hand in marriage, especially if the father was not involved in mafia activity. (I hope the practice still doesn't exist but I wouldn't be surprised if it does.) The man of "honour" would tell such a father that he was marrying the woman, regardless of the objections her father and other family members might have. The intermarriage of Sicilian men and women from mafia families in different
comuni, in order to strengthen networks, does make sense. For example, Nino Manno of CE married Libertina Caruana of Siculiana.
As for Sciara being a transfer from the Siculiana Family to the Bonanno decina in Montreal, I'm leaning toward no but I am also aware of Sciara's presence at meetings where made men discussed affairs that had an impact on the Bonanno Family. We know that at the same CECO crime probe in Quebec at which Sciara gave testimony, a police offer from Italy testified that Sciara was a member of the mafia. Because Sciara was in Canada illegally, his name doesn't appear on any voter lists such as those found on Ancestry Canada or on other documents that would establish his residence in Quebec; therefore, I don't know whether he was in Canada between 1966 and 1970, the two particular years in which he was deported. I mention all this because Paolo Violi felt that the Bonanno decina in Montreal got shafted by none other than Leonardo Caruana, who was a transfer from the Venezuela Family to the Bonannos in Montreal but carelessly and irresponsibly flitted here and there so much that Violi didn't know Caruana had "transferred" back to the former. I'm not arguing that American LCN Families didn't admit into their families the transfers of made men who either had immigration problems or were fleeing from the authorities; but I'm making the point that the Bonannos might not have viewed Sciara as a good candidate for admission to its decina in Montreal because of his issues.
[quote=B. post_id=230782 time=1654503949 user_id=127]
Incredible work. Way beyond anything I hoped to find.
[quote]2. Girolamo's still-alive sister-in-law Maria Sciara Guarraggi, who is married to Gerlando, is indeed the daughter of the Pietro Sciara who was killed in Montreal on Feb. 14, 1976. She is one of five children born to Sciara and Rosalia Triassi, who was injured but survived when Sciara was gunned down. The most important piece of information that helped confirm the biological relationship -- and I never expected this type of item to be definitive -- will be found at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1032524 ... ia-sciara/.[/quote]
Had no idea a daughter was injured in the shooting, much less this one.
[quote]While now there are various accounts of when the Siculiana-born Sciara moved to Cattolica Eraclea (CE) to live, what is relatively certain is that he and his wife, along with some their children, lived in CE and that some of his and Rosalia's children married individuals with ancestry from CE whose surnames are associated with mafia activity in that town and outside of it, including in Canada and the US. I haven't yet established whether Sciara's wife was born in Siculiana, CE, or elsewhere. It should be noted that last century, intermarriage between men and women of different comuni in Sicily was not unheard of, especially when photos became more readily available and affordable to the working poor: a man and woman often got married based on whether they liked the photo of the other person that had been exchanged. This photo exchange was also practised in the diaspora, and it could be the case that the woman was still in Italy, while the man was abroad.[/quote]
Educational about the photos, great to know that. From what I've found there was more intermarriage between different villages in that part of Agrigento than elsewhere in Western Sicily. Nick Gentile's account shows mafiosi from those villages all saw each other as compaesani. The mafia connection gave even more incentive to intermarry.
[quote]Pierre de Champlain has written that Sciara was a made member of the Siculiana Family who fled to Canada to avoid Italian authorities who were searching for him so as to put him in prison and have him undergo the harshest possible conditions again. [/quote]
Do you think he's one of the members who transferred? Violi was recorded talking about the process for a Sicilian member to transfer to the Bonanno Family in Canada and we know Sciara was a close ally of Violi when he was killed.
[/quote]
Maria Sciara was not present when her father was practically decapitated; only Sciara's wife, Rosalia Triassi, was. On the night he was murdered, Sciara and Rosalia had watched [i]The Godfather[/i] at the then Riviera Theatre owned by Vic Cotroni's sister Palmina Puliafito. Sciara was killed in a parking lot shortly after he and his wife exited the movie theatre (this theatre was later turned into the infamous Solid Gold strip club of which Moreno Gallo was a manager). A newspaper report in [i]The Gazette[/i] (Montreal) that was published almost four weeks after the murder indicates that Sciara's wife grappled with the assailants. A report published two days after the murder, in the same paper, indicated that Sciara's wife was wounded in the right arm and taken to hospital for treatment.
Last century, a Sicilian man of "honour" didn't really need to ask for his future wife's father for her hand in marriage, especially if the father was not involved in mafia activity. (I hope the practice still doesn't exist but I wouldn't be surprised if it does.) The man of "honour" would tell such a father that he was marrying the woman, regardless of the objections her father and other family members might have. The intermarriage of Sicilian men and women from mafia families in different [i]comuni[/i], in order to strengthen networks, does make sense. For example, Nino Manno of CE married Libertina Caruana of Siculiana.
As for Sciara being a transfer from the Siculiana Family to the Bonanno decina in Montreal, I'm leaning toward no but I am also aware of Sciara's presence at meetings where made men discussed affairs that had an impact on the Bonanno Family. We know that at the same CECO crime probe in Quebec at which Sciara gave testimony, a police offer from Italy testified that Sciara was a member of the mafia. Because Sciara was in Canada illegally, his name doesn't appear on any voter lists such as those found on Ancestry Canada or on other documents that would establish his residence in Quebec; therefore, I don't know whether he was in Canada between 1966 and 1970, the two particular years in which he was deported. I mention all this because Paolo Violi felt that the Bonanno decina in Montreal got shafted by none other than Leonardo Caruana, who was a transfer from the Venezuela Family to the Bonannos in Montreal but carelessly and irresponsibly flitted here and there so much that Violi didn't know Caruana had "transferred" back to the former. I'm not arguing that American LCN Families didn't admit into their families the transfers of made men who either had immigration problems or were fleeing from the authorities; but I'm making the point that the Bonannos might not have viewed Sciara as a good candidate for admission to its decina in Montreal because of his issues.