The American Mafia - Who Was Who: New England

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Morelli, Frank (1896-1965)

b. Providence, RI, Feb. 21, 1896.
d. Providence, RI, Aug. 10, 1965.

Butsey, c. 1920.

Frank "Butsey" Morelli was an early leader of Italian organized crime in Rhode Island, mentoring a number of later Mafiosi, including Raymond Patriarca and Henry Tameleo. Morelli and some of his brothers long have been suspected of involvement in the April 1920 South Braintree, Massachusetts, robbery-murders for which Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in August 1927.

Historians attempting to pinpoint Morelli's birth and death dates have been misled by statements made by former New England mobster Vincent Teresa in his autobiographical book, My Life in the Mafia. Teresa indicated that Morelli was born in Brooklyn and moved with his family to Rhode Island around the time of World War I. Teresa stated that Morelli was nearing a death from cancer a few years after the conclusion of the Kefauver Committee hearings in 1951. Efforts to correct these errors have been hindered by the fact that Frank Morelli had a different name at the time of his birth.

Morelli was born Adolfo Molarelli to parents Gennaro "John" and Filomena "Fanny" Caruolo Molarelli in Providence in 1896. He was the last of five boys born to the couple.

The Molarelli family had spent about five years in New York, and one of Frank's brothers (Ferdinand "Fred") was born there before the clan relocated to Rhode Island. The Molarelli family, originally from Italy (probably the area of Foggia), moved to southern France following the birth of their first son in February 1881. This son was called "Stazio," generally a nickname for Anastasio, Eustacio and similar names, but became "Joe" when the family reached the U.S. Two more boys - Nicolo "Mike" and Pasquale "Patsy" - were born in France.

The family name gradually changed in Rhode Island from Molarelli to Morelli. Frank appears to have discarded his given name of Adolfo in the 1930s, as Adolf Hitler gained power in Germany.

The Morelli boys grew up in a congested North End Italian neighborhood along Ledge Street, Charles Street and Marietta Street (much of the area population is of Italian descent today). Joe Morelli became leader of a burglary gang that included his brothers and a number of other young men from the neighborhood, including Joseph "Gyp the Blood" Imondi, Anthony Mancini and Albert "Bibba" Barone.

Gennaro's death in 1918 coincided with the start of his sons' trouble with the law. Joe, Fred and Patsy were arrested for stealing shipments of shoes from freight trains in 1919. The reported holdup of a payroll truck resulted in additional arrests the same year. Mike Morelli left Providence about this time to become a resident of New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Filomena Morelli appears to have been placed in the city-run Dexter Asylum by 1920. The asylum cared for elderly, poor and mentally ill residents.

Fred Morelli and Bibba Barone reportedly were behind bars in April of 1920, but other members of the gang were free on bail pending trial, when shoe factory paymaster Frederick Parmenter and guard Alessandro Berardelli were shot to death in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Some authorities believed the Morelli gang to be responsible, but law enforcement eventually focused its attention on two other men - Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti - linked with a violent gang of political radicals responsible for a series of bombings.

Joe Morelli

Because the Morelli gang was charged with robbing railroad cars, they faced trial in federal court. Joe, Frank, Fred and Patsy Morelli and Bibba Barone were convicted in June 1920. All were sent to Atlanta Federal Prison. Gang leader Joe Morelli received the longest sentence, 12 years. Much of the rest of his life was spent in federal prisons due to several other convictions. He died of cancer in August 1950, after penning his memoirs.

Prison correspondence revealed that Frank Morelli had connections in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Troy, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Jersey City, New Jersey; Montreal, Canada; and Havana, Cuba. Morelli was released from Atlanta in February of 1924, as Prohibition Era bootleggers were organizing into cartels.

While establishing himself as leader of the Providence underworld, Morelli was involved in some violent incidents. Just months after his release, he was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon. In the following year, he was the victim of a stabbing. In 1931, authorities suspected but could not prove that Morelli was involved in the house-bombing of a Providence gambling racketeer. Morelli soon became known as leader of gambling rackets in the region and moved himself and his wife into a new home at 315 Mount Pleasant Avenue in western Providence.

As Frank immersed himself in the rackets, brother Patsy appears to have taken over control of the robbery gang.

The post-Castellammarese War Mafia reorganization recognized Rhode Island as a territory of the New England crime family. At the time, the organization was dominated by bosses from the Boston area, but Morelli remained the recognized leader in Providence.

At the conclusion of Prohibition, Mafiosi invested in gambling rackets and sought to expand their territories to tourist areas in Florida. Morelli participated in these endeavors. He was arrested on suspicion in Miami Beach, Florida, in the fall of 1936.

Butsey, c.1947

A decade later, as Raymond Patriarca returned to Providence after a term in Massachusetts' Charlestown State Prison, Morelli began turning control of the rackets over to Patriarca. Patriarca soon would rise to command the regional crime family. Around 1947, Morelli is believed to have retired from the day-to-day racket operations, but that year saw him involved twice with big-name mobsters.

In early February 1947, he traveled to Havana, Cuba, with New York-based Mafiosi Philip Lombardo and Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno. The trip was made during Charles "Lucky" Luciano's brief stay in Havana. In early November, authorities suspected Morelli of providing a hideout for the wife and father-in-law of New York Mafioso "Trigger Mike" Coppola. The two were wanted as material witnesses to the 1946 murder of East Harlem politician Joseph Scottoriggio.

Law enforcement investigations of gambling in the Providence area in the 1950s continued to turn up evidence of Morelli involvement, though Morelli was by then under treatment for cancer of his jaw and throat. Mobster Vincent Teresa later recalled that Morelli had surgery to remove a portion of his jaw.

Through the early 1960s, the FBI considered Morelli to be one of the decision-makers in the New England regional Mafia.

Morelli died in 1965 at the age of 69, following a return of his cancer. No notice of his death was published in the press. He was quickly and quietly buried at St. Ann's Cemetery in Cranston, Rhode Island.

See also:

New England Crime Bosses - Mafiahistory.us

Sources
Documents and books:

Air Passenger Manifest of Pan American NC-88893, trip no. 424, departed Havana, Cuba, arrived Miami, Florida, on Feb. 9, 1947.
Certificate of Death, Rhode Island State Archives, Town or City no. 2146, State File no. 6127, Aug. 10, 1965.
Ehrmann, Herbert B., The Untried Case: The Sacco-Vanzetti Case and the Morelli Gang, New York: The Vanguard Press, 1933.
Frank Morelli prisoner file, no. 11332, Atlanta Federal Prison, National Archives and Records Administration.
Joseph Morelli prisoner file, no. 11330, Atlanta Federal Prison, National Archives and Records Administration.
Kehoe, S.A. John F. Jr., "The criminal commission, et al, Boston Field Division," FBI report BS 92-6054-136, Dec. 21, 1962, p. 3.
Morelli, Joseph, "Introduceing the Most Famous Case in the World: The Sacco-Vanzetti Case and the Morelli Gang," Small Manuscript Collection, Harvard Law School Library.
New York City birth records, certificate no. 10569, March 1, 1894.
Passenger manifest of S.S. Suevia, arrived New York City on June 1, 1891.
Polk's Providence City Directory, Vol. 1934, Providence: R.L. Polk & Co., 1934, p. 664.
Polk's Providence City Directory, Vol. 1937, Providence: R.L. Polk & Co., 1937, p. 798.
Polk's Providence City Directory, Vol. 1938, Providence: R.L. Polk & Co., 1938, p. 798.
Polk's Providence City Directory, Vol. 1941, Providence: R.L. Polk & Co., 1941, p. 530.
Polk's Providence City Directory, Vol. 1942, Providence: R.L. Polk & Co., 1942, p. 566.
Polk's Providence City Directory, Vol. 1943, Providence: R.L. Polk & Co., 1943, p. 562.
Polk's Providence City Directory, Vol. 1945, Providence: R.L. Polk & Co., 1945, p. 480.
Rhode Island Birth Records, Feb. 21, 1896.
Rhode Island death records, Feb. 7, 1918.
Rhode Island State Census of 1915, Providence County, Providence City, Ward 3, Congressional District 3, Representative District 5, Enumeration District 267.
Rhode Island State Census of 1935, Providence, no. 351191.
Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 035-24-4165, Sep. 7, 1965.
Teresa, Vincent, with Thomas C. Renner, My Life in the Mafia, Garden City NY: Doubleday & Company, 1973.
The Providence Directory, Providence: Sampson & Murdock Company, 1905, p. 507.
The Providence Directory, Providence: Sampson & Murdock Company, 1918, p. 548.
The Providence House Directory, Providence: Sampson, Murdock & Co., 1896, p. 471.
The Providence House Directory and Family Address Book, No. 8, 1899, Providence RI: Sampson, Murdock, & Co., 1899, p. 330, 571.
United States Census of 1900, Rhode Island, Providence County, Ward 3, Enumeration District 30.
United States Census of 1910, Rhode Island, Providence County, Ward 3, Enumeration District 180.
United States Census of 1920, Rhode Island, Providence County, Ward 2, Enumeration District 188.
United States Census of 1940, Rhode Island, Providence County, Ward 5, Enumeration District 80.
World War I draft registration card, No. 429, Ward 3, Precinct 6, Providence RI.
World War I draft registration card, No. 432, Ward 3, Precinct 6, Providence RI.
World War I draft registration card, No. 2983, No. 563, Boston MA, June 4, 1917.
World War II draft registration card, serial no. U-1116.

Periodicals (by date):

"Joseph Morelli takes stand in own defense," Boston Globe, May 21, 1920, p. 12.
"Sacco-Vanzetti motion heard," Boston Globe, Sept. 13, 1926, p. 1.
"Madeiros' confession read in court today," Boston Globe, Sept. 14, 1926, p. 1.
"Morelli denies he did So. Braintree shooting," Boston Globe, Sept. 15, 1926, p. 32.
"Says make of murder car has significance," Boston Daily Globe, Sept. 16, 1926, p. 1.
"Concludes argument against new Sacco trial," Boston Daily Globe, Sept. 17, 1926, p. 16.
"Sacco, Vanzetti denied new trial," Boston Globe, Oct. 24, 1926, p. B1.
"New trial denied to Sacco, Vanzetti; appeal to be made," New York Times, Oct. 24, 1926, p. 1.
Frankfurter, Felix, "The portentous case of Sacco and Vanzetti," St. Louis MO Post-Dispatch (originally published in Atlantic Monthly), April 13, 1927, p. 23.
"Report of Governor's Advisory Committee in Sacco-Vanzetti Case," North Adams MA Transcript, Aug. 8, 1927, p. 16.
"Morelli gang under arrest," Boston Globe, April 25, 1928, p. 11.
"Joseph Morelli takes poor debtor's oath," Boston Daily Globe, Sept. 26, 1928, p. 12.
"War on gang in Providence," Boston Globe, Dec. 10, 1931, p. 12.
Keegan, William J., and Jay Nelson Tuck, "Scottoriggio perjury indictments awaited as one jury ends probe," New York Post, Nov. 6, 1947, p. 5.
"Nationally backed three-city gambling ring thrives in New England," Detroit Free Press (originally published in Providence Journal-Bulletin), May 4, 1950, p. 4.
"Phones removed after 'booking' charged by paper," Berkshire (Pittsfield MA) Eagle, May 4, 1950, p. 2.
"Sacco case figure dies," New York Times, Aug. 28, 1950, p. 11.
Murphy, Jeremiah V., "Underworld chief? 'Prove it,' he says," Boston Globe, Feb. 26, 1967, p. 13.
"Patriarca is released in $25,000 bail; arrested for first time in 20 years," Nashua NH Telegraph, June 22, 1967, p. 20.
Krupa, Gregg, "Patriarca," Providence Journal, Sept. 6, 1987, p. Mag-6.

Messina, Gaspare (1879-1957)

Born Salemi, Sicily, Aug. 7, 1879.
Died June 15, 1957.

Messina

Gaspare Messina was one of just two men known to have served as temporary boss of bosses of the American Mafia. He is also distinguished among Mafia leaders by his lack of arrests and apparent competence as a legitimate businessman.

Messina was born August 7, 1879, to Luciano and Gasparina Clemente Messina in the inland western Sicilian town of Salemi, province of Trapani. (The name of Gaspare's father was initially assumed to be Salvatore - the name later given to Gaspare's first-born son. Family historians have since indicated that Gaspare's father was actually Luciano. Breaking with Sicilian tradition, Gaspare's second son was given the name Luciano.) Gaspare moved to the United States when he was twenty-six, shortly after his marriage to Francesca Riggio, twenty-five. The couple sailed from Palermo on Nov. 10, 1905, aboard the S.S. Citta di Napoli and arrived in New York City on Nov. 25. They went to meet Messina's cousin, Francesco Accardi, at 715 Flushing Avenue in Brooklyn.

The Messinas settled in Brooklyn for a time, where Gaspare ran a bakery. They resided at 143 Throop Street, near Flushing Avenue, with two of Francesca's siblings at the time of the 1910 U.S. Census. They remained in the borough through the births of two sons, Salvatore Joseph on Jan. 1, 1911, and Luciano on Jan. 31, 1913. In 1915, the family relocated to Boston. Son Vito Anthony was born in that city on April 27, 1915. Daughter Gasparina Francesca was born there about two years later, on May 4, 1917. The family home was located at 330 North Street, in an Italian immigrant community close to the North End Boston wharves. Almost immediately upon his arrival, Messina was recognized as an underworld authority in his new city, suggesting he was backed by important people.

Mafioso Nick Gentile noted in his memoirs that reigning boss of bosses Salvatore D'Aquila inserted loyal men into Mafia organizations around the country as spies. It is possible that Messina's move to Boston was initiated by D'Aquila. Law enforcement learned by 1919 that Messina was regarded as "rappresentante" of the Boston Mafia. The term "rappresentante" has become synonymous with "boss," but it may have held a different meaning at the time. The Italian word translates to "representative," which does not suggest "boss." The position may have been related to regional and national councils of Mafiosi, as discussed by Gentile. If so, we are left to wonder whether Messina was a representative from the Boston area to a greater council or a representative from a council seeking to impose order on the Boston-area underworld.

Messina initially ran a bakery business across the street from his Boston home. With the arrival of the Prohibition Era, he launched a wholesale grocery at the North End's 28 1/2 Prince Street, across from the massive St. Leonard's Roman Catholic Church. His partners in that business were Paolo Pagnotta and Frank Cucchiara.

Pagnotta quickly disappeared from the partnership following an unfortunate arrest-related appearance in the local newspapers. On Feb. 17, 1925, Boston Police investigated a report of a gunshot-damaged automobile at the Court Garage on Arlington Street. Two officers waited at the garage for the vehicle owner to show up. After a short time, they encountered and arrested Pagnotta, 50, of 462 Saratoga Street; Filippo Arrigo, 47, of 119 Hemenway Street; Jerry Longobardi, 35, of Fleet Street; and Frank Ferra, 28, of Fleet Street. None of the men could adequately explain the damage to the car. Pagnotta and Arrigo said they were not even present when the damage occurred. Longobardi claimed that occupants of a passing vehicle shot at them without provocation. Longobardi and Ferra were found to have handguns. They were charged with carrying concealed weapons. (Pagnotta may have been related to Rocco Pagnotta of East Boston. Rocco was a suspect in the murder of Francesco Mondello in the summer of 1908. Rocco died in October of 1926.)

Cucchiara, who like Messina was originally from Salemi, continued on in the wholesale business for some time. He later became owner of a cheese company in the North End. Police suspected Cucchiara of involvement in gangland murders late in 1931, and Cucchiara would later be identified as the only New England Mafioso known to have been in attendance at the 1957 convention in Apalachin, New York. (In January of 1976, Cucchiara, then seventy-nine, and his sixty-nine-year-old wife were found dead of gunshot wounds in their Belmont, MA, apartment. Cucchiara's wound appeared to be self-inflicted.)

The wholesale food business apparently paid well. In August 1924, Gaspare Messina took a trip to Italy. He returned Dec. 2 aboard the S.S. Patria with four hundred dollars in his pockets. (With him on this return voyage was Antonino Passannanti, who years earlier had been suspected of involvement in the assassination of New York Police Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino.) The following year, the Messinas moved across the Charles River to a home at 49 Pennsylvania Avenue in Somerville. By the summer of 1927, Messina also had another address. He had a New York City home at 346 East 21st Street. It was while living at that address that he filed his petition for citizenship with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on April 4, 1930.

The move out of Boston to Somerville coincided with a move by boss of bosses D'Aquila from Brooklyn, New York, to the Bronx. D'Aquila had been waging a losing war against Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria and his Morello-Terranova allies since the early 1920s, and his Bronx move had the look of a retreat. In Boston, Messina had shown some independence from D'Aquila during the period, as he treated warmly visiting anti-D'Aquila Mafioso Nick Gentile. Messina's independence may have won him admiration and a measure of security. Shortly after Messina's return to New York, on Oct. 10, 1928, D'Aquila was shot to death on a Manhattan street less than half a mile from the Messina residence.

War again erupted for the Sicilian underworld society in 1930, as Castellammarese Mafiosi across the country joined with former D'Aquila followers to oppose the rule of new boss of bosses Giuseppe Masseria. As Mafia leaders struggled to find a diplomatic solution to the trouble, Masseria stepped down from his post and Gaspare Messina was selected temporary boss of bosses - apparently in recognition of his even-handedness. Messina organized a large convention at Boston in December 1930 but was unable to resolve the difficulties. The Castellammarese War concluded with Masseria's assassination on April 15, 1931.

As Prohibition drew to a close, Messina set aside his apparently lucrative food wholesaling business and became president of Neptune Oil Corporation, based at T Wharf in Boston. The Messina family returned to its Somerville home.

Messina's wife Francesca died June 22, 1947, in Somerville. Years later, the seventy-three-year-old former Mafia boss traveled back to Sicily for a visit of several months. He sailed from New York on Aug. 9, 1952, aboard the S.S. Conte Biancamino. He returned on the S.S. Saturnia on Dec. 10. (A family historian has suggested that this trip was made not by the subject but by another man with the same name. We note for the record that the traveler had the same name, same age and same U.S. hometown as the subject.)

Messina died in Somerville five months before the ill-fated Apalachin convention.

See also:

Sources:

Boston City Directory, 1919, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1930, 1933, 1934, 1938, 1941, 1942.
Certificate of Arrival, 2-39510, March 7, 1930, Bureau of Naturalization.
Declaration of Intention, filed U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, Sept. 15, 1916.
Flynn, James P., "La Cosa Nostra," FBI report no. 92-914-58, NARA no. 124-10337-10014, July 1, 1963.
List of In-Bound Passengers, S.S. Saturnia, departed Palermo on Nov. 29, 1952, arrived New York City on Dec. 10, 1952.
List of Outward-Bound Passengers, S.S. Conte Bianamano, departed New York City on Aug. 9, 1952, bound for Palermo, Sicily.
Massachusetts Vital Records, Index to Deaths 1946-1950 Kettles-Mulvehill, Volume 109, Boston: Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Massachusetts Vital Records, Index to Deaths 1956-1960 Kimel-Morandis, Volume 121, Boston: Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Messina, Michael, Letter to Thomas Hunt, Oct. 21, 2017.
Passenger manifest of S.S. Citta di Napoli arrived New York City Nov. 25, 1905.
Passenger manifest of S.S. Patria departed Palermo on Nov. 20, 1924, arrived New York City on Dec. 2, 1924.
Petition for Citizenship, no. 167233, filed U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York on April 4, 1930.
SAC Boston, "La Cosa Nostra AR-Conspiracy," FBI Memorandum, file no. 92-6054-2516, NARA no. 124-10302-10009, Feb. 19, 1969.
Somerville MA City Directory, 1927, 1939.
Somerville City Directory, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929-1930, 1934, 1940.
United States Census of 1910, New York State, Kings County, Ward 21, Enumeration District 504.
United States Census of 1920, Massachusetts, Suffolk County, City of Boston, Precinct 1, Ward 5.
United States Census of 1930, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, City of Somerville, Ward 1, Enumeration District 9-410.
World War I Draft Registration, Sept. 12, 1918, Boston, MA.
World War II Draft Registration, serial no. U-728.

"Seize four in garage on Arlington St," Boston Daily Globe, Feb. 17, 1925, p. 14.
"Three slay man in street and flee," New York Times, Oct. 11, 1928.
"Racket chief slain by gangster gunfire," New York Times, April 16, 1931, p. 1.
"Police mystified in slaying of 'Boss,'" New York Times, April 17, 1931, p. 17.
Bonanno, Joseph, with Sergio Lalli, A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983
Gentile, Nick, Vita di Capomafia, Rome: Editori Riuniti, 1963.
Valachi, Joseph, The Real Thing - Second Government: The Expose and Inside Doings of Cosa Nostra, unpublished manuscript, Joseph Valachi Personal Papers, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, 1964.

Buccola, Philip (1886-1987)

Born Palermo, Sicily, Aug. 6, 1886.

Died Palermo, Sicily, 1987.

Buccola (also "Bruccola") is widely believed to have ascended to the leadership of the Boston-based Mafia Family in the Prohibition Era.

Some sources indicate he became boss upon the death of Gaspare Messina in 1924.(1) One problem with this view is the fact that Messina did not die in that year - Nick Gentile indicates that Messina briefly served as American Mafia boss of bosses about 1930.(2) Gentile's account fits better with the traditionally accepted 1932 timing of Buccola's recognition as Boston boss by the national Mafia commission.

Born in Palermo, Sicily, Buccola arrived in the United States in the fall of 1920 and worked for a time as a fight promoter. He appears to have led a Sicilian gang in Boston's East Side for a while.(3) His education, relative affluence and links to the Palermo underworld served him as he rose to the top of Boston's Sicilian underworld.(4)

Buccola might have cooperated with non-Mafia bootlegging czar Charles "King" Solomon and the rest of the Seven Group ("Big Seven") in rum-running operations in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It is possible that Solomon's leadership in the New England bootlegging rackets was a cause of some friction between him and Buccola. At least one source indicates that Solomon's 1933 murder was ordered by Buccola.(5)

The relationship between Buccola and Mafioso Joe Lombardo is something of a mystery. It appears that Lombardo, deemed responsible for the December 1931 assassination of Irish Gustin Gang boss Frankie Wallace,(6) was at least part of a New England-wide Mafia leadership in the 1940s. There are several theories regarding Lombardo's poorly documented role: He might have been an overall boss, using others as front men or division leaders;(7) He might have served as Buccola's underboss;(8) or he might have led a faction within the North Side Mafia.

Based upon information provided by turncoat Vincent Teresa, Lombardo was overall boss near the end of the Prohibition Era. It remains possible, however, that Lombardo was less a regional crime czar than an influential member of a panel of Mafia leaders, which might have included Boston's Gaspare Messina and Providence's Frank Morelli.

Targeted by law enforcement as a result of assuming control over Morelli's Rhode Island operations around 1947,(9) Buccola retired to his estates back in Sicily in 1954. Day-to-day Mafia affairs in Providence and Boston were turned over to Raymond Patriarca. Buccola kept a hand in Boston affairs while chicken farming outside Palermo. He reportedly died at the age of 101 in 1987.(10)

Related Links:

Crime boss listing - Mafiahistory.us

Notes:

. A number of organized crime websites insist that Gaspare Messina died in 1924 and was replaced by Buccola. See: Machi, Mario. "New England - Boston, MA," AmericanMafia.com (http://www.americanmafia.com/Cities/New_England-Boston.html); and "New England Mafia Homepage" (http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Academy/4448/).
. Gentile, Nick. Vita di Capomafia (Rome: Editori Riuniti, 1963). Interestingly, the statement of FBI investigator James F. Ahearn to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1988 (Organized Crime 25 Years After Valachi) indicates that Buccola was not identified as Boston Mafia head until the late 1940s.
. Teresa, Vincent. My Life in the Mafia (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1973), p. 44.
. O'Neill, Gerard and Dick Lehr, The Underboss (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989) p. 31. O'Neill and Lehr suggest that Buccola was sent to Boston by Palermo Mafia authorities in order to take command there.
. O'Neill, Gerard, op. cit, p. 32.
. O'Neill, Gerard, op. cit, p. 15-17.
. Teresa, Vincent, op. cit, p. 43-44. Teresa suggested that the Sicilian criminal organizations in various New England areas, such as Boston, Providence, Springfield, were run as separate crime families through the 1940s. He explained that Lombardo, based at his Pinetree Stables in Framingham, served as boss of bosses for the New England region.
. O'Neill, Gerard, op. cit. p. 17.
. According to Vincent Teresa, Lombardo in 1947 selected East Side gang leader Buccola to assume leadership authorities previously held by Frank Morelli. This scenario is repeated in Peterson, Virgil W. The Mob (Ottawa IL: Green Hill Publishers, 1983), p. 384.
. O'Neill, Gerard, op. cit. p. 31.