Making Ceremony Held By Angelo Bruno At Wedding

[B.]

A question too is who the first Newark member was in the Philly family?

- Both bosses Joe Bruno Dovi and Joe Ida lived in New Brunswick and I used to assume they were responsible for creating the Philly Newark crew, i.e. maybe they recruited a few members while they were up there. Not much evidence for that.

- Caponigro and Louie Luciano started out under Anastasia, but what about other guys inducted by Philly in the 1950s/60s? If the Philly Newark group was relatively new, these guys should have been on record with another family or were otherwise unaffiliated. We know Caponigro did most of the recruiting after he became the dominant member in Newark.

- Angelo Bruno says the Philly family was one of the families who got a piece of the Newark family. He doesn't mention the Colombo family, which is strange as the Colombos took one of the largest pieces including the former Newark boss. The break-up of the Newark family happened at least fifteen years before Bruno was a made member, so it's impressive he knows about it but he may not have all of the details right. You'd think he would be right about his own family, though, and he suggests Philadelphia absorbed some of the Newark family. Who or what, though?

- John Cappello Sr. lived in Newark until the 1930s. He would later be identified as a Philadelphia capodecina and his son was made in Philly during the 1940s after the family moved there. Cappello was likely not a Philly member when he lived in Newark and may have been part of the Gambino family, as he was a business partner of both his compaesano Joe Traina and NJ figure Antonio Paterno, both Gambino captains. He may have been a member of the Newark family, too, and his move to Philadelphia might coincide with troubles in the Newark family. If that's the case, Cappello Sr. might be an example of a Newark member who was "absorbed" by Philly, though in his case he moved from Newark to Philly.

There are also questions about the history of Trenton, but will save that for later.

[nash143]

Found this file on MF; information expanding on the initial post by Chin
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... d%20regime


Numerous members gathered with Angelo Bruno for a holiday drink - December 22nd, 1962. The conversation reported was between Angelo Bruno, Frank Nicoletti, Mike LNU and Anthony LNU - not sure who these last two are.

AB comments that with the passing of Salvatore Testa (1950), Michele Maggio (1959) and Albert De Marco (1962), “we lost a lot of good people.” When AB comments on Albert De Marco, he calls him “That Albie over there.” ‘Over there’ being North Jersey?

Nicoletti comments that with the recent passing of Albert ‘Little Albie’ De Marco, “we got nobody in New Brunswick, he was the last one. We got nobody there at all”.

AB reflects that “it is a good thing that we made these young boys” – a comment probably regarding the 1961 ceremony where Cammarota and Tramantana were inducted, the 1962 ceremony where Ippolito and Napoli were made, or the one outlined below.
FN reminisces about New Brunswick and “Joe Bruno in the restaurant.” He then answers an inaudible comment from Mike LNU with, “Sure, He originated it.”

AB states that “there was a time in Trenton when we just had Jimmy Goia (Vincenzo Gioe), (and) his brother (Salvatore Gioe). He continues to say, “one died (Salvatore in 1956), so there was just one, Jimmy. Then Johnny got 15 years”. Which Johnny is this? Simone? Or an error. Did Jimmy get 15 years?

There are conversations regarding Tony Caponigro and him being against his brother-in-law (Alfred Salerno) being made, and several other half stories where Caponigro is made out to have troubles. Difficult to understand what exactly AB etc are alluding to here.
AB does state that he “had a few talks with him (Caponigro)” and that “nothing can happen to you unless I ok it.”

The group start talking about a making ceremony in Trenton, following a wedding. FN states, “we made four of these kids. (including) Charlie’s kid.” (Joseph Costello?) AB adds by responding with “Sam from Chester” (Santo Idone) and later says “I made sure that Tony brought those other two guys” (two proposed members from the Newark area?).

Mike LNU states the wedding and ceremony was on a Sunday and AB states Alfred Salerno was “going to the can on Monday, a week from then.” AB continues to say that “he (Salerno) was sentenced to five years, but I got it to four years. I got a year taken off.”
As Chin as written, Caponigro asks for Salerno to be made, but AB explains the proposal process and turns him down.

AB goes on to say, “we got six there (Newark), and with this kid (Salerno, it) would have been seven…we could have made one over there…I’d make a regime over there.” “When I was with the commission, I would tell I was going to make a regime over there. I am sure that they did not have any objections.” It sounds like AB is saying he needs seven to make regime?

The group go on to talk about the Newark Family. Some titbits there for some. Unsure if any of this info is new.

[ShotgunTheRifle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CpCcc2 ... nlyPodcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxAYBV1 ... nlyPodcast

Both of these are worth watching if you haven't yet. He talks about the wedding in the second one. Definity a lot of information I didn't know.

Also almost positive the Bruno picture with Pinky Costello is from that wedding. Joseph Costello was one of the guys made.

[chin_gigante]

Found this file on MF; information expanding on the initial post by Chin
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... d%20regime

That's an absolutely fantastic find. I'll need to have a good look at it later but from a quick glance at it and your notes there's a lot of good stuff. So the four inducted at this wedding were Joseph Costello, Santo Idone, and two individuals proposed by Caponigro. The "Tony Kiva" Scafidi told the FBI about supposedly worked for Caponigro and was made in Trenton, so I think that's a good guess for who one of his proposed guys could be.

Also, regarding the Newark family, there's good clues in there about who the Tony could be. They talk about the fact that this Tony went back to Italy after all the strife in the Newark family.

[ShotgunTheRifle]

Screenshot 2023-10-18 193045.png

Screenshot 2023-10-18 193120.png

AB is Angelo Bruno, FN is Frank Nicoletti, M is Mike LNU

Screenshot 2023-10-18 193159.png

[ShotgunTheRifle]

Screenshot 2023-10-18 193244.png

These are screenshots from that podcast I posted just to give credit where it is due.

Edit: looks like someone posted the original links, awesome find.

[ShotgunTheRifle]

Interesting that the document IDs the Boss of the Newark family as Tony LNU. Any idea who this could be?


Pogo

Whoever "Tony" is he fled to Italy by this time. If that helps.

[B.]

I've seen the summaries of that tape but somehow never saw the original transcript. Thank you.

Looking at it, it's not 100% clear that "Tony" was the boss of the Newark Family but it does seem to be implied. Tony Riela did keep his wife and son in San Giuseppe Jato for decades while he lived in the US and they only joined him later, Riela taking trips back to Sicily to visit/stay with them so it's possible they are referring to him. If it can be confirmed if Riela took a trip back to Italy around 1937 or 1938 that would help. We know Nicolo Schiro (then living in Newark) and Leonardo Cipolla (suspect in 1935 Troia murder) went to Sicily together in October 1937 about eight months after the D'Amico shooting.

You'd think someone would have mentioned if Tony Riela was an interim boss of the Family before it disbanded given how well-known he was but those things easily get overlooked. For example a number of sources mentioned Giuseppe Morello's role with Masseria during the Castellammarese War but didn't mention/know that he'd once been boss of his own Family and national capo. Many sources knew Frank Scalise too but outside of people who were active in the events of 1931 none mentioned that he'd briefly been boss.

According to one source, Riela assisted Joe Bonanno in taking account of Vincenzo Troia's assets after Troia's murder so perhaps there is something to it. He may not have been acting as a gofer for Bonanno but a high-level leader of the Newark Family carrying out Bonanno and the Commission's directions. You also have to figure the guys discussing "Tony" seem familiar with him which lends itself to Riela while they'd be less familiar with other, older Newark Family bosses.

We don't know either that Gaspare D'Amico was still boss when the attempt on his life was made. In one translation of Gentile, Troia apparently gathered support within the Family to depose D'Amico but never became official boss. It's possible D'Amico was deposed in 1935 though and the attempt on his life in 1937 and break-up of the Family occurred after he was no longer boss. There is the source who says Profaci ordered D'Amico to commit a murder and when he refused Profaci put a contract on him but that doesn't necessarily mean D'Amico was still boss. We have so few sources and even then those can be mistaken -- Gentile's account definitely is, as he switched the timeline of the Troia murder and the attempt on D'Amico's life.

--

Going back to the Philly stuff, a lot of excellent detail that didn't properly come out in the summaries I've seen.

- Bruno does seem to be saying he needs seven members in Newark to form an official decina with Commission approval. This goes hand in hand with Fish Cafaro's testimony that the Genovese Family required seven members in a decina. What goes against this is the examples of smaller crews even further back, as Bill Bonanno said his father had captains with no member under them and we have other examples of crews smaller than seven. Bruno and Cafaro are both referring to the same rule about this regardless.

- Who were the six Newark-based members? Caponigro, Luciano, and Napoli are confirmed, then Tony Verniero who the FBI said was a confirmed mafia member but they couldn't confirm he was with Philadelphia; he could also be "Tony Kiva" (ph) identified as a Newark member by Scafidi. That leaves at least two more and we can rule out Salerno. This brings Martirano and DiNorscio back up too.

- They mention Louie Luciano having a bunch of brothers. Was he related to Newark Gambino member Blackie Luciano who George Fresolone associated with? Louie started out associating with Anastasia so there is a Gambino connection with him. Blackie is a total enigma, I'm only aware of him being mentioned by Fresolone and John Alite of all people.

- Hard to tell if they are saying Joe Bruno was responsible for establishing the Family's presence in North Jersey or if he "originated" the restaurant they refer to. "Cleveland Dan" is probably a phonetic take on "Cleveland Ave", a street in New Brunswick. Maybe the restaurant was there.

- When they discuss whether Richie Boiardo once belonged to "the old thing", they are no doubt referring to the Camorra. Boiardo's FBI file cites a source who says Boiardo had been affiliated with them.

- Interesting that Tramontana, Cammarata, and Ippolito once worked for or were associated with Boiardo. I knew that Tramontana was originally a bootlegger in Jersey City. All three had heritage in the Villalba area like Bruno and Simone. This isn't discussed here, but on the DeCarlo tapes Ray discusses how he and Rega were made by Joe Bruno in New Brunswick and were then transferred to Willie Moretti because Bruno was upset they hadn't been made yet. They started out associating with Boiardo then went with Moretti, were made by Bruno, then transferred as members to the Genovese.

- They seem to say they had another member at one point who lived where Tony Caponigro lives then go into the Salerno situation. The original context seems to be that just like they had two members in Trenton, they once had another member in Newark aside from Caponigro. Could be John Cappello Sr. who once lived there.

[B.]

More info with the "Tony" reference in mind:

- An informant said he had seen Tony Riela with Vincenzo and Philip Mangano in the 1940s. However he thought the Manganos were murdered around 1946 so his timeline is off. Same informant said Settimo Accardi and Phil Mangano were compari.

- Riela told the FBI he had lived with Vincenzo Troia in Newark between 1931 and 1935.

- Riela and former Newark boss Stefano Badami also lived together for many years later on, even moving to different apartments together. They were also partners in the lumber business.

- I can't confirm any visits Riela made to Italy in the late 1930s but he did visit his wife and son there in 1946. They followed him to NJ in 1948.

- Riela did however spend time back in Rockford in 1937. He was suspected of being involved in a murder there at the end of the year. Seems likely Riela laid low in Rockford after the Newark Family conflict came to a head.

- Later became a business partner of Joe and Bill Bonanno. Also attended Apalachin as a member of the Bonanno Family.

He does come across as someone who could have been boss for a time, whatever the duration. We can't assume the Philly members got the story exactly right either, i.e. maybe he didn't flee to Italy in the immediate aftermath of the Newark break-up but went to Rockford and then visited Italy later which is what the records show.

[ShotgunTheRifle]

On page 7 (of the actual notes) of the Mary Ferrell link who ever A is says "Ang, Ill say that, We already have two bosses" Anyone know who this other boss is, or what this is in reference to?

[B.]

Probably Joe Rugnetta. The Calabrian faction answered only to him and on other tapes Bruno called him the "rappresentante of the Calabresi".

Seems to be saying that if they had a captain in Newark that group would be able to administer their own affairs without needing Philadelphia as much. Funny because I just re-read the Stefanelli tapes and Licata basically says the same thing about their crew.

[dack2001]

Dinorscio is most likely one of Caponigro's guys made in the 1963 wedding. He had to be made in the early 60's because he went to prison in 69 and we know he was acting capo for John Simone by the early/mid-70's when Simone started spending most of his time in Florida. Around the same time Caponigro was ducking a subpoena and in hiding and Bruno was doing a couple years in Yardville for refusing to testify. Ippolito had similar problems as Simone did with the subpoena. My guess would be that when Bruno was incarcerated the North Jersey guys reported to Simone since he was very close with Bruno and those crews essentially merged for a time under acting crew boss Dinorscio. When Bruno made Caponigro consigliere he made the North Jersey crew official and put them under Tony.

Patty Specs was likely the other guy made at the wedding. FBI files from the Ferrell era don't mention him but they mention Blackie several times. Blackie was higher on the pecking order with Caponigro so I'd bet he'd be made first and he got down the year before the wedding. Besides, if he was made in the 50's like Fresolone thought, he would have been damn near a teenager. It makes the most sense to be Dinorscio and Pattty Specs.

[JoelTurner]

Wow! This is actually amazing!

1) When Ange was listing the families active in Newark, he got interrupted. I had never understood why he didn’t name all of them.

2) I had struggled with the idea that a “Tony in Jersey City” was connected to the Newark family considering they weren’t ever in that area. The “Jersey City” part coming from Frank Nicoletti who seems to be wording it as a question rather than a firm statement “he used to live in Jersey City, didn’t he” makes it less “important”.

In the Newark thread, this Tony’s identity was discussed and it was speculated that it could be Newark -> San José member Anthony Scavuzzo or someone else. Contextually, Riela makes the most sense.

The line “He went to Italy after the troubles” is throwing me off slightly. Josephine Riela, his wife, said that his 1946 visit to Italy was the first time she had seen him in 22 years. She could have been lying or Nicoletti’s timeline could be off. He had probably just heard that Riela had been in Italy for a while and wouldn’t have known the exact dates.

[B.]

Agree with both of you.

I was the one who mentioned Scavuzzo as a possibility since he was Vitese like Monaco/Accardi and became chairman of the San Jose consiglio but I lean toward Riela whose reputation and connections were like that of a boss. I noticed that about Jersey City too -- it was thrown out speculatively whereas the summaries made it sound definitive.

The problem with tracking Riela's travels is that he was incredibly deceptive and assumed the identity of a different Antonio Riela from Terranova (now Gela). Official records of his early residences in the US also don't necessarily match where he was actually living/staying. Wouldn't be surprised if he snuck back to Italy between 1923 and 1946 under assumed names as that is a long time without visiting his wife and son. But just as likely is that these Philly guys didn't know the specific timeline of his travels. For all we know when he went to Rockford in 1937 he led people to believe he was in Italy much as people believed Joe Bonanno hid out in Italy in the 1960s.

Another thing about him is multiple sources said he was a de facto "consigliere" for the DeCavalcantes who unofficially helped run the Family when Sam DeCavalcante was in prison in the 1970s. Of course his relative Frank Polizzi was a captain in that Family too.

Dack -- DiNorscio and Martirano are definitely the best bets unless there's some sleeper we don't know of. With Simone, he also had Costello and Ippolito as acting captains at various times. He and his mother actually lived part of the time in Florida since the 1930s when they were in Niagara Falls. Curious if he had DiNorscio acting over just the Newark members and Costello/Ippolito over Trenton at the same time. Simone is the "Johnny" who Bruno says will bankroll the Newark members at any cost.

[B.]

Does anyone have the DOB, DOD, or other records for Albie DeMarco? I've seen his name but didn't know he was in New Brunswick.

--

With them saying the only members in Trenton at one point were the Gioe brothers, this must be for the period soon before Simone's regime was inducted. Sam Gioe died in the mid-50s. Much earlier Michele and his cousin Giuseppe Maggio were in the Trenton area and they were both made, with Giuseppe's brother Pietro a possible member as well. Giuseppe Maggio was godfather to one of Frank DeCavalcante's children when they all lived in Trenton.

There is still the question of Ignazio DiGirolamo too. Nash posted a file where he was ID'd as a member of Simone's crew but a wiretap of Sam DeCavalcante meeting with Angelo Bruno suggests he was a DeCavalcante member. He was from Marsala which isn't too far from the Maggios' hometown Campobello. The FBI was confused whether he was Philly or DeCav. If he was with Philly he had to be made during the recruitment drive for Simone's crew since they say Jimmy Gioe was the only living Trenton member before that.

Sam Scafidi told Rocco that Pietro Giallombardo was an elderly member and paesan of their father. Pietro lived in Trenton when he was arrested with Giuseppe Traina for the 1932 John Bazzano murder. Sam brought him up in context with Traina and the implication is he was with the Gambinos. Pietro's brother Giuseppe was an early NYC mafioso likely under Lupo and he was visited in prison by Joe Traina's cousin Salvatore Traina. The Giallombardo name shows up in one of the Philly Family Belmontese family trees, maybe the Scafidis, but would have to check.

The Gioes of Trenton were from Belmonte like Giallombardo and related somehow to the Scafidi clan as Anthony Perella called him his bro-in-law on one tape. I think Giallombardo was living elsewhere when he was with the Gambinos so it's possible he transferred from Philly after leaving Trenton, much as I suspect John Cappello Sr. was a Gambino member who transferred when he moved to Philly. Or of course Giallombardo was always a Gambino like Traina and his brother Giuseppe even though he once lived in Trenton.

Then there's the early Villalba colony in Trenton. Angelo Bruno first arrived to Trenton as a baby where his father Michele was living. Bruno and the known Villalbese Trenton members were all made in the 1950s or later but I'd be surprised if there wasn't an older member or two in the early Villalba colony in Trenton. You had cousins of Calogero Vizzini there and even though Michele Bruno Annaloro wasn't made he was described by Bruno as a compare of an older unnamed member (might be Jimmy Gioe based on context).