Nicky Bianco's formal transfer to the Colombos

[B.]

In a report from late September 1965, an informant (Scarpa) describes a dinner meeting in New York attended by Raymond Patriarca, Nicky Bianco, Joseph Colombo, Carlo Gambino, Charles Mineo (described as Colombo underboss), Buster Aloi, Greg Scarpa, and Rocco Miraglia. There are also two redacted Colombo members, one of whom has some kind of position in the family that is redacted (consigliere or captain).

This meeting, held at Bonaparte Restaurant in Brooklyn, was set up so that Nicky Bianco could be formally transferred from the Patriarca family to Colombo. At the meeting Patriarca simply said to Bianco that he would now answer to Colombo. After this, a private discussion was had between Aloi, Colombo, Patriarca, and one of the redacted names but the nature of the discussion was not known.

The rest of the meeting was about random topics, including FBI surveillance and telephone wiretaps. Patriarca also told them that a large number of unsolved gangland killings in Boston were the result of a feud between Boston Irish groups. Patriarca was upset because he was being blamed for the murders and was now considering killing leaders of the Irish groups.

Patriarca stayed the night at Bianco's home and returned the Providence the next day. Colombo told the informant that Patriarca would return in a month or so, but the FBI was not able to confirm if this happened despite heavy surveillance of Colombo, Bianco, and possible meeting locations during late October 1965.

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I knew Bianco was made by Patriarca around the early 1960s and transferred to the Colombos, but I thought the transfer happened earlier than late 1965. Was he still technically a Patriarca member then when he was helping mediate the Gallo issue?

He was born in Rhode Island (birth name Nicola Bianco) and came up under Patriarca, apparently with some unknown connection to Brooklyn, and was made so that he could go there and mediate a major dispute. Nobody bats an eye at Bianco's presence, not Scarpa, Colombo, or anyone else described in reports, welcoming him into the fold and holding him in highest regard. Colombo later even promoted him to captain before Bianco headed back to the Patriarca family.

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In September 1966, eight Colombo members went to Providence where they attended the wake of Nicky Bianco's father. Among these members were Joe Colombo, Rocco Miraglia, Dominick Scialo, Greg Scarpa, Anthony Peraino, and Carmine Persico, plus two redacted names. In addition, Carmine Tramunti of the Lucchese family attended the wake as well as Joseph Lombardo, who was introduced to the informant as the Patriarca underboss, and a Henry LNU (Tameleo), who was introduced to him as a Patriarca captain. Another redacted Patriarca member attended who was "joking around" the entire time.

Bianco's father was Angelo Bianco (b. 1890) from Foggia, Italy. Nothing indicating he had been involved in the life, but with all of the major figures attending the wake from three different families, you have to figure either Nicky Bianco was being shown an extraordinary deal of respect or his father had some kind of underworld connection.

[Cheech]

Nice info B. Thanks

[Hailbritain]

Great post as usual B

[furiofromnaples]

But Nicky Bianco wasn't made in Patriarcas after the first gallo war ?

[Antiliar]

Great post, B

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

I always thought he was from Brooklyn, made into the Colombo's, then switched to the NE Family.
I was obviously wrong. Why did he switch back to the Patriarca Family later on?

[B.]

I always thought he was from Brooklyn, made into the Colombo's, then switched to the NE Family.
I was obviously wrong. Why did he switch back to the Patriarca Family later on?

He was struggling to make a living in Brooklyn. Despite being promoted to captain, he complained to Scarpa that wasn't given any crew members or opportunities to earn significant money (at least initially). Given the ongoing problems in the family, the Joe Colombo shooting, etc. it seems he'd had enough.

Scarpa was under the impression that Joe Colombo wanted Bianco nominated for consigliere at one point, but shot it down because of Bianco's young age.

The only explanation I can come up with for Bianco's stature is that he was seen as an extension of Ray Patriarca, basically an alter ego. I made a couple topics a while back with transcripts of conversations between Bianco and Patriarca in Providence and it's clear Bianco is reporting virtually everything going on in Brooklyn to Patriarca and that the two are extremely close, but I believe this was before the 1965 transfer date, so Bianco would have been a Brooklyn-based Patriarca soldier at the time.

I wonder if any of the New England experts know more about Bianco's early relationship to Patriarca. Patriarca had other guys close to him, including Andy "Boston" Parillo who was a Patriarca associate that was either made by or transferred to the Gambino family in Brooklyn, but Parillo wasn't shown nearly the level of respect that Bianco was -- in fact, it was the opposite, with Parillo being treated poorly by his captain Eppolito. So maybe Bianco's stature was a combination of his relationship to Patriarca and I suppose his own reputation/charisma? He doesn't seem to have been an extraordinary earner, with his reputation being a strange combination of both toughness (he was suspected in at least one NYC hit) and peacemaking.

Does anyone know where Patriarca's family comes from? His father was Eleuterio and grandfather Loreto (which is the "L" in "Raymond L.S.") but I couldn't figure out where in Italy they're from.

[Antiliar]

Eleuterio Patriarca came from Rocca d'Arce in Caserta, near Naples. Have no idea why Bianco was such a big deal, but there must have been something about him that people liked, maybe a certain leadership quality or intelligence.

[AlexfromSouth]

Eleuterio Patriarca came from Rocca d'Arce in Caserta, near Naples. Have no idea why Bianco was such a big deal, but there must have been something about him that people liked, maybe a certain leadership quality or intelligence.

Antiliar please tell me how do you look up people's ancestry? I would like to look Frank DeCicco's grandfather Frank b. 1881. Where did he come from and when, etc.
Also Casso's people.

[Cheech]

B.
I remeber the thread of Patricatca and Bianca talking but our seatch comes up mothing.
Does anyone have those threads?

[JeremyTheJew]

Eleuterio Patriarca came from Rocca d'Arce in Caserta, near Naples. Have no idea why Bianco was such a big deal, but there must have been something about him that people liked, maybe a certain leadership quality or intelligence.

i believe Bianco was first talked about in high regard was with Vinnie Teresea.

does anyone remmember if he said that bianco worked with Henry Tameleo ? i believe Tameleo might have had similar history where he was transfered from NYC?

[Antiliar]

Eleuterio Patriarca came from Rocca d'Arce in Caserta, near Naples. Have no idea why Bianco was such a big deal, but there must have been something about him that people liked, maybe a certain leadership quality or intelligence.

Antiliar please tell me how do you look up people's ancestry? I would like to look Frank DeCicco's grandfather Frank b. 1881. Where did he come from and when, etc.
Also Casso's people.

The two most frequently used databases are Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. You can find more databases in the sticky on Researching the Mafia.

According to Francesco DeCicco's naturalization, he was born in Carbona on Jan 8, 1884. Doesn't say which province or region. His wife's name was Elizabeth. The Wikipedia entry that says Frank DeCicco's father was born in Italy is wrong. Vincent DeCicco was born in New York. Francesco died in 1966. If you go to Ancestry.com you'll see that someone made a family tree of the Frank DeCicco's ancestors, but they picked a different Francesco who was born in February 1885. The key to doing good research is to verify everything and double-check other people's work. That's how myths about the Mafia get to be popular. One guy gets something wrong and other people trust it without verifying.

[AlexfromSouth]

Thanks Antiliar

[B.]

I remeber the thread of Patricatca and Bianca talking but our seatch comes up mothing.
Does anyone have those threads?

Yeah, search is completely busted. It retrieves very recent posts and posts from 2015 and earlier but nothing in between.

Here is the Patriarca / Bianco transcript breakdown I posted:
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1562

It's from 1963 and I believed at the time that Bianco had already transferred to the Colombos. Going to re-read it later and see if I have different interpretations of anything knowing now that his official transfer was still two years away.

Edit: I re-read this and it doesn't really change much. It did have me think though -- Patriarca talks in the second conversation from 1964 about how the books are closed. We know that Philly got in trouble for making members in 1962, as the books had been closed due to Valachi. It seems this is true for Patriarca as well, meaning Bianco would have been made before 1962.

Also, here is the topic about the meeting between Patriarca, Detroit boss Zerilli, and Gambino soldier Parillo:
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1558

[Cheech]

Thank you sir. Enjoy the holidays. Your contributions here are appreciated.

That Patriarca Bianco breakdown and Parillo aee some of my favorite threads ever.