by TinyDog » Mon Jul 10, 2023 2:32 am
From what I gathered after my previous post about the Birmingham, Alabama LCN presence, I've decided to compile all I've managed to dig up on Sammy Cantavespre, but there may be more.
According to PolackTony's research, the Cantavespre family in Birmingham had roots in Bisacquino which was extremely common for Sicilian immigrants to Birmingham during the late 19th and early 20th century. His mother was also a Longo, a name connected to Joe N. Gallo's mother.
For starters, Sammy owned and operated the Sammy's strip club in Birmingham (with sister locations in Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola, Florida) from the 1970s, until his death in 1988 and it's now operated by his wife, Patti.
According to sources I've seen online as well as my own father (who worked in law enforcement in Birmingham during the 1980s), Sammy was well-known to be "mobbed up", though I've been unable to determine the full details of which exact family he was connected to. Bill Bonnano said the Lucchese family ran a lot of operations in Birmingham so Sammy could've been Lucchese connected, though this is all speculation.
Aside from uncredited online blogs claiming Sammy was a "mob boss", the only concrete evidence I've found to tie Sammy to organized crime is the June 11th, 1982 bombing of the New Spot Lounge in Birmingham (something my father remembers as being mob-related somehow). Sammy and three other men were charged, but all acquitted.
Sammy was born March 22, 1928 and died on February 4, 1988.
As for the present day, I do know there are still many Cantavespres around in northwest Alabama, many of them are assimilated Americans from what I can gleam from their Facebook posts. However, it's also worth noting that the Hoover police chief Nick Derzis' fiancée was a Kelle Cantavespre, who was charged with domestic violence against him in 2014.
As for the state of LCN in Birmingham, I personally haven't heard anything that points to there being an active crew present there in the 2020s. However, it's a well known fact that Birmingham's LCN history has historically been very obscure. According to Bill Bonnano, the actual Birmingham crime family was defunct by 1938, but if Sammy Cantavespre is indeed connected to LCN, it'd mean the mafia's presence in Birmingham extends well into the 1980s.
If anyone has any more info on Sammy, please share!
From what I gathered after my previous post about the Birmingham, Alabama LCN presence, I've decided to compile all I've managed to dig up on Sammy Cantavespre, but there may be more.
According to PolackTony's research, the Cantavespre family in Birmingham had roots in Bisacquino which was extremely common for Sicilian immigrants to Birmingham during the late 19th and early 20th century. His mother was also a Longo, a name connected to Joe N. Gallo's mother.
For starters, Sammy owned and operated the Sammy's strip club in Birmingham (with sister locations in Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola, Florida) from the 1970s, until his death in 1988 and it's now operated by his wife, Patti.
According to sources I've seen online as well as my own father (who worked in law enforcement in Birmingham during the 1980s), Sammy was well-known to be "mobbed up", though I've been unable to determine the full details of which exact family he was connected to. Bill Bonnano said the Lucchese family ran a lot of operations in Birmingham so Sammy could've been Lucchese connected, though this is all speculation.
Aside from uncredited online blogs claiming Sammy was a "mob boss", the only concrete evidence I've found to tie Sammy to organized crime is the June 11th, 1982 bombing of the New Spot Lounge in Birmingham (something my father remembers as being mob-related somehow). Sammy and three other men were charged, but all acquitted.
Sammy was born March 22, 1928 and died on February 4, 1988.
As for the present day, I do know there are still many Cantavespres around in northwest Alabama, many of them are assimilated Americans from what I can gleam from their Facebook posts. However, it's also worth noting that the Hoover police chief Nick Derzis' fiancée was a Kelle Cantavespre, who was charged with domestic violence against him in 2014.
As for the state of LCN in Birmingham, I personally haven't heard anything that points to there being an active crew present there in the 2020s. However, it's a well known fact that Birmingham's LCN history has historically been very obscure. According to Bill Bonnano, the actual Birmingham crime family was defunct by 1938, but if Sammy Cantavespre is indeed connected to LCN, it'd mean the mafia's presence in Birmingham extends well into the 1980s.
If anyone has any more info on Sammy, please share!