Visiting New Orleans

[Angelo Santino]

Another observation based on what I seen- there are "Suspected Members" ie associates who came from other cities and seemingly spent very little time in Nola. Looking at the above, Carlos Marcello had some financial dealing with Philip Rizzuto. From the FBI's POV that would qualify the two men as associates of each other. But from the Mafia perspective, Rizzuto was "with" Kansas City.

It gives me the impression that Nola was much like LA, it had its own Family but had other members/associates from other cities in their backyard. And you look at the operations/actions of Nola members/associates they aren't really engaged in the type of stuff that outsiders consider mafia- murders, drugs, extortion, none of that fun stuff. They all just seem like sleepy housecats who go into businesses with each other. Marcello, as boss, seems to go into businesses with these people and assist them financially when needed, it doesn't seem to be a "trickle up" relationship. This was in the 1960's, Pete Milano catches shit for being similar at the end of his life. Milano's lack of a large family combined with others moving into his "territory" as we outsiders consider it combined with the fact that none of the Family members are really hard core criminals leads people to write off LA when they compare it to the volcano that was New York. New Orleans was LA 40 years before LA was the Mickey Mouse Mafia, if we're going by that perspective.

The viability argument would render New Orleans as semi-defunct by this time. Yet it lasted another 40 years up to at least the 2000's where Michael DiLeonardo can confirm its existence if not still around today.

[Angelo Santino]

69 names, 43 names complete. The rest I'll need help with. Some of the information may just not be available.

First up-

Anthony Bono
10/19/1902
New Orleans
New Orleans (He was incarcerated in the 50's so I can't get an address)
Father - Alphonse Bono
Mother - Antonia Graffia
Wife - Frances Sansone

Alfonso was born 1860's and arrived in 1893. Closest match on the manifests list him as being from "Loreto" which is listed between Naples and Salerno. Given the surname Graffia and marriage to Sansone, makes me wonder if he's Sicilian.

[Angelo Santino]

Actually, here's the list of names I can't find their origins for. If anyone knows or has any clues it will help.

Anthony Bono
Nicholas J. Bonura
Philip Bonura
Joseph Bonura
Joseph Chimento
Anthony Cigali
James L. Culotta
Guido Feraci
Vittorio Vincenzo Gallo
Joe Impastato
Nino La Scalzo
Antonio Messina
Joseph Albert Porretto
Joseph Robert Provenzano
Victor Emile Saladino
Salvatore Segreto
Francesco Todaro
Salvatore Vitale
Frank Leo Vuci
Felice Gallino
Frank Ruffano
Salvatore DiPiazza

[Angelo Santino]

The Bonura's father was Domenico Bonora who emigrated in 1892 to Nola which just says Italy. There were other Bonoras in Nola from Contessa Entellina and some in Texas from Gibellina. But with these Nola brothers I can't confirm. Contessa Entellina sounds right though as other members came from there. Mother's surname Capo, there's other in Nola who all come from Salaparuta.

[stubbs]

Great stuff B and CC! I didn’t know that about Rizzuto and KC.

This article has some good info on Rizzuto. One interesting part:

Rizzuto had longstanding ties to the Los Angeles and New Orleans Mafia. In 1968, the FBI followed Rizzuto, who owned two French Quarter bars and the Café de la Paix restaurant, as he picked up two Kansas City Mafia bigshots from the New Orleans airport and drove them to Marcello’s Airline Highway Town and Country Motel; where Marcello held court. In 1979, Rizzuto acted as a go between for his cousin, Los Angeles Mafia underboss Samuel Sciortino, and Marcello.

Interesting that while Rizzuto worked closely/was an associate of KC, and his cousin was the underboss of LA. Also says Rizzuto is Joe Gagliano’s uncle. After a quick Google search I found his father, Frank Gagliano, Sr’s, obituary which shows his wife as Phylis Rizzuto Gagliano. So, Rizzuto’s cousin was UB of LA and his brother-in-law was UB of New Orleans.

Rizzuto is still alive apparently, and runs a restaurant group in New Orleans. There’s a pic of him with his sons on their website. He was listed as 41 in a 1981 NY Times article, so he must be 82 now.

[Antiliar]

Although this doesn't fit into the 1963 timeline, this is part of New Orleans history. I wrote about Leonardo Cipolla before, but now I have some updated information thanks to records that weren't previously available.

Leonardo Cipolla's name first made the news when the dead bodies of Dominick DiGiovanni and Joseph Gaeto, both loaded with buckshot, were found in a parked car in front of Cipolla's home at 829 Tupelo on May 9, 1921. Cipolla went on the lam, but police found him hiding out at Giuseppe Bucaro's home upstairs his grocery at 1200 Magnolia Street. Bucaro was DiGiovanni's cousin by marriage, but other sources say he was Cipolla's cousin. (DiGiovanni was born in San Cipirello in 1896, and his father Gaetano was married to Angela Bucaro.) Police found weapons and charged Cipolla with the murders, although it would be unlikely that he would have killed anyone outside his own front lawn. More likely it was a message.

Cipolla was born August 23, 1883, in Partinico to Giuseppe Cipolla and Marianna Costa, and migrated to America in 1905 at the age of 21. He claimed his destination was his brother-in-law Vito Di Giorgio in Brooklyn, although it is uncertain if they were actually related. In 1915 while living at 437 Park Avenue and working in barber supplies, he married Maria Saladino, a native of Camporeale, of 434 Marcy Avenue. Considering that they lived in South Williamsburg, it is likely that Cipolla was linked to - if not a member of - the borgata of Cola Schiro. Many suspected members of the Schiro borgata moved on to lead their own crime families across the country. The New Orleans district attorney's office believed Cipolla was the head of that city's Mafia.

Assuming the prosecutors were right, Cipolla wouldn't have immediately replaced the last known boss, Vincenzo Moreci, who was murdered in 1915. Cipolla did not arrive in the Crescent City until two years later, so either the city's Mafia relied on an acting boss or a panel, or it had a short-lived boss who was either murdered or stepped down, either voluntarily or by force. Perhaps Moreci's death left the borgata in disarray and required an outsider to set it straight. At this time we don't have the answers.

Police were led to Cipolla's home following the killing of Dallas Calmes around 12:30 am on May 8. Calmes was a restaurant owner and farmer who lived next to the Merchant's & Farmer's Bank in Independence, Louisiana. Calmes wife heard the sounds of several men attempting to break into the bank and alerted her husband. He thought someone was trying to break into his farm, and was shot and mortally wounded by gunmen he couldn't see. Several associates and suspects were rounded up and questioned in the hours following the murder. Several of them had the answers viciously beaten out of them by the posse and sheriff's deputies.

Around 7:30 pm on Sunday, May 8, Joseph Giglio and Roy Leona were captured. It turned out that Giglio's mail - and the mail of the others involved in the Calmes killing was delivered to Tony Carrolla's (or Carrollo's) store at 903 St. Maurice Street, but picked up by Mrs. Leonardo Cipolla of 843 Tupelo Street. Since the address was only a few blocks away from their location, Assistant DA Thomas Craven and some police officers went to question her. When the approached the Cipolla home they saw a Ford sedan with two men inside. When one pushed the driver, he fell into the dashboard, already dead. The passenger was non-responsive. Inside the home it appeared that the Cipollas left in a hurry.

Two of the men connected with the attempted bank robbery were Andrea Lamantia, reportedly 22 years old and living at 26 Wabash Avenue, and Joseph Rini of 1150 Milton Avenue (two others, Rosario "Roy" Leona and Joseph Giglio, were also recent arrivals from Chicago). Both denied knowing Cipolla. After ADA Craven finished questioning Rini, a tipster told them Cipolla could be found in a barn in St. Bernard Parish. Instead they found a stolen car belonging to Vito Di Giorgio, who recently moved to Los Angeles. Natale Deamore (or D'Amore), angry over the trouble and beatings he suffered following the failed robbery, told on his confederates. He named them and said that Anthony Prestia and his son Leon owned the car they used and Joseph Bocchio was the driver. Bocchio had also lived with the Di Giorgio's before they moved to California.

Early morning on Thursday, May 12, the police were ordered to raid Bucaro's home, where they discovered Cipolla hiding. He was taken to ADA Craven for questioning. Cipolla avoided giving straight answers and quickly lawyered up. Cipolla was represented by attorney George Gulotta, a native of Corleone who may have been related to Giuseppe Morello. Craven believed that Cipolla masterminded the bank robbery and the two murders in front of his home, but he had little evidence to prove it. Nevertheless, Craven convinced a grand jury to indict Cipolla for the murders in front of his house. Cipolla obtained a $10,000 bond and was never seen again. In Louisiana.

In late 1921 a man surnamed Cipolla was killed in St. Louis, Missouri, and investigators put 2 and 2 together to yield 5 to conclude that Leonardo was the victim. In fact two different Cipollas were killed in Missouri in December 1921, Don Cipolla in Kansas City and Joseph Cipolla in St. Louis. Both were linked to organized crime, but neither was Leonardo.

The Cipollas returned to Brooklyn and moved to 621 Park Avenue, not far from his old address, and opened a candy store. He sold wine out of his cellar on the side. In December 1925, the New Orleans police received a telegram saying that Cipolla was in police custody in New York. "Do you want him?" The six men involved in the bank robbery and killing of Dallas Calmes had already been hanged on May 9, 1924, so Cipolla was no longer needed. One of the prisoners gave an interview shortly before his execution. He said that the idea for the robbery was Vito Di Giorgio's. Cipolla had no involvement in either the robbery nor the murders in front of his house.

In 1935 he was questioned about the murders of Vincenzo Troia, his stepson and Frank Longo in Newark, and released. On July 8, 1943, he was shot five times and left mortally wounded, dying in a Brooklyn hospital. Police believed it was a vendetta killing, but no one was ever charged. The reason for his murder and who was behind it remains a mystery.

[B.]

Awesome work, man. Cipolla also went to Italy with Schiro in 1937.

The "House of Schiro" bosses you guys identified years ago continues to grow. What it reminds me of are those NFL coaching trees, like all of the assistant coaches who started with the 49ers under Bill Walsh. Schiro comes across like a defacto "capo dei capi" within his own network.

[Antiliar]

Awesome work, man. Cipolla also went to Italy with Schiro in 1937.

The "House of Schiro" bosses you guys identified years ago continues to grow. What it reminds me of are those NFL coaching trees, like all of the assistant coaches who started with the 49ers under Bill Walsh. Schiro comes across like a defacto "capo dei capi" within his own network.

Thanks. There was more I could have added but it already was lengthy. Yeah, Schiro definitely had a big house. Maybe there's something in Magaddino's rants that could provide a little backstory to his borgata germinating so many leaders.

[B.]

Only thing I'm aware of is after he was inducted Schiro personally mentored him and told him about bosses like Mineo and LoMonte. Got the impression Schiro was grooming Magaddino for a future leadership position so maybe he did that with select people.

The Cipolla brothers in Ontario were suspected Buffalo members, not sure where they were from.

Cipolla being from Partinico brings to mind his paesan Frank Coppola's later time in NO. Their surnames are somewhat similar and Coppola's entry to the US was shady (fleeing murder charge) but his nephew was made in Sicily and used Coppola so maybe nothing to it beyond being paesani.

[B.]

- Vincenzo "Jimmy" Campo from Siculiana filed a declaration of intention in Detroit in 1928. You don't think of Agrigento there. He previously arrived to Boston in 1921 where his brother Paolo would continue to reside. Nicola Gentile's friend Gaetano Marino in Boston may have come from Siculiana.

- Jimmy's brother Stefano Campo lived in Canada and Jimmy visited him there. A Carlo "Charles" Campo was identified as a heroin trafficker involved with the Montreal Bonanno faction from Agrigento, not sure if he was from Siculiana or Cattolica Eraclea but presumably he was from one of those villages. One of Jimmy's brothers was also named Charles but lived in NO. Nicola Gentile visited Quebec circa WWI and the Siculiana colony there goes way back.

- Jimmy Campo's wife was a Catalanotto whose family came from Villafranca Sicula, Agrigento. Recall that mid-1910s Chicago leader Pietro Catalanotto was from Villafranca as well. The wife's mother was a Gagliano from Villafranca, don't see any obvious connection to the NO Gaglianos.

- Maniaci identified Nick Campo as Springfield Family underboss. Bill Feather has him as Domenico Campo from Agrigento (the village?) but I haven't looked into it.

[antimafia]

Only thing I'm aware of is after he was inducted Schiro personally mentored him and told him about bosses like Mineo and LoMonte. Got the impression Schiro was grooming Magaddino for a future leadership position so maybe he did that with select people.

The Cipolla brothers in Ontario were suspected Buffalo members, not sure where they were from.

Cipolla being from Partinico brings to mind his paesan Frank Coppola's later time in NO. Their surnames are somewhat similar and Coppola's entry to the US was shady (fleeing murder charge) but his nephew was made in Sicily and used Coppola so maybe nothing to it beyond being paesani.

Matteo Cipolla (“Matthew”), the father of Charles and Frank, was born in Racalmuto (likely in 1883). Matteo was, along with these two sons, a suspected Buffalo Family member too. One of the birth records for Charles (b. 1913), who is older than Frank, shows that Charles’s birthplace was Wentworth, which at the time had already become a division of Hamilton, Ontario. Charles died relatively young in 1969, having passed away in Kingston, Ontario, a city that is about 195 mi. from Guelph (the Ontario city with which the three Cipollas were associated). Charles’s wife, Mary Ann, died in Guelph in 2012. I have never looked into why and for how long Charles Cipolla found himself in Kingston at the time of his death but I’m confident his presence in the city has contributed over the decades to the unsubstantiated rumours of the Italian mafia operating in Kingston.

[B.]

Thanks a ton. So more Ontario guys from Racalmuto.

[Antiliar]

There were a couple Cipolla brothers arrested for Black Hand extortion in 1908 with DiGiorgio and Chiappetta, but they were from Vallelunga. I dug into one of the brothers a while back:

Figured it out. "Stagellas" or whatever Cipolla was Stanislao Cipolla. He sailed on the S.S. Vincenzo Florio and arrived at the Port of New Orleans on Jan 24, 1906, when he was 18. He appears to have been traveling with someone with the surname of Giambellucca (can't make out the first name), who was 32 and also from Vallelunga. Depending on the record, he was born in April 25, 1887. He was born in Vallelunga, his father was Francesco and his brother Giovanni was already in New Orleans. He later moved to Dallas, Texas, where he was naturalized.

[Antiliar]

Giacomo Bucaro (the correct name of Giuseppe Bucaro mentioned in the write-up about Leonardo Cipolla) may have been a New Orleans Mafia member. He was killed in a car accident in 1939, and he also had several Chicago connections:

NO States 1939Mar22 Giacomo Bucaro obit.jpg

[stubbs]

Not sure y'all have come across this yet, but I thought it was super interesting.

I knew already that suspected NOLA boss Leoluca Trombadore was born in Corleone and was also first cousins, once removed to Guiseppe Morello. Researcher Justin Cascio says Morello wrote Trombadore four letters when he was in prison in Atlanta. I believe that info has been mentioned here before.

However, what I hadn't seen before is his brother Giovanni was a member back in Corleone. Giovanni's entry from Cascio, also has him described as:

...the consigliere and mediator between the Navarra and Liggio factions, and Antonio Governale, considered by his supporters and the police to be in direct line of succession to Don Michele Navarra, both disappear during the Navarra-Liggio war. Their wives receive anonymous letters in the same hand, indicating that the men would not be seen again.

That blew me away. We have the suspected boss of the New Orleans mafia as being from Corleone, and ran the family from 1947 until his death in 1963 (again, speculation at this point). He is also closely related to Morello (killed in 1930). And on top of that, during that same time period his brother is the consigliere of the Corleone family back in Sicily until he was killed in 1961.

Makes you wonder if that early connection was one of the reasons NOLA got close with the Genovese, which we later saw with the westside putting slot machines in Louisiana in the 40s. Were those connections between N.O. and NYC deeper, such as connections to the 116th Ave crew? Or, just between Leoluca and Giuseppe.

Also, I wonder if there were deeper connections between NOLA and Corleone. I remember reading somewhere that the Corleonesi in New Orleans were described as being very unorganized (in the 1920s I think?), but I can't remember where I came across that. So, I don't want to read too much into things and assume that the connections went a lot deeper than just Leoluca and his brother, unless we can find info that states otherwise. And if the connections did run deep, they may have also been severed when Liggio took power in '61.