PolackTony wrote: ↑Wed Jan 05, 2022 9:35 pm
Yes, that Leoluca Macaluso was the one arrested along with the Nicolosi brothers and
Calogero Costantino (also Corleonese) in the kidnapping plot of a young boy. He was married to a woman named Calogera Canzonieri or Campanella. There was a "Leo" Macaluso in Chicago who declared his US nationalization in October 1902 who was born around 1881. Perhaps coincidence, but a Leoluca Macaluso from Corleone, born around 1881, arrived at NYC from Palermo 4 weeks earlier. He stated that he was bound for Louisiana, but maybe he wound up in Chicago instead. The naturalization was witnessed by a "Marion" Macaluso, suggesting that this person already had established relatives in Chicago.
Calogero Costantino left Chicago after the kidnapping incident and wound up in San Diego, where he died in 1959. Given that he was Corleonese, I wonder if he was connected to the LA family.
What year was the kidnapping incident?
In the letter capo dei capi Giuseppe Morello wrote to Rosario Dispenza in Chicago circa 1908, Morello responds to an inquiry from Dispenza about Calogero Costantino. Seems Dispenza contacted Morello for information on Costantino's family in Corleone and to ask about potential mafia connections. Morello says Costantino comes from a respectable family in Corleone but seems to say they aren't involved with the mafia in any significant way but does imply some relatives may have been brought into the mafia based on their own merits. It makes sense Dispenza asked the Corleonesi leadership about Costantino, as we've learned it was standard protocol at the time to contact a prospect's paesans and Sicilian hometown for information on him.
So Costantino doesn't seem to come from a significant Corleonesi mafia clan (one of the few) but still ended up with his mafia compaesani in Chicago. Hard to fully decipher the letter, but based on Morello's response it almost sounds like Dispenza wanted to kill Costantino which is why he was asking for more info about his familial connections. Morello seems to say he will assist with the murder if Dispenza has "exact information" on Costantino's infraction.
Morello also says Costantino had left New York around six years previous. Sems to say he can't take responsibility for Costantino because protocol wasn't followed, citing how Cascio Ferro and Enea broke the rules when they inducted someone (Costantino?) without contacting his compaesani for approval.
Maybe you have other observations/interpretations of the letter, translated by Chris Christie:
"This is for your guidance. Now regarding Calogero Constantino. To tell you the truth, I have as yet been unable to persuade myself as to what it is about, the letters to me have not been satisfying or convincing. There should have been better explanations. In this manner I cannot answer with exact judgment and clear conscience. I cannot understand how it is that Calogero Constantino remains arrested at Bacaluse, Louisiana, while under the protection of so many good friends engaged incessantly to make him obtain his liberty, and you others of Chicago have all this contract on your side.
"I have said it more than once that I and my townsmen have always known the Constantino family as a good family, and none other but very good, and the boss of my town, I am sure, cannot give you better details, though I doubt if they knew this family just because they were not to our bearing, but nevertheless leaning towards good people; have you seen 'the ox, neither white nor black,' this is their bearing. But not for this I repeat, always of good people; there have been born at times people that had given a good account of their being, honored and respected as always.
"We of Corleone have never had any dealings with them, therefore could not try them and appreciate their merits. Others that have had dealings, that is to say have known their good merits, and have brought them to make part of our family. Nothing extraordinary, because certainly would not have brought them in this land if they had not known their good merits. They have done well. We, of Corleone, will appreciate said doings.
"In your letter you tell me that regarding Calogero Constantino there is nothing to say, but there should be exact information, because there are eight good workers sick to put the work on him and of the eight persons there are those in danger of their lives. But you must excuse me if I and others have not understood such language.
"If you know that Constantino is of good health, also he is severely of good health, you will take with other townsmen of yours the responsibility here and also of the town, and we will do everything. Neither I nor others here can understand how you ever in your wise thinking write us in this manner. If I have written to you more than once that this Constantino family have never been to our hearing. Known to us only by sight in America as in the town, and then this is not enough. You surely should not ignore the fact Calogero Constantino has been missing from New York at least six years.
"Now, then, I ask you why you write me and others to assume the responsibility of said individual; if this party could be admitted, then we assume the responsibility of an individual that had been seen 'neither born nor raised' and who has never been known by name or sight. This responsibility you should ask of others, not us. You see in this that I was right in resenting De Vito Casiaferro and Enea, and saying that it is not done that way, in making a person, by not asking information of the townsmen before making it, that all these discussions now would not have been.
"Now you must ask them to assume the responsibility, those that have made him, not us. Of us you must ask only if we have anything to say. This, yes, is very correct. But to assume responsibility is one thing, and asking if we have anything to say is another thing. There is a great difference. Therefore, we go in Court, we have undersigned, upon our conscience and on our honor declare of having nothing to say upon the conduct and honor of Calogero Constantino, not regarding him only but also of his family. All of Corleone. Giuseppe La Bella and brother, Vincenzo, brother Ciro and brother Coco.
"Paolo Frisella,
"Gaetano Lomonte,
"Stefano Lasala,
"Fortunato Lo Monte,
"Antonio Rizzo,
"Michale Coniglio,
"Angelo Valenti,
"Francesco Moscato."
^ Difficult to say if Morello is speaking only for his NYC-based mafia Family or also speaking for the entire Corleonesi network, but what is clear is he says he's willing to offer information but refuses to take any responsibility for Costantino or his situation.
