Motorfab's Blog: Une Histoire de Crime Organisé

[PolackTony]

Bravo, Fabien! This was a great read and some excellent research here.

I was under the impression that guys like Michele Zaza, Bardellino, and the Nuvolettas were soldiers in the Porta Nuova cosca (while also leaders of their own local clans, of course). That there was a full fledged Family (or three, if we were to take Buscetta literally) actually based in Campania and inducting its own members, however, hadn’t really sunk in, despite having read Calderone before. Thanks for tackling such a complicated but important topic.

Have you come across anything about Antonio Spavone in relation to any of this? It has been stated that when the so-called “Nuova Famiglia” held a summit in 1982 in Rome, both Sicilian and American Families sent representatives as a sign of respect, and Spavone was alleged to have had close ties to both Funzi Tieri and Jackie Cerone.

Thank you, indeed it was a complicated topic, that's why I tried to be the more factual as possible and not improvised too much, and stick to the maximum with known facts (and some more unknow). But as you said it's definitely a important topic, so I'm glad if you appreciated it, thanks !

Regarding Spavone, I don't know for the summit in 1982 in Rome but in a doc I've read, Pasquale Galasso mentioned him, it's about all the meetings they had to try to appease the conflict :

"I remember in particular one of these meetings, of exceptional importance - which I have already mentioned - with the NUVOLETTAs (that is, with the brothers Ciro, Lorenzo, Angelo and Gaetano: also present were Antonio Orlando, father-in-law of Enrico Maisto, whose brother Gaetano, I think I had been released on leave and had met in some of the previous meetings). As I said, this meeting took place in the summer of 1981, and it had been called with the intention of arriving at a reconciliation with the Cutoliani: it was an attempt at reconciliation that I have already described. During the meeting which saw more than one hundred Camorra and mafiosi present in Lorenzo Nuvoletta's farm known as Vallesana, all the Camorra groups in Campania were represented: Bardellino, Aflieri, Zaza, Spavone, Giuliano, Mallardo, Maisto, Gionta, D'Alessandro, Vollaro, Ferrara, Vastarella, Nuzzo, each of the bosses accompanied by at least 4 or 5 people, but often much more."

It's the only time I saw him mentioned regarding something about the Nuova Famiglia. Spavone's case is ambiguous because sometimes we read that it was Cutolo who tried to kill him in 1976 or sometimes that it was the Zaza brothers, so I'm not sure where he fit in there. That said, the murder attempt on Spavone was on April and the murder of Tripodo was in August, meaning Cutolo wasn't probably boss yet, so I tend to believe it was the Zazas but like I said I'm sure of nothing ...

He was in his late fifties at the time, so maybe he was neutral and listened to by both sides, I don't know.

I never found much about his stay in the USA, except maybe he was in NY. Was he in Chicago?

In any case, I do think he was involved with other criminals in the USA.

There is info in this thread about Spavone and Chicago, if you're interested. He was most likely identified by the FBI in 1993 as a redacted "capo" of the "Nuova Famiglia" with ties to Chicago LCN. After he was shot in the 1970s he traveled to the US for reconstructive surgeries. I was able to confirm that he spent at least part of that time in Chicago, where he seems to have owned a restaurant, as did his brother, Giuseppe Spavone. Nephew Tony Spavone is a very well-known Chicago restauranteur and singer with mob ties, with it even being rumored that his restaurant was used for making ceremonies in the past. The thread also discusses Carmine Esposito, a fugitive from Acerra captured in Chicago who was said to have been one of the principal figures in the NCO.
https://theblackhand.club/forum/viewtop ... ne#p233553

Also, your investigation of Cosa Nostra in Napoli finally clears up one of the most important questions on this forum; how Furio Giunta was able to attend Christopher Molitsanti's induction ceremony. While we had all assumed that Furio was simply a Camorrist', it is now clear that Furio was actually a soldato in a Napolitan' mafia cosca under Don Zi Vittorio and was formally transferred to the DiMeo Family in NJ.

Wouldn't Furio still have to be made again into the DeMeo/Soprano Family?

I’m not aware of a Neapolitan Cosa Nostra member transferring to a US Family, but presumably he would be able to do so in the same fashion as a Sicilian member. It might be a formalized ceremonial affair marking the transfer, as it seems to have sometimes been for transfers between US Families, but he wouldn’t be made again. So far as I know, the only instance that we know of where any members anywhere were ever inducted twice was when Gotti ordered the DeCavs to re-induct their members made since 1976 for not using the ceremony.

[B.]

Only other time I'm aware of is the recent Philly informant Persiano who was apparently made by Nicky Scarfo Jr. into the Luccheses but it was unrecognized and when Philly "re-made" him Lancelotti was recorded saying he knew Persiano had been through the ceremony before. Might be true for some of those other guys around him like Sal Piccolo as well.

Be very interesting to know how Neapolitan members of the Sicilian mafia would be regarded in the US. They'd have no issues with it given the US mafia is pan-Italian but it would be a unique situation either way.

[motorfab]

Also, your investigation of Cosa Nostra in Napoli finally clears up one of the most important questions on this forum; how Furio Giunta was able to attend Christopher Molitsanti's induction ceremony. While we had all assumed that Furio was simply a Camorrist', it is now clear that Furio was actually a soldato in a Napolitan' mafia cosca under Don Zi Vittorio and was formally transferred to the DiMeo Family in NJ.

"Wi...Wilshire... Boulevard"

Excellent info about Spavone & Carmine Esposito Tony, thanks I guess I missed that post. By a funny coincidence Esposito was from Avellino (according to newaspapers) ...

Wouldn't Furio still have to be made again into the DeMeo/Soprano Family?

It already happened for some 'ndranghetisti to be trasnferred into the American Cosa Nostra for the Guappi I have no idea how it works because there is not really "membership" for the criminal groups in Campania except for some organization in the provinces like the Clan dei Casalesi

But as The Sopranos is a fiction and not supposed to be accurate, at worst we can assume a ceremony happened

[Snakes]

Thanks. I could have sworn the old prevailing wisdom was that even Sicilian Mafia members had to be remade if they transferred to America, but I could be misremembering.

[motorfab]

Thanks. I could have sworn the old prevailing wisdom was that even Sicilian Mafia members had to be remade if they transferred to America, but I could be misremembering.

Probably for the old generation of Camorristi, but I don't think so for the post 1931 era (but obviously I could be wrong)

[motorfab]

New article dedicated to Pierre Marini aka "Le Capitaine des Corses" (the Captain of the Corsicans). Marini was a sort of Corsican version of Joe Masseria, feared but little respected at the end of his career (but with a non-violent end for Marini). Marini was also one of the first Corsican bosses to have been involved in drug trafficking.

The article is a sort of "spin-off" of the first blog post I posted 2 years ago

https://unehistoiredecrimeorganise.blog ... orses.html

[motorfab]

New article dedicated to Pierre Marini aka "Le Capitaine des Corses" (the Captain of the Corsicans). Marini was a sort of Corsican version of Joe Masseria, feared but little respected at the end of his career (but with a non-violent end for Marini). Marini was also one of the first Corsican bosses to have been involved in drug trafficking.

The article is a sort of "spin-off" of the first blog post I posted 2 years ago

https://unehistoiredecrimeorganise.blog ... orses.html

As I mentioned in the article the "Bats D'Af" and some gangsters who passed there as well as the tradition of tattooing, here is a photo of Jo Attia, famous mobster of the 30s/40s/50s where you can see some of his tattoos.

[PolackTony]

Excellent info about Spavone & Carmine Esposito Tony, thanks I guess I missed that post. By a funny coincidence Esposito was from Avellino (according to newspapers) ...

Maybe we're talking about two different Carmine Espositos? The one arrested on the lam in Chicago in 1987 and reputed at that time to have been a high-ranking leader in the NCO was definitely from Acerra, as his biography was discussed in detail by the local Chicago press. Esposito was subsequently the boss of Acerra (the De Sena clan) and was murdered there in 2002 (Italian press coverage noted that his nickname was 'o Battlamier' in reference to the auto body shop that he operated in Acerra [battlamier' being Napuletan' for an auto body worker, carrozziere in Italian]; the body shop was also mentioned in the Chicago press in 1987-88).

From a Chicago Tribune article on Esposito, from January 24th 1988:





From the cutoliani back to the Nuova Fratellanza Napoletana. On the "Chicago zips" thread I discussed how the Italian press claimed that Antonio Spavone presided over the Rome summit that established the "NF" (along with the attendance of representatives from several Sicilian and US Cosa Nostra Families), though it was reported to have been in '81 and not '82 as I had written above. In historian Tom Behan's 1996 book "The Camorra", he also notes that Spavone chaired a meeting of the NF in 1981 at a Roman hotel (Behar cites court documents from the 1983 trial of NCO leader Sabato Saviano). Behan characterizes the meeting as brokering a tenuous peace agreement between the NF-affiliated clans and the NCO.



This aligns with the characterization of Spavone in a 2000 PhD thesis at Brunel University by Felia Allum, "The Neapolitan Camorra:
Crime and Politics in Postwar Naples (1950-92)". Allum wrote a case study of Spavone, drawing on a number of court documents and other materials about Spavone going back to the 1940s, and noted that Spavone was the mentor of Giuliano clan founder Pio Vittorio Giuliano (which makes sense, given that the Giulianos were of course from Forcella and the Spavones from the nearby Borgo Santa Lucia, on the waterfront next to the Quartiere Spagnoli). Thus, Spavone was seen as something of an elder statesman/"consigliere" by the NF clan leaders, a representative of the old values of the post-war urban Camorra of Napoli.

[motorfab]

Well, at the time of writing my previous post on Esposito, I was basing this on another article that appeared in the Chicago Tribune (March 13, 1987), and the article said he was from Avellino, but after making further research later and reading other articles, indeed it appears that he was from Acerra.



Thank you very much for the additional info

[motorfab]

New article dedicated to the origins, relationships and connections between the Montreal mafia and the different mafia groups in Italy ('ndrangheta, Cosa Nostra & Camorra).

Thanks to antimafia who gave me 2/3 tips to carry out the project!

https://unehistoiredecrimeorganise.blog ... tions.html

[Eline2015]

Great research Fabien

[motorfab]

Great research Fabien

Thank you Eline, it was indeed a lot of time and research for this article, so glad you enjoyed it

[AustraliaSteve]

Latest article was dope Fabien. Great work, I’d forgotten the Alvaro/Violi link. Always well done. Salud’.

[motorfab]

Latest article was dope Fabien. Great work, I’d forgotten the Alvaro/Violi link. Always well done. Salud’.

Thanks a lot mate, glad you enjoyed the reading.

It's funny because although I knew that the Violi family is from Sinopoli, I had never made the connection with the Alvaro clan until I started researching for the article.

[AustraliaSteve]

Yeah, it makes you wonder about other possible connections between the clans in Canada and Australia. It was between about 87 and 91 that Papalias were getting murdered in Australia. Johnny Pops is killed in 97 I think ?
I don’t know, I don’t think it’s directly connected, but there’s some definite tangents between Papalias being basically wiped out in Australia and the murder of Johnny Pops signalling the end of an era in Hamilton.