"They all used to be under Mike. Vito made them caporegimes."

[HairyKnuckles]

Those guys who had been under Miranda and who were made captains in or around 1962/1963 were acting captains some years before. So Vito Genovese made them acting captains sometime before he was taken to trial and official captains later. The exception is Frasca, who seems to have been acting captain or very possibly official captain already in the early 1950s. Frasca was made captain (official or acting I´m not sure) when Tommy Licata died in 1952. That´s the information I have seen.

That's interesting to know! Where does the information come from that they were made official around 1962/3 and had been acting before? I tried looking on MaryFerrell but couldn't find anything about them being acting before that.

On Frasca, would it be safe to assume then, considering we have multiple member sources talking about how Genovese made him a captain, that he was only acting after Licata died?

I was shown a snippet from a FBI file by a poster on the Real Deal forum about this maybe 10-12 years ago. For the life of me, I can not remember from which file the snippet came from nor the name of the poster. If that poster is on here, please repost the snippet. (It could have been Dave Critchley actually but I am not sure.) Sorry that I cant help you further with this. I remember that I took a note of it, wrote it down, but did not bother with saving it.

On Tommy Licata, here´s an interesting Genovese skipper who have totally flown under the radar at least to us, mob watchers/researchers. I know he was based in Lower East Side, Manhattan; very close with Luciano and Tommy Greco; big in gambling; born around 1909-1910; had a very small crew which was merged with another small Brooklyn based crew after his death and that Frasca was made captain of this new crew. I have it that he died in 1952, but if someone could confirm his YOD, then we would know when Frasca was made captain. True name Thomas or possibly Gaetano.

I have this guy as born Gaetano Licata in 1913 in NYC to Antonino Licata and Rosalia LaForte of Lercara Friddi, which could certainly explain the close tie with Luciano:

Yes, that is most likely him. So if the information I have on Frasca is correct, Frasca was made captain (or acting captain) in 1954. Good work Tony. Thanks!

[B.]

So the following would be Genovese members with heritage in Lercara Friddi:

Salvatore Lucania - Rappresentante
Pietro Dolce - Capodecina
Thomas Licata - Capodecina
Frank Cacciatore - Soldier
Ralph Dolce - Soldier

Interesting that more of Luciano's paesans are coming to the surface in the Family.

[MichaelGiovanni]

Is there any more information on Pietro Dolce?

[bn]

Pasquale Del Duca was identified as Generoso's successor. JD has identified Ralph 'Whitey' Ferraro, a close associate of the Del Ducas, as a Captain at the time of his death [1973], so good chance that he took over for Pasquale.

[Antiliar]

So the following would be Genovese members with heritage in Lercara Friddi:

Salvatore Lucania - Rappresentante
Pietro Dolce - Capodecina
Thomas Licata - Capodecina
Frank Cacciatore - Soldier
Ralph Dolce - Soldier

Interesting that more of Luciano's paesans are coming to the surface in the Family.

Maybe some of these guys were old enough to have been in Luciano's original crew. Per FBI files, Thomas "Tommy Palmer" Greco was in his crew and later replaced him. A Lapaglia was another name that came up in Joseph Bonanno: A Godfather's Story. While it's possible that it was a fictional name, since Bill Bonanno said that the film was true and based on a lengthy interview he had with his father it's worth examining. In fact there was a Lapaglia who lived near the Luciano residence on the East Village section of Manhattan.

Name Anthony Joseph Lapaglia
Race White
Birth Date 10 Apr 1899
Residence Date 1917-1918
Street Address 339 East 14th
Residence Place Manhattan, New York, New York, USA

Luciano lived at 265 East 10th Street, his close friend Joe Biondo lived at 510 E. 14th Street, and Greco lived at 438 East 13th Street. I'm not saying that this Anthony Lapaglia was necessarily the same person in the movie, but he is a good candidate for being a match. Anthony Joseph Lapaglia was born in NYC on April 10, 1899 to Salvatore and Josephine Lapaglia, died in the Bronx in June 1978, and worked as a taxi driver. His mother's maiden name was Giuseppa Cimilluca and came from Cimmina. I can't find the father's immigration record but I suppose both came from there. While we haven't seen many members from Cimmina, there were several from there in Chicago.

[B.]

Good find. The movie tends to use real names for otherwise obscure characters, i.e. Mangiaracina and the Sabellas, so could be him.

Ciminna is near Baucina (Antonino Cecala), Villafrati (LoMontes), Cefala Diana (Saverio Pollacchia), and Mezzojuso (Angelo Lagattuta) so it does fit in with the Morello-era foundations that fed into the Genovese. Lercara Friddi follows that regional pattern as well.

"Barrel Murder" victim Benedetto Madonia and his brother-in-law Giuseppe DiPrimo were from Lercara Friddi, Di Primo working with likely Lupo members Giuseppe Giallombardo and Isidore Crocevera in counterfeiting earlier on. Obviously don't have enough info to know if DiPrimo was a member but I suspect he'd be with Morello's Family even though he was working with Lupo affiliates.

[B.]

Going back to the original post, Lucchese member CI Carmine Taglialatella told the FBI that around 1958 a group of Genovese members were split into three "regimes", one going to Del Duca, another going to Dolce, and the "cream of the crop" staying with Miranda:



- Taglialatella's timeline is likely off, as he was more likely made in 1957. He also says this happened before Miranda was made consigliere -- we know Miranda became the consigliere after Vito Genovese became boss in 1957 but I'm not sure if there's definitive info saying Miranda was elected at the same time versus a little bit later.

- The wording suggests the members were originally all under Miranda given he "retained" the better members. However, I'd be surprised if Del Duca was first promoted this late so maybe some of the members joined his existing decina. I'm not sure if there is definitive evidence he was in fact a captain before that, though, is there? He was definitely important before 1957-58.

- Seems Miranda must have had a huge crew if it was first split between him, Dolce, and Del Duca then split again among the guys mentioned in the original post. We know things aren't always that linear though when they "split". Either way the early Genovese Family looks to have had fewer captains but massive crews.

[chin_gigante]

Pasquale Del Duca was identified as Generoso's successor. JD has identified Ralph 'Whitey' Ferraro, a close associate of the Del Ducas, as a Captain at the time of his death [1973], so good chance that he took over for Pasquale.

That would also raise the question of who the 'Patsy' was that Rosario Mogavero succeeded by 1965 if it wasn't Del Duca.

[chin_gigante]

- Seems Miranda must have had a huge crew if it was first split between him, Dolce, and Del Duca then split again among the guys mentioned in the original post. We know things aren't always that linear though when they "split". Either way the early Genovese Family looks to have had fewer captains but massive crews.

Been thinking about this also, seems like we can point to three different examples where very large crews were split up several ways:

- in the 1950s, the old Moretti regime being split between Boiardo, Catena, and DeCarlo

- also in the 1950s, the Miranda regime being split up several ways

- around the late 1980s/ 1990s the Greenwich Village regime probably being split up several ways with several former members or associates being identified as captains in their own right (Dominick Cirillo, Angelo Prisco, Mario Gigante, Lawrence Dentico, Frank Illiano, Daniel Pagano, Federico Giovanelli, John Barbato, Daniel Leo, Albert Gallo)

I am surprised that I haven't come across anything really suggesting a split in the 116th Street regime considering that size. Valachi described Mike Coppola as having about 60 soldiers under him, and George Barone stated that the regime still consisted of about 50 members when he was inducted in the 1970s. I wouldn't be surprised if this crew was split up more recently, perhaps by Bellomo to increase his support like Gigante appears to have done with the West Side crew in the 1990s.

[B.]

Yeah, I haven't seen anything about the Coppola crew being split before the 1970s. Coppola moved to Florida and used Tony Salerno as a liaison/messenger and Benny Lombardo was the acting captain. Valachi said this arrangement was in place because otherwise Coppola would have to step down as captain, so having an acting captain in NYC allowed him to keep his title while living in Florida.

Valachi identified Jimmy Biello as a former captain and he lived in the Bronx. He had run into a serious problem within the Family at one point and Tommy Lucchese interceded on his behalf. He had more problems after that and it was arranged for him to transfer to the New England Family through Mike Coppola and Ray Patriarca. I assume by that time he was a soldier in the Coppola crew given Coppola was involved in the transfer and Biello was partially based in Florida (along with Arizona and Boston, interestingly). I'm not sure if his former crew broke off then was re-absorbed by Coppola or how it overlaps with other crews.

We've discussed the Mogavero stuff on here over the years and he was Rocco Pellegrino's in-law who both Valachi and a Clemente wiretap ID'd as Pellegrino's acting captain but then we have the wiretap referencing him taking over the crew of "Patsy" who is likely Patsy Del Duca. Pellegrino was based in White Plains but Mogavero was active in other parts of NYC so his crew may have ultimately included elements of multiple crews, including Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn members. Then there is Jimmy Angelina who some have speculated was connected to the Pellegrino crew but he and Pellegrino are both identified as current captains on the Valachi chart and I'm not sure what's known about his actual crew.

Tony Ricci is identified as a former captain on the Valachi chart. He came up in the same Brooklyn element as Augie Carfagno and was a messaggero to Chicago so he was definitely important but I can't remember seeing any actual FBI reports where Ricci is identified as a captain. It's interesting that these splits / redistribution of members in Brooklyn in the late 1950s don't reference Ricci and Carfagno. The messaggero relationship to Chicago later shifts to the Greenwich Village crew which makes sense as Eboli, the Paganos, and Cirillo had known ties there but there doesn't seem to be any continuity with Ricci. You also have Ricci and Carfagno operating out of Florida so if the Family did have a hard rule about FL-based captains needing an acting captain in NYC (like Valachi said about Coppola), I'm not sure who would have been acting for them. In 1962 Ricci was said to have been planning to move to California. He was also said by an informant to be a "lieutenant" of Joe Doto at one point but the source doesn't come across as a true insider so if Ricci was a captain for a time he could have absorbed elements of Doto's crew but I wouldn't bank on it. It is pretty clear to me that Jimmy Alo did take over part or all of Doto's crew but he's another who ended up FL-based like Ricci.

Then you have one of the Lanzas likely stepping up as captain sometime during this era, plus some of the other names who have surfaced as captains. Problem too is the Valachi chart doesn't differentiate acting captains from captains. Like John DeNoia was very likely Moretti's acting captain given Moretti was so involved in the admin between the 1930s and his death but he's just listed as a former captain. DeQuatro is also listed as a former captain but my understanding is he was only acting for Strollo.

I think it's generally a mistake to assume direct continuity between crews based on association and geography. Many times a member is promoted as captain of a "new" crew and takes in members from different crews and they may not be in his core geographic area. We even have examples of NJ guys reporting to NYC captains like Tony Provenzano being under Carillo and overlap between the DeCarlo crew and one of the Brooklyn groups. These things often aren't as linear as we'd assume.

Even the admin is sort of a clusterfuck. You have Eboli identified by Valachi and Ray Patriarca as the acting boss but other high-level sources said it was Catena and wiretaps show there was definitely a power-sharing situation with them either way. Earlier on there's the question of whether Pandolfo was official consigliere or acting, who the (acting) consigliere was between Pandolfo and Miranda, and whether Strollo was truly the acting boss or just sort of a de facto street boss. There is also conflicting info from Valachi on exactly when Luciano stepped down and Costello became official boss, one of his accounts suggesting it was in the mid-1940s and another saying it was in the early 1950s.

[B.]

Is there any info that definitely says Frank Costello was ever capodecina? We all assume he was but I can't remember seeing anything. Back on the RealDeal I remember there was speculation that Moretti took over for Costello given their close relationship and history but I don't remember if there was any evidence behind it. Bill Bonanno names Costello as the consigliere in the 1930s which makes sense but it's weird he's the only source who has identified a consigliere between Pollaccia (murdered circa 1932) and Pandolfo (circa 1940s) which is kind of crazy given the extent of Valachi's cooperation, etc. Valachi never even mentioned Pollaccia that I've seen.

Side note but about the Valachi charts, something to remember is some of the mistakes did not come from Valachi. There is info on the charts that came from the FBN and FBI getting their wires crossed as the FBN did interviews with Valachi early on that were relayed to the FBI and led to errors on the chart. The biggest example I know of is Gaetano Martino. The FBN told the FBI that Valachi identified him as a Genovese member (he was a Gambino member and former captain) but when the FBI interviewed Valachi about it he denied on two different occasions ever identifying Martino as a Genovese member and said he did not recognize him or know who he was. It turned out the FBN never even asked Valachi about Gaetano Martino, rather they had asked him about Antonio Martino who was an associate of Sonny Franzese but Valachi told the FBI he never identified Antonio as a Genovese member either nor knew who he was (Antonio was likely not even a member, let alone w/ the Genovese). It's possible too there was confusion between Toddo Marino (a Genovese member) and Tano Martino (a Gambino member close to Genovese leaders). I wonder if similar miscommunication led to guys like Persico, Caponigro, etc. showing up on the chart.

[quadtree]

There are other captains and supposed captains who remain a mystery. Gandolfo Curto of Broadway, killed in 1929. Gaetano Pennacchio, seems to be an influential figure in the 1920s. Vincenzo Generoso, his crew seems old. Dominic DiCuarto is the son of Dominic DiCuarto Sr. Was it his father that Valachi mentioned as a former captain? They wrote about Mogavero on the forum that he may have inherited Vincenzo Altomari's team. Altomari, as they write, was of Arbëreshë origin; in D'Arco he is mentioned as capodecina. Another of the old possible captains is Dominic DiDato, who was a contender for the position of boss in the mid-1930s.

Michelino Clemente is described as a captain in one count by an informant. Angelo Fiore and Daniel Noto are described as captains. Carmine Bove was one of the contenders to become acting boss during Costello's imprisonment, he could have been captain or acting captain (for whom?). In the Casso book Bove is identified as a captain, who appears at a sit-down over the shooting of his Nephew by Casso.

bn considers Alfredo Toriello a capodecina or even a member of the administration. He was a very elderly and respected member, made according to his own words back in the 1910s (in the Loiacano family?). At least one soldier was subordinate to him, Casino.

There was also the Fourth Avenue mob in Brooklyn, allegedly led by a captain who was replaced in 1953 by someone with 13 letters in his name (the FBI redacted the file). And finally there is Charles Carlo, who JD mentioned as a possible former Capodecina who died in 1963. It's a pity there are still no details about Charles Carlo. It's easy to get confused about the Captain Genoveses, but are other families in New York less confusing?

[B.]

Valachi said in the Real Thing that Masseria only had a boss and underboss in his Family with no capidecine, and that captains only came into play through Maranzano's influence. He is obviously mistaken as Joe Bonanno identified Luciano and Yale as captains under Masseria plus Gentile and Maniaci identified Capone as a capodecina under Masseria. Gentile also identifies Pollaccia as having been Masseria's consigliere so it wasn't just boss/underboss on the admin.

It's understandable why Valachi was confused though, as he was made into a rogue coalition from two Families during wartime and was not assigned to a captain, his knowledge of enemy Families likely being even more thin. Promotions that took place during the war were likely unrecognized by other Families, too. We know from Buscetta and Marino Mannoia that a Sicilian Family is considered disbanded when a boss dies or steps down and that the election of a new boss allows the Family to be recognized and organized again, these Sicilian sources agreeing with Scarpa and Magaddino who stated that when a boss dies/steps down all of the captains and underboss lose their position and have to be reappointed when a new boss is elected. This fits Gentile's description of what took place under Maranzano, which Valachi misinterpreted as the creation of these ranks.

---

The guys like Curto are good candidates for Masseria-era captains but nothing definitive identifying them. He does seem to have been a peer of his associate Ciro Terranova.

Some of what we know / can speculate:

- Valachi said Strollo was only made for around a week before he was promoted to capodecina which gave Strollo very little leverage over Valachi. This was in 1931 around the time Genovese became underboss so presumably Strollo took over Genovese's crew.

- As Rick said, Tommy Greco took over Luciano's decina.

- Ciro Terranova was taken down and Mike Coppola became capodecina.

- Burton Turkus said in 1954 that Augie Carfano succeeded Frankie Yale when Yale was killed in 1928 and ran the Brooklyn rackets in collaboration with Joe Doto. I don't think there's much question that Carfano took over at least part of Yale's decina but the question is exactly when and how. Turkus's knowledge of the mafia was from the outside and in the same passage he says Joe Masseria succeeded Ignazio Lupo as the supreme head of the mafia, so some of the finer details are definitely questionable even though I believe it to be essentially true. Would it indicate that Doto's crew also had roots in Yale's decina? Valachi said the Alo crew (which came from Doto) was involved in Carfano's murder.

- Al Capone was a Yale associate and his induction/promotion as a Masseria capodecina in Chicago was during the same general time as Yale's 1928 murder. Capone was given permission to induct a full decina of Genovese members in Chicago but we don't know if he had NYC-based members or associates too given Capone was often visiting NYC and still allegedly had interests there. One informant stated Dave Petillo was made by Capone in Chicago but we know he returned to NYC rather than remaining in Chicago. Tony Ricci also spent time in Chicago when Capone was a captain and when he returned to NYC a newspaper stated he was looking after Capone's interests in NYC so the Capone decina may not be as black and white as we think.

- An early non-member source linked Jimmy Dimino Generoso to Yale's circle around the late 1920s but no indication he was a capodecina yet or that his eventual crew had formal roots in the Yale decina. Unlike many of Yale's members/associates, Generoso was from Sciacca in Agrigento. That crew does have some history of mingling with Calabrians though.

- Moretti was likely a capodecina by 1931. Though some info states he didn't move to the NJ-NYC area until later in the 1930s, other reports confirm he was already there and influential. In one account, Valachi even said Moretti was the acting boss in the mid-1930s after Genovese went to Italy and before Costello (he leaves "Chee Gusae" (ph) out of this account) so I suspect he was already established as a captain.

- It's generally assumed that Miranda was a captain going back to 1931 but do we have anything definitive? On another note, Chin mentioned Sam Cufari in his original post and we don't know when Springfield first had its own capodecina or for that matter how many members existed there early on but Springfield can be linked to the Genovese going back to the 1920s and Miranda's brother Antonio was an important figure there when he died in 1930. It's possible that Springfield was part of Mike Miranda's decina before being given their own captain but is there anything saying when exactly Miranda became a captain?

- Pellegrino was already a high-ranking member of a separate Calabrian organization before he became a Genovese member so it's likely he was a captain by the 1930s.

- Like Quad said, Didato is a good candidate given Gentile said he was attempting to organize the election of a new boss after Luciano was off the street and was politicking to get himself elected, so it's likely he held rank. He was a Little Italy guy from Baucina. Gentile makes a point of saying that Didato was Sicilian so it's possible he was opposed to the growing mainland influence in the Family admin.

[Antiliar]

There's info in the Secret Service records suggesting that Curto was a capodecina, but I haven't seen anything anywhere pointing to Tommy the Bull being one. I totally agree with everything quadtree and B wrote.

To B's question about Frank Costello, no, we don't have evidence that he was ever a capodecina. As far as I know he was made around 1930/31 (or even as late as 1932) and was quickly promoted to consigliere.

[quadtree]

Before his death, Maranzano wanted to start a new war, and in a personal conversation with Valachi he listed the names of those whose death he wanted. They were Charlie Lucania, Al Capone, Vito Genovese, Frank Costello, Willie Moretti, Joe Adonis, Ciro Terranova, Vincent Mangano and Dutch Schultz (Terranova's ally). Valachi remembered this 30 years later in The Real Thing. I’m not sure if he remembered all the names on Maranzano’s death list, but even just these names make it clear who Maranzano considered his main enemies. Obviously Schultz was not a made man , but the others on the list clearly have high positions in their families. Lucania, Capone and Mangano are bosses, Genovese is the underboss in the Lucania family, Terranova, Adonis, Moretti are obvious capodecinas at the time of 1931.

By process of elimination, one can guess that Costello was someone already in 1931, during Maranzano’s lifetime. Considering that Pollaccia is not mentioned, Costello could have already replaced him by that time, but perhaps Pollaccia was still consigliere, but for some reason was not mentioned in the list, then Costello could have been a capodecina and a made man already in 1931 . It's funny that Valachi specifically said that Michael Coppola wasn't on the list because he was "a heel" and "still is".