The Cicale Files

[Lupara]

As far as I know the Islands are still mobbed up, but they are keeping a low profile. One of them is Francesco Corallo, who owns several casinos on the Dutch Antilles. A few years ago the then prime minister of Curacao, Gerrit Schotte, wanted to give Corallo a high position in the Islands bank.

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[Wiseguy]

There also wasn't/isn't just one faction in Montreal and it's possible or even likely that some members distanced themselves from the formal Bonanno affiliation while others did not, which may have been exploited by Montagna.

That's my underlying question.

The title The Sixth Family obviously suggests that it is, or at least was, a single, monolithic organization. But in the book itself one finds the authors writing about the "network of clans that has gelled around the Rizzuto organization" while, at the same time, also writing about how these clans "were not disparate strands but part of a single organization." Was Italian organized crime in Montreal a single "family" with Vito Rizzuto as it's boss? Or was it a grouping of different clans, cells, etc., often interconnected and networking with each other, and Vito Rizzuto had the most authority among them? If it was the latter, calling them a "family" would be akin to calling the New York Mafia a "family."

That said, while it is true that the FBI had both Nick and Vito Rizzuto as Bonanno members (which they were), and Vito was indeed indicted as a Bonanno soldier, it's interesting that in the 2014 indictment of Alessandro Taloni, he is labeled "an alleged associate of the Montreal-based Rizzuto organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra" and "Taloni and ten members of a Montreal-based drug distribution organization affiliated with the Rizzuto and Bonanno crime families." Obviously a distinction is made there, albeit there are still connections between the two shown in the case itself.

It seems the Montreal crew was semi-autonomous to one degree or another for a long time. And, according to Vitale and Lino, even before the Sciascia murder, the contact wasn't always the strongest. Hence the reason Massino tried to strengthen those ties after he took over as boss. Perhaps the Rizzutos did formally break off, whether in 1999 or a few years later, but was/is the Rizzuto crime family as large, powerful, and all encompassing as it's made out to be in The Sixth Family? I guess it all depends on what/who one considers the Rizzuto family to be or to have been. Were the Rizzutos synonymous with the entire Italian underworld in Montreal? Did the Rizzutos have a "global" reach or can it better be explained by the more international scope of the Sicilian Mafia clans which the Rizzutos had ties to and dealings with?

[B.]

As far as the Rizzuto/Bonanno distinction goes, the Cotronis were talked about the same way. LE would refer to them as the "Cotroni organization" because as a criminal entity they had a lot of autonomy.What makes the mob so crazy are the different layers to their affiliations, though. Someone can seem completely independent, but if they get introduced to someone as a member and that persons asks them who they're with, there's really only one answer they can give.

This doesn't necessarily apply to the current Montreal situation, though. With all of the problems, plus rumors of the Gambino family getting involved, I wouldn't be surprised to hear anything about the Montreal group... i.e. they could be Bonannos, Gambinos, their own family, not recognized as Cosa Nostra, etc.

[Lupara]

I think it can best be described as there being a Montreal organization, of which some of its ranking members were inducted into the Bonanno family and formed a Bonanno crew. This group ultimately answered to the Bonanno family, but for the most part was allowed to attend to its own affairs. They were not an ordinary crew because they had an entire province for themselves with a large Italian community. This is why they were destined to become a family in their own right pretty much from the start. Bonanno must have realized that and so created this situation. I think you can compare them somewhat to Rocco's secret regime in The Godfather. If you read the book you know what I mean.

Also, and this may be a bit off-topic, I want to give another reason why I believe Nick Rizzuto had dual membership. During his dispute with Violi, Giuseppe Settecasi, Mafia capo of the Agrigento province, came to Montreal to mediate in the conflict. He supported Rizzuto which definitely helped Rizzuto's case. If Nick Rizzuto would have been a full Bonanno member, it would have been none of Settecasi's business to do so. That would be comparable to the Corleonesi deciding whether Barney should be boss of the Genoveses just because he has Corleone ancestry.

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[JCB1977]

I hope Cicale and Ed Leiber get hit on the same day. Hopefully in bed with each other in the Super 8 Motel by the Pelham Bay Diner. That'd be a nice irony.

I've been posting for YEARS about the character of both Sciascia and Mancuso. But seriously, where the fuck does Cicale come off trying to tell people what happened in Canada before he was even made himself?

And Cicale has an opinion on the murder of the three captains, huh? He was twelve fucking years old when that shit happened. And ten when they ripped off Lufthansa. But the Feds used him, so it must all be true.

EB, ED is a member here, take it to the Graveyard.......Soliai

LOL

[antimafia]

There also wasn't/isn't just one faction in Montreal and it's possible or even likely that some members distanced themselves from the formal Bonanno affiliation while others did not, which may have been exploited by Montagna.

That's my underlying question.

The title The Sixth Family obviously suggests that it is, or at least was, a single, monolithic organization. But in the book itself one finds the authors writing about the "network of clans that has gelled around the Rizzuto organization" while, at the same time, also writing about how these clans "were not disparate strands but part of a single organization." Was Italian organized crime in Montreal a single "family" with Vito Rizzuto as it's boss? Or was it a grouping of different clans, cells, etc., often interconnected and networking with each other, and Vito Rizzuto had the most authority among them? If it was the latter, calling them a "family" would be akin to calling the New York Mafia a "family."

That said, while it is true that the FBI had both Nick and Vito Rizzuto as Bonanno members (which they were), and Vito was indeed indicted as a Bonanno soldier, it's interesting that in the 2014 indictment of Alessandro Taloni, he is labeled "an alleged associate of the Montreal-based Rizzuto organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra" and "Taloni and ten members of a Montreal-based drug distribution organization affiliated with the Rizzuto and Bonanno crime families." Obviously a distinction is made there, albeit there are still connections between the two shown in the case itself.

It seems the Montreal crew was semi-autonomous to one degree or another for a long time. And, according to Vitale and Lino, even before the Sciascia murder, the contact wasn't always the strongest. Hence the reason Massino tried to strengthen those ties after he took over as boss. Perhaps the Rizzutos did formally break off, whether in 1999 or a few years later, but was/is the Rizzuto crime family as large, powerful, and all encompassing as it's made out to be in The Sixth Family? I guess it all depends on what/who one considers the Rizzuto family to be or to have been. Were the Rizzutos synonymous with the entire Italian underworld in Montreal? Did the Rizzutos have a "global" reach or can it better be explained by the more international scope of the Sicilian Mafia clans which the Rizzutos had ties to and dealings with?

I was searching the Net for the indictment that named Alessandro Taloni, whose name appeared in the news in February 2013 several weeks after Jimmy Cournoyer's did. I searched the DOJ site. I googled certain words; then, based on the results, googled other terms. Ultimately, I failed to find the indictment. My disappointment, though, was more than offset by finding the June 10, 2013 file at the following link:

http://nylawyer.nylj.com/adgifs/decisio ... nogvmt.pdf

If you copy and paste the first part of that URL -- http://nylawyer.nylj.com -- in your browser's address bar, you will be redirected to the site for the New York Law Journal, a periodical founded in 1888.

I haven't read through the whole document yet. Below are some excerpts that I know you will find as intriguing and enlightening as I did. Please note that the page numbers I placed in parentheses at the end of each excerpt refer to the page number(s) seen at the bottom of the pages, not the page(s) of the PDF. Please note as well that within the square brackets, I have injected my own parenthetical information.

Excerpts:

As detailed in Massino’s own testimony, as official boss, Massino ordered the murder of 1999 Gerlando Sciascia. In addition, as a Bonanno family member who was close with former boss Phil “Rusty” Rastelli, Massino was involved in approving, planning and orchestrating several other murders. As detailed in his testimony at the Basciano II trial, Massino organized and participated in the murders of Tommy “Zooma,” Joseph “Doo Doo” Pastore, the Three Captains, Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano and Vito Borelli. In addition, he had a role in ordering and approving the murders of Anthony Mirra, Caesar Bonventre, Gabriel Infanti, Russell Mauro and Joseph Lopresti. (p. 4)

In addition to making the Massino Tapes, the information that Massino provided to the government during debriefing has been of significant value to the government. During proffer sessions with the government, Massino was forthcoming and helpful. He provided specific, detailed information regarding his personal history, his induction into the Bonanno family, and the inner workings of the Bonanno family and La Cosa Nostra in New York City, including information about all five New York City-based families, as well as the Decavalcante family and the Bonanno family’s connections to narcotics trafficking in Montreal, Canada. (pp. 10, 11)

Massino also admitted his role in, and identified others’ roles in, additional murders and murder conspiracies, including the murder of Tommy “Zooma” in the late 1960s (which was previously unknown to law enforcement), the 1976 murder of Joseph “Doo Doo” Pastore, the murder of Vito Borelli in the late 1970s or approximately 1980, the 1986 murder of Robert Capasio, the murder of Joseph Lopresti in the late 1980s or early 1990s, and conspiracies to murder Anthony “Bruno” Indelicato (in 1981) and Anthony Donato (in approximately 1993). (p. 11)

During his cooperation, Massino has been debriefed on dozens of occasions by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecutors, and by representatives of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Also as part of his cooperation, Massino spent significant amounts of time reviewing the Massino Tapes in order to assist the government with the preparation of accurate transcripts and in preparing for trial. He provided specific information on what the conversations were about (due to the fact that the conversations, like many mafia conversations, are at times difficult to understand due to mafia members’ use of guarded language, nicknames, slang and shorthand terms) and he also identified the nicknames of the numerous organized crime members and associates that were discussed during the conversations. (p. 13)

During debriefings, Massino provided information about hundreds of individuals associated with organized crime, including members and associates of all five La Cosa Nostra families that are based in New York City. The information that Massino provided has been used in the prosecution of ten cases, and has greatly assisted the government in the continued dismantlement of La Cosa Nostra and the Bonanno family, in particular. Massino’s cooperation was instrumental in the prosecution of many significant Bonanno family leaders, who took control of the family after the arrests of Massino and Vitale. As detailed herein, his cooperation was useful in the investigations of four successive leaders of the Bonanno family, including Vincent Basciano, Michael Mancuso, Salvatore Montagna^5 [footnote 5—see below] and Vincent Badalamenti. (p. 14)

^5 In 2009, Salvatore Montagna, the then-acting boss of the Bonanno family, was deported to Canada based, in part, upon information provided by Massino. Specifically, Massino was willing to testify to Montagna’s association with and induction into the Bonanno family, as well as his participation in illegal activity including extortion, loansharking and illegal gambling. (p. 14)

Most of the defendants pled guilty, including John Joseph Spirito. Specifically, Spirito pled guilty in September 2005 to racketeering conspiracy involving, as a predicate act, the murder of Gerlando Sciascia. Pursuant to the terms of his plea agreement, Spirito was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of twenty years. Although the defendants in this case were indicted prior to Massino’s cooperation, Massino’s availability as a witness against Spirito likely influenced his determination to plead guilty. Massino, who had personally approved the plot to murder Sciascia, would have been available to testify against Spirito had he chosen to proceed to trial. (pp. 25, 26)

The Urso prosecution charged each active member of the Bonanno family administration then at liberty and virtually every criminal supervisor in that enterprise. In total, twenty-eight members and associates of the Bonanno family were indicted for more than fifty different criminal acts, including sixteen murders, murder conspiracies, and attempted murders. Every indicted defendant has either pled guilty or been convicted after trial, including the acting boss/acting consigliere, the acting underboss, eight then or former captains or acting captains, thirteen soldiers, including a powerful member of the mafia from Canada [read: Vito Rizzuto], and four associates. (pp. 27, 28)

K. United States v. Jimmy Cournoyer, et al., 12-CR-065 (S-2)(RJD)

Massino also provided assistance in the prosecution of defendants Jimmy Cournoyer, Alessandro Taloni and John Venizelos in United States v. Jimmy Cournoyer, et al., 12-CR-065 (S-2)(RJD). In this case, the defendants were charged variously with narcotics trafficking charges, and related firearms and obstruction counts. All three defendants ultimately pled guilty; however, prior to their guilty pleas, Massino participated in a witness preparation session with the government. Had the defendants proceeded to trial, Massino would have been an important witness to testify regarding background about Vito Rizzuto, the leader of the Montreal-based organized crime crew that has a long-term connection to the Bonanno crime family. (p. 41)

A. Three Captains Body Search

In October 2004, FBI Special Agents executed a search warrant at a vacant lot in Queens based on information provided by Massino and others, and recovered the remains of Bonanno family captains Philip “Phil Lucky” Giaccone and Dominick “Big Trin” Trinchera. Giaccone and Trinchera were murdered and their bodies were buried more than two decades earlier in May of 1981 after the Three Captains murder. This evidence would have been used at the trial of Bonanno family soldier Vito Rizzuto, but Rizzuto pled guilty prior to trial. (pp. 42, 43)

[Laurentian]

Alessandro Taloni pleaded guilty to various charges relating to drug trafficking in May 2013.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/al ... rafficking

[Laurentian]

Alessandro Taloni pleaded guilty to various charges relating to drug trafficking in May 2013.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/al ... rafficking

And in May 2014, he received a 10-year sentence for drug and money laundering violations.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/al ... prisonment

[Angelo Santino]

Bump. This story in the start of the thread still makes me laugh. I recommend it for anyone who hasn't read.

[JohnnyS]

I was in fits of laughter reading that Tony Green Urso story. Jesus Christ I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

[dave]

Where is Cicale at these days? I remember him starting up a YouTube channel at one point years ago.

[The Greek]

Where is Cicale at these days? I remember him starting up a YouTube channel at one point years ago.

He's supposedly managing singers now.

[Amershire_Ed]

I was in fits of laughter reading that Tony Green Urso story. Jesus Christ I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

Basciano is somehow involved in 3 or 4 of the “funniest” mob stories out there.

His infamous “there’s no guns, no dna, no ballistics, no evidence…….& plus I didn’t even do it” rant during a meeting with Joe C, Urso, and Tartaglione. Tartaglione was wired up trying to get Basciano to talk about a murder.

There was the Frank Santoro hit where a car pulled up as Santoro was walking his dog late at night. Basciano got out of the car and Santoro reportedly said “oh no!” and Basciano responded “oh yes!”—and started blasting.

This meeting with Cicale and Urso in the supermarket lot.

Even his conversation with Massino in MDC when Massino was wired up is a goddamn riot. Massino is bitching about having diarrhea. He’s grilling Basciano about the Pizzolo murder to the point where Basciano basically admits he had him killed because “he was an annoying fucking kid”.