Chicago Outfit Places of Origin

[PolackTony]

Excellent find.

He did, in fact, enter the US in 1923 at NYC bound for Chicago, under the name Giovanni Cannistraro. If what he later said was true and he used his brother’s passport, this subterfuge would indicate that he was fleeing serious legal trouble in Sicily, consistent with him having been charged with triple homicide back in Aragona.

In 1924, he applied for naturalization as Alfonso Cannistraro, stating that he operated a grocery store in Chicago’s Little Sicily and lived on the 400 block of W Division (Aiello Ground Zero). He subsequently filed his petition for naturalization in 1929, at which time he stated that he was living at Sedgwick and Division in Little Sicily. The petition was witnessed by two paesani from the Southside Aragonese colony, Alfonso Rotolo and Vincenzo Scifo. The former was president of the Società Aragona Sicula (the Southside Aragona Society, whereas the Northside also had its own Aragona Society). Both surnames have connections to figures subsequently involved with Rockford and Chicago LCN, as noted previously in this thread.

I’d agree that he was deported to face trial in Sicily and did not re-enter the US, as no subsequent records appear for either Alfonso or Giovanni Cannistraro.

[B.]

Great work. Anything we can learn about earlier Aragonesi is valuable especially when they connect to the mafia in Sicily.

[cavita]

Great work. Anything we can learn about earlier Aragonesi is valuable especially when they connect to the mafia in Sicily.

Cannistraro and Galluzzo were Aragonesi but it's interesting that the Frank Longo in the car accident with them was most likely THE Frank Longo that was hooked up with Vincenzo Troia in New Jersey.

[B.]

Great work. Anything we can learn about earlier Aragonesi is valuable especially when they connect to the mafia in Sicily.

Cannistraro and Galluzzo were Aragonesi but it's interesting that the Frank Longo in the car accident with them was most likely THE Frank Longo that was hooked up with Vincenzo Troia in New Jersey.

Yep, great detail. Shows the various Rockford paesani groups were already closely associating.

Aside from Longo and Immordino are you aware of any other Rockford guys who spent time in Frankfort / Utica? Chicago guys like Joe Aiello and Michele Mineo did but trying to recall if any other Rockford guys were ever there. Immordino's father was there very early on, around the turn of the century, and given Immordino was active in the San Giuseppe Jato Family before coming here I imagine his father associated with the mafia if he wasn't a member himself.

Salvatore Polizzi is relevant to those connections as he was in the Utica area and fled a murder investigation to Wisconsin which fits these networks but I don't remember seeing anything about Illinois with him. When I looked into him many years ago I don't think I confirmed his origins but suspected he was from San Giuseppe Jato given his surname and presence in Jatino-linked areas.

[PolackTony]

Salvatore Polizzi was indeed Jatino; confirmed by birth and marriage records in SGJ. There was a Salvatore Polizzi, born in 1881, who died in 1954 in Frankfort, NY, where he had operated a gas station for years. He had previous addresses in Rome, NY, and a stint in New Haven, which matched the known history of the mafioso Salvatore Polizzi.

Polizzi was born in SGJ in 1881 to Giuseppe Polizzi and Vita Gianniantonio. He married Rosa Davi of SGJ (matches the name of the wife of the guy in Frankfort also) in 1904, before immigrating to the US in 1905. Polizzi also returned to Sicily for a bit in the 1920s before returning to the US in 1929, arriving at NYC bound for Frankfort. Passenger manifest states that he was born in SGJ and gives his FIL, Battista Davi, as his contact back in SGJ.

[B.]

Thanks for confirming the suspicion. I figured he had to be from SGJ. I first found him about 7 or 8 years ago and meant to dig into him more but never followed up. Glad you were able to fill in some other details.

He apparently confessed to the murder of John Aiello in Frankfort in 1912 after having an alleged argument with John's brother Joe. Difficult to untangle the relations between various Aiellos and the ones in Frankfort/Utica used multiple spellings but the infamous Joe Aiello and early Utica member/leader Domenico Aiello lived in the area by then.

Polizzi was then accused of the Frankfort murder of night watchman Albert Dade in 1921, and along with fleeing to Rome, NY, and Windsor, Wisconsin, he also went to California where he was accused of another murder, the victim being an alleged underworld killer himself. He then shows up in New Haven as you said where he was reportedly involved in bootlegging. This is followed by Brooklyn where he was again connected to a murder in some capacity. He was also running gambling operations during his time in Rome, NY. Everywhere he went he appears to have been involved in illegal activity and violence.

The stay in Windsor, WI, makes sense given it is just outside of Madison where Jatini were active in the local Family and he would have found paesans in NYC but I'm not sure where in Brooklyn he stayed. Would be good to know as SGJ / San Cipirello had ongoing links to the Bonannos. There was a Salvatore Polizzi from SGJ of the same age who in 1906 arrived to Brooklyn right where Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Brownsville meet. He apparently had an uncle "John Zucci" in Rome, NY, and Rome being so close to Utica had many links to Utica underworld figures, including the early Calabrians.

I didn't know he returned to Sicily for a time in the 1920s. His return to Sicily would have followed his legal trouble and lamming it around the country so easy to imagine he went back to escape the heat although he'd have quickly found out Mori was dishing even more heat in SGJ. He was described in newspapers as a "Black Hand member" with "Sicilian friends from coast to coast" -- I'm confident he was a member of the Utica Family / decina (likely both since he died in 1954).

I'd say it's a given he knew Troia, Longo, Riela, Immordino, etc. He initially caught my interest too because of the possibility of a relation to Frank Polizzi, himself connected/related to Riela.

[cavita]

Great work. Anything we can learn about earlier Aragonesi is valuable especially when they connect to the mafia in Sicily.

Cannistraro and Galluzzo were Aragonesi but it's interesting that the Frank Longo in the car accident with them was most likely THE Frank Longo that was hooked up with Vincenzo Troia in New Jersey.

Yep, great detail. Shows the various Rockford paesani groups were already closely associating.

Aside from Longo and Immordino are you aware of any other Rockford guys who spent time in Frankfort / Utica? Chicago guys like Joe Aiello and Michele Mineo did but trying to recall if any other Rockford guys were ever there. Immordino's father was there very early on, around the turn of the century, and given Immordino was active in the San Giuseppe Jato Family before coming here I imagine his father associated with the mafia if he wasn't a member himself.

Salvatore Polizzi is relevant to those connections as he was in the Utica area and fled a murder investigation to Wisconsin which fits these networks but I don't remember seeing anything about Illinois with him. When I looked into him many years ago I don't think I confirmed his origins but suspected he was from San Giuseppe Jato given his surname and presence in Jatino-linked areas.

I'm not aware of any other Rockford people that spent time in the Frankfort/Utica area... I can only think of Anthony Basile, Rockford member who was born in Rochester, NY but that is quite a distance from there. I'm not ruling out that some may have spent time there and I haven't found it buried in some FBI files, but maybe some day.