Madison 1963

[cavita]

Best I could do in a short time

Madison 1963

Boss:
Carlo Caputo
Born September 12, 1903 Bagheria, Sicily to Antonio Caputo and Rosa Chetta
Wife: Unknown
Died November 6, 1993 Madison, Wisconsin
Underboss:
Joseph “Pizza Pie Joe” Aiello
Born March 30, 1901 Bagheria, Sicily
Wife: Maria Enea
Died November 8, 1970.
Involved with Aiello organization in Chicago and fled to Milwaukee with Caputo 1930s

Sam Paul Buscemi
Born April 30, 1928 Madison, Wisconsin to Salvatore Buscemi and Francesca Gandolfo
Died May 31, 2011 Madison, Wisconsin

Filippo Candella
Born June 17, 1901 Montelepre, Sicily
Wife: Unknown
Died September 1980
Was originally from Ohio before moving to Wisconsin

James Caruso
Born January 7, 1894 Palermo, Sicily
Wife: Unknown
Died January 6, 1969 Madison, Wisconsin

Cosmo DiSalvo
Born December 30, 1904 Bagheria, Sicily to Benedetto DiSalvo and Vincenza Tralongo (of Santa Flavia)
Wife: Unknown
Died May 3, 1988 Madison, WIsconsin

Matthew Pellitteri
Born June 25, 1914 unknown
Wife: Unknown
Died June 27, 1990 Madison, Wisconsin

James Joseph Schiavo
Born March 4, 1923 Madison, Wisconsin to Antonio and Celia Schiavo
Wife: Marian Amato, the niece of John Alioto, former Milwaukee boss
Died January 28, 1986 Madison, Wisconsin

Benedetto DiSalvo
Born March 14, 1878 Bagheria, Sicily
Wife: Unknown
Died February 26, 1964 Madison, Wisconsin
Relocated to Madison from Milwaukee 1923. Was former Madison boss 1930s-1950s. Father of Cosmo.

Vincent Troia
Born June 10, 1896 Palermo, Sicily to Settimo Troia and Antonina Scontrino
Wife: Ninfa Mandarino
Died January 31, 1990 Madison, Wisconsin
Arrived in NY on the S.S. Albert Koenig April 27, 1910

[PolackTony]

Thanks for getting this started.

On his 1993 obituary in Madison, it was stated that Carlo Caputo arrived in the US when he was 18 and arrived in Madison around 1940. He was naturalized in Madison in 1939, which seems to be the earliest that we can firmly place him there. On the 1940 census in Madison, Carlo stated that he was residing in Chicago in 1935. It’s easy to get into the notion that him and Joe Aiello fled Chicago due to the Joe Aiello war, but they clearly relocated to Madison long after this and maintained close ties to Chicago, so unless some other events forced them out of Chicago later, my read is that they didn’t flee but relocated for other reasons.

In line with the obituary, Carlo Caputo arrived in NYC in 1921, bound for Chicago where his sister Pietra Caputo was already living. He gave his father back in Bagheria as Biaggio Caputo. Pietra arrived bound for Chicago in 1913, stating that her father Biaggio was living there while her mother Maria Giammaresi was back in Bagheria. She married Casimiro Puleo in Chicago in 1914. Biaggio Caputo, born about 1870, wife Maria Giammaresi, arrived in NYC in 1910. We can see from Carlo’s arrival that he did not remain in Chicago but had returned to Bagheria by 1921. While the 1903 birth records for Bagheria are not available online, it should be clear that these were his actual parents and the parents listed above are erroneous (they are given in some of these error-riddled ancestry family trees; other trees correctly identify his father as Biaggio, but erroneously identify Biaggio as a guy born in 1884 who settled in Buffalo). Notice also that Caputo’s firstborn son was named Bernard, not Anthony, clearly their way of Anglicizing Biaggio.

Caputo’s wife was Rosemary Latona, born in 1911 in Chicago to Giovanni LaTona and Caterina Tantillo of Bagheria.

[Angelo Santino]

Is the list the total membership?

[cavita]

Is the list the total membership?

Up to that point I believe. Augie Maniaci gave the info on membership. I should note that it is believed not long after 1963 they made a couple new members.

[cavita]

Thanks for getting this started.

On his 1993 obituary in Madison, it was stated that Carlo Caputo arrived in the US when he was 18 and arrived in Madison around 1940. He was naturalized in Madison in 1939, which seems to be the earliest that we can firmly place him there. On the 1940 census in Madison, Carlo stated that he was residing in Chicago in 1935. It’s easy to get into the notion that him and Joe Aiello fled Chicago due to the Joe Aiello war, but they clearly relocated to Madison long after this and maintained close ties to Chicago, so unless some other events forced them out of Chicago later, my read is that they didn’t flee but relocated for other reasons.

In line with the obituary, Carlo Caputo arrived in NYC in 1921, bound for Chicago where his sister Pietra Caputo was already living. He gave his father back in Bagheria as Biaggio Caputo. Pietra arrived bound for Chicago in 1913, stating that her father Biaggio was living there while her mother Maria Giammaresi was back in Bagheria. She married Casimiro Puleo in Chicago in 1914. Biaggio Caputo, born about 1870, wife Maria Giammaresi, arrived in NYC in 1910. We can see from Carlo’s arrival that he did not remain in Chicago but had returned to Bagheria by 1921. While the 1903 birth records for Bagheria are not available online, it should be clear that these were his actual parents and the parents listed above are erroneous (they are given in some of these error-riddled ancestry family trees; other trees correctly identify his father as Biaggio, but erroneously identify Biaggio as a guy born in 1884 who settled in Buffalo). Notice also that Caputo’s firstborn son was named Bernard, not Anthony, clearly their way of Anglicizing Biaggio.

Caputo’s wife was Rosemary Latona, born in 1911 in Chicago to Giovanni LaTona and Caterina Tantillo of Bagheria.

Damn frustrating with the conflicting info. As I said I did a quick search before really diving into it and this is what I found on Find A Grave. Wonder why the discrepancy? By the way, I trust your research on this!

[PolackTony]

Thanks for getting this started.

On his 1993 obituary in Madison, it was stated that Carlo Caputo arrived in the US when he was 18 and arrived in Madison around 1940. He was naturalized in Madison in 1939, which seems to be the earliest that we can firmly place him there. On the 1940 census in Madison, Carlo stated that he was residing in Chicago in 1935. It’s easy to get into the notion that him and Joe Aiello fled Chicago due to the Joe Aiello war, but they clearly relocated to Madison long after this and maintained close ties to Chicago, so unless some other events forced them out of Chicago later, my read is that they didn’t flee but relocated for other reasons.

In line with the obituary, Carlo Caputo arrived in NYC in 1921, bound for Chicago where his sister Pietra Caputo was already living. He gave his father back in Bagheria as Biaggio Caputo. Pietra arrived bound for Chicago in 1913, stating that her father Biaggio was living there while her mother Maria Giammaresi was back in Bagheria. She married Casimiro Puleo in Chicago in 1914. Biaggio Caputo, born about 1870, wife Maria Giammaresi, arrived in NYC in 1910. We can see from Carlo’s arrival that he did not remain in Chicago but had returned to Bagheria by 1921. While the 1903 birth records for Bagheria are not available online, it should be clear that these were his actual parents and the parents listed above are erroneous (they are given in some of these error-riddled ancestry family trees; other trees correctly identify his father as Biaggio, but erroneously identify Biaggio as a guy born in 1884 who settled in Buffalo). Notice also that Caputo’s firstborn son was named Bernard, not Anthony, clearly their way of Anglicizing Biaggio.

Caputo’s wife was Rosemary Latona, born in 1911 in Chicago to Giovanni LaTona and Caterina Tantillo of Bagheria.

Damn frustrating with the conflicting info. As I said I did a quick search before really diving into it and this is what I found on Find A Grave. Wonder why the discrepancy? By the way, I trust your research on this!

Believe me, these ancestry and findagrave genealogies can be a real headache. Some of them assert patently impossible relationships, like fathers who are younger than their sons. People throw these things together and sometimes have no clue whatsoever what they're doing, clearly.

BTW, here's his 1921 arrival:

[cavita]

Apparently the last confirmed Madison LCN death was that of Andrew Presti in 1932 who was shot in Madison but his body dumped near Belvidere, Illinois. He was killed by Joe Geloso/Gelosi with help from Frank DiMaggio and possibly a Tom Rossi. Gelosi was sentenced to life in prison but was deported back to Italy in 1939. Presti's last name may have been Prestigiacomo.
Interesting too is that the FBI claimed by the 1950s that Madison as a whole was not involved in criminal activities though in the years afterwards their members were present at LCN weddings, funerals, etc. and Rockford LCN members would head there for gambling activities. It seemed they initiated at least one new member after 1963 which reports were that it was John Candella, son of Filippo Candella.

[PolackTony]

Pizza Joe Aiello's parents were Orazio Aiello and Maria DiSalvo of Bagheria. He arrived in 1920 at Boston bound for McKeesport, PA, outside of Pittsburgh, where his maternal uncle Antonino DiSalvo lived. In 1924, he married Frances Puccio in Chicago; she was born in 1907 in Chicago to Giuseppe Puccio of Marineo and Santa Ferrara of Cefala Diana. Aiello took at least two trips back to Bagheria, in 1931 and 1933. In 1931, he was naturalized in Chicago, living at 5927 W Grand Ave (at Mason) in the North Austin neighborhood on the NW Side; he owned a grocery store at that location.

As of 1941, Aiello was still married to Frances and living at 3758 W Chicago Ave in Humboldt Park (Cerone-land); his grocery store was now located around the corner on Hamlin Ave. Sometime after this, he and Frances were divorced and Aiello moved to Madison. His 1970 Madison obituary stated that he opened his pizzeria there (noted as the first pizzeria in Madison) in 1944. In 1942, the Madison papers reported a transfer of property from Carlo Caputo to Joseph Aiello in the Greenbush neighborhood, where the bulk of Madison's Italians were concentrated. Aiello thus seems to have resettled in Madison in the period 1942-1944. Sometime in the 1940s, Joe Aiello remarried Mary Enea. She was born in 1912 in the Kensington Italian colony on the Far Southside of Chicago to Michelangelo Enea and Paolo DeBernardo of Bagheria; by 1920, the Eneas had moved to South Bend, and by 1930 they had settled in Milwaukee. In 1950, Mary was living in Madison as Joe's wife, while Frances was listed as divorced back in Chicago at Joe Aiello's old address.

Joe Aiello's daughter with Frances, Marie Aiello -- born 1925 in Chicago -- married Joseph Gagliardo, born in Chicago in 1914 to Melchiorre Gagliardo and Anna Tornatore of Bagheria. The Gagliardo surname was strongly linked to the mafia in Chicago in the 1910s-20s; Melchiorre Gagliardo owned a pasta factory (red flag occupation) and lived on the 500 block of W Division, which was later Joe "Manson Lamps" Aiello Ground Zero. In fact, it looks like he was the "Michael Gagliardo", who along with his brothers John and James were partnered with the Bagherese Morici brothers in the Gagliardo & Morici Macaroni, Co. that figured in a series of bloody attacks in 1919 that involved the notorious Chicago Castelvetranese mafioso Pietro Montalbano -- the Gagliardos' personal lawyer was also noted at this time as attorney/politician Stefano Malato of Termini Imerese, who has been discussed in the Chicago threads recently as a prime likely example of early "alta mafia"-type corruption in Chicago.

[PolackTony]

Apparently the last confirmed Madison LCN death was that of Andrew Presti in 1932 who was shot in Madison but his body dumped near Belvidere, Illinois. He was killed by Joe Geloso/Gelosi with help from Frank DiMaggio and possibly a Tom Rossi. Gelosi was sentenced to life in prison but was deported back to Italy in 1939. Presti's last name may have been Prestigiacomo.
Interesting too is that the FBI claimed by the 1950s that Madison as a whole was not involved in criminal activities though in the years afterwards their members were present at LCN weddings, funerals, etc. and Rockford LCN members would head there for gambling activities. It seemed they initiated at least one new member after 1963 which reports were that it was John Candella, son of Filippo Candella.

He should be the same Andrea Prestigiacomo listed on his WW1 card as resident in Madison at that time. Born ~1893, all documents say Palermo, so maybe Palermo City, though the surname Prestigiacomo would strongly suggest ties to Bagheria. A likely brother or other relative was Francesco Prestigiacomo of Palermo, born ~1892, who arrived in Madison around 1912. His wife was Rosina Tuminello. These guys could've been some of the early maofiosi in Madison, possibly connected to whoever may have founded that Family (which still remains shrouded in mystery, at least to me).

[PolackTony]

Cosimo DiSalvo arrived in Boston in 1911 with his mother Vincenza Tralongo, bound for Milwaukee where father Benedetto already lived. While Vincenza stated that both herself and Cosimo were born in Santa Flavia, their last residence was reported as Ficarazzi, where her mother Rosa Ventimiglia lived. Recall that Maria Ventimiglia, wife of Chicago member Joe Priola and mother of Rockford member Phil Priola was from Ficarazzi; possible that she was related to Rosa Ventimiglia.

The DiSalvos lived in Milwaukee in 1920, but by 1930 had relocated to Madison. In 1930, Cosimo married Mary Maisano, born in 1912 in Madison to Angelo Maisano and Anna Cuccia of Piana dei Greci.

In 1950, the DiSalvos lived at 912 Regent St in the Greenbush section of Madison. DiSalvo was the proprietor of a restaurant/tavern. In the 1940s, Cosimo stated that he was employed by father at 802 Regent. The papers reported in 1941 that Benedetto DiSalvo and Sons operated a grocery store at 802 Regent, and that same year opened DiSalvo’s Spaghetti House next door, which also had a bar, so this was likely the same restaurant that Cosimo was operating in 1950.

[PolackTony]

Matthew Frank Pelliteri (often given as Pelletter in later documents) was born in 1914 in Chicago to Giuseppe Pelliteri and Maddalena Russo of Bagheria. They moved to Madison sometimes after 1916, when Matthew’s brother John was born in Chicago. Giuseppe worked as a bricklayer in Madison. In 1934, Matthew married Antonina “Anna” Maggiore, born in 1916 in Chicago to Antonino Maggiore and Providenza Enea of Bagheria (their family remained in Chicago, unlike the Pelliteris).

In the 1940s to 1950, Matthew worked for the City of Madison in the Forestry Department. He lived at 619 Milton St in the Greenbush section of Madison.

Antonina Maggiore’s family seems to have been involved with the mafia in Chicago. Her father I believe was the same Antonino Maggiore who was named in the Tribune in 1912 as a “Black Hand leader” in Little Sicily, where he owned a grocery store. In 1911, a teenaged girl and boy were killed in front of his store by blasts from a sawed-off shotgun, in an attack believed to have been targeting the Maggiore family. In 1912, his son Michael Maggiore was allegedly murdered by use of “fattura”, which the Maggiores claimed was a poison used in witchcraft, and another son Anthony Jr and an in-law kidnapped. Anthony Jr was alleged to have been held captive in the Southside Kensington neighborhood (where the anchor of the community was the D’Andrea church; we’ve now seen Kensington pop up a few times), and a cop was shot when attempting to question local Italians in Kensington about the kidnapping. Antonino himself went into hiding, and Anthony Jr later turned up alive; investigators believe that he had been held by captors in St Paul, MN. Police told the papers that they believed that the attacks on the Maggiores were the result of a change in leadership in the “black hand”, where the new leaders declared war on Maggiore and his family. In 1910, merchant Benedetto Cinene [sic] whose store adjoined the Maggiore store was dragged from his bed in front of his wife and torn to pieces by bullets in what the Tribune described as the most horrific “black hand” killing the city had ever seen (if only they knew what the following decades would bring…), leading to a mass police sweep of 193 suspects; Michael Maggiore was seen at the scene assisting Cinene’s hysteric wife. Cinene was also said to have been a member of the “dreaded society”. Also in 1910, a Joseph Maggiore, likely a relative, was busted holed up in a house full of weapons with the dreaded Pietro Montalbano; Montalbano was wanted for two recent shotgun murders, including one of a Gaetano DiSalvo, who Maggiore said that he was living with at the time in Little Sicily. Antonino Maggiore was born in the 1850s and arrived in Chicago in 1908, so he certainly could’ve been an elder mafioso from Bagheria before immigrating.

[PolackTony]

Not to distract from the Madison topic. The guy killed in 1910 in Chicago alleged to have been a member of the “dreaded society” was Benedetto Seneni, born about 1850, apparently from Vicari (at least his wife Rosa Simonelli and their kids were born in Vicari); they arrived at NOLA around 1888 and were in Chicago by the 1890s. Vicari had a major colony in Chicago and an active paesani society, so it wouldn’t be surprising if there was an early mafia presence from there. It was noted that at the time of his father’s murder, son Francesco Seneni was incarcerated in Joliet for murder.

[PolackTony]

Vincenzo “James Vincent” Caruso seems to have been born in Torretta in 1904. Not 100% sure, but his wife Carolina Vitale Messina, who Caruso married in 1929 in St Paul, MN, was born in Uditore to parents apparently from Passo di Rigano, so I think it’s likely that Caruso was from one of those areas around Palermo City as well.

In 1951, he was listed as owning a grocery store (Madison, the grocery mafia) at 612 Mound St in Greenbush. On his 1969 obit, it was stated that he had run two grocery stores in Madison; it also stated that his son Alphonse Caruso lived in Fond Du Lac, which could mean that he was connected to Grande Cheese. His 2020 obit states that “Big Al” Caruso was involved in the cheese industry in Fond du Lac (shocking), and relocated to AZ in 1978, where he continued his cheesy business. He was apparently involved in the Fiesta Bowl in AZ and boasted of being a personal friend of Vince Lombardi.

[PolackTony]

James Schiavo’s father Antonino arrived to Madison vis NYC in 1912; the passenger manifest and every other document gave his birthplace as Palermo, so he may have been another one from Palermo City (his father may have been a Domenico Schiavo from Tèrmini Imerese, however).

But, James’s mother was Celia Frances Foster, born in Madison to John and Agnes Foster. That these were not Italians with an Anglicized surname is indicated by the fact that the papers reported that Celia’s grandmother was born in a log cabin in Vermont. So either James wasn’t made or the Madison outfit made a mezzo-Medigan with Vermont bloodlines.

[Angelo Santino]

How much do we know about Filippo Candella? There was one who was born in 1891 (not 1901) who died in 1980. There's also a Filippo "Joseph" Candela who was born 1899 Montelepre who died in 1977 in Madison.