Jack Dragna, the first boss of Los Angeles under Luciano's Commission, was convicted of extortion with ringleader Sam Streva, a gangster whose life story has been conflated with another man's.
Los Angeles, 1915: Jack Dragna and Sam Streva
The Piranio brothers of Dallas
Along with Giuseppe Morello, Leoluca “Mr. Luke” Trumbatore, and Ignacio “Jack” Dragna, Carlo and Joe Piranio are among the first Mafia bosses in the United States.
Springfield, Massachusetts, and the Genovese connection
The Genovese crime family has had a presence in Springfield, MA, since the 1920s.
Giuseppe Morello’s counterfeiting gang
In the summer of 1909, detective William Flynn sought the source of counterfeit bills flooding banks and businesses in several cities across the United States. He tied the counterfeiting operation to Giuseppe Morello’s gang by following one of the passers of bad bills, Giuseppe Boscarino.
The Mangano brothers and Joe Profaci
Sources claim Vincent Mangano emigrated in 1921 with fellow future Mafia boss, Joe Profaci.
The olive oil business
My father’s paternal grandparents, Louis Cascio and Lucia Soldano, immigrated as teenagers with their families and settled in East Harlem, on 106th Street. After they married, Lucia and her youngest brother, Tony, sold olive oil to their neighbors, produced and exported by Louis’ brother-in-law.
Capitano’s Lucchese connection
Some of the most telling of "Capitano" Angelo di Carlo’s associations are those who signed affidavits in support of his release from internment at Fort Missoula in the summer of 1943.
The Castellammarese War
The Castellammarese War of 1930 in New York was a colonial war. On one side was Joe Masseria, the most powerful figure in organized crime, with a coalition of allies including the Corleonesi Giuseppe Morello, Lucky Luciano (from Lercara Friddi), and Al Capone (born in New York of Italian mainland parents). On the other side were Salvatore Maranzano and the Castellammarese, backed by Don Vito Cascio Ferro, one of the most powerful men in Sicily....
The other Stefano la Sala
The fearsome criminal known as “The Clutch Hand,” because of the birth defect that crippled his right hand, was not a builder in the literal sense, but his Co-op was one of the earliest developers of Italian neighborhoods in East Harlem and the Bronx.
Looking for Steve LaSalle
There are three first cousins from Corleone who immigrated to New York around the same time, and had the same name: Stefano la Sala. One would become known as Steve LaSalle, a high-ranking member of the Lucchese crime family for half a century.
Mafia Genealogy 