THE BLACK HAND FORUM

Pmac2 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 7:58 pm in boston newspaper kinda started a rumor Imo gerry anguilo bought his button. it's dumb. back in the 50tys he was the biggest bookie in boston. a made guy I believe larry baione has him kicking up to him. gerry meets Ray patriarca around that time, gives him a monthly tribute then him and 4 5 of his brothers get made. those guys killed alot of guys or orderd it. the press had a infatuation with whitey. in the end he wasn't a pimple on the anguilo brothers ass and was a fbi informant or he partner was and he was well aware. the end. I will add I think gerry brother Donato was on tape saying his brother gerry was a killer like he was, not a tough guy. Lotta bravado but end of day gerry was the underboss for 20 years in boston made millions. gerry pissed ray p off alot throwing his weight around. at other made guys. Ray was caught on tape bashing him alot almost ready to kill him. but gerry was a golden goose for 20+ years. he was also a ww2 vet in combat. that means something, whitey wasnt...

johnny_scootch wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2024 9:14 pm Pretty sure this was a myth and it’s more like what the families are doing with businessmen who get made these days. Guys who don’t do killings and really aren’t tough guys just earners. It was seen as an egregious sin in the old days when it was thought you had to partake in a murder to be made even though that wasn’t true 100% of the time. If you got straightened out off the strength of earning potential alone with no work put in you bought your button.

I do remember something about Scalise making himself a partner in guys businesses and making them afterwards tho. I could be wrong hopefully someone will chime in who knows more.

Valachi lists several members who were initiated by Scalice. These include Jimmy Squillante, Jerry Mancuso, Aniello "Wahoo" Mancuso, "ch*nk" Leo, Frank Rocci, Tony the Geep, Mike the Geep, Carmine Camarado, Jimmy Ward, Salvatore Bonfrisco, Jojo and Dudu. Valachi indicates they all paid $40,000 to become members. He also says that some paid with their business and then never saw their business again.

chin_gigante wrote: ↑Fri Dec 06, 2024 4:38 am Joe Valachi wrote about this subject quite extensively in his manuscript The Real Thing (available to read on The American Mafia https://mafiahistory.us/a023/therealthing.htm). He specifically states that Frank Scalise proposed about 18 individuals between 1953 and 1954, many of whom were from the Fordham section of the Bronx and 106th Street. Vincent Squillante was one of these new members and several of the others were assigned to his decina. Squillante had previously made hundreds of thousands of dollars for Anastasia by organising waste haulage businesses. Valachi writes,

Scalice took many sums of money by making himself partner with these individuals and actually never returning their share of the operation. In many instances he obtained sums in the amount of forty thousand to fifty thousand dollars from these individuals to make them mob members. They were brought in solely for the money making abilities. The older element of the cosa nostra were displeased with these new men and felt they were not qualified and were misfits by the old rules.

Valachi eventually sat down with Scalise over an issue he was having with some of these new members. Scalise told him,

The boys bring me their names and they tell me that they are good fellows and I put them on the list...Joe when are you going to wake up these are not the old days, people want to be important so we make them important, do you understand?

Scalise reassured Valachi that if the new members didn't behave he would 'slap them right in the face in front of everyone'. Scalice also told Valachi that he had another list of guys to propose but wasn't going to go ahead with it because the guys he had made were giving him too much trouble to begin with.

Valachi told the FBI that Anastasia had Scalise killed because he feared the power that Scalise had amassed due to the 'many buttons he had made'. It was Squillante who actually 'instigated' the plot to kill Scalise. Valachi described Squillante as a 'pervert' who abused the wives of his members and used them to clean up the blood after the murder of Joe Scalise. He said Squillante's behaviour was indicative of 'the type of member made during this period'.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... lPageId=17

Scalice took many sums of money by making himself partner with these individuals and actually never returning their share of the operation. In many instances he obtained sums in the amount of forty thousand to fifty thousand dollars from these individuals to make them mob members. They were brought in solely for the money making abilities. The older element of the cosa nostra were displeased with these new men and felt they were not qualified and were misfits by the old rules.

The boys bring me their names and they tell me that they are good fellows and I put them on the list...Joe when are you going to wake up these are not the old days, people want to be important so we make them important, do you understand?