TMA: The Camorra's Influence on American Cosa Nostra

[PolackTony]

Lol interesting

Discussed here, BTW:

viewtopic.php?p=261320#p261320

[Brovelli]

Nice work, old fashioned Harlem - Bronx folk

[PolackTony]

Nice work, old fashioned Harlem - Bronx folk

[Cbert1]

Yes this is testimony from the NY trial of pellegrino morano. My great grand father was one of the artichoke bosses who met with the camorra to negotiate artichoke prices throughout the little italy area.. he was also present at the murder of guiseppe verrazzano at the Italian gardens at broome and bowery which he did indeed own

[Cbert1]

Yes the documents I posted were from the pellegrino marano murder trial in NYC.

[PolackTony]

This seems like as good of a place as any to post this.

In his 2004 book on Hamilton, ON, based bootlegging kingpin Rocco Perri, from the core 'Ndrnagheta comune of Platì, Calabrian author Antonio Nicaso noted that Perri was personally connected to Al Capone. When asked once by a reporter for the Toronto Daily Star whether he knew Perri, Capone had snapped "I don't even know what street Canada is on!". Nicaso, however, managed to get ahold of the personal diary of Stefano Speranza, a Capone affiliate in Chicago from the comune of Samo (also called San Giovanni di Samio, the town is located near Platì and borders the historical 'Ndrangheta strongholds of Àfrico and San Luca; Stefano's brother Giovanni Speranza was a mayor in Samo, to whom Stefano eventually entrusted his diary). Speranza had fled an earlier murder in Calabria and entered the US via Canada under the alias "Pietro Brancati" and went to Chicago to work for Capone. In 1929, Speranza was sent by Capone as his representative for the funeral of Rocco Perri's murdered common-law wife, Bessie Starkman. Speranza referred in his diary to Perri -- popularly analogized as the "Al Capone of Canada" -- as "the most powerful boss in Canada". While Speranza attested to the close friendship between Perri and Capone, Nicaso also spoke to Giovanni Perri, a nephew of Rocco, who added that Rocco was in love with one of Capone's sisters -- which one exactly is not stated -- and maintained an arduous correspondence with her for some time.

Additionally, James Dubro and Robin Rowland's 1987 book on Perri noted that Antonino and Domenico Saccà -- brothers from Podargoni, a formerly Grekaniko-speaking village in the hills of the Aspromonte above the city of Reggio Calabria, who worked for Jim Colosimo and were important nodes in the Camorra networks between NYC, Chicago, and Buffalo -- were also liaisons between Capone and Perri, along with the famous Tony "Mops" Volpe of Taylor St. Torrio and Capone, of course, were big importers of Canadian whiskey and Nicasio discusses the Corby distillery in ON, linked to both Perri as well as Johnny Torrio in Chicago.

----------

In our recent TMA episode and here on the BHF, I've referenced the codici, books of statutes, rules, and rituals kept by affiliates of the Calabrian Camorra/'Ndrangheta, versions of which were found by authorities in both Italy and North America a number of times from the 1890s on. In 1922, Domenico Sciarrone, aka Domenic Scaroni, aka Joseph Veroni, a leading underworld figure in Guelph, ON, from the village of Calanna, RC (near Podargoni, as well as towns like San Roberto, Sant'Alessio d'Aspromonte, and Santo Stefano in Aspromonte, which came up during the TMA episode as important nodes in the Calabrian-American Camorra network), was murdered, a casualty in what the local press referred to as an ongoing "Mafia war". Sciarrone was said to have been the head of a "Black Hand gang" whose territory stretched to Perri's home base of Hamilton and the members of which were said to have distinguished themselves by wearing diamond pinkie rings on their left hands (which made me think of "Diamond Jim" Colosimo and "Diamond Joe" Esposito of Chicago, as well as "Diamond Joe" Viserti of NYC). Rocco Perri was one of Sciarrone's pallbearers, along with a Francesco Longo in Welland, ON, from San Giorgio Morgeto, who I presume was a relative of the other Longos from SGM later connected to the Papalias and Buffalo LCN.

To return to the theme of 'Ndrangheta codici, 5 days after Sciarrone was murdered, a Hamilton-area underworld figure named Vincenzo Lauria, aka Jimmy Loria, was killed. On Lauria's person, authorities found a "notebook with vague references to a clandestine society that relied on quasi-religious symbolism and that had existed during the time of the Risorgimento [note: the mid-19th century political movement for the unification of Italy]"(Nicaso 2004 p. 62). Nicaso, being a longtime ‘Ndrangheta researcher, recognized this as likely being another instance of an 'Ndrangheta "codex", though the Hamilton police had no idea what to make of it. Curiously, Nicaso identified Lauria as a native of Agrigento province in Sicily, rather than a Calabrian (the Lauria surname is very common in Eastern Agrigento around Licata). Suffice to say that nothing in the history of Cosa Nostra in either Sicily or America has even hinted at an equivalent set of documents.

We know that Sicilians were involved in the old Camorra, both in Italy and North America, so if Lauria was Licatese and possessed one of these codici, it wouldn't be too shocking. We also saw the 1909 all-Sicilian "Society of the Banana and Faithful Friends" in OH with a similar book of Camorra statutes. Worth noting here that LE claimed that the Banana Society had ties to confederates from Chicago to Upstate NYC and that the Lima-headed society in Central/Southern OH was under a regional boss in Cleveland, where of course men from Licata also played a major role in the mafia in partnership with Calabrians like the Milanos.

[Brovelli]

I haven’t watched the whole YouTube yet, so apologies if you covered this but is there a rough timeframe that the US Camorra no longer existed and fully “merged” with the mob? I could pick your guys brains all day so I apologize ahead of time for all my questions

I was shocked to hear how significant the Camorra actually was, I had only ever really heard of the Camorra in Brooklyn until the 20s

[B.]

Very interesting about the Capone and Perri connections, definitely more to it than a catchy headline.

The Francesco Longo you mentioned was a relative of the other Longos from San Giorgio Morgeto and he is mentioned as "Franco Longo" on the Magaddino tape I posted in the other thread. He was the father of LA member Dominick Longo and also had a brother Domenico who was involved. The Magaddino tape confirms they were a Camorra-linked family and the info you shared reinforces it further.



The only example I can think of offhand where the mafia supposedly documented rules in writing was when Salvatore LoPiccolo was arrested in 2007. That is much later in the timeline though, can't think of anything from early investigations.

If Lauria was from Licata that's an excellent find. There have been Laurias in the Licata Family in Sicily, including a modern boss. More important than that though is that Canada in general has involved co-mingling between Agrigentini and Calabrian Camorristi. The Hamilton branch of the Buffalo Family included powerful Racalmutesi alongside 'ndranghetisti from Reggio, Racalmuto being in eastern Agrigento like Licata and this Lauria also being in Hamilton. Then in Montreal you have all the guys from western Agrigento who formed the Bonanno decina with some key Camorra/'ndrangheta connected figures. Early Buffalo members the Calleas also spent time living in Ontario and they were from Licata with close ties and bootlegging partnerships with the Porrellos of Cleveland. They were ultimately killed while living in Buffalo in the 1930s, the Calleas being close to both Giuseppe and Roy Carlisi as well as Roy's Pietraperzia-born father-in-law Calogero Romano. A younger Porrello was killed around the same time as them in Buffalo after leaving Cleveland and one of the Callea sons later joined the Buffalo Family.

Would need to know what the codex actually said to gauge whether it was Camorra-oriented or not, though like you said there is little to no precedent for the mafia producing written documents like that. If it was a Camorra codex it opens up the possibility that some of the early Racalmutesi in Hamilton had a similar relationship to the Camorra. Calogero Bordonaro and Santo Scibetta were close to Giacomo Luppino later on but there were Racalmutesi in Hamilton before the turn of the 20th century and the mafia and Camorra likely developed in Ontario side-by-side. The adjacent Racalmutesi colony in Buffalo began in 1891 and there was a great deal of crossover, more info here: viewtopic.php?p=249847#p249847

Racalmuto and Licata are also near Caltanissetta and we've discussed the recurring connections between the Camorra and that province. I mentioned it to you off board, but you also have the Family in San Cataldo serving as liaisons to the Siracusani (i.e. Syracuse province) who according to Leonardo Messina were not made into Cosa Nostra but had a defined leader and were used for street crime and weapons trafficking in Caltanissetta by the mafia heads there. No indication the Siracusani were linked to the 'ndrangheta like we see in other eastern Sicilian provinces but they were a similar sort of criminal "basso" group who helped the mafia with some of their more ruthless pursuits ala some of what we see between the early American mafia and Camorristi.

[B.]

Speaking of connections between Agrigento and the Calabrian Camorra, I posted this a while back but didn't elaborate because we were waiting to get deeper into this topic.

A Youngstown informant said there was a secret "inner group" (Camorra) within the Calabrian Mutual Aid Society in Youngstown and that Calogero Vizzini (native of Agrigento) had been one of the "instructors" of the "inner group" and "taught" men like Mallamo and the Romeos but was not permitted to attend meetings of the secret "inner group" because he wasn't Calabrese. Thanks to the other account of the Youngstown Camorra / 'ndrangheta induction, we can easily understand what the source was talking about even though he himself hadn't officially joined despite being invited.



It's pretty clear in this account that Vizzini was not a formal part of the local Camorra himself but mentored and very likely sponsored some of these Calabrian Camorristi into the Pittsburgh Family. It shows the close relationships that were at play and suggests that even if Vizzini was not a formal part of their Camorra group he was in a position of influence with them and may have helped them join the mafia. Vizzini was close to Pittsburgh member Charles Cavallaro in Youngstown who was also from Agrigento, possibly Villaseta. Based on a report from the early 1960s, it looks like Cavallaro was once in the Romeo decina alongside guys like Mallamo and other Calabresi. Mallamo also took over Cavallaro's interests after his murder.

You also see Caltanissetta in these Youngstown circles like Vincenzo Lupo and Joe DiCarlo Jr. from Vallelunga and Detroit member Francesco Cammarata from San Cataldo. Vizzini was very close to Cammarata.

There is def a pattern emerging of central Sicily (i.e. the eastern side of the mafia's historic sphere of influence) in connection with Calabrians and we see it in both North America and Italy.

[chin_gigante]

Looking through that case book for the Pellegrino Morano trial, I found a Western Massachusetts connection that appeared quite interesting. From Ralph Daniello's testimony, Springfield bootlegger (and reported 'King of Little Italy') Carlo Siniscalchi attended a peace conference in Brooklyn between the Navy Street gang and the Grimaldis sometime in 1914-1915.

Q Then what business did you go into?
A I put up a restaurant at 37 Skillman Avenue. I was in partnership with Giovanni Mancini.
Q You and Mancini had this restaurant together in 1914, and how long did you have it there?
A I left the restaurant in the month of September or October of 1915.
Q While you had this restaurant, Alessandrio Vollero, Tony the shoemaker and two or three other members of the Navy Street gang came over to make peace with the Grimaldi family, because they had shot one of the Grimaldi’s; is that right?
A Yes, the shoemaker was not there, no. The Navy Street gang.
Q Are you sure the shoemaker did not come there?
A I am more than sure.
Q Well, the members of the Navy Street gang, Vollero and who else?
A Alessandrio Vollero, Andrea Ricci, Eugenio Bizarro, Lauritano, Joe Vaccaro, Vincenzo Parapalie, Salvatore Costa –
Q Do you remember the rest of the names, or is that all that came?
A I don’t remember the rest of the names, but I am sure that the shoemaker was there [sic].
Q Who of the Grimaldi family were there?
A John Grimaldi, Fury Grimaldi, Mike Grimaldi, Ralph Petrangelo, one Frank Riccio, one Baldassare, the barber, one Flippello from Coney Island.
[…]
Q Those men were all together in your restaurant?
A Yes, in my restaurant. Giovanni Mancini was also there. Giovanni Mancini, of course, was my partner, and there was a man from Springfield, Carlo Siniscaldi.
Q Was Mike Notaro there?
A No, sir.
Q After that conference over there between these rival people who had trouble, peace was patched up, was it?
A Yes.

Siniscalchi, murdered in the South End of Springfield in 1921, was the husband of Pasqualina Albano. Following her spouse's killing, Pasqualina remarried to Antonio Miranda, the brother of future Genovese consigliere Mike Miranda.

Pasqualina herself was reported to be actively involved in bootlegging and was shot to death in 1932 (shortly after Antonio Miranda died). One of the suspected gunmen in Pasqualina's murder was Salvatore Celambrino, the same individual who was a identified as a member of the Miranda regime and later as a captain in his own right.

[NickleCity]

This was an incredible episode of the TMA. So much to digest. I appreciate your research and synthesis for us novices out here. Also, I find this discussion about about connection between the Camorra and Agrigento fascinating. Thanks again guys for all your hard work putting this together.

[Angelo Santino]

There were two brother camorristi from reggio who lived in NYC, one of the brothers married a woman from Agrigento who had relatives on E12th in Gambino territory. Also, the Milanos were not the only calabrese whom the Lonardo's were connected to. There was another calabrese who was on the run from CL who got arrested in upstate NY. His documents show they remained in touch. Also, Lonardo was involved with prostitution in Akron, a mafia no no. Lastly, Lonardo's name came up during investigations into the calabrians in both Cleveland and Pittsburgh where informants relayed back the intel that Lonardo was the "Black Hand Boss" of Cleveland. His name was well known in Pittsburgh. I always assumed they were being unspecific as to his affiliation given the SS often did not care but since we're looking at these Agrigentin-Reggio links I thought I would share. It never caught my attention that Lonardo was named more than a few times because guilt by association isn't always accurate. M or C or non-affiliated these guys existed in the same universe so it shouldn't be surprising that they knew of each other, even in other cities given how traveled many of them were. Also, Conte was from Comintini in Agrigento, Gentile described how close Conte and Mauro were. I imagine if Conte had become a camorrista then Gentile would have mentioned it and heavily denounced it so we can rule him out.

I would argue that Pittsburgh and PA as a whole was the most infested state in the country. Politically, the camorra might have been more powerful in Chicago and New York, but going by numbers, PA wins.

Which brings us to John LaPaglia, he was boss for a month but named alongside Calabro and Milano, meaning this information might not refer to mafia, the fact that the latter names are mentioned would almost confirm that. As I said before, there is no evidence of any war in 1915 to 1919. (There was the murder of a very important guy but it wasn't in the territory that involves Gentile, the papers mentioned mafia but his two murderers were not Sicilian.) In 1924, one informant (a Gigliotti) claimed Calabro had La Paglia murdered and that in the past year 15 people have been murdered. I was able to find 8-10 of them, all Calabrians. LaPaglia is the only Sicilian in that long string of murders.... Meanwhile Mauro is still alive down the street seemingly nonconnected to all these events and would die 2 years later of gonorrhea or syphilis. I tried looking up the effects of those diseases long term, would it be a slow decline or advance rapidly? We know Mauro was still the head in 1923, but no clue as to the last 3 years of his life. He left nothing behind. State boss and couldn't even afford to open a saloon on Wylie Ave, it had to be an off street. Very different character and background than say Dr. Gregorio Conte, MD, married man and respected pillar of the Pittsburgh Italian community.

And Nick Gentile deserves credit for that. Without him, we never would have had any idea of the importance and status of Conte. We would have stumbled across this early stuff and maybe very likely concluded that Pittsburgh started out as a camorra society with Don "Fred" Mauro as Founding Don. "Ultimately, it fell on the shoulders of Sicilian-born Giuseppe "Yeast Baron" Siragusa to mold the local Camorra family to reflect the organization and operations of Luciano's vision for Cosa Nostra..." I cringe at the idea of it. Just goes to show how one little piece can change the entire puzzle.

[B.]

Yep, Conti is another example of Agrigento closely associating with Camorristi. My take on him is not that he was bullied by the local Camorristi into letting them extort local Sicilians but he was likely using them as a criminal underclass to do the legwork in what was obviously a mutually beneficial partnership. That's what Caltanissetta's relationship to the Siracusani in the 1980s brought to mind, that Madonia and the Caltanissetta provincial leadership's recruitment of the Siracusani to carry out crime in Caltanissetta allowed a criminal "underclass" to act as proxies in less glamorous affairs. Recall too that the Birmingham informant I've mentioned who confessed to joining a Camorra comprised of Sicilians in the 1920s was from Siracusa.

The eastern side of Agrigento and Caltanissetta is also where we see the Stidda who challenged Cosa Nostra but it's nonetheless an area where criminal groups existed alongside the mafia and ruthless brigandage in general had a long history there. We're seeing a pattern where many of the American Families who coexisted with and even brought Camorristi in had an element from this part of Sicily. It was something of a frontier where Cosa Nostra's influence begins to fade and a more unapologetic criminal mindset rears its head among figures who existed on the fringes of the mafia, not unlike the Camorra in some of these US regions.

Chin -- great find with Celambrino. I mentioned it in the episode, but he was close to the Pittsburgh leadership. The CI who traveled to Pittsburgh with him said Celambrino told him he was once a "wheelman" for Al Capone. Celambrino's roots in a Genovese Brooklyn circle with Camorra links and his ties to Springfield, Pittsburgh, and Capone make it fairly obvious that he was molded by this network much like some of the other figures who rose to important positions in the Genovese Brooklyn faction.

[PolackTony]

B — all excellent points in the post immediately above.


Thanks also for the reminder about the Youngstown informant and his claim that Vizzini “taught” Mallamo and Romeo. Funny that there were two Sicilian Vizzinis in this general region closely tied to the Calabrian Camorra: the Youngstown captain, and then the Villarosene Giacomo Vizzini in Johnstown who seems to have succeeded Fortunato Calabrò as boss of the Camorra there.

The Youngstown Vizzini was from Girgenti proper? I note that there were two Calogero Vizzinis, both born around 1894, who entered the US in the 1910s: one from Girgenti and another from Racalmuto. The Racalmutese one seems to have lived for a spell in Hamilton, ON (unsurprisingly, given his hometown), and then relocated to NYC. You probably already know this, but the Youngstown Vizzini was living in Detroit c. 1918 (worked as a machinist for Ford), before relocating to OH.

[PolackTony]

I would argue that Pittsburgh and PA as a whole was the most infested state in the country. Politically, the camorra might have been more powerful in Chicago and New York, but going by numbers, PA wins.

I’d be inclined to agree, particularly where it concerns the density of actual Societies that seem to have been founded across the towns and cities in the broader West PA/ORV region, given the spread of Calabrian colonies across the area.

Which brings us to John LaPaglia, he was boss for a month but named alongside Calabro and Milano, meaning this information might not refer to mafia, the fact that the latter names are mentioned would almost confirm that. As I said before, there is no evidence of any war in 1915 to 1919. (There was the murder of a very important guy but it wasn't in the territory that involves Gentile, the papers mentioned mafia but his two murderers were not Sicilian.) In 1924, one informant (a Gigliotti) claimed Calabro had La Paglia murdered and that in the past year 15 people have been murdered. I was able to find 8-10 of them, all Calabrians. LaPaglia is the only Sicilian in that long string of murders.... Meanwhile Mauro is still alive down the street seemingly nonconnected to all these events and would die 2 years later of gonorrhea or syphilis. I tried looking up the effects of those diseases long term, would it be a slow decline or advance rapidly? We know Mauro was still the head in 1923, but no clue as to the last 3 years of his life. He left nothing behind. State boss and couldn't even afford to open a saloon on Wylie Ave, it had to be an off street. Very different character and background than say Dr. Gregorio Conte, MD, married man and respected pillar of the Pittsburgh Italian community.

Giovanni LaPaglia may have been one of these guys that had dual membership. Wouldn’t surprise me, though we don’t know enough I think to make any firm declarations there. Clearly, there were Villaroseni in the region involved with both LCN and the Camorra, and we know that we can longer make the easy assumption that “Sicilian == LCN” in every case. Same with the immediate motives for his murder, as some sources apparently pointed to Monastero while others pointed to Calabrò.

The best source was probably Domenico Caputo, however, who was with the Volpes in Wilmerding. Caputo wrote a death bed letter to LE in 1933, discussing some of these events in Pittsburgh. Caputo stated that LaPaglia was killed in retaliation for a series of prior murders (perhaps the Calabresi killed in this period that you’ve noted, though again, we don’t really know) and that the Caltanissettesi Luigi LaMendola and Pietro Curatola were responsible for his murder (LaPaglia had his head caved in with an axe, showing that this was probably a murder that involved strong personal animosity). Caputo also emphasized that Monastero’s men were the same as LaPaglia’s men, which is why I believe that regardless of any Camorra affiliations, there’s a good chance that LaPaglia was a short lived boss of the mafia in Pitt, succeeded by Monastero, who may well have been his UB. Caputo also claimed that the 1927 murder of LaMendola was ordered by Monastero in retaliation for LaPaglia (Curatola subsequently fled Pitt for North Jersey, where he was himself killed in 1930; JoelTurner has some excellent discussion of this currently in his Moretti thread). According to the account of a Camorra-affiliate in the region, LaPaglia and Monastero were the same thing, and thus either LaPaglia was a mafioso or the Caccamese Monastero was a Camorrista.

As you know, at the time of his murder, LaPaglia had only recently relocated from Cleveland, where his brother Michele LaPaglia, a wealthy food importer, was himself murdered in 1925. Giovanni had prior ties to Pitt though, as he had survived a 1917 shooting there which killed Giovanni Cappa of Castrogiovanni (whatever happened in 1917, it seemed to have been between paesani, as the Guastaferros from Villarosa were convicted of the attack on LaPaglia and Cappa).

As you also know, though others may not, the Secret Service was investigating Giovanni and Michele LaPaglia as part of a large counterfeiting ring also tied to Calabrò and Tony Lombardo of Chicago during this time. Lombardo was also alleged to have travelled to Cleveland for Giovanni LaPaglia’s funeral, and was himself a prime example of a guy who probably had his feet firmly in “both worlds”. While we know that Lombardo was rappresentante of Chicago Cosa Nostra, he was later recalled by Teddy DeRose as a “Camorra man” and a key factor in the “merger” of the mafia and Camorra in Chicago in that period, along with Capone.

I’ve said it before, but it’s clearly no coincidence that Mauro and Capone seem to have been the only LCN members we know of who died from syphillis (occupational hazard of the Malavita). Moretti supposedly had syphilis as well, continuing the trend. Severity of end stage, or tertiary, syphilis can vary widely. Capone reportedly was already showing signs of neurosyphilis early into his incarceration in the 1930s. Mauro could have had any number of issues, ranging from psychosis and dementia to blindness, widespread skin lesions, or debilitating cardiovascular disease, or none of the above.

And Nick Gentile deserves credit for that. Without him, we never would have had any idea of the importance and status of Conte. We would have stumbled across this early stuff and maybe very likely concluded that Pittsburgh started out as a camorra society with Don "Fred" Mauro as Founding Don. "Ultimately, it fell on the shoulders of Sicilian-born Giuseppe "Yeast Baron" Siragusa to mold the local Camorra family to reflect the organization and operations of Luciano's vision for Cosa Nostra..." I cringe at the idea of it. Just goes to show how one little piece can change the entire puzzle.

Oh for sure. People would be running around saying “look, Pittsburgh clearly was never a real ‘Cosa Nostra Family’, for Chrissakes they called themselves THE OUTFIT and we all know that their first boss was a guy from Calabria (though we’ll conveniently ignore all of the heavily Sicilian families that also called themselves THE OUTFIT)! They only started doing all that mafia stuff when Siragusa became boss, just to make New York happy”.

Sound familiar? lol.