Small families that were never on the FBIs radar

[bobbybats]

I was wondering how many families were out there but were not on the FBI's list of LCN families and they are not associated with larger families. One I am thinking of was in my fathers hometown of Arma Kansas. This area of Kansas specifically Crawford county had numerous small towns, Frontinac, Mulberry, Arma, Columbas, Pitsburge, Girard all of these cities resided in Crawford county. This area was heavily populated with Sicilian/Italians, many of whom had come from NOLA, Pittsburge, New York to work in the coal mines. This area was controlled by a guy named David Joseph Saia, everyone called him Poppa Joe. Joe was the elected country commissioner of Crawford country and was also a member of the blackhand nothing happened in this county without his approval. My Grandfather and Uncle were both blackhand and worked for Joe. for the most part you had gambling, prostitution, booze and loans the typical shit. Growing up I can remember people all over town talking about Poppa Joe. Anyone else know of small off the beaten path families.

[rayray]

I never thought of this as being mafia or a family in a traditional sense, more like a semi-organized crime group I suppose. I had a lot of family members going all the way back to prohibition that were involved in making, distribution and selling alcohol in their own speakeasies or soda shops. After prohibition, gambling and sharking came into play and even drugs in the 70's and 80's. Gangsters always came to mind but never family or mafia. My old man would say, they're not like gangsters they are gangsters, you know like the mafia. LOL, but he only said that to put an image in my head to help me understand I guess.


Oh, but they did get raided by the FBI/ATF back in the 70's.

[bobbybats]

I am not sure I would refer to them as traditional, but they were certainly organized, but I hestitated to call them a family, I am not sure what they would be called, Sicilian gangsters. I think of them as sort of a crew, as I am not sure they had any formal structure like new York as an example. But they were definitely black hand. I do know they sold booze to both St Louis, Denver and KC and allegedly some of the booze made its way to Chi town.

[cavita]

Seems to me that Minnesota would have had a small group long ago. Booze was run up there during Prohibition and I think they had a sizable Italian population in the larger cities.

[Mukremin]

They could be like the pre-Commission Italian gangs, before they were absorbed. Loosely organized gangs, nothing more.

Black Hand is a form of extortion and intimidation, not a gang or organization.

[bobbybats]

They could be like the pre-Commission Italian gangs, before they were absorbed. Loosely organized gangs, nothing more.

Black Hand is a form of extortion and intimidation, not a gang or organization.

Every old Sicilian I have ever spoken with has refered to the mafia as the blackhand so I always assumed it was a reference to Sicilian mafia members. As for the family I spoke about they lasted into the late 70's and as far as I am aware never were "absorbed" into any family, but never grew outside the small geographical location and died once Joe retired from active politics.

[Italianheritage]

They could be like the pre-Commission Italian gangs, before they were absorbed. Loosely organized gangs, nothing more.

Black Hand is a form of extortion and intimidation, not a gang or organization.

Every old Sicilian I have ever spoken with has refered to the mafia as the blackhand so I always assumed it was a reference to Sicilian mafia members. As for the family I spoke about they lasted into the late 70's and as far as I am aware never were "absorbed" into any family, but never grew outside the small geographical location and died once Joe retired from active politics.

Older people from Calabria, and Campania also would call it the "black hand" instead of the mob/mafia.

[Angelo Santino]

The "Black Hand" was as ambiguous and open as the term "mob," both mean different things depending on context used.

1) Black Hand Extortion was the method of sending threatening letters demanding money under the threat of death. It was practiced by the Camorra, the Mafia, Italian gangs, non-Italian gangs, business-men and relatives getting back at each other.
2) A Black Hander could refer to an italian criminal, a Mafioso or Camorrista and used interchangeably. If I was angry at my brother-in-law and got arrested while throwing a molotov into his store in 1911, I would have been arrested for a Black Hand Crime and been labeled a Black Hander despite not being affiliated with anything.
3) Black Hand Gang/Society could refer to any group of Italian criminals depending on who the user was referring to: Italian gangs, Italian secret societies, mafia societies.
4) Black Hand Murder: gangland murders, extortion victims, unsolved Italian murders.

Today, "the Black Hand" refers to early Italian criminal affiliations, traditional and non, that existed in that 1907-1913 era. 1911 was the record for most Black Hand explosions and then it subsided. But the term carried on and ^1-4 would continue to be used in different contexts depending on the author, time, place, publication, affiliation. It's like when you go through parts of the NY Times for Unione Siciliano and there will be (Mafia) next to it, the term evolved into a meaning to symbolize OC due to 1920's Chicago even though that was never the case. The Unione was for-a-time infiltrated but it was limited to Chicago alone. But decades later the newspapers would alternate between U.S. and Mafia and people reading much later concluded there was a Unione in NYC and it took many heated arguments (me included) to prove that there was not. For a time, Maranzano was killed in his Unione Siciliano headquarters until we disproved that.

And before I'm corrected, the right way is Unione Siciliana with A, but the papers, especially in the 40's, had it down with an O.

[JCB1977]

There was an organization of Italians in Seattle, WA that had a very expansive, lucrative illegal gambling operation as well as other traditional blue collar rackets run by Frank Colacurcio Sr. Here are a few articles & photos:





http://www.cosanostranews.com/2014/06/s ... ey-or.html
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/ ... it03m.html (Frank Sr)




http://seattletimes.com/html/politics/2 ... io25m.html (Frank Jr)
http://www.fbi.gov/seattle/press-releas ... 92410a.htm

[B.]

The Colacurcios were definitely not a "family" in the mob sense. I'm very familiar with them and the area where they lived/operated. Frank Sr. was a jetsetter in the strip club industry and also had some other small-time rackets, including gambling and prostitution, but they were never a dominant force. Most of their power came from their close friendship with Governor Rosellini, which they really only used to help with their clubs.

Colacurcio met with Bill Bonanno at one point, but keep in mind that Bill was serving prison time in Washington state at one point and they are not known to have done business with one another. By that time Bill had long since been shelved.

[JCB1977]

The Colacurcios were definitely not a "family" in the mob sense. I'm very familiar with them and the area where they lived/operated. Frank Sr. was a jetsetter in the strip club industry and also had some other small-time rackets, including gambling and prostitution, but they were never a dominant force. Most of their power came from their close friendship with Governor Rosellini, which they really only used to help with their clubs.

Colacurcio met with Bill Bonanno at one point, but keep in mind that Bill was serving prison time in Washington state at one point and they are not known to have done business with one another. By that time Bill had long since been shelved.

I know they weren't considered a family, but I always was impressed with their "crew" and political connections. They built a mini empire out there. But I would say that Denver, San Francisco and Dallas were definitely under the radar more and there is less known of them, you could say the same thing about Pittsburgh and San Jose but all these cities certainly captured local cops, state police, and local FBI attention, bigger fish in smaller ponds...equals less layers to cut through in local and state politics...just didn't capture too many National headlines. I could be wrong, but I have theorized that concept for a while. The million dollar question: Was it better to be a boss of Chicago or in NY? Or be a boss of a smaller geographic area and rule for 30-40 years without "much" national attention, less visible to the public's eye? Scalish, LaRocca, Lanza, Civello, Smaldone etc. They all became just as wealthy because they were clearly in control over an area, nothing to share, no major competition. Interesting research to say the least. My two cents.

[Italianheritage]

There are lots of them.

[Chicago]

.

[Chicago]

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[JCB1977]

Guys like Scalish, LaRocca, Lanza, Civello, Cerrito etc enjoyed very long reigns at the top with minimal trouble and prison time...the US Govn't and Bobby Kennedy were so hellbent at grabbing the Sam Giancana's, Gambino, Salerno, Columbo, Bonanno, Costello, Lansky, Zerilli, Hoffa etc because they were high profile in the biggest cities in America, the govn't went after them hard. The guys I mentioned above ruled their families with minimal competition and much easier to corrupt politicians, judges and cops. I mean, they had pressure from local and state cops, an FBI office with 6-8 agents as opposed to 6-8 agents on one crew in NY or Chicago. Scalish and LaRocca made so much money in their legitimate enterprises. Scalish was a multi millionaire through Buckeye Vending alone which still operates today, LaRocca owned a cement block company and a vending company that were making over $10 million a year let alone his car wash, real estate holdings and racket money coming in. These guys died free men who left enough money for 6 generations if the family was smart. Lanza and Cerrito had a ton of profitable legitimate enterprises and Angelo Marino after him sold his father's cheese company to Sorrento for tens of millions of dollars. The Detroit guys also had a ton of legitimate businesses, especially the Tocco and Zerilli families. Not that the high profile guys in NY & Chicago didn't have legitimate enterprises, but there was much more competition .