Chicago Outfit Places of Origin

[PolackTony]

Early on the FBI was only able to confirm Frank Zizzo as a member in Lake County but noted the following names as suspected members and/or associates in the area along with Zizzo:



Also on the list were Fred Brennan, Anthony Pinelli, and Tommy Morgano but I didn't have room to crop them in.

Gus Romeo seems to have been an interesting guy. He was born in 1898 in Memphis, to Antonio Romeo and Teresa Gattuso; Antonio seems to have been from Santa Flavia owned a produce/grocery store in Memphis. It seems that Gus only moved to Gary sometime around 1940, along with a couple of his siblings; at that time, Gus was listed as owning the Central Cafe in Gary. Gus Romeo died in 1976 in Merrillville, IN.

[PolackTony]

Joseph (1917) and Anthony (1919) Gruttadauro were indeed nephews of Pinelli. Their mother was Salvera Miceli, sister of Pinelli’s wife Madeline, while their father was Andrea Gruttadauro of Villarosa. Andrea was a violinist and music teacher and the family lived on the same block of Frontier and Division as Salvera’s family, where Paola Palazzolo’s father-in-law Giuseppe Casabianca also reported a Chicago address. Given Pinelli’s established connections to the Pittsburgh outfit, interesting that the Gruttadauro brothers’ sister Madeline Gruttadauro was born in 1924 in Johnstown, PA. By 1930, the family was back in Chicago; though Salvera was listed as widowed.

In 1940, the Gruttadauro brothers were still living in Chicago. Anthony was busted that year for operating an illegal alcohol still in North Suburban Waukegan. Later described as a top gambling lieutenant for Pinelli’s IN operations, in 1959 Anthony Gruttadauro still seemed to have been living on W Estes on the Far Northside of the City. In 1950, Joe Gruttadauro was charged with running a handbook at North Ave and Halsted, while he lived at Hamlin and Augusta in Humboldt Park.

Younger brother Salvatore Gruttadauro (b. 1921) was identified as an officer in Vince Solano’s LIUNA Local 1 in the 80s and hauled before the President’s Commission on OC hearings for questioning.

[B.]

Gruttadauro should have jammed with Joe Priola. Fuck "trunk music", these guys could start their own Trunk Symphony.

Informant guessing who might be members in Gary circa late 1963:




Not bad guesses overall.

Paul Miccolis was born 1883 and lived in Vandergrift PA outside of Pittsburgh circa 1910 before being in Indiana by WWI. Was a grocery store owner at one point. From Bari so doesn't fit the informant's belief that the mafia was only Sicilian / blood relatives but yet another Pittsburgh connection.

Wonder what it was that made this deceased old time restaurant / tavern operator and grocer seem like a member to the informant. We can see from the rest of his list he had a pretty good read on things so Miccolis must have been a close friend of these guys if nothing else.

[B.]

Oh wait, looks like Miccolis was murdered in 1934. His son-in-law was the "boy alderman" Dan Perrotta who was also killed by alleged "Black Hand" figures the following year:





Miccolis' was said to be involved in bootlegging though authorities believed the murder was the result of his refusal to pay extortionists:



Another article says the same gun was used to kill both Miccolis in 1934 and Perrotta in 1935.

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Seems significant that both of these murders were during the same period Paolo Palazzolo was killed.

An Angelo Miccolis from Philly also killed a sewer contractor from Baltimore in 1945. It was apparently over a card game and the murder took place at a cigar store owned by Philly member Frank Damiano. Looks like Angelo Miccolis was from Bari like Paul Miccolis, possibly the same hometown of Noci. According to online genealogy Paul did have a bro named Angelo in the right age range.

--

EDIT:



^^^ Not sure if the informant is recalling something from decades earlier or if Paul "Choo Choo" Miccolis was a younger man of the same name. Must be a different relative.

EDIT2: I think the above is in reference to Frank Paul Miccolis, known as "Cicci Paul". His son started Chi-Chi's Pizza in California, a reference to his father Cicci.

[PolackTony]

Great info here.

Paul Miccolis was busted in 1922 in a huge bootlegging ring in Gary that included the Mayor of Gary and 50+ Alleged conspirators; Miccolis was stated to have been a deputy at that time. Most of the names in the ring were Slavic (major Balkan, Polish, etc communities in Lake County, IN) — the only other Italian was Vito Schiralli, father of Rocco and Peter Schiralli who were both later linked to the Pinelli crew (Rocco was a public official in Gary, while Peter was named by the Feds as a suspected LCN member). Like the Miccolis, the Schirallis were
also Bares’; the sons were born in WV, suggesting yet another potential link to the Pitt area.

In 1931, Paul Miccolis’s home was attacked by gunmen and 16 shotgun slugs fired into the home through the window, though no one was injured.

Paul Miccolis’s company, Italian Food Products, was the same company reputed to be controlled by or partnered with Palazzolo, and was said to have been a major supplier of sugar for bootlegging operations in the area. As noted in a prior post, when Palazzolo got whacked, the local papers stated that his killing was the latest in a string of 13 unsolved Gary homicides apparently linked to underworld conflict. Not sure what happened there, but it looks like it got very ugly. I doubt that Chicago just decided to wipe out a small, nearby family, of course. I really wonder if the Commission dissolved Gary like they did Newark; if so, maybe some of these guys balked or something and got hit. Or, for all we know, the Gary outfit destroyed itself through factional infighting and then Chicago had to step in and take over what was left. Either way, interesting that Paul Miccolis seems to have been with Palazzolo and then later Frank Paul Miccolis was clearly with the Pinelli crew.

The Frank Rizzo named as a suspected member should be Frank Sam Rizzo, born in 1912 in rural Pike County, MS, along the Louisiana border. His parents were Salvatore Rizzo and Maria Grazia La Pima, apparently both from Borgetto. After the father died in the 20s, the Rizzo family relocated to Gary.

[B.]

Okay so Miccolis was partnered with Palazzolo. Was hard to tell from the articles I saw whether he was an independent being victimized by the mafia or involved with them. Seems pretty clear he was at least an associate of the Gary group, with Cicci Paul Miccolis' association with Morgano showing this continued among relatives later. The informant also saw them as part of the local clique.

His Barese heritage is the only odd thing but when looking at the mainlanders in and around Chicago / C.Heights it wouldn't be weird for Gary to operate the same way. His Gary connections and possible brother/relative Angelo Miccolis being connected to a Philly member makes you wonder too if Paul was already involved with the Pittsburgh underworld before Gary given the mainlanders there. Would also play into Pinelli's Pittsburgh ties.

[PolackTony]

FBI reports say Rockford opposed Frank Buscemi as Joe's successor due to his close ties to Chicago: 1950 census shows Frank Buscemi living in Chicago.
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These reports below are from 1967 I believe, but they mention Charles Vince as a capodecina and mentions Jasper Calo. Was Calo a member in 1963?
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rockford 1967.PNG

Buscemi was living next door to his parents and sister Rose. Rose ended up marrying a Giammarese. Don't know if that name is connected or not.

As Cavita knows better than me, Buscemi was in Chicago from his arrival in the US in 1926. His wife, Giovanna “Jennie” DeMaria was from Chicago and in the 1940s Buscemi stated that he was employed by her father, Vincenzo DiMaria (from Pietraperzia). I’m not sure the exact year that the Buscemis relocated to Rockford but it was obviously after 1950. Vincenzo DiMaria died in ‘57, so was it after that?

Rose Buscemi’s husband, Santo Giammarese, was born in Chicago to Francesco Giammarese and Rosalia D’Aquisto of Bagheria. I don’t know for a fact that they were connected; his stepmother was Grazia LoGalbo. Given their Bagherese origins, good likelihood that someone was connected. There was a Tony Giammarese who was part of a Near Northside robbery “gang” in 1942 that allegedly killed a cop; doesn’t seem to be an immediate relative, however. Interestingly, the ringleader was a kid named Joseph Morreale, a Bagherese name that had some major mafia connections in the 1920s in Chicago; this kid lived on the same block of Evergreen as Frank Buscemi. Tony Priola, Phil Priola’s younger brother, married a Morreale.

PT do you know where these Morreales were from? There were a few of them in Rockford that tied in to the DiSciacca and Galluzzo families and I believe they were from Aragona.

I'm glad that you asked. They were not related to the Aragonese Morreales in Rockford, but they seem to have been a very well-connected family. Cross-posting here to not distract from the Rockford-specific discussion on the other thread.

Ann Marie Morreale, wife of Tony Priola, was born in Chicago to Vincenzo Morreale of Bagheria and Rosina Carramusa of Palermo City. Vincenzo Morreale has been discussed before as he and his brothers were almost certainly mafiosi in Little Sicily. Additionally, Giovanni Oliveri of Corleone was murdered at the "Death Corner" fish store of Salvatore Morreale, who was likely a cousin. Vincenzo's brother Bartolo Morreale married Vita Dispenza, daughter of Chicago rappresentante Rosario Dispenza. I wasn't able to verify whether the Joseph Morreale noted above as a burglary ring leader and suspected cop killer was related to these other Morreales; I just have him as born in MO in 1923 to Joseph Morreale and Marion Nuccio.

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The connections don't stop there, however. Rosina Carramusa was the sister of Francesco Paolo "Frank" Carramusa, father of KC narcotics trafficker Carl Carramusa (born in Chicago and named after Frank and Rosina's father Carlo Carramusa; Carl's mother was Vincenza "Jennie" San Filippo, of Porticello/Solanto). Carl Carramusa ratted out his KC partners, including Nicolo Impastato and Joe DeLuca, in a major France-Cuba-Florida-Midwest morphine importation ring and then made the brilliant move of returning to Chicago to live in Humboldt Park (arguably one of the most dangerous places in the country for a guy like him to move). He was, predictably, slain by gunmen in front of his family at Chicago Ave and Lawndale (Joe Gags/Cerone-land).

Carl Carramusa (1908-1945), brother of Tony Carramusa, who was murdered by the Black Hand in 1914. Leader in the drug ring, turned prosecution witness and was shot to death in Chicago. Carramusa’s sister married the brother of Joseph Gurera. He worked as a manager under Nicola Impostato.
Carl Carramusa was an Illinois-born mobster who served as the front man for Kansas City operations of an international narcotics ring. Ignazio Antinori, a high-ranking member of the Tampa borgata, organized the drug ring and imported the drugs from France by way of Havana and had them transported to Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, and other locations where crime families existed. Carramusa was born in Chicago as Carlo Carramusa on August 24, either in 1907 or 1908, to Frank (Francesco) Carramusa, a native of the Province of Palermo, and Vincenza Sanfilippo. Frank's parents were Carlo Carramusa and Olivia Spano, and Vincenza's father was Pietro Sanfilippo, who also came from the Province of Palermo. Some of Pietro's siblings were born in Porticello, Santa Flavia. Vincenza's parents came from Solanto, next to Santa Flavia. In Chicago, the Carramusas lived in the rear of 818 Milton Avenue. Francesco Carramusa was a grocer; his naturalization was witnessed by Mike Coniglio, who was probably from Corleone and lived at 114 Milton. Carl Carramusa and his family moved to Kansas City when he was a child. When Carl was a boy his younger brother, 11-year-old Frank Jr, was murdered by the local Mafia in Kansas City. As an adult, despite the death of his brother, he joined the Kansas City Family and operated Carey's Modernistic bar at 3223 Troost Street. He married Leona Varveris on October 30, 1928, in Kansas City; they already had a daughter, Virginia Marie, on August 30, 1927. The Carramusas had a son, Frank, in 1938. In 1942 the Federal Bureau of Narcotics arrested Carramusa and several other members of the Kansas City, St. Louis and Tampa Families. Ignazio Antinori was not arrested - he was accused of selling inferior quality narcotics and they buyers demanded their money back. He refused and was shot to death in 1940. His sons Paul and Joseph replaced him in the drug ring and were among those arrested. Carramusa decided to turn and became a government witness. His brother's alleged killer sat in the front row and made threatening gestures toward him; police escorted him out and arrested him. Carramusa was given four years for his participation, but joined the Army, leading the judge to dismiss one charge and place him on probation for the others. He was able to leave the Army in 1944 and was advised to move to a safe location far from the Mafia. He chose to move to Chicago - but with a new name. His brother Sam lived nearby at 1145 N. Lawndale Avenue, and his father also lived in the city. The new name he chose, Carl Carey, was actually the same alias he previously used in Kansas City. He opened up an ornamental furniture business, De Pac Wood Products, Inc. at 506 S. Wells Street. Joseph "De Grassia" was Carramusa's partner. Rocco DeGrazia of Melrose Park had a brother named Joseph. On June 21, 1945, as Carramusa sat in his car in front of his house at 837 N. Lawndale Avenue, a car with three men fired at him with a shotgun, blowing his head off. The gunmen fired three times from the slow-moving car driving north on Lawndale Avenue. His 15 or 16-year-old daughter and her two friends saw the whole thing. His wife, Leona, was pregnant with another child. The widow told police that they were waiting for Carl to drive them to a baby shower in her honor. Nicolo Impastato of the Kansas City borgata was suspected of being one of the gunmen. Daughter Virginia married Carl Gurera in Kansas City in 1950. Carl Gurera's older brother was Joseph Frank Gurera, a made member of the Kansas City Family who spent time in Milwaukee.

Francesco Paolo Carramusa seems to have been a mafioso himself, who I would suspect transferred between the Chicago and KC families. At the time of his murder, the Tribune noted that Carl Carramusa had a cousin named Phillip Morreale. This was a son of Vincenzo and Rosina. In 1939, Phillip Morreale married Frances Presto, born in Chicago to Rosario Prestigiacomo and Rosa Lo Galbo of Bagheria. Rosario seems to have been the brother of the infamous Pasquale "Patsy Presto" Prestigiacomo, partner of Joe Aiello.

At the Kefauver hearings in 1950, the Feds claimed that Nicolo Impastato was himself linked to Chicago. Antiliar has stated that Nicolo's father was a Giacomo Impastato, so it's worth noting that the Springfield/Chicago/Detroit Impastatos had the names Giacomo and Nicolo in their family as well; good bet that they were cousins.



Worth noting here that Chicago member (a capodecina, according to Jimmy Fratianno) Jimmy Franzone was traveling to Europe with Paul Antinori; Franzone was alleged by several sources to have been heavily involved with drug trafficking over the years. The mother of Salvatore Morreale, son of Vinzeno Morreale's brother Giuseppe, married a woman whose mother was Franzone from Borgetto, possibly a cousin of Jimmy Franzone. Paul and Joe's father Ignazio Antinori was murdered in 1940; the story that I've seen was that Antinori was hit by Chicago in revenge for a bad shipment of narcotics. I don't know if there is anything substantive to support this. Paul Antinori, Jr disputed this story in a write-up of his family's genealogy:

Later, after prohibition, there was involvement in smuggling Chinese immigrants, a very lucrative trade, as well as narcotics from
Cuba. Ignazio would display his wealth ostentatiously, with expensive linen suits, diamond pins and rings, cars, etc. The Trafficantes
and Diecidues were "eating soup" while Ignazio was making influential political contacts in the US in Chicago, Europe and Cuba, and
living very well.

***
Ignazio was not murdered by the Chicago mob, as was rumored, dealing with a bad delivery of drugs which had been cut. Nick
Impestato from Chicago was a friend of the Antinori's and would stay at the Braddock street house when in town. Joe Antinori and
Sam Toto Ferrara were in Cuba at the same time of Ignazio's death investigating the cause of the bad delivery. It is unknown whether
they resolved anything in Cuba.

This was Nicolo Impastato, brother of Vito and Giacamo Impastato of Springfield and Chicagoland (Calumet City/Hammond). Nick Impastato entered the US in 1910 bound for STL; by 1915, he was in Detroit, where he worked as a wholesale truck driver. Though the 1930 and 1940 censuses have Nick in Detroit, a family tree states that he lived in Tamp in 1939, which fits with Antinori's claim here. Interesting though that Antinori saw him as a Chicago rather than Detroit guy, likely due to his brothers.

[PolackTony]

Pasquale Prestigiacomo, aka "Patsy Presto", was born in 1885 in Bagheria and arrived in 1909 at NYC bound for Chicago, where brother Rosario Prestigiacomo was already living. Their parents were Carmelo Prestigiacomo and Providenza LaRocca. In 1911, Pasquale married Concetta Lanza, also of Bagheria. By 1917, they were living at 641 N Cicero in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the Westside, where Pasquale also owned and operated a grocery store. "Patsy Presto" entered the annals of Chicago's bloody mafia wars as the business partner of Joe Aiello in the Italo-American Importing Co, located at 1104 W Randolph on the Near Westside. In October of 1930, Aiello was slain leaving Pasquale's home at 205 N Kolmar (near West End Ave) in the Garfield Park neighborhood. Though Pasquale was said to have left his home accompanying Aiello when the latter was executed in a barrage of machine gun fire, the Tribune reported that Pasquale "by miracle or design had escaped the hail of lead". Pasquale fled and went into hiding following the Aiello hit, with investigators telling the papers that they believed that "Presto" had betrayed Aiello and divulged his whereabouts to the "Capone gang", who had then set up a machine gun nest in an apartment across the street from Pasquale's home. Several days later, Pasquale reappeared and was questioned by investigators. Pasquale told investigators that Aiello had come to his home about a week before the killing asking for a safe place to stay; as one of his most "intimate friends", Pasquale had allowed Aiello to stay at his home but vehemently denied having set Aiello up.

Following Aiello's murder, Pasquale did well for himself. In the following years, Pasquale and brother Rosario Prestigiacomo established and operated the Roma Macaroni Manufacturing Company, located on Grand and Wolcott in the Grand Ave Patch. Roma was sold decades later to major national brand Prince Pasta. Pasquale died in Chicago in 1953, while Rosario had already died in 1943.

As noted above, Rosario's daughter Frances Presto married Phillip Morreale, son of likely mafia member Vincenzo Morreale, great-nephew of Rosario Dispenza, and cousin of KC narcotics trafficker and turncoat Carl Carramusa. Pasquale and Concetta's son Charles P. Presto (b. 1912 in Chicago) married Henrietta/Annette Allegra (b. 1913 in Chicago); indicating the social standing of their families, both spouses had college degrees. Annette's father was Vincenzo Allegra, born in 1882 in Castelvetrano to Francesco Paolo Allegra and Antonina Mule, while her mother was Angelina Genovese, born in Sicily (most likely in Castelvetrano) to Pietro Genovese of Palazzo Adriano and Caterina Pisciotta of Castelvetrano; Vincenzo and Angelina married in Chicago in 1911. The Allegras lived on Van Buren near Halsted just to the north of the Taylor St Patch, and Vincenzo worked as a salesman for the wholesale business of the Morici Bros from Bagheria; his 1917 naturalization was witnessed by Agostino Morici and Giovanni Gagliardo. These names were notorious in Chicago in the 1920s, and the Moricis and Gagliardos were further linked to the infamous Pietro Montalbano of Castelvetrano, as we've discussed previously on this thread. When Vincenzo Allegra arrived in the US in 1907, he stated that his cousin was a Montalbano in Chicago.
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Given his origin in Castelvetrano, one wonders if Vincenzo Allegra had any connection to Sicilian pentito Dr. Melchiorre Allegra, as they were about the same age, with Melchiorre born in nearby Gibellina in 1881 and having close ties to the mafia in Castelvetrano. Worth noting that Allegra is not a common surname in Trapani province, where it is highly concentrated in Castelvetrano. Not at all uncommon for families to intermarry between these neighboring towns in central/southern Trapani, and I'd think it's a good bet that Melchiorre's family was originally from Castelvetrano.

In later years, the Allegras in Chicago lived at Central Park and Adams in the FifthCity/East Garfield Park neighborhood on the Westside. Vincenzo operated his own produce wholesaling business and was living in River Forest, with figures such as Accardo and Ricca, when he died in 1971. Sons Peter and Frank Allegra went on to found Allegra Ford, Inc in North Riverside. Frank Allegra was an usher in the wedding of Angelo Fosco in the 1940s. Angelo was, of course, the son of Pizzone Society President, Cook County Commissioner, 20th Ward Democratic Committeeman, and Hod Carriers/LIUNA powerhouse Pietro "Peter" Fosco and was himself later National President of the LIUNA and Vice President of the AFL-CIO Executive Council.

If Pasquale Prestigiacomo had indeed set up his friend and partner Joe Aiello to be whacked, it wouldn't have been a surprising turn of events. In times of conflict within the mafia, the supporters and/or underlings of a notorious partisan may have never approved of the conflict in the first place, or may tire of the violence and disruption to business over time. We see this with the supporters of both Masseria and Maranzano turning on and killing them. It also seems likely that some of the men apparently with Vincenzo Benevento -- the "three Doms", Ross Prio, possibly also DeGeorge, Bacino, Pinelli -- turned on him and sided with the Accardo faction. Augie Maniaci reported that Sam Aiello disagreed with his relative's campaign against Capone, so it would be completely unsurprising if Prestigiacomo did harbor Aiello and then set him up. Prestigiacomo never fled Chicago, even temporarily, as some other Aiello men did, and his family did very well for themselves in the years following the resolution of the conflict in Chicago.

[PolackTony]

Uncorrected typo in an above post, should read:

Franzone was alleged by several sources to have been heavily involved with drug trafficking over the years. Salvatore Morreale, son of Vincenzo Morreale's brother Giuseppe, married a woman whose mother was a Franzone from Borgetto, possibly a cousin of Jimmy Franzone.

[B.]

It keeps on coming. Amazing connections all around.

When Allegra was proposed for membership in Palermo they told him he came from a "very good family" in Castelvetrano which implied to me Allegra had relatives in Cosa Nostra. If this guy was a relative in Chicago that'd be big, especially with the big role Castelvetrano played in the Chicago Family. These guys often protect their own relatives even when they cooperate but Allegra did know a surprising amount about some of the US mafia politics in the 1920s.

If it's true Prestigiacomo betrayed Aiello it plays into what Maniaci said about his "brother" / fellow member Sam Aiello being opposed to Joe. It was not as simple as the Sicilians vs. Americanized/non-Sicilian but like many or most mafia conflicts there were paesani and Sicilians opposed to each other or otherwise willing to betray their friends for the "greater good". Like Michael DiLeonardo said on his show about an NY Sicilian's joke about the Sicilian mafia war -- "the problem with Sicily? Too many Sicilians."

[PolackTony]

It keeps on coming. Amazing connections all around.

When Allegra was proposed for membership in Palermo they told him he came from a "very good family" in Castelvetrano which implied to me Allegra had relatives in Cosa Nostra. If this guy was a relative in Chicago that'd be big, especially with the big role Castelvetrano played in the Chicago Family. These guys often protect their own relatives even when they cooperate but Allegra did know a surprising amount about some of the US mafia politics in the 1920s.

If it's true Prestigiacomo betrayed Aiello it plays into what Maniaci said about his "brother" / fellow member Sam Aiello being opposed to Joe. It was not as simple as the Sicilians vs. Americanized/non-Sicilian but like many or most mafia conflicts there were paesani and Sicilians opposed to each other or otherwise willing to betray their friends for the "greater good". Like Michael DiLeonardo said on his show about an NY Sicilian's joke about the Sicilian mafia war -- "the problem with Sicily? Too many Sicilians."

With the Aiello thing, 110%. Sicilians were slaughtering each other in Chicago years before Capone. Almost certainly Benevento fell to a similar betrayal by his own erstwhile allies.

Will keep looking into a potential connection to Melchiorre and Vincenzo Allegra. I think it's a very real possibility. Given that Vincenzo Allegra seems to have been related to the Montalbanos, we may be getting a glimpse of some of the core families in the Castelvetrano mafia at that time.

[PolackTony]

To continue with the theme of Trapanesi in the Taylor St Patch. In 1908, Girolamo Salvatore Giancana was born in Chicago to Antonino Giancana and Antonina Di Simone and baptized at Holy Guardian Angel Parish under the name "Momo Salvatore Giangano" ("Momo" of course being the traditional Sicilian diminutive for Girolamo). Momo's godparents were Giovanni Accardi Zito of Campobello di Mazara, Trapani, and Ignazia Pusateri LoCoco of Termini Imerese, who had married in 1909 at Holy Guardian Angel.

The Giancanas arrived in NYC in December 1906 bound for Chicago with their 1-month-old daughter Antonina, born in Castelvetrano. Antonina DiSimone was born in Castelvetrano, while Antonino stated that he was born in Partanna; the family's last residence was Castelvetrano. They were bound for Chicago where Antonino and Antonina stated that their brother-in-law Nicola Sciaccotta lived on Harrison St in the Taylor St Patch. They were accompanied by several other Castelvetranesi bound for either Chicago or Brooklyn (where a different Antonino Giancana from Partanna also lived, very likely a cousin), including Caterina Genovese who stated that her husband Pietro Genovese lived on S Clark St at the far eastern end of the Taylor St colony, and Nicola Pisciotta's niece Caterina "Peronella" [spelling unclear, but Perinello is a Trapanese surname].

It has been stated that Antonino Giancana was from Castelvetrano, but this was almost certainly not the case. Upon arrival in the US, he stated that he was born in Partanna, as he also did on his 1940 naturalization declaration and WW2 draft card. After Antonina died in 1910, Antonino remarried Maria Leonardo (Leonardi), born in Marsala to parents from Partanna, at Holy Guardian Angel. Antonino gave his parents as Momo Giancana and Nina Sammartano, while Maria gave hers as [FNU] Leonardi and Rosaria Falletta. While the marriage document stated that both parties were born in Castelvetrano, given other documents this seems to have been technically erroneous. As noted, Antonino had emigrated to the US from Castelvetrano and was tightly connected to Castevetrani in the Taylor St community. Possible also that migrants from Partanna in Chicago saw themselves as part of a broader "Castelvetranesi" compaesani network there. Further, when Maria Leonardi was struck by a speeding car and died in 1926, her death record stated that she was born in Marsala but her parents were from Partanna, while records for her brother Baldassare Leonardi (parents Calogero Leonardi and Rosaria Falletta; note that both Baldassare and Maria Leonardi had sons named Charles), who died in Chicago in 1928, stated that he was born in Partanna. The surname Falletta is recorded in Partanna, but not in Castevetrano or Marsala. Additionally, the Giancana surname is not common and after reviewing dozens of records for Giancanas in the 19th century, they are almost all in Partanna. A couple of individuals who died in Partanna named Giancana were born in Partanna. In 1913 in NYC, A Giuseppina Giancana, born 1887 in Partanna, married a guy from Catania. she gave her parents as Girolamo Giancana and Antonina Barrese. Antonino Giancana's father was named Girolamo, while his mother ("Nina"; i.e., Antonina) was named Sammartano on his 1910 marriage document, so I think it's a good possibility that Guseppina was Antonino's sister. While I wasn't able to verify the Nicola Pisciotta who was listed as Antonino's "brother-in-law" in 1906, there were Piscotta/Pisciottos in Chicago from Marsala and Campobello di Mazara.

In 1910, Antonino and Mooney (listed as "Jimmy", 2 years old, James being a common Anglicization of Girolamo) with Antonino's brother-in-law, Antonino Sciaccotta (from Castelvetrano), presumably the brother of the Nicola Sciaccotta listed when the Giancanas arrived in the US (there is a record for a Nick Sciaccotta in Chicago as early as 1890) on Vernon Park Pl and Carpenter (on the same block there were Pisciottos, a surname from Castelvetrano that was among those on the same ship as the Giancanas). After Antonino remarried Maria Leonardi, they lived on Morgan St at Polk. These locations are of course in the immediate area where Pietro Montalbano and the Gennas lived. Even if Antonino was not connected to the mafia, he would've presumably been familiar with the Trapanese mafiosi in the neighborhood. In 1928, Antonino's brother-in-law Baldassare "Benny" Leonardi died, Antonino (two times a widower) married Benny's widow, Caterina Caltagirone, from Marsala (there were also Caltagirones from Castelvetrano next to the Giancanas on the 1906 ship).

By 1927, Mooney was already a suspect in two murders. In September of 1928, Antonino's Italian ice business on Taylor by Laflin (it's the parking lot for Rosebud today, which I'm sure the Chicagoans here will really appreciate) was bombed twice. The Tribune reported that When Giancana and his partners Anthony Grimaldi (a Tony Grimaldi lived next door on Morgan St to the Giancanas in 1917; not sure where he was from, but there were plenty of Grimaldis in the area around Castevetrano, and there were Grimaldis from Trapani also living on Morgan St in 1917), and Thomas Russo (stated by the Trib to be an alleged "bootlegger") were in front of the store, a car full of assailants opened fire with a shotgun and hit Grimaldi (who survived), Antonino struggled with the attackers and was beaten with their guns and hospitalized. Hard to say if this could be a clue that Antonino was himself connected, or if he was targeted because of Mooney. In 1929, JB Accardo's dad, Francesco Accardo of Castelvetrano, also had his house bombed. In either or both cases, these men may have been targeted due to their sons, or there could be more to the story. While the Trib noted that Sam Giancana, like Russo, was known as a bootlegger, they didn't link the attack to Mooney.

Apparently, the Giancanas decided that it was time to get out of the Taylor St Patch. In 1930, they were living in Cicero, at 3709 58th Ave near the border of Stickney. Unsurprising that Mooney was later said to have been in charge of a crew based in Cicero before he became boss. By 1940, Antonino was back in the patch, living on Hermitage by Taylor, while Mooney was living in the next neighborhood to the west, at Lexington and California in Homan Square (the "suburbs" of the Taylor St Patch, very near to where Chuckie Nicoletti, who lived a couple blocks up Lexington by Campbell at this same time, and a number of other Outfit-connected figures lived). Mooney had married Angeline DeTolvo, born 1909 in Chicago to parents from Matera province, Basilicata. Both Angeline and Antonino died in 1954.

Mooney Giancana's older sister Antonina "Lena" Giancana, born in 1906 in Castelvetrano, married Antonino "Anthony" Campo in Chicago in 1928. Campo was born in Castelvetrano in 1901 to Leonardo Campo and Caterina Randazzo of Castelvetrano. Antonino first arrived in Chicago in 1923, then apparently returned to Sicily, and then returned to Chicago permanently in late 1927. Lena Giancana died young in 1942. When he was naturalized later in 1946, Antonino Campo was living on the 1500 block of W Harrison in the Taylor St Patch with their children and stated that he was a restaurant owner. One of his witnesses was Pasquale Sciroppo, also from Castelvetrano and living in the Taylor St Patch, and married to a Bertolino from Marsala. Antonino's brother, Domenico Campo, who lived in Jamestown, Chautauqua County, NY, for several decades before moving to Chicago where he died in 1967, was also married to a Bertolino. Antonino died in Chicago in 1980.

In the 1960s, Milwaukee member Augie Maniaci identified Domenico Campo as the sotto capo of the Springfield, IL, family. There were two Domenico Campos in Springfield -- though neither were the Giancana in-law, they still may very well have been connected. One Domenico was born ~1885 in Montevago, Agrigento. Another was born ~1881 in Montevago and was married to the other Domenico's sister Calogera Campo. So they were likely cousins and in-laws, related to a group of immigrants from Montevago who settled in both Chicago and Springfield. Now, the 1881 Domenico Campo and his wife Calogera Campo both stated that before they arrived in the US bound for Illinois, they had previously lived in Castelvetrano. The Campo surname is far more common in the Western Agrigento towns around the Belice Valley (Santa Margherita, Montevago, Menfi) than in Castelvetrano, so I would guess that the Castelvetrano Campos here probably traced back to Agrigento. Genealogies of families from across the Mazara/Belice region spanning Trapani and Agrigento provinces show frequent intermarriages and moves between these densely clustered towns -- unsurprisngly the mafia of those towns have also long been closely intertwined. Several years back, fugitive Castelvetrano boss Matteo Messina Denaro was allegeldy being harbored by the Campo family in Santa Margherita, a comune basically conjoined to Montevago. In turn, Montevago directly borders Partanna which borders Castelvetrano -- the Campos in Santa Margherita have been stated over the years to have been longtime close allies and supporters of the Castelvetrano mafia. That individuals connected to the mafia in Chicago and Springfield from both Castelvetrano/Partanna and Montevago would show familial/marriage links between these comuni should be totally unsurprising.

That Antonino Campo seems to have settled in Chicago permanently in 1927 coincides with the heavy crackdown on the mafia in that area under Prefect Mori during the Mussolini regime. Castelvetranese mafia member Dr. Melchiorre Allegra (himself quite possibly related to people connected to the mafia in Chicago) stated that the mafia in Castelvetrano disbanded around this time due to state pressure (to be reconstituted following WW2). While I don't know that Antonino Campo was involved in criminal activities in Chicago, if he had been connected in Castelvetrano it would have been the time to leave for good. His later brother-in-law in Chicago requires no explication.

During the 1925-1926 war for control of the Chicago family following the death of boss Michele Merlo, the police and press repeatedly claimed that the Marsalesi Genna brothers were "importing" gunmen from back in Sicily as reinforcements. Notorious figures such as the Marsalese Antonino Spano, aka "Giuseppe Nerone", aka "Il Cavaliero" -- reputedly a genteel and educated man who was also a ruthless killer, killed in Chicago Heights in 1926 -- and the shadowy Giuseppe Accardi/Accardo, deported back to Sicily in 1929, cited as examples. While LE and the papers got many things wrong, this particular claim seems to be supported by the early 1970s Chicago member informant (possibly Leonard Gianola) who stated that the Gennas, among others, were actively bringing their relatives and paesani over to Chicago. Likely, for the Gennas this included not just their hometown of Marsala, but paesani from other Trapani comuni, who mainly settled with the Marsalesi along Taylor St and Grand Ave.

While Mooney Giancana often seems to have been portrayed over the years as an acutely "Americanized" mafioso, we know very little about his personal sense of identity or cultural outlook (beyond that he was said to speak in "Sicilian" when discussing business by girlfriend Judith Exner). So it's worth really digging into his familial network, which shows very strong and continuing links to paesani in Trapani; and, possibly, to Western Agrigento and the Springfield family. Recall from above that another Giancana sister married the son of Giuseppe DelBuono, aka "Michale Blando", an alleged partner of Spano/Nerone also murdered in 1926. Then, we have the repeated bombings and shotgun attack on Mooney's father Antonino Giancana on Taylor St in 1927. At this point, I'd bet good money that Giancana's father was himself at least "connected", and quite possibly a mafioso, part of a broader group of Trapanesi mafiosi in Chicago of whom we only know the most publicly notorious affiliates.

Sometimes a picture speaks a thousand words. Though his face is no indictment or evidence of mafia activity, Antonino Campo certainly had the "look" (1946):

[PolackTony]

Alfonso Tornabene was born 1923 in Chicago to Carmelo Tornabene and Maria Carlisi, of Canicattì, Agrigento. Carmelo and Maria married in Orange, NJ in 1908 and later moved to Chicago. For years, the family lived on Townsend near Hobbie in Little Sicily. Later, the family moved down to 14th near Wood, south of the Taylor St Patch (across the L tracks from where the Costco is today).

Maria Carlisi arrived in NYC in 1906 with her father Alfonso and younger sister Rosa Carlisi, all from Canicattì. Their contact was her older brother Giuseppe Carlisi, residing on Elizabeth St in Lower Manhattan's Little Italy. Giuseppe Carlisi arrived in NYC from Canicattì in 1904, bound for his cousin Francesco Ferrugia, who resided on Elizabeth St. In 1908, Giuseppe married Calogera Cassano, born in Canicattì and having arrived in NYC in 1907. Subsequently, they moved to Chicago where their first child Rosario "Roy" Carlisi was born in 1909. Then the Carlisis moved to Upstate NY, where in 1921 Salvatore/Samuel Anthony Carlisi was born in Gloversville, halfway between Albany and Utica. Later, the Carlisis moved to Western NY, where Roy Carlisi stayed and became a member of the Buffalo family. In the 1930s, Sam moved to Chicago Chicago with his parents, where they lived on Polk near Cicero in West Garfield Park in 1940. Prior to his return to Chicago, Giuseppe Carlisi was apparently questioned along with his son Roy about a murder in Buffalo. in 1937, Giuseppe Carlisi was arrested along with sons Roy and Alfonso for operating a still in Cicero (Alfonso Carlisi was born 1913 in Chicago and in 1940 was residing in Cicero). Seems like a good bet that Giuseppe Carlisi may have also been a mafia member.

When Giuseppe Carlisi died in Chicago in 1953, his parents were listed as Alfonso Tornabene and Josephine Drago; these were, of course, the parents of Al Tornbene's mother Maria Carlisi, who died 1967 in McHenry County, as well.

EDIT: Worth noting that there was a Salvatore Tornabene, a tavern keeper in south suburban Harvey, who was murdered in 1935. Almost certainly not related to Al Tornabene, as Salvatore Tornabene was born about 1904 in Lascari, Palermo province.

For the record, Al Tornabene was indeed related to Gambino member Salvatore Tornabe, who was born in Canicattì (Tornabe was mislabelled in some sources as a Profaci captain, but as B and HK have posted in another thread, he was pretty clearly a Gambino member).

I have Al Tornabene's father, Carmelo Tornabene, as the brother of Salvatore Tornabe's father, Mariano Tornabene. Their parents were Salvatore Tornabene and Concetta Cassaro, both of Ravanusa (where the Tornabene surname is much more common than in Canicattì); hence, both Carmelo and Mariano named their firstborn sons Salvatore (e.g., Al's eldest brother, Salvatore "Sam" Tornabene).

Also, the Sam Tornabene who was the "lieutenant" of Salvatore LoVerde and Cipriano Argento in the 1930 bootlegging case seems to have been the Salvatore Tornabene from Lascari who was killed in Harvey in 1935.

[B.]

Yeah that's an f'n amazing discovery, man.

So the Carlisi-Tornabenes were relatives of the Gambino Tornabe(ne). I think he must have been a Gambino capodecina since he attended Apalachin, maybe an interim one between some of the other Canicattese Gambino leaders. Whether there was direct succession or not they had guys from Canicatti as captains through a lot of the Family's history.

Ravanusa also makes sense for the Chicago Tornabenes since the Carlisis were close to guys from there in Buffalo and it's near Canicatti. Buffalo member and future captain Charles Cassaro was from Ravanusa and the Carlisis' mother was a Cassaro and a sister married a Charles Cassaro but I don't know if it was the Buffalo member.

We also have the Carlisi brothers holding high ranks in two Families, plus Tornabene himself taking on a role. There's something about Canicatti/Ravanusa producing various leaders in different cities.

Another possible connection is the Vaccaro that CC talked about who appears to have been an early Lupo/Gambino figure from Canicatti that ended up in Rochester which brings to mind the Carlisis in WNY.

[PolackTony]

Rappresentante Rosario Dispenza was born in Ciminna in 1869 to Nicola Dispenza and Vera Ganci. In 1899, Rosario arrived at NYC bound for Chicago, with his wife Francesca Spatafora (b. ~1872), daughter Vita (b. 1895), and son Nicola (b. 1897), all born in Ciminna. They were bound for a man named Matteo (surname illegible) who lived on Milton Ave in Little Sicily; Rosario stated that he was his brother-in-law.

As noted above, daughter Vita married Bartolo Morreale of Bagheria. Son Nicola, who went by Nicholas R. Dispenza, dropped out of school after 1 year of high school and worked in industrial jobs as a young man. By 1930, he was working as a real estate agent. In that same year he founded Downtown Parking Stations, Inc., which controlled important parking facilities in the Loop for decades; Dispenza was also an executive of the Central Parking council, a business association of major Loop parking garage and lot owners. In 1940, police questioned Dispenza as a person of interest in the shooting of Benjamin Kissel, who owned 16 Loop lots. Kissel was shot in his apartment; police believed that the motive lay in the shady Loop parking business, as Kissel's wife was unmolested in the attack while wearing $4000 worth of diamonds. Kissel, who had pulled himself out of the Parking council 6 months prior to the shooting, told police that Dispenza had threatened him over the phone recently. At the time of the shooting, Kissel was said to have been trying to open a new lot that would threaten to pull business from one of Dispenza's facilities. Dispenza denied making any threats and was never charged in connection with the shooting. The papers noted that since opening his parking company, Dispenza had come to own or control valuable Loop property.

Despite this incident, Dispenza went on to become a major figure in Chicago's Italian, business, and philanthropic communities. In the 1950s, Dispenza held events with the leadership of the Italo-American National Union (the "Unione Siciliana"), then under the control of outfit member Joseph Imburgio Bulger, and was a personal associate of Giacomo Profili, Italian Consul General in Chicago. Dispenza also sat on the executive board of the Lyric Opera and was a trustee of DePaul University. Nicholas R. Dispenza died in Chicago in 1981 (see Mugshots).


EDIT: Worth noting that for many years, the Loop parking business was reputed to have been controlled by outfit-connected interests. Gus Alex, Frank Ferraro, and Ricca son-in-law Alex Ben Ponzio all owned or controlled Loop parking facilities. Additionally, Angelo Franzone, brother of possible Chicago capo Jimmy Franzone, was apparently pulling in a nice income while ostensibly working as a Loop parking attendant.