Gambino 1960's Chart (in progress)

[B.]

Nice, well there we go.

[B.]

Looking like Canicatti is the largest known group from Agrigento after Sciacca.

Gaetano Trupia (captain 1930s)
Salvatore Tornabe (Apalachin attendee, possible captain 1950s?)
Pietro Stincone (captain 1960s-70s)
Frank Rizzo (captain 1970s-80s)
James Surrosco
Agostino Amato (ID'd as a 1960s Florida captain on some FBI lists)
Vincent Amato
Frank Amato
Salvatore Curto
Eduardo Aronica

Pogo has Rizzo taking over for Stincone, so this could be one continuous group under Canicattese captains going back to Trupia.

That's just what we know. The Agrigentini tend to be the most secretive (we would barely know about the early ones if not for Gentile), so who knows. Could be many more early guys from Alessandria and Naro too given the Arcuri crew was never properly identified by informants.

[Raven]

Guys, I've gotta say this is one of the most interesting and cool things I've ever seen on here. The amount of info you guys are able to dig up is incredible. I can't wait to see the final chart and B. your blog is incredibly good. A lot of info I've never seen before. Your articles and breakdowns of topics are top notch.

[Angelo Santino]

Thanks. It's likely going to be missing most photos though.

[HairyKnuckles]

Not all Cancattese were in same crew. Rizzo was under Naplitano and Surrosco belonged to the powerful crew based on Lower East Side headed by Dongarra. So we shouldnt put guys in crews based on origin.

Chris, I think you left out Santo Patti, a member based in Manhattan. At least I dont see him on your Manhattan chart.

[B.]

Good to know. Was wondering more about the captain succession. Wonder if they started together like Gentile implied about most Agrigento guys and later fanned out which is what happened with many of the Sciacca guys.

[nash143]

Guys, I've gotta say this is one of the most interesting and cool things I've ever seen on here. The amount of info you guys are able to dig up is incredible. I can't wait to see the final chart and B. your blog is incredibly good. A lot of info I've never seen before. Your articles and breakdowns of topics are top notch.

Couldn’t agree more. Looking forward to this.

[B.]

This research is making me take a deep look at the politics of the core compaesani factions...

- Garofalo and Traina crews - known to DiLeonardo as the oldest crews in the Family and had never been broken up or significantly altered. A few stray members over the years may have transferred in and out but nothing like the redistribution between other Brooklyn crews. Most of the two crews had membership from Palermo or Palermo province for generations. Might have been like the crew equivalent of New Orleans getting special respect as the first Family.

- At least two crews of "Sciacchitani" circa 1930s - Gentile says they were allowed to function semi-autonomously with their own mediator/street boss figure. These weren't just guys from Sciacca but also Calamonaci, Canicatti, Siculiana, Porto Empedocle. Probably Alessandria and Naro based on CC finding the link between the LoCiceros and Arcuris. Sal Mangiavillano's relatives were mafiosi in Agrigento and he said in Sicily they have a reputation for being quick to violence among their own but keep to their own people -> this is basically the reason Mangano gave Gentile for letting the Agrigento crews operate on their own.

- By the 1950s a lot of the Sciacchitani moved to Brooklyn and became part of crews with other Sicilians and Italians. Lombardozzi crew had Sciacchitani, Neapolitans, Calabrians, etc. These crews were split, new crews formed, members divided, etc. The Rava crew was another crew like this. The Canicattesi members appear to be part of Gentile's "Sciacchitani" group but as HK pointed out they ended up in various mixed crews like the members from Sciacca did. For whatever reason Gentile's "Sciacchitani" faction was more impacted by Americanization or politics and split up, while the old D'Aquila loyalists the Garofalo and Traina crews didn't go through this.

- Arcuri crew is a question mark. There are indications they stayed heavily Agrigentino in Manhattan/Queens and Joe Arcuri was "messaggero" to Tampa and Elizabeth who were Agrigentini. His paver's union used imported Sicilian laborers (like the DeCavalcantes' Local 394) and Sal Mangiavillano ID'd an older relative of his from Naro as the business agent. DiLeonardo said the Arcuri crew was given special respect in the Family and was particularly close to the Garofalo and Traina crews. When Mario Traina died, Joe Arcuri was asked to help choose the successor. Might be a similar situation to Garofalo/Traina where they were allowed to continue unbroken close to their roots unlike the other Agrigento groups from Canicatti and Sciacca.

- Given what CC found about Ignazio Lupo being closely connected to the LoCiceros, these factions were likely established in the Family by the early 1900s. What's interesting is DiLeonardo(Garofalo) and Traina groups were D'Aquila loyalists who secretly opposed Masseria and Mineo, while Gentile indicates the Sciacchitani sided with Masseria... the Masserias lived in Marsala where the mother was from but the paternal side of the family was from Menfi and Santa Margherita di Belice, both in Agrigento. Maybe that's why the Sciacchitani backed Masseria and Mineo. Frank Scalise and the Gambino/Castellanos on the other hand backed the D'Aquila side alongside Traina and Jimmy DiLeonardo.

- Decades later when Joe Riccobono has Anastasia killed, he went to Domenico Arcuri to handle the politics. This paved the way for Gambino and Riccobono to take over the Family. I suspect Riccobono was a D'Aquila loyalist as he was Frank Scalise's cousin and close to the Garofalo and Traina crews. Gentile said Mangano on the other hand refused to betray Masseria and Mineo and he was on Maranzano's post-war hitlist. Mangano's murder didn't seem to bother Riccobono, Scalise, and Gambino much, as the latter two joined Anastasia's administration. It's only after Frank Scalise's murder and an alleged plot to murder Riccobono that they kill Anastasia and reclaim the Family w/ Domenico Arcuri's help.

The alliance between the Riccobono, Traina, Garofalo/DiLeonardo, and Arcuri crews seems to go back deep. Be curious where Domenico Arcuri sat during the Castellammarese War -- just as Mangano went against the grain and went with Mineo unlike the other former D'Aquila loyalists, be interesting if Arcuri secretly went against the Sciacchitani who backed Masseria/Mineo.

[Angelo Santino]

Not all Cancattese were in same crew. Rizzo was under Naplitano and Surrosco belonged to the powerful crew based on Lower East Side headed by Dongarra. So we shouldnt put guys in crews based on origin.

Chris, I think you left out Santo Patti, a member based in Manhattan. At least I dont see him on your Manhattan chart.

Yes, never heard of him. Any further info on him? Dob or dod?

[HairyKnuckles]

Not all Cancattese were in same crew. Rizzo was under Naplitano and Surrosco belonged to the powerful crew based on Lower East Side headed by Dongarra. So we shouldnt put guys in crews based on origin.

Chris, I think you left out Santo Patti, a member based in Manhattan. At least I dont see him on your Manhattan chart.

Yes, never heard of him. Any further info on him? Dob or dod?

Santo Patti, lived in Little Italy 85 Elizabeth Street. Born 1911, died in 1976. Father´s name was Vincent, mother´s name was Anna. Patti was under Lombardozzi. I think he is in the FBN Mafia book.

[Angelo Santino]

Garofalo and Traina crews - known to DiLeonardo as the oldest crews in the Family and had never been broken up or significantly altered. A few stray members over the years may have transferred in and out but nothing like the redistribution between other Brooklyn crews. Most of the two crews had membership from Palermo or Palermo province for generations. Might have been like the crew equivalent of New Orleans getting special respect as the first Family.

Yes and I'm wrestling with how far to break these guys down. With the mainlanders, Napolitan, Calabrese, Molisani etc, pretty cut and dry. By this time, people from Salerno and the entire Campania region are Naps. In Sicily I did the same, Palermo Prov, Agrigento Prov but I may need to reconsider Palermo as people from Carini, Marineo and Terrasini would, while being "Palermitani" based on the province, would likely be three different factions. But then we look to Gentile who lumped everyone from Agrigento into this "Sciaccatani" subgroup. I really should have asked Mike and Sal last night night what this faction was considered/referred to in more recent times, Sciaccatani might be an antiquated term.

- By the 1950s a lot of the Sciacchitani moved to Brooklyn and became part of crews with other Sicilians and Italians. Lombardozzi crew had Sciacchitani, Neapolitans, Calabrians, etc. These crews were split, new crews formed, members divided, etc. The Rava crew was another crew like this. The Canicattesi members appear to be part of Gentile's "Sciacchitani" group but as HK pointed out they ended up in various mixed crews like the members from Sciacca did. For whatever reason Gentile's "Sciacchitani" faction was more impacted by Americanization or politics and split up, while the old D'Aquila loyalists the Garofalo and Traina crews didn't go through this.

We kinda have different perceptions of Gentile's time in the Gambinos. Referring to him as an acting/street boss implies that Parlapiano and Trupia were "under" him when I see no evidence of that. Mangano asked Gentile to keep him informed but Mangano's heading a 300 man outfit and likely didn't have time to micromanage everything and relied on people who knew the situation, such as Nick, but I don't see Gentile being anything beyond an official soldier.

Gentile covered to Manhattan crews, both of them are still around today or were as of the 1980's. I wonder if Brooklyn Sciaccatani had their own crews there separate from the city. Giuseppe SanFilippo would likely be a contender.

- Given what CC found about Ignazio Lupo being closely connected to the LoCiceros, these factions were likely established in the Family by the early 1900s. What's interesting is DiLeonardo(Garofalo) and Traina groups were D'Aquila loyalists who secretly opposed Masseria and Mineo, while Gentile indicates the Sciacchitani sided with Masseria... the Masserias lived in Marsala where the mother was from but the paternal side of the family was from Menfi and Santa Margherita di Belice, both in Agrigento. Maybe that's why the Sciacchitani backed Masseria and Mineo. Frank Scalise and the Gambino/Castellanos on the other hand backed the D'Aquila side alongside Traina and Jimmy DiLeonardo.

I wonder if Gentile assumed that based on where Masseria was from. I've seen no evidence of any Sciaccatani subgroup that went with Masseria during the war. It seems if they did play a part, it was more political. And what would the Gambino Sciac's have to gain by going with Masseria?

- Decades later when Joe Riccobono has Anastasia killed, he went to Domenico Arcuri to handle the politics. This paved the way for Gambino and Riccobono to take over the Family. I suspect Riccobono was a D'Aquila loyalist as he was Frank Scalise's cousin and close to the Garofalo and Traina crews. Gentile said Mangano on the other hand refused to betray Masseria and Mineo and he was on Maranzano's post-war hitlist. Mangano's murder didn't seem to bother Riccobono, Scalise, and Gambino much, as the latter two joined Anastasia's administration. It's only after Frank Scalise's murder and an alleged plot to murder Riccobono that they kill Anastasia and reclaim the Family w/ Domenico Arcuri's help.

The alliance between the Riccobono, Traina, Garofalo/DiLeonardo, and Arcuri crews seems to go back deep. Be curious where Domenico Arcuri sat during the Castellammarese War -- just as Mangano went against the grain and went with Mineo unlike the other former D'Aquila loyalists, be interesting if Arcuri secretly went against the Sciacchitani who backed Masseria/Mineo.

Anastasia, a man I know very little about after 1928, so a learning curve is needed on my part. But going into this I expected the Gams to have more Calabrese but nope, they are decentralized and there's no "cluster" of guys from any particular area, unlike the Naps who came from Sassano or those from the Molise region. So what was Albert's faction?

What I see, is that after Mangano's MIA, Joe Biondo is demoted so strike him out, and Frank Scalise and another guy from this Palermo-Sferracavallo-Capaci faction are elevated. Leads me to wonder if they backed Anastasia and assisted in removing Mangano given that they were the Sicilian benefactors.

The area of Palermo had multiple factions not limited to-
Brooklyn Palermitan - Trovato, Mangano, Cincotta
D'Aquila's Palermitans - they seemed to come from Belmonte, Bisacquino and Marineo
The Castellano-Gambino faction
The aforementioned Virzi-Scalici-Riccobono faction that started in E Village and later expanded/went to the Bronx.

They all might not have operated as one voting block, sometimes getting along and other times in disagreement.

But drawing back to the C-War, I mean we can say now that Mangano followed the political mafia norm and accepted/supported Mineo meanwhile Joe Traina voiced his support for Maranzano, but what does that exactly mean? Him saying "You know, Don Turridru makes some good points," doesn't equate to him hanging up his hat, handing Mineo his Gambino resignation and grabbing a Chicago Typewriter and going Maranzano.

I think that the majority of the Mafia world, especially those outside of the core Maranzano and Masseria factions, likely wanted the war to be over. Mafiosi are more business owners who dabble in crime than they are soldiers in the barracks set to be arrive at the warzone at 0-800. And after a war drags on, the "he said/she said" kinda gets old and people want it to just be over. This was the case for the Cast War, the Bonanno 70's and Colombo 90's.

And Mike wishes Tommy a bon' fortunna. He'd like Tommy to send him a case.

IMG_98491.jpg

[B.]

Gentile recalled a conversation where Traina told him Masseria was their enemy because he killed Toto D'Aquila. He also wanted to end the war, but he chose sides based on D'Aquila's murder.

There is also this section:

The whole situation profited Salvatore Maranzano who organized a group of dissident Picciotti, who were afterwards called Fuorusciti, he first inflamed their hearts, inciting to his paesani to avenge Milazzo’s death, then he incited the heard of the Palermitani to avenge Totò D’Aquila, who had fallen due to Massaria.

Revenge for D'Aquila seems to have played a big role in who Maranzano recruited as secret allies in that Family. We know Frank Scalise and Carlo + Paolo Gambino sided with Maranzano so they they were most likely part of the Palermitani, along with other members of their clans, who wanted to avenge D'Aquila.

Gentile says Mangano, Joe Biondo, and Toto Chiri were ostensibly neutral but were Masseria's allies in that Family and Maranzano had it out for them. He even says Mangano survived a murder attempt (never seen this documented). We know Mangano attended the infamous Bronx meeting with Mineo, Ferrigno, and Masseria where the former two were murdered.

Gentile also says when Traina told him he was against Masseria because of D'Aquila's murder, Traina said they would need Mangano to betray Masseria in order to end the war as Masseria had "unlimited trust" in Mangano. Gentile met with Mangano, Chiri, and Biondo at one point who refused to turn on Masseria.

He also says Mangano was surrounded by pro-Maranzano "spies" in his Family and Frank Scalise was tasked by Maranzano with killing Mangano, but Scalise balked because he had to find a justification among his compaesani (the Palermitani) in order to kill Mangano.

-

I don't think we see Gentile's role that differently. When I say "street boss" I mean a glorified messenger/mediator. He didn't outrank the captains but did serve an administrative purpose.

The Capo Vincenzo Mangano had nominated me to be his Sostituto with the authority to settle any differences there might be among the components of the two Decine, that operated in New York, since his residence was in Brooklyn. In fact, one Decina was ran by Joe Pidduzzu while the other by Geatano Tropia, a native of Agrigento, a resident on 39th Street on the East Side. Practically all the components of the two Decine were from the province of Agrigento, so Mangano considered them my paesani.
I tried to do my best with the power entrusted to me, not omitting to keep the Capo informed from time to time about the deportment of the Decine. I spoke to him about the Parlapiano-Marciano case, and Mangano said to me:
“They are the types that fight often, but in the end they are always united, therefore conduct yourself with them as you best believe to be opportune, because I have many problems to fix and as a consequence, don’t have time to lose.”

We can take the following from that:
- Gentile was given "authority" to "settle differences" among the Manhattan Agrigento crews.
- He was given this "authority" both because Mangano was in Brooklyn and busy with other administrative matters away from Manhattan, but Gentile also emphasizes it was partly based on compaesani identity.
- Mangano stereotyped the Agrigento natives a certain way (very similar to what Sal said) and this influenced his choosing Gentile for this duty.
- He mediated the Parlapiano / Marciano issue on his own while checking in with Mangano about it.

So it was influenced both by practicality and regional Sicilian origins. Gentile likely wasn't chosen because he was a random Agrigentino soldier but because he was an on-and-off high-ranking member around the country with a highly influential role in the Agrigento network.

[B.]

What I see, is that after Mangano's MIA, Joe Biondo is demoted so strike him out, and Frank Scalise and another guy from this Palermo-Sferracavallo-Capaci faction are elevated. Leads me to wonder if they backed Anastasia and assisted in removing Mangano given that they were the Sicilian benefactors.

Speaking of Gentile and these ethnic backgrounds, he said the Gambino members who served as shooters in the Terry Burns Didato murder were from Sferracavallo and another was Calabrese. Didn't name them unfortunately.

One thing about Gentile is he always points out the regional/ethnic origins of the people he talks about even when it's unnecessary to the specific story. This is great for us, but also tells us about how they viewed things.

Also classic photo of DiLeonardo hahaha. Hail the rappresentante of LA.

[Angelo Santino]

Agreed on Gentile, also great breakdown.

Can never confirm it but I wonder if Mangano, Chiri and Biondo were circa 1920's captains. I dont recall when dimino and LoCicero passed. Joe Traina was a captain later but not sure what his status was between 1928 and 1930.

Lastly, Mangano and Anastasia will forever be viewed as rivals since the latter killed his boss. But they had a 20-year working relationship and Gentile gave us a view into the early years and made no note of any animosity. But we can also gauge that during this Mangano-Sciaccatani story, Anastasia is MIA and hence, despite being under, may not have been involved in the Sicilian squabbles. By this time the Gambinos were at least 300 in number and the hierarchy wasnt set to manage that number. Meaning the admin likely had to divide the duties, so I wonder what was Anastasia's? Calabrians were a minority in that family and that might have factored into Mangano's selection of him as opposed to a Napolitan with a pretty significant faction behind him.

Al, while his reputation as a Tony Montana may be overinflated, likely was "the street guy" between him and Mangano, meaning that he likely had the support of your non-aristocrats that didnt descend from mafia stock in Palermo and Agrigento.

So many speculations, so little definitive answers.

[Angelo Santino]

So for Baltimore- Caronna, Ed Corbi, Luigi Morici Frank Corbi and Pasquale Corbi?