Rockford LCN - help with opinions and direction

[cavita]

I wanted to thank everyone for their input on this topic as it's given me different avenues to consider and different ways to look at what was happening there as it seems the family transitioned in the 1980s. My original thought at the beginning of the post was to show that just because there wasn't a high level of indictments regarding the family, it wasn't indicative of their activity. Their illegal activity actually seemed to increase in the 1970s after a relatively quiet beginning to the decade and the 1980s showed an increase in their diversity- at least three bombings in the 80s and one in the 90s. Extortion, intimidation, gambling, narcotics, political corruption, pornography, infiltration of legitimate business, etc. I'm still at odds as to why the FBI dropped them off the list of viable families in the 1980s when they had young Sicilians available and the bureau stated they still had around 20 members in the mid 80s. For now, I'll have to assume it was because they were lumped in with the Chicago family or was considered a crew of theirs.

Cavita, saw this video on Rockford and was wondering if you have seen it. It’s about gangs in Rockford put a couple of Iasparras are mentioned in it. The state attorney and the sheriff. Interesting video

https://youtu.be/-EGK4gGtz44

If it's the one about the Titanic Stones from Chicago trying to break into the Rockford drug market, yes I watched it the other day. Dominic Iasparro was a detective with the Sheriff's Department and his son Michael was a United States Attorney. Dominic admitted to being one of those who "purged" the Rockford mob files from the police department when he worked there in the mid 1980s. Dominic's father was the one who retired from the SHeriff's Department in 1974 when it came out he was gambling with members of organized crime.

[davidf1989]

Not even a well-reasoned statement from a great mafia historian is exempt from pointless condescension. Some people contribute to discussions, others don't.

You can't have a discussion about small, historic US families at all on this board without the same arguments -- no interest in research or discussion, just dead-ends and roadblocks from the same person who has no constructive goal except to control the discussion.

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Back to Rockford, NE mafia member Biagio DiGiacomo's naturalization was sponsored by a Boston-based Buscemi from Aragona. There was a small colony from Aragona near Boston and I believe Cavita found evidence the Boston Buscemis were relatives of Frank Buscemi.

I asked someone knowledgeable on Boston about who might have recruited DiGiacomo into the New England family, and he didn't know, but thought it might have been Sam Granito. I don't think Granito was Sicilian but was a well-connected, influential figure. There aren't many known members of Sicilian heritage in the NE family after a certain point.

Salvatore Caruana was at least an associate and some have speculated member close to the Patriarca leadership who went missing and was never found. His heritage was from Agrigento province, but I haven't been able to confirm if it was Argona -- it might have been. If so, that's a possible connection to DiGiacomo.

thanks for your information about Caruana's background. what do you make of this article about Salvatore Caruana? https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... /83086571/ https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... /83086277/ and this article about Caruana? https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... /82903794/