THE BLACK HAND FORUM

by **Don_Peppino** » Tue Aug 20, 2024 9:22 am

JoelTurner wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2024 2:39 pm Did Mike Coppola really have ~60 men in his crew?

Valachi estimated them at 60 and George Barone had them at ~50 which would match.

On the Westside 1963 thread, there are roughly 30 members identified and that’s including ones who aren’t really on lists like Bellomo’s father & grandfather.

Were there really another 30 guys, basically the size of even large crews like Greenwich Village or Catena’s, that weren’t identified? Does anyone have any guesses as to who they could have been?

I was under the impression that this was a large crew in the 30's when Coppola took over from Terranova. The number of members has always been suggested to be around 50 guys. This probably would include some Florida guys. That might be where some of the "missing" crew members come in. Thats just my guess.

by **Brovelli** » Tue Aug 13, 2024 1:46 pm

sdeitche wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 11:38 am
Brovelli wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 1:00 pm OC Shortz said Angelo prisco was first cousins with the meldish brothers, was that known? I never knew
Yes, that's true. I confirmed it with a Prisco family member.

Very interesting as well considering prisco was still alive when Michael was murdered. I scanned the forums and did see there was some mention before of family relation through one of the mothers

by **sdeitche** » Tue Aug 13, 2024 11:38 am

Brovelli wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 1:00 pm OC Shortz said Angelo prisco was first cousins with the meldish brothers, was that known? I never knew

Yes, that's true. I confirmed it with a Prisco family member.

by **Brovelli** » Sat Aug 10, 2024 1:00 pm

OC Shortz said Angelo prisco was first cousins with the meldish brothers, was that known? I never knew

by **JoelTurner** » Wed Jul 10, 2024 2:39 pm

Did Mike Coppola really have ~60 men in his crew?

Valachi estimated them at 60 and George Barone had them at ~50 which would match.

On the Westside 1963 thread, there are roughly 30 members identified and that’s including ones who aren’t really on lists like Bellomo’s father & grandfather.

Were there really another 30 guys, basically the size of even large crews like Greenwich Village or Catena’s, that weren’t identified? Does anyone have any guesses as to who they could have been?

by **quadtree** » Tue Jul 09, 2024 7:35 am

Don_Peppino wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2024 6:18 am
quadtree wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2024 5:25 am
Don_Peppino wrote: ↑Mon Jul 08, 2024 6:15 pm
quadtree wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2024 11:56 am Gambino Family:
Leo's East Harlem Crew:
1. Arthur Leo (1957?-1965);
2. Anthony Napolitano (1965-1987);
3. Ralph Mosca (ft. 1980-1987, acting);
4. Ralph Mosca (1987-1999);

Did Arthur Leo take over the Squillante crew?
After Squillante's murder in 1960, his crew was divided between Anthony Sedotto, Rocco Mazzie and Joseph Zingaro. Arthur Leo most likely inherited Frank Scalici's former crew.
Thanks for that clarification. I read in an article Bumpy Johnson admitted to knowing Squillante and Rocco Mazzie , which I thought was interesting because I never heard that before but Mazzie makes sense being a heroin guy.

In Harlem Godfather, the author, Bumpy's widow, claimed that when Albert Anastasia died, the FBI came to her home to question why Bumpy's contact info was in Anastasia's address book. It's not dubious a claim. Johnson's 1951 drug case, had some Gambinos tied to it so obviously, there is a bigger association there than what is histotically discussed.

And it makes more sense that Leo took over for Scalise, I was drawimg a blank on exactly when Squillante died.
Wasn't Arthur Leo killed as well?

Arthur Leo died in 1965. He wasn't killed. He died at the rather young age of 41. It had a large crew of 30 people, the new captain over the crew will be Anthony Napolitano.

Mazzie's crew included drug dealers who had previously been on Squillante's crew. So his crew specialized in drugs. Subsequently, Mazzie's crew was disbanded, and his soldiers transferred to the crew of Joseph Zingaro.

by **Don_Peppino** » Tue Jul 09, 2024 6:18 am

quadtree wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2024 5:25 am
Don_Peppino wrote: ↑Mon Jul 08, 2024 6:15 pm
quadtree wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2024 11:56 am Gambino Family:
Leo's East Harlem Crew:
1. Arthur Leo (1957?-1965);
2. Anthony Napolitano (1965-1987);
3. Ralph Mosca (ft. 1980-1987, acting);
4. Ralph Mosca (1987-1999);

Did Arthur Leo take over the Squillante crew?
After Squillante's murder in 1960, his crew was divided between Anthony Sedotto, Rocco Mazzie and Joseph Zingaro. Arthur Leo most likely inherited Frank Scalici's former crew.

Thanks for that clarification. I read in an article Bumpy Johnson admitted to knowing Squillante and Rocco Mazzie , which I thought was interesting because I never heard that before but Mazzie makes sense being a heroin guy.

In Harlem Godfather, the author, Bumpy's widow, claimed that when Albert Anastasia died, the FBI came to her home to question why Bumpy's contact info was in Anastasia's address book. It's not dubious a claim. Johnson's 1951 drug case, had some Gambinos tied to it so obviously, there is a bigger association there than what is histotically discussed.

And it makes more sense that Leo took over for Scalise, I was drawimg a blank on exactly when Squillante died.
Wasn't Arthur Leo killed as well?

by **quadtree** » Tue Jul 09, 2024 5:25 am

Don_Peppino wrote: ↑Mon Jul 08, 2024 6:15 pm
quadtree wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2024 11:56 am Gambino Family:
Leo's East Harlem Crew:
1. Arthur Leo (1957?-1965);
2. Anthony Napolitano (1965-1987);
3. Ralph Mosca (ft. 1980-1987, acting);
4. Ralph Mosca (1987-1999);

Did Arthur Leo take over the Squillante crew?

After Squillante's murder in 1960, his crew was divided between Anthony Sedotto, Rocco Mazzie and Joseph Zingaro. Arthur Leo most likely inherited Frank Scalici's former crew.

by **Don_Peppino** » Mon Jul 08, 2024 6:15 pm

quadtree wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2024 11:56 am Gambino Family:
Leo's East Harlem Crew:
1. Arthur Leo (1957?-1965);
2. Anthony Napolitano (1965-1987);
3. Ralph Mosca (ft. 1980-1987, acting);
4. Ralph Mosca (1987-1999);

Did Arthur Leo take over the Squillante crew?

by **Don_Peppino** » Sat Jul 06, 2024 6:25 am

Boxing results from 1946/47 from Harlem. Small world after all. Brother of Chin Gigante, Ralph Gigante on the same bill as Fred Walker, who would a year later become bodyguard and driver for Bumpy Johnson. He'd later going to become an informant and noone knows what happened to him after that.

What became of Ralph Gigante? Was he a confirmed member? Also there's a Nick Arcuri from Union City, Nj. We know Arcuri is a surname heavy in Jersey, was he connected?

by **JoelTurner** » Fri Jul 05, 2024 8:01 pm

Two of the three current NJ crews have their roots in the original Moretti one; Boiardo & Catena were in his crew from 1943 to approximately’47

1) Silvio DeVita - Clear line of succession that goes Boiardo -> Gerardo -> DeVita

2) Steve DePiro - Succession is confusing after LaPlaca passed in Dec 1979. However, I don’t think that this crew ever split.

My read is that the Gatto group (Bergen/Passaic) & the Fiumara group (Newark) were always factions in the same crew. This would be a similar setup as the ‘70s with LaPlaca & Pecora.

——-

3) Old Dentico crew - I don’t know who’s the current captain post-Bruschi but I’d guess John "Blue" Defroscia

Rather than stemming from Moretti, this one came from the Hudson County faction in the Greenwich Village crew. Even Bruschi was from Union City before moving to the Shore.

The NJ part of the NYC-based old Prisco crew also has its roots in this group.

by **Brovelli** » Fri Jul 05, 2024 7:00 pm

That would make sense also as those brothers linked to him around 2010 were all Brooklyn/Queens based. I think Palumbo was alleged to have some link to Andy Gerardo which was why I assumed him with that crew but I have no good info related to that.

by **Wiseguy** » Fri Jul 05, 2024 1:01 pm

Brovelli wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2024 8:50 pm Ive generallly concluded they have two crews traditionally in jersey. Modern day “waterfront” crew potentially led by depiro or Coppola and then the “Newark” crew, maybe led by palombo today would be my guess. I don’t have any good documented research into that but just my general conclusions from reading around

In his last indictment, the feds stated Palumbo was an acting captain for a Brooklyn based crew, most likely the one run by Barry Nichilo. But Palumbo did have operations in New Jersey

by **Brovelli** » Thu Jul 04, 2024 8:50 pm

Ive generallly concluded they have two crews traditionally in jersey. Modern day “waterfront” crew potentially led by depiro or Coppola and then the “Newark” crew, maybe led by palombo today would be my guess. I don’t have any good documented research into that but just my general conclusions from reading around

by **moneyman** » Thu Jul 04, 2024 8:09 pm

Wiseguy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2024 5:39 am
moneyman wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2024 4:34 am
JoelTurner wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 8:58 am
Brovelli wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2024 1:58 pm Great info. Have any of you seen/noticed direct paths of a Costello or moretti crew through to today? Are that jersey fiumara waterfront crew direct lineage to moretti for example? Costello “crew” sounds largely unknown
Lidwig “Ninny” Bruschi traces his crew back to the original Moretti group.

I don’t know if any info is out there on Costello’s crew (or if he had one) so tracing back a current crew would be tough.
As I recall the Fiumara crew and the Gatto crew both came from Pete Laplaca and are basically just one crew again today.
That seems to be the only Genovese crew left that's based in New Jersey, currently run by Stephen DePiro.

Probably true. Laplaca has obvious ties to Moretti - so maybe you can make the case all previous NJ based Genovese crews have direct ties to Moretti.

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