by B. » Sat Oct 06, 2018 11:15 pm
Great article. I love it when we take a second look at commonly accepted terms, rules, and that type of thing, as many of these things aren't as straightforward as we have been led to believe. Your articles do an incredible job with this.
ShotgunTheRifle wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 4:30 pm
Anyone know what the deal was with Rocco Scafidi? He was made, punished/banned for 10 years, and then remade. What's the story behind that? Also is he Horseheads father?
He was shelved shortly after he was made in part because he had allegedly committed an unsanctioned murder and also mishandled/stolen money belonging to ranking members. He was supposed to be murdered but Giuseppe Traina of the Gambinos, a paesano of the Scafidis and a longtime influence over Philly, intervened. Rocco Scafidi's brother Salvatore was the grandfather of Tommy and Tory Scafidi.
Another Philadelphia member who was shelved and later reinstated was Peter Casella, the lesser known cousin of the more infamous Peter Casella who later became underboss. Casella was shelved for telling his wife too much about mafia activity and brought back in in the mid-1960s.
Ed -- you may have seen this and it doesn't necessarily add anything to the discussion but there is a conversation recorded between Scafidi and Frank Monte where the phrase Cosa Nostra is mentioned by, I believe, Scafidi and Monte says in response, "Cosa Nostra?" It's hard to place the context of it but it almost sounds like Monte may have been confused by the term, or at least Scafidi's use of it, though it's hard to say. Monte was part of the induction ceremony where Scafidi was reinstated so he would have heard the term then if it was used, as Scafidi says.
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I had seen most of that Scafidi info, but either don't remember or missed the bit about the group being called the Black Hand pre-1930. Interesting that Eugene Farina also mentioned the Black Hand. DiLeonardo refers to his grandfather and Salvatore D'Aquila's organization being called the Black Hand as well. Makes me wonder if early mafiosi used this term internally more than we realized. With the way that Cosa Nostra/La Cosa Nostra seems to have come into wider use within the mafia through the media and LE, it seems possible the same happened with the term Black Hand considering how commonly it was used by police and newspapers in the early days.
Speaking of Farina, do you know the extent of his cooperation?
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Did John Misuraca formally sponsor Costanza into San Jose, or just recommend/"prepare" him for membership? He had relatives and influence there, but would be pretty interesting if he formally sponsored him in the induction ceremony
Great article. I love it when we take a second look at commonly accepted terms, rules, and that type of thing, as many of these things aren't as straightforward as we have been led to believe. Your articles do an incredible job with this.
[quote=ShotgunTheRifle post_id=90103 time=1537831853 user_id=864]
Anyone know what the deal was with Rocco Scafidi? He was made, punished/banned for 10 years, and then remade. What's the story behind that? Also is he Horseheads father?
[/quote]
He was shelved shortly after he was made in part because he had allegedly committed an unsanctioned murder and also mishandled/stolen money belonging to ranking members. He was supposed to be murdered but Giuseppe Traina of the Gambinos, a paesano of the Scafidis and a longtime influence over Philly, intervened. Rocco Scafidi's brother Salvatore was the grandfather of Tommy and Tory Scafidi.
Another Philadelphia member who was shelved and later reinstated was Peter Casella, the lesser known cousin of the more infamous Peter Casella who later became underboss. Casella was shelved for telling his wife too much about mafia activity and brought back in in the mid-1960s.
Ed -- you may have seen this and it doesn't necessarily add anything to the discussion but there is a conversation recorded between Scafidi and Frank Monte where the phrase Cosa Nostra is mentioned by, I believe, Scafidi and Monte says in response, "Cosa Nostra?" It's hard to place the context of it but it almost sounds like Monte may have been confused by the term, or at least Scafidi's use of it, though it's hard to say. Monte was part of the induction ceremony where Scafidi was reinstated so he would have heard the term then if it was used, as Scafidi says.
--
I had seen most of that Scafidi info, but either don't remember or missed the bit about the group being called the Black Hand pre-1930. Interesting that Eugene Farina also mentioned the Black Hand. DiLeonardo refers to his grandfather and Salvatore D'Aquila's organization being called the Black Hand as well. Makes me wonder if early mafiosi used this term internally more than we realized. With the way that Cosa Nostra/La Cosa Nostra seems to have come into wider use within the mafia through the media and LE, it seems possible the same happened with the term Black Hand considering how commonly it was used by police and newspapers in the early days.
Speaking of Farina, do you know the extent of his cooperation?
--
Did John Misuraca formally sponsor Costanza into San Jose, or just recommend/"prepare" him for membership? He had relatives and influence there, but would be pretty interesting if he formally sponsored him in the induction ceremony