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← Older revision		Revision as of 23:00, 18 August 2026
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	\| name = Wandering Family		\| name = Wandering Family
	\| native_name = Famiglia Vagabonda		\| native_name = Famiglia Vagabonda
	\| also_known_as = Famalie Vagabonda; Family of Vagabonds		\| also_known_as = Famalie Vagabonda<br>Family of Vagabonds
	\| founding_location = [[Fairmont, West Virginia]], United States		\| founding_location = [[Fairmont, West Virginia]], United States
	\| territory = Fairmont ~~and~~ [[Clarksburg, West Virginia]]		\| territory = [[Fairmont, West Virginia\|Fairmont]]<br>[[Clarksburg, West Virginia\|Clarksburg]]
	\| headquarters = Rear of a barber shop on Water Street, East Fairmont		\| headquarters = Rear of a barber shop on Water Street, East Fairmont
	\| structure = Fairmont and Clarksburg branches with officers		\| structure = Fairmont and Clarksburg branches with officers
	\| ethnicity = Italian		\| ethnicity = Italian
	\| activities = Extortion~~, prostitution, narcotics, dynamiting and murder~~		\| activities = Extortion<br>Prostitution<br>Narcotics<br>Dynamiting<br>Murder
	\| leader = Joe Urso {{small\|(Fairmont)}}; “Big Jim” Centeniene {{small\|(Clarksburg)}}		\| leader = Joe Urso {{small\|(Fairmont)}}<br>“Big Jim” Centeniene {{small\|(Clarksburg)}}
	\| notable_members = Rocco Fioiello; Richard “Dick” Ferri; Pasquale “Patsy” Corbi		\| notable_members = Rocco Fioiello<br>Richard “Dick” Ferri<br>Pasquale “Patsy” Corbi
	\| neutralized_persons = Francesco Napolitano, known as Frank Naples		\| neutralized_persons = Francesco Napolitano, known as Frank Naples
	\| status = Defunct		\| status = Defunct
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	\| founded_date = 1921		\| founded_date = 1921
	\| dissolved_date = 1923		\| dissolved_date = 1923
	\| dissolution_cause = Arrests ~~and prosecutions~~		\| dissolution_cause = Arrests<br>Prosecutions
	}}		}}

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{{SHORTDESC:Italian Black Hand organization in northern West Virginia}}
{{Infobox criminal organization
| name = Wandering Family
| native_name = Famiglia Vagabonda
| also_known_as = Famalie Vagabonda; Family of Vagabonds
| founding_location = [[Fairmont, West Virginia]], United States
| territory = Fairmont and [[Clarksburg, West Virginia]]
| headquarters = Rear of a barber shop on Water Street, East Fairmont
| structure = Fairmont and Clarksburg branches with officers
| ethnicity = Italian
| activities = Extortion, prostitution, narcotics, dynamiting and murder
| leader = Joe Urso {{small|(Fairmont)}}; “Big Jim” Centeniene {{small|(Clarksburg)}}
| notable_members = Rocco Fioiello; Richard “Dick” Ferri; Pasquale “Patsy” Corbi
| neutralized_persons = Francesco Napolitano, known as Frank Naples
| status = Defunct
| years_active = 1921–1923
| founded_date = 1921
| dissolved_date = 1923
| dissolution_cause = Arrests and prosecutions
}}

The '''Wandering Family'''—usually rendered in Italian as '''Famiglia Vagabonda''' and recorded by Fairmont detective John C. McKinney as the “Famalie Vagabonda”—was an Italian criminal organization active around [[Fairmont, West Virginia|Fairmont]] and [[Clarksburg, West Virginia|Clarksburg]], West Virginia, during the early 1920s. Authorities and newspapers generally described its members as [[Black Hand (extortion)|Black Handers]].<ref name="McKinney">John C. McKinney, “The Black Hand!”, in Joseph E. Hoffmann (ed.), [https://archive.org/details/marioncountycent00hoff/page/n77/mode/2up ''Marion County Centennial Yearbook, 1863–1963''] (Marion County Centennial Committee, 1963), pp. 75–78.</ref><ref name="eWV">Norman Julian, [https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/entries/481 “The Black Hand”], ''e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia'', West Virginia Humanities Council, revised February 16, 2024.</ref>

==History==
McKinney distinguished the Wandering Family from an earlier Marion County Black Hand society. He dated the earlier group to 1908, identified Frank Pisconeri as its president and wrote that prosecutions suppressed it for several years. He placed the next appearance of organized Black Hand activity in 1921, when investigators identified Water Street in East Fairmont as a headquarters and connected crimes there to activity in Clarksburg.<ref name="McKinney" />

According to McKinney, police seized an Italian-language constitution, bylaws and meeting minutes. The organization had Fairmont and Clarksburg branches and officers including a president, secretary and designated executioner. Its Fairmont headquarters was behind a barber shop on Water Street. McKinney attributed extortion, brothel operation, narcotics activity and the dynamiting of at least ten Fairmont homes to the organization.<ref name="McKinney" /> The West Virginia Encyclopedia independently describes Black Hand extortion of Italian immigrants and businessmen in the region and reports that eight members were arrested in Harrison County on February 11, 1923, after several alleged gangland killings.<ref name="eWV" />

==Corbi family and Frank Naples==
Accounts referring to “Corbin brothers” appear to mean the '''Corbi''' family. Historical researcher Justin Cascio identifies Pasquale “Patsy” Corbi and his brothers Tony and Frank as sons of Baltimore grocer Vito Corbi. Cascio connects Patsy Corbi to associates of the Wandering Family in Clarksburg, but the evidence located does not establish that all three brothers participated in the same West Virginia crimes.<ref name="Cascio">Justin Cascio, [https://mafiagenealogy.com/2025/03/01/famiglia-vagabonda-of-west-virginia/ “Famiglia Vagabonda of West Virginia”], ''Mafia Genealogy'', March 1, 2025.</ref>

Cascio identifies '''Frank Naples''' as Francesco Napolitano, a rival for control of Clarksburg's underworld after the December 1921 killing of local leader “Big Joe” Cignetti. He writes that five of Cignetti's associates—including Richard Ferri and Patsy Corbi—searched for Naples and another rival, and that Naples was lured from hiding and killed on February 16, 1922.<ref name="Cascio" /> A contemporary West Virginia newspaper later reported that a Harrison County jury convicted Patsy Corbi of first-degree murder as an accessory before the fact in Naples's killing, rejecting testimony that Corbi had been ill in Baltimore when Naples was killed.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84008412/1923-07-12/ed-1/?sp=3 “West Virginia News”], ''Parsons Advocate'', July 12, 1923, p. 3, Library of Congress.</ref> The sources therefore connect the Corbi family and Wandering Family associates to the Naples homicide, but do not support describing every member of the organization—or every Corbi brother—as a shooter.

==Downfall==
The 1923 arrests led to prosecutions in Harrison and Marion counties. McKinney wrote that a secretary of the organization testified for the state and produced its internal records; he credited cooperation between the two counties' prosecutors with breaking up the group.<ref name="McKinney" />

==References==
<references />

[[Category:Black Hand (extortion)]]
[[Category:Defunct organizations based in West Virginia]]
[[Category:Gangs in West Virginia]]
[[Category:Italian-American organized crime groups]]
[[Category:Italian-American culture in West Virginia]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 1921]]
[[Category:Organizations disestablished in 1923]]

Wandering Family - Revision history

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