Don Totò: Chicago rappresentante Salvatore LoVerde

[motorfab]

Well, as we are all here to lean from each others I don't want to argue with anyone or enter into an old dispute, but when Buscetta left Mexico to briefly go to Canada in 1969, he explains that it was Catalano who introduced him to the mafiosi already there (among others, the Cuntreras, I talk about it in the last article on my blog), so we are sure that he was in the USA at that time.

I would have to double-check in the Arlacchi/Buscetta book, but I believe that Buscetta adds that Catalano fled Italy because of the repression of the Ciaculli massacre.

Not everything Buscetta says in the book is true (some facts are arranged so that he tries to appear "honorable"), but barring a mistake I don't see why he would lie about this point.

But like I said, it's possibly a mistake so why not?

[PolackTony]

Salvatore Catalano moved to the US after the police repression due to the Ciaculli Massacre, so after 1963. I think I read somewhere it was in 1965 or 1967. Not sure for Saca (the cousin), but it's probably the same timeline

I think it 64.

But some of the guys like PolakTony disagree. He says it was part of natural immigration patterns, or the second immigration wave or something.


I don't really agree, but I'm not a researcher, I don't see the point in arguing.

I don't recall ever making any argument one way or the other about why Sal Catalano emigrated to the US.

FWIW, I also wouldn't necessarily disagree that he may have fled, as Buscetta claimed, given the timing. There were definitely men who fled Sicily during this period due to the "war" and consequent LE pressure, just as in earlier periods there were mafiosi who fled justice or vendette to the US. My point would be that these things didn't happen in a vacuum and men who fled for various reasons didn't come blindly to the US, but rather followed paths and routes that their compaesani also tred. With respect to the Catalanos, I think it's important to know that in both earlier and later immigration waves, the Cimminesi settled primarily in NYC and Chicago. In colonies of settlement, these men moved not just within the mafia networks, but also broader and intersecting networks of paesani. Thus, during the same period that these two Salvatore Catalanos came to the US, other Catalanos who were likely related to them settled in Chicago and were active in the Societa Santa Crocifissa (to be clear, this is not to argue that these Chicago Catalanos were necessarily involved with the mafia themselves in any significant way, but that they were active within social networks that mafiosi both in the US and abroad presumably also participated within). This could be relevant as part of the broader context to some of the things that we're interested in, given that Sal Catalano had ties to Chicago and his cousin was discussing events that occurred in Chicago in the early 1930s decades later. As with many of these things, there isn't just one "cause" for a specific event, but multiple factors, operating at both more immediate and more distant levels of cause and effect. In this case, Sal Catalano may well have fled Sicily due to LE pressure, but this also happened within a broader context that would have shaped his experience in the US.

[B.]

Tony has long spread misinformation about the reason behind Saca Catalano's immigration to the United States.

[B.]

I've mentioned it before, but murdered Chicago boss Rosario DiSpenza's estate listed a "D.Catalano" and "A.Catalano". "D" is probably Domenico, the Chicago member and paesan of DiSpenza who was close to Gentile. If he was listed on the estate he must have been a relative or otherwise extremely close to DiSpenza.

I'm sure in tiny Ciminna the later generations of mafiosi were well-aware of these mythical paesans who went to the United States and became important figures in the developing American mafia, especially if there was relation. I doubt it's a coincidence that Saca Catalano was in a position to know who Toto LoVerde was and to have heard a story that challenges Nicola Gentile's version of events. Makes you wonder what else Catalano was told about early Chicago -- he just happened to share this because Gioacchino Pennino was the nephew of Toto LoVerde but he must have known things about his own paesani in Chicago as well.

[PolackTony]

I've mentioned it before, but murdered Chicago boss Rosario DiSpenza's estate listed a "D.Catalano" and "A.Catalano". "D" is probably Domenico, the Chicago member and paesan of DiSpenza who was close to Gentile. If he was listed on the estate he must have been a relative or otherwise extremely close to DiSpenza.

I'm sure in tiny Ciminna the later generations of mafiosi were well-aware of these mythical paesans who went to the United States and became important figures in the developing American mafia, especially if there was relation. I doubt it's a coincidence that Saca Catalano was in a position to know who Toto LoVerde was and to have heard a story that challenges Nicola Gentile's version of events. Makes you wonder what else Catalano was told about early Chicago -- he just happened to share this because Gioacchino Pennino was the nephew of Toto LoVerde but he must have known things about his own paesani in Chicago as well.

The first thing that came to mind for me was what he may have known about Gaetano Oneglia.

[B.]

Pennino also recounts that Antonino "Nene" Passannante (who may have been the Bonanno member) and the father of Pennino's friend and colleague Giovanni Lo Iacono were sent to Chicago by the Partinico mafia to "organize abroad against the [Fascist] regime".

After returning to Sicily and being a suspect in the Petrosino murder, Passananti was linked in the early 1920s to San Giuseppe Jato boss Santo Termini in helping arrange fake passports. In May 1924 he visited his cousin Salvatore Grippi in Brooklyn, who was Nicolo Schiro's brother-in-law, then he returned to Sicily and came back in December 1924 with his wife and children, again arriving to Grippi.

On the second trip he and his family list their last permanent residence as Brooklyn whereas on his solo trip some months earlier he listed his last permanent residence as Partinico. Both of his children, the youngest being five at the time, are listed on the December manifest as being born in Partinico. So it looks like during the May 1924 trip Passananti was planning to live in Brooklyn again and on the December trip brought his family to live with him. The indication is that they were going to stay or live with Grippi. If Passananti did end up living/staying in the US again for a period it seems he would have rejoined the Bonannos under Schiro.

The timing of his arrival in 1924/1925 fits the period the real mass exodus started of mafiosi fleeing Fascism, including his friends in San Giuseppe Jato. No indication he was "sent to Chicago" though he could have traveled there after returning to Brooklyn. I don't know what it would mean for him to organize against Fascism in Chicago or New York for that matter but it does seem likely he at least fled Fascism for a time especially given he was in trouble for the passport scheme and surfaced in Mori's investigation into the highly-scrutinized San Giuseppe Jato Family and their close links to Partinico. Partinico was also identified in those investigations as the most violent Family in the area and Partinico/Borgetto carried out murder contracts for other neighboring Families. Future Bonanno consigliere Filippo Rappa in Borgetto was one of the known killers/conspirators and he left around this time too.

So Pennino is at least right that Passananti left Sicily for America again and it likely involved Fascism. Be crazy though if he really did "organize" against Fascism in Chicago.

[Antiliar]

Interestingly, the Chicago Mafia and the Unione Siciliana/IANU were very pro-Fascist. Tony Lombardo was well-known for his support of Fascism. Maybe part of their mission was to convince Lombardo to change his opinion of Mussolini. The evidence is limited so I don't know if he ultimately changed his mind, likewise for Bernardo Barasa, the National President. On the New York end, Bonanno underboss Frank Garofalo supported Fascism and had Carlo Tresca killed.