South Central Los Angeles, 1906: Attack on Faro Amato and Leoluca Sabella

Battle for territory among fruit vendors in Los Angeles turns deadly.

On the evening of Tuesday, 17 April 1906, in Los Angeles — hours before the city of San Francisco was destroyed in an earthquake — Faro Amato and Luke Sabella, both recent immigrants from Corleone, were shot. Their assailants were three African American men who had been lying in wait for them, hidden by a stand of castor bean plants, a block or so from the home of a friend Amato and Sabella were visiting (Black hand mystery, 1906). One newspaper described the attack as the opening salvo in a “race war” between Italians and African Americans, a few blocks east of the Los Angeles River (Race war has broken out In Los Angeles, 1906). 

Between 1890 and 1915, about four million Italians immigrated to the United States. During that period, an estimated six million African Americans left the South. Tens of thousands left Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas and went west to California. Italian immigrants followed, mostly along the same southern route from New Orleans. 

Los Angeles was growing at a tremendous pace. The Black population doubled, and the first “Black belt of the city” ran through south central L.A. along Central Avenue between 8th and 12th Streets (Historic resources associated with African Americans in Los Angeles, 2010). A few blocks east of Central, and bounded on the other side by the Los Angeles River, was the small but growing “Italian colony.”

At first, African Americans had a poor opinion of the Italian immigrants, who they saw as competition for work (Shankman, 1978). Professions that had belonged to Black workers, like barbers, cooks, and shoeshines, increasingly went to Italian immigrants. While their view of Italians eventually grew more sympathetic, even admiring, Italians continued to represent a threat to the Black community, whether as pawns played against unionized Black workers, or in a more literal sense, as when gangs of fruit vendors clashed over territory at the borders of their respective communities.

At the bottom of the economic ladder, there were few jobs that were risky enough to offer real opportunities to get ahead. Dealers in goods and services that everyone used, like ice and produce, who worked in the hard-won territories of urban neighborhoods, literally had to fight one another to maintain their customer bases. The men who sold lemons, hauled ice, and carted trash out of the city were their own bosses. They had to be bold, physically strong, and capable of self-defense from would-be robbers and competitors. Most people didn’t care who they bought these products from, as long as the service was acceptable and the prices were fair. Just as “good fences make good neighbors,” agreed upon boundaries between sales territories kept fights among carters, ice dealers, and other professionals to a minimum.

Among Italian vendors, close kinships among colleagues was an advantage. Close relatives in the same industries and cities naturally formed alliances, were available to one another for financing and defense, and were unlikely to poach one another’s customers. In Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and a dozen more cities and transit hubs in the United States, Italians dominated the produce industry. And in any given place, there was often just one family who ruled the wholesale business, giving work to dozens of their relatives and paesani.

Sabella was hit in the arm and recovered from his injury. Faro Amato, a lumberman, was killed (Two murdered every month, 1906; Death of Faro Amato, 1906).  Two months after the attack, George Maisano was killed following an extended disagreement with Joseph Ardizzone, who would become one of the first recognized bosses of the Los Angeles Mafia. Like Sabella, Maisano and Ardizzone were in the fruit business. Whoever ambushed Amato and Sabella didn’t rob them. They just wanted them dead.

Both Amato and Sabella had family Mafia connections. Faro Amato had a son, Frank, who grew up in New York City and became a gangster associated with Joe Valachi and Ciro Terranova (Death of Frank Amato, 1931; Feather, 2016).

Sabella’s godmother married Mafia member Giovanni Cammarata in 1892; his godmother’s sister, Biagia Jovino, married future Fratuzzi boss Michelangelo Gennaro in 1884 (Baptism of Leonemlucam Sabbella, 1881; Marriage of Michael Gennaro and Blasia Jovino, 1884; Marriage of Joannes Cammarata and Lucia Jovino, 1892; Paternostro, 2004).

Sabella’s first cousin, once removed, Bernardo Sabella is a brother-in-law of one of the first documented mafiosi in Corleone, Luca Patti. Bernardo immigrated in 1891 through the port of New Orleans with Faro Amato and the wife and daughter of Andrea Oliveri, a corleonese mafioso living in New York (Manifest of the Italia, 1891).

After the shooting, Luke Sabella remained in Los Angeles. The year following the shooting, he married a woman from Trabia who was the daughter of a fellow fruit dealer (Marriage of Leoluca Sabella and Josephine Sanzera, 1907; Nicholas Cinceri household, 1910). Luke Sabella and Vincenza Sunseri had eight children. He declared his intention to become a naturalized citizen twice: once in 1917, and again before his death in 1935 (Declaration of intention Leoluca Sabella, 1917; Declaration of intention, Leoluca Sabella; 1935). Luke died after being hit by a car (Death of Luca Sabella, 1935). He was 54.

Sources

Black hand mystery. (1906, April 18). San Pedro Daily News. Vol. 4. No. 90. Retrieved from https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SPDN19060418.2.21&srpos=1&e=——190-en–20–1–txt-txIN-Sabella——-1 on 20 December 2021.

Death of Frank Amato. (1931, May 28). “New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WVY-RX1 : 10 February 2018), Frank Amato, 28 May 1931; citing Death, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 2,069,211.

Death of Luca Sabella. (1935, November 25). “California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9SV-R9M1-Z?cc=2001287&wc=FG7P-GP8%3A285176601%2C285572801 : 27 September 2019), Los Angeles, Los Angeles > Death certificates 1935 no 14320-15932 > image 672 of 2667; California State Archives, Sacramento.

Declaration of intention, Leoluca Sabella. (1917, April 23). National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; NAI Number: 4; Record Group Title: M1524; Record Group Number: Naturalization Records of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Central Division (Los Angeles), 1887-1940

Declaration of intention, Leoluca Sabella. (1935, February 11).  National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; NAI Number: 39; Record Group Title: M1524; Record Group Number: Naturalization Records of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Central Division (Los Angeles), 1887-1940

Feather, B. (2016, January 21). Genovese Family bios. of early members. Mafia Membership Charts Website. Retrieved 24 April 2019 from http://mafiamembershipcharts.blogspot.com/2016/01/genovese-family-bios-of-early-members.html

Historic resources associated with African Americans in Los Angeles. (2010). National Park Service. Retrieved 28 April 2019 from https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/afam/2010/afam_los_angeles.htm

Manifest of the Italia. (1891). “Louisiana, New Orleans Passenger Lists, 1820-1945,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G5VZ-91RW?cc=1916009&wc=MFVK-K68%3A1029673801%2C1029689801 : 8 October 2015), 1820-1902 (NARA M259) > 075 – 2 Mar 1891 – 14 Nov 1891 > image 392 of 421; citing NARA microfilm publications M259 and T905 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

Marriage of Joannes Cammarata and Lucia Jovino. (1892, February 27). Record no. 24. “Italia, Palermo, Diocesi di Monreale, Registri Parrocchiali, 1531-1998,” images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11622-16395-50?cc=2046915 : 20 May 2014), Corleone > San Martino > Matrimoni 1888-1902 > image 140 of 445; Archivio di Arcidiocesi di Palermo (Palermo ArchDiocese Archives, Palermo).

Marriage of Leoluca Sabella and Josephine Sanzera. (1907, April 14). “California Marriages, 1850-1945”, database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:41C1-PJW2 : 24 March 2020), Leoluca Sabella, 1907.

Marriage of Michael Gennaro and Blasia Jovino. (1884, October 20). Record no. 93. “Italia, Palermo, Diocesi di Monreale, Registri Parrocchiali, 1531-1998,” images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11622-20005-28?cc=2046915&wc=MG37-L29:351041801,351041802,351107101 : accessed 4 February 2015), Corleone > San Martino > Matrimoni 1872-1887 > image 427 of 535; Archivio di Arcidiocesi di Palermo [Palermo ArchDiocese Archives, Palermo].

Nicholas Cinceri household. (1910, April 21). “United States Census, 1910,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRVP-8Z4?cc=1727033&wc=QZZ4-MXY%3A133639101%2C137931401%2C138833401%2C1589088858 : 23 June 2017), California > Los Angeles > Los Angeles Assembly District 71 > ED 132 > image 28 of 45; citing NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

Paternostro, D. (2004, August 8). «Fratuzzi», antenati di Liggio e Riina. La Sicilia. Retrieved 16 November 2014 from http://www.cittanuove-corleone.it

Shankman, A. (1978). The Image of the Italian in the Afro-American Press 1886-1936.  Italian Americana. Vol. 4., No. 1. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/anthroscape/the-image-of-the-italian-in-the-afro-american-pres-t41868.html
Two murdered every month. (1906, December 30). Los Angeles Herald, Vol. 34, No. 90, p. 7. Retrieved 1 March 2019 from UCR Center for Biographical Studies and Research https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19061230&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN——–1