Small families that were never on the FBIs radar

[Grouchy Sinatra]

Interesting documentary that aired on Denver's PBS station about the Smaldone family of Denver.

https://youtu.be/MbJtXMa0ZAQ

[JoeCamel]

Senator whatever: Is there significant LCN activity in Omaha?
Valachi: Where the fuck is Omaha?

[JoeCamel]

Senator whatever: Is there significant LCN activity in Omaha?
Valachi: Where the fuck is Omaha?

[Grouchy Sinatra]

I just posted the documentary to this thread because it was the first one I could find that mentioned the Smaldones of Denver, but it really doesn't apply because they were on the FBI's radar. They bootlegged for Capone then built a gambling empire after Prohibition. A few cops that remembered them talk about how well liked they were. Evidently they stuck with gambling and loan sharking, nothing else. They didn't corrupt any unions, didn't sell drugs, didn't even get involved with prostitution. Just gave people in Denver and Pueblo places that they could play blackjack and get hammered without driving to Vegas. When the heat became overwhelming after the RICO act they moved into legitimate business, leaving Denver defunct in mob terms. They lived out Vito Corleone's dream. Yes I'm stanning a little too hard because I just watched the documentary, but all of this is true. Give it a watch. It'll be a nice break from watching the man-bun vs. wraparound Oakleys riot.

[Wiseguy]

As Pogo pointed out before, the Smaldone chart back in the day shows more of a gambling syndicate (with the Smaldones at the top) than a textbook-structured LCN family.

[Grouchy Sinatra]

I agree with that. Probably more like a Chicago crew than an actual family. Then again, I'd say the same thing of the LA family. Documentary is pretty good though.

[Villain]

I agree with that. Probably more like a Chicago crew than an actual family. Then again, I'd say the same thing of the LA family. Documentary is pretty good though.

Im not 100% sure but i think that one time Denver was represented by the Chicago Outfit...

[aleksandrored]

I may be talking nonsense, but maybe Bradford might be on that list, there were a lot of Italian gangs and "members of the Blackhand"

[avvocato]

I’m from near Frontenac and have Italian family there. I grew up hearing about Papa Joe Saia. He was born in tiny Chicopee, KS in 1904.

Here are some articles about Papa Joe Saia.

https://www.morningsun.net/news/2020050 ... -union-man

https://www.morningsun.net/article/2014 ... e%3Dampart

https://www.morningsun.net/news/2020052 ... e%3Dampart

Somebody even wrote a Master thesis on him - “D. J. "Joe" Saia: the padrone of Crawford County politics.”

https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/cg ... ontext=etd


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[avvocato]

Here is the story of Joey Aiuppa getting arrested in Pittsburg (next to Frontenac) with all the doves...

https://ganglandwire.com/jospeh-joey-doves-aiuppa/

https://ganglandwire.com/joseph-joey-do ... segment-2/


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[Nick Prango]

The city of Rockford, situated only ninety miles North West of Chicago, has been the home of an often forgotten crime Family for the better part of eight decades. Having been overshadowed in the national media by its more famous and often more violent counterpart in the Windy City, the Rockford Mafia has a relatively unknown history. And while both Federal and local law enforcement agencies have kept a close eye on various Rockford Mafia members in the period ranging from the 1950s up to the 1980s, the development of Federal informants within the crime Family’s inner circle has never been successful, resulting in a lack of information regarding the Family’s first years of existence. Were it not for the Rockford papers, which kept the local public amazingly well informed on the happenings in Northern Illinois gangland, this history would probably have been lost in time.

[cavita]

The city of Rockford, situated only ninety miles North West of Chicago, has been the home of an often forgotten crime Family for the better part of eight decades. Having been overshadowed in the national media by its more famous and often more violent counterpart in the Windy City, the Rockford Mafia has a relatively unknown history. And while both Federal and local law enforcement agencies have kept a close eye on various Rockford Mafia members in the period ranging from the 1950s up to the 1980s, the development of Federal informants within the crime Family’s inner circle has never been successful, resulting in a lack of information regarding the Family’s first years of existence. Were it not for the Rockford papers, which kept the local public amazingly well informed on the happenings in Northern Illinois gangland, this history would probably have been lost in time.

To give him credit, this is taken directly from a piece that lennert wrote on Rockford.

[JCB1977]

Seems to me that Minnesota would have had a small group long ago. Booze was run up there during Prohibition and I think they had a sizable Italian population in the larger cities.

Yes. Tony and Frank Milano were pinched up there in the 1910’s.

[B.]

Since it's been six years since this thread was started, here is my contribution to the topic circa 2020:

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=6661

[OmarSantista]

The "Black Hand" was as ambiguous and open as the term "mob," both mean different things depending on context used.

1) Black Hand Extortion was the method of sending threatening letters demanding money under the threat of death. It was practiced by the Camorra, the Mafia, Italian gangs, non-Italian gangs, business-men and relatives getting back at each other.
2) A Black Hander could refer to an italian criminal, a Mafioso or Camorrista and used interchangeably. If I was angry at my brother-in-law and got arrested while throwing a molotov into his store in 1911, I would have been arrested for a Black Hand Crime and been labeled a Black Hander despite not being affiliated with anything.
3) Black Hand Gang/Society could refer to any group of Italian criminals depending on who the user was referring to: Italian gangs, Italian secret societies, mafia societies.
4) Black Hand Murder: gangland murders, extortion victims, unsolved Italian murders.

Today, "the Black Hand" refers to early Italian criminal affiliations, traditional and non, that existed in that 1907-1913 era. 1911 was the record for most Black Hand explosions and then it subsided. But the term carried on and ^1-4 would continue to be used in different contexts depending on the author, time, place, publication, affiliation. It's like when you go through parts of the NY Times for Unione Siciliano and there will be (Mafia) next to it, the term evolved into a meaning to symbolize OC due to 1920's Chicago even though that was never the case. The Unione was for-a-time infiltrated but it was limited to Chicago alone. But decades later the newspapers would alternate between U.S. and Mafia and people reading much later concluded there was a Unione in NYC and it took many heated arguments (me included) to prove that there was not. For a time, Maranzano was killed in his Unione Siciliano headquarters until we disproved that.

And before I'm corrected, the right way is Unione Siciliana with A, but the papers, especially in the 40's, had it down with an O.

This was such an important distinction. I was literally trying to explain the difference between the mafia and black hand and realized I was having trouble with the concept of the variations of their nature but this puts all the light on it. Thanks Angelo.