by PolackTony » Fri Jan 31, 2025 10:45 am
Patrickgold wrote: ↑Thu Jan 30, 2025 6:00 pm
I saw this photo on Facebook. First time I have seen this photo.
Chicago and Buffalo Wise Guys
(L-R) Outfit heavyweight Sam "Wings" Carlisi, "Chicago Joe" Sciales (out of Buffalo), Outfit wiseguy Al "The Pizza Man" Tornabene, Buffalo heavyweight Rosario "Roy" Carlisi, and Roy's son, George Cheffalio who's a Chicago guy. Picture was taken in Buffalo at Roy's place in the early '60s.
I had initially thought that George Ceffalio (Ceffalia) was a relative by marriage of the Carlisis and Tornabenes, but it turns out that was not the case.
The Ceffalia surname (original spelling) is specific to the Arbereshe (Albanian) settlement of Piana dei Greci (Piana Degli Albanesi), Palermo, so it’s clear that’s where his parents were from. He was born in 1903 in Beaumont, TX, and his family seems to have returned to Sicily after his birth (this sort of back and forth migration was common with Italians in those days). If I’m correct, he then re-entered the US as an adult, marrying Domenica “Minnie” Cassarà in Chicago. I had initially thought she was a relative of the Carlisis and Tornabenes via the Cassaro side of their family, from Ravanusa, Agrigento.
Cassaro, however, is not the same surname as
Cassarà, the latter being an Arbereshe surname from PDG, which is indeed where Minnie Cassarà’s parents were from. Well worth noting also that Minnie’s father, Michelangelo Cassarà, remarried the much younger Marie Priola as his second wife. She was a daughter of Chicago LCN member Giuseppe Priola and sister of Rockford member Phil Priola. This sort of marriage would suggest to me that the Cassarà family was likely connected to the mafia (I’m presuming that these two didn’t marry for “love”, considering the huge age gap).
Totally unclear to me how Ceffalio was connected to the Carlisi/Tornabene clan, though he obviously was closely tied to them if that is indeed him in the photo. He was the longtime owner/operator of a tavern on the Near Northside and died in 1976. He was also almost certainly a cousin of Rosario “Paul Ross” Ceffalio, a Little Sicily attorney and longtime 42 Ward Republican Committeeman whose parents were also from PDG (Ross Ceffalio was married to Ursula Granata, sister of mobbed-up US Congressman Peter Granata).
George Ceffalio was never publicly linked to LCN or any sort of criminal activity, so far as I’m aware. Never seen his name come up in any FBI files at all. Chicago did always have some “sleeper” members in its ranks, but if Ceffalio was a made guy he’d have been a total sleeper.
[quote=Patrickgold post_id=289206 time=1738285200 user_id=6577]
I saw this photo on Facebook. First time I have seen this photo.
Chicago and Buffalo Wise Guys
(L-R) Outfit heavyweight Sam "Wings" Carlisi, "Chicago Joe" Sciales (out of Buffalo), Outfit wiseguy Al "The Pizza Man" Tornabene, Buffalo heavyweight Rosario "Roy" Carlisi, and Roy's son, George Cheffalio who's a Chicago guy. Picture was taken in Buffalo at Roy's place in the early '60s.
[/quote]
I had initially thought that George Ceffalio (Ceffalia) was a relative by marriage of the Carlisis and Tornabenes, but it turns out that was not the case.
The Ceffalia surname (original spelling) is specific to the Arbereshe (Albanian) settlement of Piana dei Greci (Piana Degli Albanesi), Palermo, so it’s clear that’s where his parents were from. He was born in 1903 in Beaumont, TX, and his family seems to have returned to Sicily after his birth (this sort of back and forth migration was common with Italians in those days). If I’m correct, he then re-entered the US as an adult, marrying Domenica “Minnie” Cassarà in Chicago. I had initially thought she was a relative of the Carlisis and Tornabenes via the Cassaro side of their family, from Ravanusa, Agrigento. [b]Cassaro[/b], however, is not the same surname as [b]Cassarà[/b], the latter being an Arbereshe surname from PDG, which is indeed where Minnie Cassarà’s parents were from. Well worth noting also that Minnie’s father, Michelangelo Cassarà, remarried the much younger Marie Priola as his second wife. She was a daughter of Chicago LCN member Giuseppe Priola and sister of Rockford member Phil Priola. This sort of marriage would suggest to me that the Cassarà family was likely connected to the mafia (I’m presuming that these two didn’t marry for “love”, considering the huge age gap).
Totally unclear to me how Ceffalio was connected to the Carlisi/Tornabene clan, though he obviously was closely tied to them if that is indeed him in the photo. He was the longtime owner/operator of a tavern on the Near Northside and died in 1976. He was also almost certainly a cousin of Rosario “Paul Ross” Ceffalio, a Little Sicily attorney and longtime 42 Ward Republican Committeeman whose parents were also from PDG (Ross Ceffalio was married to Ursula Granata, sister of mobbed-up US Congressman Peter Granata).
George Ceffalio was never publicly linked to LCN or any sort of criminal activity, so far as I’m aware. Never seen his name come up in any FBI files at all. Chicago did always have some “sleeper” members in its ranks, but if Ceffalio was a made guy he’d have been a total sleeper.