Buster From Chicago - Sebastiano Domingo

Sebastiano Domingo

Sebastiano Domingo was born in 1910 in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. Sebastiano's nickname was Bastiano (hence Buster), and he also used the alias of Charles Domingo. In Valachi's unpublished memoirs, he claimed that Buster from Chicago, "is Castellamarese (sic) and that's why the old man got him to join in with us." Domingo and his family immigrated to America in 1913 and settled in Chicago's Little Italy. The family lived on Oak Street, near the infamous Death Corner that was the scene of many Black Hand related murders.

By 1920, the Domingo family was recorded as living on a farm near Benton Harbor, Michigan. Bastiano's older brother Tony was a member of a small fraternity of Castellammare families that sold illegal alcohol in the Benton Harbor area. Tragedy marked Domingo's stay in Michigan. On December 31, 1925, Bastiano's six-year-old niece Matilda was accidentally shot and killed by her ten-year-old uncle Leo DiMaria, who had been playing with a revolver he found in the cushions of a couch. Eight months later two of Domingo's cousins, Sam and Frank DiMaria, lost their lives in a distillery accident. On October 22, 1927, Bastiano's sister-in-law Mary Domingo was killed by a car bomb apparently meant for her estranged husband Tony. He and 17-year-old Bastiano shot up a local social club where the alleged bomber, Louis Vieglo, was hiding. Both were arrested before they could kill their target. Bastiano told the police that he was Tony Domingo's brother "Charles."

By late 1928, the Domingo family had returned to Chicago. On August 29, 1929, Tony Domingo was shot to death while eating in an Ogden Street restaurant operated by Pasquale Spilotro (father of future Chicago mobster Tony Spilotro). Bastiano had been seen with hanging out in the neighborhood with his brother in the weeks before Tony's murder. The elder Domingo's killer was never positively identified. By the spring of 1930, Bastiano had moved in with relatives in Westchester County, New York. The youthful (and mostly unknown) Sebastiano Domingo was ready to join the Maranzano family.

On May 30, 1933, Sebastiano "Bastiano" Domingo was playing cards with a few others at the Castle Cafe, located at 72 East First Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side. As they were, four gunmen barged inside and opened fire on the card players. An eyewitness reported that one of the triggermen yelled, "You bunch of rats," just before the bullets began flying. Police found Domingo dead on the sidewalk outside the cafe and five other men wounded. One of the victims, Salvatore Ferrara, eventually died of his wounds. Over 200 friends and relatives attended the dual funeral at St. John's Cemetery a few days later.