Salvatore Failla? Jimmy Brown's background

[B.]

- Jimmy Brown Failla's father Salvatore was from Licodia Eubea in Catania province, Sicily. He arrived to NYC in 1907 and by 1910 was serving a prison sentence at Sing Sing (unsure of the charge / date of sentencing). Failla must have gotten into crime of some kind soon after his arrival to the US. He appears to have been out of prison by 1913, when a daughter was born.

- Salvatore Failla died in January 1924 at the age of thirty-six. The Faillas were living in Lower Manhattan. Census records in following decades confirm that Jimmy Brown's mother was widowed. I can't find any information on Salvatore Failla's cause of death, but his criminal history and young age are red flags.

Questions

- If anyone can find articles, records, or other info confirming Salvatore Failla's cause of early death, I'm sure we'd all be interested in knowing if he was murdered vs. died accidentally / naturally. Jimmy Brown Failla is a well-known figure but I haven't seen much on his personal background.

- Or if anyone can find out why Salvatore Failla was serving time in Sing Sing by 1910, within three years of entering the US, that would be another help. Failla can be a difficult surname to research as it was commonly misspelled.

- I have no info that suggests Salvatore Failla was involved with the mafia (I don't have much info, period), but there is some interesting circumstantial info in that he was Sicilian, served a sentence at Sing Sing soon after immigrating, died young, and his son and nephew became prominent Gambino members.

- Failla's eastern Sicilian background makes a mafia connection less obvious. Though Catania has a well-known mafia family, it is extremely rare to find early US mafiosi from Catania, especially smaller villages in the province. However, Antonio Paterno was an early Gambino capodecina from Catania province and the D'Aquila/Gambino family had a number of prominent men from Messina early on, so there was precedent for men from eastern Sicily in the D'Aquila family. That doesn't mean Salvatore Failla was involved with that family (or any family) like his son and nephew would be, just something to consider when looking at potential figures from eastern Sicily -- sometimes I think I'm too quick to dismiss eastern Sicilians in the early US mafia.

Other Relations

- In addition to their close association, sources have said that Gambino member Louis Astuto was a cousin of Jimmy Brown Failla. This is true, as Salvatore Failla's mother in Licodia is confirmed to have been an Astuto. Jimmy Failla and Louis Astuto appear to be paternal cousins going back to Sicily. Astuto is the cousin I referred to a couple of times above; in addition to being a soldier under Jimmy Failla, Astuto was acting captain of the Failla decina.

- A source in the 1960s said Jimmy Failla and Toddo Aurello (true name Avarello) were cousins. The Avarellos came from Racalmuto, Agrigento, so seems if there is a relation it would have happened in America and/or through marriage unless their relatives moved around Sicily. Like the Faillas (and countless others), the Avarellos first lived in Manhattan before Brooklyn. It looks like Failla and Aurello were originally with the same crew though they took over separate crews.

- Jimmy Failla, Louis Astuto, and Toddo Aurello were surveilled attending Carlo Gambino's 1976 wake together and all three left in the same car. Could lend itself to the relation between Aurello and Failla given that the Failla and Astuto relation is true and they were all together here. Frank DeCicco also met up with them though and there is no relation, so it's not as if this was a "relatives only" posse (though I'm sure there were a few of those at Carlo's funeral), only a sign of close association. DeCicco was a soldier under Failla at the time, while DeCicco's father was a soldier under Aurello, so we see that Failla and Aurello were intertwined in various ways over the years.

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Feel free to add anything about Jimmy Failla's background or anything else that connects. I've never seen anything about who Jimmy Failla came up around in the organization or anything about his family background. I assumed his family was from Agrigento like Aurello or Carini where many Faillas are from. I was surprised to see that his father came from Catania and looks like a sketchy figure himself.

[johnny_scootch]

Apparently he was Carlo Gambino;s driver for a long time and was put into the garbage rackets sometime after they clipped Jimmy Jerome. I would catch a glimpse of him from time to time before he died at Grotta D'oro on the Bay or Maria's restaurant both on Emmons Ave in Sheepshead bay.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Great write-up Jimmy B. Breslin.
As always.

[Bruno187]

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[B.]

Nice find. So he was sent to Sing Sing for a robbery.

[AlexfromSouth]

1940 census Jimmy brown was living on 16th ave in Bath beach, right on Bath ave, and Toddo was living on bay 16th st. Where do you have the Failla's and Avarello's living in Manhattan?

[B.]

The Faillas were living in Manhattan when Salvatore died in the mid-1920s. Avarellos were still on the Lower East Side in 1920.

[AlexfromSouth]

The Faillas were living in Manhattan when Salvatore died in the mid-1920s. Avarellos were still on the Lower East Side in 1920.

B. Do you have the adresses?