Some DeCavalcante Family Info (1980s-1990s)

[toto]

Felice, the conversation between Sortino father,son must be about 10 years ago or less? Also, in the same investigation it was reported Rotondo said Bonanno family and DeCavalcante is giving money to orphanage in Ribera and it is a cover for money laundering? Do you know more on this?

[felice]

yes, it was early 2000s... I don't perfectly remember right now about the orphanage matter but I think so..

[B.]

The DeCavalcante family was heavily involved with the Ribera family in the San Giuseppe (St. Joseph) orphanage in Ribera. I posted a photo on the old forum of Phil Bacino and Phil Amari attending the opening with Fortunato Pope. Supposedly Joe Bonanno was also in Sicily at the time and attended the opening.

[Pogo The Clown]

Charles Majuri and Capo Joseph Caruano also ran a fund raiser for poor kids in Italy but it was a scam since they pocketed the money for themselves.


Does anyone have anything on Frank Polizzi being the Acting Boss during the early/mid 70s? I've only ever seen that mentioned in that Made Men book but I don't know how accurate that is since the book has a lot of errors.


Pogo

[Angelo Santino]

John Riggi photo

Looks like John McCain.

[toto]

John Riggi photo

Looks like John McCain.

All bald guys look the same?

[Snakes]

This thread is great because out of all the "major" families, the DeCavalcantes are the ones I know the least about. Keep it up!

[B.]

Joe Sferra

[Pogo The Clown]

I still get a kick out of Sferra breaking down into tears and saying "This is awful" after DeCavalcante demoted him as Capo and as head of the union.


Pogo

[B.]

I still get a kick out of Sferra breaking down into tears and saying "This is awful" after DeCavalcante demoted him as Capo and as head of the union.


Pogo

Haha, same here. I can imagine him crying having seen his photo.

Here is a photo of John LaBarbera (rumored to be a member), Simone Palermo, and Frank Guarraci.

Someone on the RD claims that LaBarbera is now the consigliere and this same "someone" is at times questionable, but I do think it's possible. LaBarbera has become one of the leaders of the Ribera club, as some of the senior figures like Palermo, etc. have passed away. There was a Vincenzo LaBarbera who was a New Jersey member during the DeCavalcante days, though I think he was too old to be John's father. I believe Vincenzo had a brother named John, though, who could be this John's father.

If anyone is interested, the Ribera club (the organization, not sure about the social club) was started in Elizabeth in 1923.

[Angelo Santino]

I still get a kick out of Sferra breaking down into tears and saying "This is awful" after DeCavalcante demoted him as Capo and as head of the union.


Pogo

Haha, same here. I can imagine him crying having seen his photo.

Here is a photo of John LaBarbera (rumored to be a member), Simone Palermo, and Frank Guarraci.

Someone on the RD claims that LaBarbera is now the consigliere and this same "someone" is at times questionable, but I do think it's possible. LaBarbera has become one of the leaders of the Ribera club, as some of the senior figures like Palermo, etc. have passed away. There was a Vincenzo LaBarbera who was a New Jersey member during the DeCavalcante days, though I think he was too old to be John's father. I believe Vincenzo had a brother named John, though, who could be this John's father.

Barzini? He also said Tin Ear Sclafani was the new boss a few years back... The day LCN hierarchies get leaked freely enough to surface on a mob forum is the day the boss should disband the family and get a job.

Mob life is a series of relationships, who knows who and who vouches for who. If someone walked up to Ligambi calling him "Uncle Joe" asking where "Marty" is, if he doesn't know you chances are if he answers it'll be "who's that." With the surveillance today, if "family meetings" were being held with ballrooms being rented out or meeting in the back of a chinese restaurant, one of them would have been busted in the last 20 years, there would be an example of it if such a thing occurred regularly. The "inner circle" where one guy gets paid deference while looking to the guy on his right asking Consigliere?, is probably over in this day and age. Everyone knows their job so why talk about it in Hollywood terms? Unless I'm giving the mob too much credit, remember "The Genius" got caught saying "I'm the underboss now," makes you wonder if The Genius moniker was out of sarcasm.

[Angelo Santino]

As for Corleone connections between Harlem and Elizabeth...

Majuri could have been originally Maggiore, but it also could have been Majuri in Sicily. I went through alot of birth and baptismal records from the 1800's in Corleone and other cities and you will find spellings that are not Italian, Majuri is one them, Aubry another and names containing X and J can be found. You would need to hire a genealogist to trace Majuri to Gagliano if such a connection exists. And if it does exist, further connect them (if possible) to the mafia chain of Gaglianos (there was an Angelo Gagliano who doubled as Angelo 'Renia-SS' Reina?? who seemed to be someone of Harlem influence), but there could have been several families of Gaglianos (and there was, the Harlem Gaglianos had connections to I think Mezzojuso or somewhere in that vicinity (Rick can correct me, I don't recall honestly it's the same city the Lo Montes came from). That would be the way you are looking for. There could be a connection or it could be a coincidence. In the 1910's in Harlem there was a Frank Bonanno who was Corleonese, he got into a feud with Giuseppe Lo Bue, one of Morello's cousins. Bonanno wasn't connected to the Williamsburg Bonannos. Same with the Pecoraros. Giuseppe was from Bagheria and Giovanni from Piana dei Greci, both seem with the Morellos but Rick and I can't confirm any relation. They both could have been related or it could have been coincidental, one article stated they were cousins but both families backgrounds go back 3 gens each in their respective cities so Rick and I didn't feel comfortable as that could have been an error by the newspaper writer, common in the 1900's. Ignazio Lupo's bro in law Francesco Gambino of Pagliarelli, Palermo was not related (that we could find) to the Carlo Gambinos of Passo di Rigano, Palermo, about a 30 minute walk between each place. Same goes for Giuseppe Fontana of the Gambinos and Harry Fontana in the Colombos, or Manfredi Mineo and the future Mineo who was temporary acting something in the Colombos in the 60's. In our article, for all the connections we made, there were 3x that which lead to nothing. Which sucks because you feel some kinda connection exists, but nothing is connecting, you painfully have to go with what the facts allow but keep your eye open for future leads to come available. I'm preaching to the choir, you know this.

The only thing I can add, which you already know, is that NYC was connected to other cities by bloodlines and compaesanismo. New Orleans had a Palermitan and Corleonesi population, so naturally in NY the Gambinos and Genoveses were connected to them. But they were separate families, the members in New Orleans were not answering to NY because of their Palermitan or Corleonese heritage but contacts, associations, definitely! Again, this you already know.

For this Elizabeth Family, they were separate from the Newark Family which was disbanded in the 30's and absorbed by Profaci, Luciano and (?) the Gambinos, am I correct? Do we know when the Elizabeth Family began or is it still guesswork? You've looked into this, I'll look to you, me non-English matey.

[B.]

Yeah, you know how I feel about people who make empty claims online. I don't necessarily have faith in what he said about the current DeCav set-up, only that I believe LaBarbera could be a member if not more.

The main reason I continue to press the "Gagliano" angle about Majuri is because his family does have a Corleone/NYC background and the Gaglianos were such a prominent Corleonese family in the US. If not for those two similar threads, I wouldn't think anything of it. I still don't know Majuri's mother's maiden name, so it could be as simple as that, or as you said, it could require deep genealogical research, if there's even anything to it at all.

The Majuris originally went by Maiuri in the US, with the father being Calogero Maiuri. I believe it was you or Rick who mentioned a Calogero Maiuri who was somehow involved with the Corleone family later on, though it would have been a different guy.

[B.]

For this Elizabeth Family, they were separate from the Newark Family which was disbanded in the 30's and absorbed by Profaci, Luciano and (?) the Gambinos, am I correct? Do we know when the Elizabeth Family began or is it still guesswork? You've looked into this, I'll look to you, me non-English matey.

Despite the limited evidence, I am of the opinion that the Elizabeth family was always separate from the Newark family. Will post the exact points on why I think that tomorrow, but some of them are strewn randomly throughout this topic already.

[Pogo The Clown]

Does anyone have anything on Frank Polizzi being the Acting Boss during the early/mid 70s? I've only ever seen that mentioned in that Made Men book but I don't know how accurate that is since the book has a lot of errors.

Anyone?


Pogo