Vancouver "mafia" under Joe Gentile

[B.]

What details are known about the so-called Vancouver "mafia" organization once run by Joe Gentile in British Columbia? I've seen the names of a few associates connected to Gentile, including Frank D'Angelo. Their names are common and there doesn't seem to be much out there on them aside from a friendship between Gentile and Paolo Violi and their involvement in general organized crime in the BC area.

The closest US city is Seattle, which never had any "Cosa Nostra" mafia members and the other west coast families didn't have an outpost in Canada to our knowledge. Unless the Vancouver guys were initiated into a distant US family (unlikely) or part of a Canadian 'ndrangheta/Camorra sect, it seems they weren't a mafia family or crew but simply Italian organized criminals not unlike their neighbors the Colacurcios in Seattle. The connection to Violi does make me wonder if there is something more. Anyone know what Gentile and his close associates' background was, what part of Italy they descend from, etc.?

Can anyone fill in some blanks?

[johnny_scootch]

Joe Gentile was godfather to one of Paolo Violi's daughters. Also as per the book ICED Gentile, Papalia & Violi/Cotroni were all involved in a money laundering scheme together in the mid 70's. He is also referred to as the leading mafioso in Vancouver so chances Gentile was a Cosa Nostra member are very high.

[antimafia]

Joe Gentile, who according to some newspaper articles arrived in Vancouver from his birthplace of Sicily, died on January 27, 1995. His nephew Gerry Di Salvo died that same year. The two of them were partners in restaurants -- first, the Italian Village and, later, Casa d'Italia. These two individuals were alleged by a Gangster BB poster to be part of a mafia group in Vancouver. The poster, who went by the handle Joe_Gentile, also named eight other individuals but refrained from naming another five, which would bring his total of alleged made members to 15. The poster wanted to write a book about this group but was in need of $4,000 to do so, a fundraising goal he set in a few unsuccessful online crowdfunding campaigns. He never did write the book.

I recommend anyone interested in this subject read his post at http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbth ... Post827936. The post names the other eight aforementioned people.

In another TBHF thread (http://www.theblackhand.club/forum/view ... ers#p77581), I posted excerpts from Timothy Appleby's June 4, 1992 article that dealt with both the size of mafia groups and the number of made members in Canada, specifically in particular cities, areas, or provinces. The article states (at the time of writing) that there were about six made members in the "greater Vancouver area."

Based upon the list of arrests made in a big heroin-and-cocaine bust that happened in October 1980 after a 16-month investigation by RCMP drug units in Vancouver and Toronto, the individuals in Ontario were likely, in my opinion, tied to the Siderno Group ('ndrangheta), with the most prominent name being Francesco Loiero ("Frank"). The individuals with Italian names who were arrested in British Columbia included Giovanni Gagliardi, Giuseppe Biasi, Pasquale Lucio Longo, Roberto Mantelli, Mario Franco Magisano (I've also seen "Franco Mario Magisano" as his name), Carmelo Gallo, and Antonio Finamore. Two of these individuals in British Columbia, Gallo and Magisano, were among a number of people charged in August 1976 in a counterfeiting case involving US currency; two others charged were well-known brothers Cosimo and Rocco Remo Commisso of the GTA Siderno Group. In relation to the counterfeiting case, Magisano was actually arrested in Spokane, which is quite far from Seattle, even though the two cities are in the same state. Does make you wonder whether there was interaction between the Colacurcios and the Italian-Canadian criminals in British Columbia.

[antimafia]

I'm not entirely certain I've properly traced Joe Gentile's ancestry but I think I've latched on to parts of his genealogy.

Gentile, as well as his parents and at least one of his siblings -- maybe most or all of them -- was born in Siculiana on February 9, 1925. He arrived in Vancouver via Rio de Janeiro. I found an older article that describes his older brother Antonio ("Antonino," "Nino") having arrived in Vancouver in April 1932 at the age of 16. The article states: "And here [Vancouver] he remained but for a variety of travels to his Sicilian birthplace and South American waypoints which explains his love for Latin American music."

Below is a link to what I believe to be Joe Gentile's immigration record on FamilySearch.org (you'll likely have to be logged in to see it).

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:27N9-28G

If you want to go directly to the immigration card, go to

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903 ... cc=1932363

[B.]

If true, he was yet another mafioso from Siculiana operating in Canada, which given its ties to the Sicilian mafia and Bonanno Montreal membership opens up some possibilities if he was indeed a made member. Then there is the close relationship to Paolo Violi. A certain person on here can jump in and accuse me of trying to connect all of Canada to Bonanno membership, but it is worth pointing out that we don't know the identities of many Canadian Bonanno members even in Montreal and Ontario and given Joe Bonanno's role in the west coast of the US, I wouldn't rule out the possibility that Bonanno (or his affiliates in Montreal/Ontario) planted a flag on the Canadian west coast, whether or not that connects to Joe Gentile being another question, though if Joe Gentile was a made member you have to wonder which family he was a part of. Nothing I've seen would point to there being an official Vancouver mafia family of its own and often when even a soldier is in charge of a city he gets called "the boss", so could be the situation with Gentile.

Having been a former resident of the Seattle area who lived near Colacurcio Jr. and researched the Colacurcios quite a bit, I would be surprised if there was much contact between Frank Colacurcio and any significant mafia groups, but there is too much we don't know about his history and the extent of his operations. He was close with WA governor Rosellini and there is an old report where an informant claimed that Rosellini's father was an early "mafia" leader in the Seattle area. I wasn't able to substantiate this and some of it doesn't compute with the limited info we have, but it's possible he could have had some kind of non-Sicilian group that predated or even evolved into Colacurcio's group. Colacurcio looks to have used his relationship with governor Rosellini to try and benefit his strip club empire, which was always his primary focus. Coincidentally, the only known contact Colacurcio had with a confirmed mafia member was when he met with Bill Bonanno in the 1970s -- Bonanno had served prison time in Washington state during this period.

Should be pointed out, too, that the early mafioso and informant Nicola Gentile was from Siculiana.

[JCB1977]

Was Joe a descendant of Nicolo Gentile?

[B.]

No clue. If anyone could possibly connect them, it would be Rick/Antiliar who is the most knowledgeable on here about Gentile.

I know that Nick Gentile had a brother Vincenzo and both of them spent a period of time in San Francisco. Before that, Nick Gentile had spent time in Quebec, Canada, doing legitimate business along with a friend from Ribera, Agrigento. So those Gentiles had ties to both the west coast and Canada, just no known connection to the west coast of Canada.

According to the doc Antimafia linked, Giuseppe Gentile's father was Gerlando Gentile. Nick Gentile's father was Antonino Gentile. If Gerlando had an older son named Antonino, which Antimafia suggested, this older son could have been named after Gerlando's father in the typical Sicilian tradition, meaning Gerlando's father and Giuseppe Gentile's grandfather would also be named Antonino Gentile and of the same generation as Nick Gentile's father Antonino. If there is a relation, Nick Gentile would be of the age to be a brother or cousin to Gerlando Gentile.

[B.]

Regarding Seattle, here are more details on John Rosellini being labeled the head of "La Cosa Nostra" in Seattle:



Also, this is from a post Scott Deitche made some years back:

Came across this tidbit the other day researching. Harold Konigsberg was interviewed by the FBI in 1965.

He told them when he was in California in 1958 he met a lawyer who was a captain in the Genovese family (doesnt say what City). He is described as a general captain. "this individual is he same age as Vito Genovese and comes from the same village as Genovese near Naples. He is dark complexioned, has a big nose and wears glasses."

"In 1958, continues Konigsberg, he met a ‘captain’ in the Genovese family in a town in Montana where all the unions are located. This unknown captain was described as age 57, short brown hair, non-Italian looking.

Konigsberg claimed there was also another ‘captain’ in Seattle, Washington in the Genovese family whom he never saw. This captain has a soldier under him by the last name of Paul (LNU). According to Konigsberg, these captains in the states of Washington and Montana were under the ‘general captain’ in California.”

I never heard of any activity in Montana and not Genovese in Seattle. Also any idea on the Cali captain? Konigsberg was also very forthcoming about Bruno and Decav family members.

While Konigsberg provided some good information, he was also unreliable. This information seems fairly hard to believe, but it should be noted that the Colacurcios of Seattle were from Avellino, I believe, as were a number of leading Genovese members. John Rosellini however came over from Tuscany which has had few connections to mafia groups, especially early on.

[antimafia]

No clue. If anyone could possibly connect them, it would be Rick/Antiliar who is the most knowledgeable on here about Gentile.

I know that Nick Gentile had a brother Vincenzo and both of them spent a period of time in San Francisco. Before that, Nick Gentile had spent time in Quebec, Canada, doing legitimate business along with a friend from Ribera, Agrigento. So those Gentiles had ties to both the west coast and Canada, just no known connection to the west coast of Canada.

According to the doc Antimafia linked, Giuseppe Gentile's father was Gerlando Gentile. Nick Gentile's father was Antonino Gentile. If Gerlando had an older son named Antonino, which Antimafia suggested, this older son could have been named after Gerlando's father in the typical Sicilian tradition, meaning Gerlando's father and Giuseppe Gentile's grandfather would also be named Antonino Gentile and of the same generation as Nick Gentile's father Antonino. If there is a relation, Nick Gentile would be of the age to be a brother or cousin to Gerlando Gentile.

In this post and any other subsequent posts of mine in this thread, I'll refer to the Nick Gentile most of us are familiar with -- the one born in Siculiana on June 12, 1885 -- as Nicola Gentile. Joe Gentile had a brother Nick, and I'll refer to this brother as Nicolo Gentile (first name is possibly Nicolò) because that's the name that appears on his immigration card -- see https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KX2S-NPG.

This Nicolo Gentile was born January 2, 1919 in Siculiana; so he, along with brother Nino mentioned in one of my previous posts, was also older than Joe Gentile. Two other definite siblings are their sisters Santa and Giovannina. I haven't yet confirmed that there was also another sister, Maria, but I am fairly certain she is the mother of the Gerry Di Salvo mentioned in one of my previous posts. The Gentile siblings' parents were Gerlando and Rosa (née Fazio). Gerry is likely an anglicization of Gerlando; Nino Gentile had three sons, the first of whom was Gerald, which again is likely an anglicization of Gerlando. I haven't yet come across a proper newspaper obituary for Joe Gentile; I am also scouring older newspaper articles to see whether any sons were mentioned in them, insofar as he had at least one son.

The 1979 book Making Connections by Wade Rowland is a behind-the-scenes book about the making of the groundbreaking Connections documentary TV series that aired on Canadian television in the years preceding the book's publication; there were two TV programs: Connections I and Connections II. The page before the book's prologue -- "Connections: The Underworld Cast" -- lists the individuals featured in the TV series. For the city of Vancouver are listed the following individuals (in the order presented on that page):

- Joe Romano, Vancouver mob associate
- Carlo Gallo, Vancouver mafioso
- Pasquale Calabrese, aliases Pat Cala and Frank Angelo
- Joe Gentile, Vancouver mafia leader
- Frank Magasono [sic], Vancouver mafioso

The Pasquale Calabrese mentioned above is the former Buffalo Family associate known to most of us as Paddy Calabrese. He is prominently featured in chapter 14 of the book, "The Paddy Scam." Calabrese had already appeared in Connections I. Having become a private detective running an agency on the US's West Coast, he was then recruited by the TV series' producers to work undercover and target Vancouver mob associate Joe Romano. I'll have to re-read this chapter -- it's been a while -- to see whether there are any interesting tidbits that are relevant to the discussion in this thread.

[B.]

In 1905, a Gerlando Gentile (b. 1884) from Siculiana visited his brother Vincenzo Gentile in St. Louis, MO. In 1911, a Gerlando Gentile from Siculiana and born the same year (1884) visited the US with his wife Rosina Fazio remaining behind in Siciluiana while he visited her brother Vincenzo Fazio in NYC. Seems this latter one is likely Giuseppe Gentile's father given that his mother was a "Rose" Fazio. Given that the birth year matches for both Gerlando Gentiles from Siculiana, it could also be Giuseppe's father who earlier visited St. Louis.

Nicola Gentile described how after immigrating to the US in 1903, he went to Kansas City, MO because his brother Vincenzo was living in that area and working in Topeka, KS. I'd be curious if Nicola's brother Vincenzo Gentile had moved to relatively close St. Louis, MO by 1905 and if there is a connection to the above Gerlando.

EDIT:
According to the death record for Gerlando Gentile of Vancouver, husband of Rose Fazio and father of Giuseppe Gentile, he was born in 1883. Immigration records are often off by ~1 year, so the Gerlando Gentile b. 1884 on the US immigration records seems like a strong match. His father is listed as Antonino Gentile and mother Maria Zarbo. Rosa Fazio's father was Giovanni Fazio and mother Francesca Picarello.

So it appears Gerlando Gentile's father and possibly brother had the same names as Nicola Gentile's father and brother, with the brother(s) potentially living in the same area around the same time. Whether there is a direct relation or not, there are some parallels here that would suggest at least some relation.

[antimafia]

Nicolo Gentile's obituary found at http://vancouversunandprovince.remember ... 1065949050 gives an indication as to how many children Gerlando Gentile and Rosa Fazio had: nine. So far, besides Joe Gentile, we had named Nicolo, Antonino, Giuseppe, Santa, and Giovannina (diminutive of Giovanna), as well as Maria. FamilySearch has helped identify another sibling: Giovanni Gentile, born July 2, 1909; see his immigration record at https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:27FB-B3J. For some reason, Gerlando did not name his first son "Antonino," whether that first son is Giovanni or a yet unidentified male sibling (we've named eight of nine children so far).

Two interesting but probably insignificant details about Giovanni's immigration card: 1) It shows his residence in the country of origin as Vancouver, Canada, unlike the cards for Nicolo and Joe, which show Siculiana, Agrigento -- I think the "temporário-turista" on Giovanni's card provides the explanation, i.e., he was visiting Brazil. 2) The card shows a signature by the Consul General in the Consulate General of Brazil in Montreal.

[DPG]

No clue. If anyone could possibly connect them, it would be Rick/Antiliar who is the most knowledgeable on here about Gentile.

I know that Nick Gentile had a brother Vincenzo and both of them spent a period of time in San Francisco. Before that, Nick Gentile had spent time in Quebec, Canada, doing legitimate business along with a friend from Ribera, Agrigento. So those Gentiles had ties to both the west coast and Canada, just no known connection to the west coast of Canada.

According to the doc Antimafia linked, Giuseppe Gentile's father was Gerlando Gentile. Nick Gentile's father was Antonino Gentile. If Gerlando had an older son named Antonino, which Antimafia suggested, this older son could have been named after Gerlando's father in the typical Sicilian tradition, meaning Gerlando's father and Giuseppe Gentile's grandfather would also be named Antonino Gentile and of the same generation as Nick Gentile's father Antonino. If there is a relation, Nick Gentile would be of the age to be a brother or cousin to Gerlando Gentile.

In this post and any other subsequent posts of mine in this thread, I'll refer to the Nick Gentile most of us are familiar with -- the one born in Siculiana on June 12, 1885 -- as Nicola Gentile. Joe Gentile had a brother Nick, and I'll refer to this brother as Nicolo Gentile (first name is possibly Nicolò) because that's the name that appears on his immigration card -- see https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KX2S-NPG.

This Nicolo Gentile was born January 2, 1919 in Siculiana; so he, along with brother Nino mentioned in one of my previous posts, was also older than Joe Gentile. Two other definite siblings are their sisters Santa and Giovannina. I haven't yet confirmed that there was also another sister, Maria, but I am fairly certain she is the mother of the Gerry Di Salvo mentioned in one of my previous posts. The Gentile siblings' parents were Gerlando and Rosa (née Fazio). Gerry is likely an anglicization of Gerlando; Nino Gentile had three sons, the first of whom was Gerald, which again is likely an anglicization of Gerlando. I haven't yet come across a proper newspaper obituary for Joe Gentile; I am also scouring older newspaper articles to see whether any sons were mentioned in them, insofar as he had at least one son.

The 1979 book Making Connections by Wade Rowland is a behind-the-scenes book about the making of the groundbreaking Connections documentary TV series that aired on Canadian television in the years preceding the book's publication; there were two TV programs: Connections I and Connections II. The page before the book's prologue -- "Connections: The Underworld Cast" -- lists the individuals featured in the TV series. For the city of Vancouver are listed the following individuals (in the order presented on that page):

- Joe Romano, Vancouver mob associate
- Carlo Gallo, Vancouver mafioso
- Pasquale Calabrese, aliases Pat Cala and Frank Angelo
- Joe Gentile, Vancouver mafia leader
- Frank Magasono [sic], Vancouver mafioso

The Pasquale Calabrese mentioned above is the former Buffalo Family associate known to most of us as Paddy Calabrese. He is prominently featured in chapter 14 of the book, "The Paddy Scam." Calabrese had already appeared in Connections I. Having become a private detective running an agency on the US's West Coast, he was then recruited by the TV series' producers to work undercover and target Vancouver mob associate Joe Romano. I'll have to re-read this chapter -- it's been a while -- to see whether there are any interesting tidbits that are relevant to the discussion in this thread.

Wait a min, in 1979 a former mob associate helped a TV show go undercover? I'd love to hear more about that.

[B.]

Nicolo Gentile's obituary found at http://vancouversunandprovince.remember ... 1065949050 gives an indication as to how many children Gerlando Gentile and Rosa Fazio had: nine. So far, besides Joe Gentile, we had named Nicolo, Antonino, Giuseppe, Santa, and Giovannina (diminutive of Giovanna), as well as Maria. FamilySearch has helped identify another sibling: Giovanni Gentile, born July 2, 1909; see his immigration record at https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:27FB-B3J. For some reason, Gerlando did not name his first son "Antonino," whether that first son is Giovanni or a yet unidentified male sibling (we've named eight of nine children so far).

Two interesting but probably insignificant details about Giovanni's immigration card: 1) It shows his residence in the country of origin as Vancouver, Canada, unlike the cards for Nicolo and Joe, which show Siculiana, Agrigento -- I think the "temporário-turista" on Giovanni's card provides the explanation, i.e., he was visiting Brazil. 2) The card shows a signature by the Consul General in the Consulate General of Brazil in Montreal.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FLBL-64F

Above is the death record of Gerlando of Vancouver (b.1883), husband of Rose Fazio and father of Giuseppe, etc. where it mentions he was the son of Antonino. If Giovanni was the first son, it seems they named him after Rose's father Giovanni Fazio. I've seen that done, though it's less common than naming after the paternal grandfather.

I just checked Nicola Gentile's FBN document and it says his father was Antonino Gentile and mother was Maria Zarbo. That is an exact match to the above Gerlando Gentile of Vancouver, whose father was Antonino and Mother was Maria Zarbo. Given the other connections I've already mentioned (both having a brother named Vincenzo living in MO during the same period being a big one), it seems that Nicola Gentile and Gerlando Gentile were brothers, which would make Vancouver mafioso Joe Gentile the nephew of the infamous Nick Gentile.

Nicola Gentile doesn't mention how many children were in his family, but seems to imply he was from a large family when he's describing why he wasn't able to get into a trade profession.

[antimafia]

^^^^
This is a cool discovery, as well as another example of how organized-crime authors, writers, journalists, and researchers in the past had it so much harder than we mobwatchers do today. I asked James Dubro, who was heavily involved in the making of Connections, whether he and his colleagues had come across any information that linked Nicola Gentile with Joe Gentile of Vancouver. Dubro answered that he and his team members didn't come across any hard evidence.

Christian Cipollini has a really great post about Nicola Gentile over at http://www.writersofwrongs.com/2017/02/ ... usive.html, as well as some nice uploads (including the FBN page you mentioned in your post).

[B.]

^^^^
This is a cool discovery, as well as another example of how organized-crime authors, writers, journalists, and researchers in the past had it so much harder than we mobwatchers do today. I asked James Dubro, who was heavily involved in the making of Connections, whether he and his colleagues had come across any information that linked Nicola Gentile with Joe Gentile of Vancouver. Dubro answered that he and his team members didn't come across any hard evidence.

Christian Cipollini has a really great post about Nicola Gentile over at http://www.writersofwrongs.com/2017/02/ ... usive.html, as well as some nice uploads (including the FBN page you mentioned in your post).

The more I delve into the mafia, the smaller that world seems to be. Now that it looks almost certain that Gerlando Gentile was Nicola Gentile's brother and Giuseppe Gentile his nephew, I am wondering if Gerlando was himself a mafioso. It seems unlikely that Joe Gentile would become an inducted member of the mafia in a city with scarce mafia connections while his father, whose brother was an infamous international mafioso, was not.

Nicola Gentile doesn't give any info one way or anther about whether his relatives were involved with the mafia, but he did say something interesting when asked if he knew about the mafia in Sicily before coming to the US. He said that all Sicilians know about the mafia, as it is in their blood. Seems like a general/vague enough comment, but I have to wonder if he was implying that he had blood relatives in the mafia.

Nicola definitely used the mafia network when first arriving to the US before he himself was a mafia member. The man he initially met with in NYC was a human trafficker who sent him to his brother in Kansas City and he doesn't identify him as a mafia member, but it seems virtually all of Gentile's contacts and travels around the US from that point forward were closely linked to mafia activity. The only brother he talks about is Vincenzo, who went to the US before him. Nothing is said about Vincenzo being a mafioso, but when Gentile went to the Kansas City area it seems clear that his brother was connected to mafiosi, as Nicola met up with Vincenzo LoCicero and waited with him in Kansas City until his brother arrived and it seems that Vincenzo Gentile was already acquainted with LoCicero, a future power in the D'Aquila/Gambino Agrigento faction. It's reasonable to believe that Vincenzo Gentile used the mafia network that his brother Nicola used in his own travels and if that's the case, you have to wonder if Gerlando Gentile also used the mafia network when he traveled.

Even if Gerlando Gentile was a mafioso like his brother and son, it still opens the question of what his affiliation was. The closest US family was San Francsico and both of Gerlando's brothers stayed there, with at least Nicola being a member of the San Francisco family for a time. But a longtime boss of SF was an informant (Lima -- thanks to Ed for this) and he doesn't seem to have mentioned any Vancouver members.

This is where the Violi connection again comes to mind. Vancouver is obviously a massive distance away from Montreal or even Toronto, so how did Paolo Violi become acquainted with Joe Gentile and what led to Gentile being godfather to Violi's child? I wouldn't rule out the possibility that Gentile was formally affiliated with the Bonanno Montreal crew even if he ran a low-key, independent operation on the west coast. The Siculiana connection lends itself to this Bonanno connection as well given the strong ties between Siculiana and the Montreal crew, not to mention the connection to Agrigento in general with the Rizzutos. Nicola Gentile didn't have only close relationships to his paesani from Siculiana, but Agrigento as a whole.

And despite my original skepticism over the Gentile group being in the mafia (hence using quotes in the original thread title), which I've done a complete 180 on, I can't rule out the possibility that they were their own family, decina, or otherwise affiliated with the Sicilian mafia. The Siculiana connection would lend itself to the latter as much as it would the Bonanno family. With such limited historical information on Cosa Nostra mafia activities in Canada even in the hotbed areas of Montreal and Toronto, I can't assume anything about this Vancouver group except that they seem to have been affiliated with Cosa Nostra.