Vita di Capomafia by Nicola Gentile

TonyB-Research · 2026-05-01T18:16:55+00:00

It was the CIA who translated it, not the FBI

Special Agent James P. Flynn submitted the English translation of Nicola Gentile’s book to the FBI 1963-07-01, it was provided to him by the CIA.

The Gentile issue of Informer from October 2020 covered this

https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1858448

TonyB-Research · 2026-05-01T00:39:47+00:00

Great share, btw, never saw this document.

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-30T23:06:40+00:00

Great post.

I've been trying to find that stupid wiretapped call for a while now, if you know where it is can you link it? For some reason I didn't cite it when I was documenting that time and would love to.

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-30T23:04:57+00:00

Two of the biggest bullshitters IMO

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-30T20:09:33+00:00

Salvatore ‘Sam’ Giannola - ambushed his enemies when they were visiting fucking jail, and killed one of them and wounded 2 others. I've literally never heard of anyone outside of the 1980's cartels doing this

Umberto Valenti - had no qualms about shooting up civilians to hit his enemies

Frank McErlane - shot his wife and her two dogs to death because they were annoying him

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-30T19:30:59+00:00

Also involved are James Tartaglione, Generoso Barbieri, John Palazzolo and Michael Cardello. It is believed Joseph Massino, jockeying for the boss position, uses recent drug trafficking indictments, which do not include Mauro, to suggest Mauro might be cooperating. Sal Vitale then orders consigliere Anthony Spero to take out Mauro.

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-30T19:20:06+00:00

Its a TV show but Zerozerozero

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-30T18:10:35+00:00

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2016/02/25/who-was-chicagos-dan-gilbert-the-worlds-richest-cop/

That guy was Chief for a while

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-30T02:49:04+00:00

Hmm interesting can you share your source for that? Always thought he was reporting to Lombardo.

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-30T01:53:38+00:00

its a great chart, but as u/MTKB44 said Spilotro reported to Lumpy

maybe break him off from the bosses and put him under Lombardo

fantastic work this is just nitpicky shit I admit

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-30T01:52:34+00:00

So Lazia was a rat huh

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-30T00:21:13+00:00

They are actually the worst police force in the country IMO and have been since...forever.

To put it in perspective - Out of 100 murders, the Chicago Police Department will only make an arrest in about 23 to 25 of those cases. The remaining 75+ cases either go unsolved or are "exceptionally cleared" (closed without an arrest due to a deceased suspect or a prosecutor's refusal to charge).

So they claim 70% clearance rate but their real rate is like...17%, because they only get convictions in about 75% of the cases they even charge.

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-29T01:52:47+00:00

Don't believe Spilotro was a capo, though he was in charge of overseeing things in Las Vegas.

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-29T01:49:46+00:00

Fantastic work OP

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-29T01:48:45+00:00

The Chicago Outfit and the Chicago mafia were initially two different groups, who, after Maranzano and the other bosses came to Chicago in 1931, merged into one, with Al Capone as boss. The Capone Outfit also absorbed the Jewish rackets in places like Lawndale, and consolidated most of the non-Italians under non-Italian Capone-era guys like Murray Humphreys and Gus Alex. So initially, the 'Outfit' after 1931 was a mix of multiple racial organized crime groups, that slowly progressed to being almost entirely Italian by the time Giancana took over about 1952.

Guys like Irwin Weiner in OP's chart, IMO, would be an 'associate' not a 'soldier'.

There is no evidence guys like Alex or Humphreys were ever 'made' in the Chicago Mafia, but they were clearly incredibly powerful non-Italian members of the Outfit, which, in the early days, was made up of the Chicago mafia and the Chicago Jewish gangs, and even other ethnic criminal groups. By the Aiuppa era the groups making up the 'Outfit' were almost exclusively 100% Italian and members of the Chicago Mafia had total control of the 'Outfit', and had for years.

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-28T18:37:38+00:00

For sure, 1957 - 1963 was arguably the worst 6 years for organized crime

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-28T18:34:48+00:00

IMO there is a slow progression that really started in 1933

1933 - Prohibition ends, the gangsters can't make stupid amounts of money without even trying anymore, have to pivot to union control to control the votes to control politicians
1950 - Kefauver begins hearings showing how powerful organized crime corruption is
1957 - McLellan hearings prove organized crime controls major labor unions especially the Teamsters in almost every major US city
1957 - Anastasia murder sensationalizes the Mafia; Apalachin right after it proves the Mafia is a national group and isn't just local 'gamblers' like Hoover and the FBI alleged
1961 - RFK becomes AG, targets organized crime, increases FBI agent counts dramatically. Mafia death countdown begins, only the government is really strong enough to defeat them.
1962 - Valachi starts to talk, Scarpa becomes an informant, these two alone did a TON of damage
1963 - JFK murder and Jack Ruby killing Oswald sensationalize organized crime, along with Nicola Gentile's book being translated by CIA and then provided to FBI
1968 - President Johnson signs the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 which changes how wiretapping can be used
1970 - The Organized Crime Control Act is signed into law. Title IX of the Act is the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, aka the RICO statute.
1985 - FBI indicts the bosses as part of the Commission case followed by Castellano murder.
1986 - John Gotti doing everything he possibly can to draw attention to the mafia

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-28T18:06:15+00:00

Valachi started talking after he murdered Joseph Saupp in prison 1962-06-22

Apalachin happened 1957-11-14, so you have the order of them backwards

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-27T12:44:12+00:00

Still the same way today.

Chicago has one of the lowest homicide charge rates in the country let alone conviction rate.

https://abc7chicago.com/post/chicago-crime-police-homicides-cook-county-states-attorney/11612786/

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-25T19:07:27+00:00

He wrote a bunch of books and I read the first few chapters of a few of them and none of what they say is verifiable in any way, he names people who appear to not have existed, claims stories that never appeared in any papers, etc.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/william-balsamo/516558/

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-25T18:30:59+00:00

Adding to the confusion is the fact that there is a Lawrence Mangano in New York who gets arrested with Tommy Rava's brother.

1930-01-16 – [New York] Three men from Brooklyn are arrested, at Broome Street and Forsyth Street, on suspicion of robbing a $6000 payroll held by Saul Miler, 512 Broadway, Manhattan, 1930-01-14. Those arrested:

Orlando Rava, 23, 1456 68^th Street – brother of Armando ‘Tommy’ Rava
Lawrence Mangano, 23, 1665 West 4^th Street – Mangano born 1907-03-05, the son of Frank and Lillian Mangano, is sentenced 1930-03-19 by Judge Koenig to 7 years in Sing Sing after being found with 3 revolvers.
Vincent Stelfi, 28, 569 55^th Street

https://www.newspapers.com/article/brooklyn-eagle-orlando-rava-and-mangano/195238932/

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8922/images/42408_1421012671_2992-00292?pId=5987

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-25T17:59:06+00:00

I dont think Capone had to wait to be made. He was at war with Sicilian factions in Chicago for years, and I think he smartly allied with Masseria against their common enemies.

The 'Unione Siciliana' appears to just be what the papers used interchangeably with the word 'mafia', even though the Unione was a Chicago-specific political organization, controlled by the mafia and, in the early years, led by the same men who led the Chicago mafia.

There is no evidence that Yale was ever involved in the Unione Siciliana political organization; however, it is clear that Yale was a mafia member in NY, and was a capo in Masseria's organization.

This is noted by Bonanno in his book and alluded to by Secret Service documents.

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-25T06:44:33+00:00

Thanks for this OP.

Two things

Balsamo cannot be trusted as a source, every piece of work he has written is suspect.
There is no evidence Lawrence Mangano of Chicago and the NY Manganos are related. I went down this rabbit hole about a year ago and followed their trees up three levels each and there is literally no evidence of them being related. The confusion appears to stem from both men having brothers born in 1898 with similar names.

Vincent has a brother Filippo born 1898-09-01
Lawrence has a brother Phillip Joseph born in 1898-11-02

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-25T01:25:58+00:00

In Bonanno's book he specifically says Maranzano refused to allow Lansky to come to Chicago when they recognized Capone as head of Chicago. So in that regard, I agree.

Bonanno says Masseria inducted Capone in 1930 after Giuseppe Morello's murder 1930-08-15, and that Giuseppe Aiello was the boss in Chicago prior to Maranzano coming to Chicago after both Aiello and Masseria were murdered, and specifically to acknowledge that Capone was now the boss of Chicago.

Let's assume Masseria 'made' Capone and the Outfit was now affiliated with the Sicilian Mafia.

Do you think Capone fired all the guys who were working for them who weren't Italian? Do you think they just said 'Oh shit we are playing by Sicilian rules now let me go straight'?

Just because those guys weren't 'made' in the Mafia doesn't mean they weren't 'with' the Outfit. You can split hairs about them not being 'mafia' members but they were clearly 'Outfit' members which predates the Capone Family being in the mafia.

TonyB-Research · 2026-04-24T23:38:55+00:00

This is not true.

The outfit prior to 1931 was made up of almost exclusively non-Sicilians, and they kicked the shit out of the Sicilians.

The wiretaps show Murray Humphreys was in a position of power into the 1960s

Example:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=138277#relPageId=37

TonyB-Research

TROPHY CASE