Pre Sabella's

[B.]

1 You can add Giorgio Catanese to the Caccamese faction.
2 Domenico Ceppaluni was from Naples, not Calabrian like Morello said.
3 Eduard Caminiti was from Messina not Calabria as Morello said, an honest mistake because
3 Sicilians from Messina- Quaranta, Caminiti and Restucci- might have been Sabella members by the 1920's but they were more affiliated with Calabrians before that.

Questions/help:
1 Limey listed a Giovanni Catanese, I have no record of this name and the above Giorgio doesn't appear to be related to any "Giovanni." Anyone ever heard of him?
2 Three Amatos I also never heard of:
Amato-Ignazio* 1881-1965
Amato-Nicolo* 1898-1988
Amato-Vincenzo 1894-1966
3 Are Salvatore Tramuta and Sam Trombetta the same or separate people?
4 Giuseppe Caro (1882/7/9 - 1975/7/13) wasn't anywhere near Philly, born in S.Giovanni, Cuneo not Sicily, he lived in McKees Rocks, Stowe and died in Kennedy. Doesn't seem the right guy, is there any more info?
5 Bruno D'Elia (1884-1966) is a member? Born in Montalonia (Monteleone di Puglia?) and lived and died in Bethlehem, PA?
6 Same with Archangelo Gobbo, Frosinone, Italy (mainland), lived on Federal St. Born in 1886, arrived in 1913 and died in 1938 of Tuberculosis. Where did this info come from that he was LCN?

In my reply to your email I said Morello might mention Giovanni Catanese in one of her books -- I just looked it up. In book two she mentions a George Catanese as an early member under Sabella and neighbor of both Avena and George Catania on the "500 block of Carpenter". Both references to Catanese are alongside Catania, so she is clearly saying George Catania and George Catanese were different guys. A George Catanese from Philly was born in 1884 and died in 1968, immigrated in 1907 and naturalized 1927. A Giovanni Catanese from Scisciano born the same year also immigrated in 1907, so "George' could be Giovanni. If that's the case, he would have been an early Neapolitan member.

Vincenzo Amato is "Upstate Jimmy" Amato of Reading. Never seen the other Amatos mentioned or confirmed as members.

No idea on the others.

[Angelo Santino]

1 I have both Giorgio Catania and Giorgio Catanese, I believe both from Caccamo but I need to reconfirm, but I never heard of a GIOVANNI nor can I find one related directly to Giorgio. If a Giovanni Anglicized his name, I'd think he'd choose John. I seen the one from Scisciano but without any other links to confirm, it could be the wrong guy with the right name, especially considering I don't know whether he was a Philly or Jersey guy.

2 There were indeed Scafidi's from Messina, I need to look into it more before I say anything else.

3 Enna and Castrogiovanni are the same faction. Perhaps you knew this but I just didn't put it together. So we have Belmontesi, Caccamesi, Campobellesi, and Castrogiovanesi. Aside from Sabella, Galante and maybe Chiodo I can't find many Castellammaresi so I wouldn't even consider them their own internal faction. Very few Sciaccatani, maybe 3 and counting that I could locate. And Messinesi seem affiliated more with the Calabrians (and Morello misidentified several Messinesi as Calabrians) and I'm curious if there were still more of them around during the 60's-70's if they would have fallen under Rugnetta-Caponigro. In Book 1 take note of who gets arrested together in the same car.

4 ALL of the above factions in Philadelphia are mixed in within 2 square miles of each other. S 6th - S11th streets, Federal, Christian, Annin and Washington. As you noted, no animosity.

5 Christian St is the hub, this ties in Socially as well as with the mafia politically: Chester, Camden, Trenton, Cumberland, Northhampton were spokes on the Philadelphia wheel. What we were theorizing earlier about 3 or more separate groups loses legs because of this because everyone that had connections to Philly had them in that 2 mile radius.

6 Several bosses lived outside of Philly. Barrale lived in Cumberland but had business in S. Philly. (There was also a Belmonte Mezzagno Banking Society which indicates there were enough of that population there in 1905). Both Catania and Sabella lived in Philly in the early 20's but later on moved to Upper Darby and the suburbs. Mike Maggio, if he was boss, appears to be the only early one who stayed in the city.

7 If you can locate that Scafidi passage listing who he believes were the earliest members that would help me alot. Thanks.

[B.]

There were def Scafidis from Messina but not these ones obviously. There is a doc on either the Archives.gov or MF that claims the Philly Scafidis were from "Massina" but this is confused, maybe someone misheard "Mezzagno". The Philly mafia Scafidis were 100% from Belmonte, at least the men. Also I would hesitate to refer to Barrale as a "boss". One FBI doc I saw cites an informant who believed Barrale may have been an underboss under Bruno or Ida, but multiple more reliable informants talk about the underbosses during those two bosses and Barrale doesn't come up, though there was an informant (can't recall if it was Scafidi or Riccobene or someone else) who refers to Barrale as the "boss" of South Jersey while he was alive, which could likely be referring to him as a capodecina down there (which we know he was). Maybe Barrale was part of the admin under Sabella or Avena... who knows?

I'm trying to find that doc where Rocco tells the FBI about a conversation with his brother Salvatore "Sam", who claims to have been made in the early 1930s and lists a number of names he believes to have been members circa early 1920s. This may be the same doc where he says their father Gaetano "Tom" was already captain circa mid-1930s. I just saw this doc again like two weeks ago so maybe something is up with the Archive.gov search because I am not seeing it. Will keep on it, it's an interesting one.

If you can find anything on the roots of the mafia in Trenton (including but not limited to Philly family) that'd be something. John Simone didn't live there until the 1940s and much of his crew wasn't made until the late 1950s and early 1960s, many of them being relatives or close friends of Bruno and Simone, and interestingly the formal Trenton crew disappeared once Simone and that group of guys died. Jimmy Gioe looks to have been an early member in that area along with one or two others we know of, but it doesn't seem like Philly had a formal outpost there until later. That may be why it was always split between Philly, the Gambino family, and Frank/Sam DeCavalcante. Frank DeCav may have been the only mafia captain in that area pre-1950s.

[Angelo Santino]

I have no opinion on Barrale, only what Morello claimed he was in Book 3 "an earlier boss of S. Jersey" which I took as meaning captain, but then she released the Pre-Sabella article here which claimed Maggio, Barrale and Catania were bosses in some unknown order before 1919. Which lead me down a useless rabbit hole of pondering the possibility that 'Philadelphia" consisted of merged smaller groups only to find that's not the case at all. It would be one thing if we had 4 distinct groups separated by district like we seen in early NY, but with Philly we got 2 square miles of everyone intermixed.

It'll take more research but maybe we can narrow down when these guys/factions began arriving. I was surprised to find a Belmonte Mezzegno Society of Bankers existed in Philly in 1908 or so, which leads me to that enough of that demographic existed in Philly as well as Cumberland, NJ. But the hub is South Philly and whoever got there first would plant the flag and other's would fall into place. If mafiosi from Castrogiovanni wanted to be 'legally active' in Philly and the established family is primarily Belmontesi, they would enter into the local Family and be welcomed as brothers, as boring as that is.

I reckon we can rule out the Sciaccatani unless some unknown cataclysmic event occurred which altered the Family's makeup and territory a la Genovese 1920's but so far I'm seeing no roots from Luzerne or Montgomery. Doesn't mean it's not there but from what I see Philadelphia was most likely formed between 1895 and 1905. I'd be very surprised if it goes back earlier, Philly despite having one of the oldest Ital populations in the union since 1800, didn't get Sicilians until the end of the century.

As far as Trenton goes, I've never looked into it. I'll see what I can dig up but you know more than me, I wasn't even aware that Simone, DeCavalcante and Amato lived in that area before you told me.

Lastly, Pre-1910's you see more people arriving to NYC's Little Italy before making their way to Philly/S. Jersey. Top of my head- Barrale, Cappello, the Zanghi's, Piccolos, Laganas or at least one of them- were in NYC for some amount of time. What they were doing there is a mystery (George Catania falls off the radar for 1900-1920, don't know where he was or what he was doing). Whereas the people arriving 1920's onward are going directly to Philly, usually to meet with family already there. Looking at the passenger manifests, S 9th look's like Philly's answer to Elizabeth St just on a smaller scale.

[B.]

You have a good point about it being likely there was only one family ever operating in South Philly, but I still have to wonder if there may have been different groups in the greater Philadelphia-South Jersey territory. Wish Gentile had given even a small amount of elaboration on the group he associated with there.

Found the early member doc I was talking about and emailed it. The informant (R.Scafidi) claims via his brother that Giuseppe Traina "appointed" Sabella boss in 1920 over "a handful of members" and that the organization was known as the "Black Hand". He lists some guys, a mix of 7 Sicilians, with a single Abruzzese, Castertano, and Calabrian each. He leaves out some older names who were likely early members, with the ones he listed including guys who were probably members later than 1920 but who knows.

[Angelo Santino]

Do you mean spillover from NYC or older groups that no longer exist? Both are possible.

Reginelli, Scopelliti and Festa are on listed, which conflicts with Morello's homogenous assertions. I would have thought Reginelli would have been later but who knows. There could be some significance to these names.

Did a google search for Archangelo and the only other place he appears aside from Limey's blogs is from that asshole NJBoy's Gangster BB charts, when he posted as Mobfan years ago just made shit up, such as the exact dates Joe Bonanno was made a member and made a boss. So either one got it from the other.

Pretty much anyone I can't connect I'd just as soon leave off.

[Pogo The Clown]

I blieve this is the list in question which you posted earlier. Seems pretty small. I'm sure there were more members since the family reached 90-100 members by the 50s/early 60s.


Francesco “Cheech” Barrale
Dominick Festa
Michael Maggio
Antonio Pollina
Marco Reginelli
Mario Riccobene
Salvatore “Don Turridu” Sabella
Gaetano “Big Tom” Scafidi
Joseph Scafidi
John Scopelliti
Salvatore Testa


Pogo

[Angelo Santino]

I blieve this is the list in question which you posted earlier. Seems pretty small. I'm sure there were more members since the family reached 90-100 members by the 50s/early 60s.


Francesco “Cheech” Barrale
Dominick Festa
Michael Maggio
Antonio Pollina
Marco Reginelli
Mario Riccobene
Salvatore “Don Turridu” Sabella
Gaetano “Big Tom” Scafidi
Joseph Scafidi
John Scopelliti
Salvatore Testa


Pogo

Thanks buddy.

I tend to believe Scafidi over Morello when it comes to Scopelliti and Festa being members prior to 1931. And if they weren't then neither was Messinese Luigi Quaranta who, when you look at who he was connected to, was more with these guys than the western Sicilians, same for Caminiti.

I wonder if Danny "Day" Daidone the white slaver is related to the Daidone's that Natale was mixed up with in the 90's?

[Angelo Santino]

Ok, another example of something I can't wrap my head around:

"One Philadelphia mafioso stayed with Sabella for almost two years (in NYC during the Cast War) but it is uncertain if Sabella and his crew participated in the full four and one half-years of conflict. What is certain is that the function and ideology of the Organization definitely changed."

Of course, no source.

I really have a hard time believing this story that Philadelphia assisted the Bonannos, especially with the timeliness, the first casualty was Pinzolo in September of 1930 and it ended with Masseria's in April of 1931, more like 7 months total. I guess it one wanted to trace the roots of the Cast War it would go in with all the shit Masseria pulled between 1928 and 1930 but during that time it wasn't open conflict. And the actual 'war' part during that that 7 months amounted to strategic hits not open warfare on the streets. This matters because she further dilutes the reasons behind the war. It had nothing to do with hometown origins and it damn sure didn't last 4 1/2 years and if some anonymous "Philadelphia made guy" did indeed stay with Sabella in NY then he did absolutely shit for the first 17 months in terms of putting in wet work for the Cast War.

I can believe Sabella was pulled into it nationally and may have had to attend meetings, but Philly wasn't a Cast. family and given the Gambino link in South Jersey had Sabella declared a side (especially early on) he would have risked splitting the group, especially early on when the the Gambinos were Masseria allies politically.

[Angelo Santino]

Francesco “Cheech” Barrale
Dominick Festa
Michael Maggio
Antonio Pollina
Marco Reginelli
Mario Riccobene
Salvatore “Don Turridu” Sabella
Gaetano “Big Tom” Scafidi
Joseph Scafidi
John Scopelliti
Salvatore Testa

Do we have any other listed members coming from legitimate sources? I have a list of 69 names/addresses circa 1920 going on a map as Sabella Members and Associates. We can surmise that George Catania and Leonardo Galante were made and it stands reason Avena as well since he was Sabella's successor. But then we keep going and it all becomes guesswork. So rather than do that I'll restrict the 'members' to Scafidi's info as well as any other additional information. I did include Angelo Bruno and Harry Riccobene despite not being members in 1920 (Bruno was 11) but they are special cases.

I would like to do one of these for 1940 if we can compile a list of 1940's members/assocs. Ranks aren't needed and I'd say 80% of the 1920's names are around in the 1940's. There was a thread on Philly making ceremonies, courtesy of Pogo and B. that I'll refer to.

[Angelo Santino]

Let me know what people think of this type of chart. I kinda think it'd be great for Chicago projects.

I could potentially do one for 1940's and on the plus side would be more simplified: Sicilian and Calabrian factions. By that time more members had moved to Jersey.

philadelphia-1920-map.gif

[Eline2015]

Let me know what people think of this type of chart. I kinda think it'd be great for Chicago projects.

I could potentially do one for 1940's and on the plus side would be more simplified: Sicilian and Calabrian factions. By that time more members had moved to Jersey.

philadelphia-1920-map.gif

Freaky awesome.great job

[B.]

Excellent job! These charts with more in-depth info (i.e. addresses, origins) are the best to me.

[Angelo Santino]

Excellent job! These charts with more in-depth info (i.e. addresses, origins) are the best to me.

I'm looking into Trenton and I'd say the potential is there for Philadelphia to have had interests/members there since at least the 1920's. Bootlegging between NYC and Philly passed by way of Trenton.

The 1970 Report on OC named Joseph Bruno as the boss who succeeded Sabella in 1927 with his headquarters first centered in Bristol, then in Trenton. That on New Years Eve of 1928 one of Bruno's racket associates was murdered and shortly thereafter he moved his residence and headquarters to Trenton. With the attempted hit on Musky Zanghi, the police arrested Bruno, John Marco, Nick Messina and Norman Marsella and Zanghi claimed these men were hired assassins from New Brunswick brought to commit murder at the behest of a dispute over the sale of La Tosca Cafe between Zanghi and a member of the "Scopelliti crowd." He also stated "They work with the others, they run women back and forth from here to New Brunswick, one of the many organized gangs running dope between Philadelphia and New Jersey. According to him there was an organized syndicate that trafficked women, running them from one city to another." Joe Bruno was said to be partners with Joe Ida in one of these "houses of ill repute." Interesting considering what Rugnetta's brother was said to be killed for.

I can't find anyone murdered in Dec 1928 in Bristol that could match Joe Bruno's associate.

[B.]

One informant claimed Sabella was deposed in the late 1920s and the same one actually says Avena had been deposed and replaced by Bruno prior to Avena's murder but most info conflicts with that. Either way Joe Bruno didn't succeed Sabella, it was John Avena. There is no real disagreement on the succession: Sabella>Avena>Bruno>Ida. Interesting how it goes Western Sicilian>Messinese>Messinese>Calabrese, almost like a gradient.

It does seem possible that the family's central and even northern Jersey roots go back to Bruno and Ida, who both lived in New Brunswick as bosses, though we don't know of any full-on crews or even made members in those areas aside from a couple of exceptions. What we know of as the Trenton/Simone crew though seems to have been based around a very close group of friends/relatives which started and more or less ended with Simone's arrival in Trenton and later his death. When he was still living in Buffalo in the 1930s he was visiting future crew members in Trenton, like the Cammarota brothers, Ippolito, etc. as documented by a 1935 car accident where this group of guys were traveling between NYC and Trenton supposedly to attend a dance.