Chicago Outfit Places of Origin

[B.]

Let's not forget that the D'Andreas came from Vallelunga, Caltanisetta, and Valledolmo, Palermo. The two cities are only about 20 minutes apart.

That's where their Buffalo connection comes from for sure. DiCarlo was from Vallelunga and many of the members were from villages around there

Agreed on Williamson County. Seems that there was almost certainly a mafia presence there, but the question remains whether they ever formed their own family or were just a hinterland decina of one of the established families in the region. Even for a remote outpost, Chicago is a long haul. Springfield is of course a possibility, but I think that Cavita's info about Joe Provenzano et al being involved with Pasquale Miceli in STL is an important signal.

Regarding Merlo, one has to also ask what brought him to Chicago and what network he rose within. There were plenty of Agrigentesi there, of course, but then on top of that if these guys from downstate were also relocating there, perhaps this drove an Agrigentesi bloc rising to power in Chicago. A remaining question I have, given that the two Joe Provenzanos initially went to Kankakee, was if there was an early Agrigentese network there affiliated with Chicago Heights.

Who was the other Chicago Bacino you're referring to?

- Salvatore Falcone married a Provenzano from New Orleans and they married in Colorado. Falcone never lived in CO and he was a big time part of the Sciacchitani / Agrigento network so maybe she was connected to the Provenzanos you're talking about. There were early Provenzanos in the New Orleans Family but I don't know anything about them -- Antiliar probably knows more.

- St. Louis had an Agrigento group too which Miceli probably joined. The 1928 Cleveland rep Calogero SanFilippo was from there and so was Miceli's underboss / successor Tony LoPiparo. There was a faction during the early wars led by guys from Agrigento too. Pasquale Santino was their leader.

- Tommaso Bacino is the distant cousin from Burgio I mentioned -- he was much older (b. 1882) and arrived to a cousin named Cardinale in NYC. Giuseppe Cardinale was the name of a guy killed by Pellegrino Scaglia's faction (Scaglia is from Burgio) in Colorado. There were apparently Cardinales in Gary connected to Chicago mafia activity.

- The FBI has a Joe Bacino on their Dead List and describes him as Phil Bacino's cousin born in 1893. The only other Bacino they list except for him and Phil is Phil's wife (they commonly include spouses). He came from Burgio and headed to Chicago. No idea why they'd include him and note the relation to Phil Bacino unless he was involved in mafia circles

With Tommaso and Giuseppe Bacino being born in 1882 and 1893, they may have been too old to get properly documented when investigation ramped up. Joe Bacino might have headed to Canada at one point too and the Lolordos had relatives in Montreal with the name Lolordo, plus Nick Gentile went to Quebec around WWI with the Lolordos' cousin.

My impression is all of the guys from coastal Agrigento and the nearby inland villages saw themselves more like one Family spread out across the US, Canada, and Sicily. The Sciacchitani faction in the Gambino Family being autonomous and having their own "sostituto" to mediate their affairs is probably a micro version of the way these guys operated everywhere they went. Probably why the DeCavalcantes were given their own Family apart from Newark and NYC even though the members lived there.

EDIT: Oh yeah, when Pasquale Miceli was St. Louis boss the Family there was said to be under Chicago's influence. When he died Detroit replaced Chicago as the main influence on St. Louis. Coincides with Giordano, etc. gaining power.

[PolackTony]

Frank C. Tornabene, 18 May 1926 (some sources have 1923/1924) - 14 Oct 1991

Luigi (Louis) Tornabene 15 Jul 1915 (some have 1914) - 21 Nov 1982

- Regarding Rosa Greco, that's what the FBI file had.

I'm pretty sure they were wrong if that's what they had. Rosa Greco, nee Carlisi, was born in 1894, she's the same one that you have listed as one of Maria and Giuseppe's sisters. she married Antonio Greco of Canicattì 1923 in Chicago.

Regarding the other Tornabenes, that matches what I have. Except Luigi Tornabene was born 1913/07/15 per his birth certificate, to Giulio Tornabene and Rosina Badalamenti. Seems like he was indeed Frank Cleo Tornabene's older brother. My concern was that there was another Luigi Tornabene, born August 1913, in Villarosa, Enna, who immigrated to Chicago later. In the 1950s his occupation was listed as "unemployed laborer", so I rather doubt he was the guy who owned the Santa Fe Hotel. I believe that guy died 2003.

Giulio Tornabene and Rosa/Rosina Badalamenti were married in NOLA in 1903.

[PolackTony]

His FBI file (which doesn't include the 1980s or 1990s, except for some heavily redacted pages that are essentially useless) says that Samuel Anthony Carlisi was Sam Drago, born 15 Dec 1921 in Gloversville, NY, to Joe and Rose Drago. Then another source in the file says Samuel Anthony Carlisi was born 19 Nov 1921 to Joseph and Rose Carlisi. Notice that Wikipedia has 14 Dec 1914 - which a bunch of other sites copied. Another member of the Aiuppa crew was Carmen Sam Carlisi, who sometimes is identified as someone other than Black Sam Carlisi and other times is identified as him. There was also and Alphonse Carlisi who was a son of Joe and Rosa Carlisi. The Tornabenes and Carlisis, it appears, often used each other's name as an alias along with Drago. Black Sam Carlisi also had a sister, Rosa Greco, who lived in Cicero.

It gets even better. In 1920, they were living in Gloversville under Calogera's maiden name. There was a Joe and Rosie Cassaro. All of their children (the eldest child was "Sodo", as in "Saro" == Rosario) were born in Illinois with the exception of an infant daughter named Anna, born in NY. There is a record for an Anna Carlisi born 1919 in Gloversville. In 1940, when the Carlisis are back in Chicago, Ann Carlisi, ~20 yo, is listed as born in NY. Ann Carlisi then married a Charles Cassaro in Chicago in 1940 and they seemed to have moved back to Gloversville. I still haven't found a birth record in Gloversville for Sam Carlisi, though I've search under anyone born during that period in Fulton County withe the surnames, Carlisi, Drago, Cassaro, and Tornabene.

In the 1920s Census, one of the kids is Charles Cassaro, 5 yo. This is the Carmen Sam Carlisi that you refer to. I haven't found a birth certificate in Chicago for him likely due to funny business with the name. On his WW2 draft registration (living at the Carlisi home on W Polk), he was called himself "Sam Drago", born 1914/12/15 in Chicago. In the 1940 Census, he was Carmen Carlisi, 25 yo. Per findagrave, "Carmen S Carlisi Drago"was born 1914 and died 1973 in suburban LaGrange, but I don't have a death record or obituary to corroborate this. Under the name Sam C. Drago he married Eleanor Terlecki of Cicero in 1943.

[PolackTony]

Charles Carmen English was born Calogero Inglese in 1914 in Chicago to Giuseppe Inglisa and Carmella Mastrosimone of Santa Caterina Villarmosa, Caltanissetta province. Calogero's older brother Salvatore "Sam" Inglese was born in 1912 in Chicago. There's a passenger manifest from 1905 showing Giuseppe and Carmella arriving in NYC bound for Uniontown, PA (where some other Caltanissettesi lived), though the record stated that they had previously been in Chicago the last time they were in the US. I wasn't able to locate a record for their earlier arrival.

In The 1920s-30s, the family lived near 64th and Central in the SW Side Clearing neighborhood (next to Midway airport).

[PolackTony]

- Tommaso Bacino is the distant cousin from Burgio I mentioned -- he was much older (b. 1882) and arrived to a cousin named Cardinale in NYC. Giuseppe Cardinale was the name of a guy killed by Pellegrino Scaglia's faction (Scaglia is from Burgio) in Colorado. There were apparently Cardinales in Gary connected to Chicago mafia activity.

- The FBI has a Joe Bacino on their Dead List and describes him as Phil Bacino's cousin born in 1893. The only other Bacino they list except for him and Phil is Phil's wife (they commonly include spouses). He came from Burgio and headed to Chicago. No idea why they'd include him and note the relation to Phil Bacino unless he was involved in mafia circles

With Tommaso and Giuseppe Bacino being born in 1882 and 1893, they may have been too old to get properly documented when investigation ramped up. Joe Bacino might have headed to Canada at one point too and the Lolordos had relatives in Montreal with the name Lolordo, plus Nick Gentile went to Quebec around WWI with the Lolordos' cousin.

Ok, now I recall when you brought Tommaso Bacino up on one of the older Chicago threads. Agrigento birth records have him born 1882/09/22 in Burgio to Antonio Bacino and Maria Rosaria Radosta. This info matches his 1971 death record in Chicago. As you said, he arrived in 1903 bound for his cousin Giuseppe Cardinale in BK. In 1913, Tommaso married a Josephine Savino in Perry County, IL, adjacent to Williamson County. I haven't been able to confirm her origins, but based on her surname, she was most likely from the mainland; there were Savinos in Perry County from Torino, Piemonte. Their first child, Tony Bacino, was born 1915 in Willisville, Perry County. Then, in 1916 their next child Sarah Bacino was born in NYC. For his WW1 draft registration, Tommaso was living on 1st St in BK. Not sure what happened to Josephine, but in 1922 Tommaso remarried Maria DiGiorgi (!) of Chiusa Sclafani. They had four children together in the 1920s. In 1930, they lived at Grand and Morgan, while in his 1938 naturalization document, they lived near Division and Clybourn in Little Sicily. Tommaso Bacino died in Chicago in 1971.

Giuseppe Bacino (spelled "Baccino" in a number of US documents) would seem to have been the guy born 1893-1894 in Burgio, who arrived in NYC in 1912 bound for a Giovanni Pantaleo (same names keep popping up) in Chicago. He then settled in East Chicago, IN where he married Mary Woess in 1921. In 1935 he was listed in the Gary directory, but otherwise was listed as residing in East Chicago. He died 1984 in Munster, IN, and his death certificate listed Slvatore Bacino and Anna Aldalino as his parents.

Still looking into this, but it's looking like a good bet that these Bacinos were tied to the Cardinales operating in Gary.

[PolackTony]

Ok, this is what I have for the Gary Cardinales. Actually seems doubtful that they had a compaesani connection to the Bacinos (unless the Cardinales from Caltanisetta and Burgio were related), but it's interesting nonetheless.

Per FBI documents, Angelo Cardinale alias andy Raymond was born 1905 in Caltanissetta. This matches the Angelo Raymond Cardinale, born 1905 in Vallelunga, Caltanissetta, who arrived in NYC in 1913 with his mother Marianna Milazzo and sister Loreta Cardinale, all of Vallelunga, bound for Marianna's brother Carmelo Milazzo, residing on Gault Ct in Little Sicily, Chicago (Angelo's father, Giovanni Cardinale, seems to have already had died in Sicily). In 1915, however, they were living in Buffalo with the Cerasa family, likely also from Vallelunga. In 1919, Loreta/Laura Cardinale married John Cerasa, and in 1920 Marianna and Angelo were living with Laura and John in Endicott, NY.

I haven't been able to confirm a residence for Angelo Cardinale from 1930-1940 and am not certain exactly when he returned to the Chicago area. In 1945, he filed his naturalization petition in Chicago and stated that he lived in Harvey, IL, though the actual declaration was then filed in 1948 in Mayville, NY near Falconer, NY, where his sister Laura Cesara lived. In both documents, he stated that he had never married. He died in 1980 in Hobart, IN.

His Vallelunga origin and strong connection to Buffalo and Upstate, NY suggest a link to the D'Andreas.

[B.]

Interesting Tom Bacino was in Willisville, that's in the SW part of the state, same general area as Johnson City when Miceli was there. Def attractive area for Burgio immigrants.

[PolackTony]

Interesting Tom Bacino was in Willisville, that's in the SW part of the state, same general area as Johnson City when Miceli was there. Def attractive area for Burgio immigrants.

Yes, Willisville is in Perry County which is near Williamson County (Johnston City, Marion), and borders Jackson County (Murphysboro, which had a lot of Italians back then too). Willisville is quite a bit closer to STL though (~64 miles on today's roads where Johnston City is almost twice as far).

Both Perry County and Williamson County had a lot of coal, hence the immigration. Sangamon County (Springfield) also had coal, of course. Interestingly, Kankakee and Grundy Counties (which today are considered the exurban fringes of the Chicagoland metro area) also had significant coal deposits and were the closest areas to Chicago with coal. So not surprising that we also see some of these Agrigentesi heading to Kankakee when they arrived in the US.

[PolackTony]

Ok, this is what I have for the Gary Cardinales. Actually seems doubtful that they had a compaesani connection to the Bacinos (unless the Cardinales from Caltanisetta and Burgio were related), but it's interesting nonetheless.

Per FBI documents, Angelo Cardinale alias andy Raymond was born 1905 in Caltanissetta. This matches the Angelo Raymond Cardinale, born 1905 in Vallelunga, Caltanissetta, who arrived in NYC in 1913 with his mother Marianna Milazzo and sister Loreta Cardinale, all of Vallelunga, bound for Marianna's brother Carmelo Milazzo, residing on Gault Ct in Little Sicily, Chicago (Angelo's father, Giovanni Cardinale, seems to have already had died in Sicily). In 1915, however, they were living in Buffalo with the Cerasa family, likely also from Vallelunga. In 1919, Loreta/Laura Cardinale married John Cerasa, and in 1920 Marianna and Angelo were living with Laura and John in Endicott, NY.

I haven't been able to confirm a residence for Angelo Cardinale from 1930-1940 and am not certain exactly when he returned to the Chicago area. In 1945, he filed his naturalization petition in Chicago and stated that he lived in Harvey, IL, though the actual declaration was then filed in 1948 in Mayville, NY near Falconer, NY, where his sister Laura Cesara lived. In both documents, he stated that he had never married. He died in 1980 in Hobart, IN.

His Vallelunga origin and strong connection to Buffalo and Upstate, NY suggest a link to the D'Andreas.

Worth noting again here that Snakes Gervasi’s mother was Giovanna Cardinale of Vallelunga.

Also, a typo in the quote post. Angelo Cardinale’s sister Laura’s married name was Cerasa, not “Cesara”.

[cavita]

Let's not forget that the D'Andreas came from Vallelunga, Caltanisetta, and Valledolmo, Palermo. The two cities are only about 20 minutes apart.

That's where their Buffalo connection comes from for sure. DiCarlo was from Vallelunga and many of the members were from villages around there

Agreed on Williamson County. Seems that there was almost certainly a mafia presence there, but the question remains whether they ever formed their own family or were just a hinterland decina of one of the established families in the region. Even for a remote outpost, Chicago is a long haul. Springfield is of course a possibility, but I think that Cavita's info about Joe Provenzano et al being involved with Pasquale Miceli in STL is an important signal.

Regarding Merlo, one has to also ask what brought him to Chicago and what network he rose within. There were plenty of Agrigentesi there, of course, but then on top of that if these guys from downstate were also relocating there, perhaps this drove an Agrigentesi bloc rising to power in Chicago. A remaining question I have, given that the two Joe Provenzanos initially went to Kankakee, was if there was an early Agrigentese network there affiliated with Chicago Heights.

Who was the other Chicago Bacino you're referring to?

- Salvatore Falcone married a Provenzano from New Orleans and they married in Colorado. Falcone never lived in CO and he was a big time part of the Sciacchitani / Agrigento network so maybe she was connected to the Provenzanos you're talking about. There were early Provenzanos in the New Orleans Family but I don't know anything about them -- Antiliar probably knows more.

- St. Louis had an Agrigento group too which Miceli probably joined. The 1928 Cleveland rep Calogero SanFilippo was from there and so was Miceli's underboss / successor Tony LoPiparo. There was a faction during the early wars led by guys from Agrigento too. Pasquale Santino was their leader.

- Tommaso Bacino is the distant cousin from Burgio I mentioned -- he was much older (b. 1882) and arrived to a cousin named Cardinale in NYC. Giuseppe Cardinale was the name of a guy killed by Pellegrino Scaglia's faction (Scaglia is from Burgio) in Colorado. There were apparently Cardinales in Gary connected to Chicago mafia activity.

- The FBI has a Joe Bacino on their Dead List and describes him as Phil Bacino's cousin born in 1893. The only other Bacino they list except for him and Phil is Phil's wife (they commonly include spouses). He came from Burgio and headed to Chicago. No idea why they'd include him and note the relation to Phil Bacino unless he was involved in mafia circles

With Tommaso and Giuseppe Bacino being born in 1882 and 1893, they may have been too old to get properly documented when investigation ramped up. Joe Bacino might have headed to Canada at one point too and the Lolordos had relatives in Montreal with the name Lolordo, plus Nick Gentile went to Quebec around WWI with the Lolordos' cousin.

My impression is all of the guys from coastal Agrigento and the nearby inland villages saw themselves more like one Family spread out across the US, Canada, and Sicily. The Sciacchitani faction in the Gambino Family being autonomous and having their own "sostituto" to mediate their affairs is probably a micro version of the way these guys operated everywhere they went. Probably why the DeCavalcantes were given their own Family apart from Newark and NYC even though the members lived there.

EDIT: Oh yeah, when Pasquale Miceli was St. Louis boss the Family there was said to be under Chicago's influence. When he died Detroit replaced Chicago as the main influence on St. Louis. Coincides with Giordano, etc. gaining power.

Was this Miceli related to the James Miceli who was arrested with Sam Giancana in 1938 on bootlegging charges in Garden Prairie, Illinois?

[B.]

No idea on how the different Micelis connect in Chicago.

The Riggis of the DeCavalcantes were related to Micelis from Ribera in Elizabeth, so the name shows up there also.

[PolackTony]

Was this Miceli related to the James Miceli who was arrested with Sam Giancana in 1938 on bootlegging charges in Garden Prairie, Illinois?

Do you recall the age in 1938 of James Miceli? Was an address given? I don't think he was one of the Indiana Micelis, but there were bunch of Micelis, many from Agrigento, in the city as well including around Taylor St.

[PolackTony]

Has anyone ever confirmed Joey Aiuppa's birth record? It's always stated that he was born 1907 in Melrose Park, and I know that his parents were Simone Aiuppa and Rosalia Greco of Lascari, Palermo province, but I was never able to locate his birth record. It's my belief now that Aiuppa was actually born in Lascari himself. In 1909, Rosalia Greco arrived in NYC bound for her husband Simone Aiuppa, then residing at 382 S Clark St in Chicago. With Rosalia were her two young sons, Giuseppe (2 years old) and Salvatore (less than 1 year). Both sons were listed as born in Lascari.

[B.]

There's a 1943 record for Cook County where they log his birth certificate, saying he was born December 1st 1907 in Melrose Park but no access to the certificate itself online.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Melrose Park has a record for his baptism taking place on December 8th 1907. Says his baptism took place in Chicago.

[SolarSolano]

I've always been told the Aiuppa grew up in one of the old homes at Lake & 22nd Street - his actual home I believe is still there. Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Melrose Park is where the Aiuppa's would have been baptized - I believe Joey Aiuppa was actually married there as well. He was a major benefactor to that church as well.