Plot to kill Vincent Rao & other lesser-known Valachi info

[B.]

Contract on Rao

- I hadn't noticed in Valachi's Real Thing (page 339) he says the Gagliano-Lucchese group put a contract on Vincent Rao during the Castellammarese War and asked Valachi to participate: https://mafiahistory.us/a023/therealthing2.html

- The reason given for the contract was that Rao was involved in the murder of Tom Reina. Interesting if true. Even though Masseria is said to have influenced the murder of Reina and "appointed" Pinzolo as boss, there was seemingly an element of the Family who was on board with it. For one, that's typically how these things work but Joe Bonanno specifically said someone in Reina's Family betrayed him by telling Giuseppe Morello about Reina's growing admiration of Maranzano. Valachi also said the Gagliano faction was originally only a small group (around 20 if I remember right) within the Family which suggests there was a larger element who supported Reina's death or were indifferent/ambivalent and simply went along with the new regime. The only confirmed names we have with this splinter group who were already made when the conflict starts are Tom Gagliano, Tommy Lucchese, Stefano Rannelli, Dominick Petrilli, John DiCaro, and Bobby Santuccio, the other known names being made during the war. Others who were certainly with this group would be Tom's brother Antonino Reina and son Jack, the latter very young but confirmed as made by the end of the war.

- It's likely the pro-Pinzolo/neutral element included Corleonesi given the sheer number of them in the Family and the influence of Giuseppe Morello; Valachi says it was both Masseria and Morello who had Reina killed when he brings up Rao's alleged involvement. Many of the older Lucchese members had once been under Morello and he was business partner of Lucchese members/leaders by the late 1920s. I suspect the Reina murder was more Morello's affair than Masseria's, adding to this is that Joe Bonanno felt Morello was the "chief advisor" behind Masseria and again specifically names Morello as part of a conspiracy with an unnamed Lucchese member who was undermining Reina. Easy to imagine Morello wanting to reassert power over former members of his original Family and possibly get back at Reina if there was lingering resentment.

- That the Gagliano faction targeted Rao in retaliation for the Reina murder suggests he was seen as more than a passive participant, but impossible to say if he was the member, or one of the members, who laid the groundwork for the plot with Morello as Bonanno stated or was simply carrying out their wishes. The Raos were extended relatives of Tom Gagliano but Vincent's brother Calogero (a Lucchese soldier) was involved in business with Morello.

Valachi's Decision

- Valachi brought Rao up in context with his decision to join Maranzano's Family after the war instead of Gagliano's. Valachi was finally allowed to come out of hiding a couple weeks after the war ended to attend a meeting with the Maranzano and Gagliano groups. Nick Padovano asked Valachi before the meeting if he had been warned, and when Valachi asked about what, Nick said he and "everyone else" had been told to tell Maranzano they wanted to belong with Gagliano when Maranzano asked which group they wanted to be with. This upset Valachi as he felt Gagliano and Lucchese didn't want him given they didn't contact him beforehand and instruct him to stay with their Family.

- This perceived slight made Valachi think of the "guy in Sing Sing" (probably alluding to Camorrista Alessandro Vollero's advice about Sicilian treachery) and also reminded him of the contract on Vincent Rao. Along with mentioning how he himself was recruited into the plot against Rao and noting Rao's alleged involvement in the Reina murder, Valachi says Rao was slated to become a capodecina after the war and Valachi was worried that he'd be assigned to Rao. It's not clear if Valachi was worried Rao would retaliate against him or mistreat him, or if he was simply put off by the hypocrisy of it all. By invoking Vollero, Valachi is implying that the Lucchese leadership snubbed him because he was non-Sicilian.

- Valachi was "furious" about Gagliano and Lucchese's seeming disinterest in him as well as the prospect of joining Rao's decina, but also that nobody had even told him the Maranzano-Gagliano faction was being split into two Families. Out of anger, Valachi raised his hand when Maranzano asked who wanted to stay with him then Steve Rannelli and Bobby Doyle Santuccio subsequently raised their hands along with Valachi. It's well-known that Santuccio went with Valachi to Maranzano's Family but it's news to me that Rannelli raised his hand; I don't think it's mentioned in the Valachi Papers and Rannelli is only mentioned by Bonanno as a leading Lucchese member during the war. Was Rannelli a Bonanno member after the war? Given he was an established Lucchese member before the war alongside Gagliano, Lucchese, and the other leaders of their faction this is a surprising detail.

- Maranzano and Buster Domingo were happy with Valachi's decision to stay with Maranzano but Tommy Lucchese approached him asking why he chose Maranzano and tried to convince Valachi to talk with Maranzano and say it was a mistake. Valachi was too embarrassed to change his decision and told Lucchese he felt he wasn't wanted by them and that he was also worried about a couple Lucchese members who would make trouble for him (one presumably being Rao).

- Soon after joining Maranzano's Family, Santuccio proposed Valachi's associates Steve Castertano, Petey Muggins Leone, and John DeBellis for membership at Valachi's suggestion and after reorganizing the Families, Maranzano promoted Santuccio to capodecina whereas Valachi was a soldier assigned direct to Maranzano. I assume Santuccio was captain over the three members he sponsored. In his senate testimony, however, Valachi said Maranzano told him at one point that Santuccio was only an "acting lieutenant" and though Valachi answered only to Maranzano, Maranzano told him to flatter Santuccio by pretending to treat Santuccio as his lieutenant. Valachi told Santuccio about Maranzano's remark after the latter's murder and Santuccio was very upset, telling Valachi he wanted to step down as captain and give his title to Valachi for the limited time he had left in it.

- Valachi greatly regretted his decision to leave the Luccheses, realizing that the Strollo crew in the Genovese Family where he ultimately ended up was more treacherous. He also remained very close to Tom Gagliano for the remainder of Gagliano's life, Gagliano even warning Strollo at a sitdown about his treatment of Valachi. According to Valachi, Gagliano spent $140,000 to fund the Castellammarese War and never received any of it back. He said Gagliano never had a piece of any rackets and was simply a building contractor who once did a short jail term for income tax violation. He cried when Gagliano died and felt Gagliano's death left him vulnerable and led to Valachi's own downfall within the Genovese.

- According to Valachi, when Gagliano was named boss and Lucchese underboss, they replaced Joe Pinzolo and another "boss" who had been killed during the war, though Valachi didn't know who this underboss was. I'm having trouble thinking of candidates offhand but interesting to say the least if it's true Pinzolo's underboss was also killed during the war. Possible too Valachi was confused.

- Some of this helps clear up a vague comment Valachi made in his senate testimony, that one reason he left the Luccheses is treachery among the Sicilians that brought to mind Vollero's early advice. It appears this was in reference to the Rao situation and Valachi's perception that Gagliano and Lucchese left him out of the loop after the war and didn't want him. It's apparent that Valachi felt his Campanian ancestry made him an outsider in the Luccheses and in his testimony he even said the Genovese appealed to him because of that. It makes sense that a former Camorrista like Genovese took an interest in Valachi given he was an ethnic paesan who had been schooled by the prominent Camorrista Vollero.

Recruitment by the Genovese

- Charlie Luciano and Vito Genovese gave Valachi 100 tickets to sell for a fundraising banquet to raise money for guys who had done over a year in prison. They told him they didn't care if he sold the tickets, they just wanted the people in Valachi's neighborhood to know he was associating with guys like them. Valachi was still a Bonanno member at this time and it's clear the Genovese leaders had taken an interest in Valachi and wanted others to know it. Sometime later Valachi attended a meeting with Luciano, Genovese, and Maranzano, and afterward Maranzano told Valachi that the two of them were trying to curry favor with Valachi, which Valachi had noticed as well.

- Valachi was desperate to touch base with other members in the days after the Maranzano murder so he went to Maranzano's wake but only Maranzano's family was in attendance. Valachi finally met with Tom Gagliano and Tommy Lucchese after Maranzano was killed and they grilled him about truck hijackings and told him about Maranzano's new hitlist. Valachi knew about the list himself but didn't admit it to Gagliano/Lucchese. Valachi was told that he could return to Gagliano's Family but they weren't interested in Santuccio, DeBellis, Leone, or Casertano.

- He then met with Santuccio who said there was an offer to join the Genovese Family and when Valachi asked Lucchese member Dominick Petrilli' for advice, Petrilli told him his "best bet" was Genovese. Valachi felt that Petrilli had taken him out on the town in Brooklyn the day Maranzano was killed on purpose in order to save him and seems to imply Petrilli intended for Valachi to end up with the Genovese. Note that in his senate testimony, Valachi says one motivation for joining them was because he was Neapolitan and so was Genovese (among many others in that Family), so it makes sense others felt this was the right place for him. It's also evident, from Valachi's POV at least, that Genovese had been cultivating a relationship with him for some time.

- In context with Valachi being invited to join the Genovese through Santuccio, Valachi says he "curses the day he met that Sicilian" and says Santuccio and Vito Genovese are the two most treacherous guys he's known, the two being equal in this regard. Note that Santuccio was indeed Sicilian but from Eastern Sicily in Syracuse province. Although that province has no known mafia history, it shows Valachi was aware of Santuccio's ethnicity and it played into his stereotypes about Sicilians.

- Vito Genovese met with Valachi, Santuccio, and the three recruits where he asked them to join his Family to get the respect they deserve. Valachi interpreted this to mean that because they were Maranzano loyalists they would be less respected due to the death of their boss and they'd save face under Genovese. Genovese also laid out Maranzano's infractions and told them they couldn't have been approached beforehand due to their loyalty to Maranzano. Valachi agreed with him that they had been unwavering Maranzano supporters but said that's a good reason Genovese should want them as it shows they will be loyal in turn to the Genovese leaders. Valachi and the others were then assigned to Tony Strollo's decina afterward.

- After joining the Genovese, Valachi was asked to go to the national meeting in Chicago to testify in front of the other bosses about Maranzano's infractions as when a boss is killed he says evidence must be presented to out of town bosses to prevent a national war. Valachi was specifically asked to go because he had been a soldier assigned direct with Maranzano. He said it was considered an "honor" to be a soldier assigned direct to the boss who didn't have to report to a captain and in context with this, he then says it's important to understand the mafia is like a "second government" and notes the influence Caesar had on Maranzano, including use of the word "caporegime". Valachi also believed Maranzano invented the "caporegime" rank itself and before him there was only boss and underboss; Valachi is incorrect, as we have confirmed capidecine long before Maranzano in America and Sicily, plus the term "capodecina" was in use in the Sicilian mafia going back to the 1800s and "caporegime" is a phonetic corruption of the word. As we've discussed before, the chaos/disorganization of the war likely contributed to Valachi's view that the capodecina rank was invented in 1931.

- Valachi told Genovese he didn't want to go to Chicago and disparage Maranzano as he felt it would look bad to speak ill of his former boss. Genovese agreed and told Valachi he didn't have to go but Santuccio would go in his place. Santuccio was happy about this as he'd get to meet Al Capone and the Chicago Family. Valachi felt Genovese admired him for refusing to go to Chicago and trash Maranzano.

Other interesting details during this general period

- Angelo Caruso told Valachi he was planning to step down as underboss when Maranzano appointed him as Caruso felt he hadn't earned the position. When Valachi asked why, Caruso said he hadn't done anything to help with the war and hadn't even gone on the lam with them during the conflict. Valachi was confused about why Maranzano had appointed him and Caruso said it was because Maranzano felt he would be a "yes man". This could play into something larger, as Caruso was said by Bonanno to have represented the Family's "non-Castellammarese" faction. Though Bonanno said the entire Family supported Maranzano taking over after Schiro left, I've long questioned this and like with the Luccheses I suspect there was an element in the Bonannos who hadn't supported Maranzano and may have even supported Joe Parrino as boss, who Masseria also favored. Adding to this is that Bonanno's rival in his own boss election was Frank Italiano, an enemy of Bonanno, and Italiano was an Alcamese compaesano of Parrino. That Caruso admitted himself he didn't contribute to the war and didn't go into hiding suggests he was not explicitly with Maranzano's faction and could well have been part of a more Masseria-friendly group that went along with Parrino.

- Before the war ended, Valachi attended a meeting with Maranzano where Valachi and others stood with their backs to the wall and an old man was brought in and Valachi was asked to give his account of the war to this man from beginning to end. It turned out the old man was a "truce man", someone who was trusted to help mediate between the two sides to end the war. Maranzano said peace wasn't possible without someone carrying out this role. The old "truce man" was blindfolded while traveling to/from the location. Not enough info to guess who he was or which Family he was with.

- In reference to Charlie DiBenedetto becaming engaged to Maranzano's daughter, Valachi say he and his own circle had avoided her as even though she was a fine girl, it was too risky for "Americanized boys" like them to have "ties" to Maranzano's daughter.

- Danny Iamascia was an "important guy in [Valachi's] family" who associated with Vincent Coll. Valachi discusses this during the period he's with the Bonannos but he's describing his history of knowing Coll and based on what's known of Iamascia, a key associate of Ciro Terranova killed in January 1931, Valachi likely means Iamascia was a member of his current Family (Genovese) even though Valachi was not a Genovese member at the time Iamascia was killed.

- Ciro Terranova was still a captain under Luciano for a time after the war. During a conversation with other Bonanno members, Valachi was told Terranova was basically having a nervous breakdown and rumor was he'd soon be demoted to "plain soldier".

- Valachi claims Ettore Coco is one of the members he "put in" to the Lucchese Family and Coco stayed with Gagliano after the war. So apparently Valachi sponsored or otherwise brought Coco around the Family and he was made sometime during the war too. While discussing how Santuccio followed Valachi into Maranzano's Family and sponsored DiBellis, Casterano, and Leone, Valachi points out that Ettore Coco, Sally Shillitani, and Danny Yankee Bianco were three guys from his circle who had opted to stay with Gagliano. Nick Padovano is another though he isn't mentioned.

- Made members of Vincent Rao's decina at one point included Danny Bianco, Frank Callace, Paul Correale, Sam Cavalieri, and Charlie Scoperto. Presumably Rao's brother Calogero was another and I'm sure there were more. Valachi had a long history of association with Bianco, Callace, and Scoperto, the latter Valachi's partner in the Aida restaurant, so it makes sense Valachi was once worried he'd be in this crew too.

- Bobby Santuccio and Tony Strollo allegedly spread a rumor that Valachi had been involved in the murder of his future father-in-law Tom Reina which got back to Valachi's in-laws. It's unknown if the Reina clan was aware of Rao's alleged involvement but it's apparent that accusations related to the Reina murder persisted.

[chin_gigante]

Valachi also said the Gagliano faction was originally only a small group (around 20 if I remember right) within the Family which suggests there was a larger element who supported Reina's death or were indifferent/ambivalent and simply went along with the new regime.

Another element to this that I find interesting is how Valachi elaborates on the splinter group, explicitly saying it was a minority of members and they consciously decided to recruit new bodies (i.e., the likes of Valachi) rather than try and win over existing members to their cause because they feared being betrayed and exposed.

[Brovelli]

If I recall correctly valachi did speak extremely highly of Tom gagliano. There was a comment and I can’t remember the exact context but something along the lines of his position weakened severely once gagliano died/stepped back, and I think he was referring to his own position with Vito and Tony bender etc. something like he was doomed after Tom died and he had looked after valachi. I may have missed the context you have here with his anger towards gagliano. It is also not an easy read and can be hard to follow. I’m not overly well read on the history like you but I am on my second read of this valachi link you’ve put above!

[B.]

Valachi also said the Gagliano faction was originally only a small group (around 20 if I remember right) within the Family which suggests there was a larger element who supported Reina's death or were indifferent/ambivalent and simply went along with the new regime.

Another element to this that I find interesting is how Valachi elaborates on the splinter group, explicitly saying it was a minority of members and they consciously decided to recruit new bodies (i.e., the likes of Valachi) rather than try and win over existing members to their cause because they feared being betrayed and exposed.

Yep, exactly. And among the known names who were already established members, the breakdown is interesting:

- Gagliano was from a prominent Corleonese clan and a "classic" mafioso involved primarily in legitimate business and mafia politics but not street affairs. It makes sense he was the leader.

- Lucchese and Rannelli who came from Palermo citta. They meshed with the Corleonesi and for that matter the traditional mafia but were not from the complex Corleonese clan background.

- John DiCaro (DiCarlo) who like Gagliano came from a prominent Corleonese clan but doesn't come up in Valachi's account and is only mentioned by Bonanno as part of this faction. He is also the one Maranzano was trying to strangle/choke when Bonanno accidentally interrupted a tense meeting after the war.

- Petrilli, an Abruzzese who dressed in flashy yellow suits with flowers and was a prominent part of the Harlem hoodlum element Valachi came up in. Not from the traditional background at all and comes across more like a Camorrista.

- Santuccio, who was Sicilian but from Syracuse and to our knowledge simply a violent street hoodlum who had likely been sponsored into the Family just before the war, possibly by Petrilli.

- The surviving Reinas would obviously be interested in revenge for their brother/father but there isn't much suggesting they were "hands on" during the war. In one account Valachi does say Jack Reina was part of one meeting when Valachi, Santuccio, etc. transferred to Genovese.

So it's kind of an odd group and we have no reason to believe this was a dyed-in-the-wool "Corleonese" faction made up of a ton of Corleonesi seeking to avenge their paesan Reina. I'd guess there were a handful of other Corleonesi who played a quieter role supporting Gagliano but most of them were not with this group, it instead being a couple prominent Corleonesi, a few non-Corleonese allies, and a larger group of fresh faces from the street who had no mafia history.

It actually reminds me of Joe Bonanno's own splinter group in the 1960s, where the majority of the Castellammaresi sided with DiGregorio and Bonanno's own faction was mostly tough non-Castellammarese / non-Sicilian guys who had been recruited by the Galante crew in the 1950s.

[B.]

If I recall correctly valachi did speak extremely highly of Tom gagliano. There was a comment and I can’t remember the exact context but something along the lines of his position weakened severely once gagliano died/stepped back, and I think he was referring to his own position with Vito and Tony bender etc. something like he was doomed after Tom died and he had looked after valachi. I may have missed the context you have here with his anger towards gagliano. It is also not an easy read and can be hard to follow. I’m not overly well read on the history like you but I am on my second read of this valachi link you’ve put above!

Oh the Real Thing is one of the most difficult reads you'll find on this subject. A rambling prison manuscript that requires you to have a thorough understanding of the Valachi Papers, his senate testimony, and even his FBI interviews to even remotely understand it, plus working knowledge of the various names, events, and other connections he refers to only vaguely.

I mentioned the Gagliano/Strollo remark in the post, which he mentions in the Real Thing and elsewhere. Gagliano pulled Strollo aside at a sitdown and cautioned Strollo about his treatment of Valachi (by then a Genovese member) as Gagliano still saw him as one of his own. Valachi was initially upset that Gagliano seemed to be snubbing him immediately after the war but it's clear this was just a miscommunication and Gagliano did want him in his Family. Elsewhere Valachi talks about his wife's close relationship to the Gaglianos (she was a Reina after all) and attending Christmas parties at Gagliano's home. Like I said, he wept when Gagliano died and felt this allowed Strollo/Genovese to undermine him.

I made a post on here probably ten years ago about how Valachi's biggest mistake was not staying with the Luccheses and he clearly recognized this with time. Even though affiliation was confusing in the Maranzano-Gagliano faction, Valachi says in the Real Thing he understood he was originally with the Luccheses and was even proposed by Petrilli before the war started, Petrilli taking Valachi to meet Pinzolo personally. I suspect the reason Gagliano and Lucchese didn't approach Valachi to make sure he'd vote to stay with them is because they incorrectly assumed he already understood this. When Valachi chose to stay with Maranzano we can see Tommy Lucchese was taken aback and immediately insisted they talk to Maranzano to correct the mistake, and even after Maranzano died they asked him to transfer back to them. The problem is Valachi wasn't properly schooled in the formalities and politics given he was an "outsider" made during the chaos of war and needed these things laid out explicitly for him.

Along with starting with the Luccheses and remaining peronally close to the boss for decades, his marriage into the Reinas would have been seen by the Lucchese leadership as an important tie cementing him to the Family. Valachi was not wrong to consider the role of ethnicity in mafia politics and he did fit in well with the Genovese make-up, but the Luccheses by this time and especially the Gagliano faction were very "liberal" as evidenced not just by the guys they recruited during the war but with other non-Sicilian members they recruited during this period. His history and personal ties to the Luccheses likely would have given him a much easier time in the life had he stayed with them and had he stayed with them we might only know of Valachi as an obscure Lucchese member rather than a household name and cooperator.

--

Something worth pointing out too is that Valachi was not an impressive arch-criminal or "earner" before he was made. He was a driver in smash-and-grab storefront robberies and a neighborhood tough guy. What contributed to him being proposed for membership seems to have been his being a stand-up guy who served time, his temperament, and his connections to the right people in the neighborhood, not unlike John Pennisi. He was ultimately made for participating in the Mineo/Ferrigno murder, the traditional way members qualify.

Not only was he not an impressive criminal beforehand, the mafia actually barred him from participating in his specialty, robberies. Maranzano lightly told him on one occasion he had to stop but when Valachi continued to rob, Maranzano spoke to him again and told him more sternly he had to stop. Valachi said even as a Genovese member he wasn't allowed to rob, one reason being the attention it brought from LE whose methods had become more sophisticated. This is actually an old Sicilian mafia rule though, as pentiti have said they are told at their induction ceremony they aren't allowed to participate in theft/robbery. Of course this gets broken and they find workarounds, much like drugs, but it is a rule in Sicily and Valachi says it was a rule in his time as well.

I point all this out because there might be a misconception that non-Sicilian "outsiders" like Valachi were made because of an impressive criminal pedigree but that wasn't the reality. He was just a wheelman in petty storefront thefts, but it was Valachi's attitude, reputation, willingness to serve time, and capacity for murder that qualified him.

--

Random aside, but another thing I noticed in the Real Thing is Valachi says even though Vollero told him about Sicilian/Neapolitan dynamics, he didn't believe Vollero knew about the inner-workings and formalities within the Sicilian organization.

[B.]

Okay, he doesn't say it in the segment in question but a big reason Valachi was worried he'd be in Rao's decina is they had longstanding issues going back to an Italian vs. Irish conflict in the neighborhood years earlier. Rao had confronted Valachi about his friendship with the Irish guys and asked him to set them up. There was lingering animosity and Valachi was worried even after his prison sentence that Rao would be out to get him.

Another possible indication that Rao was sympathetic/aligned with Giuseppe Morello is that Rao's brother-in-law Joe Gagliano was a Genovese member under Mike Coppola, who took over for Ciro Terranova. Would suggest Rao's in-laws were aligned with Morello given Joe joined that Family. Joe's uncle Angelo Gagliano had also been a prominent member in the Morello Family before the split. Could be something to it.

[B.]

Stefano LaSalle is another intriguing character in this Reina issue.

By 1931 he is the consigliere, seeming in lock-step with Gagliano and Lucchese, but he had a long history with the Morellos. Along with likely being initiated into the Morello Family and being documented as a participant in high-level meetings with the Terranova brothers during the 1910s, according to Rick/Angelo/Lennert's article he lived with Giuseppe Morello and the Terranova brothers circa 1909 and he may have arrived to the US with a Morello sister. Cascio doesn't seem to be totally sure of this, though, and there were multiple Stefano LaSalles involved with the Family. He later lived in Bergen County NJ too, where Giuseppe Morello was also living when he died. Not hard to imagine LaSalle maintained a close relationship to the Morello-Terranovas later on.

While it's easy to assume LaSalle was aligned with the Gagliano group hence him joining their admin in 1931, it's possible he was from another faction and his election as consigliere helped make peace and appease other elements of the Family. Rao's promotion to capodecina shows too all was forgiven as he allegedly betrayed Reina but joined the leadership circa 1931.

[Brovelli]

If I recall correctly valachi did speak extremely highly of Tom gagliano. There was a comment and I can’t remember the exact context but something along the lines of his position weakened severely once gagliano died/stepped back, and I think he was referring to his own position with Vito and Tony bender etc. something like he was doomed after Tom died and he had looked after valachi. I may have missed the context you have here with his anger towards gagliano. It is also not an easy read and can be hard to follow. I’m not overly well read on the history like you but I am on my second read of this valachi link you’ve put above!

Oh the Real Thing is one of the most difficult reads you'll find on this subject. A rambling prison manuscript that requires you to have a thorough understanding of the Valachi Papers, his senate testimony, and even his FBI interviews to even remotely understand it, plus working knowledge of the various names, events, and other connections he refers to only vaguely.

I mentioned the Gagliano/Strollo remark in the post, which he mentions in the Real Thing and elsewhere. Gagliano pulled Strollo aside at a sitdown and cautioned Strollo about his treatment of Valachi (by then a Genovese member) as Gagliano still saw him as one of his own. Valachi was initially upset that Gagliano seemed to be snubbing him immediately after the war but it's clear this was just a miscommunication and Gagliano did want him in his Family. Elsewhere Valachi talks about his wife's close relationship to the Gaglianos (she was a Reina after all) and attending Christmas parties at Gagliano's home. Like I said, he wept when Gagliano died and felt this allowed Strollo/Genovese to undermine him.

I made a post on here probably ten years ago about how Valachi's biggest mistake was not staying with the Luccheses and he clearly recognized this with time. Even though affiliation was confusing in the Maranzano-Gagliano faction, Valachi says in the Real Thing he understood he was originally with the Luccheses and was even proposed by Petrilli before the war started, Petrilli taking Valachi to meet Pinzolo personally. I suspect the reason Gagliano and Lucchese didn't approach Valachi to make sure he'd vote to stay with them is because they incorrectly assumed he already understood this. When Valachi chose to stay with Maranzano we can see Tommy Lucchese was taken aback and immediately insisted they talk to Maranzano to correct the mistake, and even after Maranzano died they asked him to transfer back to them. The problem is Valachi wasn't properly schooled in the formalities and politics given he was an "outsider" made during the chaos of war and needed these things laid out explicitly for him.

Along with starting with the Luccheses and remaining peronally close to the boss for decades, his marriage into the Reinas would have been seen by the Lucchese leadership as an important tie cementing him to the Family. Valachi was not wrong to consider the role of ethnicity in mafia politics and he did fit in well with the Genovese make-up, but the Luccheses by this time and especially the Gagliano faction were very "liberal" as evidenced not just by the guys they recruited during the war but with other non-Sicilian members they recruited during this period. His history and personal ties to the Luccheses likely would have given him a much easier time in the life had he stayed with them and had he stayed with them we might only know of Valachi as an obscure Lucchese member rather than a household name and cooperator.

--

Something worth pointing out too is that Valachi was not an impressive arch-criminal or "earner" before he was made. He was a driver in smash-and-grab storefront robberies and a neighborhood tough guy. What contributed to him being proposed for membership seems to have been his being a stand-up guy who served time, his temperament, and his connections to the right people in the neighborhood, not unlike John Pennisi. He was ultimately made for participating in the Mineo/Ferrigno murder, the traditional way members qualify.

Not only was he not an impressive criminal beforehand, the mafia actually barred him from participating in his specialty, robberies. Maranzano lightly told him on one occasion he had to stop but when Valachi continued to rob, Maranzano spoke to him again and told him more sternly he had to stop. Valachi said even as a Genovese member he wasn't allowed to rob, one reason being the attention it brought from LE whose methods had become more sophisticated. This is actually an old Sicilian mafia rule though, as pentiti have said they are told at their induction ceremony they aren't allowed to participate in theft/robbery. Of course this gets broken and they find workarounds, much like drugs, but it is a rule in Sicily and Valachi says it was a rule in his time as well.

I point all this out because there might be a misconception that non-Sicilian "outsiders" like Valachi were made because of an impressive criminal pedigree but that wasn't the reality. He was just a wheelman in petty storefront thefts, but it was Valachi's attitude, reputation, willingness to serve time, and capacity for murder that qualified him.

--

Random aside, but another thing I noticed in the Real Thing is Valachi says even though Vollero told him about Sicilian/Neapolitan dynamics, he didn't believe Vollero knew about the inner-workings and formalities within the Sicilian organization.

Great info. It is definiteiy interesting valachis relative cluelessness about the mafia. He spoke about his friends becoming racketeers and also has that interesting line about “Italian” born being racketeers and American born generally being thiefs and more petty criminals and he didn’t like the Italian born style. Today we assume everyone knows about and has heard of the mafia and knows what to do but valachi an example and gravano another who had an Idea but didn’t really know. I’m sure there’s tons of examples along that line throughout the years.

[Brovelli]

I’m not sure of their exact relation but valachi also speaks a lot about his dislike for joe rao

[B.]

Joe Rao wasn't related even though he operated in the same Harlem circles. I don't think he was even Sicilian.

Valachi encountered many Sicilian mafiosi in his neighborhood who were successful contractors and business owners in addition to racketeers so his perception makes sense. Guys like him had a much different trajectory. It is noteworthy though that guys like Valachi weren't impressive criminals by any means but their identity was much more closely linked to street crime. Guys like Maranzano and Gagliano were an entirely different breed of mafioso but those two still took a liking to Valachi and saw him as a worthy candidate in their highly exclusive secret society.

Phil Leonetti said Scarfo told him a similar line about Sicilians vs. Calabrians, that Sicilians were "businessmen" (ala Gravano saying the Castellano types were "racketeers") while the Calabrians had to prove themselves on the street as killers (ala Gravano's "gangsters"). Even in Sicily pentiti have made similar remarks though there it tended to be between the "aristocrats" in Palermo vs. the "peasants" in the interior towns.

[PolackTony]

Joe Rao wasn't related even though he operated in the same Harlem circles. I don't think he was even Sicilian.

Joseph Rao was not Sicilian. Total coincidence that him and Vincenzo Rao had the same surname; I guess if you were a Rao, any Rao, Harlem was the place to be lol. I can also add based on accounts from friends of mine who grew up back in the day in East Harlem and who knew them, that both Raos also socialized together at neighborhood/familial events.

Joseph Rao was born in 1901 in East Harlem to Carmine “Charles” Rao and Francesca Mangione. Carmine Rao was from the comune of Polla in Salerno province (near the border with Potenza), and the same year that he married Francesca he opened up a restaurant at 114 and Pleasant Ave with his brother Giuseppe Rao — they were the Raos who founded the restaurant, in other words. In 1910, Carmine and his family lived at 453 E 114, in the brownstone next to Rao’s. Later, Joey Rao’s youngest brother, Vincent, born in 1907, took over the operation of Rao’s along with his wife, Anna Pellegrino. And then in later decades it went to Anna’s nephew, Frank Pellegrino, the guy who was in The Sopranos.

Funny anecdote, but someone I know very well attended many get-togethers as a kid where Joey Rao was present and recalls him as always looking like an “angry mushroom”.

[davidf1989]

didn't Buster ended being murdered? Possibly on the orders of Vito Genovese or Lucky Luciano? Here's an article about Buster's background. https://mafiagenealogy.com/2023/11/07/w ... -was-born/

[axx]

Oh the Real Thing is one of the most difficult reads you'll find on this subject. A rambling prison manuscript that requires you to have a thorough understanding of the Valachi Papers, his senate testimony, and even his FBI interviews to even remotely understand it, plus working knowledge of the various names, events, and other connections he refers to only vaguely.

+1
I made the mistake reading this years after reading Valachi Papers.
Some things that I never quite understood when I was reading his memoirs:
1. He mentions Lucchese giving him a cold shoulder on one occasion while they were on dinner or sth. What was that all about? Otherwise he seems to have been fond of him.
2. He also mentions one of his relatives being locked up for life partly due to Valachi's own fault (?) Did Valachi have any brothers involved in crime? The movie Valachi papers refers to him having several brothers either locked up or in mental institutions but I'm not sure the movie gets that right.
3. Was Gap planning to kill Valachi when he returned from Italy?

[Brovelli]

He definitely had the brother away for a long time. There was also the nephew (I think nephew) who is pretty famous that did a murder with him in the 50s. The paganos involved too but I can’t remember the family members name though it wouldn’t be hard to find. He pretty vividly describes finding his father dead also who was a severe alcoholic. I recall him mentioning sisters but don’t remember much else about other family members

[axx]

His nephew (Fiore Siano) was killed while Valachi was writing the manuscript, you can read him badmouthing him for failing to provide medicine to his wife, then further down the memoirs how he was killed. He also regretted sponsoring both Paganos.
As for his dead father - that's perhaps the weirdest part. The way he describes being tired and going to bed after seeing his father dead with foam around his mouth.