Early Mafia History Discussion

[Angelo Santino]

Interesting that he's described as the "Boss" of Williamsburg in the 20s, I assumed that Vito Bonventre was the capo/boss of the area. It makes me wonder where Bonventre was within the family. Bonanno describes him as the "second richest man in the family", but I'm not sure how that relates to rank, did he mean the second overall in the family, or just financially wise.

Bonanno names him as a "Group Leader" (Caporegime) at the time he was killed.


Pogo

Which brings me to the issues of panels/committees in regards to the Bonannos. You guys can likely fill in more examples but I've clocked panels in 2004, 1990ish, 1979, 1964 etc. We see it pop up in alot of their history even during times of stability. Coincidently or maybe not, when a member was suspected of being an informant in 1911, Sebastiano Di Gaetano, as interim CDC, assigned Clemente onto a "Committee of one" to investigate. We know Schiro was well traveled and away alot of the time while presiding over a family that pumped out bosses into SF, DT, BL, NE etc. Not that it was a conspiracy but it seems to demonstrate that family allowed room for people to grow. (Maybe even Masseria's first affiliation was with them.)

Makes me think, Schiro either had a strong Under or panels/committees are something that they've utilized from an early period.

[thekiduknow]

Interesting that he's described as the "Boss" of Williamsburg in the 20s, I assumed that Vito Bonventre was the capo/boss of the area. It makes me wonder where Bonventre was within the family. Bonanno describes him as the "second richest man in the family", but I'm not sure how that relates to rank, did he mean the second overall in the family, or just financially wise.

Bonanno names him as a "Group Leader" (Caporegime) at the time he was killed.


Pogo

Which brings me to the issues of panels/committees in regards to the Bonannos. You guys can likely fill in more examples but I've clocked panels in 2004, 1990ish, 1979, 1964 etc. We see it pop up in alot of their history even during times of stability. Coincidently or maybe not, when a member was suspected of being an informant in 1911, Sebastiano Di Gaetano, as interim CDC, assigned Clemente onto a "Committee of one" to investigate. We know Schiro was well traveled and away alot of the time while presiding over a family that pumped out bosses into SF, DT, BL, NE etc. Not that it was a conspiracy but it seems to demonstrate that family allowed room for people to grow. (Maybe even Masseria's first affiliation was with them.)

Makes me think, Schiro either had a strong Under or panels/committees are something that they've utilized from an early period.

So Gallo was on a ruling panel? Was this around when he died? Again it makes me wonder if Vito Bonventre was part of the admin/panel, as he was also described as a “group leader” by Bonanno, but was important enough to be killed early on by Masseria.

[B.]

While I can't connect him personally to Carini aside from his closest associates being from there, the Carinesi appear to have been the most influential groups of compaesani in the Profaci family aside from the Villabatesi, producing multiple captains and consiglieri. While limited, there is reason to speculate that this group had its roots under Peraino. Peraino's ties to Palermo Centro could lend itself to a Mineo connection, too.

I found some earlier Carinesi in Brooklyn on the same street/area Mineo was on, I think I shared it with you, they in 1910 were connected with Palermitan in the same area, I believe some Carinesi even had relatives in Palermo as its very close.

I haven't ruled out that the Perainos themselves might have originally come from Carini, or have some direct connection there. I know a sister or sister-in-law of Peraino was living in Palermo Centro when he visited Sicily, but I haven't seen conclusive enough records to trace his family's background. His sons and his early associate Nicolo Failla (from Carini) would become Profaci members, and another close Carinese associate of his was Giuseppe Mannino, who was murdered around the same period as Peraino. The Manninos of Carini were part of the Buffa-Badalamenti-D'Alessandro clan who would be the powerful Carinesi faction of the Profaci family.

Joe Bonanno talked about how Commission meetings would be attended by an aide in addition to the boss, and I'd have to check, but I thought he said the boss could consult this aide. There is precedent with Traina and Mangano attending the 1928 meeting together, when Traina probably outranked Mangano. Based on the 1940 Treasury report, it appears that after the war Mangano and Traina continued this relationship where Traina was invited to participate in high-level matters as an "aide" (maybe more like senior counsel).

Almost makes me want to break down these meetings and look at who attended more. I never looked into the 1928 meeting.

You can def see some leader+aide relationships at the Cleveland 1928 assembly. Profaci/Magliocco, Lolordo/Bacino, S.Lombardino/A.Lombardino, SanFilippo/Mirabile, etc. Some of them are harder to determine but it's clear (to me at least) that some of the attendees at that meeting were aides to senior figures and I believe Mangano probably attended as Traina's aide. It's interesting too because it shows that while Profaci was not yet a boss, he was an important figure presumably of the Mineo group.

What do you make of these claims? I took it as Valachi being confused or incorrect.

It would depend on the claim. I tend to see some of Valachi's more confusing statements as "Where there's smoke, there's fire," i.e. there is some truth to it somewhere, but he may have gotten it slightly (or very) wrong, though I don't discount it entirely. He isn't the best source on what went on at the highest levels and he was politically clueless but I think he was smarter than he's given credit for. I don't have reason to question him on some of these claims, though. It's possible the consiglieri of different families did have some kind of "commission", but a consigliere was not an official member of the big national Commissione -- it's probable, though, they attended as a boss's aide.

It's possible Agrigentesi were in NO that early on, but they were never larger or greater or more influential than the Palermitans. Unless a group of Maggiore-Amari-Caternicchios arrived in 1840 to St Phillips and Decatur it's hard to place them anywhere close to being founders. And problem with imm. that early on is we'll be lucky if we get "Sicily" on the manifest.

It's something I need to look into more before I would seriously entertain it and like you said, I might not even get anywhere based on how limited those early records are. I know the Marcellos and Gaglianos were from Agrigento (the Marcellos via Tunis) and there were other Agrigentesi in the family during that era, but I would have no idea if those guys have relatives or paesani with deeper roots in the area. It's possible NO was more like a staging area for an early Agrigentesi element that moved elsewhere.

[scagghiuni]

If I remember right, Dr. Allegra completely overlooked the position of underboss and identified only capoprovincia, rappresentante, consigliere, capodecina, and soldato as positions in the Sicilian mafia. He said the consigliere served as "sostituto" for the rappresentante. I'd be curious when the earliest references to sottocapo/underboss show up.

allegra was made a member in 1916, the sangiorgi reports was written in 1898 but it dind't mention the rank of capodecina, anyway it was present among the agrigento group (fratellanza di favara) that sangiorgi investigated in the 1880s, so probably there is sure something missed

1 That's what I was thinking but I'm not sure... I have Sangiorgi in front of me and... sostituto. Even in the first "entry" where he lists the groups and leaders in Palermo he goes through each one listing Caporione and Sostituto. I'm not seeing sotto-capo used.

2 I used to assume that he overlooked capodecina but he had the former provincial boss equivalent in Siina providing him information. I'm not sure if he overlooked it or maybe they didn't have them in Palermo by that time. I've seen noting earlier in Palermo to confirm or deny a structure.

3 Capodecina or the equivilant was documented with the Fratellanza?

in the entry he says the 'sottocapo' replaced the 'caporione' when imprisoned, after that he use the word 'sostituito' that in italian it means somebody who replace another in his absence, so it could be a word used by sangiorgi in a generic sense but not the name of the rank who was probably 'sottocapo'... yes the fratellanza di favara had 'capodecinas' documented among its ranks like allegra confirmed in the 1930s (but he was made in 1916), so i think that rank was present also among palermo groups at the time of sangiorgi report, but in sicily that rank is not used in all the families but the largest only, several families are small over there so they don't have 'decinas'

Do you speak Italian? I do and even I ran into issues with this document because the words are dated. Even a word like "Fondo" which played a heavy role in Sangiorgi has a very different meaning today. I actually went and made use of an old Italian dictionary for assistance.

I want to believe Palermo already had decine as well. Seems like they would. But if we're being technical, Sangiorgi never identified them.

Have you read Relazione Mafiose? It's almost a sequel to the Sangiorgi in that it provides lists of members by affiliation. Many of whom have similar surnames and I believe a few are on both the 1898-9 Sangiorgi and the RM.

yes i speak italian but i have some difficult to understand enterely the sangiorgi report because i'ts written in archaic italian

[Angelo Santino]

If I remember right, Dr. Allegra completely overlooked the position of underboss and identified only capoprovincia, rappresentante, consigliere, capodecina, and soldato as positions in the Sicilian mafia. He said the consigliere served as "sostituto" for the rappresentante. I'd be curious when the earliest references to sottocapo/underboss show up.

allegra was made a member in 1916, the sangiorgi reports was written in 1898 but it dind't mention the rank of capodecina, anyway it was present among the agrigento group (fratellanza di favara) that sangiorgi investigated in the 1880s, so probably there is sure something missed

1 That's what I was thinking but I'm not sure... I have Sangiorgi in front of me and... sostituto. Even in the first "entry" where he lists the groups and leaders in Palermo he goes through each one listing Caporione and Sostituto. I'm not seeing sotto-capo used.

2 I used to assume that he overlooked capodecina but he had the former provincial boss equivalent in Siina providing him information. I'm not sure if he overlooked it or maybe they didn't have them in Palermo by that time. I've seen noting earlier in Palermo to confirm or deny a structure.

3 Capodecina or the equivilant was documented with the Fratellanza?

in the entry he says the 'sottocapo' replaced the 'caporione' when imprisoned, after that he use the word 'sostituito' that in italian it means somebody who replace another in his absence, so it could be a word used by sangiorgi in a generic sense but not the name of the rank who was probably 'sottocapo'... yes the fratellanza di favara had 'capodecinas' documented among its ranks like allegra confirmed in the 1930s (but he was made in 1916), so i think that rank was present also among palermo groups at the time of sangiorgi report, but in sicily that rank is not used in all the families but the largest only, several families are small over there so they don't have 'decinas'

Do you speak Italian? I do and even I ran into issues with this document because the words are dated. Even a word like "Fondo" which played a heavy role in Sangiorgi has a very different meaning today. I actually went and made use of an old Italian dictionary for assistance.

I want to believe Palermo already had decine as well. Seems like they would. But if we're being technical, Sangiorgi never identified them.

Have you read Relazione Mafiose? It's almost a sequel to the Sangiorgi in that it provides lists of members by affiliation. Many of whom have similar surnames and I believe a few are on both the 1898-9 Sangiorgi and the RM.

yes i speak italian but i have some difficult to understand enterely the sangiorgi report because i'ts written in archaic italian

Ran into the same issue.

Found it, first page, sotto capo. Thank you. It's really the only time he goes into it. When he listed off the Palermo leadership he named the bosses followed by "sostituito da ____" for each which is informal. So I was mistaken, there's no passage in there of anyone being named to the position of "sostituto" so scratch what I said earlier.

For clarity, Sangiorgi listed as ranks:

Capo supremo
capo rione
sotto capo (not sostituto)
affiliati

This was a misunderstanding on my end.

Also, if you haven't already, I'd check this out since you can read Ital. https://www.amazon.com/Relazioni-mafios ... 8860830400

[B.]

Another early figure who continues to be interesting/confusing to me is Bonaventura "Joe" Pinzolo.

- From Serradifalco, Caltanissetta. Few NYC members came from there, with this area filling out much of the early Buffalo and Pittston families. In fact, when Pinzolo arrived to the US he was heading to a relative in Pittston. The Pittston mafia family was already established by this time via mafiosi from Caltanissetta but there is no evidence Pinzolo was connected to local mafia figures or if he stayed in Pittston at all. Coincidentally, Russell Bufalino would become close to the Lucchese family via the garment industry and as a result was at one point suspected of membership in the Luccheses, the same family Pinzolo would become boss of. Another connection worth mentioning is Morello member(?) Tommaso Petto who moved to Pittston during this period, suggesting some continuity/connection between Pittston and the group that would precede the Lucchese family.

- After first arriving in NYC, Pinzolo worked as a bomb-chucker for a "black hand" extortion operation under a Calabrian "gang leader". This group superficially appears to have been an independent mainland group and would suggest Pinzolo was not yet tapped into the mafia network when he arrived in US, though we can't assume anything.

- Married into the Riccobono family in Manhattan, becoming brother-in-law to future Gambino consigliere Giuseppe Riccobono. Marriage was witnessed by Gambino/LA member Marco LiMandri and Pinzolo lived with Joe Riccobono in the late 1910s. The Riccobonos weren't simply a random Sicilian family that ended up with the Gambinos, but influential in the Palermo mafia and part of a tight-knit and influential Palermitani clan with a strong foundation within the early Lupo/D'Aquila family.

- Pinzolo's naturalization was witnessed by Terenzio Armone, father of future Gambino leaders Stephen and Joe Armone (Alfred as well, who some sources say was made). Terenzio Armone was a grocer who hasn't been identified as a member, but his sons and a nephew became high-ranking Gambino members and he witnessed the naturalization of a future mafia boss who was married into an influential D'Aquila/Gambino bloodline that produced many high-ranking members itself, so he was clearly tapped into Manhattan mafia circles. The Armones were from Misilmeri, Palermo province.

- We have little information on Pinzolo in the 1920s, then he shows up as the successor to Tom Reina as boss of the future Gagliano/Lucchese family in 1930. Valachi said that the rebel Gagliano/Lucchese faction was originally a very small minority of the Reina-Pinzolo family and had to keep their opposition to Pinzolo secret even after Pinzolo's murder, as evidenced by their attendance at a meeting of the former Reina membership to determine who killed Pinzolo. This suggests that the majority of the Reina-Pinzolo membership either supported Pinzolo or were indifferent enough not to challenge him. After all, Pinzolo was the official boss.

- Pinzolo is said to have been supported by Masseria, though it isn't clear if Pinzolo was pulled from within the ranks of the Reina membership or jumped over from another family, ala Mineo. Though campaigning and political maneuvering happens behind the scenes, the boss is supposed to be elected and we can see even when an election is predetermined behind the scenes (Joe Colombo, John Gotti), the family must still go through the election process. The secrecy of the Gagliano faction's actions before and after the Pinzolo murder suggests Pinzolo was in fact elected by the membership even if Masseria pulled the strings.

- Giuseppe Morello was still alive and in a leadership position under Masseria at this time, so it is possible Morello still had influence among the Corleonesi of the Reina family. Some sources indicate Morello influenced Masseria's actions during this period, so it isn't unreasonable to believe Morello was a large factor in Pinzolo taking over and receiving support within the former Reina group, though this is only speculation.

Anyway, Pinzolo breaks many of the patterns we see play out among other figures of his stature during the same period. He didn't stay with his paesani, he seems to have gotten his start in NYC under a Calabrian extortionist despite his Sicilian heritage, and he didn't join/stay with the D'Aquila family despite having strong marital and social ties to that family. Definitely an exception to many of the so-called rules, though we are no doubt missing many pieces of his story.

[johnny_scootch]

Really good stuff B.

[B.]

Thanks, man.

Another aspect worth mentioning is Pinzolo was a Lower East Side guy with most of his known connections in that area. The Reina family appears to have had little presence there, so that is another pattern Pinzolo broke.

Pinzolo was also in an office leased to Tommy Lucchese at the time of his murder and this was believed to have helped the rebel faction set him up. However, Pinzolo using an office belonging to Lucchese shows that the Gagliano/Lucchese faction went through the motions of supporting Pinzolo when he was elected and ostensibly kept a close relationship to Pinzolo, which lends itself to their need for secrecy before and after the murder.