Salvadore "Sammy" Cantavespre - Birmingham, AL wiseguy?

[TinyDog]

From what I gathered after my previous post about the Birmingham, Alabama LCN presence, I've decided to compile all I've managed to dig up on Sammy Cantavespre, but there may be more.

According to PolackTony's research, the Cantavespre family in Birmingham had roots in Bisacquino which was extremely common for Sicilian immigrants to Birmingham during the late 19th and early 20th century. His mother was also a Longo, a name connected to Joe N. Gallo's mother.

For starters, Sammy owned and operated the Sammy's strip club in Birmingham (with sister locations in Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola, Florida) from the 1970s, until his death in 1988 and it's now operated by his wife, Patti.

According to sources I've seen online as well as my own father (who worked in law enforcement in Birmingham during the 1980s), Sammy was well-known to be "mobbed up", though I've been unable to determine the full details of which exact family he was connected to. Bill Bonnano said the Lucchese family ran a lot of operations in Birmingham so Sammy could've been Lucchese connected, though this is all speculation.

Aside from uncredited online blogs claiming Sammy was a "mob boss", the only concrete evidence I've found to tie Sammy to organized crime is the June 11th, 1982 bombing of the New Spot Lounge in Birmingham (something my father remembers as being mob-related somehow). Sammy and three other men were charged, but all acquitted.

Sammy was born March 22, 1928 and died on February 4, 1988.

As for the present day, I do know there are still many Cantavespres around in northwest Alabama, many of them are assimilated Americans from what I can gleam from their Facebook posts. However, it's also worth noting that the Hoover police chief Nick Derzis' fiancée was a Kelle Cantavespre, who was charged with domestic violence against him in 2014.

As for the state of LCN in Birmingham, I personally haven't heard anything that points to there being an active crew present there in the 2020s. However, it's a well known fact that Birmingham's LCN history has historically been very obscure. According to Bill Bonnano, the actual Birmingham crime family was defunct by 1938, but if Sammy Cantavespre is indeed connected to LCN, it'd mean the mafia's presence in Birmingham extends well into the 1980s.

If anyone has any more info on Sammy, please share!

[TinyDog]

Sources for this info:
https://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Sammy%27s
https://conjuringjusticeblog.com/tag/sammys/
https://www.sammysonline.com/about/
https://mafia.substack.com/p/alabama-ne ... -agrigento
https://www.ancestry.ca/genealogy/recor ... b+Property

[TinyDog]

These photos are all from the early 1980s.


Kelle Cantavespre, charged with domestic violence against Hoover police chief Nick Derzis


Sammy's interior, present day



Personal photos outside Sammy's on 342 Valley Ave, taken on June 28th, 2023.

[sdeitche]

No personal photos from inside?

Good information. I had never heard of him before. Did he have any ties to Biloxi, and the Dixie guys

[B.]

Excellent work.

Bill B said that Tom Gagliano represented the remaining Birmingham members when their Family disbanded which would typically mean they became remote Lucchese members who could reach out to that Family if they were in need, not that there were any Lucchese rackets or interests in the area. His book has some inaccuracies about even more well-known figures though and some of what he said about the Birmingham Family seems inconsistent based on my research (ages and DOD of suspected members) but since it's all we have to go with it can't be discounted either.

The Family with the strongest links to Bisacquino was the Gambino Family and there is evidence Joe N. Gallo used his Bisacquinese relatives in Birmingham to communicate with the New Orleans Family to set up the La Stella meeting. If any later underworld figures had peripheral ties to a Family, I'd guess Gambino but who knows. I did find that some descendants of the Caterinicchia-Amari-Mangiaracina clan were involved in gambling and plan to add that to my article when I have time -- that clan can be connected to the DeCavalcantes.

Appreciate you looking into this guy and it makes sense he was Bisacquinese.

[TinyDog]

No personal photos from inside?

Good information. I had never heard of him before. Did he have any ties to Biloxi, and the Dixie guys

I haven't found anything so far to prove he did, but it wouldn't shock me. My father worked closely with federal agencies as a cop in Gulfport/Biloxi back in the 80s (even guarded Marcello at a hotel in Mississippi before/during his trial), and repeatedly talked about how LCN indeed had a presence/influence as far as Birmingham, but I don't know the details of what he meant.

[TinyDog]

Excellent work.

Bill B said that Tom Gagliano represented the remaining Birmingham members when their Family disbanded which would typically mean they became remote Lucchese members who could reach out to that Family if they were in need, not that there were any Lucchese rackets or interests in the area. His book has some inaccuracies about even more well-known figures though and some of what he said about the Birmingham Family seems inconsistent based on my research (ages and DOD of suspected members) but since it's all we have to go with it can't be discounted either.

The Family with the strongest links to Bisacquino was the Gambino Family and there is evidence Joe N. Gallo used his Bisacquinese relatives in Birmingham to communicate with the New Orleans Family to set up the La Stella meeting. If any later underworld figures had peripheral ties to a Family, I'd guess Gambino but who knows. I did find that some descendants of the Caterinicchia-Amari-Mangiaracina clan were involved in gambling and plan to add that to my article when I have time -- that clan can be connected to the DeCavalcantes.

Appreciate you looking into this guy and it makes sense he was Bisacquinese.

Very interesting about the possible Gambino connection!

[TinyDog]

Also as an update to this original post, I think I'm wrong on Patti Cantavespre being Sammy's wife. Ancestry.com indicates Sammy's wife was named Josephine Pilliteri, and she died in 2013.