From their headquarters in Downtown Brooklyn, La Camorra were a very formidable bunch, that in their heyday were as strong and feared as any underworld network to ever operate on American soil.

https://thenewyorkmafia.com/la-camorras-navy-street-gang/?

Is ths Vollero the same Vollero that explained to Valachi in prison about the importance getting mobbed himself up and to align himself with the Neapolitans in the Camorra because Vollero thought the Neapolitans could never trust the Sicilians in the Mafia or for that matter,any Sicilian??

So the Navy Street Gang went down as if they were one of the 5 Families these days going down under a Rico Case?
Jusst when they were leaving Mafia rivals bodies all over the place.

Were the Coney Island ,East Harlem,and Ozone Park crews also affected legally by the crackdown on the Navy Street Gang?

Just being curious: why do you think Morano was Vollero's underboss? I always thought it was the other way around, although who knows....

That's what I thought because I'd always read it was Morano vs Morello and that Lauritano was just another crew member who was also a killer
And always knew Vollero was right up near top, but didn't know with what Camorra Clan

Yes, he is the very same guy.

Because each crew deeply interacted with the others, I believe that each of them were affected to one degree or another. But their Downtown Brooklyn faction was completely decimated.

From what has been written through the years as well as my interpretation of those writings, and through expanded research on these crews, I am of the personal opinion that Morano was not a boss, per se, or superior in rank to Vollero. I view Morano as serving in more of an underboss capacity.

In fact, I put Morano, Lauritano and Ricci on pretty much the same level. I view each as an 'underboss' of sorts (for lack of a better term.)

Just because he owned the Santa Lucia Restaurant in Coney Island, I also think there is an accepted misconception that Morano was necessarily a member of the Coney Island faction. Whereas, IMO, I believe he was tied in more with the Downtown Brooklyn faction.

Lets face it, there is no 100% concrete proof one way or the other. After all, we're talking about events here that occurred more than 110 years ago. But this is what my research has led me to conclude.

One thing I can tell you is that Lauritano was not just another crew member. He was a top ranked guy with Navy Street, whom I consider to have been Vollero's right arm and partner.

In the Valachi Papers was a section where Valachi mentions that Vollero tells him not to trust the Sicilians and to trust more other Neapolitans like Al Capone in Chicago

Which Camorra Clan would Capone have belonged to?

Actually, Capone and his brothers and cousins were closely tied to both this Downtown Brooklyn "Navy Street" faction and also that of Frankie Yale in Coney Island.

In fact, the Capone brothers were born and raised right down the block from the Navy Street Gang's headquarters. This was their neighborhood.

In the Valachi papers where Valachi talks about meeting Vollero and his advice not to trust Sicilians there was also mention that the Camorra clans had a toast that demonstrated the Neapolitan animosity towards Sicilians
Since I can't find the exact wording,this is a paraphrase of what was in the book"
Health and prosperity to all Neapolitans and death and destruction to all Sicilians

Likewise the book mentioned that Masseria hated the Castellamarese Clan so much that he wanted to kill all of them in Maranzano's Clan
And then decided better to kill all Castellamarese families everywhere
And then decided that anybody from Castellamare-mafia or not- should be killed

Yes, I remember reading that about Vollero and Valachi in jail.

And as far as Masseria goes. Lol. That was the stupidest move he ever made (obviously,) because he had no idea just how powerful their faction was, or how much that galvanized ALL the Castellammarese Clans (and their allies) throughout the nation and Italy too, to rally behind Maranzano in their fight to survive Masseria death decree.

Yes but we discussed on this board before a report that while Maranzano was a big ,man in Sicily,when he got here he was told by Capone (probably acting on Masseria's berhalf) to not stick his nose in their business here in America. That out of respect for Matanzano's stastus,they would send him a couple thousand a month(maybe per week).
Of course Maranzano defied the warning and went about not only forming his own Castellamarese Clan in NYC but suceeded in uniting Castallamarese Clans in other cities to join his cause in the Castallamarese war
So it seems like Masseria was "The Man" in NYC and America and the minute Maranzano hit the city of New York, Masseria decided to nip things in the bud.
Do historiand really know that Masseria(with his Young sometimes non Sicilian Turks) would not have beaten the Castellamarese had he not been betrayed by the likes of Luciano and Genovese and probably Capone?

First of all, I don't totally believe that statement that "Capone" would say that to Maranzano, or even have an occasion to say that to Maranzano since one was in NYC and the other in Chicago. Nor would he have even had the status at that point in time.

Secondly, it was NOT Maranzano making demands upon crews at that time, but rather Joe Masseria trying to bend guys to his will, demanding 'tribute' payments. (thats half the reason why the Castellammarese War was even fought in the first place, because Maranzano & company bucked Masseria's demands.)

Thirdly, how could anyone 'know' what the final outcome would have been if 'this' happened or 'that' happened. Know what I mean? Nobody has a crystal ball. But suffice it to say that the "anti-Masseria" forces, led by Maranzano, were strong enough that Luciano, Genovese and the others felt they had to give up Masseria to end the conflict. Obviously, Maranzano and his collective Castellammarese faction were very formidable.

As for predicting what the winner would have been in the Castellamarese War,had not Masseria been betrayed,you are right that nobody can know that The question maybe is who was actually winning -who had even a slight lead?

The way I understood the story was not that Maranzano came to town making demands ,but rather that Capone's message indicated that the Masseria group,or Masseria himself anticipated that Maranzano would do just what he ended up doing-taking over and uniting Castellamarese in NYC and everywhere and that that would be a constant threat to Masseria unless Masseria acted early.

My guess is that Masseria put Capone up to sending a message,just to show Maranzano that he too had people behind him from other cities

The article I read by a well known columnist was writing about what he had from FBI records. Can't remember his name.But at one time the article was on thios forum somewhere

Wasit one of these Camorra Clans-Navy Street or Coney Island that was involved in the Tammany Hall corruption scandal?

Also noticied multiple similarities between how the Navy Yard Clan and that early Clan in your stories Syracuse operated.Just about everything they did mirrored each other,as if they had the same game plan.

They probably all knew each other and copied a lot from one another. It would be interesting to know if the clans in places like Philadelphia,Chicago,Cleveland, Pittsburg, Steubenville, Youngstown,and other places all operated in a similar way. If they did,it would probably mean that they all were somehow connected to each other

Most of them were connected to one another. There's been a lot of documentation over the years confirming that.

How many of these Camorra Clans would you guess that there were in America ?

What would be your Top 10 Power Ranking (If you have 10 clans) ?

I don't know enough about each of them to make a perfect ranking. Especially that there we so many Camorra clans sprinkled around the entire country, especially on the east coast. But I'd say that NYC would have to rank #1. But after that there were significant clans in Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. And what about Chicago? They had a significant number of camorrista also.

What about Northern New Jersey, Syracuse, etc., etc., right down the line. Pretty much wherever the Sicilian Mafia was, so too were the Camorra.

For this particular storyline, I also took the liberty to research and design a hierarchy chart depicting those men we believe were members of this historic underworld network. Lisa is designing it as I write this and we anticipate releasing it in the coming days. So keep your peepers peeled.

Will you have a gallery?
In that group picture ,are you able to put any names to the faces ?

I'm not sure yet. We have a few, but we'll need more for an actual pictorial gallery.

They say that the Mafia,N'Drangheta, Sacra Corona,and Camorra are Secret Societies

Did the Camorra have a Shroud of Secrecy with an official Code of Omerta and rules similar to the Mafia ?

All of these clans had their own rules and regulations, as well as certain codes they followed. But of them all, the Sicilian Mafia was the most structured. At its core the Mafia also had a very formatted and ritualistic 'induction' ceremony.

Whereas, although there was some procedure with the other societies, they were not believed to follow the legendary fire and blood ceremony.

How long were members of these secret societies able to keep their membership a secret?

For example I once read that in Naples ,in the 1980s,not only was a Roman Catholic Cardinal exposed as a member,but so was the Host of a popular Phil Donahue type talk show?

To this day, there are some old-time and current mafiosi who have never been exposed as such.

These is no time limit -- one way or the other -- for a guy to keep his membership a secret. It just is what it is.

Navy Street, Navy Street. But who were the actual members of this Navy Street Gang?

....the answer is coming soon.

...Later today