The Agrigento Network

[B.]

I don't know if there was a large percentage of Castellammarese in Detroit or Michigan for that matter. Even outside of the topic which had one member that we know about, Michigan Italian demographics doesn't seem to show that there was any sizable colony there. So at the very least it was similar to Philly: a few blood relatives and within that mini-demo were a few made guys. CDC and Alcamo and Terrasini aren't that far away and, from personal experience, the populations are interrelated. I for instance, am from CDG but I have relatives in Alcamo, Partinico as far as Bagheria. While I don't come from a Mafioso-infused family I reckon those that are likely have those same connections beyond their own town.

In addition to Milazzo and Parrino (who I'd consider part of the "Castellammarese" network because of his closeness to Milazzo, his brother's membership in the Bonanno family, connections between the towns, and the way Parrino has been described in books), there was also the presence of mafiosi Buccellatos a little bit earlier which is why I figured there was an existing Detroit Castellammarese population of some kind beyond Milazzo.

There were many figures from Alcamo in the Detroit family aside from Parrino, as well as members from Balestrate, Paceco, Marsala, and the city of Trapani. I don't know if they were all aligned with each other or with Milazzo/Parrino, but I consider Castellammare and most of Trapani part of the same larger network so if some of these guys were aligned with Milazzo, that's not different from Castellammarese being under someone like Benny Gallo from Santa Ninfa. For whatever reason, the Castellammarese became the dominant figures over most US Trapanese after a certain point, which might have to do with some mafia form of classicism.

In the Maranzano and Joe Bonanno eras, the Bonanno family had many members from around Trapani province but the Castellammarese would rule the family, with two non-Castellammarese ex-consiglieri murdered (a rare fate for consiglieri) and ultimately replaced with a Castellammarese in Tartamella, making the entire administration from the same town.

But you can see where they still didn't go too far from their roots. In the 1960s, Joe Bonanno named his brother-in-law LaBruzzo as his successor and his son Bill was elected consigliere, which meant that the pro-Bonanno faction had a boss of Camporeale heritage and a consigliere who was half-Camporealese / half-Castellammarese. So even though Joe Bonanno was responsible for pushing the Castellammarese into total dominance, he also preserved the Camporeale roots of the family in his own relations and bloodline. For comparison's sake, at that time the anti-Bonanno faction was led by DiGregorio from Castellammare and Sciacca from Salemi (whose wife was from Santa Ninfa), with counsel by Alfano from Racalmuto.

Nick Licata was from Camporeale, originally with Detroit, and became the top man to Frank DeSimone from Trapani province. While it might be a coincidence, he's another example of Camporeale fitting in with guys from Partinico and Trapani. The Alcamo element in Detroit also crossed over into Los Angeles, with the Adamos and Mirables being involved with Detroit then taking over in the San Diego area. They coincidentally(?) had Biagio Bonventre under them in San DIego, who was from San Vito Lo Capo but his family looks to be originally from Castellammare and he played some part in Joe Bonanno's first attempted plot to take over LA from DeSimone. San Diego was also frequented heavily by the Partinico element of the Detroit family.

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A St. Louis informant claimed that only men from Partinico, Cinisi, and Terrasini could become leaders of the St. Louis family because mafiosi from those villages considered themselves of a higher class, similar to Joe Bonanno's feelings about the Castellammarese. At the time this was reported, Giardino and Vitale were the leaders of St. Louis, both being from the villages in question, but the previous two bosses and possibly an even earlier boss were all from Agrigento, which goes against what the informant said and again shows that Agrigento was a wild card in US mafia politics.

By the time of the above report, the St. Louis family was said to be deeply influenced by Detroit, whose leaders also came from Terrasini, Cinisi, and Partinico and it looks like the SL informant's comments about mafiosi from those villages applied to Detroit when you look at how dominant those groups were. Along with some crossover between Partinico, Trapani, and maybe Camporeale, the Castellammarese of the Bonanno family seem to have operated as a higher leadership class of the family much like Terrasini/Cinisi/Partinico in Detroit and allegedly later on in St. Louis. Side note, but it's interesting that the Bonanno family had ties to Detroit but not St. Louis -- this could be for any number of reasons, but what's a core difference between the Detroit and St. Louis membership? Detroit had strong representation from Trapani province.

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With the talk about certain groups considering themselves a higher class and wanting leadership positions, contrast this with the DeCavalcantes . For as much has been said about their Ribera roots and connections, Nick Delmore was from Enna, Sam DeCavalcante was from Monreale, Frank Majuri from Corleone, and Joe LaSelva from the mainland. Their official administration for close to 20 years had no direct representation from Agrigento aside from the short period under Delmore where Louis LaRasso was underboss, plus Majuri marrying a Riberese woman. Despite such importance being placed on Ribera in their family, that faction seemingly had no problem maintaining their own insular faction without direct representation on the administration. Sounds a lot like the Gambino "Sciacchitani" faction -- their own insular crews, mediator(s) to handle affairs within their multi-crew faction, but no representation on the admin.

There are def families like Pueblo and Tampa where you had Agrigentesi filling out both the membership and leadership of a single family, but in families where there was a faction from Agrigento it doesn't seem they were as competitive for top leadership spots as men from other cities and networks. Certain individuals may have been power-hungry, and you could argue Gentile fits this, but in an ultra-competitive environment like NYC / NJ the Agrigentesi are noticeably absent from the early admins considering how represented they were among the membership.

Were they not considered a higher leadership class by other factions, like we see from parts of Palermo province and Trapani, or did they simply prefer to deal with their own affairs? Or is that just how it worked out randomly? I would guess it wasn't one single reason and probably a combination of these reasons, as well as reasons we can't guess as they related to specific mafia politics of the time that weren't clearly documented.

However, while I haven't done nearly enough reading on the Sicilian mafia, what I've seen suggests that Agrigento province plays a similar role in Sicilian mafia politics. We have men from all over Palermo province and now Trapani taking a larger political role in governing the Sicilian mafia, but we don't see the figures from Agrigento competing for that level of influence, while we do see them competing within their own province. Maybe someone can correct me on that, but it doesn't seem politically that different from their behavior in the US mafia.

I recall in Leonetti's book Scarfo is talking shit about the Sicilians and seems to lump the Ciancaglinis in and along with them. Technically they aren't Sicilian in the least so perhaps that was an error on Leonetti's part or Scarfo lumped the Changs in with the Sicilians because that's who they were around and came up with?

Ciancaglini was close with Frank Sindone, whose family came from Messina. So he technically may have come up around a Sicilian, but as we've talked about, Messina in Philadelphia might be better seen as a halfway point between the Calabrian and Sicilian factions given its location. You have to figure, too, that the first two bosses after Sabella were from Messina, which I don't think is a coincidence given that the Calabrian v. Sicilian political factionalism would have been a bigger factor in the 1930s and having bosses from Messina may have smoothed that out.

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Re: Gambino post

- I've never seen anything about Vincenzo DiLeonardo being part of the DiMino crew or Agrigento faction. He was close with Andrea Torregrossa from Licata and Onofrio Modica from Sciacca, so he was friendly with the Brooklyn Agrigentesi, but DiLeonardo's crew was mainly Palermitani, later including D'Aquila's brother-in-law, plus later D'Aquila's son and nephew.

- Your article says both LoMontes' murders involved men from Agrigento -- Fortunato killed by a hit team including Accursio DiMino, Valenti, and Biondo, and Gaetano by Impelluso from Castrofilippo. Given that the LoMontes were at war with D'Aquila, it makes sense the hit teams would include Agrigentesi as that faction already appears to have existed under him.

- I believe the Manhattan Trupia crew likely became the Stincone crew in Astoria. They were both from Canicatti, part of the same Astoria Canicatti club, and it appears immigrants from Canicatti migrated from Manhattan to Astoria, so would make sense Stincone inherited at least some portion from Trupia.

- Not sure when Domenico Arcuri became a captain, but he was a transplant from Tampa and both he and his son were deeply tapped into the Agrigento network.

- Giuseppe Parlapiano was one of the main Sciacchitani faction captains by the time Gentile joined that family.



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At the end of the day, we're talking about networks within networks. Individuals have their own networks based on individual relationships; groups of paesani from a specific hometown are a network unto themselves; there are regional (not necessarily provincial) networks that include a set of connected towns, with some of those towns being more dominant or important within the network and perhaps being over-represented in the network; an individual's own personal network can influence and expand the shape a regional network takes, too; then there is the Sicilian mafia network as a whole, which all of these networks fit into.

I mean, at some point when you're talking about an Agrigento network, a Trapani network, and a Palermo network, etc., you're going to find that those networks intersect because these guys were all part of the same mafia and had relationships around the entire island and that's what makes the mafia such an incredible international phenomenon -- it's like there are coordinates that can be translated to another part of the map in a different shape but stay connected. Obviously these connections changed and died out, but there was a substantial period of time where they still mattered.

[Angelo Santino]

In addition to Milazzo and Parrino (who I'd consider part of the "Castellammarese" network because of his closeness to Milazzo, his brother's membership in the Bonanno family, connections between the towns, and the way Parrino has been described in books), there was also the presence of mafiosi Buccellatos a little bit earlier which is why I figured there was an existing Detroit Castellammarese population of some kind beyond Milazzo.

There were many figures from Alcamo in the Detroit family aside from Parrino, as well as members from Balestrate, Paceco, Marsala, and the city of Trapani. I don't know if they were all aligned with each other or with Milazzo/Parrino, but I consider Castellammare and most of Trapani part of the same larger network so if some of these guys were aligned with Milazzo, that's not different from Castellammarese being under someone like Benny Gallo from Santa Ninfa. For whatever reason, the Castellammarese became the dominant figures over most US Trapanese after a certain point, which might have to do with some mafia form of classicism.

There may have been individuals and their families from Cast in Detroit but like Philadelphia, but I've seen no evidence in the way of a demographic colony represented locally.

(My aunt was, according to her, actually the last Sicilian to immigrate to Michigan during the 1975. She grew up in Palermo, actually used to hang out at the Cafe Birreria which I guess is no longer the mob hangout it was half a century ago since she and her friends used to hang out there as teens. Anyways, this was around the time Detroit was suspected of importing immigrants to work at Michigan pizza parlors so an agent was assigned to my aunt. She was not involved in any of that and they ended up marrying. Still together today... But I asked her why she opted for Michigan and it had to do with her relatives from Partinico.)

Nick Licata was from Camporeale, originally with Detroit, and became the top man to Frank DeSimone from Trapani province. While it might be a coincidence, he's another example of Camporeale fitting in with guys from Partinico and Trapani. The Alcamo element in Detroit also crossed over into Los Angeles, with the Adamos and Mirables being involved with Detroit then taking over in the San Diego area. They coincidentally(?) had Biagio Bonventre under them in San DIego, who was from San Vito Lo Capo but his family looks to be originally from Castellammare and he played some part in Joe Bonanno's first attempted plot to take over LA from DeSimone. San Diego was also frequented heavily by the Partinico element of the Detroit family.

Oh dear I've gone crosseyed. We'll have to visually display this at some point.

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A St. Louis informant claimed that only men from Partinico, Cinisi, and Terrasini could become leaders of the St. Louis family because mafiosi from those villages considered themselves of a higher class, similar to Joe Bonanno's feelings about the Castellammarese. At the time this was reported, Giardino and Vitale were the leaders of St. Louis, both being from the villages in question, but the previous two bosses and possibly an even earlier boss were all from Agrigento, which goes against what the informant said and again shows that Agrigento was a wild card in US mafia politics.

That may have been how it appeared but was that a formal rule they established? If there's a sizable faction in any group they tend to want to hold onto power. Joe Bonanno was a mafia aristocrat, perhaps St Louis had similar members in leadership positions.

St Louis as a group goes back to the 1870's, it would interesting to to see how early those factions also go.

By the time of the above report, the St. Louis family was said to be deeply influenced by Detroit, whose leaders also came from Terrasini, Cinisi, and Partinico and it looks like the SL informant's comments about mafiosi from those villages applied to Detroit when you look at how dominant those groups were. Along with some crossover between Partinico, Trapani, and maybe Camporeale, the Castellammarese of the Bonanno family seem to have operated as a higher leadership class of the family much like Terrasini/Cinisi/Partinico in Detroit and allegedly later on in St. Louis. Side note, but it's interesting that the Bonanno family had ties to Detroit but not St. Louis -- this could be for any number of reasons, but what's a core difference between the Detroit and St. Louis membership? Detroit had strong representation from Trapani province.

Good points. Again it'd be good to map all this out at some point.

With the talk about certain groups considering themselves a higher class and wanting leadership positions, contrast this with the DeCavalcantes . For as much has been said about their Ribera roots and connections, Nick Delmore was from Enna, Sam DeCavalcante was from Monreale, Frank Majuri from Corleone, and Joe LaSelva from the mainland. Their official administration for close to 20 years had no direct representation from Agrigento aside from the short period under Delmore where Louis LaRasso was underboss, plus Majuri marrying a Riberese woman. Despite such importance being placed on Ribera in their family, that faction seemingly had no problem maintaining their own insular faction without direct representation on the administration. Sounds a lot like the Gambino "Sciacchitani" faction -- their own insular crews, mediator(s) to handle affairs within their multi-crew faction, but no representation on the admin.

There are def families like Pueblo and Tampa where you had Agrigentesi filling out both the membership and leadership of a single family, but in families where there was a faction from Agrigento it doesn't seem they were as competitive for top leadership spots as men from other cities and networks. Certain individuals may have been power-hungry, and you could argue Gentile fits this, but in an ultra-competitive environment like NYC / NJ the Agrigentesi are noticeably absent from the early admins considering how represented they were among the membership.

Were they not considered a higher leadership class by other factions, like we see from parts of Palermo province and Trapani, or did they simply prefer to deal with their own affairs? Or is that just how it worked out randomly? I would guess it wasn't one single reason and probably a combination of these reasons, as well as reasons we can't guess as they related to specific mafia politics of the time that weren't clearly documented.

However, while I haven't done nearly enough reading on the Sicilian mafia, what I've seen suggests that Agrigento province plays a similar role in Sicilian mafia politics. We have men from all over Palermo province and now Trapani taking a larger political role in governing the Sicilian mafia, but we don't see the figures from Agrigento competing for that level of influence, while we do see them competing within their own province. Maybe someone can correct me on that, but it doesn't seem politically that different from their behavior in the US mafia.

That's alot to take in.

Re: Gambino post

- I've never seen anything about Vincenzo DiLeonardo being part of the DiMino crew or Agrigento faction. He was close with Andrea Torregrossa from Licata and Onofrio Modica from Sciacca, so he was friendly with the Brooklyn Agrigentesi, but DiLeonardo's crew was mainly Palermitani, later including D'Aquila's brother-in-law, plus later D'Aquila's son and nephew.

I stand corrected.

- Your article says both LoMontes' murders involved men from Agrigento -- Fortunato killed by a hit team including Accursio DiMino, Valenti, and Biondo, and Gaetano by Impelluso from Castrofilippo. Given that the LoMontes were at war with D'Aquila, it makes sense the hit teams would include Agrigentesi as that faction already appears to have existed under him.

Yes, Impelluso was who I was referring to.

- I believe the Manhattan Trupia crew likely became the Stincone crew in Astoria. They were both from Canicatti, part of the same Astoria Canicatti club, and it appears immigrants from Canicatti migrated from Manhattan to Astoria, so would make sense Stincone inherited at least some portion from Trupia.

Trupia was 1930's and is likely the first captain we can confirm with that crew. DiMino was still around and there's no shared lineage?

- Not sure when Domenico Arcuri became a captain, but he was a transplant from Tampa and both he and his son were deeply tapped into the Agrigento network.

- Giuseppe Parlapiano was one of the main Sciacchitani faction captains by the time Gentile joined that family.

1930's. So we have at least two Scacciatan' crews.

At the end of the day, we're talking about networks within networks. Individuals have their own networks based on individual relationships; groups of paesani from a specific hometown are a network unto themselves; there are regional (not necessarily provincial) networks that include a set of connected towns, with some of those towns being more dominant or important within the network and perhaps being over-represented in the network; an individual's own personal network can influence and expand the shape a regional network takes, too; then there is the Sicilian mafia network as a whole, which all of these networks fit into.

I mean, at some point when you're talking about an Agrigento network, a Trapani network, and a Palermo network, etc., you're going to find that those networks intersect because these guys were all part of the same mafia and had relationships around the entire island and that's what makes the mafia such an incredible international phenomenon -- it's like there are coordinates that can be translated to another part of the map in a different shape but stay connected. Obviously these connections changed and died out, but there was a substantial period of time where they still mattered.

Yep, which brings us to the question of how to accurately display it so people don't misinterpret.

[B.]

A visual representation of this would be psychedelic fractals within fractals, villages inside of villages, factions inside of factions, millions of bosses in all bosses. Family trees becoming one giant tree in the center of Eden. And then we'd have to go even deeper, man.

I wonder what we'd see as far as intermarriage goes. Salvatore Falcone from Sciacca married into the Bagheresi mafia leaders he took over from in Utica. Frank Majuri of Corleone heritage married a woman of Ribera heritage, but a lot of the Riberesi married among themselves. Would be curious to know what we'd see among the Gambino Agrigento element. Accursio Dimino's brother married Salvatore Falcone's sister, both sides from Sciacca.

[Angelo Santino]

A visual representation of this would be psychedelic fractals within fractals, villages inside of villages, factions inside of factions, millions of bosses in all bosses. Family trees becoming one giant tree in the center of Eden. And then we'd have to go even deeper, man.

I wonder what we'd see as far as intermarriage goes. Salvatore Falcone from Sciacca married into the Bagheresi mafia leaders he took over from in Utica. Frank Majuri of Corleone heritage married a woman of Ribera heritage, but a lot of the Riberesi married among themselves. Would be curious to know what we'd see among the Gambino Agrigento element. Accursio Dimino's brother married Salvatore Falcone's sister, both sides from Sciacca.

Down the line I'm game. I've kinda exhausted the Mob Family Tree angle, there's only so much and so many designs I can do. Unless there's really something special and informative I can put together, there's other angles to approach it from.
-Blood Family Trees.
-National & International connections of a group or individual.
-I can quote Gentile like the back of my hand yet never made any charts on him or his info. I could see his travels/narrative being woven in with the Sciaccatani or elements of it.
-Early interstate rackets between groups. There's cases/events that involved multiple groups/people across statelines, that might be an indicator of earlier connections. I have one early case that involved connected people from Chicago, Cleveland and Pittsburgh in the 1920's. Or there's the Morello counterfeiting ring which was national in scope, their notes were still popping up as far away as San Francisco 5 years after they were all sent up.

I'd suggest starting small with Philadelphia which is the fun go-to family. At least for me. Maybe interconnected bloodlines/descendants. Most of it is local in and around three states.

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It might be easier to start with Sicilian origins and go down the line. Say Castellammare, we can identify Mafiosi of that origin in NYC, Buffalo, Detroit, Philadelphia. Place that info on a USA map. Then identify how they connect with each other, ex Magaddino-Galante-Sabella and Sabella-Williamsburg-Bonanno Family. We also identify areas with a large CDC population (mafia and non) which in NYC would have been Williamsburg followed by East Village in the city. And color code CDC one thing and move on to another connecting faction such as Camporeale. Schiro despite being Roccamenese had his mafia connections in Camporeale so I'd place him within that faction with an * explaining. CDC and Camporeale would then be placed in a box or circle identifying it as part of the Bonanno network. Just some ideas.

[B.]

Early Rochester figures were also from Aragona and Realmonte in addition to Grotte. No guess how Rochester would fit in with a larger network but Gentile apparently had contacts there and he was a key representative of the network.

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A couple of the smaller families who maintained a direct relationship with one particular town have come up in this thread and it's worth looking at them. NYC and other families grew to much larger sizes and had a diverse a recruitment pool, so it played out there in its own way through factions, but with smaller families in other cities the relationship seems more direct. Some of the best examples happen to involve Agrigento.

- Rockford->Aragona and DeCavalcantes->Ribera both come to mind even though Aragona and Ribera didn't make up the total membership of each respective family. In both cases these families maintained social, familial, and mafia ties to those Sicilian villages long after most mafia families' international ties cooled down.

- Both of the above families had a main hangout named after the town in question, the Aragona Club and Ribera Club. More than just underworld hangouts (though infested by the mafia), they appear to have been a genuine hub for the local Sicilian community. Both clubs still exist today.

- Both Rockford and the DeCavalcantes maintained contact with and welcomed Sicilian members or associates from Aragona and Ribera into their families during the 1970s and 1980s (and the DeCavalcantes possibly even later), a time when smaller families were much more localized in their recruitment and disconnected from Sicily.

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Parallels:

- The Tampa family was made up mainly of members from a specific cluster of Agrigento villages. I don't know if they maintained ties to mafia figures in those towns past a certain point, but allegedly they had a small Sicilian "zip" element in more recent decades (maybe someone more knowledgeable knows where those guys were from). I believe the Tampa family's club was just called the "Italian Club" but it served a similar role as the above clubs with the local Agrigentesi.

- The Canicatti-led crew(s) of the Gambino family, who were part of the Sciacchitani faction, had the Fraternal Society of Canicatti in Astoria, Queens, which still exists today. Early captain Gaetano Trupia of Manhattan would be a member of this organization, who maintained their own clubhouse. Later captain Pietro Stincone was not only a member but also a leader of the club in addition to other known Gambino members from Canicatti being recorded club members. This mafia group appears to have faded out prior to modern decades though as mentioned the Canicatti club still exists.

- There's also the Sciacca Club in Brooklyn, though not sure offhand if the Gambino Sciacchitani hung out there (I would assume so). The mysterious Sciacchitani group in Norristown also had a Sciacca society / club.

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Not trying to use selection bias to make some kind of point that the Agrigentesi are completely unique in these ways, as you will find other Sicilians and Italians for that matter had societies, clubs, and maintained connections to hometowns (mafia or no mafia) but I also think there are unique aspects to the above groups and you could call it a trend in the US mafia that not every family or faction shared.

[bronx]

porto embedecole. club is on bath ave bklyn been there for decades

[B.]

There were members of the D'Aquila/Mangano family from Porto Empedocle under Dimino and maybe later LoCicero in Brooklyn. The old mafioso "Zu Vito" talked about by Gravano was probably from there, maybe another Gambino member.

[Angelo Santino]

I started a google spreadsheet, I'll do my best to add but feel free to weigh in.

If we were to visually display these networks Maybe have separate ones for factions.

[Angelo Santino]

There were members of the D'Aquila/Mangano family from Porto Empedocle under Dimino and maybe later LoCicero in Brooklyn. The old mafioso "Zu Vito" talked about by Gravano was probably from there, maybe another Gambino member.

porto embedecole. club is on bath ave bklyn been there for decades

When Gentile returned to Sicily in 1920 he transferred to Porto Empedecle and then upon returning to the US he was being approached by Vincenzo Lo Cicero, D'Aquila capo, Sciaccatani into joining that borgata.

What's interesting is Gentile never goes into these factions, it's mentioned by the Chilanti in the intro but Gentile himself never seems to make note of it. I tend to think that it's like, if it were possible, to ask a shark to describe water. It was such a natural occurrence for him to move in his circles that he didn't think to mention or make a point of it.

[Angelo Santino]

Don't really know where to post this... just a 'share' w B. and whoever.

I took a break from my own research in other areas and went back to Sicily and.. man things are different. One thing that stuck out to me of interest, is how Sicilian organized crime seemed to topple criminal experts of the day. Unlike other groups that had a history and connection to jail and were primarily a lower class issue, the mafia was middle class and there's no record that some of these early bosses ever served time. The thinking went that the upper class of society should support law enforcement due to their mutual interests, but in Sicily, upward mobility and criminality appeared to go hand in hand. You see that in the new world with Sicilians either having resources, careers, formal education or at the very least connected to the citrus industry, but rather than be content they continued to be criminally engaged. I never thought about it like that before but its an interesting trait that carries on to this day.

Most of these proto-groups began popping up or being noticed in 1860-1880. There's groups of men arrested in the 1820's that could be mafia, but without further evidence it falls under possible with an asterisk. I used to think it went back to the 1700's but I'd say now after 1820 before 1850. it's unfortunate I don't have access to court transcripts but they are likely long destroyed.

[scagghiuni]

Most of these proto-groups began popping up or being noticed in 1860-1880. There's groups of men arrested in the 1820's that could be mafia, but without further evidence it falls under possible with an asterisk. I used to think it went back to the 1700's but I'd say now after 1820 before 1850. it's unfortunate I don't have access to court transcripts but they are likely long destroyed.

before 1860 sicily was under bourbons and taking advantage of the revolution i bet mafiosi burned most of the old judicial files, there are very few bourbon documents left but it's almost sure that sicilian mafia (currently known as cosa nostra) started before unification of italy, probably in the 1820s or even before

[Angelo Santino]

Don't really know where to post this... just a 'share' w B. and whoever.

I took a break from my own research in other areas and went back to Sicily and.. man things are different. One thing that stuck out to me of interest, is how Sicilian organized crime seemed to topple criminal experts of the day. Unlike other groups that had a history and connection to jail and were primarily a lower class issue, the mafia was middle class and there's no record that some of these early bosses ever served time. The thinking went that the upper class of society should support law enforcement due to their mutual interests, but in Sicily, upward mobility and criminality appeared to go hand in hand. You see that in the new world with Sicilians either having resources, careers, formal education or at the very least connected to the citrus industry, but rather than be content they continued to be criminally engaged. I never thought about it like that before but its an interesting trait that carries on to this day.

Most of these proto-groups began popping up or being noticed in 1860-1880. There's groups of men arrested in the 1820's that could be mafia, but without further evidence it falls under possible with an asterisk. I used to think it went back to the 1700's but I'd say now after 1820 before 1850. it's unfortunate I don't have access to court transcripts but they are likely long destroyed.

I agree that it predates the 1870's, just saying that is the first evidence we have of documented criminal affiliations. There's earlier groups in Sicily that fit the mold but were never identified as such. We can speculate and guess that maybe but it's not definitive. Especially when we have the brigandiers who were sometimes aligned with criminals groups, sometimes against, other times they appear to be part of both. Secret Societies were also a fad as well, many of them were political not criminal but with the Bourbons certain politics were crimes.

[scagghiuni]

Don't really know where to post this... just a 'share' w B. and whoever.

I took a break from my own research in other areas and went back to Sicily and.. man things are different. One thing that stuck out to me of interest, is how Sicilian organized crime seemed to topple criminal experts of the day. Unlike other groups that had a history and connection to jail and were primarily a lower class issue, the mafia was middle class and there's no record that some of these early bosses ever served time. The thinking went that the upper class of society should support law enforcement due to their mutual interests, but in Sicily, upward mobility and criminality appeared to go hand in hand. You see that in the new world with Sicilians either having resources, careers, formal education or at the very least connected to the citrus industry, but rather than be content they continued to be criminally engaged. I never thought about it like that before but its an interesting trait that carries on to this day.

Most of these proto-groups began popping up or being noticed in 1860-1880. There's groups of men arrested in the 1820's that could be mafia, but without further evidence it falls under possible with an asterisk. I used to think it went back to the 1700's but I'd say now after 1820 before 1850. it's unfortunate I don't have access to court transcripts but they are likely long destroyed.

I agree that it predates the 1870's, just saying that is the first evidence we have of documented criminal affiliations. There's earlier groups in Sicily that fit the mold but were never identified as such. We can speculate and guess that maybe but it's not definitive. Especially when we have the brigandiers who were sometimes aligned with criminals groups, sometimes against, other times they appear to be part of both. Secret Societies were also a fad as well, many of them were political not criminal but with the Bourbons certain politics were crimes.

yes, of course we can only speculate until other previous documents are found, but the coordination of the criminal groups in 1866, the testimonies of sangiorgi from which it seems that already in 1870 the 'mafia' was widespread and organized, suggest that the origins were more ancient

[B.]

On the topic of Agrigento, there was a ritualistic criminal society identified by authorities in the coastal towns of Agrigento province during the 1820s. The local authorities apparently had a list of names -- would be great if that list still exists and turns up. Authorities didn't call it the mafia, but the towns in question are deeply identified with the mafia both in Sicily and the US.

One of the bigger points to this whole subject, beyond the network itself, is that Agrigento is deep within the roots of the Sicilian mafia. The mafia may not have started in Agrigento, but it's part of the same conversation as Palermo and Trapani provinces. Caltanissetta and Enna had well-established mafia presence in the 1800s, but their network seems even more insular, with most from Caltanissetta staying in the Pittston and WNY families where they were dominant. The Agrigento, Trapani, and Palermo networks are wider and where they intersect is the core of the entire mafia. The only thing a well-connected guy in one of those networks had to do is plug in and play.

Gentile came from a poor background in a small town, but he had ready access to this network and was able to go anywhere it extended and easily establish himself as a significant mafia figure. Both he and his brother, who entered the US a few years earlier, arrived to a Domenico Taormina in Manhattan who, from Gentile's description, was associating with a sailor in illegal alien smuggling. Gentile described Taormina as a "compaesano" who was in charge of "trafficking paesani". While he says the sailor was not involved in the mafia, he neither confirms nor denies Taormina's involvement in the mafia but it seems likely. Taormina appears to be from Siculiana like the Gentiles, but Gentile's comment that he "trafficks paesani" could be an indication that he served a wider mafia audience, probably including others from around Agrigento.

Taormina directed Gentile where to go and bought his train ticket, so he presumably had contacts in Kansas City. It appears Taormina was also connected to St. Louis, as Vincenzo Gentile went there before KC and would have been directed there by his arrival contact Taormina on where to go, much like Taormino did for Nicolo Gentile and KC. The first person who greeted Gentile in KC was future D'Aquila captain Vincenzo LoCicero from Sciacca, which makes it possible LoCicero was connected to Taormina as well. Gentile's travels and the role of a guy like Domenico Taormino show us that there was a system in place helping members of the network make the right contacts and hit the ground running.

Contrast that with Joe Pinzolo, who went to his compaesani and relatives in Pittston, where there was already a mafia family, only to soon end up in Manhattan throwing bombs for a Calabrian "gang leader". He married into an important clan within the D'Aquila family but next we hear of him he's boss of the Reina/Corleonesi family and he dies a short time later for being a Masseria puppet. There is more to his story than we know, but despite being a Sicilian-born NYC boss, the picture we have is like someone fumbling around for his place the mafia, not unlike a more successful Joe Valachi. Maybe there was a network Pinzolo followed to NYC, as mafiosi in Pittston from Caltanissetta knew mafia figures in NYC, but his path doesn't follow the same logic we see from members of the dominant provincial networks, Gentile being again the mascot (aka best example) of the Agrigento network.

I would argue that the Caruana-Cuntrera, Rizzuto, and DeCavalcante Riberesi groups are all spiritual successors if not remnants of the same Agrigento network. The DeCavalcantes apparently did business with the Montreal Bonannos in, I believe, the 1990s and groups of both had attended the Bono wedding in the 1980s. Would be interested in knowing more details about their contact. When Gentile traveled to Quebec, he brought with him a man from Ribera.

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Don't really know where to post this... just a 'share' w B. and whoever.

I took a break from my own research in other areas and went back to Sicily and.. man things are different. One thing that stuck out to me of interest, is how Sicilian organized crime seemed to topple criminal experts of the day. Unlike other groups that had a history and connection to jail and were primarily a lower class issue, the mafia was middle class and there's no record that some of these early bosses ever served time. The thinking went that the upper class of society should support law enforcement due to their mutual interests, but in Sicily, upward mobility and criminality appeared to go hand in hand. You see that in the new world with Sicilians either having resources, careers, formal education or at the very least connected to the citrus industry, but rather than be content they continued to be criminally engaged. I never thought about it like that before but its an interesting trait that carries on to this day.

Most of these proto-groups began popping up or being noticed in 1860-1880. There's groups of men arrested in the 1820's that could be mafia, but without further evidence it falls under possible with an asterisk. I used to think it went back to the 1700's but I'd say now after 1820 before 1850. it's unfortunate I don't have access to court transcripts but they are likely long destroyed.

Yeah, even through the 1960s you still see a lot of Sicilian-American mafia leaders who came from middle class or even wealthy backgrounds, especially among the smaller Sicilian-centric families.

Sam DeCavalcante's grandfather was a doctor, his father was a wealthy fruit broker, they had a live-in maid, and Sam grew up in two large homes the family owned simultaneously in North Jersey and Trenton. SJ boss Joseph Cerrito's father, a likely Villabatese mafioso himself, was a wealthy and educated businessman. You can see plenty of this earlier, too, like you mentioned, but I don't think later examples like DeCavalcante and Cerrito were out of the ordinary when it came to the backgrounds of traditional mafia leadership. Early bosses of Milwaukee and Pittsburgh were doctors and we see doctors becoming bosses in Sicily, a famous one being Michelle Navarra.

If you look at the immigrants, too, there are a significant amount of early mafiosi who had enough money to immediately start businesses, buy property, etc. They weren't criminal masterminds back in Sicily bringing their illegal riches overseas, but more like standard middle to upper-middle class wealth doing what was natural to them. Many of these guys were from multi-generation mafia backgrounds and you're not going to have a ton of rags to riches stories after a certain point. Also, the level of luxury in the US even among the middle class was much higher than it was in Sicily, so I believe a middle class US lifestyle was considered a comfortable success for many immigrant mafiosi.

[B.]

I'm not of the opinion that the DeCavalcantes formed in the 1920s. Mafia-connected families from Ribera were living in Elizabeth in the first years of the 1900s and some could have been there earlier. Many important Riberesi were also living in Manhattan and gradually moved to Elizabeth. Phil Amari moved to Elizabeth in the 1920s, so it's possible that's when the leadership set up there but I don't think that signified the start of the family. Coincidentally that's around the period that Pasquale Lolordo and Phil Bacino left NYC for Chicago.

The 1920s are when we see an Agrigento element become more influential in Chicago via Merlo and Lolordo, so would be interesting if the Rockford group's Aragonesi gained greater traction around that same period.