Family Councils / Consigli / Seggia / Elders / Inner Circle

[PolackTony]

Interesting wiretap from 1963 Pittsburgh. References to “grand council” and “grand old council”. May be referring to the Commission vs the old Gran Consiglio. Doesn’t seem to be referring to a Family council, but wasn’t sure which thread to post to:

[B.]

Yep, definitely appears to be using Grand Council to refer to the Commission. Like with Gentile's use of it with the Italian Treasury, it might be a sign some people saw the Gran Consiglio as more continuous with the Commission than we realize.

[PolackTony]

Yep, definitely appears to be using Grand Council to refer to the Commission. Like with Gentile's use of it with the Italian Treasury, it might be a sign some people saw the Gran Consiglio as more continuous with the Commission than we realize.

Yeah the reference to “their man” being on the “grand council” I assume was a reference to LaRocca. Interesting to see someone decades later seemingly refer to the Commission as the “grand council” and the former Gran Consiglio as the “grand old council”.

[B.]

They also still used the term "capo" for boss/rappresentante in Pittsburgh longer than other cities, so may have used older language in general.

[PolackTony]

They also still used the term "capo" for boss/rappresentante in Pittsburgh longer than other cities, so may have used older language in general.

Good point.

[InCamelot]

Just catching up on this amazing thread now, great work guys.

Wonder if some of the logic uncovered in this thread can create some more understanding for some of the info about modern Bonanno structure in recent threads ie: Consigliere "musical chairs", the consigliere being the one that calls the shots in the street, and even being consigliere for a day.

[PolackTony]

Yep, definitely appears to be using Grand Council to refer to the Commission. Like with Gentile's use of it with the Italian Treasury, it might be a sign some people saw the Gran Consiglio as more continuous with the Commission than we realize.

Another interesting point to note is the distinction drawn between the “grand old council” and the “12 man council”, as we have the wiretap where Accardo is advising Giancana on how the Commission functions and specifically states that it was composed of 12 men (in explaining to Giancana that he would need 6 other votes for a majority, as 6 votes alone would result in a “stand-off”).

[B.]

While the source was wrong about Nick Civella's status (or at least misinterpreted it), interesting he believed DiGiovanni and Blando were "semi-retired consultants" of "Filardo's group" especially since DiGiovanni was a former boss. Plays into Ricca, Accardo, and John Alioto sitting on their respective councils after stepping down as boss, as well as the rumor of Joe Zerilli stepping down and becoming a "consigliere of power".

Seems possible the KC consiglio could have consisted of Filardo, Cusumano, DiGiovanni, Blando, Binaggia, and/or Civella.

Based on this and the info from Crapisi, it looks like Filardo was probably the chairman / secretary of the council. Crapisi knew Civella to be the boss but believed Filardo and Cusumano were above him which we see with the secretary and consiglio in San Jose and Chicago.

[B.]

Adding to the above, there was the earlier group in KC called the "Five Iron Men" which consisted of Jim Balestrere, Peter and Joseph DiGiovanni, Joseph DeLuca, and Anthony Gizzo. I don't know if the "Five Iron Men" was an outsider phrase or how they were referred to in the Family but five tends to be the number of men on most Family councils and those named would certainly fit.

Crapisi said two successive bosses, Gizzo and Civella, answered to the "Men at the Bakery" which is consistent with Chicago and San Jose, plus the apparent Pittston council where Joe LaTorre said Russell Bufalino answered to Joe Barbara even though he said Bufalino was boss at the time. Barbara also presided over the council meeting where Stefano LaTorre was shelved, which was attended by Bufalino.

Working list of confirmed and possible chairmen/secretaries at various times:

Chicago - Paul Ricca, then Tony Accardo
Detroit - John Priziola
Kansas City - Joe Filardo
Pittsburgh - Salvatore Calderone
Pittston - Joe Barbara
San Jose - Anthony Scavuzzo, Thomas Nicosia, then Stefano Zoccoli

San Francisco had a consiglio when Gentile joined that Family and in later decades I don't know if it still existed but Phil Maita comes across like one, or possibly the official consigliere. In Families with both an official consigliere and consiglio like Rockford it appears he was the chairman. Despite Bompensiero IDing Priziola as the Detroit underboss, Scott says he was told Priziola was the consigliere which would be consistent with the accounts of him chairing the council.

[B.]

Stroccos has referred to this, but here's the report where Tommaso Argento is called "chief counselor" of Cleveland. This would translate to "capo consigliere" which Joe Bonanno says was the traditional function of the capo dei capi -- fits Nick Gentile's description of the capo presiding over the Gran Consiglio nationally. I've theorized the chairman/secretary of the consiglio would also be the capo consigliere aka "chief counselor" of the Family consiglio mirroring the national body.



Don't know enough about Cleveland to know if there are references to any kind of council but it would fit.

--

Description of Detroit's consiglio which is straight up textbook and includes a possible ex-boss:

[MightyDR]

Adding to the above, there was the earlier group in KC called the "Five Iron Men" which consisted of Jim Balestrere, Peter and Joseph DiGiovanni, Joseph DeLuca, and Anthony Gizzo. I don't know if the "Five Iron Men" was an outsider phrase or how they were referred to in the Family but five tends to be the number of men on most Family councils and those named would certainly fit.

Crapisi said two successive bosses, Gizzo and Civella, answered to the "Men at the Bakery" which is consistent with Chicago and San Jose, plus the apparent Pittston council where Joe LaTorre said Russell Bufalino answered to Joe Barbara even though he said Bufalino was boss at the time. Barbara also presided over the council meeting where Stefano LaTorre was shelved, which was attended by Bufalino.

In the book “Mobsters in Our Midst” by former FBI agent William Ouseley about Nick Civella, he says that in the early 1930s, Joe Filardo, Joe Cusumano and Jack Binaggia, all from Castelvetrano, established the Roma Bakery at 1303 Independence Avenue. Filardo and Cusumano were close, lived next door to each other and were referred to as “The Bakery”

Ouseley says that in the 1940s the “Big Five” were running things – Balestrere, Lococo, Gizzo, Binaggio and Gargotta. When Binaggio and Gargotta were murdered in 1950, Gizzo became the “public face of the mob” or boss. After he died, Civella was the front runner for boss, but Balestrere opposed it. Filardo, who must have become part of the “Big Five” by this point, was able to get approval from the Commission to make Civella boss and this satisfied Balestrere. After the death of Balestrere, “the influence of the Bakery became predominant” according to Ouseley.

[B.]

Great info.

Makes sense that Filardo would go to the Commission to get Civella ratified, as Stefano Zoccoli was secretary of the consiglio and was recorded saying he could do the reverse -- go to the Commission to get Cerrito officially taken down as boss.

[Angelo Santino]

I've never heard of Cleveland having a Consiglio but that doesn't mean anything. I don't recall Angelo Lonardo ever mentioning one which may indicate it ceased to function earlier or maybe they just didn't have one. Being an Agrigentin-based family it would fit if they would as we see in other families with that province in their lineage.

[Don Mosseria]

Maniaci also said there was a formal assembly of the entire Family called the "tourna" (ph -- not sure the Italian term) which went out of fashion for obvious reasons. Most Families probably had a consiglio / assemblea just like the early national mafia had its Gran Consiglio and Assemblea Generale. Allegra also referred to Assemblea Generale in Sicily, so that's another one that seems to be imported. Might imply the Gran Consiglio existed there too.

Yes, he said the tourna was a formal gathering of the entire family conducted infrequently. Haven't seen that specific term pop up elsewhere, though as you say the custom was very likely done elsewhere at the family level.

"Tourna" of course may not be Italian, but Sicilian, so maybe CC has some insight (though it could be a distortion or just an archaicism). The closest I can think of is "torneo" which means "tournament" in Italian.

Made me think of tournament too. He said they could hold inductions at the tourna also. Philly held a meeting of the Family where a member was said to be made after other org stuff was done.

Hi Eric, Tony and all,

Re. meaning of TOURNA

This is my first proper post on this forum, having found it through your Mob Archaeologists YouTube channel. Amazing work you guys do. So hello, and thank you for having me!

I am following up here on the potential meaning and derivation of the term Tourna. I already emailed my thoughts (effectively a short essay by the time I had written them out) to Eric at his Mafia Bloodlines blog, who kindly responded, but thought it would be worth sharing them here now I am a forum member.

In the following paragraphs, I argue that the term used by Maniaci to describe the Assembly of the whole Milwaukee Family and transcribed phonetically as tourna may in fact be the Italian word for tournament, torneo, but pronounced based on dialect as torne (having now looked at this forum, I realise you two had already considered tournament/torneo as the cognate/meaning of tourna, so I hope this can further that consideration). If anyone has any thoughts, please comment.

You mentioned in your podcast that the Milwaukee Family referred to their Assembly as the Tourna, but we are not sure of the meaning or derivation. Well, this made me think of an old medieval English form of the word “tournament”, which is is “tourney”. According to Google Translate, the Italian word for tournament is “torneo”, which is very similar. I do not speak Italian, let alone Sicilian dialect, so would need to check this with someone who does. But, as I understand it, the Southern Italian dialects, and therefore common Italian American pronunciation, have the habit of dropping the final vowel sound from Italian words as compared to how they would be pronounced in standard Italian. So prosciutto becomes projut, or something like this. And it does seem that when there is a double vowel at the end of a word, the second vowel is dropped. For example, it is quite amusing to watch the Anglophone Senator McClellan (and others through the testimony) struggle (here at 46:12) with Valachi's pronunciation of Masseria as MASSeRi.

As I understand from Italians I have asked about it, the dropping of the final vowel is more pronounced in the Neapolitan dialect than the Sicilian, but it is a Southern thing more broadly, including Sicilian. Plus, you guys talk in your first Archaeologists show about how within three years of being in America, these Italian immigrants were speaking a kind of fused version of all these dialects (I would love to see you source on that by the way - it seems it may be informative for other areas of history, like how the Angles, Saxons and Jutes may have fused their languages/dialects on arrival in Britain, at the beginning of the creation of the English language). And it certainly seems to me, largely from media consumption I admit as I am a Brit, that this vowel dropping is very standard with Italian American pronunciation. And if we were to apply that rule to Italian word Torneo we would get the pronunciation Torne. If Maniaci was giving his testimony in English to English speaking agents (I have not seen his actual testimony), then these agents could easily have transcribed a heavily accented Torne as Tourna.

Further, I think this derivation of the term makes sense when one considers the socio-political function of the medieval tournament within the feudal political system. Before getting to that, I think it would be useful to consider briefly the borrowing from the feudal political order by the mafia, both in terms of aesthetic preference, and formal political structure. You rightly note in your podcasts and writings the borrowing from the early modern Italian representative systems of governance by the mafia - the Assembly and the Consiglio. But I think there is at least as clear an integration of the pyramidal feudal political structure.

Pyramidal Political Structure.png

It is not a 1-2-1 mirroring between the mafia and feudal structures, but it is very close. I would probably lay it out slightly differently than the diagrams I have found. Something like King = Representante. High Lords = Capo Decine. Minor Lords = Soldati. Knights = On record associates/prospects. Peasants/Serfs = the general population whom the mafia tax. The King will select a handful of men from among his lords to serve as his administration, similar to the Soto Capo & Consigliere roles. It would also be possible to view the King as the Capo dei Capi, and the noble houses of the high lords as the different mafia families. Wherever exactly one decides to draw the parallels, the structural similarity is there. Given that in Southern Italy and Sicily the feudal system continued until 1860, the era in which the mafia was being created, it is not actually surprising that it would borrow from the political forms around it (though I don't know how similar early modern Bourbon feudalism was to the "true" feudalism of the Middle Ages).

Regarding the feudal aesthetic preferences of the mafia, you all mentioned in your podcasts the use of the term "House of" by early American mafiosi to describe the families. "The House of Magaddino" for the Buffalo Family for example. As you note, this is clearly a direct reference to the terminology of royal or noble houses. The War of the Roses by way of example was fought between the House of Lancaster and the House of York (being English I tend to reference English history). Further, the mafia concept of the 'man of honour' or 'man of respect', as described by Joe Bonanno and others, is incredibly similar to the medieval concept of knightly chivalry. The Encyclopaedia Britannica explains that "the term came to mean the gallantry and honour expected of knights." I could go on further about the parallels between these honour code ideals, but this is already way too long! We can just note, however, that in both cases these honour codes were largely honoured in the breach.

Given the clear feudal influence on mafia structure and culture, it would not be surprising if families chose to use feudal or chivalric terminology to describe their own activities and institutions, as we have already seen. So we should consider the social and political meaning of the medieval torneo or torne.

This medieval institution was an illustrious gathering of all the nobility and chivalry of a kingdom or a noble fiefdom. This certainly appears to parallel an illustrious gathering of all the men of honour of a Cosa Nostra family. Barker demonstrates that "Tournaments are shown as far more than just sport. They had wide political, social and military implications; in England their potential as a political instrument was quickly realised: for the disaffected they became a means of rebellion and feuding [perhaps parallel to plotting against a tyrannical Capo dei Capi?], but for the king and court they were a powerful propaganda machine." Along with Barber, she states that the "study of tournaments throughout Europe reveals their importance ... as an instrument of political patronage". In this vein, Wikipedia (not a great source to quote I know) states that tournaments "had political purposes, to impress the populace and guests with their opulence [...]. Loyalty to a lord or lady was expressed through clothes and increasingly elaborate enactments." The medieval Torne may not have had quite as much of a representative nature as the early mafia version, but it would certainly have been an opportunity for the king or high lord to consult with his nobles, and for the ruling nobles and knights to discuss the salient issues of the day. A key difference is that while the chivalric version was also an ostentatious display of wealth and power for the masses, as a secret society, a mafia family would not be able to present themselves openly in the same way. Nevertheless, many significant parallels remain.

One final point worth noting is that as a child in probably the 1980s, or possibly very early 90s, I went on holiday to central Italy with my family. Somewhere in the region of Sienna I believe. I remember visiting a town and they held a jousting tournament, which had apparently been an ongoing tradition since the renaissance or some such time. Each district of the town had its own colours and heraldry, and they competed jousting against a spinning wooden target. A quick google shows these events still occur in many towns in Italy. I don't know whether they tend to use the term torneo - it seem that the term giostra (joust) is more common. But still, it seems that the idea of the tournament is still very much alive in the wider Italian imagination to this day.

To summarise, medieval feudal and chivalric norms have had a heavy structural and aesthetic influence on the mafia and its culture. Further, there is a strong cultural memory of the medieval institution of the tournament in Italy more broadly. The parallels between the feudal tournament and the formal Assembly of a whole mafia family suggest there may be a reasonable chance that the term used by Maniaci to describe the Assembly of the Milwaukee Family, transcribed by (probably) English speaking federal agents as 'tourna', is in fact the Italian word torneo, meaning tournament, but pronounced in a southern Italian or Americanised Italian manner, as torne.

[B.]

Great to have you here, Will.

I think you're on the money with "torneo" being the word Maniaci was using. Both the phonetics and the definition fit.

The mafia's roots are feudal and they kept that mentality. We know the Vita/Calatafimi Family was traditionally called the "Rosignolo" Family after a historic fiefdom in the area and we see similar historic language used to refer to districts a Family was based in. It makes sense that they used terminology along those lines as well. This is fundamentally a conservative organization resistant to change and we see this even when these rural, feudal mafiosi moved to urban areas in the US.

Just like a medieval tourney was used for a variety of purposes, the mafia's "torneo" seems to have been a way to vote on administrative changes, hold inductions, and communicate rule/policy changes. They may have also partied it up at these, as in Philadelphia there's a reference to them holding Family-wide meetings at a high-ranking member's farm and drinking. It was probably a formal and social event for the membership kind of like a medieval "torneo". Probably no jousting though haha.

The national Assemblea meetings would serve a similar purpose for the greater mafia organization. I'm sure in addition to all-night meetings to discuss national controversies, vote on important matters, and introduce newly-elected leaders they also socialized and built ties. These were like conventions. I'd bet some of the national compari relationships were a result of these get togethers.