The Tunis Family

[B.]

As Antiliar suggested, I think this deserves its own thread. The Sicilian mafia started a cosca in Tunis fairly early in its history and along with being a functioning organization in its own right, it also looks to have provided the US mafia with some important names and figures.

Bonanno-Schiro and Vitesi Newark/Lucchese Connections to Tunis

- As Antiliar, CC, and Lennert discussed in their article, the man believed to be the first Bonanno-Schiro boss, Paolo Orlando, was an early boss of the Tunis family and looks to have essentially transferred his status as boss to NYC. Orlando was from Camporeale originally.

- Joe Bonanno's eldest uncle Giovanni Bonanno moved to Tunis where he was a wealthy farmer and rancher. Bonanno does not mention mafia involvement either way, only saying Giovanni lived the most "peaceful" life of his uncles. We know Joe Bonanno's father Salvatore and uncle Giuseppe "Peppe" were mafia members (with Peppe Bonanno showing up in the 1896 Castellammare investigation) but Bonanno tends to talk about his older relatives' mafia membership in general terms. At the very least, Giovanni Bonanno was from a prominent mafia clan in Castellammare and thrived in Tunis where future NYC-Bonanno boss Paolo Orlando had an organization.

- Long-time Bonanno member Vincenzo Morsellino was living in Tunis along with his cousin Settimo Accardi and the two arrived to the US together in 1927. Morsellino was originally from Calatafimi and Accardi from nearby Vita, both in Trapani. Morsellino would join the Bonanno family in NYC, while Accardi is believed to have become a Newark member and upon the disbanding of Newark became a Lucchese NJ capodecina. It's unknown if Morsellino and Accardi were inducted in Sicily, Tunis, or the US, but they were old enough to have been involved in mafia activity and Accardi seems to have become involved in Newark mafia activities almost immediately upon arrival. ​Morsellino and Accardi's mutual cousin Michael Adamo (from Vita) would become a Bonanno member.

- It should be noted that Settimo's brother Giuseppe Accardi, a mafioso himself, arrived to the US in 1921 with Gambino-D'Aquila capodecina Accursio Dimino from Sciacca. Giuseppe Accardi was coming from Vita, not Tunis like his brother and cousin in 1927. Giuseppe Accardi appears to have been with Accursio Dimino on this trip, so it shows the Accardis were already well-connected to US mafia figures by 1921.

- Onofrio "Joseph" Abate of Vita was living in Tunis and married Settimo Accardi's sister there in 1928. Abate came to the US from Tunis in 1946. The Newark family was disbanded by this time so he joined his brothers-in-law the Accardis and fellow Vitesi paesani the Pizzolatos into the Lucchese family, becoming the capodecina after Settimo Accardi and one of the Pizzolatos both held the role. It's unknown if Abate was already a made member in Tunis and transferred his membership to the Luccheses, or if he was made after coming to the US. What we know is he was heavily connected to mafia figures and spent many years living in Tunis.

- In 1927, just a few months before Settimo Accardi and Vincenzo Morsellino came to the US from Tunis, future Newark boss Stefano Badami arrived to the US from Tunis along with Tommaso Gagliano's brother-in-law Salvatore Pennino. Both men were from Corleone originally and were arriving to meet Tommaso Gagliano, then believed to be underboss of the Reina family. Pennino's wife was listed as residing in Corleone, while interestingly Badami's wife was residing in Roccamena, the birthplace of Paolo Orlando's successor and relative Nicolo Schiro. While it is unlikely Badami was the first Newark boss, he is the first known Newark boss and appears to have taken over the family within three years of his arrival to the US.

Calderone's Account of the later Tunis Family

- Antonino Calderone said the Tunis family was formed in the 1930s, but we know it was earlier. He emphasizes that this family was incredibly obscure and he had never heard of it until he became a member and his brother Pippo Calderone told him. The Calderones' uncle Antonino Saitta was a man of honor who fled to Tunis during the late 1930s to flee persecution by Mori and the Fascist government. Calderone says at this time many men of honor fled to Tunis to avoid persecution, particularly men of honor from Palermo and Caltanissetta.

- Calderone says his uncle Nino Saitta did not transfer membership to Tunis, but managed to set himself up in business and acquire property. Saitta associated with members of the Tunis family as well as fugitives from other Sicilian mafia families. One of these men was the Palermo man of honor Antonino Sorci, who was concerned that the Tunis mafia boss would kill him. Calderone doesn't specify if Sorci transferred to the Tunis family, but states the Tunis boss was using fugitive men of honor to carry out murders and was quite ruthless.

- Nino Saitta plotted with other mafiosi in Tunis to kill the local rappresentante/boss, but Saitta was betrayed by a man from Trapani named DiStefano, who informed the Tunis boss of the plan. DiStefano and his brother allegedly participated in the murder of Saitta.

- After WWII, Calderone says the boss of Tunis was Calogero Giambarresi, from Riesi in Caltanissetta province. However, the Tunisian government drove the mafia out of Tunis and it sounds like the family was disbanded.

- Giambarresi was later questioned by Riesi boss Giuseppe DiCristina and Pippo Calderone about the murder of Nino Saitta and though Giambarresi knew who killed Saitta, he would not admit who the murderers were as Calderone would kill them (this implies some of Saitta's murderers were still alive at the time). Giambarresi was, however, willing to tell them where Saitta's body was buried in Tunis so they could retrieve his remains (this suggests Giambarresi may have been involved in the murder himself).

- Giambarresi's unwillingness to share the murderers' names caused a dispute between Giambarresi and DiCristina, so Giambarresi transferred his membership from Riesi to the cosca in Caltanissetta (the town).

The Marcellos/Minacores

- According to the FBN, New Orleans boss Carlos Marcello (true name Calogero Minacore) was born in Tunis in 1910. His parents were apparently from Ravanusa, Agrigento. Interestingly, though, Marcello's Lousiana immigration paperwork says he was born in Roccamena, the same town as Nicolo Schiro and where Stefano Badami's wife was living at the time of Badami's 1927 immigration. It incorrectly says Roccamena was in Girgenti (Agrigento) province, which is strange, but it specifically lists Roccamena as his birthplace though it states that Marcello and his mother were living in Tunis before their immigration, while father Giuseppe was already in Lousiana. Marcello was only six months old at the time, so this would mean the Minacores were on the move continually during this time. It's also possible Roccamena referred to a previous residence of the family and it was confused for Marcello's birthplace. This record is definitely the right Marcello either way.

- While Marcello's father Giuseppe Minacore has never been confirmed as a mafia member, the small New Orleans family seems to have recruited along traditional mafia lines and Giuseppe can neither be confirmed nor denied as a mafia member. If the Minacores were in Tunis leading up to 1910, they may have overlapped with Paolo Orlando or been in Tunis shortly thereafter, which is interesting given Orlando's relatives in Roccamena and the Minacores' apparent connection there.

- From our limited sources on the Tunis family, no mention is made of mafiosi from Agrigento province. We know Palermo, Trapani, Caltanissetta, and Catania supplied mafiosi who either lived in Tunis or were part of the local family, but the Minacores' potential Roccamena connection could explain their presence there. It could also suggest there were others from Agrigento, who simply weren't known to the other sources.

--

Thoughts / Analsysis:

- It appears the Camporeale-Trapani network and the Bonanno-Schiro family are closely tied to the Tunis family's history. Paolo Orlando from Camporeale was boss, while Trapanesi mafia figures like Morsellino, the Accardis, and the DiStefano brothers (mentioned by Calderone) all lived there. Giovanni Bonanno's successful ventures in Tunis also play into this, though we don't know his mafia membership status.

- Both Paolo Orlando and Stefano Badami appear to have become US bosses shortly after arriving from Tunis. In Orlando's case, he was already the boss of Tunis. To my knowledge, there is no information on who the Tunis boss was at the time of Stefano Badami's immigration, so given his quick (possibly immediate) rise to boss of Newark, it could suggest Badami himself was a leading figure there, or it was otherwise important for him to stop in Tunis before heading to Tommaso Gagliano.

- The recurring references to Roccamena are interesting and suggest that town was connected to the Tunis mafia in some way. Orlando (via relation to Schiro), Badami, and Marcello/Minacore all have an apparent connection to Roccamena in addition to Tunis. Interestingly all three would become bosses of US cities.

- Tunis also appears to have been significant to the Newark family as a whole given Badami and Settimo Accardi's residence there before coming to NJ and quickly becoming significant Newark figures. This plays back into Paolo Orlando, as Accardi's Vitese compaesano Saverio Monaco, who was Badami's underboss, was business partners with a Charles Mangiaracina from Camporeale, the hometown of Paolo Orlando. There was also a Salvatore Mangiaracina from Partinico who appears to have been a significant Bonanno member during and after the Castellammarese war, with Partinico and Camporeale being closely connected within the Bonanno-Schiro family and figures from both towns possibly being interrelated.

- Badami and Monaco were also close allies of Salvatore Maranzano during the Castellammarese War, with Monaco murdered immediately following Maranzano and Badami likely stepping down as boss. This relationship could go much deeper given the connections we are seeing between Tunis, Trapani, Newark, the Bonanno-Schiro family, and other recurring villages.

- Nicolo Schiro would also retire to New Jersey after stepping down as boss. We don't know whether Schiro remained a Bonanno soldier and we can't rule out that he may have become a Newark member. Given that we see connections to Camporeale, Roccamena, and Trapani via Tunis in the Newark family, and these same connections relate back to Schiro's predecessor and relative Paolo Orlando, Schiro at least fit into the Newark mafia scene even if he remained a Bonanno member. We know Schiro continued to have a relationship with the DeSimones of Los Angeles based on letter correspondence between Frank DeSimone and Schiro in the 1940s -- Schiro had been close to Frank's father Rosario DeSimone, from Salaparuta, Trapani, which is near the towns that produced Newark and Bonanno-Schiro members.

- Based on Calderone's info, Tunis did not require men of honor to transfer membership to live there, though they were subjected to the rule of the Tunis boss. It's not clear if this was simply a temporary arrangement given that many mafia fugitives were fleeing the Fascist Italian government, or if Tunis always allowed men of honor to live there without transferring.

- Calderone doesn't name the boss nor the boss's hometown at the time Nino Saitta was murdered there, but the involvement of the two Trapanesi DiStefano brothers in the Saitta murder and their loyalty to the Tunis boss could be an indication that the boss himself was Trapanese or otherwise connected to that network. This would be unsurprising given all of the other info.

- What's clear is the Tunis family was much more like US mafia families than it was Sicilian mafia families when it came to membership. While Sicilian mafia families do induct members from other villages (Calderone said his uncle and other men in Catania were originally made into a Palermo family before the formation of the Catania family), Sicilian cosche are largely based around highly specific districts/neighborhoods (the basis for the term "borgata") and towns. Tunis on the other hand seems to have been comprised of immigrant mafiosi, so like the US there was a higher tendency to recruit men from different towns and provinces under one umbrella. However, from our limited information, it appears Tunis was not unlike early US families in that there were higher concentrations of compaesani from specific towns/regions/networks. This could have factored into men like Nino Saitta from Catania not transferring his membership, as the membership may have been more focused on men from a specific network/background.

- This topic relates to my thread about the evolution of early US mafia families here: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=6661
It appears the trend of combining men of honor from different Sicilian groups was not simply a product of US immigration, but migration anywhere.

- If Calderone is correct, the Tunis family ceased to exist due to Tunisian government pressure sometime after WWII, though they did have a boss from Riesi for an unspecified amount of time after WWII. This boss became a member in Riesi following the dissoluton of the Tunis family, which suggests other members fled elsewhere as well. Going back to the start of the thread, remember that Onofrio "Joe" Abate came to the US from Tunis in 1946 -- this would match up with Calderone's info and suggests that Joe Abate was likely involved with the Tunis family and fled to his relatives in New Jersey for the same reason boss Giambarrisi fled back to Riesi.

--

Please feel free to add anything at all relevant to this topic. No doubt if we dig, we will find other mafia figures with ties to Tunis, other references to Tunis, or any number of other footnotes that could produce leads.

[Antiliar]

Great summary of what we know, B.

[B.]

Thanks, man.

Do you have info on James Franzone's family background? I know he was a Chicago figure who transferred to San Francisco, but I've found what I believe are birth records for him and his relatives that say they were born in Africa or France. This could indicate Tunis, which was in Africa under France. Bill Feather also lists him coming from Tunis. Can't verify it, though.

--

More info:

- A 1956 article clears up Carlos Marcello's background. It states his father Giuseppe Minacore was born in Ravanusa, Agrigento, and moved to Tunis with his family while Giuseppe was still a child. It states Marcello's mother Luigia Farruggia/Ferruggia was born in Roccamena but moved to Tunis when she was a baby. Giuseppe Minacore moved to the US at age 18, but returned to Tunis to marry Luigia, which is where Calogero "Carlos" was conceived and born.

- In one published account, Giuseppe Minacore allegedly changed his name to Marcello because he worked on a sugar plantation for a non-relative also named Minacore and the man demanded that Giuseppe changed his surname. I've seen all kinds of reasons for surname changes, but this is one of the strangest I've heard -- an Italian worrying about someone else sharing his surname and forcing them to change it. It's also difficult if not impossible to objectively verify. I wonder if this was a family story created to hide the true reason for the name change, i.e. for legal reasons.

- Looking through the FBN book, the Maugeri brothers Corrado and Giovanni were born in Tunisia. Their family appears to come from Catania and Eastern Sicily, possibly a sign that a Catanesi element in Tunis already existed that the Calderones' uncle Saitta joined up with.

- A Francesco/Francois Licari is listed in the FBN as a figure living in Milan who was born in Tunis in 1915. I'm not sure what his exact Italian/Sicilian heritage is, but he was known as "il Tunisino" (i.e. the Tunisian) and was a drug trafficker associated with fellow Tunis-born Giovanni Maugeri of NYC. Maugeri was also associated with the Sorci brothers, who as Calderone said had their own ties to Tunis.

- Lucchese CI Carmine Taglialatella told the FBI in the 1960s about an influential Genovese member involved in the Bronx called "Tado DeMarco" who owned a trucking business in Tunisia that was managed by DeMarco's brother that lived there. He said "DeMarco" owned "extensive" property in Sicily and the Bronx. I don't know enough to say, but is he referring to Generoso "Toddo" Del Duca?

Allegra and "Zu Vincenzo Reference Tunisia and Other Countries

- Pentito Dr. Melchiorre Allega, a man of honor in Palermo who in the 1930s told Italian authorities that upon induction, he was told the mafia had "powerful ramifications" in Tunisia, America, and "some places on the continent," including Marseilles. This suggests there may have been a small cosca in Marseilles that died out early on and could explain some of the ongoing relationships between the US / Sicilian mafia and Marseilles decades later, perhaps remnants of earlier ties.

- Allegra's comment also backs up other accounts that the Tunis family existed long before Calderone believed it was created in the 1930s. Most if not all of Calderone's knowledge of the Tunis family comes from his uncle Saitta going there in the late 1930s and Saitta did not survive to tell Pippo or Nino Calderone about Tunis firsthand, so it's unsurprising Calderone wouldn't have all the history and details.

- Allegra's reference to "some other places on the continent," only one of which is Marseilles, suggests the mafia established other colonies in the mediterranean or other parts of Europe. It would make sense that the mafia attempted to establish families in various locations, not only the US and Tunis. At that time, there was no guarantee that any particular place was going to allow a sustainable borgata let alone an ongoing, thriving mafia presence. The US turned into a truly one of a kind phenomenon that allowed the mafia to propagate throughout a huge nation. I don't see why they wouldn't have attempted colonies in other countries given their willingness to do so in Tunis and America. Marseilles seems as good of a guess as any, and in this case it's a man of honor Dr. Allegra making the claim, and the mafia's presence in the French colony Tunis could lend itself to Marseilles.

- Counterfeiter and cooperator Antonio Comito, who was working for Morello and Lupo, spent time with a member "Zu Vincenzo" LNU who told him various stories about his own personal background and the mafia as whole. Zu Vincenzo claimed to have been a cattle rancher in his hometown and after murdering two men in a robbery, first fled to Palermo, then Tunis, then says he went to Tokyo, followed by Liverpool. In 1902 he came to New Orleans where he had friends he could influence to help him. He told Comito the 'society" he was part of had no headquarters and could be found "in all parts of the world except Japan."

- Obviously "Zu Vincenzo" was exaggerating or generalizing, but it matches well with Allegra's comment about Tunis, America, Marseilles, and other parts of "the continent" having Sicilian mafia colonies. Zu Vincenzo's comment might tell us something: he went to Tunis, which we know had a mafia family; he went to Tokyo, then in a later conversation says Japan was an exception in not having a mafia colony; he then mentions Liverpool. He doesn't specify whether England had a mafia colony or not, but that he doesn't include it with Japan yet having been there could suggest there was an attempt at a Sicilian mafia group in England.

[B.]

- Joe Bonanno's wife Fay LaBruzzo was born in Tunis in 1902, when Paolo Orlando was allegedly boss there, and the LaBruzzos came to the US the following year. The LaBruzzos were from Camporeale like Orlando. While Joe Bonanno's father-in-law Calogro LaBruzzo was not a mafia member, he is said to have turned down an offer to join, and he was still a social figure in the Bonanno-Shiro-Orlando network.

- When Joe Bonanno came to the US, he first stayed with his uncle Giovanni Bonanno in Tunis for a few months while he waited for cousin Peter Magaddino. Joe's uncle Giovanni offered him the opportunity to live in Tunis and marry a girl from a respected family, but Bonanno wanted to go to the USA. Interesting Bonanno would still marry a girl from Tunis in NYC.

- A 1966 NYT article states the belief that Joe Bonanno was hiding in Tunis during his "kidnapping." Bonanno mocks this in his book, but interesting it was a rumor given his different ties to Tunis.

- Vito Cascio Ferro hid out in Tunisia between 1892 and 1894.

[Antiliar]

B, here's some sources that you may find useful:

This old Italian books has the districts of Sicily, including the districts of Palermo and Corleone. Helps show the connections. The districts were political, but there were also Roman Catholic diocese districts:
https://books.google.com/books?id=uYRQA ... ne&f=false

This is a great resource for searching passenger manifests by specific criteria, including location:
https://stevemorse.org/ellis2/ellisgold.html

[Antiliar]

Nicola Taranto, the 1890s New York Mafia boss and first identified boss of bosses, had family from Tunis. His grandnieces lived in Tunis according to Taranto's estate documents. Haven't been able to identify where Taranto came from. Taranto immigrated in 1888 (there was a different Nicola Taranto from Gallico who arrived in 1895) and died in 1911.

[cavita]

Does the last name Scuderi ring any bells with our Tunisia researchers?

[motorfab]

Excellent job B., thanks. I was wondering: Is there a particular reason why LCN created a cosca in Tunis? Given that Tunisia was under French prefecture at that time and not Italian, I wonder why

[Antiliar]

Does the last name Scuderi ring any bells with our Tunisia researchers?

No, sorry.

Excellent job B., thanks. I was wondering: Is there a particular reason why LCN created a cosca in Tunis? Given that Tunisia was under French prefecture at that time and not Italian, I wonder why

Probably because there was a relatively large Sicilian community there. Plus it was a good location for those fleeing the law.

[B.]

Thanks for the additional resources, Antiliar.

Motorfab -- what Antiliar said, but the reason there was a large Sicilian community is because it is so close to western Sicily. Right across the sea, the nearest mainland country to western Sicily.

I don't know anything about Tunisian history, but it also seems the government was hospitable or at least ignorant of mafia activity in the 1800s through the end of WWII. Once the government cracked down after WWII like Calderone said, we can see the boss Giambarresi returned to Sicily and Joe Abate moved to the US. I haven't come across any other US mafiosi who came from Tunis in the mid-1940s, but I'd guess others returned to Sicily with Giambarresi.

Seems likely the Tunis family was on the smaller side given it was a Sicilian cosca and an "outpost." Calderone says a number of mafiosi living there during Mussolini didn't transfer to the Tunis family. We could be looking at a family that had 10 to 20 official members but no way to say for sure.

Seems the mafia saw something hospitable about French government at the time given the existence of a Tunis family and Allegra's reference to a Marseille family. Many mafia figures first went to France before coming to the US and like Joe Bonanno I suspect some of them may have stopped in Tunis.

Bonanno had a cousin (the son of his uncle Giovanni in Tunis) who he stayed with in Paris, but he said the cousin was a sculptor so not sure he would be a mafiosi. That said, Bonanno member Nick Guastella who was an old Sicilian close to Joe Bonanno was a sculptor too, believe it or not. You can't rule any profession out with the early Sicilian and US mafia, except maybe LE and journalism.

--

Liverpool is a good candidate for another short-lived Sicilian mafia family in Europe. In addition to "Zu Vincenzo" telling Comito that he went to Tunis, Tokyo, and Liverpool, then stated that only Japan didn't have a mafia presence, Ignazio Lupo stayed in Liverpool for a period and the Motisis of Pagliarelli were connected to Liverpool.

Liverpool was one of several English cities with a significant Italian colony. I don't know how much of that was Sicilian but obviously mafiosi were going there and we generally see them gravitate toward areas where there are ties. All it takes is 10 members to qualify for recognition by the Sicilian mafia's ruling body, so all it would take is a clan or two of mafia relatives and you could basically form a family, not unlike what we see with the Caruana-Cuntrera clan in Venezuela.

The Birmingham family is a good example in the US. While Birmingham's Italian population was very small compared to most US cities, a sigificant percentage were Sicilians from villages with a major mafia presence. As we learn more about the development of the US mafia, we can see that men from specific villages were the major factor in forming mafia families and it had little to do with the overall Italian colony's size. However, the size of a larger Italian colony was and still is a significant factor in a mafia family's ability to sustain itself.

In the same way Birmingham disbanded in the mid-1930s, I'd bet families like Marseilled and the other unnamed families "on the conintent" (possibly Liverpool and others?) disbanded earlier on and there simply weren't sources who could tell us firsthand. I mean, without Calderone's personal ties to Tunis we wouldn't know when or how that family disbanded.

--

Cavita -- not offhand. Do you have more info?

I also wanted to ask you, since Roccamena has come up multiple times in connection to Tunis, what do you know about Roccamenesi in Rockford? I see some early Rockford members came from there and aside from Nicolo Schiro we don't see Roccamenesi mafia members show up much in the US. We know Stefano Badami and Carlos Marcello had ties there, too, but they weren't from there.

One of the Rockford Roccamenese I see on a list is a Cascio, which is a surname shared with Roccamena boss Benedetto Cascio who died five years ago.

[cavita]

Cavita -- not offhand. Do you have more info?

I also wanted to ask you, since Roccamena has come up multiple times in connection to Tunis, what do you know about Roccamenesi in Rockford? I see some early Rockford members came from there and aside from Nicolo Schiro we don't see Roccamenesi mafia members show up much in the US. We know Stefano Badami and Carlos Marcello had ties there, too, but they weren't from there.

One of the Rockford Roccamenese I see on a list is a Cascio, which is a surname shared with Roccamena boss Benedetto Cascio who died five years ago.

I was just curious as there was an Alberto Scuderi who was born in Tunis and immigrated to Rockford around 1972 and lived there the rest of his life. He was visiting his birthplace in 2010 when he died there suddenly. I was wondering if that was a name connected to any LCN family there. Rockford has a very large Roccamelesi population and yes, there were a couple connected guys from there. I think Roccamena is a fairly small enough village where any Cascio from there is related so it wouldn't be surprising if this Benedetto was related.

[B.]

Interesting -- will keep an eye out for the Scuderi name. If he left Tunis in 1972, that is almost three decades after the local mafia family is believed to have disbanded but there remained a Sicilian population so we can't rule out the possibility that the Sicilian mafia maintained ties or even members there with or without a formal family.

Do you know the Scuderis' original Sicilian hometown?

[cavita]

Interesting -- will keep an eye out for the Scuderi name. If he left Tunis in 1972, that is almost three decades after the local mafia family is believed to have disbanded but there remained a Sicilian population so we can't rule out the possibility that the Sicilian mafia maintained ties or even members there with or without a formal family.

Do you know the Scuderis' original Sicilian hometown?

I do not. I was trying to find that in my research to see if there were any LCN connections but even his parents and wife's name doesn't help. His name has always stuck out to me as that is the only name in Rockford I believe hailed from Tunis. Below is a link to his obituary.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/rrsta ... =146567480

[B.]

I looked up his parents' names and while I couldn't find them specifically, I saw that different individuals with the same names came from Marsala and Alcamo in Trapani province. As I'm sure you know, certain surnames are heavily associates with specific towns and provinces, so could be an indication he is at least Trapanese.

That would fit with this thread given that the Tunis mafia appears to have had a strong Trapani connection which itself is an indication that the Tunis Sicilian colony had a strong Trapani element.

[cavita]

I looked up his parents' names and while I couldn't find them specifically, I saw that different individuals with the same names came from Marsala and Alcamo in Trapani province. As I'm sure you know, certain surnames are heavily associates with specific towns and provinces, so could be an indication he is at least Trapanese.

That would fit with this thread given that the Tunis mafia appears to have had a strong Trapani connection which itself is an indication that the Tunis Sicilian colony had a strong Trapani element.

This is a good indication then that his family was from Marsala, given the influx to Rockford in the early 1970s and 80s included not only Aragonesi but people from Marsala. I'm unsure as to why Marsala saw a big migration to Rockford but that could be because there were already people from there living in the Rockford area- Laudicina, Cammarata, Pipitone, etc. going back to the 1930s even.