New Salvatore Catalano article

[TommyGambino]

https://translate.google.co.uk/translat ... rev=search

Has a few recent images of him, lives in Palermo, states he attended Cali's mothers funeral in 2011

[TommyGambino]

[B.]

Excellent, thanks for sharing this. I was curious what he was up to.

[B.]

Just to be clear, it says Cali's mother's funeral was in Ciminna, where Catalano lives. Catalano wasn't in New York for this. His cousin, also named Salvatore Catalano, was a member of the Ciminna family and was murdered in the US in the 1980s. The murdered Salvatore's brother Onofrio was also said to be a member there.

I had never heard of Cali being connected to Ciminna. I remember Christie tracing his family to Palermo proper.

That opens up another question I've been asking for years, though. How did Catalano end up with the Bonannos? His background would place him closer to the Gambino family, though there were powerful Bonanno members like Catalano's former captain Pietro Licata whose roots were in the Palermo area, so maybe that is a connection.

[Angelo Santino]

Just to be clear, it says Cali's mother's funeral was in Ciminna, where Catalano lives. Catalano wasn't in New York for this. His cousin, also named Salvatore Catalano, was a member of the Ciminna family and was murdered in the US in the 1980s. The murdered Salvatore's brother Onofrio was also said to be a member there.

I had never heard of Cali being connected to Ciminna. I remember Christie tracing his family to Palermo proper.

That opens up another question I've been asking for years, though. How did Catalano end up with the Bonannos? His background would place him closer to the Gambino family, though there were powerful Bonanno members like Catalano's former captain Pietro Licata whose roots were in the Palermo area, so maybe that is a connection.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wPWqh8dIC3c/U ... Centro.jpg

D'Aquila's mother's surname was Cali.

In 1910 the Palermo families splintered into smaller groups. I think, and this is only my thoughts, is that the centro families came from when Olivuzza broke up. Before 1910, this would have included the areas where Lupo worked (originally from Pagliarelli), Mangano, D'Aquila, Scalici and Cincotta. There's no evidence for or against Olivuzza controlling the four districts of centro but they had alot of contacts there as well as murders being carried out there. There's no evidence of an independent group there before 1910. And we know that in 1910 the Piana Dei Colli family broke up into the San Lorenzo, Pallavicino, Tommaso Natale and 3+ other families. I should note that Mineo and Joe Fontano (the one from 1903, not the one from Villabate in 1910) were most likely affiliated with Resuttana but there's little documentation for that.

[HairyKnuckles]

That opens up another question I've been asking for years, though. How did Catalano end up with the Bonannos? His background would place him closer to the Gambino family, though there were powerful Bonanno members like Catalano's former captain Pietro Licata whose roots were in the Palermo area, so maybe that is a connection.

Would be interesting to know. Catalano did have some good connections with the Gambinos. Ronsisvalle testified that after Licata was murdered, a party was held in honor of Catalano and a gambling operation he took over from Licata. Neil Dellacroce, Patsy Conte and Joe Gallo attended the party. These three were guests of honor, according to Ronsisvalle. It´s interesting that Ronsisvalle, in his testimony, hints at Dellacroce getting a share of the gambling operation. So by the looks of it, Catalano had strong ties to these top Gambino guys, perhaps the strongest ties to Conte who was palermitano, if I´m not mistaken.

ADDING - It just struck me, if Dellacroce was somehow involved with the Licata killing, and considering his supervisory role he seems to have had in the Galante killing, he may have had a part in running the Bonannos, or atleast being a some sort of an executive or delagate with the powers to put plans, actions, or decisions of higher ups into effect during the lack of leadership the Bonannos suffered from in the mid 1970s. (Rastelli in jail, Galante under parole restrictions.)

[felice]

calì's father is from palermo, at least he was born there

[felice]

catalano's cousin also named salvatore catalano (the one B. talked about) was very close to carlo gambino.
in the 60s gambino wanted to kill a guy but it had to be hidden inside the crime family. so he asked to catalano to use a sicilian killer. the killer used was gaetano grado which talked about this fact in his testimony (he's a turncoat).
grado did not know anything about the guy he killed, he just supposed he was a high ranking member of the mafia because gambino and catalano were really worried about keeping it hidden. the guy was killed in brooklyn.

pietro licata was from san cataldo (caltanissetta province)

[B.]

pietro licata was from san cataldo (caltanissetta province)

Thanks for clearing it up. Not sure why I thought he was a Palermitano. Pietro Licata kind of comes out of nowhere to me. I don't think I've seen his name mentioned much if ever pre-1970s but he was an old timer who had been a part of the family since the 1950s if not earlier. His son John who is a member stayed connected to his father's old crew but I've never seen mention of him after the 1980s.

Would be interesting to know. Catalano did have some good connections with the Gambinos. Ronsisvalle testified that after Licata was murdered, a party was held in honor of Catalano and a gambling operation he took over from Licata. Neil Dellacroce, Patsy Conte and Joe Gallo attended the party. These three were guests of honor, according to Ronsisvalle. It´s interesting that Ronsisvalle, in his testimony, hints at Dellacroce getting a share of the gambling operation. So by the looks of it, Catalano had strong ties to these top Gambino guys, perhaps the strongest ties to Conte who was palermitano, if I´m not mistaken.

ADDING - It just struck me, if Dellacroce was somehow involved with the Licata killing, and considering his supervisory role he seems to have had in the Galante killing, he may have had a part in running the Bonannos, or atleast being a some sort of an executive or delagate with the powers to put plans, actions, or decisions of higher ups into effect during the lack of leadership the Bonannos suffered from in the mid 1970s. (Rastelli in jail, Galante under parole restrictions.)

Never heard that about the party with Gambino leaders. Conte isn't a surprise, as he was had strong ties to the Sicilian crowd and was involved in the same intersecting heroin business that the Pizza Connection was a part of. Interesting about Dellacroce, though.

You could be right about Dellacroce and the Gambinos having some authority over the Bonannos. There was also a meeting between Sal Catalano and Paul Castellano that was reported. Some sources say this meeting happened when Catalano was made acting boss (then removed from the spot due to poor English), but I'm not convinced he was ever acting boss of the whole Bonanno family.

[LcnBios]

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[Pogo The Clown]

I thought a ruling panel was in place during this era?


Pogo

[LcnBios]

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[Pogo The Clown]

Thanks for the info. Do you know when Ferrugia's reign ended?


Pogo

[LcnBios]

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[felice]

damn, I am really sorry. JD, you're right, I just checked it out. he was from san cipirello. I do not know why I remembered him being from san cataldo.