Carmine Tramunti and the Lucchese family

[Ed]

"I believe Vario was already the Lucchese's Brooklyn Capo before the Bonanno War. If he did start out with the Bonannos it would have to have been before the late 50s at least."

I believe an informant(may be the Lucchese informant B originally posted about) said Vario was inducted into tbe Lucchese Crime Family in 1951 (or there about). Perhaps Vario started with the Bonannos in the 1940s but moved over to the Luccheses when they wanted to plant a flag in Brooklyn where they didn't have much of a presence, and Vario saw a fast track to get made.



"I remember reading some of Dara's info. I posted a photo of him on the old board from his arrest in the 60's. He was a member of Sabella's crew, right? I know he had guys in Florida. That doesn't sound right to me about Sabella dropping the dime on Bonanno, and it definitely isn't right about Vario. It doesn't make sense to lie about either of those things, though."

I'm pretty sure Dara was part of Sabella's crew at one point, although Dara later claimed he was capo himself.

[HairyKnuckles]

This is what I have for the rest of the administration during this time period.


Stefano LaSalle until he retired in 1972. Followed by Tom Mix Santoro. Vincent "Nunzio" Roa as the Consiglieri until he retired in 1973 followed by Paul Vario (who had been Acting in the late 60s and early 70s). Does this jive with what we know about this period?


Pogo

I wish I knew. I requested Tom Santoro´s files some time ago but haven´t received them yet. Hopefully there are things in there that could clear things up in regards to who held what position at that time. I will let you know if there´s any info on this. There may have been several guys who held the acting consigliere position (at different times) while Nunzio Rao was incarcerated and for some reason I have Vinny "Beans" Foceri as one of them. I´m not sure about Vario.

[B.]

Vario starting out connected with the Bonannos could be possible. The Vario family was from Vita, Trapani as were several Bonanno members, and Vario himself was close with Salvatore Ferrugia, Michael Adamo and some of other other Bonannos who operated in the same general areas of East New York and Long Island.

We were talking awhile back about possible non-Bonanno Castellammarese members, unless I've got info on the wrong guy it looks like Curiale/Vario crew-member Joseph Schiavo's family was from Castellammare. So there's at least one we know of prior to the Saracinos being made into the Colombos.

Good to know about Vario. I wasn't sure if they were Sicilian or what. Up above I was more responding to the idea that he was with the Bonannos and transferred to the Luccheses because of the Bonanno war, which seems very unlikely. I imagine you must have come across some info about him being with the Luccheses from the 50's, right?

[johnny_scootch]

The FBN book has D'Argenios address as 7412 15th ave Brooklyn, NY.

Also the Pete LNU present at his ceremony was probably Pete the killer Abinanti.

[HairyKnuckles]

When Andimo "Tommy Noto" Pappadio was killed in 1976, his position was described by Newsday as acting boss. His high position with the Luccheses was confirmed in a FBI report (dated October 1973). But the report lists him as underboss. In a later report (dated December 1975), he is listed as a retired underboss. So Pappadio is another one who muddies the waters in regards to Lucchese leadership (Boss, underboss, consigliere) in the early to mid 1970s.

[B.]

When Andimo "Tommy Noto" Pappadio was killed in 1976, his position was described by Newsday as acting boss. His high position with the Luccheses was confirmed in a FBI report (dated October 1973). But the report lists him as underboss. In a later report (dated December 1975), he is listed as a retired underboss. So Pappadio is another one who muddies the waters in regards to Lucchese leadership (Boss, underboss, consigliere) in the early to mid 1970s.

Pappadio is mentioned by Steve Magaddino on the transcript from his office, too. Says he met with Lucchese and Pappadio on a farm somewhere, so Pappadio was definitely attending some high-level meetings.

[B.]

- 1975 FBI report claims that Carmine Tramunti is still the boss of the family despite his incarceration.

- A "reliable source" claimed that the family was being run by a sort of informal committee prior to this report consisting of underboss Andimo Pappadio and the family capodecinas. pappadio and the captains meet to discuss family affairs and put them to a vote. This vote is the final decision on the matter, and then Carmine Tramunti is notified what the decision is but this is just a formality and he has "no impact" on the decisions. Edit: I want to stress that the word "committee" was not used -- I imagine Pappadio was the acting boss like mentioned elsewhere, but that he allowed the captains to run the family with him.

- Antonio Corallo was released in February 1974 and is said to meet with other family members in Queens. Prior to this report, an investigation determined that Corallo had become the acting boss of the family. It seems that the previous informal committee was no longer active once Corallo became acting boss, as Pappadio shows up as "retired" in the same report.

- Capodecina Joe Lucchese is said to still be heavily involved in gambling, loansharking, and narcotics in Queens at this time. I'm very interested in learning more about Joe Lucchese.

- Family structure circa 1975 according to this report:
Boss - Carmine Tramunti (Incarcerated)
Acting Boss - Antonio Corallo
Underboss - Andimo Pappadio (Retired)
Underboss - Stephen LaSalla (Retired)
Captains:
Joseph DiPalermo
Joseph Laratro
Joseph Lucchese
Paul Vario (Incarcerated)
(One redacted name -- length would match Christopher Furnari, so probably him)

Obviously NJ is left out and acting captains aren't including on any of these lists, so Corallo would have likely had an acting captain that should be included. Like I said in the Bonanno topic, though, these lists are to be taken pretty loosely.

[JeremyTheJew]

interesting the Commision had nothing to do with choosing of a boss. at that time, 1975, the Commision was at its strongest...

interesting about Vario being with the Bonannos. i never heard about that. Vario always seemed to me to be pretty important. i wonder how much Henry Hill had built him up and had impact on Paul Varios rep.

[Lupara]

interesting the Commision had nothing to do with choosing of a boss. at that time, 1975, the Commision was at its strongest...

Was it?

[JeremyTheJew]

i thought thats what Giuliani stated during Commision Trial that the Commision in recent years was the absolute governing body and ultimate authority.

[Wiseguy]

i thought thats what Giuliani stated during Commision Trial that the Commision in recent years was the absolute governing body and ultimate authority.

The Commission was at its strongest when it had a truly national reach. And that was before Apalachin. By the time of the Commission case, the Commission was more or less a NY enterprise with influence over the east coast families for the most part. Giuliani's statement would still be correct though because, even in the 1980s, there wasn't a higher governing body than the Commission.

[yatescj7781]

Wasn't this informant's last name something like Taglialatella?

[B.]

Wasn't this informant's last name something like Taglialatella?

Yeah, it ended up being Carmine Taglialatella, an obscure East Harlem guy who ended up with the Vario crew then fled to the west coast.

[HairyKnuckles]

Thanks for the info B. If we assume Tramunti was the boss throughout his incarceration, then Corallo wasn't made official boss until Tramunti's death in 1978 (although he had been running the Family for some years on acting basis). Sounds plausible to me.

I will post Joe Lucchese's FBI file in the file's section. But it is heavily redacted. One Interesting thing is that he's listed as acting boss briefly around 1972. Will do it probably tomorrow. I'm extremely busy due to the upcoming hollidays.

[B.]

Thanks for the info B. If we assume Tramunti was the boss throughout his incarceration, then Corallo wasn't made official boss until Tramunti's death in 1978 (although he had been running the Family for some years on acting basis). Sounds plausible to me.

I will post Joe Lucchese's FBI file in the file's section. But it is heavily redacted. One Interesting thing is that he's listed as acting boss briefly around 1972. Will do it probably tomorrow. I'm extremely busy due to the upcoming hollidays.

Thanks, man!

If Lucchese died in 1967 and there still wasn't an official boss through late 1975, I'd be pretty shocked. For a family that was in good standing (i.e. not the Bonannos or Colombos), going without an official boss for the better part of ten years is unheard of unless they were specifically waiting for Corallo's legal issues to end before naming a boss, which seems unlikely as Tramunti was a first among equals who had his own standing in the organization -- i.e. why would Corallo deserve the official spot but not Tramunti?

If Tramunti was boss until his death that would be very big news. I need to re-read what D'Arco says about the late 1970s but he wasn't made and the Brooklyn faction was more isolated at the time so not sure what insight he would have. Maybe there are some other sources that talk about the period between 1975-1978. Regardless of Tramunti's official title, that period is no doubt when Corallo went from acting boss to official.