Gaetano Russo (1800's America)

[Angelo Santino]

Received a DM asking for more info. I don't have much than I can narrate. Antiliar knows more and maybe B. found some info.

Gaetano Russo was a Mafioso in America from the 1860's/70's until the late 1910's, in and out of jail. He traveled to alot of cities from New Orleans (St Louis, Chicago, San Francisco etc) that later become Mafia Cities. Was he planting the flag, a visiting dignitary or simply going where the Siclian (non-Mafia) network took him? Non lo so.



Found in his prison file. (He was Sicilian, not Camorrist like the article states).

[PolackTony]

Thanks for posting. After speaking with you and Anti about Russo, I looked into him a bit.

November 20th, 1876, Italian barber Salvatore Pitereso [sic] was found dying of a stab wound in the gutter at 19th and State on Chicago's Near Southside. Pitereso was accompanied by fellow Near Southside Italian barber Casimo Vatroso [sic], who told police in broken English that he had come upon the wounded Pitereso and that the latter had been injured due to an "old feud". Before Pitereso died at a nearby hospital, he denied that Vatroso had played any role in the attack and stated that he had been stabbed by Gaetano Russo, though he refused to state why. The police began to hunt for Russo, who they claimed was being "shielded by all his countrymen" and also charged Vatroso, who had also been found to have a concealed pistol on his person, as an accessory to the murder. After discovering that Pitereso had been boarding with Russo and his wife Rosa, the police at first suspected that Pitereso had been sleeping with Mrs. Russo.

After searching the Russo home, however, police discovered that the Russos were operating a counterfeiting ring and arrested Rosa on counterfeiting charges, seizing counterfeit currency and coin moulds from the home. They further learned from witnesses that Russo, Vatroso, and Pitereso were all friends, had been seen together in a neighborhood saloon prior to the murder, and were afterward heard quarreling in Russo's home. The police now updated their theory on the motivation for the murder and told the Tribune that they believed that Pitereso may have been killed because Russo thought that he was an informant for the Secret Service. Out of compassion for the Russo children, Rosa was released on her own recognizance pending trial and promptly fled Chicago. In 1878, the Tribune announced that Gaetano Russo had been arrested in New Orleans, where he had returned after fleeing Chicago and reportedly making his way across the South through Virginia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Russo was transported back to Chicago to face murder charges. The case against Vatroso as an accessory had been dropped due to lack of evidence and he had also fled Chicago. With both Vatroso and Rosa missing, the prosecution had no witnesses for their case and dropped the charges against Russo.

In 1887, the Tribune reported that Gaetano Russo had been arrested in relation to a counterfeiting ring in Boston. After he had been freed in Chicago in 1878, he had departed for St Louis, where he was subsequently convicted on an arson charge and given a life sentence. Two years into the sentence, however, he was pardoned by the governor of MO after he allegedly assisted guards in putting down a prisoner revolt. Then, in 1888, the Tribune reported that Gaetano and Rosa Russo were arrested for their role in an NYC counterfeiting ring. SS agent Billy Hall of the Chicago division had been called to NYC to assist in the investigation and capture of Russo and his partners.

It would seem to be a strong conclusion that the Petereso murder was the first mafia killing in Chicago, a year after the first known mafia murder in St Louis. The Sicilian community was still tiny in Chicago in the 1870s, so it's anyone's guess what prompted Russo to move there and operate a counterfeiting ring in that period. Maybe he founded the mafia in Chicago, maybe there was already a small network that arrived with the very first Sicilians. Based on Russo's movements and activities (and other evidence), St Louis, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, and Philly all seem to have been cities with an active mafia presence as early as the 1870s-1880s. The next likely mafia murder in Chicago that I'm aware of was in the 1880s, which is the decade when the Sicilian population in Chicago really began to grow.

[Antiliar]

Yes, I couldn't recall the dates he was in Chicago during our convo and was just going to give you the correct ones, but you beat me to the punch (or would that be a Will Smith slap?). Not everything the papers reported is accurate and they often printed misinformation. He went to prison in Louisiana and was pardoned by the governor there, not Missouri. The Russos also went to London. Gaetano was so mean he brutalized his wife there and left her behind because she didn't feel comfortable going along with his plan. She had to get help through the American embassy to get a ship back to the U.S.

[PolackTony]

Yes, I couldn't recall the dates he was in Chicago during our convo and was just going to give you the correct ones, but you beat me to the punch (or would that be a Will Smith slap?). Not everything the papers reported is accurate and they often printed misinformation. He went to prison in Louisiana and was pardoned by the governor there, not Missouri. The Russos also went to London. Gaetano was so mean he brutalized his wife there and left her behind because she didn't feel comfortable going along with his plan. She had to get help through the American embassy to get a ship back to the U.S.

Thanks for the added info and corrections, man. Was Russo ever arrested for or convicted of anything in St Louis? Also, any info on the actual surnames of "Petereso" and "Vatroso"? Vetereso's 1876 death record in Chicago had him as "Salvatore Peteres" with no further info.

[Antiliar]

Yes, I couldn't recall the dates he was in Chicago during our convo and was just going to give you the correct ones, but you beat me to the punch (or would that be a Will Smith slap?). Not everything the papers reported is accurate and they often printed misinformation. He went to prison in Louisiana and was pardoned by the governor there, not Missouri. The Russos also went to London. Gaetano was so mean he brutalized his wife there and left her behind because she didn't feel comfortable going along with his plan. She had to get help through the American embassy to get a ship back to the U.S.

Thanks for the added info and corrections, man. Was Russo ever arrested for or convicted of anything in St Louis? Also, any info on the actual surnames of "Petereso" and "Vatroso"? Vetereso's 1876 death record in Chicago had him as "Salvatore Peteres" with no further info.

Petereso/Peteres/etc was probably Pitereso, Peterezzo or Petruzzo, but I couldn't find anything with the correct spelling unless it was Pitereso. Couldn't find any arrests in St. Louis.

[B.]

This "True Detective Story" about him by an SS agent says he masterminded the attempted prison escape attempt and then betrayed the other inmates by turning them in:

https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=TR ... IN--------

Some other interesting stuff in there, though as always I'm skeptical of early press / LE descriptions especially in a "story" format like this. The article that IDs him as a "Camorra leader" is a great example.

The reference to Philly stands out in the article CC posted, wonder what year that was. We have a decent idea of what existed in Philly by the 1910s but it's very murky before that except for Gentile being made there the previous decade. If the Caccamo and Belmonte colonies existed by the time Russo made contact they would fit with a Palermitani network. Future Pittsburgh boss Stefano Monastero's father was a Caccamese mafioso in the 19th century New Orleans mafia. We know Caccamo and that region would play a big role in Chicago in the 20th century too.

A problem with the 19th century US mafia is we only know the few names who were directly linked to mafia-like crime. Strong probability there were ostensibly legitimate members/bosses and other criminals who never got arrested like we see in the early 20th century. There's definitely circumstantial evidence Russo was tapped into the early mafia network and these guys may have gotten more power through national networking than local colonies ala Gentile years later. The journeyman mafioso who moved opportunity-to-opportunity may have been more common in the US back then.

Great info in this thread.