Palermitani network (New York City)
 Ignazio Lupo in a 1909 federal identification photograph; the network was broader than any one individual | |
| Origins | |
|---|---|
| Founding Location | New York City |
| Territory | Little Italy, Lower Manhattan |
| Profile | |
| Structure | Loose compaesani, kinship and criminal network |
| Activities | Counterfeiting Extortion Fraud Murder |
| Politics | |
| Notable Members | Ignazio Lupo Giuseppe Fontana |
| Activity | |
| Status | Absorbed into later organizations |
| Years Active | c. 1898–early 1900s (as a distinguishable network) |
| Dissolution Cause | Integration with Corleonesi associates in the Morello–Lupo organization |
The Palermitani network is a retrospective description for overlapping hometown, kinship and criminal connections among early Sicilian immigrants from Palermo and surrounding communities in New York City. Palermitani means people from Palermo, while compaesani describes people tied by a common place of origin. The terms do not identify a documented self-named gang or prove that every Palermitan immigrant belonged to one organization.
Formation and connections
Historian David Critchley identifies Ignazio Lupo as a Palermo-born figure connected to the Palermo Mafia before he left Sicily following police interest in an October 1898 dispute at his store.[1] Another important Palermitan connection was Giuseppe Fontana of Villabate, whose Sicilian record included arrests for homicide, Mafia association and counterfeiting between 1872 and 1897. Italian authorities described Fontana as connected to Palermo-area Mafia politics before his activities extended to New York.[2]
Lupo's marriage to Salvatrice Terranova, the half-sister of Corleone-born Giuseppe Morello, joined Palermitan and Corleonesi family connections. Their associates subsequently cooperated in counterfeiting, extortion and violence through what historians commonly describe as the Morello–Lupo organization.[1] This was a convergence of personal and family networks, not evidence that a unitary “Palermitani organization” formally became subordinate to the Corleonesi.
Sicilian relationship and legacy
Critchley concludes that early American Mafias maintained fraternal connections with Sicily on an individual scale while retaining organizational autonomy. He found that most Sicily–America contacts in this period were particularized rather than evidence of transatlantic command; the joint planning alleged in the 1909 murder of police detective Giuseppe Petrosino was an exceptional case.[3]
Later New York factions led by Salvatore D'Aquila, Manfredi Mineo and the Mangano brothers included prominent Palermitani. Those later organizations should not be treated as an uninterrupted continuation of the late-nineteenth-century Lupo-centered migration network merely because they shared regional origins.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 David Critchley, The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891–1931 (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 47–50.
- ↑ Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime, pp. 66–67.
- ↑ Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime, pp. 69–71.
- ↑ Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime, pp. 136, 156–161.