Giardinieri and stoppaglieri

[Eline2015]

Is this conflict was a national on Sicily or just internal in Monreale? So, as I understand, Monreale borgata was split into two factions, right?

[Angelo Santino]

Same group, internal friction. If 1993 Philly played out in 1893 we'd be hearing about the Zips vs the Merlino Mob as completely separate entities.

[B.]

Same group, internal friction. If 1993 Philly played out in 1893 we'd be hearing about the Zips vs the Merlino Mob as completely separate entities.

I think that was true for the Fratellanza in Favara, Agrigento, too.

The investigators seemed to believe it was two separate cosche with the same rituals, protocol, rules, and overlapping business interests who went to war and settled that war by becoming one cosca afterward, but I doubt there were two cosche in a village like Favara. I think investigators just "discovered" them when the factions were at war and mistakenly believed they were separate entities before they made peace.

[Eline2015]

Same group, internal friction. If 1993 Philly played out in 1893 we'd be hearing about the Zips vs the Merlino Mob as completely separate entities.

Thanks. Can you recommend any book about this and Fratellanza in Favara?

[Eline2015]

And I read that this conflict continued on American land in New Orleans family. Is it true?

[B.]

John Dickie has a great chapter on the Fratellanza in his book "Cosa Nostra."

Also has great info on early Palermo investigations from the mid-to-late 1800s.

[Angelo Santino]

Yeah, what B. said.

All the other stuff I've read are in Ital.

Regarding in the US, that was speculated in New Orleans. Antiliar would know more about it.

[Angelo Santino]

I made these, they're by no means complete.

[Eline2015]

I made these, they're by no means complete.

Great. Interesting about unnamed sect in Trapani

[B.]

- There was also a "criminal secret society" discovered by Italian authorities in Agrigento in the 1820s, with members/associates arrested in Cattolica Eraclea and Burgio, among other villages. This group was said to have been "ritualistic" and one of those arrested was a priest in Burgio. This was decades before the term mafia came into use and I'm not sure what the details of the investigation revealed or if that information survived at all (I'm sure Sicilian mafia historians would have found it already), but given the description of the "criminal secret society" and the fact that these villages are mafia strongholds, it was likely the mafia or some kind of proto-mafia (if there's a difference).

- With the Fratellanza in Favara, they discovered written rules and protocol and it was identical to what had come out of an investigation into the Passo di Rigano family ten years earlier in the 1870s. They had all of the same rules, protocol, and even the introduction protocol was the same (back then you didn't need a third party, but could mention a "toothache" to another member and through a series of strange questions/answers determine membership). All of it was identical in both Palermo and Agrigento by the early 1880s.

- Leonardo Messina, pentito from the San Cataldo family in Caltanissetta, said his family had been members in San Cataldo for 7 generations. I don't know how you calculate that out in years, but it would put the mafia in Caltanissetta province by the first half of the 1800s.

- An investigation in the late 1800s revealed the mafia was already connected to Messina province. I don't know if it was just business contacts or if there was actual evidence of mafia groups/members living there, but could explain why some Messinesi like Candelaro Bettini and Umberto Valenti thrived in the US mafia so early.

- Baron Turrisi Colonna's pamphlet on "the sect" in 1864 (the sect was definitely the mafia) says it had existed for twenty years at that point. Not sure if he meant "at least" twenty years or if he had some definitive info on its origin. Colonna was accused by some of being a member himself who talked about "the sect" for political leverage. He was very close to Passo di Rigano boss Antonino Giammona, who is likely an ancestor of the Giammona who married Carlo Gambino's sister and produced Lucchese member Eustachio Giammona. One of the members identified in the Sangiorgi report was Onofrio Castellana and Eustachio Giammona would marry Frank Castellana's daughter. It all seems closely related (literally).

- CC, Antiliar, and Lennert's article in the May 2014 Informer talks about the 1848 Sicilian revolution as a pivotal point in mafia history. While the exact details in relation to the mafia are unclear, some of the Palermitani participants in the revolution were the descendents of future D'Aquila/Gambino members the Riccobonos, Virzis, and Scalises. Similarly future Passo di Rigano boss Antonino Giammona was directly involved in the 1860 revolution and used it to gain stature in Palermo. So we can see where mafiosi likely used these events to gain deeper influence. My belief is the mafia already existed before 1848 and certainly before 1860.

- There are still questions about the bandits of Sicily. It's easy to dismiss them as non-mafia, but Tommaso Buscetta said he was introduced to Salvatore Giuliano as a man of honor. A close aide of Giuliano also said Giuliano had been inducted into the mafia. Giuliano's relatives were high-ranking mafia members in Balestrate. The 1890s investigation into the Castellammare mafia revealed that the father/son mafia leaders of Castellammare had once harbored the Adragna bandit gang -- Adragna brothers from Trapani would go on to be mafia members in the Bonanno, Pittsburgh, and San Jose families. It makes sense the mafia would induct some of the bandit leaders.

- John Dickie thinks the Sicilian Cosa Nostra always made men from all walks of life, from wealthy politicians to peasant bandits. I agree 100%. Buscetta said when he was made into the Porto Nuova family, one of the members was a psychologist and another was a wealthy legitimate businessman. Buscetta himself was just a tough kid. We have tons of evidence that politicians, doctors, priests, and professionals from middle and upper-middle class families were members of Cosa Nostra... yet also plenty of guys who came from poverty and stole/murdered their way to membership. It's like Joe Massino told Vincent Basciano about needing all kinds of meat to make a stew... in the traditional mafia, this applied even more broadly.

^^^ One key difference is we see the leadership was often held by men from the middle and upper classes with respectable social positions. This was true in the early US mafia as well. The bosses were often professionals and proprietors in their own right and didn't accumulate their wealth and power by being a "crime boss." The boss often became boss because he already had personal resources he could use to benefit the organization, not so that he could drain resources from the organization. Of course, the organization's goal was to drain the resources of everyone else outside the mafia.

[Antiliar]

And I read that this conflict continued on American land in New Orleans family. Is it true?

The Provenzanos claimed that the Matrangas were Stoppaglieri members, and the Matrangas said the Provenzanos were Mafia members. The Matranga side certainly acted like Mafiosi and the Provenzanos didn't act like members. The Provenzanos freely talked to the police and the press, but the Matrangas laughed everything off. There was another Matranga family unrelated to these Matrangas who came from Monreale and were Stoppaglieri. Maybe Provenzano mixed them up. There's nothing more to it than that.

[Eline2015]

And I read that this conflict continued on American land in New Orleans family. Is it true?

The Provenzanos claimed that the Matrangas were Stoppaglieri members, and the Matrangas said the Provenzanos were Mafia members. The Matranga side certainly acted like Mafiosi and the Provenzanos didn't act like members. The Provenzanos freely talked to the police and the press, but the Matrangas laughed everything off. There was another Matranga family unrelated to these Matrangas who came from Monreale and were Stoppaglieri. Maybe Provenzano mixed them up. There's nothing more to it than that.

So giardinieri were something like half-mafia, while stoppaglieri - mafia or newborn mafia?

[Antiliar]

So giardinieri were something like half-mafia, while stoppaglieri - mafia or newborn mafia?

No. The Giardinieri was the name used for the old Mafia group in the Palermo area, including Monreale. That wasn't what they called themselves. The Stoppaglieri (or Stuppaghieri) was the name used for the new Mafia group, and again, this isn't what they called themselves. It means something like "bottle-stoppers" and was meant to be an insult, but the name stuck. Just like the word "Mafia," which wasn't used by the Mafia. The word "Mafia" was an outsider word. The most common label that the Mafia used for themselves was Fratellanza or Fratuzzi. The Stoppaglieri was created by a local police chief as a rival gang to push out the Mafia. It was artificially created and went to war against the old Mafia, but in an example of unintended consequences, they eventually merged (at least some of them merged).

This article explains things pretty well:
http://americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_443.html

[Eline2015]

So giardinieri were something like half-mafia, while stoppaglieri - mafia or newborn mafia?

No. The Giardinieri was the name used for the old Mafia group in the Palermo area, including Monreale. That wasn't what they called themselves. The Stoppaglieri (or Stuppaghieri) was the name used for the new Mafia group, and again, this isn't what they called themselves. It means something like "bottle-stoppers" and was meant to be an insult, but the name stuck. Just like the word "Mafia," which wasn't used by the Mafia. The word "Mafia" was an outsider word. The most common label that the Mafia used for themselves was Fratellanza or Fratuzzi. The Stoppaglieri was created by a local police chief as a rival gang to push out the Mafia. It was artificially created and went to war against the old Mafia, but in an example of unintended consequences, they eventually merged (at least some of them merged).

This article explains things pretty well:
http://americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_443.html

Oh, thank you. I already order this book. Do you read this?
https://books.google.ru/books?id=IC5zDw ... le&f=false

[Antiliar]

So giardinieri were something like half-mafia, while stoppaglieri - mafia or newborn mafia?

No. The Giardinieri was the name used for the old Mafia group in the Palermo area, including Monreale. That wasn't what they called themselves. The Stoppaglieri (or Stuppaghieri) was the name used for the new Mafia group, and again, this isn't what they called themselves. It means something like "bottle-stoppers" and was meant to be an insult, but the name stuck. Just like the word "Mafia," which wasn't used by the Mafia. The word "Mafia" was an outsider word. The most common label that the Mafia used for themselves was Fratellanza or Fratuzzi. The Stoppaglieri was created by a local police chief as a rival gang to push out the Mafia. It was artificially created and went to war against the old Mafia, but in an example of unintended consequences, they eventually merged (at least some of them merged).

This article explains things pretty well:
http://americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_443.html

Oh, thank you. I already order this book. Do you read this?
https://books.google.ru/books?id=IC5zDw ... le&f=false

Great book. I recommend John Dickie too.

Salvatore Lupo: https://books.google.com/books?id=Winf_ ... po&f=false

Henner Hess: https://books.google.com/books?id=U0-qg ... ss&f=false