Five Families 1931

[Antiliar]

I haven't seen a chart you've made yet where I didn't like the design. Enjoy the creativity.

[Antiliar]

Can any of you guys explain with a little detail this "Corleonesi break-up" I've seen mentioned on this forum a couple of times. And would it be accurate to assume that after this breakup, the majority of the guys whom were under this band of Corleonesi, followed whomever was from their hometown and the neighboring areas back in Sicily? And that was part reason of how the families came to be formed?

If you're thinking that the Corleonesi formed a bunch of Families, there's no evidence for that. There were only two Corleonesi-majority Families, and they were the Morello and Luchese Families. The Luchese and Masseria Families both formed from the old Morello Family, but it looks like Morello and Masseria broke away from what became the Reina-Gagliano-Luchese Family.

After Morello was released from prison he wanted to go back to his old Family and become the boss again. D'Aquila thought that Morello not only wanted to become the boss of his old Family, but the capo di capi again. That threatened D'Aquila. Plus Morello appears to have ordered the killings of several important people who probably respected D'Aquila, so D'Aquila ordered the death penalty for Morello and all of his allies. Even Lupo and Umberto Valente, who were part of his own borgata. So they went around trying to get support from other bosses to get the death penalty removed. Eventually it was, under certain conditions: Valente would have to kill Masseria and Vincent Terranova, and Morello would have to give up the desire of ever becoming a boss again. So Morello installed Masseria -- who appears to have been with or closely associated with the Schiro Family -- as boss and he took the underboss spot. Sam Pollaccia became the consigliere, and Ciro Terranova was a capodecina. Frankie Yale and Frankie Marlow were two more capodecine.

Soon Masseria/Morello began "sneaking in" members, that is, making members who weren't vetted by the other bosses first, to increase their numbers. They have made powerful gang leaders captains, and the captains could bring in ten or more men as soldiers. The goal was to stand up to D'Aquila and maybe even take him out. That's eventually what happened.

[Cheech]

love the way the forum has been going lately. reinvigorated with charts and successions. thanks guys

[OlBlueEyesClub]

Wow, I thank you for all the information you just provided and even some if the clarifications. Just for conversations sake, I didn't think that the Corleonesi formed a bunch of families so to speak, I just figured the split was the reasoning for some of the families existence, mainly the Genovese. Because if it wasn't for Morello & Masseria they still would've been a part of the D'Aquila group, and whose to say the Luchese's would've even been among the families today. It's an interesting scenario to think about, but it's also a complete fantasy. I had no idea Masseria being boss was a result of Morello not being allowed to be boss again, not even of his own family. Its almost like an early version of the Merlino-Natale situation, except both men were presumed already made, unlike the previously mentioned. It also explains why according to most accounts, after the death of Morello, Masseria's chances of winning the war and lasting as boss of his family and boss of bosses, became slim. And as a result he was killed. From Bonanno's account he paints Morello as the real planner, the one who really knew whom to hit and advised Masseria, so with that along with everything you just said, seems like Morello was both the brains & braun behind Joe Masseria.

And how did Masseria manage to stay alive and be placed as boss by Morello if he was ordered to die, along with Vincenzo Terranova? And why would Morello agree to the murder of his brother (half-brothers, technically), and why would Ciro fall in line after this?

[Angelo Santino]

Just as a correction, the papers put these guys under Yale, but I don't know if they really were, at least not all of them. Giustra and Liconti were in the early Gambino Family. Abbatemarco and Piraino could have been Masseria men, or Profaci. Their relatives were Profaci/Colombo people.

Michael Abbatemarco
Giuseppe (“the Clutching Hand”) Piraino
John “Johnny Spanish” Giustra
Carmelo Liconti

Actually that chart was for the Masseria years. Do you have a 1931 list of soldiers for the Luciano years?

[Antiliar]

Wow, I thank you for all the information you just provided and even some if the clarifications. Just for conversations sake, I didn't think that the Corleonesi formed a bunch of families so to speak, I just figured the split was the reasoning for some of the families existence, mainly the Genovese. Because if it wasn't for Morello & Masseria they still would've been a part of the D'Aquila group, and whose to say the Luchese's would've even been among the families today. It's an interesting scenario to think about, but it's also a complete fantasy. I had no idea Masseria being boss was a result of Morello not being allowed to be boss again, not even of his own family. Its almost like an early version of the Merlino-Natale situation, except both men were presumed already made, unlike the previously mentioned. It also explains why according to most accounts, after the death of Morello, Masseria's chances of winning the war and lasting as boss of his family and boss of bosses, became slim. And as a result he was killed. From Bonanno's account he paints Morello as the real planner, the one who really knew whom to hit and advised Masseria, so with that along with everything you just said, seems like Morello was both the brains & braun behind Joe Masseria.

And how did Masseria manage to stay alive and be placed as boss by Morello if he was ordered to die, along with Vincenzo Terranova? And why would Morello agree to the murder of his brother (half-brothers, technically), and why would Ciro fall in line after this?

Just to clarify further I'll address the highlights
- Morello & Masseria were never part of the D'Aquila group, so there must be some confusion. D'Aquila was the boss of the Gambino Family (what we now call the Gambino Family) and the Boss of Bosses. So D'Aquila had his own borgata and Morello had his own borgata.

- Masseria managed to stay alive by avoiding being killed and killing Valenti. It's believed that Lucky Luciano was the triggerman who killed Valenti.

- I think that Vincenzo Terranova was actually the boss (briefly) before Masseria. With Terranova dead, Morello chose Masseria.

- Morello never agreed to the murders of his brothers. Nick was killed while Morello was still in prison, and D'Aquila ordered Vincenzo's death, probably with Valenti as one of the shooters. Joe Biondo may have been part of the hit team. Ciro never had to "fall in line" because he was always with Morello.

If you want more details I suggest you read our article: http://informer-journal.blogspot.com/p/ ... y-may.html

[bronx]

for you research men , a story ran in the 70's, not sure of the paper..called "the 200" a great break down of that time period ..good luck

[johnny_scootch]

love the way the forum has been going lately. reinvigorated with charts and successions. thanks guys

I echo his sentiment. Grazie

[OlBlueEyesClub]

Wow, I thank you for all the information you just provided and even some if the clarifications. Just for conversations sake, I didn't think that the Corleonesi formed a bunch of families so to speak, I just figured the split was the reasoning for some of the families existence, mainly the Genovese. Because if it wasn't for Morello & Masseria they still would've been a part of the D'Aquila group, and whose to say the Luchese's would've even been among the families today. It's an interesting scenario to think about, but it's also a complete fantasy. I had no idea Masseria being boss was a result of Morello not being allowed to be boss again, not even of his own family. Its almost like an early version of the Merlino-Natale situation, except both men were presumed already made, unlike the previously mentioned. It also explains why according to most accounts, after the death of Morello, Masseria's chances of winning the war and lasting as boss of his family and boss of bosses, became slim. And as a result he was killed. From Bonanno's account he paints Morello as the real planner, the one who really knew whom to hit and advised Masseria, so with that along with everything you just said, seems like Morello was both the brains & braun behind Joe Masseria.

And how did Masseria manage to stay alive and be placed as boss by Morello if he was ordered to die, along with Vincenzo Terranova? And why would Morello agree to the murder of his brother (half-brothers, technically), and why would Ciro fall in line after this?

Just to clarify further I'll address the highlights
- Morello & Masseria were never part of the D'Aquila group, so there must be some confusion. D'Aquila was the boss of the Gambino Family (what we now call the Gambino Family) and the Boss of Bosses. So D'Aquila had his own borgata and Morello had his own borgata.

- Masseria managed to stay alive by avoiding being killed and killing Valenti. It's believed that Lucky Luciano was the triggerman who killed Valenti.

- I think that Vincenzo Terranova was actually the boss (briefly) before Masseria. With Terranova dead, Morello chose Masseria.

- Morello never agreed to the murders of his brothers. Nick was killed while Morello was still in prison, and D'Aquila ordered Vincenzo's death, probably with Valenti as one of the shooters. Joe Biondo may have been part of the hit team. Ciro never had to "fall in line" because he was always with Morello.

If you want more details I suggest you read our article: http://informer-journal.blogspot.com/p/ ... y-may.html

Not the D'Aquila group, that was my mistake, but the overall Corleonesi group Morello was apart of in East Harlem. Didn't Morello account for only one of the Corleonesi groups, the second being D'Aquila? If so, then were exactly does a "split" come in, sorry if this is getting or seems repetitive, but I just have a genuine interest in knowledge on relation to the early 19th century "Mafia in America" period. And I'll pay for that informers article as soon as I can.


And yeah according to Mike Dash' book, Nick Terranova was the boss of Morello's group while he was still in prison, and Nicks death was in result with a beef with the LoMonte's. Was that in connection with everything we've been speaking on, was that a precursor act to the Castellamarese War?

[Angelo Santino]

Wow, I thank you for all the information you just provided and even some if the clarifications. Just for conversations sake, I didn't think that the Corleonesi formed a bunch of families so to speak, I just figured the split was the reasoning for some of the families existence, mainly the Genovese. Because if it wasn't for Morello & Masseria they still would've been a part of the D'Aquila group, and whose to say the Luchese's would've even been among the families today. It's an interesting scenario to think about, but it's also a complete fantasy. I had no idea Masseria being boss was a result of Morello not being allowed to be boss again, not even of his own family. Its almost like an early version of the Merlino-Natale situation, except both men were presumed already made, unlike the previously mentioned. It also explains why according to most accounts, after the death of Morello, Masseria's chances of winning the war and lasting as boss of his family and boss of bosses, became slim. And as a result he was killed. From Bonanno's account he paints Morello as the real planner, the one who really knew whom to hit and advised Masseria, so with that along with everything you just said, seems like Morello was both the brains & braun behind Joe Masseria.

And how did Masseria manage to stay alive and be placed as boss by Morello if he was ordered to die, along with Vincenzo Terranova? And why would Morello agree to the murder of his brother (half-brothers, technically), and why would Ciro fall in line after this?

Just to clarify further I'll address the highlights
- Morello & Masseria were never part of the D'Aquila group, so there must be some confusion. D'Aquila was the boss of the Gambino Family (what we now call the Gambino Family) and the Boss of Bosses. So D'Aquila had his own borgata and Morello had his own borgata.

- Masseria managed to stay alive by avoiding being killed and killing Valenti. It's believed that Lucky Luciano was the triggerman who killed Valenti.

- I think that Vincenzo Terranova was actually the boss (briefly) before Masseria. With Terranova dead, Morello chose Masseria.

- Morello never agreed to the murders of his brothers. Nick was killed while Morello was still in prison, and D'Aquila ordered Vincenzo's death, probably with Valenti as one of the shooters. Joe Biondo may have been part of the hit team. Ciro never had to "fall in line" because he was always with Morello.

If you want more details I suggest you read our article: http://informer-journal.blogspot.com/p/ ... y-may.html

Not the D'Aquila group, that was my mistake, but the overall Corleonesi group Morello was apart of in East Harlem. Didn't Morello account for only one of the Corleonesi groups, the second being D'Aquila? If so, then were exactly does a "split" come in, sorry if this is getting or seems repetitive, but I just have a genuine interest in knowledge on relation to the early 19th century "Mafia in America" period. And I'll pay for that informers article as soon as I can.


And yeah according to Mike Dash' book, Nick Terranova was the boss of Morello's group while he was still in prison, and Nicks death was in result with a beef with the LoMonte's. Was that in connection with everything we've been speaking on, was that a precursor act to the Castellamarese War?

Morello headed up the Corleonese Group, this group split into the modern Genovese and Lucchese Families in the 1920's. Two Families from One.
Lupo headed up the Palermitan Group. In 1912 a second Palermitan Family was sanctioned to form headed up by Mineo.

Nick Terranova was a boss (group leader/capo?) in Harlem but never over the entire Family. And with respect to Dash's hard work, I looked at the same sources that he used to write the book, and I don't understand how he came to the conclusion that there was some beef between Terranova and the LoMontes, I actually seen quite the opposite. LoMonte's murder decreased their stature in the Family when the power shifted to Elizabeth Street in 1915.

[OlBlueEyesClub]

Ahh, I see now. Interesting how a family that grew out of mostly Corleonese membership, in the end came to carry the name of a member who's been presumed to have ties to the early Camorra groups, and prominent Camorristi out of NY. And if there's opposite evidence for the relationship between the Terranova's & LoMonte's, then that could mean Calogero Morello's death was of different reason than which he implies.

[Angelo Santino]

Does anyone have photos of:
Vincent "Doctor" Danna - ?
Charles “Charlie” DiBenedetto - ?
Dominick “Mimi” Sabella
Vincenzo Tarantola - ?
Nicholas “Nick” Alfano – Could have been a Capo
Giuseppe Asaro
Vincenzo Asaro
Frank Bonomo
Martin Bruno
Vincenzo Galante
Biagio Restivo
Nino Rizzuto - ?
Joe Stabile
Giuseppe “Joe” Venza

[B.]

Bonannos -- Tony Canzoneri probably wasn't a captain that early as he was still very active in his boxing career and pretty young. Too bad Bill Bonanno didn't go into any detail about Canzoneri beyond him showing up in one of the earlier books then being named as a "group leader" in the last one. A lot of these guys were former boxers, but few if any were as successful as he was. Biagio Restivo only would have been about 19 or 20 at this time, so possible but not a sure bet for membership. Then again, you had a 26-year-old boss and a 23-year-old captain (Domingo).

Gambinos -- Giuseppe Castellano might have been a captain by this time, but whether he split off from Frank Castellana's crew or what, I don't know.

Genovese -- in the Real Thing, Valachi says that Tony Bender was elevated to captain almost immediately after being made. If he did replace Genovese as captain, they must have held a ceremony not long before Genovese becoming underboss, or Bender was given a new crew.

[Antiliar]

The guys mentioned here were likely made by 1931: https://books.google.com/books?id=F5fZw ... se&f=false

Beyond that there's Bill Feather's membership charts, but like I said, a lot of it is speculation since we don't know for certain for most of these guys.
http://mafiamembershipcharts.blogspot.c ... -1930.html