I do as well. Unfortunately all we have is a summary that passed multiple mouths before making its way into a file. We don't know who they met or what was said only that they went to Palermo and were rebuffed. Over what we don't know. To take the death sentence off, to remove D'Aquila as BOB, to get liquor imported as ceremonial wine? Going back to the Palermo Mafia and the citrus trade and the New York Mafia and all these Palermitan wine and produce linked mafiosi, there's a strong connection economically and culturally. Mineo's bro in law was a boss in Palermo and during the Palermo Mafia War, D'Aquila sent a large amount of money. These worlds were linked and it makes sense that if someone was trying to neutralize D'Aquila or one of his edicts, Palermo would be the place to attempt it.B. wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2018 2:13 am100% man.Chris Christie wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2018 5:24 am It would be interesting to compile a list of crazy or odd things that informants have claimed. Little quirks such as Cafaro using 'amico nostra' claiming it has its origins in Spain, to the Bonanno informant who thought Cosa Nostra was Italian for "Friends", stuff like that. It's a reminder that these guys were criminals first, opportunists second and history would fall somewhere in the back of their top 20. And they have different levels of interest. Seems DiLeonardo is interested in the background, you can tell he's read up on it. Whereas other informants are just "this is what I seen" and they really don't see any reason to dive any deeper than that.
The origins of the Alien Conspiracy Theory do have some credences. The Mafia was a foreign entity that, while not set out to oppose the US government, were inclined to ignore it. The connections between Palermo and New York City, especially before immigration reform in the 1930s, was entrenched. New York City had a direct conduit to sought after Italian goods: wine and citrus was a thriving industry which supported merchants, salesmen, wine couriers, distributors. Most of your Palermo Mafiosi (Gambinos) traditionally been store owners linked to wine and citrus. The Palermo Mafia of this era cannot be understand without taking this into consideration. And given their idea of legality and business ethics, had RICO or some similar law been around during those days, there'd be a international criminal racketeering case revolving lemons and wine. Arguably this paved the way for many Gambino members to became community businessmen which only further added to their influence in NY. And maybe even played a role in why a second Palermitan Family was formed in NYC, but again that's from me and put that under a fat maybe as I can furnish no evidence at this point.
But on the flipside, by 1910 you have American born Italo youth starting to hang around these guy's stores and saloons and eventually they would find their places in the organization in the decades to come. Lacking those international connections, crime became localized or at least nationalized. I always considered Anastasia, while Italo-born, to be more of an American story, similar to Luciano et al his underworld origins began in NY and not Italy.
I do have questions about some of the early back-and-forth. Like Morello, Lupo, etc. going back to Sicily in the early 1920s to try and have their death sentences removed. You could interpret that to mean there was some authority (be it an individual or group) who could influence decisions back in the US, but it's more likely they were reaching out to allies who could advocate for them politically, like we've heard about in other early families in the US, where a boss in one city might pass a death sentence on a member, only for a member from another city to reach out and ask for clemency. I imagine that's what was going on with Morello, etc. rather than reaching out to some kind of international powerhouse who could influence decisions on both sides of the water.
Like you said, though, where there is smoke there's at least some fire. The Sicilian and American mafia was the same organization at that point and they didn't make any distinction. Bosses in Sicily did have more influence in the US in early days, but it probably wasn't much different from a boss in one US city having influence on activities in another city... they could write their letters, recommend members, ask/give favors, use their political influence, etc. but they couldn't make a decision unless they were the boss of bosses like Morello or D'Aquila, and even then, they seem to have done that in an underhanded way (think of D'Aquila and Masseria's spies and shadowy manipulation of other cities).
Something that got me thinking... Jimmy Fratianno says in his book that Jack Dragna was made around 1914, which is when Dragna came back from Sicily after spending years there. If Fratianno's info is correct, either Dragna was made by the Morello family after he returned, or he was made in Sicily before he left. I've wondered if some of these guys who came to the US and went back to Sicily were made back there before they came to the US. Since we're sort of talking about myths here, there are similar stories about Carlo Gambino and others being made and "sent" to the US. DiLeonardo even said in one interview that his great-grandfather and grandfather were sent to the US by Cascioferro. It's probably, as you said, a little bit of one, another bit of the other, but definitely not a widespread alien conspiracy.
In terms of membership, I'm of the opinion that a majority of the names we have on record were made here. I can conjure up a list of about a dozen names who were confirmed members in Sicily and America. But take a Family like the Bonannos and their heavy Cast element, certainly not everyone of them were members in Castellammare, which has, to my knowledge, been a very small albeit influential group. This goes back to a time when the Mafia was less capitalistic, it was not in their DNA for a Family to go on an initiation spree and make 30 new members, there was an equilibrium and some of these towns just are not very big. Castellammare is a small city but urban, it's a place for French and American vacations but it's not a major commerce area like Palermo. 20 members would be adequate, 30 enough, anything beyond 40 would just be redundant. And similar to American LCN Families like CL, Pittsburgh, arguably Chicago: membership was kept small. Contrary to "Ceasar's Legions" that gets thrown around, it was originally intended to be an exclusive club organized locally with elected offices and part of an extended fraternity.
I can't comment on the DiLeonardo thing, that's new to me. Cascioferro's job must have been to travel around Sicily as a Mafia marketing agent for America. Ok, I'm a funky I'll go along: if this is the case, what would Cascioferro's angle be? He's not receiving money from these individuals in the trickle-up sense, not planting any flags, so the only thing I could gather is having contacts in let's say people he sent to NY, Chicago and Texas, which is pretty much what the mafia is all about. Let's say in Italy he became acquainted with lithographers and engravers and he wanted to sell fabricated Irving National Bank $2 notes at 40 cents on the dollar he'd have a distribution chain in America. I could see it being something like that rather than a chess board with strategically placed pawns working towards his takeover through puppet BOB Maranzano.
