by B. » Tue Oct 31, 2023 1:58 pm
We were discussing the Catalanos in the LoVerde thread so I wanted to start a thread on them to see what all we know about them.
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- Toto Catalano was born in Ciminna in 1941 and is said to have come to NYC in 1966 where along with his brothers he engaged in legitimate business, starting a bakery and pizzeria at some point. He may have fled the post-Ciaculli pressure that provoked many mafia-linked figures into leaving for other countries though this intersected with the second wave of Italian immigration, organic reasons prompting many Sicilians to emigrate.
- Sal Vitale said one of the reasons Catalano was taken down as acting boss of the Bonannos is because he was originally made in Italy and there was a belief that members made overseas had split loyalties. Obviously Catalano was welcomed into the Bonanno Family and there doesn't seem to have been an issue with him being a capodecina but I guess, if we take Vitale's info into account, there were misgivings in 1980s NYC about an acting boss having been first made in Sicily. Other sources have given his limited English as a reason for stepping down.
- A 1989 Congressional report also says Catalano was a member of the Ciminna Family and a "street boss" of the Bonannos. He hasn't been identified at any of the known 1970s Bonanno ceremonies so it does seem possible he was made in Ciminna and transferred given we know formal transfers were possible. There is also Rosario Naimo's info about Paul Castellano asking Partinico boss Nene Geraci for permission to bring Sicilian members into his organization and multiple NYC Families subsequently being allowed to bring ten Sicilian mafia members in.
- Catalano's cousins Salvatore "Saca" and Onofrio Catalano are confirmed to have been made in Ciminna but didn't transfer. Like Toto, Saca moved to NYC in the 1960s where he associated with the Gambino Family and helped arrange Buscetta's entry and stay in North America and New York with assistance from Carlo Gambino. Saca was linked to a drug trafficking network in the early 1970s between the US, Sicily, Montreal and Mexico along with Bonanno member Frank Cotroni, Boccadifalco member Filippo Casamento, Porta Nuova member Tommaso Buscetta, and San Giuseppe Jato member Alfredo Bono. Saca Catalano's phone number was found in Gambino member Riccard Cefalu's phone book after the latter's 1981 arrest and they also found a note with Saca's cousin Sal's phone number in Cefalu's possession.
- Sal, Domenico, and Vito's father was named Pietro and Saca and Onofrio's father was named Antonino. I assume they were brothers but am not positive whether the two sets of Catalanos were first cousins though that is my assumption.
- Tommaso Buscetta provided a list of Sicilian mafia members and bosses for various Families during his cooperation and for Ciminna a "Giuseppe Catalano" was listed as Ciminna boss with Saca Catalano as a member. He didn't list Saca's brother Onofrio who we know became Ciminna boss, so was this a mistake and he was referring to Onofrio or was there an actual Giuseppe Catalano who had also been boss of Ciminna?
- At some point Saca spent time back in Palermo selling rugs where he met Dr. Gioacchino Pennino and talked to him about Nicola Gentile and Pennino's uncle Toto LoVerde, an early Chicago boss murdered in 1931. It's possible the Catalanos are related to early Chicago member Domenico Catalano from Ciminna or otherwise had connections to the Chicago Ciminna colony which could explain him knowing these details. Pennino also met with Saca's brother Onofrio Catalano who became boss of Ciminna. Sal Catalano also had ties to Chicago according to cooperator Luigi Ronsisvalle.
- Toto, Saca, and Onofrio Catalano all attended Giuseppe Bono's 1980 NYC wedding. Sal's brothers Vito and Domenico also attended. The Sixth Family says Toto's brothers were also mafia members but I've never seen evidence of that although the brothers obviously had deep social and familial links to the mafia. Sal and his brothers are at a table with Bonanno member Santo Giordano and associate Domenico Tartamella while Saca and Onofrio are photographed at a table with San Giuseppe Jato member Giuseppe Ganci, Bagheria member Francesco Castronovo, and member (which Family?) Gaetano Mazzara, the latter of which was murdered in the mid-1980s.
- At some point in the mid-to-late 1970s Sal Catalano took over the decina of Pietro Licata, who was identified as a mafia member in San Cipirello during the 1930s by the Fascist government. Buscetta testified that Saca Catalano told him around 1974 that his cousin was a capodecina in the Bonanno Family but it's likely his timeline was off, as Catalano would have been promoted in 1976 at the earliest. Licata dealt with extensive legal issues in Sicily over the years due to his involvement with the Sicilian mafia before ultimately moving to the US. It's not known who exactly recruited Catalano into the Bonannos but Licata is a good candidate as they were both from outlying Palermo towns and were tapped into Cosa Nostra there. Most of what's known of their crew has roots in Castellammare and Trapani, previous captain Giuseppe Buccellato likely having been made in Sicily too and crew member Santo Giordano being the marital nephew of Castellammare leader Nino Buccellato and the son of a Castellammare member. Licata's son Giovanni continued to closely associate with Catalano after his father's murder, even traveling to Sicily, and was eventually made into the Bonannos in the 1990s.
- It is believed Sal Catalano was part of the conspiracy to murder Carmine Galante in 1979. Crew member Santo Giordano's fingerprint was found on the car used in the murder and may have been the man observed standing guard by the car with a rifle while the massacre took place. Ater the murder, Lefty Ruggiero told Joe Pistone that Catalano was now "street boss of the zips". In this capacity he look to have provided de facto representation to the NYC-based Sicilians in the Bonanno Family, Sicilians in the Montreal decina, and Sicilian men of honor living in the states who affiliated with the Bonannos.
- By Fall of 1980, Sal is elected acting boss of the Bonannos and is observed meeting with Paul Castellano. Some have alleged this was in connection with heroin trafficking but it appears it was actually related to the murder of Vito Borelli, with Catalano seeing the murder as an opportunity to regain the Bonanno Family's standing in New York by assisting Castellano. Catalano's role as acting boss was temporary as by the time of the three captains murder in Spring of 1981 he has stepped down, reasons including limited English and what Vitale said about Catalano's prior affiliation with Sicily. Rising tension between the Giaccone-Indelicato faction and the Rastelli loyalists may have played a role too, the Sicilians finally siding with the Rastelli group by May of 1981.
- Catalano's role by 1981 is less clear. He presumably remains capodecina of the "Knickerbocker" crew but in May 1981 Santo Giordano, a member from that crew, is identified by Massino as a capodecina himself. Was Giordano an acting captain for Catalano, did he officially take over the same crew, or was he promoted independently? Massino also said Giordano was helping run the Family. Catalano remains a leading figure in international heroin trafficking operations but I can't recall anyone saying specifically what his official status was in the Bonannos between 1981 and 1984.
- Sal Catalano was revealed to be the operational leader of the US side of the Pizza Connection heroin network. He traveled to Sicily in this capacity and supervised / facilitated operations in America with his power extending internationally in collaboration with other factions including most prominently shelved former Cinisi boss Gaetano Badalamenti and his relatives. The operation included countless made members of the Sicilian mafia as well as members of the Bonanno Family and it intersected with Gambino-linked figures as well. I won't go into much more detail as this network is well-known and heavily publicized.
- At some point, Catalano visits Sicily where he is said to have married a woman whose surname is also Catalano, her father and brother being named Salvatore like Sal and his cousin Saca. I don't know if this was a blood relative but it is significant that Sal returned to Sicily to marry a paesan in his hometown.
- One of Sal Catalano's known hangouts was the Grimaldi Bakery in Ridgewood. He and Giuseppe Ganci were seen there frequently. On one occasion, the FBI surveilled Riccardo Cefalu in a car outside while Ganci met with Vito Grimaldi inside the bakery. It's known from another source that Domenico Cefalu was also close to the Bonanno members in Queens. The 1981 heroin case showed that the Cefalus were partnered with members of the Brancaccio Family in Palermo.
- Giuseppe Ganci was one of Sal Catalano's closest associates, this being well-known thanks to the Pizza Connection case. Ganci was a capodecina in the San Giuseppe Jato Family (a comune that adjoins Pietro Licata's hometown San Cipirello) and Ganci had previously been business partners in an NYC pizzeria with San Giuseppe Jato boss Antonino Salamone before Salamone moved to Brazil. Ganci was also a close associate of DeCavalcante capodecina Frank Polizzi who was a paesan from San Giuseppe Jato and related to Bonanno elder Tony Riela. Ganci and Sal Catalano also ran a pizzeria together and were completely inseparable.
- A source reported that Sal Catalano used a small airplane piloted by a friend of Cesare Bonventre for drug trafficking. This could be Santo Giordano who owned his own small airplane and piloted it. He was from Castellammare like Bonventre and in Catalano's crew. He participated in the Carmine Galante murder, helped set up the 1981 three captains murder where he was crippled by friendly fire, then later died in a plane crash.
- In 1983, Saca Catalano was murdered in New York by someone riding in his car with him. Some published accounts say Sal Catalano likely ordered his cousin's murder because Saca was using heroin and that Cesare Bonventre was believed to be the killer. This is certainly possible but I'm not sure what the original source is and there are many reasons Saca Catalano might have been targeted during this period given he was a close friend of Buscetta and that circle was under threat by the Corleonesi even in the US. I've read online that his brother Onofrio (Ciminna boss) was also part of an anti-Corleonese faction and may have been murdered though I haven't found much about his involvement in the conflict or established the facts.
- Sal Catalano is given a massive prison sentence in the Pizza Connection case and little is known of his communication with active members during his incarceration. Cesare Bonventre is killed in 1984 for defying Rastelli and much of Catalano's circle is incarcerated. Elements of the Sicilian faction remain through capodecina Gerlando Sciascia, Baldo Amato, and select others. Sciascia spent periods on the Family's ruling panel but overall the Sicilian faction's influence was limited. We know some form of Sicilian faction has re-emerged in the Bonannos with ties to the Castellammare Family but the members are mainly younger and Catalano's name has not been linked to them.
- After his release from prison, Catalano returns to his native Ciminna where he currently lives. In 2016, Catalano attended the funeral for Frank Cali's mother in Ciminna, where she came from. She was a Scimeca which is a common name there.
- In 2018, Catalano was surveilled driving from Ciminna to Passo di Rigano where he met with boss Tommaso Inzerillo. Just moments before, Inzerillo had been with Francesco and Giovanni Inzerillo but took a walk to meet with Catalano. Along with being Passo di Rigano boss, Tommaso was also arrested in the subsequent case that netted members of the Gambino-Inzerillo clan in the US and Sicily. Though Catalano has not been linked to criminal activity and his attendance at the Cali funeral may have been social or familial in nature, his meeting with Inzerillo shows that he remains tapped into the mafia network especially the dominant NYC-Palermo branch under Passo di Rigano/Torretta figures.
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I'm hoping someone can provide more detail on Onofrio Catalano and exactly what he was up to and what his fate was after becoming Ciminna boss. I'm also curious if someone can confirm a Giuseppe Catalano was another Ciminna boss or if this was a mistake and it referred to Onofrio. I don't think anyone would be surprised if other Catalanos were members and leaders in Ciminna but it is difficult to find info on the small Family there.
We were discussing the Catalanos in the LoVerde thread so I wanted to start a thread on them to see what all we know about them.
--
- Toto Catalano was born in Ciminna in 1941 and is said to have come to NYC in 1966 where along with his brothers he engaged in legitimate business, starting a bakery and pizzeria at some point. He may have fled the post-Ciaculli pressure that provoked many mafia-linked figures into leaving for other countries though this intersected with the second wave of Italian immigration, organic reasons prompting many Sicilians to emigrate.
- Sal Vitale said one of the reasons Catalano was taken down as acting boss of the Bonannos is because he was originally made in Italy and there was a belief that members made overseas had split loyalties. Obviously Catalano was welcomed into the Bonanno Family and there doesn't seem to have been an issue with him being a capodecina but I guess, if we take Vitale's info into account, there were misgivings in 1980s NYC about an acting boss having been first made in Sicily. Other sources have given his limited English as a reason for stepping down.
- A 1989 Congressional report also says Catalano was a member of the Ciminna Family and a "street boss" of the Bonannos. He hasn't been identified at any of the known 1970s Bonanno ceremonies so it does seem possible he was made in Ciminna and transferred given we know formal transfers were possible. There is also Rosario Naimo's info about Paul Castellano asking Partinico boss Nene Geraci for permission to bring Sicilian members into his organization and multiple NYC Families subsequently being allowed to bring ten Sicilian mafia members in.
- Catalano's cousins Salvatore "Saca" and Onofrio Catalano are confirmed to have been made in Ciminna but didn't transfer. Like Toto, Saca moved to NYC in the 1960s where he associated with the Gambino Family and helped arrange Buscetta's entry and stay in North America and New York with assistance from Carlo Gambino. Saca was linked to a drug trafficking network in the early 1970s between the US, Sicily, Montreal and Mexico along with Bonanno member Frank Cotroni, Boccadifalco member Filippo Casamento, Porta Nuova member Tommaso Buscetta, and San Giuseppe Jato member Alfredo Bono. Saca Catalano's phone number was found in Gambino member Riccard Cefalu's phone book after the latter's 1981 arrest and they also found a note with Saca's cousin Sal's phone number in Cefalu's possession.
- Sal, Domenico, and Vito's father was named Pietro and Saca and Onofrio's father was named Antonino. I assume they were brothers but am not positive whether the two sets of Catalanos were first cousins though that is my assumption.
- Tommaso Buscetta provided a list of Sicilian mafia members and bosses for various Families during his cooperation and for Ciminna a "Giuseppe Catalano" was listed as Ciminna boss with Saca Catalano as a member. He didn't list Saca's brother Onofrio who we know became Ciminna boss, so was this a mistake and he was referring to Onofrio or was there an actual Giuseppe Catalano who had also been boss of Ciminna?
- At some point Saca spent time back in Palermo selling rugs where he met Dr. Gioacchino Pennino and talked to him about Nicola Gentile and Pennino's uncle Toto LoVerde, an early Chicago boss murdered in 1931. It's possible the Catalanos are related to early Chicago member Domenico Catalano from Ciminna or otherwise had connections to the Chicago Ciminna colony which could explain him knowing these details. Pennino also met with Saca's brother Onofrio Catalano who became boss of Ciminna. Sal Catalano also had ties to Chicago according to cooperator Luigi Ronsisvalle.
- Toto, Saca, and Onofrio Catalano all attended Giuseppe Bono's 1980 NYC wedding. Sal's brothers Vito and Domenico also attended. The Sixth Family says Toto's brothers were also mafia members but I've never seen evidence of that although the brothers obviously had deep social and familial links to the mafia. Sal and his brothers are at a table with Bonanno member Santo Giordano and associate Domenico Tartamella while Saca and Onofrio are photographed at a table with San Giuseppe Jato member Giuseppe Ganci, Bagheria member Francesco Castronovo, and member (which Family?) Gaetano Mazzara, the latter of which was murdered in the mid-1980s.
- At some point in the mid-to-late 1970s Sal Catalano took over the decina of Pietro Licata, who was identified as a mafia member in San Cipirello during the 1930s by the Fascist government. Buscetta testified that Saca Catalano told him around 1974 that his cousin was a capodecina in the Bonanno Family but it's likely his timeline was off, as Catalano would have been promoted in 1976 at the earliest. Licata dealt with extensive legal issues in Sicily over the years due to his involvement with the Sicilian mafia before ultimately moving to the US. It's not known who exactly recruited Catalano into the Bonannos but Licata is a good candidate as they were both from outlying Palermo towns and were tapped into Cosa Nostra there. Most of what's known of their crew has roots in Castellammare and Trapani, previous captain Giuseppe Buccellato likely having been made in Sicily too and crew member Santo Giordano being the marital nephew of Castellammare leader Nino Buccellato and the son of a Castellammare member. Licata's son Giovanni continued to closely associate with Catalano after his father's murder, even traveling to Sicily, and was eventually made into the Bonannos in the 1990s.
- It is believed Sal Catalano was part of the conspiracy to murder Carmine Galante in 1979. Crew member Santo Giordano's fingerprint was found on the car used in the murder and may have been the man observed standing guard by the car with a rifle while the massacre took place. Ater the murder, Lefty Ruggiero told Joe Pistone that Catalano was now "street boss of the zips". In this capacity he look to have provided de facto representation to the NYC-based Sicilians in the Bonanno Family, Sicilians in the Montreal decina, and Sicilian men of honor living in the states who affiliated with the Bonannos.
- By Fall of 1980, Sal is elected acting boss of the Bonannos and is observed meeting with Paul Castellano. Some have alleged this was in connection with heroin trafficking but it appears it was actually related to the murder of Vito Borelli, with Catalano seeing the murder as an opportunity to regain the Bonanno Family's standing in New York by assisting Castellano. Catalano's role as acting boss was temporary as by the time of the three captains murder in Spring of 1981 he has stepped down, reasons including limited English and what Vitale said about Catalano's prior affiliation with Sicily. Rising tension between the Giaccone-Indelicato faction and the Rastelli loyalists may have played a role too, the Sicilians finally siding with the Rastelli group by May of 1981.
- Catalano's role by 1981 is less clear. He presumably remains capodecina of the "Knickerbocker" crew but in May 1981 Santo Giordano, a member from that crew, is identified by Massino as a capodecina himself. Was Giordano an acting captain for Catalano, did he officially take over the same crew, or was he promoted independently? Massino also said Giordano was helping run the Family. Catalano remains a leading figure in international heroin trafficking operations but I can't recall anyone saying specifically what his official status was in the Bonannos between 1981 and 1984.
- Sal Catalano was revealed to be the operational leader of the US side of the Pizza Connection heroin network. He traveled to Sicily in this capacity and supervised / facilitated operations in America with his power extending internationally in collaboration with other factions including most prominently shelved former Cinisi boss Gaetano Badalamenti and his relatives. The operation included countless made members of the Sicilian mafia as well as members of the Bonanno Family and it intersected with Gambino-linked figures as well. I won't go into much more detail as this network is well-known and heavily publicized.
- At some point, Catalano visits Sicily where he is said to have married a woman whose surname is also Catalano, her father and brother being named Salvatore like Sal and his cousin Saca. I don't know if this was a blood relative but it is significant that Sal returned to Sicily to marry a paesan in his hometown.
- One of Sal Catalano's known hangouts was the Grimaldi Bakery in Ridgewood. He and Giuseppe Ganci were seen there frequently. On one occasion, the FBI surveilled Riccardo Cefalu in a car outside while Ganci met with Vito Grimaldi inside the bakery. It's known from another source that Domenico Cefalu was also close to the Bonanno members in Queens. The 1981 heroin case showed that the Cefalus were partnered with members of the Brancaccio Family in Palermo.
- Giuseppe Ganci was one of Sal Catalano's closest associates, this being well-known thanks to the Pizza Connection case. Ganci was a capodecina in the San Giuseppe Jato Family (a comune that adjoins Pietro Licata's hometown San Cipirello) and Ganci had previously been business partners in an NYC pizzeria with San Giuseppe Jato boss Antonino Salamone before Salamone moved to Brazil. Ganci was also a close associate of DeCavalcante capodecina Frank Polizzi who was a paesan from San Giuseppe Jato and related to Bonanno elder Tony Riela. Ganci and Sal Catalano also ran a pizzeria together and were completely inseparable.
- A source reported that Sal Catalano used a small airplane piloted by a friend of Cesare Bonventre for drug trafficking. This could be Santo Giordano who owned his own small airplane and piloted it. He was from Castellammare like Bonventre and in Catalano's crew. He participated in the Carmine Galante murder, helped set up the 1981 three captains murder where he was crippled by friendly fire, then later died in a plane crash.
- In 1983, Saca Catalano was murdered in New York by someone riding in his car with him. Some published accounts say Sal Catalano likely ordered his cousin's murder because Saca was using heroin and that Cesare Bonventre was believed to be the killer. This is certainly possible but I'm not sure what the original source is and there are many reasons Saca Catalano might have been targeted during this period given he was a close friend of Buscetta and that circle was under threat by the Corleonesi even in the US. I've read online that his brother Onofrio (Ciminna boss) was also part of an anti-Corleonese faction and may have been murdered though I haven't found much about his involvement in the conflict or established the facts.
- Sal Catalano is given a massive prison sentence in the Pizza Connection case and little is known of his communication with active members during his incarceration. Cesare Bonventre is killed in 1984 for defying Rastelli and much of Catalano's circle is incarcerated. Elements of the Sicilian faction remain through capodecina Gerlando Sciascia, Baldo Amato, and select others. Sciascia spent periods on the Family's ruling panel but overall the Sicilian faction's influence was limited. We know some form of Sicilian faction has re-emerged in the Bonannos with ties to the Castellammare Family but the members are mainly younger and Catalano's name has not been linked to them.
- After his release from prison, Catalano returns to his native Ciminna where he currently lives. In 2016, Catalano attended the funeral for Frank Cali's mother in Ciminna, where she came from. She was a Scimeca which is a common name there.
- In 2018, Catalano was surveilled driving from Ciminna to Passo di Rigano where he met with boss Tommaso Inzerillo. Just moments before, Inzerillo had been with Francesco and Giovanni Inzerillo but took a walk to meet with Catalano. Along with being Passo di Rigano boss, Tommaso was also arrested in the subsequent case that netted members of the Gambino-Inzerillo clan in the US and Sicily. Though Catalano has not been linked to criminal activity and his attendance at the Cali funeral may have been social or familial in nature, his meeting with Inzerillo shows that he remains tapped into the mafia network especially the dominant NYC-Palermo branch under Passo di Rigano/Torretta figures.
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I'm hoping someone can provide more detail on Onofrio Catalano and exactly what he was up to and what his fate was after becoming Ciminna boss. I'm also curious if someone can confirm a Giuseppe Catalano was another Ciminna boss or if this was a mistake and it referred to Onofrio. I don't think anyone would be surprised if other Catalanos were members and leaders in Ciminna but it is difficult to find info on the small Family there.