The Genovese & Eastern Palermo Province

[B.]

Chin's thread got me looking into some Genovese members' backgrounds a little more and there's a clear pattern of members with heritage from the far-eastern side of Palermo province and across the border into Caltanissetta. Not an overwhelming number that dominated the ~300 member Family, but still a pattern. We (myself included) tend to think of the Genovese as dominated by mainlanders during and after the Luciano era (which is still generally true) and that the Sicilians they did recruit were mostly random but it's evident to me many Sicilians, some of them important, traced themselves to this region and that this potentially informs us about the make-up of the Genovese Family when it split off from the Morello Family.

Outside of a few holdovers from Morello and the younger guys recruited under Masseria we are still in the dark about who many of the original members were in the early 1920s. I have tended to see the Luccheses as the "true" continuation of the Morello Family because they inherited the majority of the Corleonesi but as I said a while back, I now think that is a questionable stance given the Morello Family did not look exactly the same way it did in 1920 as it looked in the early 1900s. For one, it is fairly evident now that the Morello Family had brought prominent mainlanders in as members or associates by the late 1910s and that some of these (Yale most prominently) continued on with Masseria. Point being, we can't view the split of the Morello Family purely through the lens of people from Corleone or even Sicily. Even with the Sicilians I'm now starting to believe the Genovese took on an element of the Morello Family from comuni further east, too.

The Luccheses do overlap with the Genovese here, as they obviously had a lot of Corleonesi but also members from Baucina, Marineo, and even Caltanissetta, however at present I'm not aware of them having many members from the more eastward villages. I'm also under the impression that the Luccheses had more of an element from in and around Palermo citta, with Tommy Lucchese, Steve Rannelli, and Ettore Coco coming from there, whereas I'm not aware of Genovese members from there (offhand at least). Corleone / Baucina / Marineo is common between the Genovese and Luccheses so maybe this element was split between them while the Genovese took in the network further to the east. Just a theory and if true I'd guess this was based on organic relationships, not something they drew out on paper when the Family split.

I included some Morello Family members here even if it could be argued they weren't Genovese members but some guys from that period did join the Genovese Family or are otherwise relevant so I included them here just to further show continuity. It should be noted though that the early members are clustered to the western side of the map and some later recruits did come from that cluster but moreso the villages on the eastern side. These villages all share a region, though.



Piana degli Albanesi (Piana dei Greci)
Giovanni Pecoraro

Marineo
Salvatore Loiacano
Joseph Loiacano
Michael Spinella

Cefala Diana
Saverio Pollaccia

Villafrati
Fortunato LoMonte
Tommaso LoMonte

Baucina
Antonino Cecala
Salvatore Mauro
Vincent Mauro

Ciminna
Joseph Agone
Anthony LaPaglia (possible candidate, re: Bonanno movie)

Mezzojuso
Angelo Lagattuta

Corleone
Giuseppe Morello
Ciro Terranova
Vincent Terranova
Liborio Bellomo (probable)
Salvatore Bellomo
Liborio Bellomo (Barney)
Liborio Bellomo (cousin)
John Schillaci
Frank Amato (Dick)
Joseph Gagliano (Lucchese?)

Lercara Friddi
Salvatore Lucania
Pietro Dolce
Ralph Dolce
Gaetano Licata
Frank Cacciatore

Montemaggiore Belsito
Joseph Stassi
Other Stassi brothers?

Cerda / Collesano
Rosario Mogavero (paternal heritage from Cerda, maternal from Collesano)
?Ottilio Frank Caruso (wife's family from Cerda, Caruso's heritage unconfirmed but his closest associates were from this area)
Anthony Provenzano (Collesano)
George Fillipone (Collesano)
Joseph Lanza (Cerda)
Harry Lanza (Cerda)

Scillato / Grattieri
Joseph Lapi
Angelo Lapi

Polizzi Generosa
Gandolfo Curto
Charles Gagliodotto

Petralia Sottano / Castellana Sicula
Peter LaPlaca

Resuttano
Angelo Tuminaro

Not included on this map but other members from Caltanissetta:

San Cataldo
Angelo Lapadura
Joseph Lapadura

Nicosia (historically part of Caltanissetta)
Frank Livorsi

Barrafranca (historically part of Caltanissetta)
Raffaele Belvedere

Vincenzo Piazza was likely a Genovese member in NJ alongside Lapadura and Belvedere, and I believe he may have come from Caltanissetta as well. The Lapaduras and Belvedere were in the same crew as LaPlaca whose heritage was technically in Palermo province but his parents were from comuni right on the border with Caltanissetta.
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Other thoughts:

- Obviously a lot of the guys with heritage further east were younger and more Americanized, so it's not clear how explicit these connections were on the street. Many of them were street hoodlums and one factor could have been and probably was general migration patterns to certain neighborhoods. But even then, they lived in neighborhoods (especially Lower Manhattan) that were cross-pollinated by multiple Families and these guys associated closely with members of the other groups (even being related to them, i.e. Tuminaro) yet they still ended up with the Genovese and play into these patterns. Many of these guys also tended to associate most closely with their paesans or neighboring paesans despite having a wide range of associates to choose from. It's possible too that some of these younger recruits had older relatives or paesans who were obscure/unknown members as we typically see that in American Families that show these kinds of patterns.

- Note that none of these villages are coastal and the nearby coastal towns were known mafia strongholds that played an early pivotal role in the Sicilian and American mafia. This appears to be a network within the interior, though, and the far-eastern interior of Palermo is largely mysterious. There was organized banditry and mafia-like activity there going back to the 1800s but it doesn't surface much in the national American mafia and even info on the Sicilian side is limited but there was definitely a mafia presence there later in the 1900s. The proximity to aggressive mafia powerbases like Termini Imerese, Caccamo, and Corleone suggest to me the mafia was influential there further back than we know.

- This region is also a gateway to Messina province along with Caltanissetta and it may be worth looking more into Messinesi within the Genovese Family with this in mind. There is a big difference between someone coming from the western side of Messina vs. the east, for example.

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As always, feel free to mention any mistakes or misinterpretations. It is evident to me though that this region, which is largely obscure even to us maniacs, played a significant role in the Genovese Family's Sicilian heritage and though much of the focus is on the area immediately around Corleone it certainly appears they were tapped into the entire area east of Corleone as well, seemingly without touching the coast.

I also haven't looked into the entire Genovese Family by any means so there may well be more guys we could add. I suspect the early members in particular would be relevant here but we lack info on most of them. There is no question the Genovese were a pan-Italian organization and this was key to their identity, one report calling them the "Napolitano Family" because of the number of Neapolitans, but the Sicilian roots still seem to have informed who they recruited into the 1950s and maybe a little bit beyond even though these were organic influences and not an explicit design.

[PolackTony]

Great write up of what is emerging as likely to be an important overlooked dynamic in the early Genovese Family. We’ve talked about some of these things previously. While I don’t have the time to respond in detail, the thing that jumped out to me as some of these member backgrounds became clear was the overlap with Chicago hometowns, whether comuni (such as Ciminna, Lercara Friddi, Cefalà Diana, Villafrati, Montemaggiore, and Mezzojuso) that were well-represented in Chicago’s immigrant communities and mafia network, but also the immediate proximity in other cases to major Chicago source towns like Tèrmini, Caccamo, Campofelice di Roccella, Làscari, Vicari, Ventimiglia, and Cefalù. The profile of Chicago’s network was, however, heavily based in the coastal towns that, as you note, were longstanding mafia strongholds. You also note, importantly, that the interior of Eastern Palermo/Caltanisetta border area, defined by the rugged contours of the Madonie mountains, was a notorious center of organized brigandage in the 19th Century, and investigations in the late 1800s claimed that the teeming brigand gangs in the Madonie were directly linked to mafia leadership in Tèrmini Imerese, which was the district “capital” and port city for this interior sector. One can assume that there were many connections that remain poorly understood or documented.

Given that there is little overlap in with the Genovese network from the Madonie area and other NYC Families, I suspect that this source area was a critical part of the Masseria network and power base early on, shaping the dynamics of that Family even as it began to recruit large numbers of non-Sicilians.

[B.]

Yeah exactly, the Madonie mountains were a rugged location with indications the mafia was established there but it wasn't publicized much. May not be a coincidence that the Madonie and for that matter the comuni closer to Corleone produced NYC members that were utterly vicious hoodlums willing to engage in any/every sort of crime given there was a long history of banditry there. There were vicious hoodlums in every NYC Family but there is much more range to the types of members from further west and south on the island whereas most of the members from this region were unapologetically criminal and dedicated to the drug trade too. Like I said above, I used to assume the Genovese recruited even among Sicilians based purely on criminal relationships but this is showing there were deeper influences too, these guys coming from similar/same paesan networks in addition to having common ground on the street.

Seeing that a bunch of these guys from the same eastern villages started under "Giosue Aiello" then were grouped under Saro Mogavero in the 1960s, if this was a Family like the Bonannos or Gambinos we'd have already filed it away as no coincidence and might even have confirmation that their roots were relevant to the relationships. Because it's the Genovese it's for one not as apparent without digging in deep and second we don't tend to think of them this way, especially after the 1930s. But just like we've found out the mainland relationships in the Genovese Family have a much deeper history and context, it seems there is something to many of the Sicilians too. It reminds me of the revelations about Chicago in recent years.

Before this, the only NYC-NJ member from Cerda I can think of offhand is Mike Russo who lived in North Jersey, Pittsburgh, and the Boston area. Cerda fits Pittsburgh and Boston given Termini and that area were once important there and there was migration from that region in those cities. I and others have always assumed Russo was a Lucchese member in NJ (after the break-up of the Newark Family at least) but there has never been confirmation that I'm aware of. He doesn't get mentioned on the DeCarlo tapes one way or the other, so no solid indicaton he was Genovese but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out he was.

It could turn out there were guys from the eastern villages in the Lucchese Family too which would lessen the theory that the Genovese took in this element during the split, but it would at least further confirm their shared history. The Luccheses were about half the Genoveses' size though so even though they have their own mysteries there are far fewer members to look into. We know that the Luccheses pulled the majority of the Corleonesi and elements from Baucina (DioGuardis, DiDidato, and though the LoCascios were from Bolognetta they were tied into Baucina), Marineo (Prince Street), and possibly other nearby towns, this area showing up in both Families. But they had at least a couple guys from Caltanissetta like John Ormento and Joe Pinzolo who were closely associated with the Genovese, Ormento being intermarried and close to Frank Livorsi and Pinzolo being a key Masseria/Morello ally. These Caltanissetta guys in the Lucchese and Genovese Families were also connected to their mafia paesans in other cities.

[B.]

I looked into Vinnie Mauro some years back and his father was named Salvatore like the murdered Morello member and it also looks like Vinnie's father was dead or out of the picture by sometime in the 1920s but they weren't the same man. It seems likely there was a relation but Mauro surfaces as a member of the mainland-centric Village crew and was sponsored into the Family by Joe Valachi so he doesn't fall into these patterns of association that I'm aware of. This contrasts with the Lower Manhattan guys with heritage further east who did belong to the same crews and associated with their paesani.

With the Bellomos, they were with 116th Street which can be traced directly back to their paesan Ciro Terranova. According to Cascio's research, Terranova crew member Big Dick Amato was related to the Bellomos too and Valachi said Terranova himself sponsored Amato into the Family. Definitely not a coincidence that the Bellomos were with the same crew once led by Terranova and given the elder Liborio Bellomo was likely a member he was a contemporary during the Morello/Terranova era. Both the Terranovas and Bellomos were related to the Catania name but the Terranova Catanias (the "Baker" brothers) may have come from Palermo citta (which shows it does surface in the Genovese despite what I said earlier) while the Bellomo Catanias were from Corleone. I have never dug deep into the Bakers though so I don't know if they were truly from the citta vs. the province. Obviously there was other interrelation between the Morello-Terranovas and Palermo citta given Lupo was married into them.

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Forgot to include Joseph Mogavero and Nunzio Provenzano on the Cerda / Collesano list but their brothers were there so the point stands. Good chunk of known members when the neighboring comuni around the Madonie are tallied up.

With the Provenzanos and Stassis being from that small area, it should be pointed out they were originally Manhattan guys before moving to NJ. Later I believe Stassi was with the Catena crew while Provenzano is mentioned as a member under Carillo later, but I'd be curious who they originally associated with or were made under.

[Stroccos]

Good info B thanks for sharing

[quadtree]

The Lucchese family still has members with Enna/Caltanisetta origins. Martin Taccetta, son of Angelo Taccetta, who was supposed to be a Lucchese soldier, grandfather originally from Villarosa, Enna. Capodecina Lucchese Vincenzo Plumeri comes from Regalbuto, Enna. Plumeri was believed to have been part of the Prince Street crew, where most of the Caltanisettese in the family were based. Interestingly, until 1920 this crew was supposedly led by Salvatore Mauro. This is exactly the Lower East Side, where Lucania (Lercara Friddi) and Greco (Messinese) are from. I wouldn't be surprised if the Genovese Eastern Palermo Province/Caltanisetta component comes from this Loiacano family crew.

Michael Russo's brother Salvatore was killed in Cleveland in 1920. Masseria's brother was a member of the Cleveland family. There are many connections between Cleveland and Genovese, so Russo could indeed be a member of this family. Michael Russo attended the meeting in Cleveland in 1928, I wonder if he was the only representative from Masseria. As a representative of his family, he must be an influential figure, with the rank of capodecina, for example. If he was a member of the Genovese, he may have been Moretti's predecessor as Jersey crew captain.

[Antiliar]

The Lucchese family still has members with Enna/Caltanisetta origins. Martin Taccetta, son of Angelo Taccetta, who was supposed to be a Lucchese soldier, grandfather originally from Villarosa, Enna. Capodecina Lucchese Vincenzo Plumeri comes from Regalbuto, Enna. Plumeri was believed to have been part of the Prince Street crew, where most of the Caltanisettese in the family were based. Interestingly, until 1920 this crew was supposedly led by Salvatore Mauro. This is exactly the Lower East Side, where Lucania (Lercara Friddi) and Greco (Messinese) are from. I wouldn't be surprised if the Genovese Eastern Palermo Province/Caltanisetta component comes from this Loiacano family crew.

Michael Russo's brother Salvatore was killed in Cleveland in 1920. Masseria's brother was a member of the Cleveland family. There are many connections between Cleveland and Genovese, so Russo could indeed be a member of this family. Michael Russo attended the meeting in Cleveland in 1928, I wonder if he was the only representative from Masseria. As a representative of his family, he must be an influential figure, with the rank of capodecina, for example. If he was a member of the Genovese, he may have been Moretti's predecessor as Jersey crew captain.

What's your source that this crew was led by Salvatore Mauro? We know little about the Salvatore Mauro who lived on Houston Street and was killed in December 1920. I could see a connection since he was from Baucina, but I haven't seen any sources that named his rank or crew members.

[quadtree]

In a thread on this forum "Re: Joseph Benanti / DiPalermos" B. spoke about the murder of Mauro near Prince Street, he was from Baucina and could be the leader of this crew. Usually in mafia wars they target important figures. We have no inside source on Mauro's rank and crew, so this is pure speculation. That's why I say "presumably led". However, this seems likely to me, since Antonino Cecala mentioned that he became the head of a
band of incendiaries in 1920. Cecala was also from Baucina, and this could be a hint that he became capodecina in 1920. It seems a reasonable assumption that Cecala took charge of the Prince Street team in the year of Mauro's murder, so Mauro may have been the capodecina before him. Until we have internal sources, we have to put forward versions based on indirect information.

[Antiliar]

Cecala told Antonio Comito that he became the head of a band of incendiaries in 1908/1909, before he was convicted of counterfeiting in 1910. I'm not certain but he was probably released from Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in 1920. So I don't think we have enough information to make an education guess about his rank or what crew he was associated with. At the time of his he lived in the Bronx, but he did own a poultry shop at 268 Elizabeth Street. Loiacono lived at 247 Elizabeth when he was killed in 1920.

[quadtree]

Thanks for the correction. Yes, indeed, it was not 1920, I don’t know why I decided that. In this case, Cecala could have been capodecina for the entire period 1908-1928. In any case, I follow B., who reasonably suggested that Mauro was from the Prince Street crew and may have been an early leader (acting for Cecala while he was in prison?). However, it is not even known which family Cecala was in; some believe that it was the Gambino family.

[quadtree]

Most of the above East Palermo people lived on the Lower East Side. The Lanza brothers lived there, so they may have originally been part of the Lower East Side crews. Michael Russo probably lived there originally.

It is possible that the Masseria family crew from New Jersey has roots in the Lower East Side crews. The hometowns of Belvedere, Lapadura (whose brother is in Greco's crew from Manhattan), and Piazza are all close to Michael Russo's hometown. Russo at one time lived in Buffalo, the Buffalo family included many natives of East Palermo/Caltanisetta. Richard Tribunella from Caltavuturo, near Cerda and Polizzi Generosa, Vincent Scro from Marineo, James Salamone and Angelo Rizzo from Serradifalco (Pinzolo's hometown), capodecina Jacomino Russolesi was from Polizzi Generosa.

Russo could join the Buffalo family because his paesani were there. Moretti may also have started with the Buffalo Family, was this where he met the Jersey faction of the Masseria family? I am increasingly inclined to believe that Moretti is not the founder of this crew.

[quadtree]

Joseph Lanza was apparently from the Altomari crew. He racketeered the Fulton Fish Market. The Mogavero crew traditionally runs rackets there. Lanza's key man and his successor in the waterfront racket was Michelino Clemente. He was listed as a soldier in the crew of Rosario Mogavero. I couldn't find any information about Clemente's origins other than that he was born in Italy.

[quadtree]

Here are some more thought-provoking alleged Jersey crew soldiers:
-Nicholas Delmore may have been a member of the Genovese family before joining the Elizabeth family. He was from Enna.
-Giuseppe Pecora, soldier of the Jersey crew, from Castrogiovanni, Enna.
- Arcangelo LaPadura's accomplice in the 1929 kidnapping is Joseph Bongiorno from Petralia Sottana.
- Frank LoVullo, killed in 1930. LoVullo was probably from Serradifalco. The Buffalo family included Salvatore LoVullo, who was also from Serradifalco.
-LaPadura's business partner is Peter Curatolo of San Cataldo. Curatolo participated in the murder of Frank LoVullo's killers.

[JoelTurner]

There's an interesting figure whom I had thought could have been the link between Buffalo, NY and the Genovese crew in Bergen County, NJ: Angelo Alba. Being from Serradifalco, Caltanissetta, Sicily; he fits in well in this discussion.

Born Sep 9 1903 in Du Bois, PA [near Pittsburgh, PA] to Andrea Alba and Maria Grimaldi. Parents were from Serradifalco and had immigrated on Jul 20 1901. They were in the Buffalo, NY area as early as 1914 per his father's naturalization and Angelo was there in the 1920 census.

In Dec 1927, Alba and his brother Joseph were arrested in the murder of Thomas Di Floramo. This took place in Totowa in Passaic County, NJ. Both brothers are reported as being of Buffalo, NY. A few weeks later, in Jan 1928, Genovese member Joseph “Kid Steech” Bongiorno (from Petralia Sottana, Palermo, Sicily) was also arrested for it.

In Jan 1931, he was involved in killing William Brady in Hackensack, NJ alongside Genovese members Willie Moretti, Joseph “Kid Steech” Bongiorno, and Anthony "Chicago Fat" Sabio. This was Moretti's first arrest in the area, he had moved to NJ in 1930.

In Apr 1932, he was fined by the Passaic, NJ police. In Jun 1933, he was shot alongside Charles “Duke” Brady and was referred to as a subordinate of Bongiorno. After his release from the hospital, he was put on a train to Buffalo, NY by the Passaic police.

His WW2 draft card had him at the Forrest Hotel (225 W 49th St, NYC, NY). Similarly, in a 1944 article about his sister’s wedding, he was in NYC.

He passed away Sep 12 1973

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Living in Buffalo, he could have crossed paths with Willie Moretti and could have been the link between him and the NJ group. Bongiorno and Genovese member Angelo LaPadura had been invalid in a kidnapping in 1929; this group clearly knew each other before Moretti showed up.

[quadtree]

LaPadura was the eldest in this group. It was present in New Jersey as early as the 1910s. He could have been a member of the original Morello family. He was even called "Mustache", a typical name for old school Mafia members. Makes you wonder when this Decina came into being.