Clyde & Checkers Smaldone IDed as LCN members c. 1951

[JoePuzzles234]

I don’t think this has been posted yet (apologies if it has been) but there is now some confirmation from Bompensiero/Fratianno that the Smaldone brothers (Eugene and Clyde) were Colorado members by 1951:

bompensiero smaldone id.png

Regarding a more specific timeframe as to when Fratianno would have met the Smaldones, this would probably have been around July 1951:

fratianno visits denver.png

It’s unclear who would have formally introduced them to each other – surprisingly he never mentions this trip in the Last Mafioso (despite other random references to guys like Raymond “Mario” Marino etc.) but this is most likely when he became aware of their LCN status.

Julian Antista was made in Colorado prior to moving to California, Vincenzo Colletti also took trips to Los Angeles in the past as had Scotty Spinuzzi and Joe Salardino travelled often so there are a lot of possibilities around who could have handled a formal introduction.

Not sure how this would fit with info provided by Louis Fratto, given his later identification of Clyde Smaldone as a non-member in 1967.

[motorfab]

Nice find, thanks !

[PolackTony]

Great post. I don’t believe that I’ve seen this confirmation before which is very good to note.

I personally would rate Lou Fratto’s claim here lower in terms of quality of evidence. IME, Fratto’s own LCN membership is very much questionable, as he was the only source that the FBI ever cited for his own membership, this being from interviews they conducted with him when he was on his deathbed from cancer. The Feds also used him as a source for dozens of likely erroneous membership IDs for Chicago. If he wasn’t a member himself, then he may simply have been unaware that Clyde Smaldone was made. On the other hand, even if Fratto was made, he also may well just have been out of the loop in his later years, stuck in IA and by accounts from KC sources not a well-respected figure, by the time Smaldone was made. The two then might well never have been introduced as “amici”.