1989 New England Ceremony and DiGiacomo

[trafficante]

Does anyone know Charles Quintina's ancestry? I'm looking right now, but I genuinely can't find anything on the guy.

[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.

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.

It's been years since I read it but I'm pretty sure it was for captain. But how you described the finger counting above sounds like the same thing they were doing.

[PolackTony]

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.

Good info. So far as I know, the Rockford and Chicago Aragona communities were contemporaneous; Rockford doesn't seem to have been a secondary settlement of Chicago. Around 1907, a bunch of Raunesi began arriving in the US bound for both cities.

Chicago had and has a lot of Raunesi -- it was one of the major Aragona colonies in the US along with Rockford, Waltham, and Brooklyn. Each of these colonies had an Aragona Society (which we know in Rockford dissolved in the 1970s, whereas in Chicago and Waltham, at least, they seem to still be active; not sure about Brooklyn). Chicago actually had two Aragona Societies (Società Madonna Della Mercede di Aragona), a Northside one (for the community located primarily in the Lincoln Park and Lakeview neighborhoods) and a Southside one (located at 28th and Lowe in Armour Square) at least up until the 70s, though they were later merged. There are DiGiacomos in Chicago from Aragona as well, though it's a common surname there and they may have no direct relation to Biagio.


Regarding the ceremony itself, it stands out how much emphasis they put on proper conduct, along with points of protocol like introductions. Some other points that I found interesting, aside from what B has already highlighted:

• Apart from discussing intermarriage and proper conduct with female relatives of members, Russo also emphasizes: "And stay away from all women, unless your intentions are super honorable. Everybody understand that?"

• Patriarca Jr, on how to behave after being made: "Stay the way youse are, don't let it go to your head [...] it's not to be used to make money, it's not an advantage, a ticket to abuse people, it doesn't make you better than other people. The thing is, you have all of us to protect you."

• DiGiacomo: "Everybody fight this thing, they call it cosa nostra, they call it my organization, they call it this and that [...] It is mafia."

• Russo: "We have one Family in New England. One Family. Remember that. One Family. New York has five Families. Chicago got their own Family."

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.

From the descriptions I've seen, the "finger-counting game" was just a version of morra, widely played across Southern Italy both as a pastime and for gambling. It is also used to decide an issue, in the way that a coin toss is, which is presumably why it was used to elect a sponsor and/or captain in some cases.

The book that Wiseguy references above is "The Ceremony: The Mafia Initiation Tapes" by David Fischer, published in 1992.

[B.]

Does anyone know Charles Quintina's ancestry? I'm looking right now, but I genuinely can't find anything on the guy.

The name might have been Quintino or Quintini originally.

[PolackTony]

Does anyone know Charles Quintina's ancestry? I'm looking right now, but I genuinely can't find anything on the guy.

The name might have been Quintino or Quintini originally.

Charles Quintina was born in 1916 in Revere (spelled on the birth record as Charles Quentino) to Luigi Quintino and Rosina Castaldo of Afragola, Napoli. The family initially lived in Mt Vernon, NY, before relocating to Revere in the 1910s. Afragola was also the hometown of the parents of Gennaro Basciano, Vinny Basciano's dad, and the comune and surrounding area (Acerra, Caivano, Casoria) have long been one of the primary Camorra hotbeds in the Napoli hinterland.

[trafficante]

Does anyone know Charles Quintina's ancestry? I'm looking right now, but I genuinely can't find anything on the guy.

The name might have been Quintino or Quintini originally.

Charles Quintina was born in 1916 in Revere (spelled on the birth record as Charles Quentino) to Luigi Quintino and Rosina Castaldo of Afragola, Napoli. The family initially lived in Mt Vernon, NY, before relocating to Revere in the 1910s. Afragola was also the hometown of the parents of Gennaro Basciano, Vinny Basciano's dad, and the comune and surrounding area (Acerra, Caivano, Casoria) have long been one of the primary Camorra hotbeds in the Napoli hinterland.

Interesting. It seems that a lot of these New England guys have origins in Campania.

[B.]

This might play into the DiGiacomo-Caramazza war noted by US authorities:

https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/scoprono ... tragi.html

A ruthless war, a feud that left hundreds of dead on the field killed in the province of Agrigento at the turn of the 80s. On one side Cosa Nostra, on the other the Stidda, the criminal organization that opposed the old mafia, made up of ruthless young killers, but also unsuspected men of honor. After about twenty years, on some of those heinous murders, the judiciary has concluded its investigations. Also with the help of collaborators with justice, whose statements allowed the investigators to shed light on two mafia massacres: the double homicide that took place in Aragon on 1 December 1984 and the triple homicide committed in Palma di Montechiaro on 25 April 1985. Yesterday the carabinieri of the operational unit of Agrigento, under the command of Captain Massimo Cucchini,
The investigating judge of the Palermo triunal Antonio Tricoli signed the ordinances who accepted the requests of the prosecutor of the DDA Costantino De Robbio. The two are accused of having been part of the fire commando that killed the shepherd Giuseppe Buscemi and his aide Alfonso La Mendola in Aragon, the latter killed because he was an inconvenient witness. According to the pentito Salemi, Buscemi was killed because he was accused of having expansionist intentions in the country. In the triple homicide in Palma on 25 April 1985, however, the brothers Francesco and Salvatore Lupo and Giovanni Lumia died, the latter being the true target of the assassins, suspected, according to the story of the pentiti, of having killed Gerlando Caramazza again in Palma. The Lupo brothers paid with their lives for accidentally meeting Lumia.

- So during the conflict between Cosa Nostra and the Stidda + rogue Cosa Nostra members in the 1980s there was a Giuseppe Buscemi of Aragona killed and also a Caramazza killed in Palma. I don't know if Caramazza was from Aragona or another village and simply killed in Palma or if he was actually from Palma but now that I think of it, I'm not 100% positive Biagio DiGiacomo's wife's family the Caramazzas were from Aragona or another comune in the region. Someone online said the Caramazzas ran a Family in Santa Elisabetta, which neighbors Aragona.

- If this is connected to the issues DiGiacomo's relatives were having in Sicily, it's possible it was part of the conflict between the mafia and Stidda although there is a grey area given some mafia members aligned with the Stidda. If that is the case, it's not clear whether it was the DiGiacomos or Caramazzas who were aligned with Stidda. I'm leaning toward the Caramazzas but not sure. It might not be that simple either, as I know Gambino associate Sal Mangiavillano's relatives in Naro and Camastra were with Cosa Nostra while others were with the Stidda.

- According to a more recent breakdown of the different Families in Sicily, Aragona and Comitini are one Family while Santa Elisabetta is a separate borgata in their mandamento. Santa Elisabetta controls the seat. The only US mafia members from Comitini I can think of offhand are Gregorio and Gaetano Conti who were early leaders of the Pittsburgh Family close to Gentile. Maybe Aragona too surfaced in early Pittsburgh.

- Given the scope of the conflict in Agrigento in the 1980s, it's possible if not likely the DiGiacomo-Caramazza feud was a microcosm of the larger events playing out in the province.

- Given Biagio DiGiacomo was related at least through marriage to the Buscemis and Frank Buscemi was an alleged cousin of Alfonso DiGiacomo, the murder of Giuseppe Buscemi in Aragona could have been an ally of the DiGiacomo clan. The names are common there as we have said in this thread though so it def can't be assumed. There could have been Buscemis, DiGiacomos, and for that matter Caramazzas on different sides of the conflict.

The timeline of the mid-1980s at least fits, as DiGiacomo was still unable to visit Aragona as of 1990 which suggests the conflict was still recent. There's the question too of which Sicilian murders Italian investigators suspected Biagio DiGiacomo of conspiring in as it's obviously very interesting that he may have been a New England member involved in the violence going on in his home region.

[B.]

The 1988 FBI-sourced newspaper chart identifies both DiGiacomo and Giglia as "members of the Sicilian mafia" in addition to being New England captains. Dual membership is not allowed but it's possible they were transfers. Giglia settled permanently in the US when he was 28-years-old, giving him plenty of time to have been made in Aragona, and his wife and children remained in Aragona for decades.

DiGiacomo is said to have been made in New England in 1984 but I'm not sure how much detail there is on his induction. If he was made young before coming to the US, this could have marked his transfer which historically was sometimes a formalized affair. LCNBios speculated that Neil Migliore's alleged induction with Tommy Ricciardi in the 1980s may have marked his official transfer into the Lucchese Family rather than a fresh initiation, as D'Arco knew Migliore to have been sent to an out of town Family to be made. Philadelphia reinstated shelved members at initiation ceremonies so the same could be done for transfers. Gentile's transfer to San Francisco involved a formal banquet with the Family consiglio. Maybe there is more info on DiGiacomo's induction that negates this but I haven't seen it.

A rambling post by "Vinnygorgeous217" on GangsterBB in 2011 says that DiGiacomo's father was a boss in Sicily and Biagio was made there before coming to the US, that he and his wife left Sicily in 1967 due to the vendetta between the DiGiacomos and Caramazzas:
http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbth ... ber=609493

Definitely far from a trusted source and I question whether the DiGiacomo-Caramazza conflict began as early as the 1960s given it was still an issue for him as of 1990, but the FBI did call him a "member of the Sicilian mafia" and it does seem like the DiGiacomos were a family of some prominence in the local mafia so maybe there is some truth the idea of his father being a boss and Biagio being made overseas first. I also wouldn't rule out the idea that issues between the DiGiacomos and Caramazzas had a longer history, I'd just need much more than "Vinnygorgeous2017" to believe it.

--

I want to go back too to what he told the inductees about the mafia starting 200 years before the ceremony. He was clearly generalizing, not telling them the mafia started in the year 1789, but this is around the time I suspect the mafia did have its genesis. Michael DiLeonardo was told something similar, that it started around 200 years earlier. We start to see the first evidence of an organized mafia around the 1820s and Leonardo Messina's comments about his own lineage suggest the Family in San Cataldo went back about that far. Given this was a secret society and evidence of its earliest years may not exist, especially if it was less overtly criminal, I could see the 1780s/90s being around the time the mafia as we know it started to come together as a formal entity.

It is more believable than the "middle ages" comments made by some members and we should always be critical of these historic statements but I do wonder if DiGiacomo had some insight through his family background. He certainly didn't say "Ayy, this thing was put together by Lucky Looch in 1931."

[B.]

Looking at Rockford leader Salvatore Galluzzo's obit, one of his sisters-in-law was also a Caramazza, so he is related to both DiGiacomos and Caramazzas.

Here is an interesting reference circa 1993:
https://www.bpp.it/Apulia/html/archivio ... 3I020.html

- CARAMAZZA
Aragona, Raffadali, Santa Elisabetta, Campofranco, Milena, Sant'Angelo Muxaro
Extortion, drug
Connected with the Scozzaro di Campofranco and the Fretto di Raffadali
Connected with the Di Giacomo family, USA, operative in the Cosa Nostra dei Bonanno - Genovese
Affiliates, twenty

Links them to the DiGiacomos. Not sure if it's saying the Caramazzas or DiGiacomos are affiliated with the Bonanno and Genovese Families. New England was represented by the Genovese but I'm not sure how much substance there is to this -- it links Ciminna to the Bonannos and Gambinos which we know is accurate at least.

Here is what it has for Galluzos:

- GALLUZZO
Aragona, Campofranco, Milena, Raffadali, Sant'Elisabetta, Sant'Angelo Muxaro
Procurement taxation
Connected with the Lo Sardo di Bonpensiere and the Scozzano di Campofranco Affiliates, seven

A lot of other good stuff on that page.

[PolackTony]

Good info here, thanks. There’s a lot about La Stidda which remains opaque to me (much as with Cosa Nostra in Agrigento), but I hadn’t been aware that Stiddari were involved in violence in Aragona during the broader “feuds” that erupted in Caltanissetta and Agrigento during the 80s/90s. Makes sense though, as Aragona is near Racalmuto which was one of the centers of these conflicts, per my understanding.

The Caramazza surname is not at all common in Palma di Montechiaro, so I’d guess that the Gerlando Caramazza killed there may not have been a local. Caramazza is most concentrated in Favara, Aragona, and Canicattì, from what I’ve seen.

As B notes, surnames like Buscemi, DiGiacomo, and Caramazza are common in Aragona, so it’s hard to say whether the men involved in the 1980s conflict there were directly related to the individuals relevant to the Biagio DiGiacomo discussion, but it’s certainly a real possibility, especially given that Biagio was unable to travel to Sicily as late as 1990 and that he was suspected of having some involvement in murders there. I’d also think it’s possible that conflicts between stiddari and mafiosi in the 80s could have been a continuation of older beefs, given that the origin of La Stidda clearly seems to have hinged on “excommunicated” CN members who pulled lower level “malavita” criminal networks into their orbit to contest CN. So it could be that the violence in the 80s evolved from prior conflicts that could have involved Biagio’s father, taking on a new form with the organization of Stidda clans by renegade mafiosi.

[cavita]

Looking at Rockford leader Salvatore Galluzzo's obit, one of his sisters-in-law was also a Caramazza, so he is related to both DiGiacomos and Caramazzas.

Here is an interesting reference circa 1993:
https://www.bpp.it/Apulia/html/archivio ... 3I020.html

- CARAMAZZA
Aragona, Raffadali, Santa Elisabetta, Campofranco, Milena, Sant'Angelo Muxaro
Extortion, drug
Connected with the Scozzaro di Campofranco and the Fretto di Raffadali
Connected with the Di Giacomo family, USA, operative in the Cosa Nostra dei Bonanno - Genovese
Affiliates, twenty

Links them to the DiGiacomos. Not sure if it's saying the Caramazzas or DiGiacomos are affiliated with the Bonanno and Genovese Families. New England was represented by the Genovese but I'm not sure how much substance there is to this -- it links Ciminna to the Bonannos and Gambinos which we know is accurate at least.

Here is what it has for Galluzos:

- GALLUZZO
Aragona, Campofranco, Milena, Raffadali, Sant'Elisabetta, Sant'Angelo Muxaro
Procurement taxation
Connected with the Lo Sardo di Bonpensiere and the Scozzano di Campofranco Affiliates, seven

A lot of other good stuff on that page.

Good info here. I should note that two of Galluzzo's brothers lived for a time in Belgium before immigrating to Rockford. Another cousin, Antonio Buscemi, lived in Frankfurt, Germany before immigrating to Rockford. I know the Galluzzo brothers went back to Aragona often to visit and most likely strengthened ties when they would go back.

[B.]

Based on the link I shared, it sounds like the Galluzzos might have been the leadership of the Aragona Family circa 1993. The list is of all the Families in the Sicilian mafia and in some cases it lists the name of the town / district to identify them but in others it lists the name of the leading clan.

However it lists both the Galluzzos and Caramazzas separately with Aragona as the first territory, but like I mentioned earlier the Caramazzas might have been part of the Santa Elisabetta Family which would explain why they're listed separately from the Galluzzos. The order of the territories also doesn't necessarily refer to their central location as the listing for the Raffadali Family has Santa Elisabetta first when, duh, they're based in Raffadali. I like that they listed multiple comuni for each Family though as it shows where they were active.

[B.]

Article that cites DiGiacomo as having been suspected of international drug trafficking as early as 1978 and relatives being killed in a "Sicilian drug war". Also describes his father as a "lieutenant in the Sicilian Mafia".

Another article says DiGiacomo's father was killed in 1972. When DiGiacomo was sentenced the judge apparently alluded to this when warning him about continuing a life in the mafia.

[davidf1989]

what do people make of this article of the arrests of the Patriarca mobsters after the induction ceremony? https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 126043102/ it also mentions the murder of Vincent Limoli.

How about the article on Guglielmetti? http://www.fivefamiliesnyc.com/2014/02/ ... gland.html

[cavita]

Looking at Rockford leader Salvatore Galluzzo's obit, one of his sisters-in-law was also a Caramazza, so he is related to both DiGiacomos and Caramazzas.

Here is an interesting reference circa 1993:
https://www.bpp.it/Apulia/html/archivio ... 3I020.html

- CARAMAZZA
Aragona, Raffadali, Santa Elisabetta, Campofranco, Milena, Sant'Angelo Muxaro
Extortion, drug
Connected with the Scozzaro di Campofranco and the Fretto di Raffadali
Connected with the Di Giacomo family, USA, operative in the Cosa Nostra dei Bonanno - Genovese
Affiliates, twenty

Links them to the DiGiacomos. Not sure if it's saying the Caramazzas or DiGiacomos are affiliated with the Bonanno and Genovese Families. New England was represented by the Genovese but I'm not sure how much substance there is to this -- it links Ciminna to the Bonannos and Gambinos which we know is accurate at least.

Here is what it has for Galluzos:

- GALLUZZO
Aragona, Campofranco, Milena, Raffadali, Sant'Elisabetta, Sant'Angelo Muxaro
Procurement taxation
Connected with the Lo Sardo di Bonpensiere and the Scozzano di Campofranco Affiliates, seven

A lot of other good stuff on that page.

Good info here. I should note that two of Galluzzo's brothers lived for a time in Belgium before immigrating to Rockford. Another cousin, Antonio Buscemi, lived in Frankfurt, Germany before immigrating to Rockford. I know the Galluzzo brothers went back to Aragona often to visit and most likely strengthened ties when they would go back.

That also reminds me- I have a photo of the Galluzzo brothers from Rockford when they went back to Aragona in the 1990s and the pic includes brother Vincenzo who remained there.