What do You Know about the Mafia in Trenton?

[JoelTurner]

The Caponigro family moved around a lot.

Check out his father Rocco’s Declaration of Intention:



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- Rocco — Born March 10 1891 in “Campanna”, Italy
- Antoinette — Born in 1905, in “Campanna”, Italy
- They got married on 9-17-22
- Antonio — Born June 22 1912 in Chicago, IL
- Anthony — Born May 1917 in Englishport, IL
- Susan — Born July 1920 in Philadelphia, PA
- Last foreign residence was Campanna, Illinois

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There’s so much weird stuff, I barely know where to start.

1) He claims he got married in 1922 in Newark. This does not match his records showing that he got married in Philadelphia in 1919.

(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903 ... AQ285-M6Q8).

Either ways Antonio Caponigro was born out of wedlock.

2) In the 1920 census, he lists Antoinette as his wife. They also had a daughter, Victoria, who was born ~1909 in New Jersey. This also means that the 1922 wasn’t a typo for 1912

(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFTC-N2R)

3) I couldn’t find an Englishport in Illinois/Indiana/Pennsylvania. In the 1920 Census, Anthony’s listed as being born in Pennsylvania.

(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFTC-NLM)

However, in the 1930 Census, he’s listed as being born in Indiana.

(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4DB-XSW)

4) He lists Susan as being born in Philadelphia. In the 1950 Census, she says she was born in Indiana.

((https://www.ancestry.ca/discoveryui-con ... 8620:62308)

5) “Campanna” is Campania? I was not expecting that at all. Wasn’t Caponigro a Calabrian leader?

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There’s so much information available on Caponigro yet I feel like I know less than I did a few hours ago. I don’t even know what to say.

I’m still stuck on the fact they had two kids named Tony, that’s wild

[B.]

I think Fresolone or Nick Crow said Caponigro was choice of the Calabrian faction for consigliere and I guess we assumed. The Anastasia stuff played into it too.

Might be like non-Sicilians who people thought were Sicilian because they came up in that faction.

[JoelTurner]

I guess I had never actually looked into Caponigro’s background before, just assumed he was Calabrian.

Might be like non-Sicilians who people thought were Sicilian because they came up in that faction.

Like who?

[PolackTony]

5) “Campanna” is Campania? I was not expecting that at all. Wasn’t Caponigro a Calabrian leader?

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There’s so much information available on Caponigro yet I feel like I know less than I did a few hours ago. I don’t even know what to say.

I’m still stuck on the fact they had two kids named Tony, that’s wild

Hometown should be Campagna, Salerno province, Campania. The Chicago connection is unsurprising, as there were a bunch of immigrants from Campagna in Chicago, including some Caponigros (Campagna is also in the vicinity of Oliveto Citra, which had a major colony in Chicago).

Caponigro was “politically Calabrese”, within the context of Philly family politics. As CC has made clear in his ‘63 Philly thread, what people called the Calabrese faction included Abruzzesi, Messinesi, Napolitani. My take is that it was a faction within the Family that was led and defined by Calabresi but encompassed the men who came from non-traditional backgrounds (I.e., not from mafia paesani networks derived from West/Central Sicily).

Having two sons with the same given name in a family is also something one sees sometimes looking into these old families. Typically, it happened because each one was actually named after different relatives from different sides of the family (e.g., if both the mother and father had a relative named Antonio).

[B.]

I guess I had never actually looked into Caponigro’s background before, just assumed he was Calabrian.

Might be like non-Sicilians who people thought were Sicilian because they came up in that faction.

Like who?

Leonetti said the Changs were "Siggies" and I think the Narduccis too. Both came up around the Sicilians which might explain it for the reasons Tony said about the Calabrians. Scarfo and Leonetti seem to have seen people that way based on who they associated with and the mentality they had.

You had guys with heritage from Messina in both groups too. Like the Testas were seen as very Sicilian in Philly but when Bruno went to Sicily he asked about their hometown and found it had no Cosa Nostra presence. Testas didn't come from the "tradition" like most of the Sicilian faction but were still seen that way, but there were Messinese guys in with the Calabrians too which makes sense.

[JoelTurner]

Thanks for the explanations, I really wasn’t thinking on those lines

[JoelTurner]

Did Frank DeCavalcante attend the University of Vermont?

In 1963, they held a 50th reunion for the class of 1913. Here’s him listed as an alumni:



(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1101542 ... graduated/)

He was born ~1890, so the age checks out in terms of when he would have graduated.

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My guess is that it was someone related to them, but not his father.

[JoelTurner]

Here’s a DeCavalcante member: John “Tracey” Giordano

[JoelTurner]

Someone who may have started out as an associate of the Philly Trenton group was Charles Tourine.

- In 1939, he was arrested with Michael Cammarata, Carl Ippolito, and Frank Pollastrelli.

I got this backwards.

Per Angelo Bruno; Mike “Daylight” Tramontana, Mike “Ponzi” Cammarata, and Carl “Pappy” Ippolito used to be on Richie Boiardo’s payroll.

Tourine wasn’t associating with the Trenton-Philly group, those future members were with the Boiardo gang.

This was their Jul 8 1939 arrest: