Mafia "Americanization"

[Antiliar]

I think CabriniGreen's point about assimilation says it all. Traditionalists want to maintain their Old World identity, while the Americanized embrace their new country and don't necessarily appreciate their old one. The Traditionalists prefer to speak Sicilian or Italian, given the opportunity, but the Americanizer prefers English. It's like eating at an authentic Italian restaurant versus Olive Garden or...McDonald's.

[B.]

Agreed.

The definitions also shift in some ways.

- A traditionalist in 1901 might show a preference for Sicilian dialect (Bonanno did much later and judged Luciano for it) and believe only Sicilian-born members from a mafia clan should be made. A nontraditionalist might just believe it's time to induct American-born members.

- A traditionalist in 1976 might simply understand the Italian language and believe both parents of a member must be Italian. A nontraditionalist at that time might not fully understand Italian and be pushing for half-Italians to get made.

- In 1976, if a member argued that they need to re-institute a rule where the Sicilian hometown of a member must be contacted in order to make him he wouldn't be a traditionalist he would be completely insane.

In the context of the org, both guys might believe in adhering to near-identical protocol and structure, but there's a big cultural difference between "traditionalists" in different eras that does inform what the org does. We don't know what kind of internal debates were going on in the 1900s but throughout their history we know they're often preoccupied with who should/can qualify for membership. We can assume that was a central debate from the earliest days in the US and Morello talking about the "contacting compaesani" rule being violated shows those kinds of discussions were going on.

Even later informants/witnesses almost always talk about how the guidelines for membership have loosened and qualifications have changed. Some of this is old man "things were better in the old days" talk, but not all of it. They all seem to have the impression that the guidelines for membership are one of the biggest changes that came via Americanization and I see evidence that's true. It seems to have been a constant source of debate throughout the history even as the specifics of the debate change.

In contrast, you don't see sources talk about debate over whether or not to change the structure. The structure accomodates cultural changes but there has been a ton of debate over the culture inside the organization and it gets more conservative the earlier you go.

[B.]

But again we can't paint the entire US with a broad brush. In Detroit in the 1960s they were still focused on inducting Sicilian-rooted members from clans and compaesani politics still played a role. That was much less true in NYC by then and it doesn't seem to be true at all in Chicago. Yet Detroit was like Chicago in that they were willing to work closely with large groups of non-Italians.

Americanization hit different Families in different ways. It's a big country.

[PolackTony]

But again we can't paint the entire US with a broad brush. In Detroit in the 1960s they were still focused on inducting Sicilian-rooted members from clans and compaesani politics still played a role. That was much less true in NYC by then and it doesn't seem to be true at all in Chicago. Yet Detroit was like Chicago in that they were willing to work closely with large groups of non-Italians.

Americanization hit different Families in different ways. It's a big country.

Judging by Joe Esposito, Chicago was already on the path to incorporating mainlanders before Capone took over the family, as obviously were several of the NY families, Pittsburgh, Philly. Even if Capone and his faction never took over Chicago, I doubt the Chicago family would have wound up overwhelmingly Sicilian in membership in the following years. Detroit seems to never have made that move. Neither did Rockford, with the lone exception of one mainland member in their history (that I’m aware of). So it’s not an East Coast vs Midwest thing at all (not that anyone here is saying that, but I could see someone with less knowledge making an assumption like that); rather there’s granularity at the local level at play here, even within one region like northern Illinois. I don’t know enough about the specificity of Detroit’s Italian communities to make a comparative argument here. But clearly there were very different local dynamics at play in the process of “Americanization” that led to quite distinct trajectories for different families in terms of their recruitment networks and their values concerning who qualified for membership. There were factors at play in terms of not just migration source regions but also how immigrants became incorporated into a new Italian-American identity and community that differed between locales.

[B.]

Agreed 100%. Given other Families brought in mainlanders by the late 1910s and Chicago went full force in that direction during the 1920s, I'd be shocked if Chicago wasn't bringing them in the 1910s as well. Aiello's association with the Irish tells us close relationships to non-Italians were inevitable there even if Capone took it to a new level.

People have a strong need to attribute major developments / events to one guy when the evidence points to there being a lot of organic/environmental development combined with debate back and forth, ultimately forming some acceptance of change.

I think it's telling Magaddino saw LoVerde as the rep of the "Greaseballs" and Ricca a rep of the "Americanized". Magaddino refers to guys as Neapolitans and Calabrians all the time, often disparagingly, but he didn't say Ricca repped the Neapolitans he specifically said it was the "Americanized" faction of the Chicago Family.

--

Luciano is an interesting guy to look at not because of what we know but because of what we don't know. He's representative of the organization he came up in, a large pan-Italian org with an "Americanized" Sicilian-born boss. He didn't rise in the Family through his Lercari Friddi connections and by all accounts that stuff seems to have meant little to him but we don't know if it played zero role, especially to older members when he was coming up. We see that even though mainlanders like Genovese and Anastasia were underboss by 1931, all of the NYC bosses at the time were Sicilian. Was Luciano seen as a stop-gap given he was an Americanized Sicilian? No clue.

It's like CC said about Gravano -- he makes a great point that a Racalmutese sponsoring his son and an Empedoclino in the 1970s appears to have been a coincidence and it meant nothing to Gravano. But it's a two-way street and did Aurello consider it? No reason to believe Aurello was motivated by it but he was an older generation who came up when a distinct Agrigentini faction was still around and we'll never know if Aurello thought to himself "I like that Sammy's parents came from Girgenti" as an afterthought to Gravano proving himself as a gangster. The younger member might have been oblivious but that might not reflect everything that was on the sponsor's mind.

It's like Accardo and Giancana being from Castelvetrano... on paper someone could say "Accardo tapped his paesan as his successor to bring power back to the old Genna faction". Would be nonsense to assume that, though we'll never know if on top of everything else Accardo liked that Giancana shared his background. It wasn't his motivation but we're in no position to know every thought these guys had.

A problem with this stuff is everyone's background gets colored by the time they first got noticed. In Chicago files, you see older Sicilian guys like Sam DiGiovanni and the Doms get called "Capone guys" decades later which gives the impression they owe their entry into the org to Capone. It's like Jack D'Amico getting called a "Gotti guy" because he was close to him in the 1980s/90s. These guys fall in line with the new leadership and even become close to them, but they often have a much different early background in the org than we first assume.

[Charlie]

Joe Bonanno felt there was a divide between himself and Luciano. He said Luciano spoke in a crude mix of English and Sicilian and lived in "two worlds" by associating heavily with his Jewish associates. He also felt Luciano didn't adhere to the "tradition" as he and others did. I'm not Bonanno, but that was his view.

Personally, I think Luciano's reputation has been exaggerated but I also think there's something to his reputation. There were likely always people from the same mold as Luciano in the mafia, though they may not have had his exact qualities as a product of the Lower East Side during the era he came up.

I would be very interested if you could elaborate on this B. Yeah Luciano is blown out of proportion and has kind of a mythical status with half you read about him being bullshit. But even when considering only the facts it seems he carried a very big stick and stood out even among his fellow bosses. Joe Bonanno speaks highly and has some laudatory words about Luciano. Pretty rare from him. He even says that Luciano was the "paramount figure in my world".

One thing I always wondered about Luciano is how a guy from Palermo province who grew up in what could be called Gambino territory, with friends and associates like Joe Biondo, how does a guy like him ends up with the Genovese family? Interesting that his compare Mike Lascari who actually lived with Luciano's parents also joined the same family.

As far as the americanization I would say that the generation of mobsters that was born roughly between 1915 and 1925 changed the game. After these years it became pretty uncommon for made guys to actually be born in Italy. Cultural differences between italians and italian-americans became more pronounced even outside the life. I heard the term greaseball all the time growing up when speaking about actual italians living in New York. Parents would be very wary of their daughters dating or marrying italians for example.

[B.]

Oh I didn't mean his status/authority was exaggerated. What I meant was the degree he changed or even wanted to change the organization. He was a newer breed and nontraditionalist but when you look at the Genovese Family he was the boss for 20 years and by the time Valachi cooperated and DeCarlo tapes came out a decade later it's clear he and his allies had maintained a well-disciplined Cosa Nostra Family, not something that different at its core.

Luciano's hometown was close to Corleone where the Morello/Terranovas came from. No reason to think it played a significant role in how he ended up with Masseria but can't discount the possibility someone veered him in that direction early on. I think CC/Antiliar found info that points to him possibly being a member before Masseria so we have no idea who he was on record with or sponsored him -- whoever it was must have been established in the mafia by the late 1910s but was it one of his peers or an old timer? Might tell us a lot if we knew.

[PolackTony]

Just to highlight what I see as potential major themes in what americanization might entail, as emerge from comments by Cabrini, B, CC, and others.

--The shift from use of Siclianu, to Italian, to English as an index of a broader transformation of a whole set of inter-connected cultural values related to the formation of a new Italian-American collective identity.

--Transformations in recruitment patterns and ideas concerning who is eligible for membership: from compaesani/familial networks originating in Sicily to local networks rooted primarily in criminal operations and Italian-American community life (with interactions between those of different Italian regional ancestries under a new, over-arching identity).

--A shift from "honor" to money as the primary aim and currency through which power circulates and accumulates (without going into the weeds here, I see this as akin to Max Weber's notion of value-rationality [values pursued for their own sake, as ends in and of themselves] vs. instrumental-rationality [values as means to a desired end]).

---Shifts in values regarding the relationship of the mafia to political authority and the state (excellent points made by Cabrini). I believe that in places where the American mafia actively and successfully sought significant political power (Chicago being the prime example), the nature of this was a product both of attitudes and practices brought over from Italy (and not necessarily just Sicily) and specific sets of opportunities and constraints offered by the political traditions (ethnic machine/patronage politics) in their new context. Even in Chicago, however, the mafia never sought to achieve overt political rule or to effectively subvert the official political system with its own structures (the implicit understanding was that an Italian would never be permitted to be mayor of Chicago, there was an ethnic division of labor in patronage politics), and certainly, the mafia never envisioned anything like political control at the national level. Rather, the mafia parasitized the local political system. Mafia political power in Chicago was a means to an end (protection from LE, opportunities to enrich themselves), not an end in and of itself. At the local level, at least, the government was not simply a distrusted threat (as in Sicily) but rather offered an array of opportunities and resources to be exploited by the mafia.

"Americanization" was, of course, not a binary condition. Rather, it was a set of interrelated processes, which played out over time and place differently depending on both local and national factors as well as the strategic decisions and cultural values held by individual members.

[Uforeality]

I think its a mixture of changing cultural values and the endless connection via cell and social media. Cultures are diluted now. Values have evolved. Small clans of people of a unique decent are all but gone.

[CabriniGreen]

- Made me think: in America we have mafia members who hate the federal gov but are flag waving patriots. Do some Sicilian mafia members have the same patriotism for Italy? I have zero idea but Italian nationalism may have developed more quickly among Sicilian mafiosi in America due to Italian-American solidarity than it did for Sicilian mafiosi in Italy.

I wonder this about the Corleonesi. Their entire idea of him controlling an independent Sicily seemed so fucking stupid. You can imagine this type of moron repeatedly surfacing over the centuries, thinking Sicily better off as an independent nation, surrounded by powerful neighbors, and occupying a key strategic position in the Mediterranean. Island isolation probably is what got them invaded over and over...... how he couldnt see this is beyond me.....

- The professions thing still has a lot of questions. Impossible for us to analyze their psychology, but Dr. Martin Bonventre was a cardiologist and head of a Brooklyn hospital and Genovese member Dr. Danny Noto was head of the Passaic Board of Health. The current Brancaccio capomandamento is a surgeon who was head of a hospital like Bonventre. They might have served the mafia but they were accomplished in medicine and their positions were a resource beyond just extracting bullets in the middle of the night.

Heres is two contemporary examples, one is Guttadauro himself, the other is from Naples, of mafiosi using the medical profession as a shield. One uses his position as a surgeon as a cloak, the other example, they just commandeered the whole hospital.......


Take particular note of Guttadauro. He gets involved in International Drug trafficking because it's within his realm of power, within his sphere of influence. He definitely doesnt confine himself to the medical profession. A woman gets into a dispute with a bank over 16 million Euros, and she doesnt sue, or pursue litigation. She calls on the Mafia. This is the average citizen. This type of thing doesnt exist in America
And it's not like he, say...... reaches out to a member of the Freemasonry, prominent in the financial services industries, and either ask a favor or service. Maybe the banker can be reached, an accommodation found? You expect some elegant, untraceable, MAFIA- LIKE solution, right? No.... hes all, " Send some guys to tune him up", this the local councilman or whatever...... very crude, very thuglike.


. You saw the same recently with Calvaruso, he gave equal importance to resolving a local robbery, as he did his investments in Brazil. Resolving disputes on the territory is a vaccum they have to fill, otherwise the courts look like the legitimate outlet to pursue justice.




Giuseppe Guttadauro, from Bagheria to Axa: who is the "doctor" of Cosa Nostra
According to the indictment, Guttadauro ran a drug trafficking, frequented the Roman jet set and despised the new bosses

Lorenzo Nicolini
February 16, 2022

Brother of Matteo Messina Denaro's brother-in-law, already convicted of mafia definitively in 1996, 1999 and 2002 and now established in Rome after his release. Giuseppe Guttadauro, known as "the doctor", is a leading exponent of the Cosa Nostra in Palermo. A big shot arrested, along with his son last Sunday, February 13th.


The carabinieri del ros, with the support of colleagues from the provincial command of Palermo and the Sicily hunters squadron, reached him at his home in Axa, the "VIP" neighborhood stretched along Via Cristoforo Colombo, between Eur and Ostia . Here, Guttadauro - 73 years old - lives in an apartment near the central Piazza Eschilo and is now under house arrest. His son Mario Carlo, who was also arrested, ended up in prison.

The two, under investigation for mafia association, are challenged for belonging to the Cosa Nostra family of Palermo-Roccella, included in the Brancaccio-Ciaculli district. Giuseppe and Mario Carlo Guttadauro allegedly "intervened" on the most significant dynamics of the mafia district of Villabate-Bagheria.

Who is Giuseppe Guttadauro
Former surgeon at the Civic hospital of Palermo, which earned him the nickname of "doctor", in 1984 he was arrested for the first time for mafia association. Arrested again in 1994, he became the head of the Brancaccio district after the arrest and consequent imprisonment of the mafia leaders of those who preceded him. Guttadauro was arrested in November 2002 during the anti-mafia operation called "Ice" during which Guttadauro himself received a further arrest warrant. On the occasion, the carabinieri of the ros, in the course of environmental interceptions inside the house of Guttadauro, recorded conversations between the latter and the former health councilor of Palermo.

For the Cuffaro case, Guttadauro was sentenced to 13 years and 4 months in prison. On March 3, 2012, the boss was released from prison for serving his sentence with a reduction for good behavior of 800 days. Now in Rome, but he did not want to retire. The investigations that led to his arrest last Sunday shed light on the movements and activities of Giuseppe Guttadauro. According to the investigators, he maintained contact with the Cosa Nostra also through his son, who "mediated" the interlocutions with the other suspects active in Palermo.


The desire for expansion
The wiretapping has also revealed the harsh criticism leveled by the "doctor" of the new generations of mafia members. Guttadauro senior, according to the investigators' account, represented to his son the need to "evolve", while remaining anchored to the principles of the Cosa Nostra. Among the events in which the carabinieri recorded the intervention of Giuseppe Guttadauro also drug trafficking and relations with the pro-tempore top management of the Bagheria mafia family. Furthermore, Guttadauro would have planned a drug trafficking abroad, financed by some Palermitan associates, through an Albanian citizen, to obtain hashish and also providing a channel for the procurement of cocaine from South America.

Relations with Roman environments
In this context, the Carabinieri del Ros also recorded the role of a flight attendant and councilor of the Democratic Party in the IX Municipality, in relations with Guttadauro. The latter was supposed to have transported € 300,000 to Brazil when the shipment of drugs from South America arrived in the Netherlands.

Finally, the investigations have also lifted the veil on the "consideration" that Giuseppe Guttadauro enjoyed even in certain circles in Rome. In fact, he would have been asked to intervene, on the promise of a hefty remuneration, for the resolution of a dispute amounting to 16 million euros that a wealthy Roman woman had with a bank. Guttadauro, according to what the carabinieri reveal, would not hesitate to propose, in the event of an unsuccessful outcome of his intervention, "to pass to the de facto ways", instructing someone to beat up the people he believed were hindering the solution of the affair including the former Minister Mario Baccini, opposition councilor in the municipality of Fiumicino.










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Camorra, 126 arrests: “The hospital was the headquarters of the Secondigliano Alliance. The clan had a mole in the investigating magistrate's office in Naples "
Camorra, 126 arrests: “The hospital was the headquarters of the Secondigliano Alliance. The clan had a mole in the investigating magistrate's office in Naples "
Operation of the Gdf, seals on assets for a total of about 130 million: it is one of the hardest blows inflicted on the criminal cartel founded in the late 1980s by three bosses. Prosecutor Melillo: "They controlled the functioning of the San Giovanni Bosco hospital, from recruitment to contracts". Minister Grillo will ask for the dissolution of the heads of the hospital

of FQ | JUNE 26, 2019
The San Giovanni Bosco hospital in Naples was the "headquarters" of the Secondigliano Alliance. This was explained by the prosecutor of Naples, Giovanni Melillo, commenting on the anti-Camorra that has led to 126 arrests. An investigation that decapitated the Contini, Mallardo and Licciardi clans and led to the seizure of a large patrimony against the people affected by the precautionary measures issued by the investigating judge of Naples. "The men of the Contini controlled the functioning of the hospital, from hiring, to contracts, to trade union relations. The hospital had become the logistical base for criminal plots, as well as for insurance scams through the preparation of false medical certificates, "Melillo said during the press conference of the maxi-blitz. Health Minister Giulia Grillo will ask for the dissolution of the heads of the hospital for mafia infiltration from the National Committee for Security and Public Order tomorrow, Thursday.

In addition to the arrests, carried out throughout Italy and in some foreign countries, the operation led the Finance Police to seal movable and immovable property attributable to the Alliance clans for a total of about 130 million euros. This is one of the hardest blows inflicted by the police and the judiciary against the criminal cartel founded at the end of the 1980s by the bosses Edoardo Contini, known as "ò Romano", Francesco Mallardo, nicknamed "Ciccio 'e Carlantonio" and by Gennaro Licciardi, aka “à scign”.

"A mole in the investigating judge's office" - The investigation has reconstructed how the Contini clan was able to anticipate and prevent the actions of the judiciary and law enforcement agencies thanks to a network of supporters including an employee of the Office Gip of the Court of Naples. It is Concetta Panico (ended up under house arrest), related to Antonio Pengue (in prison), one of the alleged affiliates of the clan. The latter, through the Panico, in 2014, became aware in advance of the issuance of a custody order for 90 alleged members of the Contini clan. Managing the network of supporters was the Contini group, headed by Antonio Muscerino. On that occasion, Pengue received reassurances that neither he nor Muscerino was among the suspects. All this emerges from some interceptions. In essence, Panic emerged from the investigations, through unauthorized access to the system, was able to view, on January 15, 2014, the list of recipients of the precautionary measures that were then carried out.

"Money from those who hosted refugees" - The blitz affected not only the province of Naples and other Italian regions but also several foreign states, where the military forces - through Interpol - made use of the collaboration of the local forces of police. The investigations, coordinated by the Neapolitan District Anti-Mafia Directorate, led to the charges against the suspects of numerous crimes ranging from mafia-type association to drug trafficking, extortion, usury, money laundering and other serious crimes. In fact - according to the anti-mafia prosecutors Ida Teresi, Alessandra Converso and Maria Sepe coordinated by the deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Borrelli - the hierarchical structures within the Secondigliano Alliance were reconstructed and the numerous crimes committed by the affiliates were documented, "indicators of the stubborn ability of intimidation exercised on the territory ". Furthermore, according to investigations, the Contini clan took a share of the money that a Neapolitan hotelier received from the Campania Region to host the refugees. This demonstrates, said the Naples police chief, "the agility of the clan, able to exploit migratory flows in its favor". A fringe of the Contini clan was responsible for this particular business.

The bosses? They were also women - Women were also at the head of the Secondigliano Alliance: the investigation confirmed the top role of the three Aieta sisters (married to Edoardo Contini, Francesco Mallardo and Patrizio Bosti, ed) and Maria Licciardi (sister of the late boss Gennaro Licciardi and the only member of the top management to have escaped the blitz). Not only did they carry out the task of keeping in touch with the bosses at 41bis but they made important decisions for the life of the powerful criminal cartel that controlled the illicit activities in some districts of Naples and that they had also set up important entrepreneurial and commercial activities through nominees. all Italy.

Even a lawyer among the suspects - Among the suspects there is also a well-known Neapolitan lawyer who has Patrizio Bosti among his clients: he is accused by some collaborators of justice of having held up an interlocution between the boss Edoardo Contini, 41bis, and the high-ranking affiliates of the homonymous clan. This morning the police carried out searches in his offices. The Anti-Mafia District Directorate of Naples disputes the external competition in the Mafia association to the criminal lawyer. The Prosecutor's Office asked that the lawyer be notified of a precautionary measure, a request rejected however by the investigating judge of Naples Roberto D'Auria.


https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2019/0 ... n/5282330/




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[CabriniGreen]

Just to highlight what I see as potential major themes in what americanization might entail, as emerge from comments by Cabrini, B, CC, and others.

--The shift from use of Siclianu, to Italian, to English as an index of a broader transformation of a whole set of inter-connected cultural values related to the formation of a new Italian-American collective identity.

--Transformations in recruitment patterns and ideas concerning who is eligible for membership: from compaesani/familial networks originating in Sicily to local networks rooted primarily in criminal operations and Italian-American community life (with interactions between those of different Italian regional ancestries under a new, over-arching identity).

--A shift from "honor" to money as the primary aim and currency through which power circulates and accumulates (without going into the weeds here, I see this as akin to Max Weber's notion of value-rationality [values pursued for their own sake, as ends in and of themselves] vs. instrumental-rationality [values as means to a desired end]).

---Shifts in values regarding the relationship of the mafia to political authority and the state (excellent points made by Cabrini). I believe that in places where the American mafia actively and successfully sought significant political power (Chicago being the prime example), the nature of this was a product both of attitudes and practices brought over from Italy (and not necessarily just Sicily) and specific sets of opportunities and constraints offered by the political traditions (ethnic machine/patronage politics) in their new context. Even in Chicago, however, the mafia never sought to achieve overt political rule or to effectively subvert the official political system with its own structures (the implicit understanding was that an Italian would never be permitted to be mayor of Chicago, there was an ethnic division of labor in patronage politics), and certainly, the mafia never envisioned anything like political control at the national level. Rather, the mafia parasitized the local political system. Mafia political power in Chicago was a means to an end (protection from LE, opportunities to enrich themselves), not an end in and of itself. At the local level, at least, the government was not simply a distrusted threat (as in Sicily) but rather offered an array of opportunities and resources to be exploited by the mafia.

"Americanization" was, of course, not a binary condition. Rather, it was a set of interrelated processes, which played out over time and place differently depending on both local and national factors as well as the strategic decisions and cultural values held by individual members.

This is so Spot On. Couldnt have said it any better....

[stubbs]

Great posts all around in this thread!

It brings up a dichotomy I think about often, which model is better: the Genovese model or the Gambino model?

By that, I mean throughout the history of the Genovese family, it’s membership and leadership positions seemed to be determined by merit and very little by nepotism. Like, it almost diesn’t matter what a members bloodlines are, as long as they’re Italian they can be made and move up the ranks. There’s no Sicilian faction, just groups focused 100% on making money.

Then we have the Gambino family, which has a strong history of bloodlines being very important as they’re a much more traditional family in terms of connections to Sicily, etc. From Carlo Gambino, to Paul Castellano, to Frank Cali, many of their leadership have come from the powerful mafia royalty families of Palermo (Cali via marriage to an Inzerillo of course).

While there’s always been those leaders of the Gambinos who didn’t have the bloodlines and instead shot their way to the top, like Anastasia, Gotti, etc, the best leaders of the family seem to have been the old school Sicilians from those Palermo families. We also see nepotism being a bit more important in the family, etc.

So, two different families with two different models. The Genovese being less traditional and more open to non-Sicilians, but yet maintaining a level of secrecy and discipline that on the surface would make them seem like they’d be the most traditionally Sicilian of the families, instead of probably the least.

The Genovese are probably also the most Americanized of the five families, yet somehow are the most old school in terms of being quiet, low-key, and not bringing attention to themselves.

[B.]

You make good points but most of the Gambino guys with bloodlines who climbed the ranks had their own merit too. Guys who became high-ranking like Arcuri, Gambinos, DiLeonardo, Cali, the zips, etc. were accomplished in their own right. Not many of those guys got positions through nepotism alone... even Castellano had much more going for him than Junior/Peter Gotti when he became acting boss.

Barney Bellomo isn't that different given his father and it looks like grandfather were early members and Cafaro said Salerno took him in at his father's request. Bloodlines + merit. The Sicilian faction of the Gambino Family seems to run things similarly. It is pretty crazy though that the Genovese recruited guys from such different backgrounds and managed to thrive as a Cosa Nostra Family -- speaks to CC's point about how adaptable it can be.

[Angelo Santino]

Interesting takes all around.

I guess I view Americanization differently. I would argue that an American rendition would be the rank of consigliere going from an elected position to a boss-appointed one.

I guess another question would be American Sicilianization because I see John Pennisi and other Staten Island denizens self-identifying as a "Brooklyn Crew" being an evolution of the same culture that breeded men from Sciacca self-identifying as such who were based in Brooklyn 100 years back.

The names, the types of crimes and circumstances may chance but the Mafia, as an organization and institution remains virtually unchanged, even after 4 generations of "the split" of Sicilians moving to America and carrying on vs Sicilians in Sicily who stayed.

[B.]

I think what Felice shared about the current Torrettesi gives insight into the early culture -- a powerful faction in the Gambino Family from Torretta who maintain close ties to the Torretta Family and includes members of the Lucchese Family from Torretta and Sicilian mafiosi living in the US. He shared info that their politics are all intertwined and impact each others' relationships overseas and even includes guys raised in NYC like Mannino. That seems like the closest modern parallel to the relationships described by Gentile.