Angiulo ref to DeCavs: "one of the fuckin' oldest families."

[B.]

Here is yet another reference to the DeCavalcantes being one of the earliest US families:

January 19th, 1981 recording of Boston underboss Jerry Angiulo talking to capodecina Larry Baione Zannino:

Zannino: ...Sam the Plumber... that fucking broken-down, fucking phony motherfucker. Geez, I say "Hey."

Angiulo: And he's one of the fuckin' oldest families out there.

--

This echoes DeCavalcante capodecina Anthony Rotondo's testimony from 2005:

11 Q. Sir, the DeCavalcantes were a proud crime family; weren't
12 they?
13 A. At one time.
14 Q. Well, they were the oldest Mafia family in the country;
15 yes?
16 A. Yes.

Note: this was a callback from a statement Rotondo made during the previous day of testimony. I don't have the quote he made during his initial testimony, but it was obviously along similar lines.

--

And Charles Stango's rant in October 2014:

CS: Hate ain't even a good word. You got c**k. One day he called they
had to almost break it up. And my Goombah, I made my bones with my Goombah
many moons. Okay? [laughs] Milk, Milk his whole f**kin', Milk's family was
the root of the tree.

UC: Really?

CS: Oh he started this whole thing. lt's been around a while now. See his
uncle the underboss of consiglieres since the beginning of time. They come right
from Sicily to here.

UC: Yeah.

CS: This is sii ... okay this proves he's the oldest crew in the country. They
start, they originated the five families. Okay?

--

And finally, Al D'Arco said the first US family originated in Newark:

"It was called La Chiesa, the Church. The family that Tommy Luchese headed was the descendent of that first group."

-------

Note that unlike the first three sources, Al D'Arco does not specifically name the DeCavalcante family. Given this trend of members believing the DeCavalcantes were a very early US mafia family, it is possible if not likely he is referring to them as well, though his reference to a Lucchese connection also lends itself to the Newark family, who had a boss from Corleone circa 1930 and who had a large faction of its member join the Lucchese family when the Newark family disbanded. His statement, however, reverses the order of who split off from who and is similar to Stango's comment about the DeCavalcante family creating the five families.

We have discussed D'Arco's statement plenty of times, along with the others, so I'm not looking to open up any arguments for or against. I was just surprised to see Boston underboss Jerry Angiulo joining the chorus and wanted to bring it up in context with the other member statements.

Apparently even in Boston the leadership heard the DeCavalcantes were one of the oldest families and this did nothing to help Sam DeCavalcante's reputation.

[Antiliar]

Which struck me as strange since it was well-known that New Orleans was the first Family.

New Orleans First Family - LCN FBI Colombo Scarpa.jpg

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... 0family%22

Bill Bonanno also wrote in his book (using info from his father and other Bonanno Family members) that the Mafia in America started in New Orleans and moved up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. He also has Newark before Elizabeth. Research backs up some of what he wrote. New Orleans was the first. Period. Then we have evidence of early Mafia activity in San Francisco, St. Louis, and New York. We have the first person identified as the Boss of Bosses in Nicola Taranto in New York in the 1890s. So have to wonder where this "DeCavalcantes being one of the earliest US families" is coming from?

[B.]

I have no dog in the race, but we're seeing this come up even outside of the NYC/NJ area. While it makes sense that Rotondo and Stango hold this belief and may have heard it from the same source (or chain of sources) within the DeCavalcante family, that a Lucchese member was told something similar by old timer Joe Schiavo and even Jerry Angiulo heard something along these lines is fascinating to me.

Note that Angiulo said "one" of the "oldest", not the single oldest family. I'm inclined to believe there is some truth to this angle, though the single "oldest" is extremely unlikely.

There was also a report about the NJ mafia from the early 1980s that refers to the DeCavalcantes as one of the oldest. This was long before the three NYC/NJ sources mentioned anything like that, but it was after the Angiulo conversation. I wonder if they used his offhand comment as the source for that or if there was yet another source who supplied that info. Obviously this isn't a one-off idea in mafia circles, whatever the origin of the story is.

[Antiliar]

I know you weren't claiming to believe this idea. We both find it interesting that it's so widespread. Agreed that it's fascinating.

We can definitively rule out NJ as the oldest, but I have serious doubts that it qualifies as even one of the oldest. Admittedly we don't have starting points for most of the US Families, just rough guesstimates. On the basis of the evidence we do have it certainly appears that the aforementioned San Francisco, St. Louis and New York are the oldest Families after New Orleans. Chicago may have been around since the 1890s or even the 1880s since Joseph Provenzano mentioned it during an 1891 interview. Then a lot of Families pop up in the 1900s/1910s period, followed by others in the 1910s/1920s, and 1920s/1930s.

My guess would be that Elizabeth started in the 1910s/1920s period, although the earliest leaders that we have are Stefano Badami (although nothing specifically connects Badami to Elizabeth except for his Corleonese heritage) and Phil Bacino, who's reign must have been very brief, then Phil Amari. Badami was a third cousin of Giuseppe Morello, but that may or may not be relevant. He was also a fifth cousin once removed to the father of Frank Majuri, whose father Calogero was born in Corleone. Calogero Majuri appears to be the Calogero Maggiore who was arrested with Morello for counterfeiting in 1900.

[PolackTony]

I’m thinking that the connection between Calogero Maggiore (and other Corleonesi in NJ) and Morello stuck in the internal oral history of LCN over the decades. Perhaps Jersey became equated in the “folklore” with the original Morello Corleonesi family, hence Stango’s comment about “originat[ing] the 5 families”, and D’Arco’s claim that the Reina/Lucchese family descended from the old Newark mob.

[PolackTony]

I’m thinking that the connection between Calogero Maggiore (and other Corleonesi in NJ) and Morello stuck in the internal oral history of LCN over the decades. Perhaps Jersey became equated in the “folklore” with the original Morello Corleonesi family, hence Stango’s comment about “originat[ing] the 5 families”, and D’Arco’s claim that the Reina/Lucchese family descended from the old Newark mob.

When Stango states that “Milk’s family was the root of the tree”, he’s referring to the Merlos, correct? Perhaps Stango is just recording that the Merlos went way back to Sicily (conceivably, the connection to Mike Merlo in Chicago even further heightened the notoriety of the surname in mafia circles in the 1920s), which got conflated at some point with the old Maggiore/Morello connection, passed along in oral history as the “root” of the 5 families and the DeCavs.

[PolackTony]

Beyond the Corleonesi NJ thing, maybe there is also some echo here of the old Agrigentesi networks in these claims about the DeCavs. We know that guys from Ribera, Burgio, and surrounding areas were influential across the country, and clearly Jersey was a major node or focal point in this network (e.g., Phil Bacino was a big guy in Elizabeth before transferring to Chicago Heights). Maybe some echo of this old compaesani network got conflated with the DeCavs, as largely Riberesi, and people started seeing them as one of the original families.

Just throwing ideas out.

[newera_212]

I haven't been able to find it but can somebody bump that Rotondo testimony thread?

[B.]

- The Merlos were in Elizabeth in the first few years of the 1900s, right after the turn of the century. These were the direct ancestors of the DeCavalcante Merlos and their dairy farm produced the "Milk" nickname. The Riggis joined them shortly thereafter. This was Giovanni and Giuseppe Riggi, John's grandfather and great-uncle respectively. The Riggis and Merlos appear to be related in Ribera and then there was further interrelation in NJ. Given what we know about the DeCavalcante Riberesi, it would be surprising if there weren't mafia members among these older generations of relatives.

- Despite sounding like a rambling blowhard, either Stango knew what he was talking about when he brought up how Joe Merlo Jr.'s family was the "root of the tree" and go back to the beginning, or it was an interesting coincidence given the Merlos were among the first known Ribera immigrants to settle in the area. Peterstown had previously been a German farming community but the Riberesi colony was there and starting to grow between 1900 and 1905.

- Given Riberesi with mafia descendents were already there, it is believable to me that Riberesi mafiosi had a presence in Elizabeth before 1905, at least as individuals and not necessarily a full-on Elizabeth-based organization. But this is just by looking at names we know about -- there may well have been some other less familiar Riberese names that were in the area earlier... I've only looked at the direct ancestors of known mafia figures

--.

- We can't limit it to Elizabeth, either. The Manhattan Riberesi colony (which branched into Brooklyn and Queens) was around early on as well and these men ended up NYC DeCavalcante members.

- There was also a Riberesi colony in Connecticut. DeCavalcante member Lorenzo Giacobbe (father of Joe Giacobbe) lived there in the 1910s, among other Riberesi, and this could explain the roots of their Connecticut faction.

- All it would take to form a family is 10 members, so ten members split between NYC, NJ, and CT isn't hard to imagine. The assumption is they would be bound by their Riberesi mafia heritage, not one central location. The other assumption is that this began as a purely Riberesi group, which we have no basis for, but also no basis against.

- I'm comfortable assuming this group did not form as an impressive "crime family", but as something resembling a Sicilian cosca. They kept up this model even in later decades so it was likely even more this way at the beginning.

The issue is that even if they formed by ~1900-1905, that still wouldn't make them one of the oldest US families. Either we're lacking significant info (this is true no matter what the story is), or a distorted piece of verbal history picked up momentum and was never challenged by those who repeated it.

--

Antiliar -- didn't realize there was a relation, however distant, between Badami and the Majuris. The Majuris got their start in the Bronx / East Harlem and as you said, it looks like Calogero Majuri is Calogero Maggiore who was with Morello. Some of Majuri's siblings still used the Maggiore name later on.

I don't believe Stefano Badami was the DeCavalcante boss personally, but he did have another Elizabeth connection. His cousin Louis Badami, from Corleone, lived in Elizabeth and like Stefano owned a garment factory in NYC. I would think the Majuris would know their nearby paesano Louis Badami, and therefore Stefano Badami. I've still never seen an explanation for Frank Majuri using the alias "Frank Gagliano", but it must play into his Corleonese heritage.

Felice posted some info Anthony Rotondo gave to Italian investigators where he said the Majuris headed a "Corleone faction" in the DeCavalcante family. I've never seen any evidence of Corleonesi in the DeCavalcante family except the Majuris themselves, but even then Calogero Majuri married a Riberese woman so his son Charlie is half-Corleonese and half-Riberese.

[baldo]

What was Angiulo's beef with Sam the Plumber?

[B.]

He was jealous that Sam invented the first family. Kidding... no idea.

[B.]

Here's an aspect of this, probably obvious to everyone, but worth pointing out:

- Most of these guys don't have great knowledge of the organization's history. It's amazing that a 1970s informant was told Tom DiBella's father had been the boss of that family pre-Profaci. It doesn't seem to have been common knowledge and the informant was only told because Tom DiBella had just been elected boss himelf... just a little fact along the lines of, "Hey did you know Tom's Dad was a boss back in the day, too?" Nothing more than that.

- When Dr. Gregory Genovese was forced to testify about his organization crime connections, he didn't know the full name of his father's hometown. He got "Castellammare" right but he added in a second part that was wrong, nothing like "del Golfo". He also thought his mother-in-law's maiden name was Abruzzo and the court had to tell him it was LaBruzzo. None of that is crazy or anything. His father probably referred to his hometown simply as "Castellammare", and why should he have his mother-in-law's maiden name perfectly memorized? But imagine if he was our only source... what he said was not egregiously wrong, but it was wrong enough that we would be looking in a completely different direction if we didn't have other sources on that info.

- Tommaso Buscetta believed the mafia started in the middle ages. As great as his knowledge was for the era in which he lived, there is no evidence the mafia existed that early. Other reputable sources have made similar statements about the mafia's origin. We can't definitively prove them wrong, and maybe it's true from a certain point of view, but there is no evidence the mafia as we know it is that old.

- Someone on here spoke to Sammy Gravano and it was incredible how little he knows even about Gambino family history. John Gotti didn't make him pass a history test to become underboss. Gotti didn't have to pass one to become boss, for that matter.

- Contrast that with DiLeonardo, who can recall figures long before his time that were active in the 1910s-1920s. But he had relatives active back then and he associated with the descendants of early members. There was an unbroken chain of oral history and not every detail is perfect or comprehensive, but for a young guy made in the late 1980s, he knows a lot about the history, especially those connected to his crew.

- The DeCavalcantes are interesting because the Riberesi in the family are mostly interrelated and have been part of the mafia for generations going back to Sicily. There is likely an unbroken chain of oral history among them, like DiLeonardo and his crew, but in their case it seems to be the nucleus of an entire organization.

- With the last point in mind, we have to remember that none of the Riberesi have ever cooperated and we are relying on the following sources:

^ Non-Sicilian Patriarca underboss from Boston.
^ Non-Riberese NYC captain made in the 1980s
^ Non-Riberese Las Vegas/NJ captain made in the 2000s
^ Lucchese underboss made in the 1980s (might not even be referring to DeCavalcante family, re: "La Chiesa")

If Joe Merlo Jr. cooperated, he might not give us a perfect history, but he's Riberese and his family has been in Elizabeth for almost 120 years. He's related in some way to the Majuris, Schifillitis, Riggis, and LaRassos, probably among others. He still might not get the history completely right, but he might have a slightly different or more detailed spin on the "DeCavalcantes are one of the oldest US families" story that shows up in different times and places.

I think Tony was alluding to this, but the Riberesi in Elizabeth/NYC probably trace their mafia heritage directly back to Sicily. If that's true, they might see their existence as one continuous group from Sicily that simply "branched" out from when they formed a family in NJ/NYC/CT. Of course, other groups could say the same thing, but given the DeCavalcantes were less diluted and isolated themselves, they may simply be more aware of it. If they told people they were one of the oldest families, it's not like many people could or would challenge them or press them for specifics. Just an idea to consider.

Felice shared info that when Jake Amari and Pino Schifilliti visited Ribera, they were allowed to attend a formal meeting of the Ribera family. We know members from Ribera also transferred in and out of the DeCavalcantes over the years. While there are lines between these famiies, they blurred them at times. Who knows how this could have colored their perspective when it comes to their own origin.

For all we know there was a Riberesi colony in early New Orleans that was recognized as its own small family and this group later moved to the NJ/NYC area.

[B.]

My guess would be that Elizabeth started in the 1910s/1920s period, although the earliest leaders that we have are Stefano Badami (although nothing specifically connects Badami to Elizabeth except for his Corleonese heritage) and Phil Bacino, who's reign must have been very brief, then Phil Amari. Badami was a third cousin of Giuseppe Morello, but that may or may not be relevant. He was also a fifth cousin once removed to the father of Frank Majuri, whose father Calogero was born in Corleone. Calogero Majuri appears to be the Calogero Maggiore who was arrested with Morello for counterfeiting in 1900.

While it's easy to focus on the Ribera angle, I think the Corleone angle deserves more attention, too.

- Calogero Majuri appears to have been close to Giuseppe Morello, at least an associate of the Morello family. If Majuri is in fact Calogero Maggiore, as he seems to be, he also listed Morello as a relative during his conterfeiting arrest.

- The Majuris and Bellomos are cousins. Unlike many (most?) of the Corleonesi the Bellomos ended up with the Masseria/Genovese family. The Bellomos ended up with the former Terranova crew, Morello's brother. That the Bellomos would go with Masseria/Morello and be part of a crew that began under Terranova suggests their loyalty was to the old Morello faction, not the Reina group. Given the relation between the Majuris and Bellomos, plus the Majuris' own apparent ties to Morello, they may have been aligned with this faction themselves.

- The Genovese boss served as the Commission avugad for the DeCavalcante family before the Gambinos assumed control over them. Many of these Commission avugads represented groups where there was a longstanding tie, even before the Commission existed (Bonanno->San Francisco went back to Nick Schiro and Lanza; Lucchese->Los Angeles went back to Gagliano and Dragna, both Corleonese affiliated in NYC). This could be a sign that the DeCavalcante and Genovese family share a deeper connection.

- Stefano Badami arrived to the US with Tom Gagliano's brother-in-law and listed his arrival contact as Tom Gagliano. Antiliar finding that Badami was distantly connected to the Majuris is interesting, too, given Frank Majuri used the alias "Gagliano".

[PolackTony]

My guess would be that Elizabeth started in the 1910s/1920s period, although the earliest leaders that we have are Stefano Badami (although nothing specifically connects Badami to Elizabeth except for his Corleonese heritage) and Phil Bacino, who's reign must have been very brief, then Phil Amari. Badami was a third cousin of Giuseppe Morello, but that may or may not be relevant. He was also a fifth cousin once removed to the father of Frank Majuri, whose father Calogero was born in Corleone. Calogero Majuri appears to be the Calogero Maggiore who was arrested with Morello for counterfeiting in 1900.

While it's easy to focus on the Ribera angle, I think the Corleone angle deserves more attention, too.

- Calogero Majuri appears to have been close to Giuseppe Morello, at least an associate of the Morello family. If Majuri is in fact Calogero Maggiore, as he seems to be, he also listed Morello as a relative during his conterfeiting arrest.

- The Majuris and Bellomos are cousins. Unlike many (most?) of the Corleonesi the Bellomos ended up with the Masseria/Genovese family. The Bellomos ended up with the former Terranova crew, Morello's brother. That the Bellomos would go with Masseria/Morello and be part of a crew that began under Terranova suggests their loyalty was to the old Morello faction, not the Reina group. Given the relation between the Majuris and Bellomos, plus the Majuris' own apparent ties to Morello, they may have been aligned with this faction themselves.

- The Genovese boss served as the Commission avugad for the DeCavalcante family before the Gambinos assumed control over them. Many of these Commission avugads represented groups where there was a longstanding tie, even before the Commission existed (Bonanno->San Francisco went back to Nick Schiro and Lanza; Lucchese->Los Angeles went back to Gagliano and Dragna, both Corleonese affiliated in NYC). This could be a sign that the DeCavalcante and Genovese family share a deeper connection.

- Stefano Badami arrived to the US with Tom Gagliano's brother-in-law and listed his arrival contact as Tom Gagliano. Antiliar finding that Badami was distantly connected to the Majuris is interesting, too, given Frank Majuri used the alias "Gagliano".

The Corleonesi angle is something that I can say that I completely underestimated when it comes to the deeper history of Jersey, so I’m glad that you’re emphasizing it. Again, I think it’s possible that part of what informed these claims about the DeCavs being one of the oldest families is some internal mafia folklore that connected them to the Morello-Corleonesi network. So while it’s not true for the borgata in a formal sense, there is something to the older NJ mafia being part of one of the foundational networks that gave rise to the Genovese and Lucchese, of course.

I personally find the question of internal mafia oral history fascinating. Not as an objective account or transparent window on to “what really happened”, but in a sort of anthropological sense — how they make sense of themselves, how they invoke the past in light of the present, and what that in turn says about their values and identities within a relatively closed subculture.

[B.]

The problem is that even the Corleonesi being the "first" has become its own folklore, but in that case with outsiders. I've never actually seen an account from a mafia member who thinks men from Corleone formed the "first family" and as more evidence comes out, it becomes clear they were an important faction/network that produced leaders and a boss of bosses, but they weren't the first nor only show in town.

It also depends on the POV. There is the source connected to St. Louis / Detroit who said the men from the Favarotta neighborhood of Terrasini were the most dominant group of paesani in all the mafia, and they are right this group formed an important leadership class, especially in those midwest cities, but outside of Detroit and St. Louis you weren't going to hear anyone putting it that way. If this informant was our only source, we'd probably think men from Terrasini were more influential in mafia history than they were (and they were still highly influential anyway).

Another question mark in early DeCavalcante history is Frank Rizzo DeCavalcante. On the DeCavalcante tapes, Sam implies his father was responsible for inducting some of the old time members. We know from a comment on the DeCarlo tapes that the elder DeCavalcante held the rank of capodecina, so he may have been a ranking member for decades before he died, making him the earliest known DeCavalcante member to hold the rank of captain or higher. The Rizzo DeCavalantes were from Monreale/Palermo and lived in Westfield, near Elizabeth, so Frank may have joined this family because of where he lived in New Jersey or maybe there was an early Palermitani element in the family that is lost to time.