Sicilian Gambino / knickerbocker pizza connection

[B.]

Eline -- I've got no idea but we know within a lot of the Families there were guys who worked with Riina and those who didn't. Guys like Gambino, Casamento, and T.Inzerillo helped protect themselves by going along with Riina's wishes and that's what Castellano wanted. Not sure about other guys from Torretta, Boccadifalco, etc.

Mutolo said Riina always acted extremely kind and polite to everyone, same with Greco, which I think a lot of people gloss over. He said Riina was able to cultivate so many followers in other Families because he was nice to everyone on the surface and only treacherous in secret. I think people imagine Riina went around like a vicious cartoon villain (which is how Leggio acted according to Mutolo) but Riina was a skilled mafia politician especially during the early part of the war and grabbed allies through fake diplomacy.

[jimmyb]

I'm sure this is somewhere else on the forum, but here's what I have, and you guys tell me if this looks right.

Giuseppe Inzerillo and Guiseppa Di Maggio had five sons: Salvatore, Pietro, Rosario, Francesco, and Santo.
Salvatore killed in Sicily
Pietro killed in Jersey (I believe he's the Inzerillo killed in 82)
Santo killed in Sicily

Meanwhile, Giuseppe's brother Antonino was killed in Jersey.

So how did Francesco get a pass, but three of his brothers, his uncle, and his nephew get whacked?

[CabriniGreen]

Eline -- I've got no idea but we know within a lot of the Families there were guys who worked with Riina and those who didn't. Guys like Gambino, Casamento, and T.Inzerillo helped protect themselves by going along with Riina's wishes and that's what Castellano wanted. Not sure about other guys from Torretta, Boccadifalco, etc.

Mutolo said Riina always acted extremely kind and polite to everyone, same with Greco, which I think a lot of people gloss over. He said Riina was able to cultivate so many followers in other Families because he was nice to everyone on the surface and only treacherous in secret. I think people imagine Riina went around like a vicious cartoon villain (which is how Leggio acted according to Mutolo) but Riina was a skilled mafia politician especially during the early part of the war and grabbed allies through fake diplomacy.

Those people dont know they were known as " the smiling Corleonesi".... that's how they were described by mafiosi in a book I read, I forget the name....

[TommyGambino]

It’s interesting, that Corleonese vanished inzerillos on Sicily and US, and, as you said, John Gambino also was marked, but why corleonese don’t hurt Gambinos in Torreta, relatives of Inzerillos and CH Gambinos and members their mandamenti?

Mad how that family have come back and are thriving in the us and Italy , clearly very smart

[PolackTony]

Just finished listening to the OG episode, which was really excellent. Kudos to Scott and Jimmy again. At the end they teased that Panessa would return in a future episode to discuss his work on the Giacalones in Detroit, which will be super interesting, I'm sure.

Apart from Panessa's description of John Gambino as the central cog on the US side of the heroin operations, I also thought it noteworthy that Panessa stated that Paolo LaPorta went over to Sicily to take care of the burial of Salvatore Inzerillo. The LaPortas from my perspective seem a bit unexplored, as I just don't see much info on them. Panessa paints them as very shrewd and sophisticated guys. States that they had major distribution operations in Puerto Rico. Also that when he set up his front import-export business with offices in Germany, the plan was that the LaPortas would important liquid morphine from Yugoslavia, which would then be sent to a warehouse that the LaPortas had in Bagheria and from there to a facility in the Dominican Republic to be converted to heroin for distribution. Were the LaPortas from Palermo Citta? Maybe I missed it somewhere, but I'm not aware of where exactly they were from and there are La Portas from Bagheria/Santa Flavia.

And maybe this is a dumb question for those of you who closely follow the ins and outs of the politics in Sicily in this period, but if John Gambino was, as Panessa paints him, the central figure on the US side of the heroin operations, how was this role affected by the rise of Riina?

[CabriniGreen]

Just finished listening to the OG episode, which was really excellent. Kudos to Scott and Jimmy again. At the end they teased that Panessa would return in a future episode to discuss his work on the Giacalones in Detroit, which will be super interesting, I'm sure.

Apart from Panessa's description of John Gambino as the central cog on the US side of the heroin operations, I also thought it noteworthy that Panessa stated that Paolo LaPorta went over to Sicily to take care of the burial of Salvatore Inzerillo. The LaPortas from my perspective seem a bit unexplored, as I just don't see much info on them. Panessa paints them as very shrewd and sophisticated guys. States that they had major distribution operations in Puerto Rico. Also that when he set up his front import-export business with offices in Germany, the plan was that the LaPortas would important liquid morphine from Yugoslavia, which would then be sent to a warehouse that the LaPortas had in Bagheria and from there to a facility in the Dominican Republic to be converted to heroin for distribution. Were the LaPortas from Palermo Citta? Maybe I missed it somewhere, but I'm not aware of where exactly they were from and there are La Portas from Bagheria/Santa Flavia.

And maybe this is a dumb question for those of you who closely follow the ins and outs of the politics in Sicily in this period, but if John Gambino was, as Panessa paints him, the central figure on the US side of the heroin operations, how was this role affected by the rise of Riina?

Tony, I've tried to explore this, but I dunno.... it gets.... I dunno ...


Ciccio Gambino, John, LaPorta, I've honestly never gotten a satisfactory answer on any of this....

[B.]

John Gambino was a soldier who killed his relatives when his boss told him to and had to fall in line with Riina after his relatives fell out of power. Takes nothing away from his overall importance, but I have a hard time comparing him to Sal Catalano who was acting boss of the Bonannos, headed a faction that included all of the Trapanesi zips plus Agrigento/Montreal, presided over the US end of the Pizza Connection, and had tons of connections to interior Palermo, including a first cousin who became boss of Ciminna.

There was no gold medal for "top zip" though. These guys were all important with their own intersecting connections.

[CabriniGreen]

John Gambino was a soldier who killed his relatives when his boss told him to and had to fall in line with Riina after his relatives fell out of power. Takes nothing away from his overall importance, but I have a hard time comparing him to Sal Catalano who was acting boss of the Bonannos, headed a faction that included all of the Trapanesi zips plus Agrigento/Montreal, presided over the US end of the Pizza Connection, and had tons of connections to interior Palermo, including a first cousin who became boss of Ciminna.

There was no gold medal for "top zip" though. These guys were all important with their own intersecting connections.

I'd argue they are practically the same guy, performing the same type of functions for their organizations. Difference being John had way more family ties within the American family he was attached to, giving him more political clout over time. I mean, they run the Gambino today, plus a Sicilian madamento, ( or do we not think the Inzerillos control that?) Also, they had the direct line to South America, which to me, always put them overall on top of supply. They were able to access these same channels decades later on behalf of Pagliarelli, through Cali.

I see the Bonnanos point men in South America as the Caruanas, whose loyalty to NY has to be considered questionable at this point.

Like, my man... this is the reason to ME, why they look at the Violis so heavily today...THEY can replace those contacts for the Bonnanos.

The Bonnanos, do they have anyone with a direct line to South America that we know?

[stortvloed]

Here is the Italian testimony translated to English:

"In this regard, I personally experienced a specific episode. After the murder of INZERILLO, GAMBINO JOHN came to Palermo and, accompanied by NAIMO ROSARIO, a man of honor of Cardillo's family who, however, lived in the USA, presented himself to RICCOBONO ROSARIO in the cottage on the mountain of Mondello of which I have already spoken. GAMBINO reported, in fact, that he was sent by CASTELLANO PAUL, then head of his family, because CASTELLANO was worried and wanted directives. Then RICCOBONO, accompanied by me personally, went to Favarella to refer this request to GRECO MICHELE. He told SARO to wait one day and come back the next day. Meanwhile, since GAMBINO had asked RICCOBONO if something could be done at least to save the life of the old father of INZERILLO TOTUCCIO, in the name of GIUSEPPE, RICCOBONO took the initiative to call INZERILLO GIUSEPPE himself in the USA, using a number given to him by the GAMBINO.

For this purpose, RICCOBONO used a telephone that was inside a booth of ENEL, located on the mountain near his cottage. RICCOBONO TO INZERILLO GIUSEPPE he asked about BUSCETTA TOMMASO, since it was known that he was meeting with INZERILLO. The meaning of the request was that, if INZERILLO GIUSEPPE had provided these information, thus facilitating the search for MASINO, would have shown good will and he could have saved himself and his children. During this phone call, GIUSEPPE INZERILLO confirmed that he was meeting sometimes with MASINO, but he added that in recent times the latter had become cautious and he never showed up again. The next evening, RICCOBONO and MICALIZZI TOTUCCIO returned to Favarella and there they had the directives to transmit to GAMBINO JOHN. The order was to kill all "escaped", that is all those who had taken refuge in the USA, already being followers of BONTATE and INZERILLO.

This directive was also respected in the USA, so much so that INZERILLOs killed there were PIETRO, brother of TOTUCCIO, and also an uncle or a cousin of the latter, who was the head of the decina there, as well as other residents there. GAMBINO and NAIMO, after three days in Palermo, returned to the USA, after a lunch that we all ate in a NAIMO villa, located in the district Inserra, made out to a relative of his."

So John Gambino tried to help but followed Paul Castellano's orders to do what Greco/Riccobono asked. John Gambino, Filippo Casamento (compare of the Inzerillos), and Tommaso Inzerillo all participated in the murders of Antonino and Pietro Inzerillo with the approval of Castellano. A good example of three guys putting Cosa Nostra above their own personal interests.

Makes you wonder what would have happened if Giuseppe Inzerillo gave up Buscetta to Riccobono. I'm sure they were treacherous enough to kill some of the Inzerillos anyway but they did spare guys like Gambino, Casamento, and Tommaso Inzerillo who "came in" and did as asked.

Where can the italian testimony be found?

[stubbs]

John Gambino was a soldier who killed his relatives when his boss told him to and had to fall in line with Riina after his relatives fell out of power. Takes nothing away from his overall importance, but I have a hard time comparing him to Sal Catalano who was acting boss of the Bonannos, headed a faction that included all of the Trapanesi zips plus Agrigento/Montreal, presided over the US end of the Pizza Connection, and had tons of connections to interior Palermo, including a first cousin who became boss of Ciminna.

There was no gold medal for "top zip" though. These guys were all important with their own intersecting connections.

I'd argue they are practically the same guy, performing the same type of functions for their organizations. Difference being John had way more family ties within the American family he was attached to, giving him more political clout over time. I mean, they run the Gambino today, plus a Sicilian madamento, ( or do we not think the Inzerillos control that?) Also, they had the direct line to South America, which to me, always put them overall on top of supply. They were able to access these same channels decades later on behalf of Pagliarelli, through Cali.

I see the Bonnanos point men in South America as the Caruanas, whose loyalty to NY has to be considered questionable at this point.

Like, my man... this is the reason to ME, why they look at the Violis so heavily today...THEY can replace those contacts for the Bonnanos.

The Bonnanos, do they have anyone with a direct line to South America that we know?

Are you saying the Violis can be the new Caruanas for the Bonannos? Meaning, connected to South American importers/wholesalers?

[CabriniGreen]

John Gambino was a soldier who killed his relatives when his boss told him to and had to fall in line with Riina after his relatives fell out of power. Takes nothing away from his overall importance, but I have a hard time comparing him to Sal Catalano who was acting boss of the Bonannos, headed a faction that included all of the Trapanesi zips plus Agrigento/Montreal, presided over the US end of the Pizza Connection, and had tons of connections to interior Palermo, including a first cousin who became boss of Ciminna.

There was no gold medal for "top zip" though. These guys were all important with their own intersecting connections.

I'd argue they are practically the same guy, performing the same type of functions for their organizations. Difference being John had way more family ties within the American family he was attached to, giving him more political clout over time. I mean, they run the Gambino today, plus a Sicilian madamento, ( or do we not think the Inzerillos control that?) Also, they had the direct line to South America, which to me, always put them overall on top of supply. They were able to access these same channels decades later on behalf of Pagliarelli, through Cali.

I see the Bonnanos point men in South America as the Caruanas, whose loyalty to NY has to be considered questionable at this point.

Like, my man... this is the reason to ME, why they look at the Violis so heavily today...THEY can replace those contacts for the Bonnanos.

The Bonnanos, do they have anyone with a direct line to South America that we know?

Are you saying the Violis can be the new Caruanas for the Bonannos? Meaning, connected to South American importers/wholesalers?

The Caruanas and Cuntreras were doing it first, for the Sicilian mafia, then for Ndrangheta. As a whole.

The Violis seemed to be positioned to function as such for the Bonnanos, and potentially others in NY...

[CornerBoy]

This whole pizza connection is so fucking confusing. is there like a basic body of info that will break it down into simple concepts?

[JeremyTheJew]

This whole pizza connection is so fucking confusing. is there like a basic body of info that will break it down into simple concepts?

There’s a few good threads on it here

If u wanna go for books there’s two older ones that sticks to the Bonanno side and that’s Pizza Connection and Last Days Of The Sicilians.

The best is Octopus but that goes over the WHOLE SICILIAN NETWORK!

Very confusing now bc looking back we know see all the similarities and tie ins between the 2 groups of zips in both families

[CornerBoy]

thanks, jeremy
.
i don't know where to look for anything-- i have a book by claire sterling which may be octopus.

how can I find more about the John Gambino operation?

Thanks guys- can't believe its been like 17 yrs that we've all been talking

[JeremyTheJew]

thanks, jeremy
.
i don't know where to look for anything-- i have a book by claire sterling which may be octopus.

how can I find more about the John Gambino operation?

Thanks guys- can't believe its been like 17 yrs that we've all been talking

Yes the Claire sterling book is octopus

Great one

The other night was in my g ma basement and found my old binder with printed discussions from the REAL DEAL days from 2004

The topics I had were :

- is Nicky corrozo the real Gambino boss?

- is Chicago better then NYC??

- is rizzuto fam the best fam ever???

But this is a good thread so I don’t wanna derail it lol