Girolamo Guarraggi

[motorfab]

Pierre de Champlain has written that Sciara was a made member of the Siculiana Family who fled to Canada to avoid Italian authorities who were searching for him so as to put him in prison and have him undergo the harshest possible conditions again.

Do you think he's one of the members who transferred? Violi was recorded talking about the process for a Sicilian member to transfer to the Bonanno Family in Canada and we know Sciara was a close ally of Violi when he was killed.

I don't know what antimafia thinks about it, but I think so for these reasons:

-As Violi had told Giuseppe Cuffaro in 1972/73, Violi instituted a period of 5 years of probation to the zips to be fully integrated into the decina, and as antimafia said Sciara was in Montreal in 1966 then in 1970 until his murder in 1976

-In 1975, when Vic Cotroni had legal troubles with the hearings of the CECO, Violi sent Sciara & Salvatore Sorrentino to NY to ask the Bonannos administration for authorization to officially have the title of capodecina or acting capodecina.

[B.]

Pierre de Champlain has written that Sciara was a made member of the Siculiana Family who fled to Canada to avoid Italian authorities who were searching for him so as to put him in prison and have him undergo the harshest possible conditions again.

Do you think he's one of the members who transferred? Violi was recorded talking about the process for a Sicilian member to transfer to the Bonanno Family in Canada and we know Sciara was a close ally of Violi when he was killed.

I don't know what antimafia thinks about it, but I think so for these reasons:

-As Violi had told Giuseppe Cuffaro in 1972/73, Violi instituted a period of 5 years of probation to the zips to be fully integrated into the decina, and as antimafia said Sciara was in Montreal in 1966 then in 1970 until his murder in 1976

-In 1975, when Vic Cotroni had legal troubles with the hearings of the CECO, Violi sent Sciara & Salvatore Sorrentino to NY to ask the Bonannos administration for authorization to officially have the title of capodecina or acting capodecina.

Both great points, my friend. The last one would definitely point to him being a Bonanno member by that time, same with Sorrentino assuming he attended the meeting and didn't just drive (like DiMaulo before he was made).

Something that's never come out to my knowledge is whether Galante or Rastelli sanctioned the murders of guys like Sciara and Violi. It seems like they at least approved, as the victors were rewarded with promotion a few years later (Sciascia) and the Rizzutos remained in good standing with NYC. Their friends in the NYC Bonanno Sicilian faction were also in power which helped.

Curious now if Gerlando Guarraggi married Sciara's daughter before or after the murder. Gerlando was born in 1946 so he would have been around 30 and likely in Canada for some time already based on his brother Girolamo's arrival as a teenager ten years earlier. If coverage of the murder used his daughter's maiden name it might indicate the marriage was later.

It wasn't until two days ago that I first became aware of a Ribera colony in Toronto. Guarraggi's brother lives there and one of the book excerpts I posted mentioned a colony having formed there in addition to Montreal but these are the first references to Ontario I've seen. There was a historic Agrigento presence, though, as the old Racalmutesi with the Buffalo Family lived in Hamilton. At least one of them was close to their compaesano Nick Alfano of the Bonanno Family, who in turn was close to the elder Vito Rizzuto and Calogero Renda in the Bronx and later the Montreal decina.

[B.]

This topic has me more interested in the obscure Sicilian members who may have lived in Montreal for a time. Many of the Ribera-born DeCavalcantes had close relatives who were made in Ribera so I suspect Pasquale Guarraggi or someone close to him was one.

As we've talked about before, it now appears Antonino Montagna was another Sicilian member quietly living in Montreal in this general 60s/70s time frame. We can't be sure if he was already made though or if that happened when he returned to live in CDG.

The December 1984 FBI report says by then this group had established much more autonomy in the area. No doubt the result of Sciascia/Rizzuto's rise in power within the Bonanno faction, allowing their Sicilian-affiliated allies more room to operate. I don't know if there's any evidence transfers continued to take place as they did under Cotroni/Violi.



Beyond the well-known names like the Caruana-Cuntrera affiliates we don't really know the full scope of Sicilian membership in the area.

We speculated before about the Sicilian faction's ties to the New England Family -- during this period we have both Biagio DiGiacomo and Salvatore Giglia identified as Patriarca capodecinas from Aragona, Agrigento, with ties to the Sicilian mafia.

[antimafia]

Incredible work. Way beyond anything I hoped to find.

2. Girolamo's still-alive sister-in-law Maria Sciara Guarraggi, who is married to Gerlando, is indeed the daughter of the Pietro Sciara who was killed in Montreal on Feb. 14, 1976. She is one of five children born to Sciara and Rosalia Triassi, who was injured but survived when Sciara was gunned down. The most important piece of information that helped confirm the biological relationship -- and I never expected this type of item to be definitive -- will be found at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1032524 ... ia-sciara/.

Had no idea a daughter was injured in the shooting, much less this one.

While now there are various accounts of when the Siculiana-born Sciara moved to Cattolica Eraclea (CE) to live, what is relatively certain is that he and his wife, along with some their children, lived in CE and that some of his and Rosalia's children married individuals with ancestry from CE whose surnames are associated with mafia activity in that town and outside of it, including in Canada and the US. I haven't yet established whether Sciara's wife was born in Siculiana, CE, or elsewhere. It should be noted that last century, intermarriage between men and women of different comuni in Sicily was not unheard of, especially when photos became more readily available and affordable to the working poor: a man and woman often got married based on whether they liked the photo of the other person that had been exchanged. This photo exchange was also practised in the diaspora, and it could be the case that the woman was still in Italy, while the man was abroad.

Educational about the photos, great to know that. From what I've found there was more intermarriage between different villages in that part of Agrigento than elsewhere in Western Sicily. Nick Gentile's account shows mafiosi from those villages all saw each other as compaesani. The mafia connection gave even more incentive to intermarry.

Pierre de Champlain has written that Sciara was a made member of the Siculiana Family who fled to Canada to avoid Italian authorities who were searching for him so as to put him in prison and have him undergo the harshest possible conditions again.

Do you think he's one of the members who transferred? Violi was recorded talking about the process for a Sicilian member to transfer to the Bonanno Family in Canada and we know Sciara was a close ally of Violi when he was killed.

Maria Sciara was not present when her father was practically decapitated; only Sciara's wife, Rosalia Triassi, was. On the night he was murdered, Sciara and Rosalia had watched The Godfather at the then Riviera Theatre owned by Vic Cotroni's sister Palmina Puliafito. Sciara was killed in a parking lot shortly after he and his wife exited the movie theatre (this theatre was later turned into the infamous Solid Gold strip club of which Moreno Gallo was a manager). A newspaper report in The Gazette (Montreal) that was published almost four weeks after the murder indicates that Sciara's wife grappled with the assailants. A report published two days after the murder, in the same paper, indicated that Sciara's wife was wounded in the right arm and taken to hospital for treatment.

Last century, a Sicilian man of "honour" didn't really need to ask for his future wife's father for her hand in marriage, especially if the father was not involved in mafia activity. (I hope the practice still doesn't exist but I wouldn't be surprised if it does.) The man of "honour" would tell such a father that he was marrying the woman, regardless of the objections her father and other family members might have. The intermarriage of Sicilian men and women from mafia families in different comuni, in order to strengthen networks, does make sense. For example, Nino Manno of CE married Libertina Caruana of Siculiana.

As for Sciara being a transfer from the Siculiana Family to the Bonanno decina in Montreal, I'm leaning toward no but I am also aware of Sciara's presence at meetings where made men discussed affairs that had an impact on the Bonanno Family. We know that at the same CECO crime probe in Quebec at which Sciara gave testimony, a police offer from Italy testified that Sciara was a member of the mafia. Because Sciara was in Canada illegally, his name doesn't appear on any voter lists such as those found on Ancestry Canada or on other documents that would establish his residence in Quebec; therefore, I don't know whether he was in Canada between 1966 and 1970, the two particular years in which he was deported. I mention all this because Paolo Violi felt that the Bonanno decina in Montreal got shafted by none other than Leonardo Caruana, who was a transfer from the Venezuela Family to the Bonannos in Montreal but carelessly and irresponsibly flitted here and there so much that Violi didn't know Caruana had "transferred" back to the former. I'm not arguing that American LCN Families didn't admit into their families the transfers of made men who either had immigration problems or were fleeing from the authorities; but I'm making the point that the Bonannos might not have viewed Sciara as a good candidate for admission to its decina in Montreal because of his issues.

[B.]

I misread the part about who was injured in the Sciara shooting -- thanks for clarifying it was the wife.

With mafia marriages, it appears arrangements via parents and/or mafia superiors were common. Melchiorre Allegra talked about how his friend was inducted into the Alcamo Family and the Alcamo bosses immediately arranged for him to marry the daughter of the San Giuseppe Jato boss, no doubt a political alliance. Like you said it may have played out much differently when a mafioso married an outsider.

Great points about Sciara's legal issues being a factor. This is the first I've heard Leonardo Caruana transferred to the Bonannos. Transfers require the approval of both Families, so interesting if he transferred back to Siculiana without the approval of his superiors but it reflects the disregard that faction had for Violi.

- Diana was born in 1891 and did live in Chicago but I haven't done a deep dive. That's an intriguing new name.

From what I can see, Diana may just have been a Riberese civilian. His brothers Giovanni and Giuseppe also settled in Chicago, but I don’t see any of them ever mentioned in connection to mafia-type activities, and Nicola doesn’t seem to have been as well off as Bacino and DeGeorge. He was born in 1891 in Ribera and arrived in NYC bound for Chicago, where Giovanni was already living. In 1917, he was living in Joliet and working as a laborer. He joined the army infantry during WW1 and in 1918 was stationed in Macon, GA, where he filed his petition for US citizenship. In 1921, he married Maria Scafidi of Altavilla Milicia in Chicago. In 1930, they lived in Cicero, while in the 1940s they lived in Logan Square on the NW Side; Nicola worked as a door-to-door dry good salesman at the time. He died in 1958 in Maricopa, AZ. His son Vincent Diana, who also married a Scafidi woman who arrived from Palermo, moved to Phoenix as well.

Though there were a number of Riberesi in Chicago, I’m not aware that they ever formed a paesani/religious society or club. There were like 100 other Sicilian societies, but maybe the Riberesi in Chicago aligned themselves with the Societies for Sambuca or Burgio, both of which remain active today.

Looks like he had an uncle Giuseppe who used the spelling D'Anna (like the D'Annas/Dannas from Agrigento in Pueblo and Lucchese Families) and lived in NYC. The D'Anna/Danna name is much more common in that part of AG so could be the original name.

The Dannas of Pueblo were cousins of Frank Bacino, another early Colorado mafioso. Bacino was from Lucca Sicula like the Dannas, and like we've talked about before Phil Bacino had relatives from Burgio/Lucca area. Be interesting if Nicola Diana has any connection to these Dannas and/or Phil Bacino was related to Frank Bacino.

[B.]

Also there is a reference to a Nicola Diana in a Chicago Lithuanian newspaper from 1940.

Here is a very poor Google translation:

• 1931 in time of controversy
canteen at 11851 Michigan
avenue was shot dead by police officer Joseph Isaacs from Kensington precinct. For batting
Northside police arrested 48 of that near-forgotten incident
Nicola Diana from Chicago
1148 North Kedzie avenue. Per
nine last year Diana
where it hid.

Hard to make sense of it, but it seems to indicate Diana was involved in a violent incident in 1931 and was arrested for it in 1940. I'm not sure what the bit about the police officer killing someone is referring to or what actual crime Diana was accused of but it would seem to be something violent given the statute of limitations allowed for his arrest 9 years later. Our Nicola Diana would have been 48 at the time this was published so the "48" is no doubt a reference to his age.

Here is the original clipping, maybe you can make more sense of it given your abilities:



Whatever happened, it adds to the possibility he was a mafioso along with his involvement with Bacino, DeGeorge, and DeCavalcante leaders in the Ribera Club.

1931 is also a significant year for obvious reasons.

[antimafia]

Something that's never come out to my knowledge is whether Galante or Rastelli sanctioned the murders of guys like Sciara and Violi. It seems like they at least approved, as the victors were rewarded with promotion a few years later (Sciascia) and the Rizzutos remained in good standing with NYC. Their friends in the NYC Bonanno Sicilian faction were also in power which helped.

Curious now if Gerlando Guarraggi married Sciara's daughter before or after the murder. Gerlando was born in 1946 so he would have been around 30 and likely in Canada for some time already based on his brother Girolamo's arrival as a teenager ten years earlier. If coverage of the murder used his daughter's maiden name it might indicate the marriage was later.

It wasn't until two days ago that I first became aware of a Ribera colony in Toronto. Guarraggi's brother lives there and one of the book excerpts I posted mentioned a colony having formed there in addition to Montreal but these are the first references to Ontario I've seen. There was a historic Agrigento presence, though, as the old Racalmutesi with the Buffalo Family lived in Hamilton. At least one of them was close to their compaesano Nick Alfano of the Bonanno Family, who in turn was close to the elder Vito Rizzuto and Calogero Renda in the Bronx and later the Montreal decina.

Regardless of whether Sciara was still with the Siculiana Family or was a transfer to the Bonanno decina in Montreal, I don't think it was ultimately Galante or Rastelli's call to approve the murder. If Nick Rizzuto Sr. wanted Sciara dead, Rizzuto would have required permission from Galante or Rastelli, but I suspect that the Bonannos in New York would have to have sought permission from the Siculiana Family first and foremost.

As for the approval of Paolo Violi's murder, I wonder whether the Bonannos in NYC -- and the American LCN in general -- viewed him as someone whose powerful connections to the 'ndrangheta, as well as his family's deep roots in this other secret society, needed to be taken into account before considering having him killed. Were Violi's brothers Francesco and Rocco, who were also murdered in the Montreal area, merely considered associates who were on record with the Bonannos or were they considered the son of an 'ndranghetista in Parma, OH whose counsel was sought not only by his fellow Calabrians but also by American LCN members who went to visit him? When the Commisso brothers of the Siderno Group in Toronto were plotting to kill Ontario-based Paul Volpe of the Buffalo Family, one of the brothers was observed travelling by car, along with Volpe's cousin Angelo Pucci, from Toronto to Buffalo. Law enforcement believed this trip was evidence of permission being sought from the Buffalo Family to whack Volpe. What is fascinating about the days leading up to the Volpe murder -- at this point the Commissos very likely abandoned their original plans to kill him, as the brothers were in prison -- is that law enforcement in Canada picked up calls being made to Italy before Volpe was murdered. I'll have to dig up the old article that mentions these calls -- I can't remember whether the calls were about asking permission to kill him. I do remember from the article that Peter Scarcella made a call to Nick Rizzuto Sr. about Volpe.

[antimafia]

^^^^
I forgot to address the question of whether Gerlando Guarraggi married Maria Sciara before or after the murder of Pietro Sciara. If the two were married in Quebec, there doesn't seem to be a record in the Quebec Marriage of Returns, either on MyHeritage or Ancestry Canada. The lack of a record doesn't mean they weren't married in Quebec. So I'm still trying to determine the date and place of marriage in either Quebec, somewhere else in Canada, or Sicily.

I also want to add a quick note that in Quebec, women who marry in the province keep their maiden name in documents such as government-issued ID and use the maiden name practically everywhere else, e.g., in their work email address. We know that nowadays, married women on social media will use both their maiden name and married surname in their profiles so as to make it easier to be located by people from their past. However, the combination of surnames is not a guarantee of what surname is used by these women.

[PolackTony]

Also there is a reference to a Nicola Diana in a Chicago Lithuanian newspaper from 1940.

Here is a very poor Google translation:

• 1931 in time of controversy
canteen at 11851 Michigan
avenue was shot dead by police officer Joseph Isaacs from Kensington precinct. For batting
Northside police arrested 48 of that near-forgotten incident
Nicola Diana from Chicago
1148 North Kedzie avenue. Per
nine last year Diana
where it hid.

Hard to make sense of it, but it seems to indicate Diana was involved in a violent incident in 1931 and was arrested for it in 1940. I'm not sure what the bit about the police officer killing someone is referring to or what actual crime Diana was accused of but it would seem to be something violent given the statute of limitations allowed for his arrest 9 years later. Our Nicola Diana would have been 48 at the time this was published so the "48" is no doubt a reference to his age.

Here is the original clipping, maybe you can make more sense of it given your abilities:



Whatever happened, it adds to the possibility he was a mafioso along with his involvement with Bacino, DeGeorge, and DeCavalcante leaders in the Ribera Club.

Great job on this! I was able to find some more info on the incident. Diana was arrested in 1940 for the 1931 murder of CPD cop Joseph Isaacs, who was killed in a Far Southside cafe at 119th and Michigan Ave. This location was not far from Burnham and Calumet City, where Bacino took hold. Police had been searching for 9 years for Diana, as a car linked to the killing was traced back to him. He was also stated at the time of the murder to be living in a “Capone Hotel”; in 1930, Diana was living in Cicero, not too far from Capone’s HQ at the Hawthorne Hotel (later controlled by Joey Aiuppa).

When Diana was finally located and arrested in 1940, he was in the company of a 37-year-old Emanuel Cammarata (not sure yet who he was; there were Cammaratas in Chicago from Termini and Corleone. Diana’s wife Maria Scafidi was from Altavilla Milicia, so it would be unsurprising if Diana was linked in to people from around Termini) and was arrested at North Ave and Wolcott in Wicker Park. This happens to have been the same block where Riberese Chicago boss Pasquale LoLordo was living when he was murdered. Other guys who were connected to both the Calumet City area and the Wicker Park area immediately around the vicinity of LoLordo’s home were Vincenzo D’Angelo (also Riberese), Snakes Gervasi, and Onofrio Vitale. All three were of course murdered in the 1940s, likely connected to the “Cheese War”. When Diana was arrested, he was reported as living on Kedzie near Division in Humboldt Park (my home turf, directly to the west of Wicker Park). Jim DeGeorge lived a couple of blocks away, as did Snakes Gervasi when he was murdered in 1944. When he was arrested in 1940, Diana claimed he had been in Italy at the time of the murder, and an eyewitness to the Isaacs murder was unable to identify him as involved, so he seems to have been let off. The papers reported that Diana was an olive oil salesman, which matches the “door-to-door dry goods salesman” that I found as his occupation in one document for him. So it’s definitely the same guy, and he was clearly connected to the mafia. Given that almost all the other guys listed as belonging to the Ribera orphanage committee were mafia members, I think it’s a strong inference that Diana may have been a sleeper made guy.

Good catch on the Danna/D’Anna thing as well, that makes a lot of sense and is absolutely a surname linked to mafiosi from that area of Agrigento, as you point out. Posted a photo of Diana in the Mugshots thread.

[B.]

Amazing.

Emanuele Cammarata was Joe Profaci's cousin from Villabate who was arrested at the 1928 Cleveland meeting with Lolordo and Bacino. The age matches. He lived in NJ and was probably part of the Newark Family before transferring to the Colombos. Mysteriously murdered in Florida in the 1970s.

Big find there, as it links Cammarata to Chicago like his cousin Profaci and it's an odd coincidence he was at the meeting with Bacino in 1928 then found with Diana in 1940. It's also another New Jersey connection along with Diana's involvement with Bacino in the Ribera Club. Question is why Cammarata was linked to the Chicago Riberesi on two different occasions spanning 12 years. Cammarata worked for Profaci's olive oil company so he and Diana were both in the same business.

A mafia-linked cop killer on an orphanage committee dominated by ranking mafiosi. Really didn't expect something like this would surface so quickly.

[B.]

Phil Bacino and Nicola Diana also went to Sicily together in 1948, the year after they joined the Ribera Club orphanage committee:



- Triolo is a female relative of Bacino, but interesting she came from the Bronx to travel with them. His mother was a Triolo and Cavita ID'd one of Bacino's criminal associates circa 1940 as an Andrew Triolo of Calumet City (b. ~1905). Bacino's relation to the Giacobbes also comes through the Triolos, as DeCavalcante captain Lorenzo Giacobbe's brother Carmelo married Bacino's maternal aunt and Bacino arrived to Carmelo Giacobbe in NYC from Sicily in 1923. Carmelo and Lorenzo Giacobbe's other brother Emanuele lived in the Manhattan apartment building owned by Domenico Arcuri of the Gambino Family.

- Landi is Diana's daughter. If he was a Chicago member it means they already had a member presence in Phoenix by the late 1940s. In 1972 the FBI identified a DeCavalcante member living in Arizona but it's unfortunately redacted in the report so I don't know if it was a Riberese.



This is the same Sicilian trip where Phil Bacino and his son John were photographed with Phil Amari and Fortunato Pope at a celebration for the opening of the Ribera orphanage:



- Always been curious about the unidentified two guys on the far left. It's hard to tell from the photo of Diana you found, but his age and weight certainly fit the guy on the far left and we know Diana was there. The facial features and hairline look different but hard to gauge based on what we have. The guy with glasses looks like an official given the papers, maybe the Ribera mayor or something, but can't rule him out completely.

- Joe Bonanno says in his book he went to a dedication ceremony for the Ribera orphanage with his friend Fortunato Pope in 1957, so I'm wondering if they had another event around ten years after the orphanage was established or if he confused the timeline and actually attended the 1948 orphanage event with Pope, Amari, and Bacino. The Ribera Club held a yearly fundraiser dinner for the orphanage so it's possible they had more than one event in Ribera.

Thread with info from Rotondo and Scarabino about the orphanage: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=8899

John Bacino died in 2020 and it says he was born in Hammond, Indiana in 1936: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nw ... id=9208829

^ Note that John's daughter married a Grisafi. Along with Bacino's apparent relative Andrew Triolo, Cavita also identified a Joseph Grisafi of Calumet City (b. ~1905) as a criminal associate of Bacino in 1940.

[PolackTony]

Amazing.

Emanuele Cammarata was Joe Profaci's cousin from Villabate who was arrested at the 1928 Cleveland meeting with Lolordo and Bacino. The age matches. He lived in NJ and was probably part of the Newark Family before transferring to the Colombos. Mysteriously murdered in Florida in the 1970s.

Big find there, as it links Cammarata to Chicago like his cousin Profaci and it's an odd coincidence he was at the meeting with Bacino in 1928 then found with Diana in 1940. It's also another New Jersey connection along with Diana's involvement with Bacino in the Ribera Club. Question is why Cammarata was linked to the Chicago Riberesi on two different occasions spanning 12 years. Cammarata worked for Profaci's olive oil company so he and Diana were both in the same business.

A mafia-linked cop killer on an orphanage committee dominated by ranking mafiosi. Really didn't expect something like this would surface so quickly.

Oh wow. I had wondered about the Emanuele Cammarata in NJ, as I wasn’t able to find a record for one in Chicago of the right age. Hadn’t even thought of Profaci’s cousin.

BTW, In 1928 a bootlegger named “Joseph Cavarith”, aka Cammarata, was killed on Milton in Little Sicily. The car he was driving was registered to an Emanuel Cammarata, and the car also contained letters addressed to a “Cavarith” in Utica. The addresses for both Cammaratas at that time were in the near vicinity of the address that Emanuel Cammarata gave to police when he was arrested with Diana in 1940. Don’t see any records in Chicago that seem to match this guy killed in 1928, possible that he had only recently arrived from Utica.

[B.]

Nicola Diana's brother Calogero also lived in Chicago, married to Rose Ciccarelli. Maternal uncle Antonino Gulino also lived in Chicago. Calogero died in Chicago in 1940.

There was another Calogero Diana from Ribera in Chicago who married Maria Addalia in 1913 but seems to be someone different. His mother was an Amari. There was a Calogero living in Elizabeth NJ by 1928, maybe this one as I can't track him in Chicago by then.

There were also Dianas from Ribera in Detroit.

Though there's reason to believe the true name is D'Anna and relatives used that spelling it also seems the Diana spelling was in use in Ribera going back generations. Probably not unlike the Guarraggi and Guarraci names which obviously share origin but the different spellings were in use going back to Sicily.

[B.]

Note that Jim DeGeorge of Chicago is on the Ribera Club committee with NYC DeCavalcante member Pietro Galletta. Galletta was married to a cousin of his named DiGiorgi (her mother was a Galletta like him) and I found other interrelation between the DiGiorgis and Gallettas but I don't know if there's a direct connection between the mafia members.

Galletta was one of the first surnames I found to settle in the early 1890s Manhattan Ribera colony that produced what are perhaps the first DeCavalcante members. Another early name in the colony was Carubia, which produced member Antonio Carubia and possibly Marco Carubia, who JD said may have been misidentified as a Gambino Arcuri crew member given the close relationship.

Early Manhattan "Black Hand" leader Pellegrino Mule from Caltabellotta may have been connected to this colony. He was a mafia leader in his native hometown and was involved in a murder in Sciacca before coming to the US. Pasquale Lolordo married a Mule from Caltabellotta in NYC and other DeCavalcante figures came from there, including the NYC Marsala brothers (suspected members) and Farinas of NJ. The excerpt I posted earlier says men from Caltabellotta were also involved in the founding of the Ribera Club in 1923.

However the Gambino LoCiceros who came from Calamonaci (basically Ribera) intermarried with Caltabellotta, so you can't separate the Gambino Agrigento faction from this colony either.

[B.]

Another very interesting connection Chris Christie found when he was researching the Gambino Family is that future Gambino capodecina Pasquale Conte arrived to the US in 1936 from his native Palermo with his mother and they're listed right next to Filippo Amari's mother, who is heading to Filippo in Elizabeth. Naturally Conte and his mother were heading to his father Antonino in Brooklyn and he'd be the future Gambino underboss in the 1950s.





I've never come across any indications the Contes had a close relationship with the DeCavalcantes aside from attending the Pippo Bono wedding together but as I've said before "It ain't nothing". Makes you wonder if Gambino and DeCavalcante figures had existing relationships in Sicily or if connections in the US facilitated relatives of mafia members traveling together. Patsy Conte told the FBI his family knew the Gambinos and Castellanos in Palermo before the US and some of the zips with him later on were from inland villages so they were likely no strangers to Cosa Nostra around Palermo.

Don't want to turn this into a Gambino thread (already all over the place) but it also stands out that Nino Conte was living in Williamsburg, which was overwhelmingly associated with the Bonannos and there's little connecting the Gambinos to that area that I know of.