LCN activity in Birmingham, Alabama?

[TinyDog]

I happened to read the history of Sammy's Gentleman's Club in Birmingham. The guy who founded it was someone named Salvadore "Sammy" Cantavespre, who passed ownership over to a guy named Sammy Russo in the late 1980s, according to Bham Wiki.


At first I was thinking it could be Italian-American stereotyping for me to assume it was LCN, until I read that Cantavespre and three other men were charged with arson in the bombing of the New Spot Lounge on June 11, 1982.


The only actual reference to LCN I could find was a blog post from a woman named Jimmie Lee Stanley, who claimed Sammy Cantavespre was the "mob boss" of Birmingham. Then again, it's not the first time sleazy Italian businessmen have been accused of being LCN-connected and haven't been (e.g. Joe Ricci and the Elan School in the 80s).


My father worked as a cop in Gulfport, Mississippi in the 80s and talks all about how the NOLA family, as well as members from New York/Philadelphia were active across the southeast during the 70s/80s, not just in Louisiana. He never mentioned Cantavespre, though.


I've seen "Birmingham crime family" listen on Wikipedia but besides this, I've yet to see any actual detailed history. It also states that the family went defunct in 1938.


I know LCN isn't a publicized phenomenon in Alabama, if it does exist.


SOURCES:

https://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Sammy%27s

https://conjuringjusticeblog.com/tag/sammys/

https://www.sammysonline.com/about/

[johnny_scootch]

https://theblackhand.club/forum/viewtop ... Birmingham

[B.]

I will be adding a few things to this article eventually but there was a Family in Birmingham that disbanded early in American mafia history -- the article explores the limited info we have, connections to other Families / regions, and the Sicilian environment in Alabama:

https://mafia.substack.com/p/alabama-ne ... -agrigento

[PolackTony]

I will be adding a few things to this article eventually but there was a Family in Birmingham that disbanded early in American mafia history -- the article explores the limited info we have, connections to other Families / regions, and the Sicilian environment in Alabama:

https://mafia.substack.com/p/alabama-ne ... -agrigento

Unsurprisingly, the Cantavespres in Birmingham were from Bisacquino. Salvatore “Sammy” Cantavespre’s mother was also a Longo, a surname that you connected to Joe N Gallo’s mother.

[TinyDog]

[/quote]
Unsurprisingly, the Cantavespres in Birmingham were from Bisacquino. Salvatore “Sammy” Cantavespre’s mother was also a Longo, a surname that you connected to Joe N Gallo’s mother.
[/quote]

Very interesting. Where did you get this info if you don't mind sharing?

[JoelTurner]

No idea if they were members, but there are two murders that I wanted to call to attention:

Vincenzo “Charles” Como, a grocery store owner from Calatafimi was killed in 1932.


(https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 125481649/)

This was his grave:
(https://www.ancestry.ca/discoveryui-con ... 3557:60525)

—————————

Salvatore “Sam” Pilato , a grocery store owner from Casteltermini, was killed in 1935. This would have been around the time that the family was winding down. Additionally, I noticed another Pilato in the article.


(https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 125482061/)

This was his grave:
(https://www.ancestry.ca/discoveryui-con ... 9693:60525)

——————

Both of these men were fairly old Sicilians who worked as grocery store owners and were murdered in unexplained circumstances.

[PolackTony]

Unsurprisingly, the Cantavespres in Birmingham were from Bisacquino. Salvatore “Sammy” Cantavespre’s mother was also a Longo, a surname that you connected to Joe N Gallo’s mother.

Very interesting. Where did you get this info if you don't mind sharing?

Vital records. You can find them on sites like ancestry.com and familysearch.

B noted a connection between Longos from Bisacquino and Joe N Gallo’s family on the blogpost that he shared above.

[B.]

An Andrea Pilato was also killed in a "Black Hand" murder in 1907. This Pilato was from Burgio, Agrigento.

Francesco Giardina from Bisacquino was a Birmingham area mafioso circa 1903 who committed a murder. He allegedly killed 13 (!) police officers along with his brother back in Bisacquino before coming to the US. Joe N Gallo's mother was a Giardina from Bisacquino so there could be a connection. Michele Gallo, Joe's father, arrived to the US on the same manifest as Joe "Pip the Blind" Gagliano and his father but they were headed to their Morello-linked relatives in NYC while Michele Gallo was headed to Birmingham.

[sdeitche]

I will be adding a few things to this article eventually but there was a Family in Birmingham that disbanded early in American mafia history -- the article explores the limited info we have, connections to other Families / regions, and the Sicilian environment in Alabama:

https://mafia.substack.com/p/alabama-ne ... -agrigento

Unsurprisingly, the Cantavespres in Birmingham were from Bisacquino. Salvatore “Sammy” Cantavespre’s mother was also a Longo, a surname that you connected to Joe N Gallo’s mother.

Also see Jimmy Costa Longo of the Trafficantes. He was born in Wilkes Barre, PA.

[B.]

30% of the Italian population in Birmingham was from Bisacquino so there were likely more mafiosi from there than we're aware of. 90% of the Italian population was Sicilian so Bisacquino had a large presence. I can't think of anywhere else where Bisacquino was so heavily represented in the Italian-Sicilian community.

Here are the geographic mafia connections I found when digging into Birmingham:



You can see that Bisacquino is almost a straight shot down the highway to Burgio and Ribera. Vito Cascio Ferro lived in Burgio for a time and coded correspondence was found in his home with a Riberese figure. When I first talked to Michael DiLeonardo about Bisacquino he pointed out that his grandfather (a friend of Cascio Ferro) had ties to people from Ribera because of their native geography.

I didn't come across any references to Ribera in coverage of Alabama's Italian history but it's obvious the Caterinicchia-Amari clan were significant in the local mafia. They intermarried with the Castelvetranesi but it makes sense Ribera played a role given the network was so Bisacquino and Agrigento heavy. Castelvetrano veers into the Agrigento network which we can see not only in Alabama but also Chicago and Kansas City as well as in present day where Matteo Messina Denaro was very involved in Agrigento, mediated a dispute in Ribera, etc.

I will add it to the article eventually but some later gambling figures in Birmingham decades after the Family disbanded were tied to the Caterinicchia-Amari clan.

[dixiemafia]

My Aunt was from Chiusa Sclafani and lived in Montgomery but she landed in Ellis Island and went to California first. It’s a small world to end up in Alabama with so many that grew up near her also ending up in B’ham

My cousin (her son) was nailed many times here for bootlegging