1989 New England Ceremony and DiGiacomo

[B.]

This induction is often made out to be a joke because it was recorded by an informant but if you listen to the actual audio it is a fascinating and serious affair. This was a violent organization trying to make peace and you can tell the officiants were true believers.

This WPRI link has a video with excerpts and a second (better) video focused on them explaining some of the rules:

https://www.wpri.com/12-on-12/the-mafia-tapes/

- It's not in the above excerpts but Biagio DiGiacomo told the inductees Cosa Nostra was started 200 years earlier (~1780s) to protect families, women, and children. DiGiacomo was from an important Sicilian mafia clan in Aragona so curious if he heard this over there.

- Heavy emphasis on third party introductions. As Buscetta said, in his experience this was a rule that was truly followed by the letter and the New England Family hammers on it. They say that even if one member knows someone else is a member he can't acknowledge it unless a third person does it and nobody outside of the ceremony is in a position to make subsequent introductions for the new members. They use the example of Peter Limone, where when he gets out of prison they can't acknowledge their mutual membership if they're not formally introduced.

- The descendants of made members are to be respected and helped for "seven generations". JR Russo uses the example of someone whose great-grandfather was a member and that he is to be treated with respect as a result even if he is "three generations" removed. They say though that if a relative is "crazy" or "fucked up" a member should keep their distance from him. Junior Patriarca also cites an example that happened three weeks before the ceremony where his uncle's grandson had an issue with Matty Guglielmetti that required the organization to resolve it. Curious if the "seven generations" was an actual rule or if Russo was just pulling out a number -- it sounds very specific.

- Female relatives of members are to be approached honorably and marriage is the only option. Russo says they encourage "intermarriage" within the organization but it always has to be done honorably and proper "channels" have to be used.

- DiGiacomo's accent is surprisingly not that thick. He had been in the US since 1967 (around age 21), was naturalized in the early 1970s, and here in 1989 he seems to have a great grasp on the English language and doesn't sound like a typical "zip" to me. His delivery of the oath in Italian is highly formal and sounds more like proper Italian to my ears rather than Sicilian dialect.

--

Biagio DiGiacomo has always stood out because he was a Sicilian who officiated the ceremony but a lot about him is still mysterious. He was and is a restaurant owner overseeing a decina in the Boston area involved in standard mafia crimes and he was obviously held in high regard by the 1980s but he was atypical based on what we know about the New England Family by then.

- DiGiacomo was made in 1984, promoted to capodecina around 1986, and what's known of his crew is a couple of Americanized members, Anthony Spagnolo and Vincent Gioacchini. However the FBI identified the elderly Salvatore Giglia from Aragona as a New England capodecina in 1988 alongside DiGiacomo (LCNBios did a write-up on Giglia) and stated that both were linked to the Sicilian mafia so there are questions whether DiGiacomo and Giglia were captains at the same time or whether there is crossover between their crews, maybe DiGiacomo taking over for Giglia as Giglia was previously identified as DiGiacomo's captain. Giglia lived in Waltham like DiGiacomo.

- The Boston area had a heavy presence from mafia-linked Agrigento towns going back to the formative years of the American mafia so it's possible there was a secretive Boston faction from Agrigento that has been thus far uncovered -- this is typical of Agrigentino mafiosi around the country and in Sicily, my research leading me to believe the province produces the most insular and secretive members within an already insular and secretive parent organization. Relatively little is known about the Family's early membership outside of the Trapanesi and many of the later names we know are non-Sicilian. Member and drug trafficker Salvatore "Michael" Caruana appears to have Agrigento heritage and a 1984 FBI report identifies a redacted New England member involved in narcotics with Montreal's Sicilian mafia faction (no doubt the Caruana-Cuntreras) so this could refer to Caruana or perhaps DiGiacomo, or of course a "random" other member. Caruana was born in the US and his family well-established here but in addition to his father's surname his mother was a Zambito which is a name connected to the mafia in Agrigento.

- The FBI stated that Biagio DiGiacomo's relatives were at war with his wife's relatives the Caramazzas in Aragona and as a result he couldn't visit his dying mother or attend her wake. He was also said to be under investigation for murder conspiracy in some Sicilian killings. In 1991 CUNY's Law Enforcement News published that DiGiacomo's father was murdered in Sicily. Someone knowledgeable of the Boston landscape also told me he heard DiGiacomo had relatives in Sicily killed on or around Christmas and this was a solemn time of year for him.


- DiGiacomo's naturalization was witnessed by his wife's sister in Waltham, a Caramazza who married a Raimondo Buscemi from Aragona. The Waltham area is one of the main Aragonese colonies next to Rockford. Apparently Rockford leader Frank Buscemi was a cousin of Rockford mafia figure Alfonso DiGiacomo. In addition, Rockford leader Salvatore Galluzzo's mother was a DiGiacomo and two of Galluzzo's sisters married DiGiacomos. Cavita has FBI reports too that show this Aragonese faction in Rockford had telephone contact with a redacted New England member possibly in connection with drug trafficking. Biagio DiGiacomo was involved in drug trafficking and we both believe this is him. DiGiacomo is a common name in Aragona but it would be unsurprising if he had clan relations to the Rockford leadership given they too had Sicilian mafia ties and his family was prominent in the Aragona Family.

- Cavita has mentioned an Antonino DiGiacomo from Aragona killed in Boston in 1977. I believe he saw a report that was heavily redacted but mentioned Rockford figures in context with this.

- Unfortunately it is extremely difficult to find any information about the Aragona Family, historic or otherwise, and the violent warfare there involving the DiGiacomos and Caramazzas is difficult to look into outside of the US government's general summary. Unlike other Agrigento towns, Aragona shows up rarely in the US mafia outside of Rockford which has produced a good chunk of info on the Aragonesi despite Rockford being such a shadowy group. We know from Augie Maniaci that Joe Zummuto was elected boss largely because the Aragonese faction wanted a paesan in charge and Cavita's work shows the Rockford Family maintained strong ties to Aragona even into later years. The Rockford and Waltham colonies were connected and DiGiacomo and Giglia were probably a bridge between the mafia in both locations but were they the only ones?

--

Side note, but does anyone know Joseph Russo's ancestry? He was close to DiGiacomo and LCNBios identified a James Russo from Aragona in connection with Salvatore Giglia but it's such a generic name nothing can be assumed about it. JR Russo looks like an eccentric artist or something but on the ceremony tape he comes across very well-schooled in the bigger picture of the mafia (talking about respecting families for "seven generations" and the importance of intermarriage) which you'd expect of a consigliere but I don't know much about him aside from what's well-covered.

[B.]

Note, when I said DiGiacomo "was and is", I meant only the restaurant owner part. No info has surfaced putting him in the Family hierarchy or operations since his release.

[cavita]

Good write-up and the Aragonese still confounds me, and the Rockford contingent are a tight bunch to this day. I wish I could do a deep dive into that group but like you said there is little on the actual mafia family there in Sicily. Many of the DiGiacomo people still own restaurants in the Rockford area as well as the Galluzzos with many of them intermarrying.

[LarryC]

They really butcher the pronunciations of names on these tapes.

[Wiseguy]

I used to have a book called "Mafia Ceremony" from the 1990s. It had a forward by Joe Pistone. It was the entire transcript of the ceremony. One thing I recall is the family using a counting system to determine which captain the inductee would go with. Very strange and I don't recall it being used elsewhere.

[B.]

I used to have a book called "Mafia Ceremony" from the 1990s. It had a forward by Joe Pistone. It was the entire transcript of the ceremony. One thing I recall is the family using a counting system to determine which captain the inductee would go with. Very strange and I don't recall it being used elsewhere.

Was it for the captain or the godfather? There is a newspaper article that says at the Boston ceremony it was for the sponsor, which I assume is the same as godfather as used in other Families but I haven't seen that part.

Several Families have used the finger-counting game where the members in attendance hold up a random number of fingers and then add them all up. The member then walks around the room and whichever member the number falls on ends up being the godfather. This was done most famously for Valachi (Joe Bonanno being his godfather) but it was also done for Rocco Scafidi in Philly where Pollina was chosen. The Colombos also used the finger game on one occasion but I can't remember if it was for the captain or godfather role.

[davidf1989]

This induction is often made out to be a joke because it was recorded by an informant but if you listen to the actual audio it is a fascinating and serious affair. This was a violent organization trying to make peace and you can tell the officiants were true believers.

This WPRI link has a video with excerpts and a second (better) video focused on them explaining some of the rules:

https://www.wpri.com/12-on-12/the-mafia-tapes/

- It's not in the above excerpts but Biagio DiGiacomo told the inductees Cosa Nostra was started 200 years earlier (~1780s) to protect families, women, and children. DiGiacomo was from an important Sicilian mafia clan in Aragona so curious if he heard this over there.

- Heavy emphasis on third party introductions. As Buscetta said, in his experience this was a rule that was truly followed by the letter and the New England Family hammers on it. They say that even if one member knows someone else is a member he can't acknowledge it unless a third person does it and nobody outside of the ceremony is in a position to make subsequent introductions for the new members. They use the example of Peter Limone, where when he gets out of prison they can't acknowledge their mutual membership if they're not formally introduced.

- The descendants of made members are to be respected and helped for "seven generations". JR Russo uses the example of someone whose great-grandfather was a member and that he is to be treated with respect as a result even if he is "three generations" removed. They say though that if a relative is "crazy" or "fucked up" a member should keep their distance from him. Junior Patriarca also cites an example that happened three weeks before the ceremony where his uncle's grandson had an issue with Matty Guglielmetti that required the organization to resolve it. Curious if the "seven generations" was an actual rule or if Russo was just pulling out a number -- it sounds very specific.

- Female relatives of members are to be approached honorably and marriage is the only option. Russo says they encourage "intermarriage" within the organization but it always has to be done honorably and proper "channels" have to be used.

- DiGiacomo's accent is surprisingly not that thick. He had been in the US since 1967 (around age 21), was naturalized in the early 1970s, and here in 1989 he seems to have a great grasp on the English language and doesn't sound like a typical "zip" to me. His delivery of the oath in Italian is highly formal and sounds more like proper Italian to my ears rather than Sicilian dialect.

--

Biagio DiGiacomo has always stood out because he was a Sicilian who officiated the ceremony but a lot about him is still mysterious. He was and is a restaurant owner overseeing a decina in the Boston area involved in standard mafia crimes and he was obviously held in high regard by the 1980s but he was atypical based on what we know about the New England Family by then.

- DiGiacomo was made in 1984, promoted to capodecina around 1986, and what's known of his crew is a couple of Americanized members, Anthony Spagnolo and Vincent Gioacchini. However the FBI identified the elderly Salvatore Giglia from Aragona as a New England capodecina in 1988 alongside DiGiacomo (LCNBios did a write-up on Giglia) and stated that both were linked to the Sicilian mafia so there are questions whether DiGiacomo and Giglia were captains at the same time or whether there is crossover between their crews, maybe DiGiacomo taking over for Giglia as Giglia was previously identified as DiGiacomo's captain. Giglia lived in Waltham like DiGiacomo.

- The Boston area had a heavy presence from mafia-linked Agrigento towns going back to the formative years of the American mafia so it's possible there was a secretive Boston faction from Agrigento that has been thus far uncovered -- this is typical of Agrigentino mafiosi around the country and in Sicily, my research leading me to believe the province produces the most insular and secretive members within an already insular and secretive parent organization. Relatively little is known about the Family's early membership outside of the Trapanesi and many of the later names we know are non-Sicilian. Member and drug trafficker Salvatore "Michael" Caruana appears to have Agrigento heritage and a 1984 FBI report identifies a redacted New England member involved in narcotics with Montreal's Sicilian mafia faction (no doubt the Caruana-Cuntreras) so this could refer to Caruana or perhaps DiGiacomo, or of course a "random" other member. Caruana was born in the US and his family well-established here but in addition to his father's surname his mother was a Zambito which is a name connected to the mafia in Agrigento.

- The FBI stated that Biagio DiGiacomo's relatives were at war with his wife's relatives the Caramazzas in Aragona and as a result he couldn't visit his dying mother or attend her wake. He was also said to be under investigation for murder conspiracy in some Sicilian killings. In 1991 CUNY's Law Enforcement News published that DiGiacomo's father was murdered in Sicily. Someone knowledgeable of the Boston landscape also told me he heard DiGiacomo had relatives in Sicily killed on or around Christmas and this was a solemn time of year for him.


- DiGiacomo's naturalization was witnessed by his wife's sister in Waltham, a Caramazza who married a Raimondo Buscemi from Aragona. The Waltham area is one of the main Aragonese colonies next to Rockford. Apparently Rockford leader Frank Buscemi was a cousin of Rockford mafia figure Alfonso DiGiacomo. In addition, Rockford leader Salvatore Galluzzo's mother was a DiGiacomo and two of Galluzzo's sisters married DiGiacomos. Cavita has FBI reports too that show this Aragonese faction in Rockford had telephone contact with a redacted New England member possibly in connection with drug trafficking. Biagio DiGiacomo was involved in drug trafficking and we both believe this is him. DiGiacomo is a common name in Aragona but it would be unsurprising if he had clan relations to the Rockford leadership given they too had Sicilian mafia ties and his family was prominent in the Aragona Family.

- Cavita has mentioned an Antonino DiGiacomo from Aragona killed in Boston in 1977. I believe he saw a report that was heavily redacted but mentioned Rockford figures in context with this.

- Unfortunately it is extremely difficult to find any information about the Aragona Family, historic or otherwise, and the violent warfare there involving the DiGiacomos and Caramazzas is difficult to look into outside of the US government's general summary. Unlike other Agrigento towns, Aragona shows up rarely in the US mafia outside of Rockford which has produced a good chunk of info on the Aragonesi despite Rockford being such a shadowy group. We know from Augie Maniaci that Joe Zummuto was elected boss largely because the Aragonese faction wanted a paesan in charge and Cavita's work shows the Rockford Family maintained strong ties to Aragona even into later years. The Rockford and Waltham colonies were connected and DiGiacomo and Giglia were probably a bridge between the mafia in both locations but were they the only ones?

--

Side note, but does anyone know Joseph Russo's ancestry? He was close to DiGiacomo and LCNBios identified a James Russo from Aragona in connection with Salvatore Giglia but it's such a generic name nothing can be assumed about it. JR Russo looks like an eccentric artist or something but on the ceremony tape he comes across very well-schooled in the bigger picture of the mafia (talking about respecting families for "seven generations" and the importance of intermarriage) which you'd expect of a consigliere but I don't know much about him aside from what's well-covered.

Thanks for the writeup and what do people make of this document https://archive.org/details/366007-dc-1 ... ew=theater it goes through the tensions between the factions in the Patriarca crime family including the murder of Billy Grasso as reported by different informants such as Mercurio, Flemmi and whoever was CS-3. on p.65 it mentions that Biagio DiGiacomo and Charles Quintina were believed to be allied against Ferrara and his associates according to Mercurio.

[B.]

Random but this era of New England made me think of it -- can anyone trace the ancestry of Connecticut member Salvatore D'Aquila Jr.?

[davidf1989]

it looks like that according to this article https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 125985219/ Biagio DiGiacomo came to America in 1967 and his dad was a member of the Sicilian Mafia.

[trafficante]

Random but this era of New England made me think of it -- can anyone trace the ancestry of Connecticut member Salvatore D'Aquila Jr.?

Was curious myself about this and did some digging. Found a site that said that his father Carmelo was from Siracusa--not sure about his mother though.

[trafficante]

Random but this era of New England made me think of it -- can anyone trace the ancestry of Connecticut member Salvatore D'Aquila Jr.?

Was curious myself about this and did some digging. Found a site that said that his father Carmelo was from Siracusa--not sure about his mother though.

Mistake, I think the Salvatore D'Aquila I was looking at was his father.

[trafficante]

Side note, but does anyone know Joseph Russo's ancestry?

J.R was born in Boston in 1931 to Angelo Russo and Angelina Badessa. Angelo Russo was born in Boston but his father Giuseppe Russo (JR's grandfather) was born in 1878 in Ariano, Olevano sul Tusciano in Campania. He died in 1950 in East Boston.

[PolackTony]

Random but this era of New England made me think of it -- can anyone trace the ancestry of Connecticut member Salvatore D'Aquila Jr.?

Was curious myself about this and did some digging. Found a site that said that his father Carmelo was from Siracusa--not sure about his mother though.

Mistake, I think the Salvatore D'Aquila I was looking at was his father.

The family was from Melilli, Siracusa.

[B.]

In 1923 Giglia arrived from Aragona to Chicago arriving to an uncle named Francesco Rivoli then in 1925 he arrived from Aragona to his cousin Vincenzo Cardella in Chicago. He returned to Sicily then arrived in Boston in 1929 where he settled long-term. On the 1925 Chicago trip he was with two men from Aragona, Luigi Falzone heading to Boston and Tommaso DiMatteo going to Brooklyn.

So Giglia at least can be linked to both Illinois and Massachusetts. His uncle Rivoli died in Chicago in 1953 but arrived in the US as early as 1907 and can be linked to Boston, Brooklyn, and Alabama City. Vincenzo Cardella may have spent time in Boston as well as Chicago but couldn't find much on him.

Did the early Aragonese population in Rockford start out in Chicago or were there always people from Aragona arriving straight to Rockford? I know Buscemi was in Chicago before Rockford.

[davidf1989]

Side note, but does anyone know Joseph Russo's ancestry?

J.R was born in Boston in 1931 to Angelo Russo and Angelina Badessa. Angelo Russo was born in Boston but his father Giuseppe Russo (JR's grandfather) was born in 1878 in Ariano, Olevano sul Tusciano in Campania. He died in 1950 in East Boston.

What do people make of this earliest article about Jr Russo? https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 994837/and how about this article about Jr Russo?https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 125825452/