captains who ran entire cities like bosses do

In my opinion, one of the most interesting aspects of the underworld was the level of control certain individual mob guys exhibited and were given over entire towns or cities. Some were acknowledged 'captains,' or capos, over a whole city such as Luigi (Lou Mora) Morici, and later on, his successor Frank Corbi was over the City of Baltimore.

Or the power exhibited and near total level of control a man such as capo Frank Iaconi had over the entire city of Worcester, MA. Iaconi was the acknowledged "Boss" of Worcester for decades. Sam Cufari also, over the City of Springfield, MA. His successor was Frank Scibelli.

These men were essentially like Family "bosses" over their section of the country. By and large the lived better lives, with much less law enforcement scrutiny and bloodshed.

It's an interesting concept no?

No,not interesting Frank Corbi was nothing like a boss...maybe 3gs a month was coming out of there to Joe N Gallo..who is the guy Frank Corbi answered to..

I do agree with you that Corbi, and even Morici before him, didn't squeeze the city for what it could have been worth. They both seem to have been satisfied with a slice of the racket pie. Jewish racketeers maximaixed Baltimore better than they did.

But in other Cities such as Worcester, Springfield, etc., those particular skippers (Iaconi and Cufari) held a much tighter control and were essentially the 'bosses' of those mentioned areas.

That to me is extremely interesting.

they each lived good lives and didn't experience many of the problems and pitfalls other bosses of larger cities did.

Big Nose Sam was on a completely different level than Frank Corbi...Big Nose Sam was a millionaire...when a million dollars really meant something...

agreed. Scibelli and Iaconi also for that matter.

the point I was trying to make is that although they were not 'family bosses' per se, they virtually controlled their little cities as fiefdoms and were essentially treated as bosses, lived good lives for the most part, and avoided many of the pitfalls "bosses" faced.

Smaller towns offered that sort of thing. And although they still 'reported in,' when back home they WERE the boss. It is a phenomena that big city capos never had the pleasure of.

Agreed they didn’t have multiple families pushing up against them or multiple capos pushing up against them like in other cities. Though wiseguys under them were looking to take they’re power it wasn’t as easy because a lot of guys didn’t have direct lines to the power base in whatever city the family was based out of. Big nose in Springfield,Jimmy Prato in Youngstown all enjoyed this certain level of autonomy...

Talking about Springfield, Anthony Arilotta said in a Itw that when Al Bruno was the capo of the Geneovese crew in Springfield, he did not kick up any money. He would just send down a van full of liquor and Italian product to the Genovese administration for Christmas.

So you could say he was somehow is own Boss for some time.

I doubt that’s the case. How would he know at that point how much was going to New York and he was NEVER capo of that crew
Big Nose and Skyball were kicking up big money. They were on the Palma Boys tapes and this was confirmed....

Angiulo controlled Boston for Patriarca sr or Bompensiero was the L.A. capo in San Diego

Nicky Scarfo ran Atlantic City for the Bruno family.
The Papalias controlled Toronto for the Magaddinos.
Youngstown was controlled by the Cleveland mob.
Vic Cotroni controlled Montreal for the Bonannos. Who were the skippers for the Bonanno family's Arizona and San Francisco crews?

Good picks
I may do a medley of sorts on all the skippers and fellas who 'serviced' various cities and towns for borgatas located elsewhere. I find it somewhat intriguing. And there's a lot more than people realize.

I don't know, how about Santo Idone of Chester, PA?

Bingo! a perfect example. Joe Scalleat who oversaw Hazelton with his brothers was another great example. And he wasn't even a capo

Some good picks. Here are some more.
Leonardo Cusenza- San Jose family, Modesto.
Vincenzo LaRocco- San Francisco family, Oakland.
Robert Dionisio- Denver family, Trinidad, was a contender for Consigliere as his father was.
The Corrado family- Detroit family, Toledo, especially Dominic Corrado Sr, during Joe Zerilli reign.
Giuseppe La Selva- Elizabeth family, Waterbury Connecticut. One of two official underbosses for the family.

There are more and then there are some members that were only soldiers that ran entire cities or regions.

Great list..question? Did Dom Corrado ever have a piece of Youngstown? I know at one point Pittsburgh,Cleveland and Detroit( and I think Buffalo too but I could be wrong) had interests in Youngstown in the 20s-50s...

It's tough to do it in New York because of so many families, easier in the smaller cities. The Genovese did use a panel of captains to run the family, but that does not cover the entire city. I have a question: What did the bosses and other top members of the cites where a captain took over (as given in the examples above) have to say about it? Is it examples of them stepping aside but keeping the boss title in name only, or otherwise?

Dom Corrado Sr brother Pietro did through Frank Cammarata in Youngstown who was Peter Licavoli man there. Pietro died in 1957, at the same time Frank Cammarata was having his own troubles and deportation. John Mirabella who was Pietro pointman in Youngstown died in 1955. When Dom Corrado became Capo of his brothers crew, the only connections they had were Joe Fats, and Frank's brother Vinny who only dealt with Peter Licavoli, so in short no. Peter Licavoli did have pull thanks to James and John Licavoli who moved to Cleveland in the late 1930s.

Jace, they did send tribute to the bosses, and the bosses allowed them to run their city and regions. Bosses did not step aside, but did allow them to run there area as they see fit. It was easier to have a guy run a city or territory and meet with them every so often in the year, then to constantly drive, ride, or send someone else there to meet with them twice a month or more. It also depends on the transaction of old boss and new boss. The old boss did it this way, but the new boss does not like the arrangement and makes more chances or sends a guy he personally trusts to run the city. You can see it a lot more after 1980. Before that it was rare for that to happen, unless the guy in question angered the boss for some reason. A good example is Joe Zerilli and Dom Corrado Sr, had a view of differences where Zerilli was mad at Corrado, so instead of demoting Dom Corrado Sr, Joe took some lucrative gambling operations from Corrado and had Billy Jack run them. The funny thing is that punishment did not cause any bad blood between anyone cause Vito Giacalone showed he was not only an enforcer, but a smart earner, which is why he became so powerful in his rise to power, he was also acting capo for Corrado in the early 70s, but was practically the official capo of the crew, he was not just going to take it unless Corrado retired or died.

Very good info Giacomo. I agree with you.

What about John DiGilio who ran the shipping rackets out of Bayonne almost single handedly. Im not sure he was even a capo, I think just a made guy.

Maybe sometimes we put too much weight into titles and positions. An associate can be more powerful than a captain down on the actual street level.

Yonnie Licavoli in the 1930s controlled Toledo, although I am not 100% sure whether he was a Detroit capo or the boss of a short-lived small independent family at the time.

Harry Riccobene is also an interesting example imo; he didn't control a city, but still ran an entire crew even though he was a soldier, and was pretty much independent since the Angelo Bruno period; his refusal to "submit" to Scarfo led to a mob war.

Thank you for the info !

Constenze "Stanley' Valenti ran Rochester NY for the Buffalino Family in the 50s. Stanley and his brother Frank Valenti were also both at the famous Appalachian meeting.
He was married to the daughter of Antonio Ripepi, a very powerful capo in the Pittsburgh crime family.

When Stanley went to Jail following Appalachian, Jack Russo was put in put in his place by Buffalo as "Boss" of the city.
This would not last long, however, in 1964, with the support of the Pittsburgh LaRocca-Genovese LCN Gamily, (Frank was a made member and Capo from Pittsburgh), Frank Valenti would return to Rochester, during a simultaneous disappearance of Russo.

The elder Valenti would take control over the city rachets and begin consolidating power, eventually splitting the city from Buffalo's control and creating a new independent crime family working under the protection of Pittsburgh. In 1970, Valenti informed Stefano Magaddino that the Rochester crime family would no longer pay tribute to Buffalo; the Rochester crime family was on its own, with support from the Pittsburgh crime family.

Frank is looked at as a Boss but was a made member from Pittsburgh's LaRocca Family. He was a high ranking Captain in truth. He was the top guy there and could be consider Boss there, but in reality, he answered to LaRocca and Michael Genovese in Pittsburgh.


Same for Youngstown, Lenny Strollo was a made member of Pittsburgh, but was considered the Boss of the Youngstown-Mahoning Valley areas. Before him it was Joey Naples before he was assassinated in 1991 by a sniper. Naples was also a made member of the Pittsburgh family.

And lastly - John Verilla ran Altoona PA for the LaRocca - Genovese Family. He was made in Pittsburgh, and given the City of Altoona to run as his own, but always under the umbrella of Pittsburgh's LCN.

You can tell I am from the Pittsburgh Family region I suppose.

LaRocca put these guys in charge of other cities for a number of reasons. First and foremost was to make more revenue and expand his kingdom. But buy leaving them all out there on their own, if those crews got busted, he was off the hook as he had very little involvement on their day to day activities. So he could enjoy the spoils but have little chance of being connected to their daily crimes.
He did give John Verilla an ultimatum at one point I believe to increase revenues or he might be replaced.

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Vic Cotroni controlled Montreal for the Bonannos. Who were the skippers for the Bonanno family's Arizona and San Francisco crews?
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In Arizona it was Joe Venza then Charles "Charlie Bats" Battaglia
In San Francisco/San Jose area it was Nick Guastella

Vic Cotroni controlled Montreal for the Bonannos. Who were the skippers for the Bonanno family's Arizona and San Francisco crews?
[/quote]

In Arizona it was Joe Venza then Charles "Charlie Bats" Battaglia
In San Francisco/San Jose area it was Nick Guastella [/quote]

In Arizona, it was Joe Venza who actually was over all west coast operations for the family, then it was Salvatore Bonanno, then it was Charles Battaglia.
Bay Area it was Tony Bello, then Nick Guastella.

I don't know that he ran the entire area, but a fellow mafioso named Vincent Todaro was a state resident and allegedly active in the State of Virginia. He was considered by federal and local narcotics agents to be a major trafficker who had connections to both the New York City underworld as well as back in Italy.
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For some years Gambino capo Frank Piccolo was considered that family's resident boss over the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was later whacked out, and a protege' of his named Tommy DeBrizzi then became the recognized boss of that section of the state, until he too was whacked out by new boss John Gotti who was feeling his oats at the time.
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The Magaddino family of Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY, also had several satellite crews running various out of area towns and cities such as Erie, PA., Rochester, Utica, in Albany, and Syracuse, all in NYS. Other areas as well.
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Cosa Nostra history is replete with similar situations. It's an interesting phenomena as I stated earlier in the thread.