THE BLACK HAND FORUM

Interestingly, the Chicago Mafia and the Unione Siciliana/IANU were very pro-Fascist. Tony Lombardo was well-known for his support of Fascism. Maybe part of their mission was to convince Lombardo to change his opinion of Mussolini. The evidence is limited so I don't know if he ultimately changed his mind, likewise for Bernardo Barasa, the National President. On the New York end, Bonanno underboss Frank Garofalo supported Fascism and had Carlo Tresca killed.

[quote=PolackTony post_id=269527 time=1698267998 user_id=6658]
Pennino also recounts that Antonino "Nene" Passannante (who may have been the Bonanno member) and the father of Pennino's friend and colleague Giovanni Lo Iacono were sent to Chicago by the Partinico mafia to "organize abroad against the [Fascist] regime".
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After returning to Sicily and being a suspect in the Petrosino murder, Passananti was linked in the early 1920s to San Giuseppe Jato boss Santo Termini in helping arrange fake passports. In May 1924 he visited his cousin Salvatore Grippi in Brooklyn, who was Nicolo Schiro's brother-in-law, then he returned to Sicily and came back in December 1924 with his wife and children, again arriving to Grippi.

On the second trip he and his family list their last permanent residence as Brooklyn whereas on his solo trip some months earlier he listed his last permanent residence as Partinico. Both of his children, the youngest being five at the time, are listed on the December manifest as being born in Partinico. So it looks like during the May 1924 trip Passananti was planning to live in Brooklyn again and on the December trip brought his family to live with him. The indication is that they were going to stay or live with Grippi. If Passananti did end up living/staying in the US again for a period it seems he would have rejoined the Bonannos under Schiro.

The timing of his arrival in 1924/1925 fits the period the real mass exodus started of mafiosi fleeing Fascism, including his friends in San Giuseppe Jato. No indication he was "sent to Chicago" though he could have traveled there after returning to Brooklyn. I don't know what it would mean for him to organize against Fascism in Chicago or New York for that matter but it does seem likely he at least fled Fascism for a time especially given he was in trouble for the passport scheme and surfaced in Mori's investigation into the highly-scrutinized San Giuseppe Jato Family and their close links to Partinico. Partinico was also identified in those investigations as the most violent Family in the area and Partinico/Borgetto carried out murder contracts for other neighboring Families. Future Bonanno consigliere Filippo Rappa in Borgetto was one of the known killers/conspirators and he left around this time too.

So Pennino is at least right that Passananti left Sicily for America again and it likely involved Fascism. Be crazy though if he really did "organize" against Fascism in Chicago.

[quote=B. post_id=269617 time=1698379547 user_id=127]
I've mentioned it before, but murdered Chicago boss Rosario DiSpenza's estate listed a "D.Catalano" and "A.Catalano". "D" is probably Domenico, the Chicago member and paesan of DiSpenza who was close to Gentile. If he was listed on the estate he must have been a relative or otherwise extremely close to DiSpenza.

I'm sure in tiny Ciminna the later generations of mafiosi were well-aware of these mythical paesans who went to the United States and became important figures in the developing American mafia, especially if there was relation. I doubt it's a coincidence that Saca Catalano was in a position to know who Toto LoVerde was and to have heard a story that challenges Nicola Gentile's version of events. Makes you wonder what else Catalano was told about early Chicago -- he just happened to share this because Gioacchino Pennino was the nephew of Toto LoVerde but he must have known things about his own paesani in Chicago as well.
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The first thing that came to mind for me was what he may have known about Gaetano Oneglia.

I've mentioned it before, but murdered Chicago boss Rosario DiSpenza's estate listed a "D.Catalano" and "A.Catalano". "D" is probably Domenico, the Chicago member and paesan of DiSpenza who was close to Gentile. If he was listed on the estate he must have been a relative or otherwise extremely close to DiSpenza.

I'm sure in tiny Ciminna the later generations of mafiosi were well-aware of these mythical paesans who went to the United States and became important figures in the developing American mafia, especially if there was relation. I doubt it's a coincidence that Saca Catalano was in a position to know who Toto LoVerde was and to have heard a story that challenges Nicola Gentile's version of events. Makes you wonder what else Catalano was told about early Chicago -- he just happened to share this because Gioacchino Pennino was the nephew of Toto LoVerde but he must have known things about his own paesani in Chicago as well.

Tony has long spread misinformation about the reason behind Saca Catalano's immigration to the United States.

[quote=CabriniGreen post_id=269559 time=1698305607 user_id=5378]
[quote=motorfab post_id=269554 time=1698297048 user_id=5417]
Salvatore Catalano moved to the US after the police repression due to the Ciaculli Massacre, so after 1963. I think I read somewhere it was in 1965 or 1967. Not sure for Saca (the cousin), but it's probably the same timeline
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I think it 64.

But some of the guys like PolakTony disagree. He says it was part of natural immigration patterns, or the second immigration wave or something.


I don't really agree, but I'm not a researcher, I don't see the point in arguing.
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I don't recall ever making any argument one way or the other about why Sal Catalano emigrated to the US.

FWIW, I also wouldn't necessarily disagree that he may have fled, as Buscetta claimed, given the timing. There were definitely men who fled Sicily during this period due to the "war" and consequent LE pressure, just as in earlier periods there were mafiosi who fled justice or vendette to the US. My point would be that these things didn't happen in a vacuum and men who fled for various reasons didn't come blindly to the US, but rather followed paths and routes that their compaesani also tred. With respect to the Catalanos, I think it's important to know that in both earlier and later immigration waves, the Cimminesi settled primarily in NYC and Chicago. In colonies of settlement, these men moved not just within the mafia networks, but also broader and intersecting networks of paesani. Thus, during the same period that these two Salvatore Catalanos came to the US, other Catalanos who were likely related to them settled in Chicago and were active in the Societa Santa Crocifissa (to be clear, this is not to argue that these Chicago Catalanos were necessarily involved with the mafia themselves in any significant way, but that they were active within social networks that mafiosi both in the US and abroad presumably also participated within). This could be relevant as part of the broader context to some of the things that we're interested in, given that Sal Catalano had ties to Chicago and his cousin was discussing events that occurred in Chicago in the early 1930s decades later. As with many of these things, there isn't just one "cause" for a specific event, but multiple factors, operating at both more immediate and more distant levels of cause and effect. In this case, Sal Catalano may well have fled Sicily due to LE pressure, but this also happened within a broader context that would have shaped his experience in the US.

Well, as we are all here to lean from each others I don't want to argue with anyone or enter into an old dispute, but when Buscetta left Mexico to briefly go to Canada in 1969, he explains that it was Catalano who introduced him to the mafiosi already there (among others, the Cuntreras, I talk about it in the last article on my blog), so we are sure that he was in the USA at that time.

I would have to double-check in the Arlacchi/Buscetta book, but I believe that Buscetta adds that Catalano fled Italy because of the repression of the Ciaculli massacre.

Not everything Buscetta says in the book is true (some facts are arranged so that he tries to appear "honorable"), but barring a mistake I don't see why he would lie about this point.

But like I said, it's possibly a mistake so why not?

[quote=motorfab post_id=269554 time=1698297048 user_id=5417]
Salvatore Catalano moved to the US after the police repression due to the Ciaculli Massacre, so after 1963. I think I read somewhere it was in 1965 or 1967. Not sure for Saca (the cousin), but it's probably the same timeline
[/quote]


I think it 64.

But some of the guys like PolakTony disagree. He says it was part of natural immigration patterns, or the second immigration wave or something.


I don't really agree, but I'm not a researcher, I don't see the point in arguing.

Salvatore Catalano moved to the US after the police repression due to the Ciaculli Massacre, so after 1963. I think I read somewhere it was in 1965 or 1967. Not sure for Saca (the cousin), but it's probably the same timeline

The cousin lived in NYC and was made in Ciminna but closely associated with the Gambino Family. He was close to Carlo Gambino and Buscetta. He and Onofrio attended the Bono wedding, as did their cousin Toto.

Sacha Catalano is in the back left and Onofrio is sitting in the center:

[img]https://theblackhand.club/forum/download/file.php?id=9993&mode=view[/img]

[quote=B. post_id=269536 time=1698276454 user_id=127]
Just to clarify about Catalano, Pennino seems to be referring not to the Bonanno leader Toto Catalano but his cousin Salvatore who was called "Sacha" (though he calls him Toto here). Later he says he met with Catalano and his brother Onofrio. Onofrio was Sacha's brother and the boss of Ciminna at one point.
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I was wondering. The timeline wasn’t clear to me but it wouldn’t make sense that this would’ve occured after Sal Catalano was released from prison, as Pennino had flipped years before that.

When/where in the US did the other Salvatore Catalano lived?

Just to clarify about Catalano, Pennino seems to be referring not to the Bonanno leader Toto Catalano but his cousin Salvatore who was called "Sacha" (though he calls him Toto here). Later he says he met with Catalano and his brother Onofrio. Onofrio was Sacha's brother and the boss of Ciminna at one point.

Also the text says that the Stefano Bontà on the above list is the grandfather of well-known Santa Maria di Gesu boss Stefano Bontate. So Bontà appears to be another variation of the Bontate/Bontade name. We know Stefano's father Francesco Paolo was a boss there as well.

Amazing that LoVerde was a peer of these guys.

Pennino testified that his cousin Dr. Salvatore LoVerde was consigliere di provincia. He appears to be referring to "legitimate" political office, not the mafia provincial rank (pentiti have testified that the mafia provincial structure includes the capo di provincia, sottocapo di provincia, and consigliere di provincia).

Looking at the 1928 list again, I think all of the names may have been considered leaders/bosses and Contorno could have been a higher-level regional leader.

LoVerde held mafia meetings at a glass factory in Romagnolo and controlled hiring there.

While it seems unexpected for Toto Catalano to be gossiping about Nicola Gentile and the murder of a Chicago boss in 1931, this adds to the likelihood that he was related to the Chicago member Domenico Catalano from Ciminna who was friends with Gentile and involved with the issue between Paolo Torino and D'Andrea. Torino was from Ciminna also. Domenico was alive for a long time after LoVerde was killed so he would have been well-aware of what took place.

For these guys with lineages in Sicily I'm sure these big names and events were ever-relevant given the many threads connecting them.

We discussed this recently, but Luciano Contorno may likely have been related to Loverde as well, as several of LoVerde's relatives from Brancaccio who immigrated to Chicago were intermarried with Contornos.

In summary, LoVerde first immigrated to Chicago, where a number of his relatives had settled around Ohio and Aberdeen in the Grand Ave Patch, when he was 17. He gave his address in Palermo at this time on Via Corso dei Mille, the thoroughfare between the neighboring Brancaccio and Romagnolo districts. It's unclear how long he remained in Chicago, but at some point he returned to Palermo and became an important leader in the mafia in the Brancaccio/Santa Maria di Gesu area, noted by Mori in 1928 as a "capomafia" of the Romagnolo district (whether this was a separate Family or a decina or faction under Brancaccio at the time is unclear). Apart from his in-laws being important leaders in the local mafia, a possible relative of his mother was boss of SMG and another likely relative was listed as the rappresentante of Brancaccio. He also had several LoVerde relatives in Chicago's Grand Ave neighborhood involved in murders during the 1920s, including the cousins that I noted previously who were suspected of having assassinated a CPD officer investigating "syndicate" activities. At some point during the late 1920s, he returns to Chicago. The pentito Gioacchino Pennino recalls that his grandfather "sent" LoVerde to Chicago. Given the timing, during the Fascist assault on the mafia, LoVerde may have been escaping justice, hence his use of the false identity of "Augustus LaVerde" on his documents in Chicago. Pennino also recounts that Antonino "Nene" Passannante (who may have been the Bonanno member) and the father of Pennino's friend and colleague Giovanni Lo Iacono were sent to Chicago by the Partinico mafia to "organize abroad against the [Fascist] regime".

We know that Nick Gentile claimed that LoVerde and Pittsburgh's Siragusa were murdered following Maranzano's death in retaliation for hving secretly colluded with the latter (Gentile, again, served on the "peace commission" tasked with arbitrating the conflict with these two and painted himself as having been the only one who remained faithful to its objectives of impartiality, while the others were beholden to Maranzano, in conversation with Paul Ricca.

Interestingly, however, Pennino addresses this. Pennino said that he befriended Toto Catalano shortly after he had returned to Sicily, where Catalano had set himself up selling Persian rugs in the Adduara district of Palermo. Pennino claimed that Catalano told him of "Nick the Traitor", and how Gentile had, by "reporting falsehoods, caused the murder of my uncle Salvatore Lo Verde [...] during the mafia war [...] between Massaria [sic] and Maranzano". As a reminder, we know that Catalano himself had connections to Chicago, where his paesan' Ross Prio had been a powerful capodecina.

Unfortunately, we only have access to Pennino's book, which is out of print, via Google Books, which only gives a small preview of it and a later page likely containing important information about LoVerde is not accessible.

[img]https://theblackhand.club/forum/ext/dmzx/imageupload/files/02437ab60c3a5a4f0e0829b5e8bfe055.png[/img]