Gaspar Milazzo - Early Life

Early Life

Born to Vincenzo Milazzo and Camilla Pizzo in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Milazzo immigrated to the U.S. in 1911 and settled in Brooklyn, New York. Upon his arrival Milazzo quickly established himself within Brooklyn's Sicilian community and the Italian underworld. With his desire to succeed in America the young Sicilian gangster surrounded himself with a group of friends and fellow Castellammarese mafiosi who were highly motivated and ambitious like himself. One of these men was a close associate by the name of Stefano Magaddino, another Castellammarese born Sicilian who was the member of an influential and well-known Mafia family hailing from their hometown. Milazzo's ambition, drive and criminal talents allowed him to make his way up the ranks of the Brooklyn based Castellammarese Clan and by the late 1910s he was seen as a top member of the crime group. Gaspar Milazzo was involved in the traditional Mafia rackets of gambling, extortion, loansharking and bootlegging. Milazzo would not be arrested frequently over his criminal career like so many mafiosi and gangsters are, but his small criminal record would contain the alias Gaspar Sciblia and Gaspar Lombardo, Sciblia being his wife's maiden name. Milazzo like most successful mafiosi knew the value of connections within the criminal underworld and with corrupt law enforcement agents and politicians and because Milazzo and his band of Castellammarese mafiosi made sure they secured enough of those connections Milazzo himself never faced or experienced any serious charges or convictions that could net him serious jail time. Milazzo's leadership qualities, toughness and his ability to mediate disputes amongst his fellow gangsters made Milazzo a well-respected and feared member of the New York Mafia. By the advent of Prohibition Milazzo was considered a senior member of Brooklyn's Castellammarese Clan, as was his associate Stefano Magaddino who was also the cousin of fellow Castellammarese and future leader of the Brooklyn clan, Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno, the patriarch of New York's Bonanno crime family.

Once powerful and now deceased New York Mafia Boss, Joe Bonanno wrote his 1983 autobiography, "A Man of Honor", that "Gaspar Milazzo and his cousin Stefano Magaddino were important men in the Brooklyn based Castellammarese Clan." Along with other leaders like Vito Bonventre and Nicola "Cola" Schiro the Brooklyn based group ran and controlled a number of the criminal activities that included gambling rackets such as craps games, the Italian lottery and numbers, money lending, better known as loansharking, the extortion of business owners in the Italian community and a fair share of the bootlegging in Brooklyn and other parts of New York, but the Castellammarese Clan had competitors and rivals in the 4 other crime families that had formed within the city over the decades and that now comprised the powerful New York Mafia. The other 4 established New York crime families were potential rivals to the Castellammarese Clan and its members in regards to the illegal rackets and underworld operations, but Milazzo and his associate Magaddino had other rivals in Brooklyn that were potentially far more dangerous than their fellow Sicilian gangsters around New York. Before Milazzo and Magaddino had emigrated to America from Sicily they had been close associates in Castellammare and members of the Bonanno-Magaddino-Bonventre Clan, a strong and well-known Mafia family back in their hometown which saw a number of its members and families emigrate to various parts of America, Brooklyn, New York being one. Milazzo and Magaddino and their clan back home had previously been involved in a blood feud or vendetta with another strong and well-known Castellammarese Mafia family, the Buccellato Clan which also had members that emigrated to various parts of America, including Brooklyn, New York, which meant the blood feud would carry on outside of Sicily.

Milazzo and Magaddino were under the impression that Buccellato Clan members had been responsible for the murder of Stefano's brother back in Sicily in 1916, Pietro Magaddino who became a casualty in the vicious Mafia war that had now found its way onto American soil. The member of the Buccellato Clan and apparent offender who had murdered Pietro had eventually emigrated to America himself. Word was sent from Sicily to Milazzo and Magaddino to alert them to the arrival of Camillo Caiozzo who sure enough was spotted by a member of the Milazzo-Magaddino inner circle which by then came to be known as the "Good Killers" for their efficiency in killing their enemies and then disposing of the corpses. In the summer of 1921 Milazzo and Magaddino were allegedly able to convince, in all actuality threaten a friend of Caiozzo's into setting him up and murdering him. The murder took place in Avon, New Jersey, where the killer or hitman, Bartolo Fontano a low level criminal had taken Caiozzo to see about investing money in a brothel. The two men later went hunting where Fontana shot and killed Caiozzo. Fontano who eventually broke down and confessed to the murder said he did so out of fear for his own life. New York Police were able to use Fontano's confession and his assistance to set up and arrest Magaddino. While Milazzo was implicated in the murder he was never arrested and was able to flee to Detroit and set up a new base of operations there with other Castellammarese associates and in later years he worked closely with his friend Magaddino who was eventually removed from the pending Caiozzo case because there was no direct evidence linking Maggadino to the murder, the same reason Milazzo was never pursued, they were only in on the planning stage and that could not be proven.