Bellomo family history and connections

[Hailbritain]

Great post B

[B.]

What are some other nicknames for Liborio? Looking for both Sicilian/Italian and Americanized. "Barney" seems like an atypical nickname for it, but with both Barney Bellomo and his cousin using that nickname, I am wondering if their possible grandfather Liborio (b.1879) used it as well. I haven't had any matches for older Bernard/Barney Bellomos, though.

[johnny_scootch]

What are some other nicknames for Liborio? Looking for both Sicilian/Italian and Americanized.

Leo

[SonnyBlackstein]

Great info B.

Credit to the board.

[Costigan]

This is the kind of meat and potatoes research I love to see. Great work B.

[johnny_scootch]

What are some other nicknames for Liborio? Looking for both Sicilian/Italian and Americanized.

Leo

Last night I was reminded of my cousins wife who's fathers name is Liborio but goes by Larry.

[HairyKnuckles]

Thanks B for your research. Barney ' s father's membership status is tricky to find out. The Feds had basically every 116th street crew member ' s name so its amazing that somehow the father managed to slip through the cracks (if he was made that is). That crew was huge, at the hey day, it had close to 40 made men (and suspected made men). Small army...

[MichaelGiovanni]

Great info B. and great thread.

Question...in the '25 years after Valachi' documents where Cafaro's testimony is listed he doesn't mention anything about Barney Bellomo. Just curious if that information is on another transcript or where this info could be found. I assume this is where the info about Barney being made in 1977 as a young 20 something year old. Would love to read that info if it is available.

[slimshady_007]

Great info B. and great thread.

Question...in the '25 years after Valachi' documents where Cafaro's testimony is listed he doesn't mention anything about Barney Bellomo. Just curious if that information is on another transcript or where this info could be found. I assume this is where the info about Barney being made in 1977 as a young 20 something year old. Would love to read that info if it is available.

Its crazy that barney got made that young. Wonder if any guys resented him outta jealousy.

[B.]

Great info B. and great thread.

Question...in the '25 years after Valachi' documents where Cafaro's testimony is listed he doesn't mention anything about Barney Bellomo. Just curious if that information is on another transcript or where this info could be found. I assume this is where the info about Barney being made in 1977 as a young 20 something year old. Would love to read that info if it is available.

I don't have Cafaro's verbatim testimony available but here is what Capeci said:

Bellomo's father, a reputed Genovese soldier who was close to Salerno and would die from natural causes about a year later, had retained Peluso to represent his son, according to the report, a summary of a Peluso debriefing by agents and federal prosecutors.

Before he passed away from a lingering illness, the elder Bellomo asked "Fat Tony to look out" for his boy because he had no one "on the street other than his father" to watch out for him, Peluso said, according to the report.

"Salerno informed Bellomo's father that nothing would happen to Bellomo," said the report, which noted that the budding gangster was placed in the crew of an East Harlem capo who was close to Salerno and would later serve briefly as a family underboss, Saverio "Sammy Black" Santora.

"Barney remained Barney" until Santora died in 1987. Then, Barney began "doing what Sammy was doing, acting like he was running the show," Peluso said, adding that "it was a shock" to other wiseguys that young Barney "was calling the shots. … Talk on the street at the time was that Chin [Vincent Gigante] put Bellomo in charge of the family."

Peluso's account of Barney's early years jibes with earlier reports, including information from turncoat mobster Vincent "Fish" Cafaro, who cooperated in 1986. In a 1990 court affidavit, six years before Barney's first federal indictment — and three years before Gigante was hit with charges that would lead to his conviction in 1997 — noted federal mob investigator Kenneth McCabe named Bellomo as the family's acting boss.

Would be curious if anyone has seen vague references to a "Sal/Sally", "Sam/Sammy", "Toto", or other nickname for Salvatore on lists of unconfirmed/unidentified Genovese soldiers, particularly from the Bronx. It's also possible he used another nickname since we know virtually nothing about him. He may have been mentioned by informants but his true name was unknown.

[MichaelGiovanni]

Thanks B. I've read that article before but always like reading it again.

Here is a great article about Bellomo being involved in a high speed car chase with the Feds if anyone is interested.

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/07/nyre ... ormer.html

[DPG]

Thanks B. I've read that article before but always like reading it again.

Here is a great article about Bellomo being involved in a high speed car chase with the Feds if anyone is interested.

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/07/nyre ... ormer.html

Believe I'd channel my inner Dale Earnhardt too if I had $200,000 in cash on me.

[B.]

Thanks for sharing. That's the funny thing about Barney Bellomo -- he rose through the ranks quickly at a young age with a reputation for being mature for his age, low-key, etc. but he was an accused heroin dealer with a weapons possession charge who was involved in a high-speed chase. On paper that doesn't sound too different from some of the kids causing a ruckus in Brooklyn. I suppose it's not that far off from Gigante in the 1950s, though. Like they say about quarterbacks, sometimes it depends on the "intangibles".

[Wiseguy]

Thanks for sharing. That's the funny thing about Barney Bellomo -- he rose through the ranks quickly at a young age with a reputation for being mature for his age, low-key, etc. but he was an accused heroin dealer with a weapons possession charge who was involved in a high-speed chase. On paper that doesn't sound too different from some of the kids causing a ruckus in Brooklyn. I suppose it's not that far off from Gigante in the 1950s, though. Like they say about quarterbacks, sometimes it depends on the "intangibles".

Didn't hurt that Fat Tony was looking out for him too.

[MichaelGiovanni]

Thanks for sharing. That's the funny thing about Barney Bellomo -- he rose through the ranks quickly at a young age with a reputation for being mature for his age, low-key, etc. but he was an accused heroin dealer with a weapons possession charge who was involved in a high-speed chase. On paper that doesn't sound too different from some of the kids causing a ruckus in Brooklyn. I suppose it's not that far off from Gigante in the 1950s, though. Like they say about quarterbacks, sometimes it depends on the "intangibles".

Here is a quote from another article I found on Bellomo that speaks to his quick rise in that life.

"It is unclear what murder or act of violence the young man had committed to earn his button, but in the mid-1970s he would certainly had to have violently proven himself in some substantial fashion to be made at just 20 years of age – a fact that only adds to his mysterious aura given the myriad youngsters who were committing contemporary violent acts to obtain the membership that Liborio achieved so early in his criminal career."

I've often wondered what it is about Bellomo that allowed him so much success in his chosen field so early. Could it just be his connection to Salerno and his father being a made guy? I think it is those "intangibles" as B. mentioned. No doubt there were others from that era similar in age who were just as connected and capable of violence as he was. But yet he was made at 20, a captain in his early 30's and chosen by the chin to be the next in line. Being low key and under the radar had to be a huge reason why he was and is successful.