THE BLACK HAND FORUM

PolackTony wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2024 8:02 pm

JoePuzzles234 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2024 1:04 pm Talico Micheliza aka “Tal” (10/27/1910 – 08/31/1990)
POB: Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Father: Giovanni “John” Micheliza
Mother: Teresa DeBellis

Elected to the Trinidad City Council in November 1949.

At that time, local politician James E. Donnelly required a favourable council vote to continue as mayor. Donnelly was also a Democratic State Senator and later was a close political associate of John Cha.

Present on the 1950 FBN list and also listed on the Denver PD chart under the “Southern Colorado Faction” section.

I saw that he was listed on the 1950 FBN list of “mafia suspects” in Colorado, glad that you brought him up.

He was Italico Michelizza, born in 1911 in Platischis, a tiny village that is today in the comune of Taipana, Udine, right on the border between Italy and Slovenia. He arrived at NYC in 1921 with his mother Teresa De Bellis and younger sister Maria Michelizza bound for COnwhere father Giovanni Michelizza was already living. A BIL of Giovanni, Giuseppe Noacco, was also travelling with them. Giovanni Michelizza was from Monteaperta, another tiny hamlet that is today also a frazione of Taipana.

Interesting to note that Taipana’s population in the 20th century was almost 75% ethnic Slovenian. Given their names, however, we can presume that the Michelizzas were Friulani, an ethno-linguistic group who compose the majority of the population of the autonomous Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia and who traditionally speak Furlan (Friulano in Italian), a Rhaeto-Romance language related to the Ladin language spoken in an area of far Northern Italy in the foothills of the Alps.

While we have no indication that Italico Michelizza was ever made, we do know that the CO Family had guys like Boschetto and Anselmi in their circle, who were similarly from an ethno-linguistic outlier region of Italy, Alto Adige, which until WW1 was part of the Austrian province of South Tyrol. Through the processes of immigration and community formation in the US, I presume that these guys were considered as “Italian” as anyone else (to most Sicilians 100 years ago, all Northern Italians would have seemed pretty foreign anyway).

JoePuzzles234 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2024 1:04 pm Talico Micheliza aka “Tal” (10/27/1910 – 08/31/1990)
POB: Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Father: Giovanni “John” Micheliza
Mother: Teresa DeBellis

Elected to the Trinidad City Council in November 1949.

At that time, local politician James E. Donnelly required a favourable council vote to continue as mayor. Donnelly was also a Democratic State Senator and later was a close political associate of John Cha.

Present on the 1950 FBN list and also listed on the Denver PD chart under the “Southern Colorado Faction” section.

JoePuzzles234 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 23, 2024 8:55 am Another political figure tied to the family:

Aguilar mayor John Boccaccio, likely associated to the Dionisios or otherwise answered to them if he was a member

DOB: 1889/12/02
WW1 draft card lists POB as "Volcano, Terino, Italy" – Terino is obviously Torino, Piedmont but I don’t know what Volcano is, maybe Volpiano or Volvera?

He was linked to the Dale Kearney murder, charged with federal bootlegging violations and eventually defeated for re-election in 1932.

He died in 1941.

JoePuzzles234 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2024 4:11 am

B. wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2024 5:52 pm Joe -- in addition to San Jose being led by Alfonso Conetto from AdR in the 1920s, his underboss was also from Agrigento and the San Fran Family had an overlooked element from Agrigento as well, particularly Sciacca. Basically everyone from Western Agrigento knew each other and regarded each other as paesani. Gentile also spent a period in the Bay Area and he was close to early Colorado members like the Chiappettas and Rosario Desimone before they moved elsewhere, the Chiappettas from a nearby Trapani village but related by marriage to the Scaglias from Burgio and Desimone coming from another nearby Trapani town and marrying a woman from Lucca Sicula. Desimone was also part of the Schiro-Bonanno network even though he never lived in NYC, so the "Bonanno" connections likely go back long before Colletti, etc. It was also Gentile who represented Scaglia's relatives nationally and facilitated their transfer to Kansas City from Pueblo.

If the Scaglia accuser named by Gentile was Frank LaRocca, that's another Lucca Sicula native tied into the family as well

B. wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2024 5:52 pm Joe -- in addition to San Jose being led by Alfonso Conetto from AdR in the 1920s, his underboss was also from Agrigento and the San Fran Family had an overlooked element from Agrigento as well, particularly Sciacca. Basically everyone from Western Agrigento knew each other and regarded each other as paesani. Gentile also spent a period in the Bay Area and he was close to early Colorado members like the Chiappettas and Rosario Desimone before they moved elsewhere, the Chiappettas from a nearby Trapani village but related by marriage to the Scaglias from Burgio and Desimone coming from another nearby Trapani town and marrying a woman from Lucca Sicula. Desimone was also part of the Schiro-Bonanno network even though he never lived in NYC, so the "Bonanno" connections likely go back long before Colletti, etc. It was also Gentile who represented Scaglia's relatives nationally and facilitated their transfer to Kansas City from Pueblo.

B. wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2024 4:13 pm Okay, that's right Spinuzzi did name some people. I'm reluctant to believe he was making a distinction between criminally active members and retired members though. Members are members and outside of CIs telling the FBI who is criminally active or involved in Family affairs (the only details relevant to criminal prosecution), you don't tend to see them categorize members that way within the organization. Bomp is also relating what Spinuzzi told him so it isn't verbatim but if Spinuzzi told him there were only a few members left I would expect he was referring to members in general. "A few" could mean anything even though he did name some names. There were no doubt some sleepers in addition to those named and Spinuzzi said too he had proposed his nephew for membership so new people may have come in after 1969.

Spinuzzi did say the remaining members wanted Colletti to step down and Bompensiero encouraged them to hold a meeting where Colletti would abdicate his position and Spinuzzi would be elected the new boss. The FBI later learned that Colletti did step down and Spinuzzi became the boss. Spinuzzi had also said Joe Bonanno passed through Colorado some time earlier but made no contact with local members and that the Family members actually had no idea Bonanno had been removed as boss and weren't supposed to recognize him anyway. So they were way out of touch with the national network.

This is very telling as Colletti was a former Bonanno member with a close relationship to Bonanno and small bosses around the country were in the loop on the Bonanno affair yet Colletti either didn't know or didn't communicate it with his members (Cleveland held a Family meeting to discuss it, in contrast). Bomp met with Spinuzzi again in 1974 and learned Bonanno had reached out to him for help being reinstated (Bonanno did this with Buffalo too). Bomp also met with Joe Salardino a short time later and learned he too was in contact with Bonanno.

I'm sure you've seen all that and can clarify some things but it's interesting to get that window into a dwindling Family's internal politics and interactions.

--

Cheyenne is definitely a place I suspect of having had members as it is much closer to Denver. The Smaldones were active there at one point and these guys from Agrigento are a stronger indication they once had members there in addition to the Smaldones' extensive bootlegging operations. Dionisio was tied to Wyoming as well -- he was married there if I remember right.

B. wrote: ↑Fri Jun 28, 2024 4:09 pm Looks like Dionisio's wife's father Jack Riggio was from Palazzo Adriano while her mother was from Lucca Sicula. Could be a relation to Giuseppe Riggio since Palazzo/Burgio/Lucca Sicula were all so intertwined but I can't find anything at a glance. The surname was evidently important when it shows up in these circles.

I know Robert Dionisio is listed on the Bonanno "Valachi" chart with Colletti, but did he actually live in NY or NJ at any point? I wasn't sure if he was included because of the cheese company or if like Colletti he did spend time living in the NYC area.

Palazzo Adriano is near the Corleone area but borders Agrigento and for whatever reason fell more into what I'd call the national Bonanno network. The Bonannos had other guys with heritage in Palazzo Adriano like Ciro Gallo and Tony Canzoneri who were both directly related to the LoBurgio name -- there were LoBurgios from Palazzo in Southern Colorado and it looks like Canzoneri's great-uncle named LoBurgio lived in CO for a time before joining them in Upstate NY. Both Gallo and Canzoneri were also tied to the Newburgh/Marlboro area where the Colletti-Caruso-Salvo crew had a presence so I've wondered if they were associated with that crew at some point although we know Canzoneri was a captain himself for a time. With Giuseppe Riggio ending up in San Jose, it brings to mind Ciro Gallo's brother Joe who ended up a member there. I suspect there were other older Palazzesi in the Bonanno Family, possibly Canzoneri's father "Don Giorgio", but these guys are incredibly obscure.

Great additional names you've added. Will try to look into them when I have time. That 1920s-30s period is overwhelming given the number of names active in the various conflicts and bootlegging activities. I'm sure not all of them were members but you do get the impression the Family was once much bigger.

Piscopo is another recurring name -- Jim Colletti married one but she died very young in 1924, coincidentally the same year a Joe Piscopo was killed in the Colorado warfare. Sam Carlino also married a Piscopo. Colletti was arrested in Denver in 1933 for disorderly conduct so he was spending time there as an NYC resident in the decade before he moved permanently to CO. Colletti was also reportedly active with the mafia in Rochester during the years he lived there, Rochester having its own Agrigento element.

motorfab wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 8:59 am Great job & article Joe

B. wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 3:37 pm You're right it was Salardino's nephew, not Spinuzzi's. Looks like Mule might well be the candidate and it'd be interesting if he's related to the early one.

I double-checked and the report about Bonanno trying to reach out to Spinuzzi cites January 1974 as when the info started being supplied but doesn't clarify exactly when Bonanno may have tried to reach out to Spinuzzi. It says Spinuzzi had thus far done nothing to help Bonanno. It doesn't appear the info came direct from Spinuzzi but from a redacted Denver-based member (almost certainly Salardino).

This is a historic tangent but I found it interesting:

When Jim Colletti arrived to the US he joined his uncle Giuseppe Riggio in Pueblo before soon moving to NYC then Rochester, followed by NYC again. In Manhattan's East Village he lived with a Joseph Accomando, same surname as early Pueblo member Francesco Accomando who Gentile said transferred to Kansas City along with members Luca Colletti and Mariano Scaglia after their relative Pellegrino Scaglia was killed. Accomando was from Palazzo Adriano while Luca Colletti and Scaglia were from Burgio. Jim Colletti and his uncle Riggio were from Lucca Sicula, these areas all nearby of course.

Interestingly, Colletti's uncle Riggio was identified in 1919 police reports as a CO "black hand" leader involved in bootlegging and murder. Riggio's daughter, Colletti's cousin, also married Pete Carlino, brother of Sam, who is believed to have become boss and was killed in Denver later. One of Pete Carlino's young aides was a different Jim Colletti, though I don't know the relation to "our" Jim. Riggio moved to San Jose sometime in the 1920s and remained there. At that time, the San Jose boss was Alfonso Conetto from Alessandria della Rocca which is near Lucca Sicula. Riggio was certainly a mafioso so it seems likely he transferred to San Jose, maybe due to the rampant warfare at the time that also caused the Scaglia relatives to flee to KC. I believe the Riggio-Carlino-Colletti clan were allies of the Scaglias. A picture also emerges that Jim Colletti was not simply a paesan of the Colorado Family's formative members but related to a leading clan in that his uncle Riggio, Riggio's son-in-law Carlino, and Colletti himself were all top figures at different times.

Some have said Jim Colletti's inclusion as a Bonanno member on the Valachi charts was an error, and it was by that time, but along with Colletti living in the East Village for decades where his cousin Joe Colletti was a Bonanno captain and remaining close to the Bonannos after moving to Colorado, I saw a report from a later NYC source who said Jim Colletti had once been an NYC member who frequented Angelo Caruso's Manhattan Social Club, Caruso being Joe Colletti's brother-in-law. That crew also had Leo Carlino as a member -- his family was from Burgio, not Lucca Sicula like the CO Carlinos, but again these towns are very close. So we can be certain Jim Colletti was a one-time Bonanno member if there was any doubt.

It's believed Pellegrino Scaglia was boss by the time he was killed in 1922 but he had bounced around, living in NYC early on and also fleeing to St. Louis for a period where his paesans were important (his paesan Miceli was later boss). I'd be curious if Giuseppe Riggio may have been an earlier boss given the reports of him as a leader by 1919 and his son-in-law and nephew both becoming bosses.

He is not to be confused with Vincenzo “Black Jim” Colletti. Although they are both Pete’s cousins with the same name, “Black Jim” Colletti lived in New York at the time and was in Sicily during the time of the murder. He was visiting his mother in Lucca Sicula.