This group of captains came up again in conversation later that year on another FBI bug. On 5 July, NK 2319-C* picked up a conversation between Eugene Catena (Gene) and Thomas Eboli (Tommy). Catena mentioned how, at the wedding of Dr Philip Noto’s daughter, an individual called ‘Fritzie’ or ‘Fretchie’ (phonetic) had been introduced to him as a captain by Danny Noto. (The same bug later picked up a conversation between Catena and Dr Noto where the latter stated he believed ‘Fritzie’ or ‘Fretchie’ belonged to another family).D: The only guys like him will be Tommy Ryan and us.
R: Us…
D: That’s all.
R: … Pete LaFay (ph)…
D: You know why – them guys he make them all caporegima – they ought to like him.
R: … Funzi – Funzual, Frank Celano –
D: Yeah, but they’re all with Mike, ain’t they?
R: Don’t believe it!
D: Ain’t they all under Mike?
R: They all used to be under Mike. Vito made them caporegimes – they all wait up (ph) for Vito. They’re all colonels.
(FBI, The Criminal Commission, p6).
In the above excerpt, Eboli clearly states that there was a group of five individuals who were promoted to captains, possibly at the same time, and that as of July 1963 they were the most recent additions to the hierarchy. Consolidating this information with DeCarlo and Russo’s conversation, it appears safe to assume that the ‘Pete LaFay’ (phonetic) mentioned by Russo is identical to Peter DeFeo. It also seems more than reasonable to assume that the references to ‘Funzi’, ‘Funzual’, ‘Fungwah’, and ‘Funzie’ all refer to Frank Tieri. There’s no confusion over who Frank Celano or Gus Frasca could be, so we know therefore that this group of five captains consisted of Peter DeFeo, Frank Tieri, Frank Celano, Cosmo Frasca, and the individual ‘Skinny Sala’ or ‘Skinny Salad’.TOMMY: Fritzie? (pause) He’s not a caporegime. The closest name to that is Fungwah (phonetic).
GENE: No. I know Fungwah. This guy is a nice looking guy, clean cut. He has a Kodak camera store.
TOMMY: Is he a friend of ours?
GENE: Well Danny introduced me.
TOMMY: Danny Noto?
GENE: Yeah.
TOMMY: (After a pause) The closest name to that out of that last group that was made is Funzie (pause). Skinny Sala (or Salad), Frank Celano, Gus Frasca and Pete De Feo, that was the five.
(FBI, La Causa Nostra, pp2-3).
More evidence relating to when these promotions occurred, and the identity of ‘Skinny Sala/ Salad’ can be gleaned from yet another FBI bug. On 23 January 1962, NY 3123-C* picked up a conversation between Michelino Clemente (Subject), Carmelo Coppolino (Charlie), and Gambino family member Frank Barranca (Frank). Prior to the below excerpt, they had been discussing problems they were having with Anthony Anastasio.
The above conversation would indicate that Frank Barranca was present at an occasion where at least four captains were promoted, but he was made to leave (presumably because he belonged to a different family). Clemente states that he would have been present if he ‘had been home’, likely a reference to his incarceration. In March 1956, Clemente was sentenced to two and a half to five years in prison on New York State perjury charges, and he was released in October 1959. Based on DeCarlo and Russo’s comments that ‘Vito’ made these captains, this promotion therefore must have taken place between Genovese becoming boss of the family in 1957 and Clemente’s release in October 1959.Frank then posed the question to Coppolino, ‘Why didn’t you (referring to Coppolino) tell him (Anastasia) that you were with his family when Toddo was alive (Toddo Del Ducca, deceased). Frank continued, ‘You see, when Sally the Sheik (Salvatore Mussacchio), Gus Frasca, Frank Salerno, and Pete were straightened out as capas (caporegimes) I was there and got chased out. This is no (obscene).’ Subject then stated that, ‘If I had been home, I would have been there.’
FRANK: When they got straightened out, Toddy called me. That’s when we were under Lane (ph) (possibly Al Gentile). Remember? They had it up in Sally’s house, there was Vito’s (Vito Genovese) brother, Mike. I used to pull very good with Toddo.
CHARLIE: Toddo was all right.
(FBI, Generoso Del Duca, p106).
This timeline shines new light on DeCarlo and Russo’s comments about the split between Genovese and Miranda. Russo pointed out that by making them captains, Genovese won over at least Celano, DeFeo, and Tieri from their old allegiance to Miranda. However, it’s unclear whether this was a conscious motivator behind Genovese’s decision to promote them. He would have made them captains before going to prison and leaving Gerardo Catena in charge of the family, which DeCarlo mentioned as the reason why Miranda was upset with Genovese (Miranda felt he should have been left as boss of the family). So Miranda’s men were promoted before tensions and factionalism started to break out in the family. Perhaps Genovese foresaw potential difficulties with his consigliere and hoped to weaken his position before he went to prison, or perhaps it was just a happy coincidence that he managed to win over the new captains to his side.
Looking at the names mentioned in the conversation, Pete is a reference to Peter DeFeo, Frank Salerno is a reference to Frank Celano, and Gus Frasca is self-explanatory. It’s interesting that Frank Tieri wasn’t mentioned by Barranca. Eboli’s comments indicated that the five captains were made at the same time, so either Barranca forgot to mention Tieri or Tieri was promoted sometime later.
Barranca’s identification of ‘Sally the Sheik’ as part of this group of captains complicates things. The FBI interpreted this, based on his nickname, to be a reference to Colombo family member Salvatore Musacchio. However, this seems extremely unlikely based simply on the fact that Musacchio was not a member of the Genovese family. It’s possible Barranca was referring to Genovese member Salvatore Carillo. I have found one report that refers to Carillo by the nickname ‘Sally the Sheik’, however I have not come across any other sources that identify him as a captain. It’s plausible that Barranca misspoke and intended to refer to Carillo’s brother Antonio ‘Tony the Sheik’ Carillo, an individual who has been identified as a Genovese captain during that period, but this wouldn’t line up with Eboli’s reference to the fifth captain being ‘Skinny Sala’ or ‘Skinny Salad’.
Other conversations picked up by NY 3123-C* support the interpretation that Barranca misspoke when he referred to ‘Sally the Sheik’. On 15 February 1961, Clemente was recorded explaining to Albert DeStefano recent events pertaining to the Genovese family.
In the above excerpt, Clemente’s reference to ‘Skinny Sally’ could clear a lot of things up. The phonetic similarity between ‘Skinny Sally’ and ‘Skinny Salla/ Salad’ makes it almost certain that this is the same individual Eboli referred to as part of the five captains. Taking all of the evidence presented so far into account, it remains likely that ‘Skinny Sally’ is the same person Barranca identified as ‘Sally the Sheik’. The fact that three different sources (Eboli, Barranca, Clemente) all referred to this captain in part using the name ‘Sally’ would also make it unlikely that they were referring to Antonio Carillo. Therefore, by process of elimination, it would appear they were all referring to Salvatore Celambrino.Clemente then started to explain to De Stefano the various ‘caporegimas’ in the New York area. He made mention that Vito made Frank Celano (phonetic), Funzale (phonetic), Pete, ‘Skinny Sally’ members of the ‘caporegima’.
(FBI, Michelino Clemente aka, p64).
Celambrino fits in more ways than one. Most obviously, he has been identified on different occasions by the nicknames ‘Little Sally’, ‘Skinny Sally’, and ‘Skinny Sal’. He also falls under Anthony Russo’s statement that ‘they all used to be under Mike’. Genovese soldier Joseph Valachi, after agreeing to cooperate with the government, confirmed this by identifying Celambrino, Celano, DeFeo, and Tieri as members of Miranda’s regime. (This could also raise the possibility that Frasca was a soldier in the same regime).
(United States Senate, 1963, pp731-736).
Clemente’s grouping of Tieri along with the others would indicate, like Eboli, that all five were made captains at the same time and that Barranca forgot or otherwise failed to mention him. If not, this is at least confirmation that Tieri had been promoted by February 1961 at the latest.
A third conversation of Clemente’s reveals more information about the promotion of Celambrino. On 26 September 1962, NY 3123-C* recorded Clemente (Subject) having a conversation with an individual named ‘Sally’.
Clemente’s statement that Celambrino was made a captain when somebody died would indicate that he was transferred to assume command of another regime rather than simply receiving a portion of the old Miranda regime. The context of the conversation makes it seem like Clemente could have been saying that Celambrino succeeded Generoso Del Duca, however further examination of this theory makes it less likely. As it has been established previously, Celambrino and the other captains were promoted while Clemente was still in prison. However, Del Duca didn’t die until March of 1960, five months after Clemente was released. It’s possible that Clemente was misremembering or confused the timeline. Perhaps Celambrino took over for Del Duca shortly before he (Del Duca) died, but it’s hard to tell based on the gap of unintelligible dialogue in the conversation.Subject says, ‘Now Sally’s forgotten, they made him a caporegima, a captain (several words unintelligible).’ Sally says, ‘Who Sally? He’s a captain?’ Subject says, ‘Sure, he’s been a captain of Vito’s. Vito made him a captain.’ Subject indicates that Skinny Sally was made a caporegima when somebody had died (unintelligible), and then subject ends the sentence with the name Toddo Del (Generoso Del Duca, deceased). Sally asks, ‘Whose with him’, and the subject answers, ‘[redacted] (phonetic) and [redacted] and a couple of other guys.’ Sally asks a question of the subject, which is unintelligible, and the subject answers, ‘When Toddo died, that was the end of him.’
(FBI, Generoso Del Duca, pp134-135).
Looking at other possibilities given the established timeline, it’s possible that Celambrino took over Anthony Carfano’s regime. Carfano was murdered September 1959, though this would be cutting it pretty short since Clemente got out just a month later. It’s not impossible however, and it would make sense for some restructuring in the hierarchy to take place after the murder of a captain. A later promotion also seems more likely considering that Joseph Valachi was unable to identify either of the five individuals as captains when he began cooperating with the government. Valachi went on the lam in May 1959 after being arrested in a narcotics case. He returned to New York briefly in November before fleeing again and ultimately, handing himself in and being sent to a federal penitentiary in Atlanta. There, he continued to be advised by Genovese about some changes in the family, but he was not kept abreast of every development (Maas, The Valachi Papers, pp241-248).
There are a few other interesting things to discuss relating to the promotions of Celambrino, Celano, DeFeo, Frasca, and Tieri. First, the timeline of mid-1957 to October 1959 makes it likely that this occurred while Genovese was still on the street. Genovese had been out on bail during his narcotics trial, only serving a brief period in custody after being sentenced in April 1959. He was released pending his appeal on 5 June of that year and didn’t surrender to serve the rest of his time until February 1960. So, during the two-and-a-quarter year period where the promotions could have occurred, Genovese was only behind bars for about a month and a half of 1959.
Also important to note is Eboli’s assertion that Celambrino, Celano, DeFeo, Frasca, and Tieri were the most recently promoted captains. This would mean that no captains were made between at least October 1959 and July 1963, which reveals more about other promotions. For instance, Eugene Catena and Angelo DeCarlo must have been promoted before the last five. In the previously discussed 7 January 1963 conversation between DeCarlo and Anthony Russo, significant mention was made of both DeCarlo and Catena being captains. DeCarlo encouraged Russo to request to be transferred to his (DeCarlo’s) regime if Anthony Boiardo ever succeeded his father Ruggiero as Russo’s captain. They also discussed the differences between DeCarlo’s regime and Catena’s, noting that DeCarlo had a more laissez-faire managerial style while Catena micromanaged his soldiers’ ability to meet with other members. This conversation took place six months before Eboli and Catena talked about how Celambrino, Celano, DeFeo, Frasca, and Tieri were the ‘last group’ of captains promoted.
This logic would also have implications for other members who were identified as captains during this period. It would mean that individuals like Vincenzo Altomari, Antonio Carillo, Salvatore Cufari, Pasquale Del Duca, Vincenzo Generoso, and Harry Lanza were either promoted before the group of five or after July 1963. If Eboli’s statement was correct, then captains who died during this timeframe like Generoso Del Duca and Pietro Dolce were also either not immediately replaced on an official basis or had their regimes disbanded and split up.
Another quirk that pops up as a result of this statement is the issue of Eboli’s own regime. We know that during this period where supposedly no new captains were made, Anthony Strollo was taken down and then murdered, Dominick DiQuarto was taken down, and Pasquale Eboli was promoted. Eboli of course would have been intimately familiar with the leadership of his own regime, so perhaps his statement was intended as ‘that last group (apart from my own, which goes without saying)’. Perhaps he wasn’t counting his regime in the same way if his brother Pasquale and DiQuarto were only acting captains.
It is also evident that the family resumed making captains at some point not long after Eboli and Catena’s conversation. On 30 April 1965, NK 2251-C* picked up DeCarlo talking with Thomas Pecora about how Rosario ‘Saro’ Mogavero was recently made an official captain.
Mogavero’s promotion to captain following the death of ‘Patsy’ is also indicative of the chopping and changing possibly going on at the time. Previously identified by Valachi as an acting captain for Rocco Pellegrino, Mogavero is granted official authority over a different regime as well as at least a portion of another. According to LCN Bios, Joseph Lapi, a member under captain Vincenzo Altomari, began reporting to Mogavero in 1964 following Altomari’s death (Genovese Family Lapis, 2022).Pecora indicated that he had recently spoken with on Soddo (ph). De Carlo stated that Soddo was recently made a caporegima having taken over for an old man named Patsy, who had died. De Carlo stated that Soddo is out on appeal on a ‘junk’ (narcotics) rap.
(FBI, The FBI Transcripts of Investigations of William Rega DeCarlo… and others, Volume 6, p394).
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Bibliography
FBI, The Criminal Commission, Newark Office, NARA Record Number 124-10213-10485. Accessed from: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=141729.
FBI, The FBI Transcripts of Investigations of William Rega DeCarlo… and others (vol 6). Accessed from: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/ ... =en&gbpv=0.
FBI, Generoso Del Duca, FOI/PA Number 1335470-0. Posted by bn, 4 February 2023. Accessed from: viewtopic.php?t=10142 (registration required).
FBI, La Causa Nostra, Newark Office, 12 July 1963, NARA Record Number 124-10278-10267. Accessed from: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=141868.
FBI, Michelino Clemente aka, New York Office, NARA Record Number 124-10296-10098. Accessed from: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=73361.
LCN Bios, Genovese Family Lapis, 8 April 2022. Accessed from: https://lcnbios.blogspot.com/2022/04/ge ... lapis.html.
Maas, P. The Valachi Papers, Putnam, 1968.
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