Palermitani network (New York City)
 Ignazio Lupo in 1909; he was an early Palermo-born bridge figure, not the documented boss of a separate “Palermitani family” | |
| Origins | |
|---|---|
| Founding Location | New York City |
| Territory | Lower East Side, Manhattan East Harlem, Manhattan Brooklyn |
| Profile | |
| Structure | Regional-origin coalition within changing Mafia borgate |
| Activities | Counterfeiting (early period) Extortion Feud violence and murder Other racketeering |
| Politics | |
| Notable Members | Salvatore D'Aquila Manfredi Mineo Giuseppe Traina Frank Scalise Vincent Mangano Ignazio Lupo (early bridge figure) |
| Activity | |
| Status | Integrated into later Mafia families |
| Years Active | c. 1910–1931 (identifiable Palermitan element; antecedents in the late 1890s) |
| Dissolution Cause | Leadership succession and integration into the Mangano organization |
The Palermitani network is a modern analytical description for Palermo-city and Palermo-province hometown blocs within several early New York Mafia organizations. It was not a documented proper name or a single family commanded from Palermo. Historian David Critchley instead writes of the D'Aquila family or borgata, shifting factions, and leaders who were “Palermitani in origin.” He uses paesani—people joined by a common town or regional origin—rather than naming a formal “compaesani organization.”[1]
Early Palermitan connections
[edit]Palermo-born Ignazio Lupo was connected to the Palermo Mafia before leaving Sicily following police interest in an 1898 store killing. In New York he married Salvatrice Terranova, half-sister of Corleone-born Giuseppe Morello, and became a major participant in Morello's counterfeiting combine.[2] Lupo is best understood as a bridge between Palermo-born personnel and the Corleonesi-centered Morello organization, not as the proven boss of a separate Palermitani family.
Another connection was Giuseppe Fontana of Villabate, whose Sicilian record included arrests for homicide, Mafia association and counterfeiting before he came to New York in 1905. Fontana operated businesses in East Harlem and was killed in 1913 amid factional violence.[3] These individuals establish Palermitan participation and transatlantic contacts, not a unified Palermo-origin command.
D'Aquila, Mineo and Mangano element
[edit]The more coherent Palermitani bloc appeared around Salvatore D'Aquila's organization, an outgrowth of the Morello formation that benefited when federal convictions imprisoned Morello and Lupo in 1910. Critchley identifies D'Aquila as the chief beneficiary of the weakened Corleonesi faction.[4]
Critchley writes that the D'Aquila family's senior leadership was often Palermitani in origin, including Manfredi Mineo, Giuseppe Traina and Frank Scalise. Mineo arrived in 1911 and was initially associated with a separate faction before reaching an accommodation with D'Aquila; that shifting relationship does not establish a permanent subordinate rank.[5]
After D'Aquila's death, Mineo led the former organization. Scalise and Traina later changed sides during the Castellammarese War; Scalise briefly headed the fragmented group before Vincent Mangano replaced him in 1931. Critchley describes the succeeding Mangano family as primarily Palermitani but divided between regional wings, demonstrating that common origin shaped coalitions without creating a monolithic command.[1] A separate Villabate-heavy organization developed under Joseph Profaci and should not be treated as another name for the D'Aquila–Mineo group.
Relationship with Sicily
[edit]Critchley expressly rejects viewing American borgate as offshoots of a Palermo headquarters. Their old-country relationships were fraternal and individual, and most transatlantic contacts were particularized; alleged joint planning of Giuseppe Petrosino's 1909 murder was exceptional.[6] Birthplace affinity, correspondence, marriage or shared business therefore establishes association—not automatic membership, hierarchy or Sicilian command.
References
[edit]- ↑ 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. 136, 154–162.
- ↑ Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime, pp. 46–50.
- ↑ Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime, pp. 66–67, 157.
- ↑ Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime, pp. 36, 49.
- ↑ Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime, pp. 156–161.
- ↑ Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime, pp. 36, 69–71.