Early Mafia History Discussion

[aleksandrored]

Speaking of the original three families, I have a doubt, why did the Palermitani split up into what is today, the Gambino and Colombo families?

[johnny_scootch]

Speaking of the original three families, I have a doubt, why did the Palermitani split up into what is today, the Gambino and Colombo families?

I don’t believe there is as much evidence to suggest they did split as there is with the Lucchese/Genovese but you have the Mineo situation. I’ll let the guys with more knowledge on the subject get into details. Maybe I’ll have a better grasp on the situation afterwards also.

[aleksandrored]

Speaking of the original three families, I have a doubt, why did the Palermitani split up into what is today, the Gambino and Colombo families?

I don’t believe there is as much evidence to suggest they did split as there is with the Lucchese/Genovese but you have the Mineo situation. I’ll let the guys with more knowledge on the subject get into details. Maybe I’ll have a better grasp on the situation afterwards also.

I remember in 1912 the family split into two, the "Gambino" which was headed by Salvatore D'Aquila and the "Colombo" which was headed by Manfredi Mineo.

[Angelo Santino]

Speaking of the original three families, I have a doubt, why did the Palermitani split up into what is today, the Gambino and Colombo families?

I don’t believe there is as much evidence to suggest they did split as there is with the Lucchese/Genovese but you have the Mineo situation. I’ll let the guys with more knowledge on the subject get into details. Maybe I’ll have a better grasp on the situation afterwards also.

I remember in 1912 the family split into two, the "Gambino" which was headed by Salvatore D'Aquila and the "Colombo" which was headed by Manfredi Mineo.

We don't have an exact answer why they split into two but here's some things to consider:

1 Palermo and the New York Citrus industry was dominated by Mafiosi on both sides of the Atlantic and most of the early Gambinos were involved in wine, fruit, produce etc. Maybe with such a lucrative venture they didn't want it resting on one Palermitan boss, especially given Lupo's business issues crashing years earlier?

2 Mineo arrived with his brother-in-law and Boss Antonino Grillo in 1911 and connected almost instantly with leaders of different families. What we know of Mineo could fit into a paragraph but we can speculate that he was someone of prominence in Palermo.

3 In 1910 the Palermo families split, 2, 3 and in some instances 4 ways into new families (these original affiliations would later be largely reconstituted within the mandamenti setup). Mafia Families were not designed to be large supergroups and perhaps the 1910 Palermo breakup influenced the 1912 NY Palermitan break up?

4 The American Mafia's set up was a result of chain migration, Palermo was a port city and thus the largest amount of Sicilian immigrants were from there, meaning the majority of Mafiosi arriving were likely Palermitan. With the upward trajectory of immigration after 1905 due to a series of earthquakes, it's feasable that by 1910 the Palermitans outnumbered the Corleonese and Cast/Camporealesi groups 2 to 1 so maybe that was a factor. Palermo had the majority of mafia member in and around the city in affiliations of 10-30 per group. The Corleone Family likely had more than 10 less than 20 members and the Family in Cast likely had no more than 10, maybe 15. So in time there were likely more made Corleonesi and Castellammaresi made in NY than in Sicily by 1920.

5 Drawing back to #4 and chain migration, that is the track that these groups ran on. There was never a Harlem Family or a Brooklyn Family based or limited to region. Instead the interior Sicilians spread throughout the city were interconnected as were the Trapanesi and the Palermitans with their own respective factions... Imagine if Schiro was C.D.C. from 1912 until 1928 and not D'Aquila, would he have kept the affiliations as they were since 1912 or would he and the other NY bosses agreed to split off even more as more members poured in from Sicily? D'Aquila, either by design or indifference or self-interest lead to 5 supergroups rather than 10-20 smaller affiliations as was the case in Palermo. Although 18 years later, Maranzano didn't seem inclined to lead the charge either.

Strangely, the Agrigentesi faction of NY were likely large enough in numbers to constitute its own Family, yet they fell under the Gambinos from the start. Both Palermo and Sciacca are coastal cities but they are on the opposite sides of the island. Why not allow for them to split off if #4 was the reason? There likely was far more going on than we are aware of.

[MichaelGiovanni]

Has there been any accurate articles written about how the families were formed from the early day’s to 1931. There are bits and pieces in threads like this. Just wondering if there was a definitive article written that shows how it all came together. Lineages and what not of all the 5 families.

[Lupara]

Has there been any accurate articles written about how the families were formed from the early day’s to 1931. There are bits and pieces in threads like this. Just wondering if there was a definitive article written that shows how it all came together. Lineages and what not of all the 5 families.

CC. Antiliar and Lennert wrote such an exact piece in an Informer magazine in 2014.

And then there's David Critchley's book.

Whether this is a definitive study (based on limited evidence and trying to piece it all together) remains to be seen. Bits and pieces of new info will likely come to the surface in time but it probably won't fill all the gaps. Unfortunately no one from the ancient days is around for a long time now. Even centenarian Sonny "L'Immortale" Franzese will only know stuff from the relatively modern days of the mob going back to the thirties, but the sob will take it with him to the grave.

[johnny_scootch]

Has there been any accurate articles written about how the families were formed from the early day’s to 1931. There are bits and pieces in threads like this. Just wondering if there was a definitive article written that shows how it all came together. Lineages and what not of all the 5 families.

Get both the book and that specific issue of Informer mentioned by Lupara, both are great.

Some of the lineages are found here https://mafiacharts.wordpress.com

[Lupara]

Has there been any accurate articles written about how the families were formed from the early day’s to 1931. There are bits and pieces in threads like this. Just wondering if there was a definitive article written that shows how it all came together. Lineages and what not of all the 5 families.

Get both the book and that specific issue of Informer mentioned by Lupara, both are great.

Some of the lineages are found here https://mafiacharts.wordpress.com

In addition, get The Mob and the City which focuses on the Five Families' golden years.

[MichaelGiovanni]

Thanks for the info Lupara and Jscootch

[aleksandrored]

In my opinion the best books to have an overview of the five families are:

Informer Magazine 2014: The Early New York Mafia and David Critchley Book (1890-1931)
The Mob and the City (1931-1957)
The Five Families (1957-2004) I know that this book has been talking since the 1920s but I think it has some errors, so I prefer this book for the years 1957 until 2004.

[B.]

I'm sure CC was checking his watch, sure that I'd throw Fontana's name in. I won't bring Cascio Ferro into it, though.

--

I believe the 1913 murder of Giuseppe Fontana factored not into the creation but most likely the development of the D'Aquila and Mineo families:

- Fontana was a top Villabatesi figure in Sicily and the US, believed by researchers to have been a D'Aquila family leader, or at least a D'Aquila supporter, who was murdered on Mineo's orders. If that's true, it's an indication that the Villabate paesani were originally D'Aquila/Gambino members or a D'Aquila-friendly faction of the Mineo family.

- By the late-1920s, the Villabatesi appear exclusively in the Mineo/Profaci and become the most dominant faction of that family for decades. If they were originally part of the D'Aquila family, this could be a sign that they transferred to Mineo after Fontana's murder (or some other point). Or if they were always with Mineo, it could mean Fontana was killed by his boss Mineo for favoring D'Aquila (and probably posing a threat to Mineo's relatively new leadership).

Because this is a cap topic, the Villabatesi are an important part of the equation when it comes to membership figures:

- Many of the well-known Villabate names didn't come to the US until after 1913, so they may not have been that large of a faction in NYC in the 1910s regardless of which family they originally belonged to. However, they appear to have been part of the same network as the Bagheresi who were much more involved in early NYC (but not later) and Giuseppe Fontana was close to figures from Bagheria, so even if the Villabatesi weren't as large, they may have been part of a faction including other nearby towns/suburbs of Palermo.

- By the mid- or late-1920s the Villabate guys appear to have made up a significant percentage of the Mineo/Profaci membership. If the Villabatesi were under D'Aquila in the 1910s or if they were under Mineo but with far fewer members, the question is: who made up most of Mineo's family if not the Villabatesi?

- Even after the apparent immigration/recruitment boom of the 1920s, the Mineo/Profaci family would be relatively small compared to the Gambinos. This suggests to me that in 1912-1913, without a large Villabatesi faction, the Mineo family may have been even smaller relative to the other groups. If the Mineo group was very small, that backs up the idea that the Mineo family was created more for politics than necessity.

- Another possibility worth considering is that the Mineo family wasn't that small in the 1910s / 1920s and when Mineo transferred to the D'Aquila family in 1928 to become their boss, he also brought with him a faction of loyalists from his old family who transferred their membership. Keep in mind that his top loyalist and alleged underboss Stefano Ferrigno had a brother who was a Profaci/Colombo member, which could suggest that Stefano himself was originally a Mineo/Profaci member who transferred to assist Mineo in administering the old D'Aquila family. This could explain why the Gambino and Profaci groups were so imbalanced in size -- they may have originally been more equal until Mineo transfererred.

We know from various sources that the politics going on in Sicily during this period, especially Palermo, directly impacted what was going on in the US. This is mentioned by Gentile, Allegra, and even some later US member sources who didn't have direct experience talked about how Sicilian mafia leaders influenced the US mafia. Given what CC said about Mineo's relationship to Grillo and some of the changes happening in Palermo, it would make sense that this had some kind of impact on the US Palermitani groups.

--

This is all assuming that the Mineo family was first created in the early 1910s. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that it had existed earlier and we just don't have the info.

[johnny_scootch]

Was Charlie Lemons related to Manfredi?

In the restructured family on which Joe Colombo solidified his hold as boss, another tantalizing figure emerged, Charles (Charlie Lemons) Mineo — a stolid, enigmatic figure around whom the storms and rivalries of the Colombo family would continue to swirl in moments of crisis during the years to come. Mineo has become a unique kind of underboss, one who is usually virtually inactive. According to some reports he was an important loan shark in his earlier years but had gradually withdrawn from illegal activities and was enjoying the fruits of retirement when Colombo elevated him to the No. 2 spot in the family. Colombo was said to have been suspicious of the designs of the powerful Carmine Persico and so desired as his chief lieutenant a man who was not so dangerously ambitious. But there may well have been another reason for the selection of Charlie Mineo. His strength then and now appears to be that he is a highly regarded “man of respect” and whenever there is major trouble, capos of all persuasions turn to him. “Even during the Gallo‐Profad war,” one investigator says, “he maintained such a strict neutrality that both Sides trusted him;he was one of the few old‐time leaders the Gallos respected.”

Charlie Mineo is a squat figure, some 5‐feet‐9, 200 pounds, now in his middle 70's. He was born in Palermo, Sicily, on October 18, 1897. He lives quietly. at 42 First Place in Brooklyn, and his favorite haunts are in the same area — a candy store at the corner of Court and First, the Stumble Inn Bar and Grill nearby, and (perhaps most important of all) a handy park bench on Court Street where he likes to sun himself on fine days and chat with friends who just happen to drop by, always with a bodyguard handy a few feet away to make certain that the friends stay really friendly. That park bench and its impassive “man of respect” were to become, extremely important in the scheme of things after Joe Colombo started the ItalianAmerican Civil Rights League.

[Angelo Santino]

I'm sure CC was checking his watch, sure that I'd throw Fontana's name in. I won't bring Cascio Ferro into it, though.

--

I believe the 1913 murder of Giuseppe Fontana factored not into the creation but most likely the development of the D'Aquila and Mineo families:

- Fontana was a top Villabatesi figure in Sicily and the US, believed by researchers to have been a D'Aquila family leader, or at least a D'Aquila supporter, who was murdered on Mineo's orders. If that's true, it's an indication that the Villabate paesani were originally D'Aquila/Gambino members or a D'Aquila-friendly faction of the Mineo family.

- By the late-1920s, the Villabatesi appear exclusively in the Mineo/Profaci and become the most dominant faction of that family for decades. If they were originally part of the D'Aquila family, this could be a sign that they transferred to Mineo after Fontana's murder (or some other point). Or if they were always with Mineo, it could mean Fontana was killed by his boss Mineo for favoring D'Aquila (and probably posing a threat to Mineo's relatively new leadership).

Because this is a cap topic, the Villabatesi are an important part of the equation when it comes to membership figures:

- Many of the well-known Villabate names didn't come to the US until after 1913, so they may not have been that large of a faction in NYC in the 1910s regardless of which family they originally belonged to. However, they appear to have been part of the same network as the Bagheresi who were much more involved in early NYC (but not later) and Giuseppe Fontana was close to figures from Bagheria, so even if the Villabatesi weren't as large, they may have been part of a faction including other nearby towns/suburbs of Palermo.

- By the mid- or late-1920s the Villabate guys appear to have made up a significant percentage of the Mineo/Profaci membership. If the Villabatesi were under D'Aquila in the 1910s or if they were under Mineo but with far fewer members, the question is: who made up most of Mineo's family if not the Villabatesi?

- Even after the apparent immigration/recruitment boom of the 1920s, the Mineo/Profaci family would be relatively small compared to the Gambinos. This suggests to me that in 1912-1913, without a large Villabatesi faction, the Mineo family may have been even smaller relative to the other groups. If the Mineo group was very small, that backs up the idea that the Mineo family was created more for politics than necessity.

- Another possibility worth considering is that the Mineo family wasn't that small in the 1910s / 1920s and when Mineo transferred to the D'Aquila family in 1928 to become their boss, he also brought with him a faction of loyalists from his old family who transferred their membership. Keep in mind that his top loyalist and alleged underboss Stefano Ferrigno had a brother who was a Profaci/Colombo member, which could suggest that Stefano himself was originally a Mineo/Profaci member who transferred to assist Mineo in administering the old D'Aquila family. This could explain why the Gambino and Profaci groups were so imbalanced in size -- they may have originally been more equal until Mineo transfererred.

We know from various sources that the politics going on in Sicily during this period, especially Palermo, directly impacted what was going on in the US. This is mentioned by Gentile, Allegra, and even some later US member sources who didn't have direct experience talked about how Sicilian mafia leaders influenced the US mafia. Given what CC said about Mineo's relationship to Grillo and some of the changes happening in Palermo, it would make sense that this had some kind of impact on the US Palermitani groups.

--

This is all assuming that the Mineo family was first created in the early 1910s. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that it had existed earlier and we just don't have the info.

(I'm under the weather with bronchitis and on medication, my thinking isn't running on all cylanders, but let me try and respond.)

1 Re. Cascio Ferro - You can bring in Cascio Ferro, in fact maybe get Antiliar's take on it as well. I'm confident in my findings but if it turns out to be wrong, oh well. Won't be the first or last time.

2 Re. Fontana. It's possible. He's another individual like so many that we just don't have much information on. If memory serves, Villabate, murdered or involved in murder of Notarbartolo, lived on E 105th, was involved with Lupo and Morello in the Ignazio Florio. Clearly somebody of prominence. When mafia wars occur the targets are usually significant or important people who's demise will disrupt the opposing faction. Both Fontana and Fanaro were killed and Saverio Virzi wounded. All committed by "members of the Manfre and La Monti" gangs, with Schiro being an ally of the latter. Seems to imply that the Mineo group was the primary opponent of D'Aquila, especially given that all the murders involved the Palermitan network with included Villabate, regardless of what family they would fall into. (There was another Giuseppe Fontana from Resuttana in the 1900's also affiliated with the Lupo-D'Aquila family.)

3 Villabate is a suburb of Palermo, it's a 2 hour walk if you're going from downtown Palermo (D'Aquila, Mangano, Mineo; Lupo had a store there; Cali family etc). In between both areas is Settanconnoli / Brancaccio which is the area I believe the Luccheses are from? I could be wrong there.

4 The Bagheria faction appears to have been... with the Corleonese. This would include Domenico Pecoraro of the 1900's as well as Dominick Didato later unless I'm misremembering. All these affiliations are connected by 3 degrees of separation. Western Sicily is not that large and Palermo was the hub, any well traveled Mafioso (there were ample in those days) or anyone involved in the administrative level of the Mafia would have been well acquainted with members from other cities. Combine that with them serving time with Italians from other regions, their encounters with each other in the New World was like going to High School on the first day and meeting up with people you previously went to Intermediate with. We have Mineo and D'Aquila being at odds in the US, yet Mineo's brother in law was Palermo boss Antonino Grillo whom D'Aquila would visit and send money to during the 1920's war in Palermo. All these guys are connected in a tangled web of associations and interchanging loyalties.

5 Regarding the split. We don't know if when Lupo went away that his family was split between D'Aquila and Mineo or if D'Aquila inherited the group and Mineo was allowed to form a second one. We can link members being first under Lupo and then D'Aquila confirming the continuity. We have no members to do that with for Mineo. Could the group have existed before 1912, I can't say no. But we can't find anyone who fits the profile of a predecessor (which doesn't end the conversation), not to mention the meeting in 1912 about "breaking off" in a muddled fashion.

6 There was an early Colombo family informant who was willing provide information, which included this group still taking orders from Mineo (while he was boss of the Gambinos) but his offer wasn't accepted and he got the chair. Sad.

7 If only someone had sat Clemente down and asked: "Ok, how far back do these 4 groups go and who took over from who." It's lost to history.

[B.]

2 - All of that is why Fontana seems to be a missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to the Villabatesi becoming the most dominant faction of the Mineo family by the mid- or late-1920s, especially if they were under D'Aquila circa 1913.

4 - I'm not so sure the Bagheresi were under the Corleonesi based on what's been published.

From your article, Giovanni Pecoraro (who was not from Bagheria or related to Domenico) was an acting leader of the Morello family who was believed killed by D'Aquila men, including a young Philip Mangano. Interestingly Pecoraro's son would become a D'Aquila/Mangano member in the years following his father's murder. Opens up a similar question to the Fontana/Villabatesi situation, where someone close to the victim doesn't simply stay on with the murderer's group (which is common in the mafia) but possibly transfers to the murderer's group. It seems pretty clear, though, that G.Pecoraro was a Morello member but he wasn't from Bagheria.

Domenico Pecoraro from Bagheria appears to have operated closely with Morello and Lupo early on and was a main conspirator in the Catania murder (the victim being a Bagherese), but it doesn't seem obvious that this D.Pecoraro was under Morello, only that they associated. The murder appears to be a collaboration between Morello and Lupo's families (previously and incorrectly believed to be one family), so it's hard to say who the participants were formally affiliated with. I think there are some hints, though...

According to your article, Domenico Pecoraro's paesani Giovanni Zarcone and Nicola Testa from Bagheria were mainly connected to Ignazio Lupo. One of Zarcone's immediate relatives is identified in DC's book as being godfather to Ignazio Lupo, so there is a longstanding relationship there. Zarcone and D.Pecoraro both ended up in Brooklyn, too, which was more closely linked to Lupo at that time. All of this suggests to me that D.Pecoraro, Zarcone, and the Bagheresi were under Lupo. It's interesting, too, that your article points out Lupo was mistaken at one point for being from Bagheria himself.

Then there is the murder victim Giuseppe Catania, who came from Bagheria, owned a butcher shop in Brooklyn, and associated closely with Lupo. Lupo is also suspected of being the one who lured Catania to his murder. I would reason that, like his paesani, Catania was under Lupo as well.

Considering how influential they were early on in NYC and Sicily, the Bagheresi really fell off the map in NYC. They had stronger representation in Milwaukee/Madison, Chicago, San Jose, Utica, and other parts of the US for longer, but despite their early prominence had no enduring representation in NYC families like the Sicilian factions from Villabate, Palermo (the core metropolitan area), Corleone, Castellammare, and Sciacca/Agrigento. I've always found this surprising.

--

Your discovery that Lupo headed his own family changes a lot of things, not that I need to tell you that, and I think there is still a tendency to see some of Morello's associations as signs that certain people were under Morello's family when they were under Lupo. The fact that Morello was boss of bosses also confuses things, as technically everyone in the mafia was "under" him but not everyone was part of his individual family.

And you already know I include Cascio Ferro in all of this. I do speculate that yours' and Antiliar's discovery that Lupo headed his own family makes it more likely that Cascio Ferro was under Lupo, not Morello, which would explain some things, but that's probably best for an existing Cascio Ferro topic: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=4357

An important aspect of Lupo, too, is that when he got out of prison he appears to have been close to some Calabrian figures that would be involved with the D'Aquila/Gambino family. The most significant difference between the D'Aquila and Mineo groups to me is that the Mineo/Profaci family would stay almost exclusively Sicilian (and Palermitani at that) until the 1950s while the D'Aquila/Gambino family would include significant factions from Calabria and Agrigento by the 1920s. This accounts not only for D'Aquila's much larger size, but could highlight different philosophies entirely. However, we see that Mineo had no problem becoming boss of the diversified D'Aquila family and sided with the Masseria group, who were by then dominated by mainlanders. Lupo's relationship to the Calabresi is also a question mark in all of this -- would be interesting how his own approach impacted the two groups that appear to have split off from him.

[B.]

Was Charlie Lemons related to Manfredi?

In the restructured family on which Joe Colombo solidified his hold as boss, another tantalizing figure emerged, Charles (Charlie Lemons) Mineo — a stolid, enigmatic figure around whom the storms and rivalries of the Colombo family would continue to swirl in moments of crisis during the years to come. Mineo has become a unique kind of underboss, one who is usually virtually inactive. According to some reports he was an important loan shark in his earlier years but had gradually withdrawn from illegal activities and was enjoying the fruits of retirement when Colombo elevated him to the No. 2 spot in the family. Colombo was said to have been suspicious of the designs of the powerful Carmine Persico and so desired as his chief lieutenant a man who was not so dangerously ambitious. But there may well have been another reason for the selection of Charlie Mineo. His strength then and now appears to be that he is a highly regarded “man of respect” and whenever there is major trouble, capos of all persuasions turn to him. “Even during the Gallo‐Profad war,” one investigator says, “he maintained such a strict neutrality that both Sides trusted him;he was one of the few old‐time leaders the Gallos respected.”

Charlie Mineo is a squat figure, some 5‐feet‐9, 200 pounds, now in his middle 70's. He was born in Palermo, Sicily, on October 18, 1897. He lives quietly. at 42 First Place in Brooklyn, and his favorite haunts are in the same area — a candy store at the corner of Court and First, the Stumble Inn Bar and Grill nearby, and (perhaps most important of all) a handy park bench on Court Street where he likes to sun himself on fine days and chat with friends who just happen to drop by, always with a bodyguard handy a few feet away to make certain that the friends stay really friendly. That park bench and its impassive “man of respect” were to become, extremely important in the scheme of things after Joe Colombo started the ItalianAmerican Civil Rights League.

I believe Antiliar looked into this fairly extensively and found no connection. His affiliation with the Profaci (former Mineo) family, involvement in the citrus trade, and Palermo birth seem like they would lend themselves to a relation, as Manfredi Mineo was in the citrus industry, but it may just be a coincidence.

Manfredi had a brother listed on at least two records I've seen, Dr. Corrado "Corradino" Mineo, who I'm curious about. There is a current Sicilian politician called Corradino Mineo who is from Partanna, but his family is originally from Palermo and his grandfather was an accomplished scientist and mathematician called Dr. Corradino Mineo. I don't know how his DOB would match up with Manfredi's brother, but it is interesting his brother was a Dr. Corradino Mineo in Palermo at the same time this Dr. Corradino Mineo was alive and active in the same area.

Many early mafia leaders came from higher classes and given that his brother was a doctor, it points to Manfredi being from a relatively high social class as well. Would be interesting if his brother was the "esteemed" scientist Dr. Corradino Mineo but it could just be another coincidence.

--

Another odd detail about Manfredi Mineo is that when Valachi brought up the rule against killing another member in order to steal his wife, he claimed Manfredi Mineo had done this. He also said that Mineo's wife was glad about his murder because she could return to Sicily. He didn't know Mineo personally so who knows how this gossip made its way to him, or if he even had it right, just a strange detail that adds to the mystery of Mineo.