THE BLACK HAND FORUM

[quote=JoePuzzles234 post_id=295193 time=1749202113 user_id=7469]
New post on a FBI Camorra factions list:
https://lcnbios.blogspot.com/2025/06/fbi-camorra-factions-chart-1987.html
[/quote]

Cleveland, Ohio?

New post on a FBI Camorra factions list:
https://lcnbios.blogspot.com/2025/06/fbi-camorra-factions-chart-1987.html

[quote=JoeNGallo post_id=291932 time=1744266818 user_id=6834]
New post on DeCavalcante Family surveillance in 1979

https://lcnbios.blogspot.com/2025/04/cafe-italia-surveillance-1979.html
[/quote]

Great post

New post on DeCavalcante Family surveillance in 1979

https://lcnbios.blogspot.com/2025/04/cafe-italia-surveillance-1979.html

[quote=B. post_id=291821 time=1744128104 user_id=127]
Makes sense he'd be visiting his sister. In terms of other possible connections, wasn't LA captain Polizzi's family from San Giuseppe Jato? Polizzi was from Buffalo originally but it brings to mind Riela's close friend/relative Frank Polizzi.
[/quote]

Riela had an infinite amount of connections because he was all over the place.

There are large gaps in his timeline where his whereabouts were totally unknown. He doesn’t appear in NJ in the 1940 census, between [b]Sep 1935 - Sep 1941[/b], he could have been anywhere. On the Philly wiretap it’s implied that he was the Newark boss and that he went to Italy after it broke up, but they wouldn’t have known for sure.

[quote=SonnyBlackstein post_id=291833 time=1744134806 user_id=171]
I'm on the fence if Newark is an actual place. 80% sure it's just made up.

Jerseys version of Gotham.
[/quote]

😂😂

I'm on the fence if Newark is an actual place. 80% sure it's just made up.

Jerseys version of Gotham.

Makes sense he'd be visiting his sister. In terms of other possible connections, wasn't LA captain Polizzi's family from San Giuseppe Jato? Polizzi was from Buffalo originally but it brings to mind Riela's close friend/relative Frank Polizzi.

Riela’s sister Ignazia Fileccia lived in LA. She passed away in 1981 so he could have gone to visit her during this trip

Riela used his Springfield contacts to make formal introductions between the Bonanno and Milwaukee Families to set-up Donnie Brasco's operations a couple years before this too.

[quote=B. post_id=291798 time=1744079950 user_id=127]
Intriguing post about Tony Riela flying to Los Angeles two days before the Carmine Galante murder then traveling to Springfield the day after Galante's murder where Riela met with Anthony Zito and other Springfield figures: https://lcnbios.blogspot.com/2025/04/bonanno-springfield-surveillance-1979.html

He also drove to Chicago before flying back to Newark.
[/quote]
Very cool photo of Riela with Tony Zito and Frank Campo in Springfield. Doesn’t seem like the Feds were able to find out who Riela may have been meeting with in LA.

Intriguing post about Tony Riela flying to Los Angeles two days before the Carmine Galante murder then traveling to Springfield the day after Galante's murder where Riela met with Anthony Zito and other Springfield figures: https://lcnbios.blogspot.com/2025/04/bonanno-springfield-surveillance-1979.html

He also drove to Chicago before flying back to Newark.

Did not know that either.

Is this speculating that maybe Jackie Deross was an informant? Or is this an informant talking about DeRoss? Also never knew that Moose Panarella was his bro in-law. This site is awesome I love recommending it to people.

"On September 16, 1975 Unsub, believed to be Colombo Associate John 'Jackie' DeRoss, interviewed by FBI: "...[DeRoss] stated on one occasion about a month ago, he met with Joseph Brancato and Tutti Franzese at a restaurant in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn with [Captain Charles] Panarella." (DeRoss, Panarella's brother-in-law, was inducted into the Colombos around 1977.)"

[quote=B. post_id=290010 time=1740181686 user_id=127]
Maybe Galante spoke on his behalf to get his name cleared since it sounds like Sonny Franzese was trying to blackball him. There have been examples of members from other Families sponsoring someone into a different group (John Misuraca with San Jose for example) but I doubt this took place in 1970s NYC, especially with Galante.

Great write-up. Always found it interesting Franzese was such a rising star in the 1970s then faded in the 1980s before his death.
[/quote]
Yeah, another great bio. Doesn’t look like there was any personal tie between Turi Franzese and Galante, but they were from the same (broadly general) part of town so who knows. As JD details, CI accounts painted him as a respected associate but then it seems that his induction was somewhat controversial. It could be some other issue that we otherwise don’t know about, but the fact that he was only half-Ital jumped out at me. We know the NYC Families relaxed the full Ital rule when they re-opened the books in ‘76, but I can imagine that it still would have been controversial for a lot of guys. Or, at least, as we see with a lot of discourse around the rules, guys who didn’t like him for other reasons could well have weaponize it as ammunition against him. Just speculating, of course, as none of the sources that JD discussed reported what the issue was that guys had with Franzese being inducted.