The term "button"

[PolackTony]

I've seen examples of it from just about every city/region.

I think what happened with Chicago Outfit is similar to the term Cosa Nostra, where it was a euphemism/casual term but publicity led even the members themselves to double down. In Chicago, "outfit" became capital O "Outfit" even to them.

As Joe Bonanno said, the organization has no name but he heard people like Vincenzo Mangano use "cosa nostra" (Bonanno doesn't capitalize it in his book) while he didn't (he used "our tradition"), but he said everyone called it different things based on their own subjective experience (Bonanno is deep). Rocco Scafidi said they called it the mafia when he was made circa 1950 and then when he got taken off the shelf in the early 1960s they told him Cosa Nostra. Maybe the influence of Angelo Bruno.

Bonanno also said his members called him the Father of his Family and the DeCavalcante tapes confirm his members called him that, which Sam found weird.

But yeah, "outfit" was used casually to refer to the mafia all around the country but it was more common in the midwest where they didn't use other euphemisms as much.

I agree that the "dialogue" with LE and the press (who began to adopt "outfit" in favor of their older preferred term "syndicate") reinforced its usage until it took on an almost formal quality. Earlier CIs in Chicago state that it was called "the Life", "the family", "our people", and "one of their own", as well as "the outfit", but then those terms seem to have fallen out of common usage therafter. Like Scafidi, Lenny Gianola claimed that it was called "mafia" before it was called "outfit". Maniaci made the same claim for Milwaukee. A couple of Chicago CIs also state that it was called "Unione Siciliana" or "Black Hand" before it was called "outfit". Given that those terms were conflated with the mafia in the earlier part of the 20th century by LE and the press also, one wonders if a similar dynamic happened where insiders started to adopt them in reference to the organization. Speculative, but it could be possible.

[B.]

What's important is they all understand what's being referred to.

When people in Chicago called captains "boss" (a literal definition of capo), it was understood to mean captain not capofamiglia. Non-Chicago informants who were close to Chicago relayed the info correctly and it seems to be understood by even most Chicago associates that the "boss" of their crew was not the highest authority in the organization even if he did have a lot of autonomy.

If a member from the midwest told an NYC member "our outfit" they would know they meant their Cosa Nostra organization if that was the context. The inverse was probably true... if someone said "our thing" even in a place where that phrase isn't used, it would be understood if the person was a member.

You also see "outfit" used to refer to individual crews. I think Nicky Crow mentioned someone told him "your outfit stinks" about the shakedown crew failing to kill one of the Riccobenes. Just a casual term.

[PolackTony]

What's important is they all understand what's being referred to.

When people in Chicago called captains "boss" (a literal definition of capo), it was understood to mean captain not capofamiglia. Non-Chicago informants who were close to Chicago relayed the info correctly and it seems to be understood by even most Chicago associates that the "boss" of their crew was not the highest authority in the organization even if he did have a lot of autonomy.

If a member from the midwest told an NYC member "our outfit" they would know they meant their Cosa Nostra organization if that was the context. The inverse was probably true... if someone said "our thing" even in a place where that phrase isn't used, it would be understood if the person was a member.

You also see "outfit" used to refer to individual crews. I think Nicky Crow mentioned someone told him "your outfit stinks" about the shakedown crew failing to kill one of the Riccobenes. Just a casual term.

Yes, you see plenty of that more casual usage. The CI from FL though seemed to understand it as a more conventionalized usage, which caught my eye.

[B.]

For regional terms you see "borgata" less in the Midwest. Springfield boss Frank Zito's 1960s bug was unproductive, just vague Sicilian/English talk, but they did hear "borgata" and "decina" used.

[PolackTony]

For regional terms you see "borgata" less in the Midwest. Springfield boss Frank Zito's 1960s bug was unproductive, just vague Sicilian/English talk, but they did hear "borgata" and "decina" used.

Good info. Interesting that even with the heavily Sicilian families we don't (to my knowledge at least) have any evidence that they used borgata. We know from Gentile that the term was used more in the US than in Sicily, though, so it may not have been generalized everywhere even among Sicilian members in US families.

[B.]

Magaddino, DeCavalcante, and NYC all used borgata for sure. Magaddino uses it quite a bit I believe.

Antonio Comito said when Zu Vincenzo told him about his entry to New Orleans people were obligated to help him because they were "friends" and emphasized the word. Seems he was implying amici was already in common use around the turn of the century.

They kept stressing to Comito too the men he was working for were "gentlemen", which made them more honorable. Brings to mind "gentiluomo" surfacing as a possible euphemism for members in mid-1800s inland Palermo province, which is where Comito's counterfeiting bosses came from.

[PolackTony]

Magaddino, DeCavalcante, and NYC all used borgata for sure. Magaddino uses it quite a bit I believe.

Antonio Comito said when Zu Vincenzo told him about his entry to New Orleans people were obligated to help him because they were "friends" and emphasized the word. Seems he was implying amici was already in common use around the turn of the century.

They kept stressing to Comito too the men he was working for were "gentlemen", which made them more honorable. Brings to mind "gentiluomo" surfacing as a possible euphemism for members in mid-1800s inland Palermo province, which is where Comito's counterfeiting bosses came from.

I wonder if "gentiluomo" in the Comito case referred to the actual class background of the members in question, or if it was used in the sense of "man of honor", as it seems to have been used in the specific Palermo region you mentioned. "Gentiluomo" makes sense as a euphemism for mafioso, of course, in that it connotes a man who does not have to work, to whom others are beholden and work for, a key prerequisite for the accrual of honor. While for those born to titled nobility, "honor" was inherited, for the mafioso of common background, honor was seized through force of will, shrewdness, and accumulated further through the exercise of instrumental networks of "friends". If they used "gentiluomo" to refer to themselves, it suggests that they saw their status as "men of honor" as equivalent to the inherited title of a nobleman, in terms of their own system for the circulation and accumulation of honor. With the social transformations that Sicily underwent during this period, the nobility had lost their monopoly on honor, (as they had lost their monopoly on violence, which of course was intrinsically linked to honor) and the mafia created a market through which other social strata could strive to gain honor.

[B.]

Gentleman would fit his description of Lupo but he said Morello was an unrefined peasant/bandit type. They may have just meant they were gentlemen in that they wouldn't kill him for no reason after the operation was over to protect themselves, which was one of the things they said to "reassure" him.

[PolackTony]

Gentleman would fit his description of Lupo but he said Morello was an unrefined peasant/bandit type. They may have just meant they were gentlemen in that they wouldn't kill him for no reason after the operation was over to protect themselves, which was one of the things they said to "reassure" him.

Maybe. But if they referred to them as “gentiluomini” that had a lot of connotations for a Sicilian of that era.

[B.]

"'Don Peppe,' said I, 'Caterina is at home and she will give you the
suit which was put away. If you see any of the 'Gentlemen' don't say
that you saw me, because I have written them that I am in Italy."

"On the 16th of November, 1909, I read in an Italian newspaper of the
arrest of Giuseppe Morello, Antonio Cecala, Domenico Milone, Luciana
Maddi, Giuseppe Boscarini and Leolina Vasi. They were all put under
bail of from seven to fifteen thousand dollars. Three days later I
read in the newspapers that all these 'gentlemen,' whom I knew, were
released on bail, and were at liberty awaiting trial."

There are times earlier in the testimony where he could have quoted it casually, i.e. "you're dealing with gentlemen", but it's also clear they repeatedly referred to the members/leaders as the "Gentlemen" and emphasized it. I'm sure they spoke in Italian among themselves, so it was probably gentiluomini.

[PolackTony]

During his testimony at the 1908 murder trial of Rocco Racco, Hillsville quarry laborer Carmine Esposito told of his induction into the local Calabrian Camorra or “L’Unurata Sucità” under Giuseppe Cutrone and Ferdinando Surace. After swearing an oath on a collection of knives and razors, Esposito said that he was told that he was a member and that he “had to go under the buckle of Surace”.

Could be coincidence, but “going under the buckle” could be cognate to “belonging to the button”. Back in the day, “bottone” would have denoted a brass or other metal fastener, thus very similar to a buckle. Would need to know what the original Italian or Calabrisi word that Esposito would’ve used of course.

[PolackTony]

From 1963 wiretap of Angelo Bruno meeting with Joe Magliocco and Sal Profaci regarding the dispute in the Colombo Family following Joe Profaci’s death:



Drawing a blank on what “bunsaieri” could mean (seems clear that Bruno wasn’t saying “consigliere/cunsigghieri”, as he stated that as a rank separately). The FBI had someone gloss “soviagenza” as “overseer or superintendent”. Superintendent in Italian is “sovrintendente”, which is also synonymous with sergeant (“sergente”). Almost seems like “soviagenza” was a portmanteau of both words, unless there’s another term that I’m forgetting at the moment.

What’s interesting is that Bruno apparently enumerated these as formal ranks.

[B.]

"Soviagenza" might be sottocapo especially if he said it with a hard "g" but that doesn't explain the "enza". He doesn't mentioned underboss/sotto otherwise either.

If he wasn't just mentioning consigliere twice and the first sounded butchered, my guess is "bunsaieri" would refer to a Commission member. Definitely not a variation of avugad -- can't imagine what the word is if not consigliere.

[PolackTony]

"Soviagenza" might be sottocapo especially if he said it with a hard "g" but that doesn't explain the "enza". He doesn't mentioned underboss/sotto otherwise either.

If he wasn't just mentioning consigliere twice and the first sounded butchered, my guess is "bunsaieri" would refer to a Commission member. Definitely not a variation of avugad -- can't imagine what the word is if not consigliere.

Yeah, I had wondered if he was referring to a Commission member. Otherwise, he does seem to list the positions in descending order (apart from apparently not naming sottocapo, as you note); if so, then “Bunsaieri” would seem to denote someone above the rappresentanti. If soviagenza was sovrintendente as the FBI believed, it would make sense for a “supervisor/superintendent” position to fall under a capodecina and above the solidati, at least.

[antimafia]

Stab in the dark: Maybe Bruno was saying bersagliere?