February 2000 Colombo Ceremony

[Pogo The Clown]

Great stuff JD. Thanks.


Wasn't Cacace the Acting Boss by this point? I believe Little Allie Boy had gotten busted with that gone earlier in 1999.


Anyway here is post you made about the early 2004 ceremony.

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Some info on a Colombo Family ceremony held in 2004. Location was an apartment in Gravesend, Brooklyn.

Present at Ceremony
- Thomas Gioeli (51y) (Acting Boss)
- John 'Sonny' Franzese (84y) (Underboss) (Possible)

- Joseph Baudanza (58y) (Captain)
- Dino Calabro (37) (Captain)
- 'Vinny Buffalo' LNU (Captain)

- Alphonse 'Funzi' D'Ambrosio (79y) (Soldier)
- Vincent 'Jimmy Gooch' Febbraro (70y) (Soldier)

Members Inducted
- Joseph 'Joe Caves' Competiello (32y)
- Craig Marino (33y)
- Dino Saracino (30y)
- Sebastiano 'Sebby' Saracino (36y)

The ceremony probably took place early 2004. The reason being we know the induction list with these guys' names on it was passed out to the other Families in late December 2003, the Bonannos were recorded talking about it by James Tartaglione.

The Saracino brothers were put with Calabro and Craig Marino was with Baudanza. Competiello was assigned to Vinny Buffalo, but right after the ceremony Competiello was told to report direct to Gioeli and that the assignment to Vinny Buffalo was 'just for show'. Anyone know who Vinny Buffalo is? Vincent Ricciardo maybe? Not sure if he was even on the street at this time.

Also worth noting, Calabro and the Saracinos were from Castellammare del Golfo. Are there any other Castellammarese who were made in NY who weren't in the Bonannos?

[Giacomo_Vacari]

Cacace was acting boss. Luca DiMatteo was long over due, according to a Staten Island wire tap. The Bonannos and Profaci families were tight, and it wasn't uncommon to see members from those towns being in the other boss hometown.

[TommyGambino]

Man, The Colombo's make them young.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Anyone have any info, know current status on Joe Baudanza?

Guys been a power in the Columbos for nearly two decades. Im surprised he hasnt taken an admin position.

[B.]

The Bonannos and Profaci families were tight, and it wasn't uncommon to see members from those towns being in the other boss hometown.

They were close in Joe Bonanno's day, but that's not true about the Sicilian towns. Very few Castellammarese were made into other NY families. I'm also not aware of any members from Villabate being made into the Bonannos.

[Angelo Santino]

The Bonannos and Profaci families were tight, and it wasn't uncommon to see members from those towns being in the other boss hometown.

They were close in Joe Bonanno's day, but that's not true about the Sicilian towns. Very few Castellammarese were made into other NY families. I'm also not aware of any members from Villabate being made into the Bonannos.

The families with overlapping hometown affiliation were the Genoveses/Luccheses along with the Gambinos/Colombo due to chain migration. These separate groups operated in the same area and as the generations Americanized the close relationship continued. As it did with other groups as people tended to move around. The Mineo-DiBella-Profaci family kept it south Red Hook to Sheepshead to Long Island, they didn't venture into Manhattan or the Bronx or even much of a Jersey presence. They are the only NY family to act like this, it's strange. I don't know if that was an arrangement with the Gambinos in 1913 or a natural occurrence.

East Harlem and the Bronx belonged to the Genoveses but Gambinos were living there also, same with Genoveses in deep Brooklyn. When the Lucchese family was formed out of an internal splinter in the 1920's they were mainly Bronx members, but Gambinos also lived there and each had a share of the Palermitan expatriates. Had the Corleonesi family never broken up, Gagliano would have stayed in the Genovese and Tommy Lucchese would have been with the Gambinos. But the splinter occured. These new families in the 1912 and 1920 stages of early NY, also came at a time when there were families moving out of the City. In the 1910's, Italians left Lower Manhattan for Brooklyn in Sheepshead and Bath Beach and by the 1920's there was a sizeable Italian-by-way-of-EH contingent in the Bronx.I think both the internal politics as well as the natural expansion and immigration surge played equally into there being a Colombo and Lucchese Families today. By the 1920's there was plenty of local recruitment as opposed to just transfers and people with families or hometown connections with inside members. The Lower East Side had everyone operating there (say for Mineo). Most groups were amicable with each other. The wars of 1913, 1921-25, 1930-31, the Gallo and Bonanno problems in the 1960's; are the exception rather than the norm.

And this is 2000 Colombo Ceremony, I'll shut up.. Great posts BTW.

[Angelo Santino]

Any photos of:

- Joseph Baudanza (Captain)
- Andre D'Apice (26y)
- Anthony Stropoli (36y)
- Alphonse 'Funzi' D'Ambrosio (79y) (Soldier)
- Vincent 'Jimmy Gooch' Febbraro (70y) (Soldier)

[willychichi]

Does anyone know if this is Joseph or Carmine Baudanza?

[Sol]

Does anyone know if this is Joseph or Carmine Baudanza?

Isn't there a John Baudanza who's a capo with the lukes? Any relations to these Baudanza with the colombos?......Soliai

[Pogo The Clown]

Most groups were amicable with each other.

Yeah I remember that picture of Albert Anastasia lying all amicable on the barbershop floor.

Isn't there a John Baudanza who's a capo with the lukes? Any relations to these Baudanza with the colombos?......Soliai

Yeah he is a Soldier. He is related to the Colombo Baudanza. I think he is a nephew.


Pogo

[Sol]

Most groups were amicable with each other.

Yeah I remember that picture of Albert Anastasia lying all amicable on the barbershop floor.

Isn't there a John Baudanza who's a capo with the lukes? Any relations to these Baudanza with the colombos?......Soliai

Yeah he is a Soldier. He is related to the Colombo Baudanza. I think he is a nephew.


Pogo

Oh ok, do you know if John is still in or did he get released?......Soliai

[Pogo The Clown]

Oh ok, do you know if John is still in or did he get released?......Soliai

He was released to a halfway house earlier this year. He gets out of that in 3 weeks.


Pogo

[E. Lou Minotti]

Does anyone know if this is Joseph or Carmine Baudanza?

It's neither.

[B.]

Christie -- great post. However, I believe Giovanni was saying that the Bonannos and Colombos used to make members from each others' hometowns, CDG and Villabate respectively, because of their close ties but I don't know of that ever happening. If it did, it was extremely rare. These newer guys from Castellammare like the Saracinos and Calabro who got made with the Colombos have no historical significance... it's no different than if they had been from Rome or Tuscany for that matter.

While we're talking about this, I'd be curious which living Colombo members can trace their heritage back to Villabate. The Bonannos still have a chunk of members whose ancestors came from Castellammare and it seems there may even be strands still connecting them overseas, but the only Colombo member I can think of off the top of my head with Villabati ancestors is Sal Profaci. Maybe there are a couple more hanging on.

[Angelo Santino]

Christie -- great post. However, I believe Giovanni was saying that the Bonannos and Colombos used to make members from each others' hometowns, CDG and Villabate respectively, because of their close ties but I don't know of that ever happening. If it did, it was extremely rare. These newer guys from Castellammare like the Saracinos and Calabro who got made with the Colombos have no historical significance... it's no different than if they had been from Rome or Tuscany for that matter.

While we're talking about this, I'd be curious which living Colombo members can trace their heritage back to Villabate. The Bonannos still have a chunk of members whose ancestors came from Castellammare and it seems there may even be strands still connecting them overseas, but the only Colombo member I can think of off the top of my head with Villabati ancestors is Sal Profaci. Maybe there are a couple more hanging on.

The Colombos were Palermitan and also from Villabate (Villabate is almost a suburb of Palermo, it's a 30 minute drive.) In the new world of Brooklyn they were formed along those lines and eventually took in criminals with Italian surnames. Which is why calling the Bonannos the Cast or the Gambinos the Palermitans is no longer accurate. Those factions continue to exist within those families on a declined scale and they also must account for Anastasia, Gotti, Massino and whoever else. There was never a rule that if you were from this city and you arrived in America you went with this or that family. Bonanno had relatives en masse so his place in the Bonannos was secured. Someone like Luciano with no family Mafia affiliations had to get in where he fit in, and being on the lower East Side, he was close to Gambinos and Genoveses and could have went with either group when they were recruiting at the New York level. It all goes into who you know on the inside. Having relatives help tremendously which is why it accurately appears that these guys from the same cities were in clusters, but it was not a defined rule.

Marriages between bosses' families was a practiced part for those high up in the tradition. Lupo and Morello, Bonanno and Profaci, Gambino and Lucchese, Profaci and Tocco, Tocco and Dragna (? - I want to say.) Prior to the 30's if you were a boss of a family, it might be referred to the House of B. Which goes back to older Italian nobility, same thing with the Mustaches as Italian royalty wore them in Italy.

The early Colombos, from Mineo to Profaci had longstanding old-world affiliations: ties to Sicily, inter family Mafia marriages. When Joe Colombo took over, he didn't and couldn't change the family singlehandedly but he represented the next generation: more connected at the local level. But if you take the time and map out where Colombos lived in the 60s, it was in South and lower BK and east into Long Island. In that Mafia FBN book there are more than a few people presented from that area, from Palermo but never made it on the Valachi charts. I wonder if they were forgotten Colombos and if they were, they were narcotics players.

And also, outside of Mulberry and E Harlem (above E114th between 1st and 2nd), Downtown Brooklyn had the highest Napolitan population which the Gam/Col/Gen filled their ranks with in the 20s and 30s. Those connections carried on much later. The Gallos were protected by Dellacroce for a time, He and Persico were aligned. They were connected to the nonsicilians in the Bonannos. It wasn't a conspiracy against Sicilians just birds of a feather. And by this point none of it was Sicilian this or Napolitan that. It was guys from Bensonhurst or guys from East Harlem. If you were to ask a NY Italian where they're from it'll be along those lines instead of identifying with an Italian region.