THE BLACK HAND FORUM

[quote=JoelTurner post_id=257079 time=1679665228 user_id=7603]
Someone who may have started out as an associate of the Philly Trenton group was Charles Tourine.

- In 1939, he was arrested with Michael Cammarata, Carl Ippolito, and Frank Pollastrelli.
[/quote]

I got this backwards.

Per Angelo Bruno; Mike “Daylight” Tramontana, Mike “Ponzi” Cammarata, and Carl “Pappy” Ippolito used to be on Richie Boiardo’s payroll.

Tourine wasn’t associating with the Trenton-Philly group, those future members were with the Boiardo gang.

This was their Jul 8 1939 arrest:

[img]https://theblackhand.club/forum/ext/dmzx/imageupload/files/e22f677e7cc59ee76aa4d3138a02be54.jpeg[/img]

Here’s a DeCavalcante member: [b]John “Tracey” Giordano[/b]

[img]https://theblackhand.club/forum/ext/dmzx/imageupload/files/e0eba1edd3b0f0a8c83ec327e3d31640.jpeg[/img]

Did [b]Frank DeCavalcante [/b] attend the University of Vermont?

In 1963, they held a 50th reunion for the class of 1913. Here’s him listed as an alumni:

[img]https://theblackhand.club/forum/ext/dmzx/imageupload/files/da581d08ea3019ce19bbd27ba7b117c1.jpeg[/img]

(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/110154244/frank-decavalcante-graduated/)

He was born ~1890, so the age checks out in terms of when he would have graduated.

————-

My guess is that it was someone related to them, but not his father.

Thanks for the explanations, I really wasn’t thinking on those lines

[quote=JoelTurner post_id=239426 time=1664025334 user_id=7603]
I guess I had never actually looked into Caponigro’s background before, just assumed he was Calabrian.

[quote=B. post_id=239397 time=1663988987 user_id=127]
Might be like non-Sicilians who people thought were Sicilian because they came up in that faction.
[/quote]

Like who?
[/quote]

Leonetti said the Changs were "Siggies" and I think the Narduccis too. Both came up around the Sicilians which might explain it for the reasons Tony said about the Calabrians. Scarfo and Leonetti seem to have seen people that way based on who they associated with and the mentality they had.

You had guys with heritage from Messina in both groups too. Like the Testas were seen as very Sicilian in Philly but when Bruno went to Sicily he asked about their hometown and found it had no Cosa Nostra presence. Testas didn't come from the "tradition" like most of the Sicilian faction but were still seen that way, but there were Messinese guys in with the Calabrians too which makes sense.

[quote=JoelTurner post_id=239394 time=1663987238 user_id=7603]

5) “Campanna” is Campania? I was not expecting that at all. Wasn’t Caponigro a Calabrian leader?

—————-

There’s so much information available on Caponigro yet I feel like I know less than I did a few hours ago. I don’t even know what to say.

I’m still stuck on the fact they had two kids named Tony, that’s wild
[/quote]
Hometown should be Campagna, Salerno province, Campania. The Chicago connection is unsurprising, as there were a bunch of immigrants from Campagna in Chicago, including some Caponigros (Campagna is also in the vicinity of Oliveto Citra, which had a major colony in Chicago).

Caponigro was “politically Calabrese”, within the context of Philly family politics. As CC has made clear in his ‘63 Philly thread, what people called the Calabrese faction included Abruzzesi, Messinesi, Napolitani. My take is that it was a faction within the Family that was led and defined by Calabresi but encompassed the men who came from non-traditional backgrounds (I.e., not from mafia paesani networks derived from West/Central Sicily).

Having two sons with the same given name in a family is also something one sees sometimes looking into these old families. Typically, it happened because each one was actually named after different relatives from different sides of the family (e.g., if both the mother and father had a relative named Antonio).

I guess I had never actually looked into Caponigro’s background before, just assumed he was Calabrian.

[quote=B. post_id=239397 time=1663988987 user_id=127]
Might be like non-Sicilians who people thought were Sicilian because they came up in that faction.
[/quote]

Like who?

I think Fresolone or Nick Crow said Caponigro was choice of the Calabrian faction for consigliere and I guess we assumed. The Anastasia stuff played into it too.

Might be like non-Sicilians who people thought were Sicilian because they came up in that faction.

The Caponigro family moved around a lot.

Check out his father Rocco’s Declaration of Intention:

[img]https://theblackhand.club/forum/ext/dmzx/imageupload/files/0b6d8518397baa12f24ae14f982082ce.jpeg[/img]

———————

- Rocco — Born March 10 1891 in “Campanna”, Italy
- Antoinette — Born in 1905, in “Campanna”, Italy
- They got married on [b]9-17-22[/b]
- Antonio — Born June 22 1912 in Chicago, IL
- Anthony — Born May 1917 in Englishport, IL
- Susan — Born July 1920 in Philadelphia, PA
- Last foreign residence was Campanna, Illinois

———————

There’s so much weird stuff, I barely know where to start.

1) He claims he got married in 1922 in Newark. This does not match his records showing that he got married in Philadelphia in 1919.

(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-D4X9-SGY?cc=1589502&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQ285-M6Q8).

Either ways Antonio Caponigro was born out of wedlock.

2) In the 1920 census, he lists Antoinette as his wife. They also had a daughter, Victoria, who was born ~1909 in New Jersey. This also means that the 1922 wasn’t a typo for 1912

(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFTC-N2R)

3) I couldn’t find an Englishport in Illinois/Indiana/Pennsylvania. In the 1920 Census, Anthony’s listed as being born in Pennsylvania.

(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFTC-NLM)

However, in the 1930 Census, he’s listed as being born in Indiana.

(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4DB-XSW)

4) He lists Susan as being born in Philadelphia. In the 1950 Census, she says she was born in Indiana.

((https://www.ancestry.ca/discoveryui-content/view/167248620:62308)

5) “Campanna” is Campania? I was not expecting that at all. Wasn’t Caponigro a Calabrian leader?

—————-

There’s so much information available on Caponigro yet I feel like I know less than I did a few hours ago. I don’t even know what to say.

I’m still stuck on the fact they had two kids named Tony, that’s wild

Awesome find.

What's weird is he lived in Philly during his late youth and as you found was active in Trenton, which would later oversee the Newark members of the Philly Family, but somehow he ended up on record with Albert Anastasia (both Fresolone and Licata said this) before being released to Philly.

Was he an associate of the Gambino Family's Trenton crew originally or what exactly happened?

Antonio “Tony Bananas” Caponigro’s first arrest was in Trenton. He would have been ~16.

[img]https://theblackhand.club/forum/ext/dmzx/imageupload/files/c3b38da31cedaa8a1f2651c9dc60c493.jpeg[/img]

—————

He was arrested again in Trenton in 1934

[img]https://theblackhand.club/forum/ext/dmzx/imageupload/files/8b84bc2f18c2454b0a5e8833ea83b01a.jpeg[/img]

I can see him being w/ Philly since he attended the meeting where John Bazzano was condemned and killed. The other two PA Families and Buffalo were repped but Philly is absent. If he was a Gambino soldier I'm not sure why he'd need to attend from Trenton but it could go either way.

This is him in 1932:

[img]https://i.ibb.co/5rVHCzT/giallombardo1.png[/img]

I wasn’t able to find much on Pietro Giallombardo. I think this was his 1930 census (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4XJ-XZ4) which would make his birth ~1886.

Going by what was said in the Newark family thread about his ties to Traina and his brother being a Gambino member, my guess is that he was the one who started their presence in Trenton.

Other Philly members:

Vincenzo Gioe
Salvatore Gioe
Michele Maggio
Giuseppe Maggio

Maggios later moved.

[b][u]Trenton Members:[/u][/b]

[b]Philadelphia Family:[/b]

-Albert Pontani - 1927-93
-Carl Ippolito - 1908-85
-Charles Costello - 1910-94
-Frank Pollastrelli - 1907-86
-John Simone - 1911-80
-Joseph Altimari - 1939-04
-Joseph Costello - 1925-64
-Joseph Costello - 1932-07
-Michael Amico - 1904-71
-Michael Cammerota - 1927-64
-Michael Tramonatana - 1908-79
-Pasquale Spirito - 1939-83

[b]Gambino Family:[/b]

-Anthony Tassone - 1926-09
-Andrew Avellino - 1912-63
-Joseph Farinella - 1930-01
-Nicholas Russo - 1910-85

These members were a part of the Brooklyn based Aurello-Gravano crew

[b]DeCavalcante Family[/b]

-Frank DeCavalcante - 1890-50
-Girolamo Guarraggi - 1949-21
-Sam DeCavalcante - 1912-97

[b]Unclear:[/b]

-Ignazio DiGirolamo - 1935-2004
-Pietro Giallombardo