THE BLACK HAND FORUM

I recently found out about an organized crime group which I had never heard of before. Curious about the structure of Albanian organized crime, I googled that, and got a Wikipedia page with the title 'Albanian Mafia'. I found the structure interesting, but what I found most interesting, was a list o...

I was always interested in the last words of Dutch Schultz. Having never seen them before, I wondered what they were, and what they may have revealed.
Now that I have seen them, I wonder no more.
They are clearly just the mad ravings of a dying man.

Robert Lacey says he found Buddy Lansky to be a good source for his biography of Meyer.
How Buddy died, tells you all you need to know about the myth of Meyer's millions.
The story of Meyer's money, and the sad death of Buddy, are both set out in the Lacey book.

Meyer Lansky put most of his money into his own hotel in Havana shortly before the revolution, and lost the lot.

1910-1928 Salvatore D'Aquila. Very underrated. His longevity is proof of that. He was also Boss of Bosses for most of that time too. 1928-1930 Al Mineo. Also very underrated. 1931-1931 Frank Scalise. Also seems underrated. However, he was a major player, and became one again. 1931-1951 Vincent Manga...

Brief Jack Parisi update: B. said "I looked into it and found nothing to substantiate it. Maybe there's a relation through other relatives but I'm not sure where Dave got it." I went back to David Critchley's book to look for the source of his Jack Parisi comment on page 158. It is not sou...

In 'Tulsa King' the Mafia Captain is released from jail after 25 years, and his NYC Family tell him there is nothing there for him. That could be believed, but to give him nothing but 'Tulsa' does not seem believable. Sure, send him off into exile to plant a flag, but you have to give him a big bund...

I have just looked at the Gelletta family too. There are some older members of the family buried in NYC, but no info again on origins.

I have also just found a Concetta Alampi, in St John's in Queens. Again though, there is no info on origin.

I have just tried to find Theresa Parisi's father, and think I have. He is Paul Alampi, who died in 1953, and is buried in St John's cemetery in Queens NYC. Sadly though, there is no mention of his birth or origin.

I had assumed that the Jack Parisi info was solid, but it looks like it might not be. As I am interested in this era, I will keep any eye open for other sources. For me, the Vincent Mangano/Albert Anastasia link would seem to obviously originate on the waterfront. This would seem to not be contentio...

With regard to Jack Parisi, he is stated as related to the Mangano brothers, on Bill Feather's internet site 'Mafia Membership Charts'. He is listed as Gioacchino Parisi in the Gambino chart for 1930s-1950s.

I have just looked at my two copies of Joe Bonanno's 'A Man of Honor'. Both the paperback, and the hardback, have the same numbering of pages. Page 67 has Uncle Peter Bonventre sending Joe Bonanno to Uncle Vito Bonventre for work, and Bonanno then getting into the bakery business. Page 84 has Joe Bo...

I like the Shana Alexander book. Some parts of the book are very entertaining and funny. For those unfamiliar with it, Alexander wanted to do a big trial book. In choosing the trial, she did not want one that she would get too emotionally involved in. The other big thing, was to be able to have the ...

With regard to Al Capone, the story of him becoming recognized as Boss of Chicago by Joe Masseria, is a story that Joe Bonanno himself said he heard. Bonanno says this as he describes the causes of the Castellammarese War, and he seems to find the offer to Capone as being astonishing.