An excerpt of William D'elia new book.

[chin_gigante]

Does he talk about his relationship to other Families?

Currently reading it right now, finished the first 100 pages. D'Elia believes that in the early 1970s, Bufalino was also temporarily in charge of the Genovese and Buffalo families. I don't believe that, but it's interesting that it comes directly from D'Elia rather than the co-author. He also makes comments about how Bufalino was never on the commission and was always above it.

D'Elia's induction was held at a Howard and Johnson's hotel on Tuesday 30 October 1973. He didn't know he was being inducted and thought he couldn't be because his mother was Irish. Prior to the ceremony, Bufalino had asked him vague questions about if he was always going to be with him. D'Elia says about 30 to 40 guys were present including representatives from multiple different families. The Saturday before the ceremony was the annual dinner dance for Chapter 34 of the Italian American Civil Rights League in Wilkes-Barre and cosa nostra members from New York, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Miami, Chicago, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and other places attended. D'Elia says some of these members stayed an extra couple of days at Bufalino's suggestion to be there for the ceremony. The only member of another family that D'Elia mentions by name at his ceremony was Kelly Mannarino. The Bufalino members he mentions as being present are Dave Osticco, Cappy Giumento, Russell, and Angelo Bufalino. D'Elia's ceremony itself consisted of Bufalino bringing him into the centre of the room and announcing to everyone that D'Elia was "one of us" now. They then congratulated and greeted him.

D'Elia also mentions that Bufalino was very close with Kelly Mannarino.

[nizarsoccer]

John Stanfa asked William to become the Boss of Philadelphia, but the latter refused because he liked Natale/Merlino and knew they would never accept this position.

[sisterray]

In hindsight, the Civil Rights League was a good guise for guys from around the country to meet and network with each other. I’ve always thought that Buffalino wearing the IACRL pin in The Irishman was BS, but it turns out to be true, of only metaphorically.

Has anyone tried to compile a list of made guys from around the US who were active members of the league? Could be useful in order to trace other layers of connections between different borgatas.

[B.]

Does he say anything about Pittston Family history?

Not a lot of inside info out there about them and he could clear many things up, i.e. what was Joe Barbara's official rank, what does he know about the Endicott faction, did he hear anything about LaTorre / Volpe and the formation of the Family, other historic bosses, etc. Basically anything he was told by Bufalino and older members.

[chin_gigante]

Does he say anything about Pittston Family history?

Not a lot of inside info out there about them and he could clear many things up, i.e. what was Joe Barbara's official rank, what does he know about the Endicott faction, did he hear anything about LaTorre / Volpe and the formation of the Family, other historic bosses, etc. Basically anything he was told by Bufalino and older members.

The book discusses some early mafia activity in Pittston in a general way, but it's unclear how much (if any) of that information came from D'Elia or from other research by Matt Birckbeck. The second chapter of the book focuses heavily on Stefano LaTorre, Charles Bufalino, and Santo Volpe. It also lays out a lineage for the boss position:

Santo Volpe (stepped down 1932)
John Sciandra (died 1949)
Russell Bufalino (became boss with the support of his uncle and Volpe)

The book also mentions that Stefano LaTorre and Charles Bufalino preferred to stay in the background, and Joseph Barbara was sent to Binghamton "to oversee Magaddino's operations there".

[chin_gigante]

Some other notes I have as I keep reading (as a disclaimer I don't know how much of this I actually believe):

- After the court of appeals denied Bufalino's motion for a new trial (10 Jul 1978), he was told to surrender to MCC Manhattan by 10 Aug
- A meeting was held in Bufalino's house attended by Osticco, Giumento, Angelo Bufalino, D'Elia, Sam Gelso, and Sam Cometta
- At that meeting, D'Elia was left in charge of the family during Bufalino's incarceration
- "Don't do anything until you see Billy. I don't care if it's for this or that, you go see Billy. Everything runs through him because he's going to cone see me. And lay low. Don't reach out to people until we can check them out first. Some people will tell you they're with is or Russell said this. Don't pay attention to any of that shit."
- Edward Sciandra did not attend the meeting
- Bufalino called Sciandra the night before and told him D'Elia would be in touch
- D'Elia doesn't know where the Pennsylvania Crime Commission got the idea that Sciandra was acting boss, but he was happy they thought he was
- D'Elia believes Bufalino was consulted in prison and signed off on killing Angelo Bruno's killers
- D'Elia also says Bufalino carried more weight than Bruno, describing an example where Bufalino and Bruno were at an event in Philadelphia and Bruno had to come over and greet Bufalino rather than the other way around

[Sullycantwell]

Does he say anything about Pittston Family history?

Not a lot of inside info out there about them and he could clear many things up, i.e. what was Joe Barbara's official rank, what does he know about the Endicott faction, did he hear anything about LaTorre / Volpe and the formation of the Family, other historic bosses, etc. Basically anything he was told by Bufalino and older members.

In addition to what Chin said, it briefly mentioned LaTorre's death and called him the oldest member in the family. This could mean he was reinstated. Another thing that was interesting I saw was that John Stanfa asked him to become boss of Philly. I didn't believe this, but Nizar showed me some interesting articles that said that and the articles cited LE sources. Not sure if this was well known

[Tonyd621]

He is doing mob museum talk around the beginning August I think I seen on the YouTube page

[Patrickgold]

Almost finished with the book. Things I found interesting so far:

-D’Elia was close to Joey Naples from Youngstown

-D’Elia was somewhat close to Tony Civella out of KC even though he mislabeled him the son of Nick Civella. Buffalino was also close to Nick Civella and was in prison with him at Leavenworth.

-The family didn’t seem to be more than 10 members. Even though they claim it was so powerful there are no examples to really back it up.

-And the most interesting thing is D’Elia backs up claims that Frank Sheeran was a killer. A lot of incidents he describes involving Frank Sheeran are incidents that were in the movie and book (Buffalino’s run in with Joey Gallo in NYC the night Gallo was murdered, Sheeran might have killed Sally Bugs, that Sheeran was in prison with Buffalino and Fat Tony at the same time in the late 80s in Springfield Medical facilty, Sheeran drove Buffalino with their wives to Detroit for a wedding the weekend Hoffa disappeared. Placing Sheeran in Detroit that weekend). So far D’Elia is the only guy to claim Sheeran was a killer. Everyone else says he was just a drunk and never killed anyone. That being said, he said he was at a meeting with Buffalino and NYC guys telling Sheeran not to revenge Hoffa’s murder.

[PolackTony]

Does he talk about his relationship to other Families?

D'Elia's induction was held at a Howard and Johnson's hotel on Tuesday 30 October 1973. He didn't know he was being inducted and thought he couldn't be because his mother was Irish. Prior to the ceremony, Bufalino had asked him vague questions about if he was always going to be with him. D'Elia says about 30 to 40 guys were present including representatives from multiple different families. The Saturday before the ceremony was the annual dinner dance for Chapter 34 of the Italian American Civil Rights League in Wilkes-Barre and cosa nostra members from New York, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Miami, Chicago, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and other places attended. D'Elia says some of these members stayed an extra couple of days at Bufalino's suggestion to be there for the ceremony. The only member of another family that D'Elia mentions by name at his ceremony was Kelly Mannarino. The Bufalino members he mentions as being present are Dave Osticco, Cappy Giumento, Russell, and Angelo Bufalino. D'Elia's ceremony itself consisted of Bufalino bringing him into the centre of the room and announcing to everyone that D'Elia was "one of us" now. They then congratulated and greeted him.

Very interesting details here, including the truncated ceremony and the IACRL.

My impression of the IACRL had been that it was basically an obvious front for Colombo that enjoyed intense but relatively short-lived popular support from the Italian community in NYC. I was not aware that it had chapters in other cities. The only mentions of it in the press, nationally, that I recalled seeing were for Colombo's Unity Day Rallies at Columbus Circle in 1970 and '71. A 1971 article in the NY Times, however, discussed the push from the IACRL to organize chapters in other cities, which by this time included Utica, Rochester, New Haven, Providence, Boston, Miami, Bayonne, and Newark, with efforts underway to organize chapters in Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Hartford, and Vegas. The IACRL was said to have a membership of 40k at this time, impressive for an organization that had been founded just one year before. The Chicago chapter seems to have been formed under the umbrella of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian‐Americans, which represented ~400k members of Chicago paesani and Italian civic action organizations. Peter Lavorata, member of the executive committee of the JCCIA, President of the Vicari Society, and clerk of the Cook County Grand Jury, was identified by the FBI as a longtime personal associate of Chicago member Phil Bacino (Bacino was from Ribera and closely connected to members of the DeCavalcante Family). I was able to uncover that Lavorata's connections to the mafia went back to the 1920s with one-time Chicago boss Pasquale LoLordo. Other JCCIA bigwigs with close mafia ties included former JCCIA President Antonino Paternò (a Sicilian Chicago wine and liquor magnate who was a close personal friend of Tony Accardo, accompanied Accardo on a trip to Italy in the 1970s, and was under investigation at that time by Italian LE for ties to the Sicilian mafia), and US Congressman Frank Annunzio (close to Accardo and other leading Chicago LCN members, and suspected by the FBI of being a member of Chicago LCN himself). An FBI bug in the 1960s apparently captured Vincent Ferrara, then President of the JCCIA, meeting with Chicago LCN member-politicians Pat Marcy and John D'Arco about using the clout of the JCCIA to combat negative press coverage of individuals connected to the mafia and back a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Sam Giancana against FBI "harassment". While the majority of the members of the IACRL, like the JCCIA, were respected middle-class and professional members of the community, I would imagine that when the IACRL expanded into other cities it naturally tapped into existing ecosystems of Italian civic activism which went back decades and often included longstanding intersections with LCN members and associates.

[UTC]

I guess nobody understood the question. Mafia 101. I asked whether he breached omerta, which is different from being a rat. In other words, did he divulge the secrets of the organization? If Carlo Gambino called the cops on the kid next door for shoplifting, he would be a rat but would not have breached omerta.
Maybe D'Elia did both.

[Sullycantwell]

I guess nobody understood the question. Mafia 101. I asked whether he breached omerta, which is different from being a rat. In other words, did he divulge the secrets of the organization? If Carlo Gambino called the cops on the kid next door for shoplifting, he would be a rat but would not have breached omerta.
Maybe D'Elia did both.

He literally wrote a book about his life in the mafia, yes he divulged “secrets” about the mafia. He didn’t give too much new info, but him recognizing Bufalino as boss or Stefano LaTorre as a member is giving away information about the life.

[Tonyd621]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.timesl ... -delia/amp

This is one example of him ratting. You can get into semantics whether he broke omerta or not. I do not think he is going to be accepted as a member and break bread like he used too

[PHL_Mob]

He’s a rat. He testified against another LCN associate and then went on to write a book. He thinks because he didn’t put a wire on or testify in Philly or NYC that he’s not a rat. Not how this works…

[JeremyTheJew]

Does the book detail himself becoming boss…?