THE BLACK HAND FORUM

There was also a Dominick Musolino killed in Buffalo in 1912 and Francesco Rangatore from Trabia was a witness, a likely relative of future Buffalo member Sam Rangatore who was originally from the Trabia colony in Johnstown. So these Trabia / Calabria circles keep overlapping. Yes. Given these inte...

Good stuff Antimafia. The Joe Musolino of Canada was a cousin of the infamous one back in Santo Stefano di Aspromonte, is that right? I suspect Stefano Zoccoli of Pittsburgh (and later head of the San Jose consiglio) was a relative of the infamous one in Calabria as he was from Santo Stefano, his m...

De sgarro wasn't the only one, there was de sangue (good at knife fighting) and presumably there were others. As far as Reno, I don't know. But both the 1910's Navy Streeters and the guys taking in the 60's were Campanian. Also there was one source that said the Genovese had a capo in Seattle or som...

Doti refers to earned merit such as "de sgarro" or "de sangue." Giovinotto, picciotto, camorrista are the grades/classes of membership. A picciotto who has committed enough acts on behalf of the society becomes a picciotto de sgarro after a formal recognition. “Dote” (literally ...

Excellent notes and analysis. I’ve pondered the “Reno” thing and can only conclude that it had to be a mistranstscription. Unclear to me what locality DeCarlo was actually referring to. The “pig language” thing is notable, as the 19th century Camorra in Italy used a coded language/secret language a...

It's confusing stuff, especially given the term society and how that can refer to so many things- the entire society, the local society, classes of the society, the district. Someone who holds camorrista in the Pendino district is A an honored society member B a member of the Naples loggia C a membe...

Doti refers to earned merit such as "de sgarro" or "de sangue." Giovinotto, picciotto, camorrista are the grades/classes of membership. A picciotto who has committed enough acts on behalf of the society becomes a picciotto de sgarro after a formal recognition.

The "Combaneesh" tape is a perfect example. You have guys who weren't made into Cosa Nostra until the 1940s but even guys like DeCarlo and Ciaffone who didn't attain the formal position of Camorristi were clearly part of the minor society, schooled in organized Italian underworld activity...

I haven’t seen San Vito Sullo Ionio documented as having a Camorra back in the day, but we can presume that only some fraction of the Societies that existed were targeted by the authorities in trials. Today I’m not aware of ‘Ndrangheta specifically in San Vito, but I’m no authority on the subject, ...

Correction to the above -- Mauro was not Neapoltian but from Sambiase as the other guys mentioned earlier. Important as his travel to Philadelphia raises better questions. Mauro came from a prestigious family and attended Naples Military Academy so no worries. Philly is interesting, we have almost ...

In 1910. Mauro was living with a "Ralph Alberte," who was 50. I wonder if that was an alias that might have been one of the guys in the Sambiase case. Right, in 1910, Ferdinando Mauro was recorded as living as a boarder in the apartment of a “Ralph Alberte” in the Hill district of Pittsbu...

In 1910. Mauro was living with a "Ralph Alberte," who was 50. I wonder if that was an alias that might have been one of the guys in the Sambiase case. Right, in 1910, Ferdinando Mauro was recorded as living as a boarder in the apartment of a “Ralph Alberte” in the Hill district of Pittsbu...

Something to note -- even though Camorristi began joining Cosa Nostra as early as the mid-late 1910s, it wasn't one single moment where they all fell together even within a single Family. The Genovese had been bringing in Camorristi for many years yet Richie Boiardo resisted the mafia through the C...

There weren’t only inter-regional tensions but also ties, of course, and this was true in the Societies outside of prison also. When the “Società di Camorra” in Nicastro, Catanzaro was busted in the mid-1880s, it was claimed during the trial that they were in contact with the infamous Ciccio Cappuc...

There weren’t only inter-regional tensions but also ties, of course, and this was true in the Societies outside of prison also. When the “Società di Camorra” in Nicastro, Catanzaro was busted in the mid-1880s, it was claimed during the trial that they were in contact with the infamous Ciccio Cappuc...