THE BLACK HAND FORUM

chin_gigante wrote: ↑Fri Aug 17, 2018 7:59 pm Any info at all on 'Che Gusage'? All I've heard about him is from Valachi's testimony where he says Gusage was acting boss for a year before Costello (presumably after Genovese fled the country?)

Chris Christie wrote: ↑Mon Mar 26, 2018 3:42 am

Antiliar wrote: ↑Sun Mar 25, 2018 11:51 pm

Chris Christie wrote: ↑Sun Mar 25, 2018 9:16 pm
Morello and Reina actually went into a business together in 1924 so it doesn't seem like there was bad blood on the surface.

A lot can happen in six years.

Indeed it can. Which is why it's worth mentioning that we don't know if Reina's murder in 1930 is in any way retribution for the 1921 debacle. I would argue the evidence points to no simply for the business Morello/Reina entered into together; that he wasn't murdered sooner after D'Aquila's Oct 28 murder; and that there was no attempt on the part of the Gen's reabsorb their former Bronx chapter.

There's always a level of plotting and treachery, perhaps more pronounced between the Gam/Gen in the 1920's but "the sitdown" is a sacred thing, real or imagined. It allowed for D'Aquila to have complete deniability for the LoMonte murder just 6 months after two of his own (presumable) top guys were murdered.

D'Aquila circa 1913 and 1923 may have been two different people in terms of how he handled matters. By all accounts when Morello and Lupo were released they were given a banquet attended by people all across NYC, doesn't seem like they had problems with D'Aquila until after Loiacano was murdered. We really don't know the full details as statements are ambiguous: "they tried to return to power," this means Morello was trying to retake his old position but which one, Boss of the Corleonesi or Boss of Bosses? We don't know. We could theorize either way: that Morello wanted to retake control over the group he founded (and who apparently had the support of the majority of their East Harlem and Lower Manhattan members) so he asked Loiacano to step down and when he refused he was killed. Or the more Machiavellian Shakespearian take would be Morello wanted both positions back and the first task was becoming head of a family again, which if anything happened to the current BOB he would be a candidate with seniority. Either way, D'Aquila didn't take too well to someone else making executive changes in another Family, which is somewhat dictatorial.

It's somewhat ironic that Loiacano was a Little Italy guy since the 1890's and following his murder, the only ones who opted not to follow his murderers were in the Bronx. Every other Gen in lower NY fell in with Morello/Masseria/Yale etc. That's why I dislike the Genovese described as a "new" Family when its foundations date back 25 years. The same could be said for the Luccheses, many of whom went to the Bronx for the same reason people began going to Brooklyn: improved financial status, ability to buy property and no longer pay the miserable rent that Itals so very much detested, this goes back to the 1900's. So the Luccheses didn't appear out of nowhere either. They maintained very close ties to their East Harlem roots and many are related. East Harlem was shared between them and up unto the 1970's the FBI was having a difficult time identifying who was with who, it wouldn't surprise me if there's more than a few so-called Gen or Lucchese members whose memberships were actually vice versa.

Pogo The Clown wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 5:10 pm I know he was betrayed but you'd figure he would have smelled a trap a mile away when it was suggested they go to an empty restaurant out in the open in the middle of an all out war.


Pogo

Antiliar wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 4:59 pm

Pogo The Clown wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:56 am Why did Masseria go to that restaurant where he was killed? You'd figure he would have remained underground in some safe house somehwere while the war was on. Especially afer Morello was killed and his own extremely close call where Mineo and Ferrigno bought it. He couldn't have been that dumb to go out in the open like that?


Pogo

He went to the restaurant because people whom he trusted betrayed him. If he wasn't misled he probably wouldn't have gone.

aleksandrored wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 2:38 pm guys in the USA had a "capo dei capi"? because in some places or documentary I always speak of Lucky Luciano, Carlo Gambino, John Gotti and even Meyer Lansky, I find this somewhat confusing because the only one who had this title (even for a short time) was Salvatore Maranzano.

Maranzano wasn't the only one with that title. Here are the ones we know of:

Nicola Taranto - 1890s
Giuseppe Morello - c1903-1910
Sebastiano DiGaetano (acting) - 1910-1912
Salvatore D'Aquila - 1912-1928
Joseph Masseria - 1928-1930
Gaspare Messina (interim) - 1930-1931
Salvatore Maranzano - 1931

Pogo The Clown wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:56 am Why did Masseria go to that restaurant where he was killed? You'd figure he would have remained underground in some safe house somehwere while the war was on. Especially afer Morello was killed and his own extremely close call where Mineo and Ferrigno bought it. He couldn't have been that dumb to go out in the open like that?


Pogo

aleksandrored wrote: ↑Tue Apr 03, 2018 2:38 pm guys in the USA had a "capo dei capi"? because in some places or documentary I always speak of Lucky Luciano, Carlo Gambino, John Gotti and even Meyer Lansky, I find this somewhat confusing because the only one who had this title (even for a short time) was Salvatore Maranzano.

Pogo The Clown wrote:Why did Masseria go to that restaurant where he was killed? You'd figure he would have remained underground in some safe house somehwere while the war was on. Especially afer Morello was killed and his own extremely close call where Mineo and Ferrigno bought it. He couldn't have been that dumb to go out in the open like that?

Pogo