Motorfab's Blog: Une Histoire de Crime Organisé

[motorfab]

New article on the blog dedicated to Dominique Albertini and his half-brother Joseph Césari. The two brothers were considered the main heroin chemists of the "French Connection" and were linked to numerous mafiosi around the world. The article is in its last part devoted to the "disciples" of Jo Césari who were involved in the "Pizza Connection"

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/ ... 5720325142

Article updated with the addition of several new photos:

-A rare mugshot of Césari
-The drug seized in Césari's laboratory in 1964
-Albert Véran's laboratory dismantled in 1969
-Antoine Restori's Laboratory dismantled in 1979

[motorfab]

And I'm the king of the idiots, here is the right link.

https://unehistoiredecrimeorganise.blog ... s.html?m=1

[motorfab]

Yep, I know the document you mean. I will find it when I have time but it was Angelo Bruno recorded saying that Ida wanted to create a decina of the Philadelphia Family in Calabria as he had some young men there he wanted to recruit. However Bruno said Ida would have to get permission from the Sicilian mafia to form the decina. Would have been pretty crazy for the Philly Family to have a decina in Calabria led by a former boss haha.

Magaddino mentions both Ida and Rugnetta at some point, I believe when they were discussing Canada. It is vague but I will find that too when I have a chance. I don't know what their relationship was to Costello but both of them were close to Anastasia.

Two of Anastasia's closest associates until the 1950s were the Macri brothers in NYC, Jimmy and Benny Macri. Jimmy Macri may have been a Gambino capodecina and Benny was likely a member. They were of course Calabrian and Jimmy Macri's daughter married the son of Tony Ripepi, important Calabrian capodecina in Pittsburgh.

These days, I am reading Addio Cosa Nostra, Buscetta's memoirs edited by Pino Arlacchi and it is about Anastasia/Ida and Cosa Nostra in Calabria. So I'm restarting this conversation here

Buscetta says that in 1956 Anastasia commissioned Ida to organize "Cosche" in Calabria. Ida would have addressed Luciano, but Luciano having no power in Italy he would have addressed Gioacchino Pennino and asked him to accompany him to Calabria. Buscetta adds that Pennino asked him to accompany him and that Ida was also at this meeting.

La Cupola does not yet exist but another meeting in Sicily with other higher-ranking mafiosi took place and it was decided that 2 Cosche would be created in Calabria. We can legitimately think that Calogero Sinatra was one of the attendees

Buscetta says Antonio Macri (Siderno), Girolamo Piromalli (Gioia Tauro) & Paolo De Stefano (Reggio Calabria) were members. I find it a little hard to believe that De Stefano was a member so early and that he doesn't talk about his boss, Domenico Tripodo, but why not. He also adds that things stagnated during the First Mafia War in 1963. It seems that the main activity of the Calabrians with Cosa Nostra was cigarette smuggling, at least until 1967 and the Locri massacr. Short version of the the story, Antonio Macri had Domenico Cordi killed, accusing him of having scammed him on a cigarette shipment, the massacre left 3 dead including a "civilian". Two Sicilians were suspected of the hit

[B.]

Yep, I know the document you mean. I will find it when I have time but it was Angelo Bruno recorded saying that Ida wanted to create a decina of the Philadelphia Family in Calabria as he had some young men there he wanted to recruit. However Bruno said Ida would have to get permission from the Sicilian mafia to form the decina. Would have been pretty crazy for the Philly Family to have a decina in Calabria led by a former boss haha.

Magaddino mentions both Ida and Rugnetta at some point, I believe when they were discussing Canada. It is vague but I will find that too when I have a chance. I don't know what their relationship was to Costello but both of them were close to Anastasia.

Two of Anastasia's closest associates until the 1950s were the Macri brothers in NYC, Jimmy and Benny Macri. Jimmy Macri may have been a Gambino capodecina and Benny was likely a member. They were of course Calabrian and Jimmy Macri's daughter married the son of Tony Ripepi, important Calabrian capodecina in Pittsburgh.

These days, I am reading Addio Cosa Nostra, Buscetta's memoirs edited by Pino Arlacchi and it is about Anastasia/Ida and Cosa Nostra in Calabria. So I'm restarting this conversation here

Buscetta says that in 1956 Anastasia commissioned Ida to organize "Cosche" in Calabria. Ida would have addressed Luciano, but Luciano having no power in Italy he would have addressed Gioacchino Pennino and asked him to accompany him to Calabria. Buscetta adds that Pennino asked him to accompany him and that Ida was also at this meeting.

La Cupola does not yet exist but another meeting in Sicily with other higher-ranking mafiosi took place and it was decided that 2 Cosche would be created in Calabria. We can legitimately think that Calogero Sinatra was one of the attendees

Buscetta says Antonio Macri (Siderno), Girolamo Piromalli (Gioia Tauro) & Paolo De Stefano (Reggio Calabria) were members. I find it a little hard to believe that De Stefano was a member so early and that he doesn't talk about his boss, Domenico Tripodo, but why not. He also adds that things stagnated during the First Mafia War in 1963. It seems that the main activity of the Calabrians with Cosa Nostra was cigarette smuggling, at least until 1967 and the Locri massacr. Short version of the the story, Antonio Macri had Domenico Cordi killed, accusing him of having scammed him on a cigarette shipment, the massacre left 3 dead including a "civilian". Two Sicilians were suspected of the hit

Awesome find! Angelo has been mentioning that anecdote for years and he couldn't remember if he imagined it so that's great. I've unfortunately never directly read Addio Cosa Nostra so great to know that the source for the Anastasia/Ida info was Buscetta.

Pennino's involvement fits as he said his uncle (also named Gioacchino Pennino), who was Brancaccio boss, stayed with the Calabrians and was close to them. It's funny too since Zu Gioacchino's brother-in-law was murdered Chicago boss Salvatore LoVerde who himself mingled with many other Italians in Chicago.

This confirms too that just like in Campania they created mafia Families in Calabria that included leaders of mainland organizations. I have seen other info that said 'ndrangetisti were also made into Cosa Nostra but this confirms it was much earlier and involved high-ranking Calabrian LCN leaders. It is also interesting that this happened much earlier than the formation of mafia Families in Campania by around 20 years, which actually fits what took place in the US where Calabrians may have entered Cosa Nostra before the Campanians. It is like the Camorra's entrance into Sicilian Cosa Nostra too in that it was centered around cigarettes.

[B.]

Also, just to put it into a timeline, it may have been 1962 when Joe Ida requested to form a decina in Calabria. Bruno visited Ida during his trip to Italy that year and he was recalling Ida's request on a wiretap afterward, so I suspect that visit is when Ida made the request. It had to be sometime after 1959/1960 as it was when Bruno was already boss and the Italy meeting makes the most sense.

So sometime around the mid-late 1950s the initiative moved forward to form two Cosa Nostra borgate in Calabria made up of 'ndranghetisti, then sometime between 1959-1962 Ida asks Bruno permission to form a decina in Calabria, which tells us Ida was still a member of the Philly Family and had not transferred to the Cosa Nostra Families in Calabria, instead seeking a remote Philly decina there made up of, according to Bruno, some young recruits Ida had found around Fiumara.

It's all incredibly fascinating. Dr. Gioacchino Pennino said Cosa Nostra, Camorra, and 'ndrangheta are all the same thing at the top levels so it makes sense his uncle Gioacchino Pennino was instrumental in getting the 'ndranghetisti initiated into Cosa Nostra. Thanks to Buscetta we can confirm Dr. Pennino wasn't just using it figuratively, he meant they literally initiated leaders of the other orgs into Cosa Nostra. We know this happened later with the Campanians but there were formal coalitions between all of them and Dr. Pennino was in a position to know, as was Buscetta obviously.

[motorfab]

lol, Angelo if you read this, no you weren't crazy

Actually I don't believe that Addio has been translated into English, but an author named Tim Shawcross took the main lines of the book to make one (I haven't read it so no idea if it's good or not but that's it seems to be that). Here we had a translation for Pino Arlacchi's books on Buscetta & Calderone, so we're lucky. Unfortunately we didn't get Pennino's book...

It seems correct for the timeline, thanks for clearing that up. Other pentiti including Gaetano Costa also said that in fact everyone was part of Cosa Nostra. They even called this "Cosa Nuova", but I admit I have a little trouble with that

[AustraliaSteve]

Hey Fabien, finally got round to reading your latest one on the Corsicans, nice article brother. The Corsican traffickers have always been interesting to me but not something I’ve ever really looked at deeply. That was an excellent read.

[motorfab]

Hey Fabien, finally got round to reading your latest one on the Corsicans, nice article brother. The Corsican traffickers have always been interesting to me but not something I’ve ever really looked at deeply. That was an excellent read.

Awesome, thanks for the feedback and thanks for reading it ! I have other projects in mind, but I plan to write much more often about the "French Connection" in the future

[Dwalin2014]

I just found on Youtube an English-translated documentary about the history of French organized crime; since this is the most active thread about the subject, I thought I'd post it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jEZ1UVcUWc

Motorfab, thanks again for the very interesting blog you created!

[motorfab]

I just found on Youtube an English-translated documentary about the history of French organized crime; since this is the most active thread about the subject, I thought I'd post it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jEZ1UVcUWc

Motorfab, thanks again for the very interesting blog you created!

Thank you for the kind words Dwalin, don't forget you also contributed to one of the pieces . In all modesty of course, it's always gratifying to see that I was able to interest someone with an article on the French underworld. Most people don't know or care, but they were so influential at one point...

The documentary is nice, I didn't know someone had translated it into English. Not everything is perfect in it, but it provides a good basis for someone who wants to look into the subject. I had criticized the doc a little for dwelling a little too much on Etienne Léandri who was more of a businessman rather than a mobster, but as the subject of the doc is on mob/political/business relations, so it is not not too annoying either. I really liked part 3 on casino shenanigans in Africa

[motorfab]

New article on the blog dedicated to a drug ring in the 1950s/1960s involving Cosa Nostra Crime Families on both sides of the Atlantic.

Among others, Joe Bonanno, Carmine Galante, John Bonventre, Frank Coppola, Joe Cerrito, Vito Vitale (Castellammare del Golfo), Gaspare & Giuseppe Magaddino were involved.

The case led to a trial in Palermo in 1968, today quite little known and strangely barely mentioned in books...

https://unehistoiredecrimeorganise.blog ... -cosa.html

[motorfab]

Two individuals I mention in the article are quite mysterious: Francesco Scimone & Angelo Cuffaro.

Scimone apparently lived near Boston as for Cuffaro, I only saw him mentioned once during my researchs

Has anyone seen these 2 names appear elsewhere before?

On another note, on the mugshots page that I added to the article, a contact of mine pointed out to me that the individual identified as Santo Sorge is in fact Antonino Sorci from Villagrazia. I suppose we will have to be content for the moment with the mugshot of Sorge published by the FBN...

[B.]

Excellent.

I'm not familiar with Scimone or Cuffaro other than they are both likely Sicilian and Cuffaro is a name I've only ever seen from various Agrigento comuni. Was Cuffaro connected to Boston as well? It would make sense as Boston was once a big Agrigentino colony.

[PolackTony]

Great work here as always, Fab. Always look forward to another one of your blog posts.

Regarding the Cuffaro surname, it is present at a low frequency in other parts of Sicily but is by far most prevalent in Agrigento, specifically Raffadali. It’s rare in Sciacca which was by far the most common Agrigento town in Boston, as well as in Aragona which also had colonies in MA. The only Angelo Cuffaro who I was able to find in the US was a guy born in NYC in 1892. I’m not positive, but his family may have been from the neighboring comune of Joppolo.

[motorfab]

Thank you gentlemen, I appreciate

I have no idea if Angelo Cuffaro was in Boston. During my research for my article, I came across an article published in August 1965 which confused me even more:


-Here Angelo Cuffaro turns into Francesco and according to the article he is a mafia figure in Sicily. But in the articles published a few days later, they say that he, Cerrito and a few others are hidden in the USA (which perhaps implies that he is American?). As for the articles published a few days later when the charges were dropped, they simply mentioned his name without giving any more information. On one of the Italian articles I have, his name is written "Angelo Coffaro" (probably a typo)

-For a moment I thought I had solved the Scimone mystery, but no. Not knowing much about the Colombo Crime Family, I inquired about John Scimone. To make a long story short, if the photo used in my article is correct, Francesco Scimone is older than John. Plus this is the only article I've seen that says it's John Scimone instead of Francesco. I had also read an article from the late 1970s that traced the "career" of John Scimone and there was no mention of the 1965/1968 drug case and trial, so clearly the John Scimone trail is not the right one.

All this to say that we are no further ahead regarding these 2 individuals lol