by Angelo Santino » Sun Feb 28, 2016 9:19 pm
I concur with Antiliar, Genovese's connections are razor thin on paper. I'm not going to go into a diatribe about it but i doubt he was a member. Associations are different. In NYC, Mulberry to E 116 to downtown Brooklyn (Navy St) to Red Hook east to Williamsburgh and up to Long Island City existed a non-Sicilian network of mainland Italians. In the context of their criminal subculture, they mingled. By 1920 everyone was speaking standardized Italian as well as English and they were expanding their connections as individuals. The "Navy Street Camorra" has been blown out of proportion. Only 3 or 4 patrons of the Navy Street Saloon were actual camorristi, but inside the saloon contains a smorgus board of italian criminals from the casserta region. It was not an organization and barely even a crew, just a location for criminals to mingle over scores. Many were involved in small time cocaine deals. From what has come out of court testimony, there was no leadership, no kickups and rarely any orders passed. And when they were it was to willing stone criminals with a "I don't give a fuck" mentality who'd slit their mother's throat for 50c. This nucleus of Napolitan's contains various links to Capone, Nitti, Genovese but there's no evidence that it went beyond association. Take someone like Ricca, he had a cousin who Navy Street tried to strong arm and the cousin informed them of the reality of the situation and within a few months their E Harlem ventures went bust. This cousin wasn't a member but a mover and shaker in the italian business community. I wish there was more but that's all we know, until more information comes out we'll have to conclude it as a grey area. It wasn't a Boss, under, soldier type of arrangement.
A second part of this is that when Genovese went back to Italy, he was in the Naples region and allegedly involved in the black market there. But there is no evidence of any camorrista connections that I've seen and it makes sense because it died out in Naples in the 1910 and the countryside remnants were swallowed up by Mussolini in the 20's. One would think if Genovese was a camorrista he would have ushered in a Renaissance or at least tried to.
I honestly think it was a matter of compaesanismo with other mainlanders who's approach to the LCN/Mafia/whatever is different from the Sicilian-linked members who view "their" tradition through different lenses. And during the 1930's, Genovese was the highest ranking Napoletan' in NYC, when Luciano was arrested in 1936, Genovese was the ultimate authority on the street for most of 1936-7. But there's no existing evidence that he ever was involved in "converting" camorristi into Mafiosi. In fact there's very little existing evidence of it outside of 3 or 4 confirmations nationwide of non-italians with speculative ties becoming members.
Earliest links to Genovese and Luciano come from Gentile who claims they were both captains in the late 1920's. Luciano was allegedly made in 1919 and Genovese in the early 20's. Both were active in lower Manhattan, Gen more on Thompson and Luc more on the LES around 13th. That area was a hotbed outside of Little Italy's Elizabeth in the 200 block for mafia activity. All the families were represented in that area. Had D'Aquila been accepting members, Luciano might have went with the Gambinos as he already roomed with Joe Biondo who would become Consig.
I concur with Antiliar, Genovese's connections are razor thin on paper. I'm not going to go into a diatribe about it but i doubt he was a member. Associations are different. In NYC, Mulberry to E 116 to downtown Brooklyn (Navy St) to Red Hook east to Williamsburgh and up to Long Island City existed a non-Sicilian network of mainland Italians. In the context of their criminal subculture, they mingled. By 1920 everyone was speaking standardized Italian as well as English and they were expanding their connections as individuals. The "Navy Street Camorra" has been blown out of proportion. Only 3 or 4 patrons of the Navy Street Saloon were actual camorristi, but inside the saloon contains a smorgus board of italian criminals from the casserta region. It was not an organization and barely even a crew, just a location for criminals to mingle over scores. Many were involved in small time cocaine deals. From what has come out of court testimony, there was no leadership, no kickups and rarely any orders passed. And when they were it was to willing stone criminals with a "I don't give a fuck" mentality who'd slit their mother's throat for 50c. This nucleus of Napolitan's contains various links to Capone, Nitti, Genovese but there's no evidence that it went beyond association. Take someone like Ricca, he had a cousin who Navy Street tried to strong arm and the cousin informed them of the reality of the situation and within a few months their E Harlem ventures went bust. This cousin wasn't a member but a mover and shaker in the italian business community. I wish there was more but that's all we know, until more information comes out we'll have to conclude it as a grey area. It wasn't a Boss, under, soldier type of arrangement.
A second part of this is that when Genovese went back to Italy, he was in the Naples region and allegedly involved in the black market there. But there is no evidence of any camorrista connections that I've seen and it makes sense because it died out in Naples in the 1910 and the countryside remnants were swallowed up by Mussolini in the 20's. One would think if Genovese was a camorrista he would have ushered in a Renaissance or at least tried to.
I honestly think it was a matter of compaesanismo with other mainlanders who's approach to the LCN/Mafia/whatever is different from the Sicilian-linked members who view "their" tradition through different lenses. And during the 1930's, Genovese was the highest ranking Napoletan' in NYC, when Luciano was arrested in 1936, Genovese was the ultimate authority on the street for most of 1936-7. But there's no existing evidence that he ever was involved in "converting" camorristi into Mafiosi. In fact there's very little existing evidence of it outside of 3 or 4 confirmations nationwide of non-italians with speculative ties becoming members.
Earliest links to Genovese and Luciano come from Gentile who claims they were both captains in the late 1920's. Luciano was allegedly made in 1919 and Genovese in the early 20's. Both were active in lower Manhattan, Gen more on Thompson and Luc more on the LES around 13th. That area was a hotbed outside of Little Italy's Elizabeth in the 200 block for mafia activity. All the families were represented in that area. Had D'Aquila been accepting members, Luciano might have went with the Gambinos as he already roomed with Joe Biondo who would become Consig.