Historical Bosses of Palermo Province

[JohnnySalami]

Cefalu - Nino Crappa (died last year)

[Antiliar]

Thanks to Rick for locating the above to me. This was done years ago and if new info has come out or I am mistaken on the above, do let me know.

In 1910, following the death of Giuseppe Biondo, the Piana Dei Colli Group was split up into the San Lorenzo and the Pallavicino Groups. Since 1957, the Groups of San Lorenzo, Pallavicino, Tommaso Natale, Partanna Mondello and Sferracavallo have operated as the San Lorenzo Mandamento.

Different sources say that Antonino Grillo was the capo of Piana dei Colli in the mid-1920s.

[Angelo Santino]

Thanks to Rick for locating the above to me. This was done years ago and if new info has come out or I am mistaken on the above, do let me know.

In 1910, following the death of Giuseppe Biondo, the Piana Dei Colli Group was split up into the San Lorenzo and the Pallavicino Groups. Since 1957, the Groups of San Lorenzo, Pallavicino, Tommaso Natale, Partanna Mondello and Sferracavallo have operated as the San Lorenzo Mandamento.

Different sources say that Antonino Grillo was the capo of Piana dei Colli in the mid-1920s.

The Piana Dei Colli was a region that encompassed San Lorenzo, Resuttana, Pallavicino, Tommaso Natale, and a few other places north of Palermo. You will also see references to San Lorenzo-Colli and Resuttana-Colli in earlier books. Biondo appeared to have been boss of San Lorenzo/Piana Dei Colli before 1910. If the group split and Resuttana became an autonomous group after Biondo's death, Grillo was likely its first boss. If not, perhaps Grillo succeeded the Amorosos.

[Antiliar]

Thanks to Rick for locating the above to me. This was done years ago and if new info has come out or I am mistaken on the above, do let me know.

In 1910, following the death of Giuseppe Biondo, the Piana Dei Colli Group was split up into the San Lorenzo and the Pallavicino Groups. Since 1957, the Groups of San Lorenzo, Pallavicino, Tommaso Natale, Partanna Mondello and Sferracavallo have operated as the San Lorenzo Mandamento.

Different sources say that Antonino Grillo was the capo of Piana dei Colli in the mid-1920s.

The Piana Dei Colli was a region that encompassed San Lorenzo, Resuttana, Pallavicino, Tommaso Natale, and a few other places north of Palermo. You will also see references to San Lorenzo-Colli and Resuttana-Colli in earlier books. Biondo appeared to have been boss of San Lorenzo/Piana Dei Colli before 1910. If the group split and Resuttana became an autonomous group after Biondo's death, Grillo was likely its first boss. If not, perhaps Grillo succeeded the Amorosos.

It sounds like you're saying that Piana dei Colli was like a mandamento covering several borgate. My sources indicate that Grillo was the capo of Piana dei Colli at the same time Antonino "Nino" Gentile was the capo of San Lorenzo Colli. I don't have any capos for Resuttana.

[Angelo Santino]

Thanks to Rick for locating the above to me. This was done years ago and if new info has come out or I am mistaken on the above, do let me know.

In 1910, following the death of Giuseppe Biondo, the Piana Dei Colli Group was split up into the San Lorenzo and the Pallavicino Groups. Since 1957, the Groups of San Lorenzo, Pallavicino, Tommaso Natale, Partanna Mondello and Sferracavallo have operated as the San Lorenzo Mandamento.

Different sources say that Antonino Grillo was the capo of Piana dei Colli in the mid-1920s.

The Piana Dei Colli was a region that encompassed San Lorenzo, Resuttana, Pallavicino, Tommaso Natale, and a few other places north of Palermo. You will also see references to San Lorenzo-Colli and Resuttana-Colli in earlier books. Biondo appeared to have been boss of San Lorenzo/Piana Dei Colli before 1910. If the group split and Resuttana became an autonomous group after Biondo's death, Grillo was likely its first boss. If not, perhaps Grillo succeeded the Amorosos.

It sounds like you're saying that Piana dei Colli was like a mandamento covering several borgate. My sources indicate that Grillo was the capo of Piana dei Colli at the same time Antonino "Nino" Gentile was the capo of San Lorenzo Colli. I don't have any capos for Resuttana.

PDC was never the name of a city or town, it was an area that included Resuttana, San Lorenzo, Pallavicino, Tommaso Natale, Partanna,
Mondello and Sferracavallo. I was under the idea that everything was one singular group until Biondo died in 1910. I then had Grillo affiliated with Resuttana and Antonino Gentile with San Lorenzo. But technically both of them could be called a capo of Piana Dei Colli much like a Colombo boss could be called a boss of new York. San Lorenzo was the largest hub in the Piana Dei Colli and most of the time PDC was used interchangeably with San Lorenzo and then Resuttana as a close second. (Villa Trabia, was a 30 minute walk from Resuttana where both Grillo and Mineo lived.) Pietro Inzerillo and I want to say John Fontana (not the Villabatese) was also from Resuttana.

Later on, both SL and Res became individual mandamenti-
San Lorenzo Mandamento
-San Lorenzo
-Tommaso Natale
-Partanna Mondello
-Capaci
-Carini

Resuttana Mandamento
-Resuttana
-Acquasanta
-Arenella

[Antiliar]

Thanks to Rick for locating the above to me. This was done years ago and if new info has come out or I am mistaken on the above, do let me know.

In 1910, following the death of Giuseppe Biondo, the Piana Dei Colli Group was split up into the San Lorenzo and the Pallavicino Groups. Since 1957, the Groups of San Lorenzo, Pallavicino, Tommaso Natale, Partanna Mondello and Sferracavallo have operated as the San Lorenzo Mandamento.

Different sources say that Antonino Grillo was the capo of Piana dei Colli in the mid-1920s.

The Piana Dei Colli was a region that encompassed San Lorenzo, Resuttana, Pallavicino, Tommaso Natale, and a few other places north of Palermo. You will also see references to San Lorenzo-Colli and Resuttana-Colli in earlier books. Biondo appeared to have been boss of San Lorenzo/Piana Dei Colli before 1910. If the group split and Resuttana became an autonomous group after Biondo's death, Grillo was likely its first boss. If not, perhaps Grillo succeeded the Amorosos.

It sounds like you're saying that Piana dei Colli was like a mandamento covering several borgate. My sources indicate that Grillo was the capo of Piana dei Colli at the same time Antonino "Nino" Gentile was the capo of San Lorenzo Colli. I don't have any capos for Resuttana.

PDC was never the name of a city or town, it was an area that included Resuttana, San Lorenzo, Pallavicino, Tommaso Natale, Partanna,
Mondello and Sferracavallo. I was under the idea that everything was one singular group until Biondo died in 1910. I then had Grillo affiliated with Resuttana and Antonino Gentile with San Lorenzo. But technically both of them could be called a capo of Piana Dei Colli much like a Colombo boss could be called a boss of new York. San Lorenzo was the largest hub in the Piana Dei Colli and most of the time PDC was used interchangeably with San Lorenzo and then Resuttana as a close second. (Villa Trabia, was a 30 minute walk from Resuttana where both Grillo and Mineo lived.) Pietro Inzerillo and I want to say John Fontana (not the Villabatese) was also from Resuttana.

Later on, both SL and Res became individual mandamenti-
San Lorenzo Mandamento
-San Lorenzo
-Tommaso Natale
-Partanna Mondello
-Capaci
-Carini

Resuttana Mandamento
-Resuttana
-Acquasanta
-Arenella

In Relazioni Mafiose it has Grillo as the capomafia of Piana dei Colli. It doesn't specifically connect him to or make him the capo of Resuttana. If the PDC group was like a mandamento, then Grillo should have been a capo of a borgata as well as the caporione of the PDC. If that's the case, Grillo could have been the capo of Resuttana, SL, Pallavicino, TN, etc. Where did you get that Grillo was the capo of Resuttana?

[Angelo Santino]

I just looked it up and it speaks like he is one of several "among the groups of mafiosi in the Piana Dei Colli..." It refers to the Gentile-Grillo group which we know was an alliance and not a singularly affiliated Family. It then states "Nino Gentile of San Lorenzo and Antonino Grillo of Palermo." That's what gave the impression that Gentile headed SL and Grillo headed Resuttana, both are located in the area known as Piana dei Colli to qualify as being known as the boss or among the bosses there.

If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But I didn't see Grillo (only Gentile) mentioned in conjunction with San Lorenzo at any point, Grillo is instead referred to in Relazioni as simply being a boss in Piana dei Colli which Resutanna would also fall under. Also in1898 Sangiorgi identified Grillo as being from Resuttana:
"Vassallo, Santo
Amoroso, Matteo
Amoroso, Salvatore
Fontana, Giovanni
Fontana, Giuseppe
Gebbia, Giovanni
Grillo, Antonino
Guerrigno Salvatore
Guerrigno, Rosario"

And San Lorenzo:
Biondo, Andrea
Biondo, Giuseppe
Biondo, Giuseppe
Cina, Gaetano
Messina, Salvatore
Biondo, Giuseppe
Biundo, Giuseppe

Pallavicino:
In 1898 there was a Gentile, Rosario of Antonino Gentile, Antonina Morici. Could this have been a relative of the 1920's Nino Gentile? Rosario Gentile was 30 in 1898. Others from Pallavcino include :
Cracolici, Salvatore
Di Christofaro, Salvatore
Porcello, Pietro

However, as we know, people moved around and still kept their affiliations so that could be argued as to why location is not always an indicator.

Mafia Giardini:
"Finally, the third was Antonino Grillo, who belonged to one family residing in the so-called Terre Rosse (where Villa Trabia is located south of Resuttana) district since the mid-nineteenth century, when his grandfather had obtained a piece of land and a house. In these places Grillo began his activity as a gardener of Villa Trabia 73 and a member of a "criminal association" that extended his range of action within of the newly expanding districts of the city to the north and up to southern offshoots of the hamlet of Resuttana."

[Angelo Santino]

I'm open, but not completely sold that mandamenti existed prior to 1957. Families working together is something they always did. Going by the sources we have, in 1898 there was a Giammona (Passo), Bonura (Perpignano) and Biondo (Piana Dei Colli) alliance against Malaspina (Francesco Siino) who had an alliance with Uditore, a Giammona rival (Giammona was previously boss of Uditore in the 1870's.)

In the 1920's, it was Gentile (San Lorenzo) vs Grillo (Resuttana), Cuccia (Piana dei Greci) and Motisi (Pagliarelli)

And today, San Lorenzo, Resuttana, Passo di Rigano, and Pagliarelli are each their own separate mandamenti.

[Antiliar]

I'm open, but not completely sold that mandamenti existed prior to 1957. Families working together is something they always did. Going by the sources we have, in 1898 there was a Giammona (Passo), Bonura (Perpignano) and Biondo (Piana Dei Colli) alliance against Malaspina (Francesco Siino) who had an alliance with Uditore, a Giammona rival (Giammona was previously boss of Uditore in the 1870's.)

In the 1920's, it was Gentile (San Lorenzo) vs Grillo (Resuttana), Cuccia (Piana dei Greci) and Motisi (Pagliarelli)

And today, San Lorenzo, Resuttana, Passo di Rigano, and Pagliarelli are there own separate mandamenti.

I didn't write that mandamenti existed before 1957. I was comparing what you wrote about PDC to a mandamento. Since you wrote that PDC wasn't an actual borgata in the 1920s, but the name of a small region that consisted of several borgate, it seems very similar to a mandamento. Looking on a map, Il Glicine La Piana dei Colli lies between Mondello and Palavicino, very close to ZEN. The San Lorenzo Mercato is between Palavicino and Resuttana. The two locations are about 3.5 km apart. At any rate, from the context it seemed to me that the report that Vittorio Coco cited referred to Piana dei Colli as a borgata.

Regarding Grillo and Resuttana, I agree that he was born there, but as we have seen there are many examples of capi being born in one neighborhood but reigning in another. So based on Grillo's place of birth it seems that you're making an educated guess or making a conclusion that he headed Resuttana (and I'm not saying that he was or was not the capo of Resuttana). Just trying to see how you arrived at your conclusion. At any rate, I don't want to beat a dead horse on this topic and bore everyone, because it seems that we're just getting into the weeds.

[Angelo Santino]

I'm open, but not completely sold that mandamenti existed prior to 1957. Families working together is something they always did. Going by the sources we have, in 1898 there was a Giammona (Passo), Bonura (Perpignano) and Biondo (Piana Dei Colli) alliance against Malaspina (Francesco Siino) who had an alliance with Uditore, a Giammona rival (Giammona was previously boss of Uditore in the 1870's.)

In the 1920's, it was Gentile (San Lorenzo) vs Grillo (Resuttana), Cuccia (Piana dei Greci) and Motisi (Pagliarelli)

And today, San Lorenzo, Resuttana, Passo di Rigano, and Pagliarelli are there own separate mandamenti.

I didn't write that mandamenti existed before 1957. I was comparing what you wrote about PDC to a mandamento. Since you wrote that PDC wasn't an actual borgata in the 1920s, but the name of a small region that consisted of several borgate, it seems very similar to a mandamento. Looking on a map, Il Glicine La Piana dei Colli lies between Mondello and Palavicino, very close to ZEN. The San Lorenzo Mercato is between Palavicino and Resuttana. The two locations are about 3.5 km apart. At any rate, from the context it seemed to me that the report that Vittorio Coco cited referred to Piana dei Colli as a borgata.

Regarding Grillo and Resuttana, I agree that he was born there, but as we have seen there are many examples of capi being born in one neighborhood but reigning in another. So based on Grillo's place of birth it seems that you're making an educated guess or making a conclusion that he headed Resuttana (and I'm not saying that he was or was not the capo of Resuttana). Just trying to see how you arrived at your conclusion. At any rate, I don't want to beat a dead horse on this topic and bore everyone, because it seems that we're just getting into the weeds.

I was under the impression that when Biondo died in 1910, PDC and other Palermo Families split up into smaller groups and that from "Piana dei Colli" emerged San Lorenzo, Resutanna, Pallavicino etc as new autonomous groups. That appears not to be the case, the evidence I thought I had was a misunderstanding on my part that got cleared up in this thread. So who knows how far back these other PDC groups go and what the relationship dynamic was.

I would venture that San Lorenzo was the hub where everything spread out from, either its territory expanded as Colli did or new groups were established in Pallavicino and Partanna Mondello and Sferracavallo as the need warranted it. I doubted their existence because Siino didn't name them and the wording in the Sangiorgi sounded like there were only those groups he named. But you've found evidence of others in the city having existed prior to that point, so I was operating under what appears to have been a false belief.

Regarding Grillo, that as well as the fact that Biondo/Gentile are more often linked to San Lorenzo with Gentile and Grillo being bosses as the same time. Meanwhile with Grillo, all signs point to Resuttana as where he was criminally active. I know that's not always indicative and that yes, people move around. But Salvatore Amoroso, Grillo and Manfredi Mineo all lived at the Villa Trabia at different periods with overlap which could imply affiliation.

[Angelo Santino]

Piana dei Colli:

"To understand the reason for this importance of the Piana dei Colli it will be appropriate to turn to the eighteenth century, that is to say the period in which its modern history began. Until that moment in the territory - outside the city walls - there were small houses or farms and, along the coast, watchtowers. It was then that the Sicilian nobility, and Palermitan in particular, attracted by this flat land and relatively close to the "capital", began to build splendid holiday residences which, at the same time, were centers of farms in which a more rational and profitable agriculture.

In the Piana dei Colli a great land improvement took place in these decades. (...) The systematic exploitation of the potential of the territory attracted a large number of farmers and artisans who, concentrating in the surroundings of some of the villas and along the main communication routes, gave life to small sub-urban settlements, the villages. Thus Resuttana, San Lorenzo, Pallavicino, Tommaso Natale, Partanna Mondello and Sferracavallo arose from the city towards the sea, along the South-North route. The Piana dei Colli was not the only protagonist of this process and the presence of villas and villages was recorded throughout the countryside of Palermo during those decades; it is true, however, that it was one of the main destinations, together with Mezzomonreale and the plain of Bagheria."

I would imagine the mafia spread as needs for representation in those areas were required, perhaps in a northern trajectory. Were these groups all one family at one point or were new ones formed with approval. We know at some point, each city had its own individual family there (which in 1957 would fall under the Mandamenti of SL and Res (with the latter getting a smaller share) of what was once Piana dei Colli territory.

[Angelo Santino]

Looked it up, the in the 1870's and 80's, the Amorosos were considered to head Porto Montalto which is on the outskirts of Southwest Palermo centro, the other side of the city.

[Angelo Santino]

Am I correct that these are all of the Palermitan families? 26.

San Lorenzo
Tommaso Natale
Partanna Mondello
Capaci
Carini
Resuttana
Acquasanta
Arenella
Passo di Regano
Uditore
Torreta
Noce
Malaspina
Altarello di Baida
Porta Nuova
Borgo Vecchio
Palermo Centro
Pagliarelli
Mezzomonreale
Corso Calatafimi
S. Maria di Gesu
Villagrazia
Brancaccio
Roccela
Ciaculli
Corso de Mille

[Eline2015]

Sorry for stupid question, but there were few families in Palermo, but because a grown numbers they are divided into few more families in the mid 1910s, right?

[Angelo Santino]

Sorry for stupid question, but there were few families in Palermo, but because a grown numbers they are divided into few more families in the mid 1910s, right?

It's not a stupid question and I'm glad you asked. No. I was mistaken on that. The source that I thought said it was referring to something else. I've stated that as factual the last few years and that's my mistake.