Rockford Acting Boss Phil Caltagerone - A Profile

[B.]

That's a great find. Maybe he did report on them more in the 1970s -- everything I've seen of his from the 70s is excellent but I've seen less of it than his earlier stuff. I don't think I've seen him talk specifically about Rockford members outside of naming them as a Family and referencing Damiano being a former Rockford member.

[PolackTony]

I didn’t know about the calls between Bompensiero and Maggio either, that’s a great find to note.

With respect to the other Rockford source in the 1973 list, I agree that Vincent Maniaci or Augie Palmisano are good possibilities. I had originally wondered if Louie Fazio had been informing before his murder in ‘72, but I if he was, I doubt he was this Rockford source as the source was not listed as IDing any Chicago members in ‘73, only Rockford guys, and Fazio had close ties to Chicago. My guess is that he was most likely a Milwaukee member, in that if the source had been a Rockford member, he presumably would have ID’d some Chicago guys as well.

[cavita]

I didn’t know about the calls between Bompensiero and Maggio either, that’s a great find to note.

With respect to the other Rockford source in the 1973 list, I agree that Vincent Maniaci or Augie Palmisano are good possibilities. I had originally wondered if Louie Fazio had been informing before his murder in ‘72, but I if he was, I doubt he was this Rockford source as the source was not listed as IDing any Chicago members in ‘73, only Rockford guys, and Fazio had close ties to Chicago. My guess is that he was most likely a Milwaukee member, in that if the source had been a Rockford member, he presumably would have ID’d some Chicago guys as well.

Couple more pics of Caltagerone

[cavita]

Yeah, if it was a Milwaukee member source at that time it had to have come from Maniaci. Gurera, who had a KC FO code, doesn’t seem to have ever given the Feds intel on Rockford, at least so far as I’ve seen.

We can see below in the 1968 list that the FBI was almost totally dependent on Maniaci (“NY T-48” == MI 623) for their organizational intel on Rockford. Zammuto, Zito, and Calò were additionally identified by Louie Fratto (“NY T-190” == OM 148) while Phil Damiano was only ID’d by Frank Bompensiero (“NY T-122” == SD 1046) [credit to Ed Valin, of course, for identifying the codes for these CIs].







Now, it’s interesting to note that Vella, Gucciardo, and Calcione were *not* identified as members on the ‘68 list. Nor were they on the 1973 list of then-living members below (Calo and Damiano are the redacted names there, for anyone reading). This makes me think that they did not in fact have a member source for the membership of these three. Also sorting noting that the FBI had gained another member source for Rockford by 1973 (“CG T-15”). The source codes are redacted on the 1973 list and I don’t know who this CI was, but he did not ID anyone indecently of Maniaci, Fratto, and Bompensiero, and also did not appear as a source for anyone in the Chicago members list.

PolackTony, a question for you regarding this. On this list we see NY T-48 is identified as Augie Maniaci and he is also coded as MI 623. When I look through the Rockford FBI files he is listed as CG T-1. Am I to assume that informants such as Maniaci had different codes relating to them depending on what family they're informing on? Also, looking at the 1973 list here, who is CG T-6 and CG T-14? I know you said CG T-15 seems to be a new source.

[PolackTony]

The "CG T-XX", "NY T-XX" are specific to the report *and* FO. They are proxies for the actual informant code, which will be in the form of "XX 123-XX". Augie Manicaci was MI 623-CTE (the last three letters denoting him as being enrolled as an informant of the "Criminal Top Echelon" type). In a Chicago report, if Maniaci is cited, he will appear in the actual text of the report as "CG T-XX", but the number that "XX might take will be specific to the report" (e.g., if the report has, say ten informants cited, it will have "CG T-1" through "CG T-10", another report will be different depending on how many CIs it cites). In files on the MF site, there is an unredacted version of the page that identifies the original informant code for each proxy code used in a given report; this is because these files were released to the public unredacted as part of the JFK files disclosures. Most of the other files that we refer to, obviously have the original informant codes redacted, as these were released on an individual basis under FOIA and have redaction, ostensibly to protect sensitive information (such as the identity of a confidential informant, even if it was decades ago and the person has since died).

The report for the 1973 list above was from FOIA and thus the informant codes were redacted. Based on comparison with the 1968 list, which was on MF and thus had unredacted informant codes, we can readily infer that "CG T-14" here was Augie Maniaci (MI 623-CTE), "CG T-6" was Frank Bompensiero (SD 1046-CTE), and "CG T-1" was Louie Fratto (OM 148-CTE). Whoever "CG T-15" was, we can see that he was a source interviewed sometime between 1968 and 1973 by the fact the Feds didn't have a 4th informant source for the 1968 Rockford list.

[cavita]

The "CG T-XX", "NY T-XX" are specific to the report *and* FO. They are proxies for the actual informant code, which will be in the form of "XX 123-XX". Augie Manicaci was MI 623-CTE (the last three letters denoting him as being enrolled as an informant of the "Criminal Top Echelon" type). In a Chicago report, if Maniaci is cited, he will appear in the actual text of the report as "CG T-XX", but the number that "XX might take will be specific to the report" (e.g., if the report has, say ten informants cited, it will have "CG T-1" through "CG T-10", another report will be different depending on how many CIs it cites). In files on the MF site, there is an unredacted version of the page that identifies the original informant code for each proxy code used in a given report; this is because these files were released to the public unredacted as part of the JFK files disclosures. Most of the other files that we refer to, obviously have the original informant codes redacted, as these were released on an individual basis under FOIA and have redaction, ostensibly to protect sensitive information (such as the identity of a confidential informant, even if it was decades ago and the person has since died).

The report for the 1973 list above was from FOIA and thus the informant codes were redacted. Based on comparison with the 1968 list, which was on MF and thus had unredacted informant codes, we can readily infer that "CG T-14" here was Augie Maniaci (MI 623-CTE), "CG T-6" was Frank Bompensiero (SD 1046-CTE), and "CG T-1" was Louie Fratto (OM 148-CTE). Whoever "CG T-15" was, we can see that he was a source interviewed sometime between 1968 and 1973 by the fact the Feds didn't have a 4th informant source for the 1968 Rockford list.

Gotcha. I did find the following in an FBI file which clearly points to Augie Maniaci:

MI 92-262 SECURITY OF INFORMANTS

"The membership has been broken down alphabetically by family, with the membership source being listed at the beginning of the family listing. The best source for all membership in Wisconsin is MI 623-C-TE. Multiple T symbols have been utilized to protect the identity of this informant, as he identified LCN members in Chicago, Rockford, Ill., Kansas City, and other parts of the country. It is believed this informant’s identity could reasonably be revealed if, through dissemination of the master report, it was determined the same Milwaukee symbol number informant had identified LCN members in Rockford, Ill., as in Wis., as it is known in Milwaukee LCN circles that this informant has relatives in Rockford and frequently visits them. To further protect the identity of this informant, no mention is being made that he is a member of the Milwaukee LCN family."

[PolackTony]

Yup, that was Augie Maniaci. We can see how careful the FBI was about even internally disseminating information that might be used to deduce the identity of a highly valuable and sensitive informant like Maniaci. Clearly, they were concerned that internal leakers could piece his identity together and potentially relay this info to LCN contacts.

In fact, it is exactly this kind of piecing together of clues from multiple files that Ed Valin has used to deduce the identities of a number of FBI CIs; it’s due to Ed’s work here that we know the identities of the above informant codes that I mentioned. For example, Ed’s “Rat Trap” piece on Joey Gurera discussed Maniaci’s critical role as a key FBI informant both for the Milwaukee outfit and other Midwestern Families (all of Ed’s articles are must-reads, not just for the intel discussed but also as demonstrations of the the process of reasoning from evidence that he uses to triangulate the likely identities of informants):

https://mafiahistory.us/rattrap/infgurera.html

[cavita]

Yup, that was Augie Maniaci. We can see how careful the FBI was about even internally disseminating information that might be used to deduce the identity of a highly valuable and sensitive informant like Maniaci. Clearly, they were concerned that internal leakers could piece his identity together and potentially relay this info to LCN contacts.

In fact, it is exactly this kind of piecing together of clues from multiple files that Ed Valin has used to deduce the identities of a number of FBI CIs; it’s due to Ed’s work here that we know the identities of the above informant codes that I mentioned. For example, Ed’s “Rat Trap” piece on Joey Gurera discussed Maniaci’s critical role as a key FBI informant both for the Milwaukee outfit and other Midwestern Families (all of Ed’s articles are must-reads, not just for the intel discussed but also as demonstrations of the the process of reasoning from evidence that he uses to triangulate the likely identities of informants):

https://mafiahistory.us/rattrap/infgurera.html

Sometimes we don't need to try and figure out informant codes to find out who the informant is when the processor of files doesn't redact items like this little nugget.