Antiliar wrote: ↑Sun Jun 14, 2020 3:38 pm
Villain wrote: ↑Sun Jun 14, 2020 2:20 pm
Ok if Balsi was under Daddono and was previously sponsored by Belcastro, what does that tells us?! It means that Belcastro was possibly Giancanas and Daddonos boss on the west side who inherited the crews from the late Mangano, the late Nitto and the imprisoned Campagna.
When Nitto killed himself and Campagna went to jail, Giancana took over but was possibly under the jurisdiction of Mangano who was the prime boss on the west side at the time. When Mangano got killed, Belcastro and Giancana merged together and we know that Belcastros reign was quite short and so Giancana became the prime rep on the west side, which in fact was the main reason for his power to become Accardos underboss, meaning Giancana controlled the largest crew at the time.
In addition, did you ever read that Belcastro was arrested and questioned in July 1945 if he was a victim of an alleged kidnapping that same month, and even though he denied it, still he died of a heart attack the next month. Who knows, lots of pressure maybe?! Few years before that Guzik was allegedly also kidnapped....
And yeah i also read somewhere that Torello didnt like LaPietra much and vice versa, and the beef continued even after Torellos death, meaning LaPietra constantly pushed back Ferriola during later years who in turn was Torellos real protege. This is one of the many evidences regarding the territorial or overall boss theory, meaning LaPietra took Torellos place and held a lot more weight then Ferriola, which made the latter one subordinate at the time. Those two crews always stayed connected, meaning both Ferriola and LaPietra were products of the same large group, and possibly the last good example is Nick Ferriola.
Enjoy the brainstorming. About the Daddono crew, the problem for me is the timeline. Nitto seems to have headed that crew since Capone. He was definitely a leader since the 1930s as confirmed during the Hollywood extortion trial. Unfortunately only one person under him was named, and that was Nick Circella, who was then deported, so we don't have any continuity under a different capo. The links between Nitto and Giancana are the doc that says Nitto and Campagna sponsored him, and his daughter's book (or could have been the nephew's book) notes that he used to drive Nitto. Not much to go on, but that's all we've got. Belcastro was associated with Jimmy Catuara of the Chinatown crew. Maybe Belcastro succeeded Nitto for about two years then it went to Giancana. I can buy that.
I still don't know about Mangano. What are your sources for saying he was the top guy on the West Side? I can accept that he had his own crew that was merged into another crew, but I would still like to see some evidence.
Sorry for the late response since i had to take some break....we must not forget that one of Manganos aces was Jimmy Adducci who in 1935 became Illinois State representative, and was also Mangano’s prime force in the so-called political West Side Bloc. Also Manganos brother Phil, the Clementis, Willie Bioff and Tom Stapleton were just few of Manganos main guys and as a matter of fact, Mangano was also one of the major players in Hollywood extortion case who went almost completely "unnoticed" by the prosecutors at the time which is a whole different story that raises a lot of questions...such as, why Bioff rarely mentioned Mangano and why didnt the old man went down like the rest of his accomplices?
In 1932, Phil and Bioff were arrested regarding the shooting at a police patrol and later we all know the story on Bioff in the Hollywood scheme, while Stapleton was arrested as the main suspect in the murder of Circellas girlfriend. Speaking about Circella, maybe you are right but one side of me still strongly suspects that he was also under Mangano by being his rep around the Near North Side, especially the Rush St area and I also believe that by the early 40s Nitto was the underboss and he had a direct connection to Circella....or maybe Mangano was the number two guy, who knows?! Lol
It is quite possible that Mangano infiltrated Circella in the Moving Picture Operators’ union Local 110 with the help of Bioff. I also think that Maritotes brother was also infiltrated in the same union. Ernest Mazzone was the main guy between Rio and Mangano in the same scheme but was killed in 1934 i think. Mazzone was known as West Side Frankie Pope and was also close associate of Belcastro. I also dont remember but i think Manganos close associate Klondike ODonnell was either involved in the scheme or in the early release of the bosses...
If these stuff are not enough regarding Manganos high stature and "hidden" connection in the scheme at the time, what about he buying a huge house in Hollywood during the early 40s?! On top of that, when the bosses went to jail, the newspaper men and investigators labeled Mangano as "King of the West Side" lol
In addition, i believe that the Clementi fam is one of the best examples regarding the Mangano/Daddono succession, meaning Patsy Clementi later became one of Daddonos top lieutenants. Theres also one photo of one of Manganos top guys Frank Laino together with Daddono and English. In fact, one member of the Laino family, Joe Laino, used to be connected to the First Ward.
As for the links between Mangano and Belcastro, I think we already talked about this some time ago and we mentioned Fanelli and Heitler and i think some other fellas....besides some obvious situations, old man Heitler kept a personal diary besides being allegedly illetirate to an extent...
