Visiting New Orleans

[Antiliar]

There also was a crew operating in the Houston area, but it's uncertain if it answered to Dallas or to NO. It was associated with both.

[nash143]

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... d%20domino

This file outlines how Tramunti sent a ‘Chick’ Berardi (do we know who he is?) to NO to speak with Marcello. Whilst there, he was ‘under the care’ of Sam Domino, a “underworld member under Carlos Marcello.”

Berardi told the informant “five members of the NO underworld” (again, frustratingly, informant doesn’t use the term ‘LCN member’) were in NYC at the time of the La Stella meeting. He seems to include Domino +1 (both not present at meeting) as part of this five. As we know Carlos Marcello, Carollo and Gagliano were at the meeting, it could indicate Joe Marcello was not a made member. A notable absence from the La Stella meeting would be Vincenzo Campo- see his comments below. If he was made and Consiglieri, surely he would be there?

Is La Stella where Colombo got the number five from?

[nash143]

Comment from Vincenzo Campo, identified as a 'prominent NO hoodlum' - re La Stella.

[PolackTony]

1964 FBI summary of suspected NO membership:




We don’t have a NOLA general or “dumping ground” thread. Was coming across some other info discussing NOLA and Marcello and thought I’d share it here.

Intel from 1960, discussing Marcello’s importance for regional race wire info. Marcello and his guys were partnered with Ralph Emery, son of deceased Chicago Heights capodecina Jimmy Emery (and a possible Chicago member himself):


An early 60s wiretap of Angelo Bruno reported Bruno stating that when Marcello was under his deportation order, Marcello reached out to Trafficante to talk with Chicago and have Giancana get word to Frank Sinatra to attempt to convince Bobby Kennedy to intervene on Marcello’s behalf (we know that didn’t work). Goes to further show that — regardless of the size of the formal membership of his family — a boss is a boss, and Marcello’s place within the mafia network meant that he could call on other bosses to act on his behalf.

Info on Onofrio Pecoraro’s time in Chicago:

[Patrickgold]

It would be cool in my opinion if we could disprove Scarpa's info with confirmed members. I want to defend his info because it's rare insight into the NO Family from a high-level source and we don't have anything solid to compare it to, but if it turns out he's wrong then we all learn something.

I brought up margin of error earlier because I see it more in those terms. On one hand we don't have concrete evidence there were more than 5 members in 1968, but if it turned out they had 7 or 8 that would still be close enough to redeem Scarpa's basic info that the Family was down to its bones and needed members. Maybe others feel that would impeach his credibility but to me being off by a couple members would be a pretty minor mistake, if we can actually prove it. I was asking about that too because it's good to know if we're arguing about a discrepancy of a few names or if it's the entire list of 28 suspect members Pogo referred to.

We all seem to agree there's no need to try and label anyone a captain haha. From the FBI logs of his meetings and actvities Marcello seemed to be directing most of the members and associates himself.

Which points to a lower membership. When these groups were formed I highly doubt the founder looked around and concluded he'd only have a mafia organization with a B, U, C and at least one capo. When each city formed early on, the 4th member wasn't a capo and 5th a soldier. These ranks serve a purpose and with 10 members, you don't need to compartmentalize things as much as a 40-300 membership family.

I’m pretty convinced that families like New Orleans and Milwaukee did not make members because of greed. They knew the more members, the more money that would have to be spread out and also the more possibility that someone would challenge their authority. Recruiting pools were a lot larger back then, even in smaller cities. These bosses wanted all the money to themselves and their family members.

[Patrickgold]

With the age thing, those guys could have been made 20+ years earlier. New Orleans was a Sicilian style Family and those groups tended to make people very young.

Dallas went almost 40 years without making anyone and were similarly about to die out before NYC approved them to make new members in the 1960s.

Didn’t work out for Dallas bc they died about 10 years later lol. Actually Campisi was recognized as the boss of Dallas until his death in 1990. LoScalzo even met with him after taking over for Tampa

[B.]

I think that 1966 source is questionable if he thought Joe Bonanno was picking up the tab for La Stella in 1966. Thanks for the reminder Joe Marcello didn't attend -- I mistakenly said he did earlier. I've seen the FBI's diagram of who was sitting where and Santo Trafficante was sitting between Carlos and Carollo / Gagliano which could support the rumor he was mediating between Marcello and Carollo.

Joe Poretto was connected to Detroit. His paternal grandmother was a Carollo so I assume he was a relative of the NO leaders which would mean he was Terrasini. His mother may have been related to the Gaglianos.

[PolackTony]

Joe Poretto was connected to Detroit. His paternal grandmother was a Carollo so I assume he was a relative of the NO leaders which would mean he was Terrasini. His mother may have been related to the Gaglianos.

Maybe you already have this info. I have Joseph Porretto as born in 1906 in NO to Carlo "Charles" Porretto and Maria "Mamie" Frisco. Charles Porretto was a longtime NOPD detective, who was born about 1874 in Charleston, SC. and died in 1934 in NO; his parents were Pietro Porretto and Francesca Carollo (b. ~1852), who were married in NYC in 1884 (we can assume that they were common-law spouses before formalizing their marriage). In 1880, the Porrettos were living in Astoria, OR, where Pietro worked as a "huckster" (probably a fruit peddler). While the elder siblings in the family were listed as born in Massachusetts, two younger siblings were born in California; it seems that after South Carolina, the Porettos decamped to San Francisco, then Oregon, then Louisville, KY, where they were recorded as living in 1900. Pietro was listed as a fruit merchant. In 1896, Pietro applied for his US passport in KY, stating that he was born in 1837 in Palermo and had arrived in the US in 1849. In 1910, the year Pietro died, the Porettos were living in NO; a couple of sons stated that they worked for the United Fruit, Co. Francesca died in NO in 1920; I wasn't able to confirm her origins beyond Sicily, and was not able to establish a link to the other NO Carollos, though one would suspect there could've been one. FWIW, Carollo is most concentrated in Carini and Bagheria. In that light, while Pietro may have been from Palermo Citta, the Porretto surname is also concentrated in Carini.

Maria Frisco was born about 1884 in NO; her parents were Michele Frisco and Nicolina Li Calzi. A bunch of Ancestry.com family trees claim, with no supporting documents, that both were from Contessa Entellina. Michele's 1924 NO death record states that his mother's name was Tortorici; while present in Contessa, Tortorici is also concentrated in Agrigento province, where Li Calzi is also prevalent. If they were actually Agrigentini, a connection to the Gaglianos could make sense.

The Porrettos are an illustrative case study of the often high levels of mobility of earlier Sicilian immigrants in the US, who often traversed the country for various reasons and opportunities as the formation of stable Italian-American communities was still in its infancy.

[B.]

Ok wow, more than I could find. Another Oregon connection. I've been to Astoria many times, huge Finnish community. They still have the Suomi social club there.

If he was the son of a NOPD cop it could raise questions about his potential membership. DeCarlo's comment suggests he saw Poretto as part of the NO Family but again he just refers to him and his son being "Americanized" and doesn't say he's amico nos or anything specific. We know relatives of cops eventually got made in other cities but there were old rules about not making anyone with family in LE and given how traditional NO was (i.e. not allowing members to join the freemasons, etc.) I wouldn't be surprised if they took issue with that. Those are some of the things to consider when evaluating some of these "suspected" guys.

I know Poretto and Marcello had a big falling out in the mid-1960s too. Marcello owned the property where Poretto ran his business and he stopped paying garbage bills. Marcello was even going to flee town for a while because of the heat it brought.

[Pogo The Clown]

I've been to Astoria many times,

A beautiful little town. I love it.


BTW I have in my notes that New Orleans had 12 members in 1990. I believe it was posted on here but I forgot who originally posted it or what the source was. I have a vague recollection that was from an article quoting the feds but I could be wrong on that. Does anyone remember this? Thanks.


Pogo

[PolackTony]

Ok wow, more than I could find. Another Oregon connection. I've been to Astoria many times, huge Finnish community. They still have the Suomi social club there.

If he was the son of a NOPD cop it could raise questions about his potential membership. DeCarlo's comment suggests he saw Poretto as part of the NO Family but again he just refers to him and his son being "Americanized" and doesn't say he's amico nos or anything specific. We know relatives of cops eventually got made in other cities but there were old rules about not making anyone with family in LE and given how traditional NO was (i.e. not allowing members to join the freemasons, etc.) I wouldn't be surprised if they took issue with that. Those are some of the things to consider when evaluating some of these "suspected" guys.

I know Poretto and Marcello had a big falling out in the mid-1960s too. Marcello owned the property where Poretto ran his business and he stopped paying garbage bills. Marcello was even going to flee town for a while because of the heat it brought.

The only Astoria I've been to is in Queens; they have different social clubs there (lol). Side note, but for decades there was a large Finnish (and Norwegian, Swedish) community in Brooklyn. There was a Finnish Society that still existed in Sunset Park, on 40th near 7th Ave, as late as 1996.

The same thing came to mind when I noted that Charles Porretto was a detective, given how traditionally-minded the NO family seems to have been. But then, Charles's father had been a fruit merchant, so one wonders if Pietro Porretto was himself a mafioso. If so, Charles could've been the NO Family's man in the NOPD. NO seems to have had a lot of mafia connections to public corruption, so I'd think they would've made some inroads into the police departments. We know that Chicago had sons of members (like Sam Luisi) who were allegedly directed by the Family to become cops. If Charles Porretto wasn't seen as just a random cop, but rather as a guy within the mafia's circle, then perhaps it wasn't an issue for them. Who knows.

[Wiseguy]

BTW I have in my notes that New Orleans had 12 members in 1990. I believe it was posted on here but I forgot who originally posted it or what the source was. I have a vague recollection that was from an article quoting the feds but I could be wrong on that. Does anyone remember this? Thanks.


Pogo

It's from a 1990 article by Selwyn Raab entitled "A Battered and Ailing Mafia Is Losing Its Grip on America."

The part about New Orleans -

At the age of 80, Carlos Marcello is free on parole. But the crime group that he headed in New Orleans for 35 years is in tatters.
"The all-powerful Godfather is gone, and so is his organization," said Rafael C. Goyenche, the managing director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission in New Orleans, a civic crime-monitoring agency.

New Orleans, with a 100-year history of organized crime gangs, had the oldest Mafia tradition in the country. Mr. Marcello, experts said, controlled the city's Mafia for 30 years until his conviction in 1983 for trying to bribe a Federal judge. After six and a half years in prison, and in poor health, he was paroled last year.

With about 12 members, Mr. Marcello headed the smallest Cosa Nostra family in the country and the organization disintegrated after his conviction. "He didn't make any new members; he didn't train anyone" Mr. Salerno explained. "He wanted to run everything himself."

Peter Marcello, a 28-year-old nephew of Mr. Marcello, had visions of resuscitating the family's underworld fortunes, investigators say. But in July Peter Marcello was arrested and indicted on Federal drug-trafficking charges.

https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/22/us/a ... erica.html

[Snakes]

I've been to Astoria many times,

A beautiful little town. I love it.


BTW I have in my notes that New Orleans had 12 members in 1990. I believe it was posted on here but I forgot who originally posted it or what the source was. I have a vague recollection that was from an article quoting the feds but I could be wrong on that. Does anyone remember this? Thanks.


Pogo

Well, the 1993 FBI list had only two members, so unless 10 died in the intervening three years, then the 1993 number is probably closer to the truth.

[B.]

The only 3 on the FBI's 1985 list are Carlos Marcello, Tony Carollo, and Frank Gagliano. All were confirmed 20+ years earlier.

I think Sam Tumminello was still alive, still not clear why he's on one confirmed member list from the 1960s, not on one from 1968, and then not on the 1985 list. They were only using member sources to confirm the NO members in the 1960s so it wasn't a change in FBI protocol. Maybe the source for Tumminello was deemed less reliable or overlooked when making other lists.

[Pogo The Clown]

Thanks for that Wiseguy. Reading it again it looks like they may have been referring to the number they had when Marcello was running things and not necessarily what they had left in 1990. Trying to come up with a list of members in 1990. We have


Carlos Marcello
Joseph Marcello
Anthony Carollo
Frank Gagliano
Salvatore Tumminello (if still alive in 1990)
Mario Marino (Frattiano IDed him as a NO member he met in the 1970s. I found a Mario Marino who died in NO in 1993. Don't know if it's the same guy)


The Marcello brothers Salvatore, Vincent and Peter were listed as suspected members in 1968 and 1972 and still alive in 1990. Frank Occhipinti was another one who was still alive I believe. There were probably others from those lists who were still alive in 1990. In all likelihood at least some of them were made.


Sebastian "Buster" Salvatore - Some write ups mention him as a top member while others don't. I found this write up that appears to be quoting from an indictment.

https://louisianamafia.wordpress.com/20 ... ans-mafia/

While New Orleans Mafia boss Anthony Carolla, underboss Frank Gagliano, and high ranking members Joseph Marcello, Jr. and Sebastian “Buster” Salvatore, would not be charged in the President Casino case, they would be sentenced in the video poker skim in October of 1996:

This is supported by this info from Salvatore's appeal. Gammarano is of course a Gambino member. He mentions Joe Marcello and Salvatore overseeing things but not the UnderBoss Frank Gagliano in the event of the death or further deterioration in health of the Boss Carollo. This implies that Salvatore was made.


https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-5th-circuit/1097301.html

Agent McHenry's testimony concerning the audiotaped conversations bolstered Tanfield's inculpatory testimony regarding Salvatore's participation in the criminal enterprise.   Agent McHenry testified that the tapes reflected that after Anthony Carollo was hospitalized with a heart attack, John Gammarano decided that should anything further happen to Carollo, the conspirators should talk to either Joe Marcello or Sebastian “Buster” Salvatore.

I wish we could find some of these indictments to be sure. Any others who could have been a member in 1990? From everything I've seen recently it doesn't look like Joseph Gagliano was ever made so it looks like there aren't any NO members remaining in 2022.


Pogo