Chicago Outfit Places of Origin

[PolackTony]

I have Gerald Covelli as born in 1922 in Chicago to Giuseppe Covelli of Cotronei, Crotone, Calabria (fun fact: the grandfather of Steven Tyler/Tallarico of Aerosmith was also from Cotronei) and Frances Barcia/Borcia, born in Chicago. I believe that Frances Barcia (born 1901) was the sister of Giovanni "John Patrick"/"Johnny" Barcia. She matches the Frances Barcia who was the daughter of Nicola Barcia and Giuseppina Calderone, who were the parents of Giovanni Barcia (born 1896 in Chicago). I believe that Giuseppe Covelli entered at NYC in 1911, bound for Chicago. On his WW1 draft card, Giuseppe Covelli was living on Laflin near Harrison in the Taylor St Patch. In 1919, he married Frances Barcia, and was then naturalized in 1920, at which time he lived on DeKoven. His naturalization was witnessed by "John Borcia", who presumably was his brother-in-law. By 1930, the Covellis were living on Hamlin near Augusta in Humboldt Park, which makes sense as the Barcias were from the Grand Ave and HP neighborhoods. Worth noting that sister Anna Barcia married a Tornabene and lived nearby with brother Nick Barcia (who later married a Grace Oliveri). This area of HP had a large Italian community at the time and was, of course, the province of Cerone and Joe Gagliano, who both also lived in the area (as did many other members and connected guys).

Haven't been able to find a document for Nicola Barcia and Giuseppina Calderone, who were married in Chicago in 1895, with a more granular place of origin beyond Palermo. Possible that they were from Metro Palermo, of course, though a good bet for Barcia is either Marineo or Mezzojuso, while for Giuseppina Calderone possibly Termini.

Johnny Barcia of course later moved to LA, where he died in 1963. Perhaps this accounts for how Gerald Covelli ended up in SoCal, after agreeing to testify for a 1962 case targetting DiVarco and Allegretti for bribing a juror in a whisky truck hijacking case. Covelli's decision to cooperate with LE stemmed from him getting pinched in a 1959 car theft ring case in Houston. Covelli was notoriously executed by a bomb blast in Encino, CA in 1967, and his mother Frances Barcia Covelli died in Orange County, CA in 1973.

Gerald Covelli may not have been directly related to the William "Weezer" Covelli who was affiliated with the Milwaukee Outfit in Kenosha, as that Covelli's family came from Cosenza. Same with the Frank Covelli who was killed in 1946, allegedly by Nick DeJohn, as he was born 1907 in Marano Marchesato, Cosenza province. Worth noting that Luigi Covelli, father of Outfit-controlled Cook County Superior Court judge (and former Lane Tech HS boxing champion who claimed once that he was abducted by Capone in the 1920s) Daniel Anthony Morelli Covelli, was also from Marano Marchesato.

[cavita]

Very great background info in this thread along with what was already known.

Agrigento
Michele Merlo - Sambuca
Jasper Campise - Sambuca
John Monteleone - Sambuca
Pasquale LoLordo - Ribera. Lived in NYC before Chicago.
Joseph LoLordo - Ribera. Pasquale's brother, later a DeCavalcante captain.
Phil Bacino - Ribera, with cousins in Burgio. Son married marital niece of Decavalcante member in NJ.
Jim DeGeorge - Ribera
Giuseppe Cocchiaro - Ribera. Arrived to Chicago, later an NJ DeCavalcante member.
Vincenzo DiMaria - Ribera. Lived in Chicago in the 1920s before joining DeCavalcantes in NJ.
Vincent Solano - Ribera
Pasquale Miceli - Burgio. Lived in Johnson City, then Chicago through 1920s. Became STL boss.
Sam Carlisi - Canicatti
Giuseppe Carlisi - Canicatti. Linked to underworld activity, father of Sam and Roy.
Al Tornabene - Canicatti
Girolamo Lamberta - Montevago
Vincenzo "Jack McGurn" Gibaldi - Licata
Frank Ferraro Sortino (Sciortino? That's a common AG name) - Villafranca
Dominick Nuccio - Cattolica Eraclea, then Vicari in Palermo. Ally of Benevento-DeGeorge.
Bernard Morgano - Bivona
Vincenzo Catuara - Sant'Angelo Muxaro
Joseph Gagliano - Lucca Sicula

Palazzo Adriano
Giovanni DiGiovanni - Business agent after D'Andrea for same union. Wife's naturalization witnessed by Mike Merlo. Not ID'd as a member but def a candidate.
Nick DeJohn - Giovanni's son, leading Chicago figure killed in SF. Ally of Benevento-DeGeorge in "Cheese" war.
Sam DeJohn - Brother of Nick
Geraldo Gallo - Arrived to relatives in Chicago. Later moved to LA and San Jose, ID'd as San Jose member. Brother Ciro was a Bonanno and SF member close to Nick DeJohn linked to his SF murder.

Other allies of Benevento-DeGeorge:
Anthony Pinelli - Calascibetta (Enna), but children intermarried with Riberesi DeGeorge and Phil Amari
Dominick DiBella - Alimena (Palermo)
Dominick Brancato - Mezzojuso (Palermo)
Joseph DiVarco - Campofelice di Roccella (Palermo)

- Def a lot of mafiosi from Agrigento in Chicago.
- Benevento-DeGeorge faction in the 1940s seems to be all Western Sicilian.

@B

We've talked about Rockford underboss Frank Buscemi and his ties to Aragona/Ribera but one thing I noticed you referenced above was a Vincenzo DiMaria from Ribera. Buscemi married a Jennie DiMaria in Chicago in 1934. I imagine her real name was Giovanna and wonder if her family was from Ribera or if she was related to this Vincenzo. I cannot find any familial info on Jennie so I don't know her background.

[cavita]

Very great background info in this thread along with what was already known.

Agrigento
Michele Merlo - Sambuca
Jasper Campise - Sambuca
John Monteleone - Sambuca
Pasquale LoLordo - Ribera. Lived in NYC before Chicago.
Joseph LoLordo - Ribera. Pasquale's brother, later a DeCavalcante captain.
Phil Bacino - Ribera, with cousins in Burgio. Son married marital niece of Decavalcante member in NJ.
Jim DeGeorge - Ribera
Giuseppe Cocchiaro - Ribera. Arrived to Chicago, later an NJ DeCavalcante member.
Vincenzo DiMaria - Ribera. Lived in Chicago in the 1920s before joining DeCavalcantes in NJ.
Vincent Solano - Ribera
Pasquale Miceli - Burgio. Lived in Johnson City, then Chicago through 1920s. Became STL boss.
Sam Carlisi - Canicatti
Giuseppe Carlisi - Canicatti. Linked to underworld activity, father of Sam and Roy.
Al Tornabene - Canicatti
Girolamo Lamberta - Montevago
Vincenzo "Jack McGurn" Gibaldi - Licata
Frank Ferraro Sortino (Sciortino? That's a common AG name) - Villafranca
Dominick Nuccio - Cattolica Eraclea, then Vicari in Palermo. Ally of Benevento-DeGeorge.
Bernard Morgano - Bivona
Vincenzo Catuara - Sant'Angelo Muxaro
Joseph Gagliano - Lucca Sicula

Palazzo Adriano
Giovanni DiGiovanni - Business agent after D'Andrea for same union. Wife's naturalization witnessed by Mike Merlo. Not ID'd as a member but def a candidate.
Nick DeJohn - Giovanni's son, leading Chicago figure killed in SF. Ally of Benevento-DeGeorge in "Cheese" war.
Sam DeJohn - Brother of Nick
Geraldo Gallo - Arrived to relatives in Chicago. Later moved to LA and San Jose, ID'd as San Jose member. Brother Ciro was a Bonanno and SF member close to Nick DeJohn linked to his SF murder.

Other allies of Benevento-DeGeorge:
Anthony Pinelli - Calascibetta (Enna), but children intermarried with Riberesi DeGeorge and Phil Amari
Dominick DiBella - Alimena (Palermo)
Dominick Brancato - Mezzojuso (Palermo)
Joseph DiVarco - Campofelice di Roccella (Palermo)

- Def a lot of mafiosi from Agrigento in Chicago.
- Benevento-DeGeorge faction in the 1940s seems to be all Western Sicilian.

@B

We've talked about Rockford underboss Frank Buscemi and his ties to Aragona/Ribera but one thing I noticed you referenced above was a Vincenzo DiMaria from Ribera. Buscemi married a Jennie DiMaria in Chicago in 1934. I imagine her real name was Giovanna and wonder if her family was from Ribera or if she was related to this Vincenzo. I cannot find any familial info on Jennie so I don't know her background.

Scratch that. I just found that she was listed as a DeMaria but interestingly her parents were Vincenzo and Victoria DeMaria. She had a brother Giuseppe as well.

[B.]

I'm not positive the DeCavalcante guy spelled it DiMaria vs. DeMaria, or how his relatives spelled it since these families often have variation. Would be interesting if there's a tie.

What's funny is on a recording of the Chicago underboss Ferraro he says he doesn't know who the admin of the Rockford Family is after the previous boss died. Shows having family from AG didn't automatically make these guys close but I would bet a lot of the early guys were.

[PolackTony]

What's funny is on a recording of the Chicago underboss Ferraro he says he doesn't know who the admin of the Rockford Family is after the previous boss died. Shows having family from AG didn't automatically make these guys close but I would bet a lot of the early guys were.

My assumption is that by the time of the Ferraro tape ties between Chicago and Rockford mainly centered on racket operations and geographic factors. Doesn’t seem to me that the Southside was a crew that had any substantial link to Rockford at that time, so Ferraro probably wasn’t personally part of any of those circles. His domain was Chinatown and the Loop (definitely not stuff that was going to presumably have much to do with Rockford). Now, later we do see a strong connection between Chinatown and Rockford with Gumba Saladino. So maybe there were earlier links that place that in context.

With the Cardinales, Ferraro, and Catuara we do see the possibility of an Agrigentesi element in the Chinatown neighborhood. But there were a lot of Sicilians there, so could just be some Agrigentesi were involved due to random chance and not necessarily indicative of a compaesani group at some point in time there. But Catuara was born in Agrigento province, so that does make me wonder about this being a potential (and even if so presumably not the only) context for how he wound up with the Heights, given that there were Agrigentese elements in that area. If Catuara and Bacino knew each other personally, one would presume that they were aware of this factor, whether or not it mattered much in terms of anything larger.

[B.]

The Ferraro tape is interesting because the Rockford admin reached out to Caifano about a planned murder and Caifano said he had to follow protocol by contacting Giancana, then went to Ferraro because Giancana was unavailable. It sounds like Giancana was more involved in representing the politics with other nearby Families while underboss Ferraro was more concerned with operations/rackets which isn't terribly surprising for an underboss but does tell us it factored into his role relatively little. Those Ferraro tapes show almost no reference to formal politics (not a single "gaborchina" to be heard).

[PolackTony]

The Ferraro tape is interesting because the Rockford admin reached out to Caifano about a planned murder and Caifano said he had to follow protocol by contacting Giancana, then went to Ferraro because Giancana was unavailable. It sounds like Giancana was more involved in representing the politics with other nearby Families while underboss Ferraro was more concerned with operations/rackets which isn't terribly surprising for an underboss but does tell us it factored into his role relatively little. Those Ferraro tapes show almost no reference to formal politics (not a single "gaborchina" to be heard).

In my experience, most of what Ferraro talks about concerns political (not mafia political) stuff in the Loop, which is exactly what I’d expect for him.

[Antiliar]

In the 1930s Catuara was a protege of Jimmy Belcastro, and they both acquired media-given nicknames "the Bomber." Belcastro was from Cosenza, so no (apparent) ancestral connection there. Later, Catuara was reportedly in the Buccieri crew - but other evidence suggests he was with Chicago Heights or Chinatown.

Regarding Ferraro, I never saw anything official reporting that he was with the Chinatown crew before he was promoted to underboss. He probably was, but it's more of a reasonable conjecture on our part. The problem is that sometimes our best guesses are off. Based on the evidence we do have I would stand behind it unless proven otherwise. Whatever the case, it's worth pointing out that one didn't have to head a crew to move up to be second-in-command.

[PolackTony]

In the 1930s Catuara was a protege of Jimmy Belcastro, and they both acquired media-given nicknames "the Bomber." Belcastro was from Cosenza, so no (apparent) ancestral connection there. Later, Catuara was reportedly in the Buccieri crew - but other evidence suggests he was with Chicago Heights or Chinatown.

Regarding Ferraro, I never saw anything official reporting that he was with the Chinatown crew before he was promoted to underboss. He probably was, but it's more of a reasonable conjecture on our part. The problem is that sometimes our best guesses are off. Based on the evidence we do have I would stand behind it unless proven otherwise. Whatever the case, it's worth pointing out that one didn't have to head a crew to move up to be second-in-command.

As with Catuara, Ferraro was from the Chinatown neighborhood. But that doesn’t mean he was therefore with the Chinatown crew (and it’s unclear to me if what was there under Roti and Belcastro was necessarily the direct ancestor in formal terms of the later LaPietra Chinatown crew, though I think it probably was). I’d say that along with the Daddono crew, the Southside/Chinatown remains comparatively poorly understood (unlike, say, the Northside where we have a pretty firm understanding that remained the same entity all the way through to Solano, and we have a good genealogy of capos).

Thanks for the reminder about the allegation that Catuara was under Buccieri. Maybe the CI that B posted who had Catuara as working in the West Burbs (albeit under Daddono) wasn’t completely off the mark. My take is that Catuara was probably never formally under one of the Westside crews, but he possibly had some interests with them or in that area at some point.

[cavita]

The Ferraro tape is interesting because the Rockford admin reached out to Caifano about a planned murder and Caifano said he had to follow protocol by contacting Giancana, then went to Ferraro because Giancana was unavailable. It sounds like Giancana was more involved in representing the politics with other nearby Families while underboss Ferraro was more concerned with operations/rackets which isn't terribly surprising for an underboss but does tell us it factored into his role relatively little. Those Ferraro tapes show almost no reference to formal politics (not a single "gaborchina" to be heard).

Boss Joe Zammuto reached out to Cerone, not Caifano. When Cerone was explaining the situation to Ferraro and Ferraro claimed not to have knowledge of Rockford, Cerone told him that Zammuto said he had met Ferraro before. The FBI interpreted that as there were no close ties to Rockford. I believe there were from the 1920s through perhaps the early 1930s but they kind of separated for a while.
I do believe, as FBI files reports, that ties were made stronger because of Frank Buscemi's efforts to bring them closer.

[PolackTony]

The Ferraro tape is interesting because the Rockford admin reached out to Caifano about a planned murder and Caifano said he had to follow protocol by contacting Giancana, then went to Ferraro because Giancana was unavailable. It sounds like Giancana was more involved in representing the politics with other nearby Families while underboss Ferraro was more concerned with operations/rackets which isn't terribly surprising for an underboss but does tell us it factored into his role relatively little. Those Ferraro tapes show almost no reference to formal politics (not a single "gaborchina" to be heard).

Boss Joe Zammuto reached out to Cerone, not Caifano. When Cerone was explaining the situation to Ferraro and Ferraro claimed not to have knowledge of Rockford, Cerone told him that Zammuto said he had met Ferraro before. The FBI interpreted that as there were no close ties to Rockford. I believe there were from the 1920s through perhaps the early 1930s but they kind of separated for a while.
I do believe, as FBI files reports, that ties were made stronger because of Frank Buscemi's efforts to bring them closer.

Great info. Would make sense that they’d reach out to a captain who then would take it to the boss/UB. And my impression is that the Cerone/EP crew may have had closer ties to Rockford, at least during certain periods.

[B.]

Oh interesting -- I saw a report where they said it was Caifano but I know sometimes they were initially incorrect about the IDs of who was on the recording. Makes sense you'd know, thanks for clearing it up.

Do you know who was slated to be killed?

[B.]

There was an "Ash Can" Pete Inserra killed in 1930, an apparent victim of the Capone-Aiello war. Inserra was connected with Jack Costa, reported to be Joe Aiello's bodyguard. This info comes from findagrave:

Name: Pete Inserra [Peter J. or Pietro Inserra]
Event Date: 21 Jul 1930
Event Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
Gender: Male
Race: White
Age: 39
Birth Year (Estimated): 1891
Birth Date: 29 Jun 1891
Birthplace: Alta Villa, Malcia, Italy [should be Altavilla Milicia, Palermo, Sicilia, Italia]
Father's Name: Joseph Inserra [Giuseppe Inserra, 1859-1930]
Father's Birthplace: Alta Villa, Malcia, Italy
Mother's Name: Frances Paril [Francesca Parisi, 1865-1922]
Mother's Birthplace: Alta Villa, Malcia, Italy
Occupation: Peddler
Spouse's Name: Lucile
Burial Date: 25 Jul 1930
Burial Place: Hillside, Cook, Ill.
Cemetery: Mt. Carmel

Wouldn't rule Vincent's father Giuseppe Inserra out as being from Altavilla also given his marriage to a Caccamese. Definitely from that cluster of villages.

I wonder about Pete's mother being a "Parisi" -- Vincent's mother was a "Perri" or "Peri" which is phonetically not far off and records can butcher names.

[PolackTony]

Regarding Vincent's older brother Mariano Inserra. In 1920, he was still living at home with his mother Grazia Perri in STL, and was 14 years old. In 1930, after Grazia took her kids to Chicago, Mariano was not living with her. For his WW2 draft card, Mariano Joseph Inserra, born 1905 in STL, was living near Morgan and Taylor with his wife Millie and stated that he worked at the Roma Macaroni Co on Grand Ave near Damen. When he died in 1970, he was living in Lake Forest (a big step up from the Taylor St Patch) -- his death record was just listed as Joseph Inserra (same birthdate) and his obituary had him as Joseph M. Inserra. When his widow Mildred Inserra (nee Tomasso) died in 2010, her obituary had her husband as Joseph Mariano Inserra, died 1970.

In 1959, the Tribune reported that a Lake Forest truck driver named Joseph Inserra told police that he was robbed on Monroe St on the Westside. Guy must've driven a hell of a truck to be able to afford to live in Lake Forest.

EDIT: This is now bringing something back to me. Now I could've sworn that I read something somewhere that Vincent Inserra had some connection or operation going on up on the North Shore. Maybe I'm mistaken, and I don't remember any details. But I feel like it stuck out to me at the time because he was a Westside guy.

[B.]

Vincent's FBI file says Mariano "Joe" was a truck driver in Lake Forest, so that matches.