Did The First Mafia Murder In St Louis Happened in 1875?

[Antiliar]

"Slowly, the American Mafia paddled up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers [from New Orleans], stopping at St. Louis and then Kansas City..."

St Louis Globe-Democrat 1875Oct13 Mafia murder.jpg

[PolackTony]

Great info. Any success in establishing where exactly any of these guys were from?

[motorfab]

Great find Antiliar !

[B.]

Great info my friend.

Though I'm highly skeptical of early press/LE descriptions, the surnames (except Danina, not sure if that's the true name or what it would be) lend themselves to Sicily and it fits the pattern of Sicilian colonies spreading upward from the far South, bringing the mafia with them.

[PolackTony]

Great info my friend.

Though I'm highly skeptical of early press/LE descriptions, the surnames (except Danina, not sure if that's the true name or what it would be) lend themselves to Sicily and it fits the pattern of Sicilian colonies spreading upward from the far South, bringing the mafia with them.

It definitely fits with what we know of the early migration of Sicilians in this period. Even without Bill Bonanno’s account it’d be reasonable to think that from NOLA it would be in STL and KC in the 1870s and in Chicago and Milwaukee in the 1880s.

[PolackTony]

There was a Domenico Danino, born ~1848, who died in STL in 1876, probably the same guy. There was also a Domenico Denina (also given as “DeNenea”) in NOLA in the 1800s who I believe was from Poggioreale. The De Nina/De Nino surname was well-recorded in Poggioreale.

[Antiliar]

Great info. Any success in establishing where exactly any of these guys were from?

I haven't looked into it. The names that aren't mangled look typical Sicilian.

[B.]

Wild to think when Bompensiero went to St. Louis in 1968 he might well have been visiting a Family who'd been around for close to 100 years already.

A Domenico Denina entered New Orleans from Sicily in 1873, born ~1849, maybe same one Tony found as the age is close. Poggioreale would fit as Vincenzo Chiappetta was from there and fled to Missouri after Pueblo and ultimately settled in St. Louis where he had relatives.

[aleksandrored]

Great find, thanks, I wonder how a family operated at that time, it must have been something very different.

[B.]

Great find, thanks, I wonder how a family operated at that time, it must have been something very different.

Personally I don't think it was as different as we might think. Contemporary investigations in Sicily during the 1870s showed that aside from some differences in protocol (being able to introduce yourself as a member through a coded dialogue opposed to third party intro) it was strikingly similar in terms of the organization itself.

As Antiliar has theorized to me before, they may have abandoned the coded dialogue intros because it became publicly known and increased the likelihood of outsiders or LE being able to introduce themselves as members whereas the third party made member introduction much more secure. Hard to say exactly why/when they changed it but I agree with him it was probably a response to circumstances (like banning counterfeiting, drugs, etc.) as LE having the ability to say "I've got a tootache..." to gain a member's confidence became a huge risk after the 1870s/1880s.