Because family is at the heart of the Mafia
Anthony "The Old Man" Santaniello of Boston and Albert "Leo" Santaniello of the North Shore are not brothers, but the truth about the Santaniello gangsters in Massachusetts who are close kin is a lot more interesting.
When Joseph Parisi was in jail in Springfield in the early months of 1923, he shared a cell with Eugenio Scibelli, recently captured in Jersey City, New Jersey, and wanted in the shooting death of Antonio Bonavita in Springfield in December 1920. Bonavita was a shoemaker who did business on Water Street, the main thoroughfare of Springfield’s Little Italy. According to Bonavita’s granddaughter, who wrote about her family in 2017, the shoemaker was also a bootlegger and a rising star in the criminal firmament.
John Albano was a “padrone,” a familiar figure in Italian settlements throughout the United States.
On 5 May 2023, I'm presenting the life of Pasqualina Albano, a Prohibition bootlegger from Springfield, Massachusetts.
Two competing news stories ran yesterday related to the MGM Springfield casino here in western Massachusetts. One of them involves Chip, the douchey-looking gambler-mascot of GameSense.
Hey, Northampton: Plan to hang out with nerds on Monday night. I'll be there!
After he was nearly killed by the Patriarca family, Irish-Italian-American gangster “Cadillac Frank” Salemme came to lead the organization that wouldn’t have him as a member.
Although Mayor Sarno calls himself a first generation Italian-slash-American, the truth is more complicated. The mayor’s paternal great-grandparents lived in West Springfield as early as 1906, and his grandfather was born here.
The Springfield Crew is led by Amedeo’s son, Ralph Santaniello, with his father’s backing. However Ralph, charged last year in a federal extortion case, is expected to plead guilty on 6 November 2017.
The Genovese crime family has had a presence in Springfield, MA, since the 1920s.
Mafia Genealogy 