Podcast on Manfredi Mineo from B

[InCamelot]

Great listen: https://mafia.substack.com/p/the-moveme ... eo#details

[InCamelot]

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[B.]

Thanks man. I appreciate it.

[Harrism]

I really enjoyed listening to this podcast B. Hoor you continue with it and the Mob Archeologist podcast aswell.

[Angelo Santino]

This was a great episode! Outstanding! Bravo!

I had to listen to it a few times because it's so much to take in.

Eric raised an interesting question/possibility- maybe Mineo didn't go from Colombo Boss to Gambino Boss in 1928. It's possible he was boss in 1912, lost his position at some point, perhaps during the 1922-24 war, and then became D'Aquila's under and eventual successor.

Aside from that, Eric's exploration of Mineo's background and connections, even those connected by 3 degrees of separation really shows just how closely linked and interwoven mafia was even back in those days.

[Angelo Santino]

One other thing I might note is that Carmelo Cordaro might have been involved in immigrant smuggling and providing fake passports (as well as whatever else). The SS caught wind of Cordaro due to the Mineo connection. Cordaro might have been involved with Mineo that way.

1911: At 9:30am Informant CLEMENT called. I talked with him in regard to having him appear before the US grand Jury in the CORDARO case. CLEMENT said that he would willingly do so, except he was morally certain that some of the CORDARO gang would eventually find it out and if he was not injured some of his family might be by the CORDARO gang. CLEMENT states that one MONACHINI alias CHARLES SAVARINA, who resides at 75 Market St, Paterson, NJ, is engaged in making ctft coin. He has an associate who is a blonde Italian, 30, 5 1/2''.

[B.]

Thank you brother. As I said in the episode the foundation comes from you, Rick, and Lennert.

Like I said in the episode too, it could be meaningful that Magaddino says Toto DiBella spoke up alongside Merlo and Lonardo at the Assemblea meeting to settle Buffalo's leadership dispute sometime after July 1922. It doesn't mean DiBella was yet boss but it does show he was representing the Colombo Family alongside other national bosses by then. Mineo came back from Sicily months earlier just before his in-law Grillo came back with Ignazio Lupo so he seems to have been involved in the politics of the NYC war but isn't mentioned by the few sources who detailed these events.

Given there was a major reorganization of leaders and even Families circa 1922-1923 after a major war and Mineo had a history of siding with Morello first with LoMonte and later directly with Morello/Masseria maybe there was some disruption to his role if he allied with them again in the early 1920s. His brother-in-law was a close D'Aquila ally according to two sources yet he also protected Lupo from D'Aquila so maybe Grillo was able to negotiate an arrangement for Mineo as well that brought Mineo in as a D'Aquila member, Lupo's likely landing spot as well, then he was able to become underboss through some combo of politicking and false humility.

We know so little about Mineo's day-to-day personality. I don't think any of our contemporary sources actually make reference to interacting with him personally so all we have are broader strokes of him and LoMonte conspiring against D'Aquila then him being part of Masseria's tyrannical cabinet after again conspiring against D'Aquila. As with many of these guys he was probably more than capable of politicking in order to navigate that treacherous world especially considering his more refined background.

Attardi's info channeled through a journalist should definitely be scrutinized as we do with any source but he was a Gambino member going back to when Accursio Dimino was still alive in 1922 . Traina was D'Aquila's consigliere so we have that spot covered but we don't have anyone else named as underboss. Mangano would be a candidate as he traveled to Sicily with Traina in 1925 and those two repped the Family at 1928 Statler. Mangano is also phonetically similar to "Mambrao" and according to Gentile he sided with Masseria rather than the former D'Aquila loyalists (suggesting he may have supported D'Aquila's murder) but he is obviously not "Mambrao".

In this scenario it would seem Mineo humbled himself, either by choice or necessity, but bided his time and took over the Gambino Family from within.

[B.]

Attardi's account also might tell us something about Gentile's description of Masseria's faction as the "Sciacchitani". Attardi was from Porto Empedocle, made in Sciacca, then transferred to Sciacca-born Accursio Dimino's decina. Dimino has a falling out with D'Aquila and is killed in 1922 then Attardi says he himself is one of the men marked for death by Maranzano's faction during the Castellammarese War.

On one hand Masseria was from Menfi which makes him a de facto Sciacchitano as well but it seems the larger framing of the "Schiacchitani" against the "Castellammaresi" could come from the Gambino Sciacchitani's problems with D'Aquila and subsequent alliance with Masseria. We don't think of Mineo having close ties to men from Agrigento given his likely role as Colombo boss but we do have him meeting with the Agrigentino Cordaro soon after he arrives. They may have been an important factor in Mineo's takeover.

Based on Gentile, Mangano was at the very least neutral and possibly supportive of D'Aquila's murder given Traina said Mangano would never turn on Masseria. He also attended the Pelham Parkway meeting where Mineo and Ferrigno were killed. After the war he designates the Agrigento faction its own sostituto to manage their own affairs -- was this an existing arrangement or was Mangano essentially rewarding them for their earlier alliance with the pro-Masseria element?

[B.]

One other thing I might note is that Carmelo Cordaro might have been involved in immigrant smuggling and providing fake passports (as well as whatever else). The SS caught wind of Cordaro due to the Mineo connection. Cordaro might have been involved with Mineo that way.

1911: At 9:30am Informant CLEMENT called. I talked with him in regard to having him appear before the US grand Jury in the CORDARO case. CLEMENT said that he would willingly do so, except he was morally certain that some of the CORDARO gang would eventually find it out and if he was not injured some of his family might be by the CORDARO gang. CLEMENT states that one MONACHINI alias CHARLES SAVARINA, who resides at 75 Market St, Paterson, NJ, is engaged in making ctft coin. He has an associate who is a blonde Italian, 30, 5 1/2''.

Hmm, re: "Monachini". Saverio and Pasquale Monachino were well-connected Buffalo/Rochester members from Realmonte AG who lived in Auburn then Canada. They didn't come to the US until the 1920s from what I've seen but the alias "Savarina" brings to mind Saverio and the surname "Monachini" is probably Monachino which suggests Agrigento origins like Cordaro. There was an older Saverio Monachino from Realmonte I suspect was a relative but never saw him linked to the mafia and would need to see if he lived in NJ. I know you found that Giovanni Vaccaro from these early NYC-Agrigemto circles moved to Rochester.

[Angelo Santino]

As already noted, becoming boss isn't as simple as just staking a claim to it, there's a formal process.

Most contemporary beliefs imply that the Cast War was as simple as Bonannos/Luccheses vs Gens, Gambs and Cols but that may not have been the case. After Schiro fled there might have been an official boss while Maranzano and his faction contested, just like there might have been an official one after Pinzolo that Gagliano didn't recognize and both Maranzano and Gagliano formed this rogue rebel faction outside of the established Families. There's no documentation of it so we'll never know but I'm not certain that the entirety of the Bonannos and Luccheses fell in line under Maranzano and Gagliano at the onset.

Bonanno stated Profaci headed one Family "at the outbreak of the war." Which could be wording or imply he was not boss prior.

[Angelo Santino]

Maybe these will provide more insight...

7/10/1911
Op Rubano: Office 9AM, at 10am left and went to vicinity of 391 Washington St, where I took up watch for two strangers, CORDARO'S friends. At 11:15 am saw F. AIELLO, ex counterfeiter, enter this building and come out at noon; also saw JOHN LUPO about the vicinity with a horse and carriage; he spoke with F. ZITO, one of the witnesses at the LUPO trial. ZITO apparently has an office at Beach and West Streets. Also saw A. LOBAIDO, one of the frequenters of the MILONE stre at 97th St. A 4:30 went to PO Station V, saw Superintendent and Carrier and was informed that there are no other Italian firms besides SUNSERI, BRUCATO and GRILLO, and only one other firm in the building, CONNOLLY, who occupies two first floors. They are all fruit importers. The rest of the building is empty. The carrier does not know any of the people, he leaves the letters in their boxes.

7/10/1911
CORDARO'S address 67 Catherine St.

7/11/1911
At 9:15 am CLEMENT called and stated that MACFATE and the Italian known as BLUE SUIT went to Coytesville yesterday at 11:30am; CLEMENT went there last night at 8pm and found MACFATE, CORDARO and BLUESUIT there, came away with the latter about 9pm to NY and remained with him until 11PM when BLUE SUIT said he had an important matter to attend to and left CLEMENT. CLEMENT thought he was going to get the plates. CORDARO was to main in the house at Coytesville all night.

7/11/1911
Surveilling CORDARO'S house, Klinke seen two strange Italians. BLUE SUIT and the two strange Italians are taken into custody. BLUE SUIT jumped out of the ferry into the water and drowned. In regard to this lease see the reports of the agents. Burke was instructed to have Manasse bring the two strangers to the office and for him, Klinke and Rubano to hurry to the vicinity of Catherine St and get CORDARO. At 3:45 PM Manasse arrived with the two strangers. One of them is JOSEPH INZINNA, who keeps a barber shop at Bullsferry Road, Grand View, New Jersey. The man stated that he did not know the Italian who jumped overboard, but that the other fellow: GASAR INDELICATO, of 31 Oliver St, did know him and spoke to him. INZINNA said he was on his way to NY to buy some barber chairs, which I believe to be true. He is an intelligent Italian and I allowed him to go on the promise that he would not go to the vicinity of Catherine St. I kept INDELICATO in the office until Agents Burke, Klinke and Rubano arrived, and they took him with them to the vicinity of Catherone street and allowed him to go. Then made a search of CORDARO'S house at 67 Catherine St. A large amount of corresponence was found in this house. I will have the same examined and translated. CORDARO has yet to be apprehended.

7/31/1911
Agents Kinke, Schroeder and Rubano were given search warrants for the premises of FRUSCIONE, 231 4TH Ave, brooklyn, residence of DENARO, 131 COLUMBIA ST, Brooklyn, and 245 Pacific St and 428 Hicks St, Brooklym, places that DANARO frequents. Nothing of a contraband nature was found. FRUSCIONE admitted to the agents that the furniture which was purchased at his place and taken to the Coytesville house was paid for by CORDARO. It was ascertained by the agents that FRUSCIONE is a brother in law of VINCENZO PILATO, who was convicted in the State Courts at Columbus, OH, in March 1911 for robbery. His brother had some connection with TOMASELLO, one of the blackhanders previously convicted.

7/31/1911
Op Rubano: Went to store of 231 4th Ave, BK, store of SANTO FRUSCIONE, learned FRUSCIONE was not in. We then went to 131 Columbia st where I learned that DANARO lives on the top floor but was not in, we waited and later searched his rooms, finding nothing. In a bureau drawer there were some passports as follows: SALVATORE CURRERI, FILIPPO MONTEROSSO, GIOVANNI GIORDANO and NICOLINO CUCUZZO. DANARO said he often procured passports for his friends, through the Italian consul and free passage to Italy, that these passports were left because these people changed their minds, that they are now out of town. We then went to 428 Hicks St, where DANARO'S mother and sister live, searched rooms but found nothing. Then went to 245 Pacific St, learned one Italian, neamed CAVALLO lives there, in a small rear house there are three woman, and CAVALLO informed us quite a number of men and women frequent the place. We returned to 4th Ave and found FRUSCIONE IN. SANTO FRUSCION, GIOVANNI VALENZA and an uncle of FRUSCIONE'S named TODARO run the store. FRUSCIONE stated CORDARO called his store and bought some furniture; that CORDARO is GIUSEPPE FERRETTI; that CORDARO has been there 2 or 3 times, that he went to CORDARO'S house 67 Catherine, because of the bars of the iron bed were not right; that CORDARO paid for the furniture the day after it was delivered. FRUSCIONE said that he came from Trenton about 14 months ago, that he knew CORDARO short while. Found some cards announcing the opening of a saloon at 33 Monroe St, May 6th; FRUSCIONE said he knew CORDARO since then. Another card announced the opening of a saloon at 290 1st Ave, July 30, 1910, CARMELO MOSCATO, manager. FRUSCIONE said MOSCATO was CORDARO; that he knew him since last year, when this saloon was opened. There were some letters addressed to the Ohio Penn, Columbus, O to FRUSCIONE, signed VINCENZO PILATO. a brother in law of FRUSCIONE, PILATO was sentenced to 5 years at hard labor for robbery. FRUSCIONE said PILATO was convicted because a number of BLACK HAND MEN boarded at his house; one of them was TOMASELLO, who was convicted as a black hander. One of the latters, from the Italian Interpreter, Jos. Ange, 116 Hebard St, Rochester, states that he, Ange, had a talk with the County Detecive and the Judge, and that the Judge said if he had known PILATO was a black hander he would have given him more than 5 years. ANGE seems to be a friend of FRUSCIONE'S. In some letters written to VALENZA reference is made to one FALZONE getting 2 years in prison.

[Angelo Santino]

Thinking more on Masseria and the Sciacciatani connection. Aside from one passage we have virtually no evidence of the Gens having a Sciaccatani demographic and certainly no indication that that faction within the Gams were allied with him. But it's a just because no one hears the branch fall type of things. Given Masseria's stomping ground on the Lower East Side and the Sciacciatani element that existed there, maybe that contingent didn't mind/were ok with D'Aquila going and them falling in line behind Mineo and BOB Masseria?

These guys are always friends until they weren't. There's always these rotating shifts of alliances.

Who knows.

[B.]

Excellent SS excerpts.

F.Zito might be Francesco Zito who Antonino Grillo arrived to in Brooklyn on one US trip. I once tried tracing Zito and he may have come from Torretta (where the Zito surname is still very active with the mafia) but couldn't 100% confirm though that would fit future Gambino circles. I'm guessing the Grillo mentioned in that excerpt is a different one unless Antonino was a foreign partner of the firm mentioned? His shipping business was international in scope and he helped launch the 1920s Palermo war because of contracts with an American company. Interesting either way that the name Grillo is mentioned in context with an F.Zito given there's an arrival manifest linking Antonino Grillo to Francesco Zito.

Gaspare Indelicato must be Agrigentino if not Sciacchitano. Very common surname in Sciacca but maybe he can be connected to the future Gambino members Antonino and Joseph Indelicato. The boss who initiated Alfonso Attardi into the Sciacca Family before he came to the US was also named Giuseppe Indelicato.

Wonder who "Blue Suit" is. Great nickname. Poor guy liked the color blue so much he jumped in the water and drowned.

--

With the Masseria / Sciacchitani thing, it seems to be the same dynamic as Maranzano / Castellammaresi in that Gentile used it as a catch-all for those aligned with Masseria but at least with Maranzano he was from Castellammare proper and so were many of his local and national supporters. Masseria was born near Sciacca so it could suggest his birth heritage was a bigger identifier than his ties to Marsala but like you said we don't associate his Family with Agrigento at all. One of the researchers (was it Joel?) found that the important Generosos of the Genovese Family were from Sciacca along with at least one member associated with them and interestingly they regularly used the alias Dimino and were known by that name on the street. Vincenzo "Jimmy Dimino" Generoso was an early Genovese member but he's only one guy.

Other than that, we have circumstantial / speculative info that may link the Gambino Sciacchitani to Masseria's faction. Accursio Dimino's 1922 murder appears to have been part of the early 1920s D'Aquila / Masseria-Morello conflict and Attardi said that D'Aquila himself issued Dimino's murder. Perhaps there was lingering resentment among the Sciacchitani over the murder of Dimino, who to our knowledge was the most prominent Sciacchitano in the Gambino Family at the time. Attardi says that he himself was targeted by Maranzano during the 1930-31 war which would suggest he was aligned with Masseria given Maranzano was not targeting all Gambino affiliates (he reprimanded Valachi for the attempt on Paolo Gambino for example). There is definitely nothing to suggest the Gambino Schiacchitani were part of the secret pro-Maranzano faction in the Gambinos, which was made up of people like Traina, Scalise, and the Gambino-Castellano clan.

As far as explicit Castellammarese War info on the Agrigentini goes, we have Gentile who was spiritually a Gambino member (LoCicero all but demanded he transfer into his Gambino decina earlier on) and joined them after the war, and he was certainly not a Maranzano supporter and instead lined up more with Masseria. Then Alfonso Attardi who was a former Dimino crew member who strongly implied in his interview that he was aligned with Masseria given he was on Maranzano's "hit list". This is a small sample size but it does suggest the Gambino Sciacchitani as a whole may have been Masseria supporters within the Gambino Family, but if that's true who was leading the faction at the time? Gentile only clarifies the arrangement after the war when Joe Parlapiano (Sciacca) and Gaetano Trupia (Canicatti) are capidecine with Nicola Gentile as Mangano's sostituto over the crews.

[Angelo Santino]

All these outlying names is what makes things all the more interesting. If they were members who didn't meet the threshold of what law enforcement (and onlookers) would classify as mafia activity they escaped scrutiny. We know that not every member was engaged in black hand extortion, murder, counterfeiting or bootlegging, many were, there's no getting around that. But there were plenty of members who didn't need to or were so far removed from it. Had we had no informants or tell alls, we'd have never heard of Schiro or Conti and Mineo and D'Aquila would have have been just more unsolved murdered without any idea of what status they held.

There was a Francesco Cali in NY in the 1900's, not identified as anything. But his business was bombed and it was later discovered he moved his goods and bombed it for the insurance money, a common Mafia practice back then. We seen this with early Philly, guys getting arrested for bombing their friends' businesses leading some to believe they were at odds when it was most likely an insurance scam.

1912: Mail consisted of one letter dated Atlanta, George, Feb 8, 1912, signed VINCENZO MURABITO, regarding his application for parole, and also stating he has information regarding one FRANCESCO CALI, banker, 171 Columbia St, Brooklyn, who at one time was a wine merchant in italy, and escaped to this country after robbing a large sum of money.

When it comes to the Cast War, had the dynamics been the Bronx Gang vs the Harlem Gang vs the Brooklyn gang it would be much more easier to discern but that's not reality. Especially when things come to the Lower East Side where you had members from all different groups who all knew each other going on decades. I wonder what their vantage point was, I would speculate many didn't know what happened until it happened.

[B.]

- The only possible indication of two Palermitano Families existing before 1913 could be attendees of the 1901 Cascio Ferro welcome dinner. Giuseppe Morello from Corleone is in attendance, likely representing his Family (future Genovese / Lucchese), as is Carlo Costantino from Partinico who represented another Family (Bonanno). Then you have Giuseppe Fontana from Resuttana and Francesco Megna from Tommaso Natale, both Palermitani. Fontana was from the same Resuttana Family in Palermo that produced Mineo and can be directly connected to Mineo's brother-in-law Grillo while Megna was an apparent relative of the Scalise-Virzi-Riccobono clan who were dominant in the Gambinos. It does seem the contemporary NYC Families were represented at this meeting as you have the Corleonesi, the Western Palermitani-Trapanesi, and the Palermitani. But why did the former two groups each have one representative while the Palermitani had two? And is it a coincidence that one of the Palermitani can be linked to Mineo while the other one is linked to the core Gambinos?

- What throws a possible wrench into this idea is that Gioacchino DiMartino from San Cipirello was also in attendance and along with living in the Williamsburg-Bushwick area he was close to Nicolo Schiro (Bonanno boss) but he was also a cousin of Giovanni Pecoraro (Morello admin). His hometown, Schiro connection, and residence tell us he was probably a Bonanno member even though the Pecoraro relation is important. Then there is the host "Salvatore Brancaccio" who remains unidentified. DiMartino was likely another Bonanno rep but even if he was with the Morellos via Pecoraro it tells us that one of those Families had two representatives who planned on attending the dinner which could mean Fontana and Megna similarly represented one group. If DiMartino was with the Bonannos like Costantino and "Brancaccio" was with Morello, it would mean each of the Families had two reps. That may not have been the intention behind the attendees and any number of other reasons formal or informal could have led to these particular men being invited but based on who attended and where they were from it's easy to see the formal and political significance that correlates to the three core NYC mafia networks of the era. These men were all important in US-Sicilian mafia circles at the time, that is beyond question, and at least three groups are clearly represented.

- The attendance of two Palermitani at the 1901 welcome dinner is far from being evidence that two Palermitani Families existed in NYC that early and there is no reason to make that assumption beyond exploring the possibility. It is however very interesting that Mineo's network (Resuttana) was represented at the 1901 dinner, as was D'Aquila's (via the Scalise-Riccobono-Virzi branch). It could tell us too that these two branches of the Palermo network warranted their own political representation in 1901 and this later produced two distinct Families by 1912-1913. However we know these two branches were not totally separate, as D'Aquila had a close relationship to Resuttana too and the man Antonino Bruno who Mineo arrived to in 1911 may have been another relative of the Scalise-Riccobono-Virzis. Then there's the fact that Mineo later took over D'Aquila's Family so obviously these Palermitani crossed over politically.