WEBVTT - Mango Recommends: The Sicilian Inheritance 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.159 Hi, babe. Eh, I'm trying to solve a mystery. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:04.640 Charlie, Charlie, what do you need? 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:08.600 What do you need? Disco Little Stone War? What's wrong 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:09.920 with them? I think you had them on upside down? 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:10.120 Man. 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:13.360 I'm sitting by the pool in Sciapello, Sicily, with my 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:18.400 podcast producer Kate and my three kids and cool easy. 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:19.840 Do you want to hear about the family mystery? 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:23.279 No? 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:28.600 No, yes, yeah you want this. Charlie is much more 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:34.040 interested in the very deep pool. O b is freezing mystery. 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:37.840 Everyone's jet lagged, and I'm questioning every decision that I've 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:41.040 ever made about my life because do you know why 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:41.879 we're here in Sicily? 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:42.720 Wow? 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:47.080 I'm trying to solve the mystery of my great great grandmother. 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:50.840 Of her Can I say murdered it? A three year old? 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.160 Her death, her deaf, How she died? Ha ha, We 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:57.720 don't know yet. We're trying to figure it out. We're 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:00.520 trying to learn. Do you want to help me? I'm 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.639 not exactly sure what possessed me when I made this 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:07.440 plan jetting off to Sicily with a five month old baby, 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.600 a three year old and a six year old for 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:14.360 a vacation slash Fact funding mission to look for clues 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:18.600 into my investigation into my great great grandmother's century old 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.440 murder right here in our motherland. Do you want to 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:28.319 know what her name was? Her name was, Lorenza. Can 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:36.280 you say that, Lorenza. I keep telling myself that if 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:39.600 we can learn something new, something more concrete, about what 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:43.000 happened to her, it will all be worth it. But 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:47.840 just being here, it all feels more real. She feels 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:53.400 more real, and we are closer, closer to figuring out 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:58.080 if my great great grandmother really was murdered right here 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:07.520 on this island, and if so, why. I'm Joe Piazza 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:12.520 from Kaleidoscope and iHeart Podcasts. This is the Sicilian Inheritance, 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:22.600 Chapter one, Lorenza. 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.200 So take me to the Do you remember the first 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:33.920 time you heard this? 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:36.000 It's hard to say. I feel like I've always known 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:41.280 this story because Italian Americans love to tell stories, and 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:47.320 they love to embellish stories, and especially if it's really 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.720 salacious or it could possibly have something to do with 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:54.120 the mafia, they love that shit. Can you walk me 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:57.720 through the Yeah, the story, the story. The story is 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.280 one that I've known all my life. I've I've heard 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:03.959 it over and over and over again, not always in 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:07.720 the same way and definitely not with the same information. 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.720 It's my family's origin story, the story of where we 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:16.679 the Piazzas came from. It all starts a little over 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.560 one hundred years ago with my great great grandparents back 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:23.440 in Sicily, the ancestral homeland. As far as my dad 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:28.079 said the family is concerned, my great great grandfather Antonino 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:32.000 and my great great grandmother Lorenza lived in this tiny 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:37.560 village called Caltibalota, where they had seven children one by one. 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:41.040 Around nineteen ten, Antonino and his son saved up enough 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:44.200 money to sail to the US, passed through Ellis Island, 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:48.440 and settle in the northeast the classic Italian American story. 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:53.360 Lorenzo was supposed to follow them eventually, but she never 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:58.800 made it. She died in Caltibalotta. According to my family's 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:02.200 one hundred year long game of telephone, she was murdered. 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:06.240 For years, this story has just been a mystery for 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:11.360 our family, something we've enjoyed speculating about, swapping different bits 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:14.880 and pieces and versions of the story. As you'd say 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:19.400 in Italian, La pierra caierra idle gossip. 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.200 Hello, Hey, Sharon, how you doing. 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:29.120 I'm okay. So now I hear you're writing my memoir 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.400 and I'm going to be some famous now right you are? 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:33.120 Yeah? 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:34.839 Yeah, yeah, that's the plan, Yeshi. 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:37.680 And the story was always told with a kind of 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:40.559 hand gesture where you push your thumb into your nose 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.960 and lower your voice when you say the black hand 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:45.600 or the mafia. 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:49.359 Now in Sicily there's still tons of mafia, and of 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:50.960 course they called it the black. 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.640 Hand, which is why for me, for a long time, 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:55.920 I thought the whole thing might be bullshit. 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.359 Well, nobody knows for sure. There's two stories. 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.240 But over the years, as I've heard it more and more, 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:06.359 Lorenza's story and her potential murder have become a bit 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:11.320 of an obsession. Maybe that's because we're a family of storytellers, 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:19.200 sometimes liars, definitely myth makers, myself included. I'm a writer 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.880 and recently I turned my fascination with Lorenza into a novel. 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:28.839 It's also called The Sicilian Inheritance, and it is loosely, 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.200 loosely based on my family story. A woman is left alone, 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:37.000 there's an unsolved murder. There's just a lot more food 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:41.359 and wine and sex, thrown in, and look, my obsession 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:44.839 with this story, this family story, may have ended there, 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:49.480 but the writing it got me fixated on the real 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:54.080 story and the real woman, who was the real Lorenza 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:59.960 Marsala and what actually happened to her? So I started digging, 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:05.239 and I began with my best sources, my family. 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:07.920 The first thing I'm doing is asking different family members 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:10.560 what they think the story is, what did they want? 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:11.719 Good luck with that? 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:13.760 Good luck with that? 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.800 Oh, dear Hi, how are you good? 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.520 This is Uncle Jimmy. He's my dad's older brother. 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:22.760 I want to hear everything. 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:26.200 You know. Well, I don't know any more than probably 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.560 you do. But Jimmy and I've been talking about it, 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:34.680 and our one concern is if it's two realistic, you're 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.560 going to wind up Startinger Vendetta again. And I'm too 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:42.080 old to go over there and shoot somebody. Jimmy wants 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:43.880 to bring his kids over there. 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:46.320 Are you too old to go over there and shoot somebody? 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:47.560 Uncle jim are you real? 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:47.760 Well? 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:52.400 All no shit, no Vendetta or not. I kept calling relatives. 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:54.520 You know that you have this book coming up. I 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:55.680 didn't know what was finished. 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.279 That was Aunt Gail. When I was growing up. She 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:00.200 lived down the street. She was like a second mom 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:00.520 to me. 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:02.360 I sat at writing sex scenes. 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.040 Okay, like I am, I have to get like real 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:07.320 drunk to write them. I hope you don't write too 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:08.760 many sexcees. 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:10.880 Drunk all the time. 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:15.480 Cousin Sissy, she's a romance novelist. Cousin Sharon, Cousin Laura. 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.080 We have a lot of cousins. We are Italian Americans. 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:20.480 We breed like rabbit's. 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:23.160 All I know is just obviously. 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:28.760 Okay. So here's what I was told Grandpa. My grandpa said, 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:32.080 the Piazza immigrated to the US. 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:37.960 Sons came over with his siblings. 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:41.360 Large family and your grand sisters siblings and immigrated. 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.760 The boys came over to kind of settle in and 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:46.440 you know all of that. So they came through out 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:48.360 of island, settled in New York. 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:52.200 The boys came over from Italy to by two immigrated. 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:56.440 Then Dad came with him, but they left mom behind. 0:07:56.760 --> 0:08:01.920 They left their mother behind, the mother to sell the farm. 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:05.640 His wife stayed behind to tend to She said they 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:10.360 had a family farm. What I heard was that the 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:11.560 mom was. 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:12.680 Interested in her land. 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:14.480 She refused to sell. 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.240 Now this part I don't know if it's true. I 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:19.440 don't know who told me, whether it was or not, 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:24.200 or somebody else. But they had a vineyard and the 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:27.720 black Hand took over the vineyards, so they have not 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:31.080 get access to the vineyards. 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:35.520 The black Hand. That's how my family tends to refer 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.240 to the mafia in this story. It is not how 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.160 Sicilians refer to the mafia. I just want everyone to 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:45.400 know that. But this right here, this is the reigning 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:49.040 theory of how Lorenzo was killed. And it's the version 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:51.480 of the story that's been in my head the longest. 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:55.000 It's the version where the Piazzas owned a farm or 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.840 a vineyard, it is unclear. And once Antonino and all 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:01.320 of Lorenzo's sons had been gone in the US for 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:05.680 over a decade, the mafia killed Lorenza to get that land. 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:09.960 They owned a farm, and they left her behind it 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:15.720 us a transaction and did mafia leisurely stroll it from 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:16.439 her and killed her. 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.600 She sold the farm and all the money was in 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.560 the house, and they killed her for the money. 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.080 She was murdered while the boys were over here. 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:28.959 Maybe she had already sold the land and the mafia 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:31.040 then killed her to get the money from the land. 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.640 Maybe it was that money that she was planning to 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:38.280 use to leave Cecily and finally reunite with her family. 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:40.520 They were kind of stupid to leave all that money, 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.560 but there were no banks in or anything, and that 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:46.000 was the money she was going to be using to 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:50.320 come to the United States and get them started. But 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:52.800 they were kind of stupid to leave her there alone 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:53.280 like that. 0:09:58.400 --> 0:09:59.240 What was her name? 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:02.000 The name of whom. 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:06.440 The great great grandmother who was murdered? 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:11.240 Oh, oh, I forget, I forget her name. 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:13.840 Oh, Lorenzo and Marcelle. 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:17.120 For all the times that I've heard the story about 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:21.560 Lorenza being murdered, all the tellings and retellings, talking to 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.120 my relatives this time made me realize how little any 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:29.840 of us knew about her actual life or her death 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:30.679 for that matter. 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:33.240 Did you hear how they killed her? 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:33.920 No? 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:36.679 I never heard any details of her death. 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.600 Andante and I didn't give any details. I don't remember. 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:45.440 That's the thing. There have never been any real details 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:49.240 when this story gets told, things that you can prove, 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:53.839 And that's always what's made me skeptical, Like maybe it 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:57.600 was never a murder, Maybe her story could be as 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:01.600 open and shut as a case of the floor. Maybe 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:03.760 she got sick and that's why she didn't make it over. 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.640 A tragedy for sure for her sons and her daughters, 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:13.640 but not exactly worth the legend status. Maybe the family 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:16.080 needed to make her death into something more than just 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.720 a virus. I mean, my dad was a claims attorney, 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:24.320 my uncle Jimmy's a judge. Like, we're like, we're a 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:29.880 very basic Italian American family. But they love imagining that 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:35.800 there's some kind of adventure and romance in possibly being 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:39.920 adjacent to the mafia, even though they're absolutely not, And. 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:41.160 This story gives it to them. 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.040 This story does give them that, this story gives them 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:46.800 some kind of connection, And I think that's what they 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.120 love about this story, Like if she was possibly killed 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:52.800 by the mob, why and like that gives them this 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:57.760 link to you know, Goodfellows as apanas the Godfather. When 0:11:57.760 --> 0:11:59.599 I started writing my novel, I didn't want to know 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.960 the real story. I wanted to use the small bits 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:06.440 and pieces that I knew about Lorenza to get started 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:10.040 and then let my imagination run wild with the rest. 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.000 But once the book was put to bed, I got 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:16.760 this tug in my gut. Something told me the story 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:20.440 wasn't finished, and that's what I needed to know the 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:25.240 truth about what happened to Lorenza. I became obsessed. What 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.000 really sent me looking for answers was this email from 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:31.160 my dad from about a decade ago. Toward the end 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:33.679 of his life, he used to send me dozens of 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:36.840 emails a day, and one day a couple years ago, 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.199 when I was cleaning out my inbox, one of those 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:44.280 unopened emails caught my eye. It was his grandfather's birth certificate, 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:48.760 Santo's birth certificate, and in the email, my dad remarked 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:54.560 on how beautiful the mother's name was, Lorenza. She was 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:58.560 the one who was murdered, he reminded me in all caps. 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.000 That email got me to start doing a little more digging, 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:13.920 just a little bit of reporting, and as soon as 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:16.800 I scratched the surface, it started to look a lot 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:18.960 like I had one hundred year old murder mystery on 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.000 my hands. Would there be a. 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:23.840 Peace record, yes, only in the case. 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:27.160 Of Mark one that I'm pretty sure I'm going to 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:32.840 be able to solve. Why would they be muttered together 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:49.320 more after the break? Do you hear that? Do you 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:53.040 hear that that's the gentle lapping of the Mediterranean Sea 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.800 on the fine golden sand. By the magic of podcasting, 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:59.560 you can almost feel the heat of the sun, the 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:03.320 cool water, and the smell of the orange blossoms. Now, 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:06.560 with a few short clicks, you can taste it too, 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.320 because we have actually imported the finest Sicilian olive oil. 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:14.959 Inspired by this very podcast, We've partnered with Philadelphia's own 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:20.040 Cardanus Gourmet Foods to bring you the Sicilian Inheritance Olive Oil, 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:24.280 a flavor journey from the volcanic soil of ancient groves 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:30.320 through special teoir that family secrets and inherited stories provide. 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:30.880 It's got a. 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:33.560 Taste of fresh off the vine, tomatoes and a hint 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.920 of almonds. You can get your own bottle today at 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:40.360 Cardenas Taproom. Check the show notes for the link and 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:43.800 all the details to buy. It's not only an incredible 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:48.120 olive oil, but it will completely transport you to the 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:53.440 beautiful and sometimes dangerous island of Sicily. So please do 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:56.720 check out the show notes now and thank you. Also 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:10.640 enjoy with something delicious. I just spent three hundred dollars 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:15.160 on ancestry dot com. Oh did as I tried to 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:18.160 solve this mystery. I forced my husband Nick to be 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:22.240 my enthusiastic sounding board for all of my discoveries. Here 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:27.680 is Santa, I've got all the dates. There's there she is. 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:28.320 That's her. 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:34.040 Wow, which, of course involved immediately googling genealogy websites. There's 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:34.880 a picture of her. 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:37.480 No way, look at that. 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:39.680 Have you ever seen No, I've never seen this. 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:40.360 Wow. 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:43.480 She looks. 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.520 She looks unhappy. When you imagine an Italian Nona, what 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:51.680 do you think of got chubby lady in the kitchen 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:56.520 making pasta That is not Lorenza. Lorenza looks like she 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:00.280 could kill you with her stare. Her cheekbones alone could 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:02.760 cut glass. She looks like someone who might have been 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:05.280 involved in some shit. But this is very helpful because 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:06.800 now we have the death date. 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:09.920 Yeah, or with the death date right, yeah? 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:11.240 Yeah? 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:12.560 Whoa cool panda. 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:14.920 So before we go much further, I think I need 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.400 to draw my family tree for you all. In fact, 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.120 I now have a massive wall in my house where 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:24.880 I sketched it all out. Lorenzo Marsala my great great 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.480 grandmother on my dad's side. She was born in eighteen 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:33.000 sixty two. She married Antonino Piazza. Quick note here, just 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:36.880 to make things extra confusing. In Italy, women don't take 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.320 their husband's last names. Did you know that? I didn't 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.920 until we started doing this, So Lorenza kept the last 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:49.120 name Marsala Lorenza Marsala sounds like a pasta dish. Anyway, 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:53.280 Lorenza and Antonino had seven children who lived to adulthood. 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.600 I personally have three children, and I think seven is 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:58.920 a lot of children. Anything more than one is a 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:04.240 lot of children. Anyway. Lorenzo and Antonino's kids, first, we've 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:08.520 got Santo, he's my great grandfather. Then Joseph also known 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:13.159 as Giuseppe, Veto and Caligaro also known as Charlie, and 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:18.400 the daughters Josephine, Paulina and Rosa. All of them would 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:22.960 eventually come to America. The men first, Santo, the oldest son, 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:26.760 and Giuseppe left Sicily in nineteen oh five. Now, just 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:31.320 to set the scene picture this pre World War One 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:34.879 turn of the century. A lot of Italians were immigrating 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:39.200 back then, especially the ones living in intense rural poverty 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:43.200 in southern Italy and Sicily. Between nineteen hundred and nineteen ten, 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.960 more than two million Italians made their way across the 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.679 Atlantic Ocean, and among them were Santo and his brother, 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:56.960 Lorenza's son. Santo is my dad's grandfather got it and 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:59.960 he worked in the coal mines and was also a farmer. 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:02.320 This is me trying to explain it all to Kate. 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.840 It's really hard to keep all this straight, and not 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:08.120 that Kate is the best at keeping it straight either. 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:11.440 And presumably Santo told him. 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:14.720 No, that's the thing. So Santo, like a lot of 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:19.280 other Sicilians at the time, settled in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.800 he goes to work in the coal mines. Two years later, 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:28.359 their father Antonino joins them, bringing along another son. By 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.960 nineteen twelve, most of the kids, all of the sons 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.960 are in the States. Lorenza and two of her daughters 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:41.000 are still in Sicily. In nineteen sixteen, Lorenza dies and 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:43.840 a few years later her daughters would immigrate to the US. 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:49.560 Two Now Santo, the eldest son. He starts my particular 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:53.560 branch of the family tree. Santo is the grandfather or 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:57.000 great grandfather to all of my relatives that you've heard 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:57.520 so far. 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:01.280 They held they reunion one time where all of the 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:06.560 ass the first generation Piazzas were there. They were fantastic. 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:11.560 All my uncles and my dad were playing more which 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:15.639 is the finger game. You know, rock Stone scissors are 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:19.080 most and they played bacci on a dirt road and 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.040 it was a great time. And it's one of the 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:27.280 few times I have memories of seen all Santo's brothers 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:27.960 and sisters. 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:32.119 Santo also had a lot of children, ten of them, 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:35.040 and here the family tree gets even more confusing for 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:38.480 a lot of reasons, namely because everyone seems to have 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:44.680 the same names. There's so many Giuseppes, Giuseppas, Josephine's, Vetos, Vinni's, 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:48.040 and then the names they get anglicized when people come 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:52.840 to the US. The Giuseppas become Joe's, the Lorenzo's become Lauras, 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:57.280 the Veto's become Vinni's. You get the picture. Santo at 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:00.399 some point lived with each of his children, and for 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:04.280 as Sicilian as Santo was, he didn't like to talk 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:04.879 about Italy. 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:08.920 I remember going there and my old great aunts would 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:11.720 get my face and squeeze it and hurt the hell 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:13.800 out of me and talking Italian. 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:19.119 Cousin Sharon, she's my second cousin, I think I'm bad 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:22.760 with the seconds and the thirds. Her mom, Rose was 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:24.000 one of Santo's children. 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:28.080 Santa was very quiet about his past growing up. I 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:32.080 remember he wouldn't He didn't even want to acknowledge that 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:36.040 he was Italian for a while there, really, but yeah, yeah, 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:39.000 it was very strange. Somebody would come to the door 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:43.080 and see that he was clearly Italian with his you know, 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:48.320 deep accent, and he'd say, you're in America. You speak English, 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:52.120 no Italian. I mean, she didn't want It was strange. 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:56.560 He was very close mouth about much of his younger life, 0:20:57.040 --> 0:21:01.200 very close mouth. So it's worth to investigate and looking into. 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:07.520 Santo definitely didn't talk about what happened to his mother. Lorenza. 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:09.600 Your dad knew the most. 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:14.959 I think, didn't I know, But John, my dad and 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:20.640 his siblings and cousins are the complete opposite. They're obsessed 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:26.280 with their Sicilian roots. Santo was first generation. He wanted 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:28.520 to hide being Sicilian so he could fit in in 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:32.960 this country, which for some immigrants was a pretty common reaction. 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:36.600 My dad, on the other hand, he used to say 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:43.680 things like capiche instead of understand, or mazzaro instead of mozzarella, pitch. 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:46.000 You this Sicily nineteen twelve, so. 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.320 That everyone would know he was Italian. 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:51.840 Everything from Sicily means something. 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:54.080 My dad loved to pretend to be this kind of 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:58.560 tony soprano tough guy, especially with my high school boyfriends. 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:03.840 Sorry Kurts, not with this Sicilian thing that's been going 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:08.240 on for two thousand years. In the early two thousands, 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:11.000 my dad started to get really sick with a rare 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:15.159 form of muscular dystrophy. But instead of saying housebound or 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:20.680 just feeling sorry for himself in bed, Lorenzo's story became 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:24.480 this kind of unfinished business and it seemed to light 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:28.639 a fire in him. He started researching genealogy and taking 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:32.240 trips to Sicily. By that time he had to use 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:35.320 a cane and a walker to get around, and his 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:40.440 obsession had gone into overdrive. It's like falling in love 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:44.120 with Sicily and with learning new things about his family 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:47.960 gave him this way to escape his broken body. He 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:51.560 did some crazy stuff too. He started he got this 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:55.520 hair brained idea to start importing Sicilian organic olive oil, 0:22:56.280 --> 0:22:58.280 and he bought a shit ton of it. I think 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:03.040 he blew probably about one hundred grand on locals. Silly 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:05.199 and olive oil, and then there was something wrong with 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:08.199 the caps and the labels and they leaked, and it 0:23:08.280 --> 0:23:11.240 just sat in our garage for years and years, and 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:16.160 he just pissed away all of his remaining money on 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:19.440 this business that would never exist. But that was yet 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:23.280 another way to keep him going back to Sicily. As 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:26.800 he got sicker and less mobile, my dad could still 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:31.440 sit at a computer making calls and researching his leads 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:35.520 on Lorenzo's murder. At the time, I found all of 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:39.600 it a little bit silly. I was so disinterested in this. 0:23:39.680 --> 0:23:42.280 And if you think about two thousand, I was in college. 0:23:42.320 --> 0:23:45.840 I was twenty years old, graduate, I moved to New York. 0:23:46.560 --> 0:23:48.679 I'm not living with my parents. I could care less 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:51.400 about my dad's obsession with Cicily. I'm like, that seems 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:54.040 like a nice hobby for you, dad, I'm happy for you. 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:59.120 But we never talked about it, And now I really 0:23:59.200 --> 0:24:01.320 wish that we had. Like now, I really wish that 0:24:01.359 --> 0:24:03.480 I'd paid more attention and I'd listen to the things 0:24:03.480 --> 0:24:05.959 that he was finding out, because so much of it 0:24:06.000 --> 0:24:08.879 is also just now gone. I can't find anything in 0:24:08.920 --> 0:24:11.480 his email, I can't Facebook won't let me into his 0:24:11.520 --> 0:24:16.040 Facebook account, so a lot of what he learned died 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:21.239 with him. A lot of parts of him are gone, 0:24:21.320 --> 0:24:24.480 and he would hate that. He wanted to know the 0:24:24.560 --> 0:24:28.320 answer to this mystery, and I wish that I'd been 0:24:28.320 --> 0:24:31.680