Milwaukee 1963

[cavita]

Looks like Sam Ferrara first arrived to Rock Island, Illinois, on the border with Iowa. I'm not aware of other mafiosi in that specific part of Illinois but Ferrara was from Prizzi near Palazzo Adriano and that part of Palermo and Agrigento was distributed in many "random" parts of Illinois early on.

Ferrara arrived to the US from Prizzi with an Antonino Vallone, who I believe was a relative of Giuseppe Vallone, Ferrara's predecessor as Milwaukee boss. Nicola Gentile ID'd Vallone as Vito Guardalebene's underboss circa mid-1910s and Maniaci said he became boss in the mid-1920s. For a Family dominated by clans from the Bagheria coast it's interesting they were led by Prizzesi for close to 30 years in a row.

Ferrara was reportedly very close to Chicago capodecina Jim DeGeorge. Apparently they were bootlegging partners in North Chicago then Racine in the 1920s/30s and shared a baptismal relationship. He seems to have been close to Carlo Caputo as well as he was using Caputo to send messages to Chicago in an effort to unseat Frank Balistrieri later on.

Francesco "Three Fingers" Coppola spent time in Rock Island, Illinois when he was brought up on kidnapping charges in the early 1930s and while he was loosely hooked up with the Rockford contingent.

[PolackTony]

Looks like Sam Ferrara first arrived to Rock Island, Illinois, on the border with Iowa. I'm not aware of other mafiosi in that specific part of Illinois but Ferrara was from Prizzi near Palazzo Adriano and that part of Palermo and Agrigento was distributed in many "random" parts of Illinois early on.

Ferrara arrived to the US from Prizzi with an Antonino Vallone, who I believe was a relative of Giuseppe Vallone, Ferrara's predecessor as Milwaukee boss. Nicola Gentile ID'd Vallone as Vito Guardalebene's underboss circa mid-1910s and Maniaci said he became boss in the mid-1920s. For a Family dominated by clans from the Bagheria coast it's interesting they were led by Prizzesi for close to 30 years in a row.

Ferrara was reportedly very close to Chicago capodecina Jim DeGeorge. Apparently they were bootlegging partners in North Chicago then Racine in the 1920s/30s and shared a baptismal relationship. He seems to have been close to Carlo Caputo as well as he was using Caputo to send messages to Chicago in an effort to unseat Frank Balistrieri later on.

Francesco "Three Fingers" Coppola spent time in Rock Island, Illinois when he was brought up on kidnapping charges in the early 1930s and while he was loosely hooked up with the Rockford contingent.

Good info. In the 1950s, Coppola was linked by the FBN and Italian authorities to Frank Emery also, related to the early 50s heroin network bust.

[cavita]

In the never ending research for information on Frank “Gumba” Saladino, I came across an interesting bit of info that fills in some gaps and ties into Milwaukee- when Gumba and Joe W. Saladino were found guilty of raping and beating Carolyn Blades in October 1964, Frank arrived at Pontiac Prison in Illinois on November 27, 1964 and he was released from there on March 11, 1968 after serving almost three and a half years. On April 11, 1970 Frank was discharged from parole which most likely released his restrictions from leaving the state which it appears he did. I found in some new FBI files from May 1970 that Saladino was residing in Milwaukee and attending the Milwaukee Institute of Technology and was running a small cleaning shop on State Street. Now, this makes sense in that at that time the Rockford LCN and Milwaukee LCN were very tight with each other and it could very well be that through the intercession of Rockford LCN member Phil Cannella, Saladino was set up in Milwaukee since Saladino was Cannella’s brother-in-law.

We know this arrangement didn't last long since Chicago Outfit member-turned-informant Nick Calabrese stated that Gumba started lending out money at crap games in Chicago that were run by Joey "The Clown" Lombardo around 1975 or so.