Who was the first boss of St. Louis crime family?

[Geekgang666]

Been reading that the first boss of St Louis was old school Mafiosi name Gaetano Vivian but I'm not sure how accurate this information is what y'all think? Below is the link to the article I been reading.

http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/b ... er-history

[Geekgang666]

Here is a newspapers article that I came across on Gaetano Vivian.

[cavita]

Wonder if this is the Gaetano "The Falcon" Viviano born 1857 died 1937.
These Vivianos were from Terrasini, Sicily

[B.]

Here is a newspapers article that I came across on Gaetano Vivian.

This article IDs him as Viviano.

Had to laugh at the article saying he was from Palermo, then going on to say he is a "Camorrista".

[Angelo Santino]

Here is a newspapers article that I came across on Gaetano Vivian.

This article IDs him as Viviano.

Had to laugh at the article saying he was from Palermo, then going on to say he is a "Camorrista".

That term became quite popular due to the 1911 Viterbo trial. Had the Camorra remained as influential in its sensationalism today we might have used the C-word rather than the M and when we spoke of Mafia we may have referred to it as Sicily's Camorra. But that didn't happen and the term died out.

I don't know much of St Louis. But reading that Viviano article, if that's him, based on how he was arrested, his living status and the way people reacted, I have a hard time believing he was a boss, especially considering at the same time you had very legitimate middle class bosses in other cities, one was even a doctor. Almost all of them had their hooks in legitimate interests and even wanted Italo-criminals like Lupo and Morello held semi-legitimate holdings in the Little Italy Italian Market and the Ignazio Florio Corporation in Harlem and given their 'wanted' status in Italy, they had an incentivized interest in avoiding "street" work.

[Antiliar]

I think the St. Louis leader was Tommaso Viviano, not Gaetano. There were quite a few Vivianos in St. Louis. Tommaso came from Terrasini. Allegedly the St. Louis Family was formed in the late 1800s, maybe in the 1870s or 80s.