by B. » Thu May 10, 2018 10:44 pm
JD is keeping up on his excellent blog which is always a great read and almost always opens up room for new discussions.
http://lcnbios.blogspot.com/2018/05/gen ... -1991.html
From the list of deceased members:
8.) Angelo Mazzola (1937-1982) : Grew up in Lower Manhattan and inducted in or around late 1970s. In early morning hours of January 9, 1982 shot to death at corner of Ave X and Stillwell Ave in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Manner of death makes his the most significant inclusion on the list. CWs from every Family, in all available sources where the subject has come up, unanimously state that murdered members cannot be replaced. This raises several questions, including when exactly the rule was put into practice. Available info gives no indication it had only recently been instated. Not long after the murder CI Gregory Scarpa reported Mazzola's death was 'not an LCN sanctioned hit' but instead committed by 'young punks who had an argument with Mazzola'. This possibly enabled the Genovese to prove no involvement on their part, thereby allowing use of the name for replacement purposes. No information currently available to clarify circumstances. This is the only publically available induction list to have a murdered member's name present.
As he says, we know that murdered members can't' be replaced but it looks like an exception was made for Mazzola as he was killed randomly by non-mafia members/associates. I vaguely recall an informant/witness saying the replacement/murder rule was put in place so that members/leaders couldn't arbitrarily kill another member and replace them with one of their choosing, though maybe that's just the obvious logic. This also brings to mind some of the discussions/questions we've had on here about the cap.
Thoughts/questions:
- We know of many "sneak jobs" over the years and there are other examples of "random" killings ala Mazzola (would have to do some brainstorming/digging to remember names), but I'd be curious if it was a recognized rule that "random" murders like this could be replaced or if the Genovese had to go out of their way to advocate for it in this case. There is obviously a lot of grey area, as family leaders could order a murder and claim ignorance, as they have done, so I assume a family would need solid proof if they were going to replace a randomly murdered member.
- Any examples of sources saying anything about new members needing to replace a deceased member pre-1970s/80s? It seems likely this process has been in place as long as the cap system, which dates at least as far back as the post-1957 closing of the books if not earlier. We have Pussy Russo recorded in the 1960s discussing how the Genovese family has 300 members, with 300 associates ready to replace them, a pretty clear indication that the cap system was in place by this time as well as the replacement process. Can't remember offhand if Valachi or other 1960s CIs mentioned anything about this system.
- What are the earliest examples we have of lists being circulated? Thinking of both physical, handwritten lists and verbal lists. Many early members were functionally illiterate and having seen some of these guys' draft registrations and other handwritten records, they struggled to write their own names/addresses and couldn't even get that right in some cases. If they had lists in the early days, I would question if they were written out. By the early 90s we have many examples of family leaders writing out lists of proposed and deceased members, hence the LCNBios blogpost. By this time it's clear they were keeping some kind of record of deceased members, though again it's not clear if this was a new practice. When Al D'Arco was promoted to captain, he was told something along the lines of needing to be introduced to all of his crew members, including elderly/retired ones, which is why he was taken to the home of the ancient soldier Paolo D'Anna and through Scarpa we know of Joe Colombo conducting a family "census" through his captains in the 1960s in order to determine the total family membership, so there were definitely systems in place to keep tabs of membership numbers, elderly members, and we can assume deceased members. The question is how formal any of this was.
- Did non-NYC families ever use lists? I've never heard of the Philly family, arguably the largest outside of NYC in their heyday, ever passing a list around. In the late 1960s various Philly captains and members were actively sharing the names of proposed members with regards to an upcoming ceremony but this seems to have been more gossip/conversation and not a formality. One of the issues raised with the 1990 North Jersey ceremony was that the proposed members' names hadn't been circulated to the NYC families, but the ceremony had been rushed and it's not clear if the lack of list had been a normal practice for Philly in general, if it was expected for only the Newark crew (who regularly mingled with NY), or if the issue was just the result of certain NY members objecting in this one case. Philly NJ acting captain Licata apparently supported the NY protests over the lack of a list, though Licata may have been acting out of spite due to his being left out of the ceremony. In an earlier example in the 1960s, we have the Commission taking issue with Philly for inducting members in Trenton but this wasn't because of a lack of list, but because the books were supposed to be closed after Valachi flipped -- either way, this is an indicating that Philly was not passing names to NY during this period, as the Trenton crew included Newark members.
More I'm not thinking of right now.
JD is keeping up on his excellent blog which is always a great read and almost always opens up room for new discussions.
http://lcnbios.blogspot.com/2018/05/genovese-induction-list-1991.html
From the list of deceased members:
[quote]8.) Angelo Mazzola (1937-1982) : Grew up in Lower Manhattan and inducted in or around late 1970s. In early morning hours of January 9, 1982 shot to death at corner of Ave X and Stillwell Ave in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Manner of death makes his the most significant inclusion on the list. [b]CWs from every Family, in all available sources where the subject has come up, unanimously state that murdered members cannot be replaced.[/b] This raises several questions, including when exactly the rule was put into practice. Available info gives no indication it had only recently been instated. [b]Not long after the murder CI Gregory Scarpa reported Mazzola's death was 'not an LCN sanctioned hit' but instead committed by 'young punks who had an argument with Mazzola'. This possibly enabled the Genovese to prove no involvement on their part, thereby allowing use of the name for replacement purposes.[/b] No information currently available to clarify circumstances. This is the only publically available induction list to have a murdered member's name present.
[/quote]
As he says, we know that murdered members can't' be replaced but it looks like an exception was made for Mazzola as he was killed randomly by non-mafia members/associates. I vaguely recall an informant/witness saying the replacement/murder rule was put in place so that members/leaders couldn't arbitrarily kill another member and replace them with one of their choosing, though maybe that's just the obvious logic. This also brings to mind some of the discussions/questions we've had on here about the cap.
Thoughts/questions:
- We know of many "sneak jobs" over the years and there are other examples of "random" killings ala Mazzola (would have to do some brainstorming/digging to remember names), but I'd be curious if it was a recognized rule that "random" murders like this could be replaced or if the Genovese had to go out of their way to advocate for it in this case. There is obviously a lot of grey area, as family leaders could order a murder and claim ignorance, as they have done, so I assume a family would need solid proof if they were going to replace a randomly murdered member.
- Any examples of sources saying anything about new members needing to replace a deceased member pre-1970s/80s? It seems likely this process has been in place as long as the cap system, which dates at least as far back as the post-1957 closing of the books if not earlier. We have Pussy Russo recorded in the 1960s discussing how the Genovese family has 300 members, with 300 associates ready to replace them, a pretty clear indication that the cap system was in place by this time as well as the replacement process. Can't remember offhand if Valachi or other 1960s CIs mentioned anything about this system.
- What are the earliest examples we have of lists being circulated? Thinking of both physical, handwritten lists and verbal lists. Many early members were functionally illiterate and having seen some of these guys' draft registrations and other handwritten records, they struggled to write their own names/addresses and couldn't even get that right in some cases. If they had lists in the early days, I would question if they were written out. By the early 90s we have many examples of family leaders writing out lists of proposed and deceased members, hence the LCNBios blogpost. By this time it's clear they were keeping some kind of record of deceased members, though again it's not clear if this was a new practice. When Al D'Arco was promoted to captain, he was told something along the lines of needing to be introduced to all of his crew members, including elderly/retired ones, which is why he was taken to the home of the ancient soldier Paolo D'Anna and through Scarpa we know of Joe Colombo conducting a family "census" through his captains in the 1960s in order to determine the total family membership, so there were definitely systems in place to keep tabs of membership numbers, elderly members, and we can assume deceased members. The question is how formal any of this was.
- Did non-NYC families ever use lists? I've never heard of the Philly family, arguably the largest outside of NYC in their heyday, ever passing a list around. In the late 1960s various Philly captains and members were actively sharing the names of proposed members with regards to an upcoming ceremony but this seems to have been more gossip/conversation and not a formality. One of the issues raised with the 1990 North Jersey ceremony was that the proposed members' names hadn't been circulated to the NYC families, but the ceremony had been rushed and it's not clear if the lack of list had been a normal practice for Philly in general, if it was expected for only the Newark crew (who regularly mingled with NY), or if the issue was just the result of certain NY members objecting in this one case. Philly NJ acting captain Licata apparently supported the NY protests over the lack of a list, though Licata may have been acting out of spite due to his being left out of the ceremony. In an earlier example in the 1960s, we have the Commission taking issue with Philly for inducting members in Trenton but this wasn't because of a lack of list, but because the books were supposed to be closed after Valachi flipped -- either way, this is an indicating that Philly was not passing names to NY during this period, as the Trenton crew included Newark members.
More I'm not thinking of right now.