Visiting New Orleans

[motorfab]

Pogo, by Joseph Gagliano you mean the son of Frank ? If so I think I also read that

[Pogo The Clown]

Pogo, by Joseph Gagliano you mean the son of Frank ? If so I think I also read that

Yeah. He was very active in the 99s but it doesn't look like he was made.


Pogo

[stubbs]

Would be interesting to find out how John Vaccaro from New Orleans ended up a made member in the LA family.

His obit says he died in 2015 and that he had lived in Clark County (Las Vegas) since 1960.

I believe Vaccaro was the one who brought the whole casino skim idea to the New Orleans family after having previously done similar scams in Vegas. He was also in the Nevada gaming commission’s black book.

Here’s another article on Vaccaro and his casino scams.

Kenji writes about Vacarro in his blog here and says he knew and worked with Carlos Marcello.

Also, interestingly enough Dominick Gullo, the guy who was busted with Joseph Gagliano in 2014 with the “sniper van” also was from New Orleans but lived in Vegas since the mid-1960s. He died in 2020 and his obit is here. No idea if he was made, but I thought it was interesting.

[B.]

Didn't realize Gammarano was in close contact with NO in the mid-1990s. So that's the 1990 meeting Gravano talked about, mid-1990s w/ Gammarano, and then the later (early 2000s?) meeting with George Remini. I wrote in my recent article about how Joe N. Gallo looks to have maintained contact with NO in the 1960s through relatives in Birmingham. Despite not being formally represented on the Commission it seems like they consistently used the Gambinos as their defacto contact at least during the Marcello era and afterward.

Too hard to gauge whether they made some of the younger guys like Joe Gagliano. Going to stick with arguing about 1963-1968 haha.

[Patrickgold]

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

What happened to Peter Marcello? Never heard of him

[stubbs]

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

What happened to Peter Marcello? Never heard of him

Looks like he may be a civilian now. This article says he pleaded guilty on this case. No idea what is sentence was. The article says Peter Marcello's father was "Sammy" Marcello, which seems to be Salvatore "Sam" Marcello, brother of Carlos.

The article also mentions a relative named Vincent Marcello did time for cocaine trafficking. There's a Vincent Marcello who is a big time real estate investor in New Orleans, but not sure if this is the same Vincent or if there's multiple with the same name. Carlos also had a brother named Vincent, and as we know, names tend to get re-used often.

[stubbs]

Info from a 1970 Life Magazine article below:

Says in 1966 the DOJ launched raids on Marcello-controlled gambling warehouses in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma(!). 

Santo Trafficante said the raids were evidence that Marcello was losing his grip on the New Orleans family and that he should be replaced. Trafficante was apparently backing Anthony Carollo in his bid to take over the family. Carollo's father, Sam Carollo, snuck illegally back into the US from his exile in Italy in an attempt to help mediate the dispute between his son and Marcello.

The previous September, police broke up a gambling operation at the Royal Coach Inn in Houston. Included in the arrested were two men from Louisiana: Frank Caracci and Frank "Tickie" Saia, the latter described as a close friend of both Louisiana Governor McKeithen and US Senator Russell Long.

The federal Small Business Administration loaned $835,000 to Marcello-owned enterprises in 1968 and 1969.
----
My own thoughts: Given the levels of corruption the Marcello group seemed to have at all/multiple levels of government in Louisiana, it's shocking how those connections and also the entire organization all seemed to die out with Marcello. He was like a one-man crime wave.

[Antiliar]

Reminder that we did have a thread on this, now in the chart section. The chart CC is working on, however, will have a lot more information.

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=3813

[B.]

Bomp was asked about New Orleans and knew very little despite having visited there earlier. He didn't know Joe Marcello or Jimmy Campo by name.



He was also in contact with New Orleans figures indirectly via LA associates who visited the area.

[Angelo Santino]

And I'm still not sure what to do with this chart, doesn't seem like there's any consensus on confirmed members under the B/U.

[B.]

I listed the confirmed members who should definitely belong. There's just not many of them.

Could go:

Boss - Carlos Marcello
Underboss - Anthony Carollo
Consigliere - Not vacant but we don't know who held it. (suspected member Jimmy campo was rumored)

Confirmed Soldiers:
Frank Gagliano
Sam Tumminello

Possible Members / Proposed Members / Key Associates:
Vincenzo Campo 1905-1972 (suspected consigliere later in 1960s) - Siculiana, Agrigento
Joseph Marcello 1924-1999 - Ravanusa, Agrigento (via Tunis)
Mario "Paul Scarcelli" Presta 1899-1968 - Serra Pedace, Calabria?
+ other living names from the FBN and MF lists

Deported Members:
Salvatore Alongi* 1886-1968 (ID'd by FBI source as former underboss) - Sutera, Caltanissetta
Silvestro Carollo 1896-1972 (former boss) - Terrasini, Palermo
Giuseppe Gagliano 1903-1978 (former underboss, moved to NYC) - Porto Empedocle, Agrigento
Francesco Coppola 1899-1982 - Partinico, Palermo
+ Any others?
+ Also did any of them return to live in New Orleans by 1963?

[Antiliar]

This and several other docs from this period all assert that Campo was the consigliere or mediator:

FBI File NARA 124-10287-10357 - Vincenzo Campo is consigliere.jpg

Nofio Pecora was a member also. Sylvestro Carollo may have still been counted as a member.

[B.]

Posted this earlier but the info on Campo isn't definitive. As of 1967/1968 the FBI clarified they still couldn't confirm he was a member:



The source who said he was consigliere was a non-member and he appears to have been wrong about Joe Marcello being underboss, as Bompensiero believed Carollo was underboss.

I think it's likely Campo was a member and/or consigliere but the info was from a source who was not privy to inside info and it looks like he was mistaken about Joe Marcello.

[Antiliar]

Okay, but I would place Campo as a "suspected consigliere" over "rumored consigliere." In my opinion, although the FBI didn't have him on a confirmed member list, I think there's enough circumstantial evidence to include him as a member for any list I make. I don't have any problems with CC placing him as a suspected member. My criteria might be a little different. As for any of the deported members returning in 1963, I don't think any did. Carollo did spend time in Tijuana while fighting deportation, but that was in the late 1940s/early 1950s. As far as I know he didn't returned to NO until shortly before he died in 1972.

[motorfab]

B, you confused Giuseppe & Gaetano Gagliano : Giuseppe is in the confirmed members and Gaetano in the deported.