Not yet fully verified. Facts are tagged with their confidence level; family-supplied details have not all been checked against a primary record.
Biographical Information
Rose Locascio - Rosina Lo Cascio - was born in Sicily on 14 February 1880 Confirmed, a daughter of Carlo Lo Cascio and Antonina Lo Verde Confirmed. She married John Russo at Chicago's Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary church in February 1901 Confirmed and raised six children, among them Carl. She died a widow on 8 June 1958, at Forest Park, and was buried at Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery, Hillside Confirmed. Family tradition held that a relative was killed by the Black Hand — and it is now confirmed: her mother Antonina was shot dead on the family's front steps at 1104 Cambridge Avenue on 12 June 1915Confirmed, while her brother Michael had been a wanted suspect in a related 1914 killing.
Confidence of each fact: Confirmed primary record · Probable strong but unproven · Inherited family knowledge · Conflict sources disagree · Hypothesis working theory
Full Name & Name Variations
Rose Locascio
Rose Locascio - son Carl's 1908 Cook County birth certificateInherited
Rosina Lo Cascio - Italian form, 1901 marriage recordInherited
_Origin:_ the family was from **Chiusa Sclafani, Province of Palermo** (parents' 1877 marriage register) — so Rose was almost certainly born there, c.1880Inherited
Lo Cascio - spaced spelling variantInherited
Locaccio - transcription error carried on the family chart (rejected)Inherited
_Provenance:_ CORRECTED FROM PRIMARY RECORD: the chart read 'Rose Locaccio'. Her son Carl's Cook County birth certificate (1908) records the mother's name as ROSE LOCASCIO. Locascio is the correct spelling and is a common Palermo surname; 'Locaccio' was a transcription error. Also seen as Lo Cascio.
Birth & Death
Born: 14 February 1880, Sicily [CONFIRMED — her 1958 Cook County death record; supersedes the chart's 1883 and the 1950-census estimate]
Place: Chiusa Sclafani, Province of Palermo, Sicily → Chicago / Forest Park, Cook Co., Illinois
Died: 8 June 1958, Forest Park, Cook Co., Illinois (residence 443 Beloit Ave); buried 11 June 1958, Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery, Hillside
Places of Residence
Italy — Chiusa Sclafani, Palermo (b. 1880)
Chicago Ward 4 (1910)
Melrose Park (1950)
Forest Park — 443 Beloit Ave (at death, 1958)
Occupation(s)
Housework (homemaker) [CONFIRMED — 1958 Cook County death record]
CONFIRMED present - 1950 US Census, Melrose Park, Cook County, Illinois, house 1513, ED 16-289 page 8: ROSE RUSSO, female, age 70, born Italy, in the household of John Russo.Confirmed
CONFLICT (minor): age 70 in April 1950 implies birth c.1880, against the chart's 1883. Census ages are stated, not documented, and are routinely off by a year or two. Both values retained; neither discarded.Conflict
Mother of Carl J Russo, Mary Russo (b. c.1902) and Marianne Russo (b. c.1905).Inherited
DIED BEFORE 19 MARCH 1964 - her husband John Russo is recorded as WIDOWED on his death record of that date (Illinois, Cook County Deaths, entry 17884). This sets a firm latest-possible date for her death; she was still living in April 1950 (1950 census), so she died between April 1950 and March 1964.Inherited
DEATH RECORD FOUND (Session 69) — the long-sought record. Her own Cook County death record: Rosa Russo, b. 14 February 1880, Sicily; d. 8 June 1958, residence 443 Beloit Ave, Forest Park; married (widow); occupation Housework; buried 11 June 1958, Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery, Hillside. It names her father Carlo Locascio and mother Nina (Antonina) Loverde — exactly our couple. This nails her birth date (14 Feb 1880, replacing the chart's 1883), her death date (was only "before March 1964"), and her final address.Confirmed
Hypothesis SURNAME-DISTRIBUTION EVIDENCE FOR PALERMO. LOCASCIO is moderately rare (15,156th). Its Italian clusters are dominated by the PROVINCE OF PALERMO: Contessa Entellina (22), Palermo city (22), Piana degli Albanesi (15), Altavilla Milicia (14) and Cerda (14) - five of the leading Italian locations, all in Palermo province. This independently corroborates the chart's 'Palermo' for her and, by extension, for her husband John Russo.Hypothesis
CURIOUS DETAIL WORTH NOTING: two of those comuni - CONTESSA ENTELLINA and PIANA DEGLI ALBANESI - are ARBERESHE (Italo-Albanian) towns, founded by Albanian refugees in the 15th century and still keeping their own rite and language. If the family proves to come from either, that is a distinctive heritage worth following. Entirely speculative at this stage.Inherited
[LIMITATION] Geneanet is user-submitted and derivative. This narrows the search; it confirms nothing.Hypothesis
[FAMILY ACCOUNT - UNVERIFIED] One of Rose's family members - possibly her MOTHER - is said to have been KILLED BY THE BLACK HAND in Chicago, around the turn of the 20th century. This was the working lead for the Locascio branch — and it was later CONFIRMED (her mother Antonina Lo Verde was assassinated 12 June 1915; see the Black Hand entry below).Confirmed
[NEGATIVE RESULT - the authoritative source is silent] The Northwestern University CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT HOMICIDE RECORD INDEX (Homicide in Chicago, 1870-1930) - which is transcribed verbatim from the police record and covers the entire Black Hand era - contains NO homicide victim named LOCASCIO under any spelling tried: Locascio, Lo Cascio, Locasio, Cascio (one unrelated male, 1922), Cascia. The search engine was confirmed working: 'Russo' returns 20 victims, several of them unsolved Black-Hand-style shootings. So the silence is real, not a query failure.Rejected
WHAT THE NEGATIVE DOES AND DOES NOT MEAN. It means: IF the victim was surnamed Locascio AND was killed inside the City of Chicago between 1870 and 1930, the crime is not in the police index. It does NOT rule the story out, because (a) we do not yet know the victim's surname - if it was Rose's MOTHER, the mother might be recorded under a different married name or her own maiden name; (b) the killing may have happened outside Chicago city limits; (c) transcription of Italian names in that era is wildly inconsistent.Inherited
[CONTEXT, NOT PROOF] Open-web sources place LOCASCIO men in a Black Hand gang on Chicago's NORTH SEDGWICK STREET in the early 1900s, and note a 'Mrs. Locascio' at whose home two bombs were found in 1915. This is the Near North Side 'Little Sicily' district. It is suggestive that a Chicago Locascio family was entangled with the Black Hand there, but it describes associates and intimidation, NOT the murder of a woman, and none of it is tied to OUR Rose. Forum-sourced; low reliability.Inherited
THE BLOCKER, STATED PLAINLY: we cannot name or search for the victim until we know ROSE'S PARENTS. Her parents are not on the chart and no record yet names them. Two documents would fix this: (1) her MARRIAGE to John Russo (names her father); (2) her own DEATH CERTIFICATE, 1950-1964 (names both parents). Neither is surfacing in the free FamilySearch index by name-guessing - the marriage is likely unindexed or under an unrecognised spelling, and the death record is not returning under Rose/Rosa Russo + Cook + 1950-1964.Inherited
ONCE THE MOTHER IS NAMED, the path is clear and largely free: search that exact name in the Northwestern homicide index and in digitised Chicago newspapers (Black Hand murders were front-page news). (This has since been CONFIRMED — Antonina Lo Verde was the victim; see below.)Inherited
CONSOLIDATION: the 1910 census (read directly) gives her as ROSIE RUSSO, wife, age 29 -> born c.1881, Italy - consistent with the c.1880-1883 range. Occupation was not indexed (immigrant wives were usually recorded with no occupation / 'keeping house'); her homemaker role is the reasonable reading. Household: John (44), Rosie (29), Mary (8), Marianne (5), Carlo (1y6m), Chicago Ward 4.Inherited
PARENTS FOUND (family knowledge + record, 22 Jul 2026): her 1901 Chicago marriage record names her father CARLO (Carolo/Charles) LO CASCIO and her mother ANTONINA LO VERDE. 'Antonina' is exactly the ANTOINETTE the family remembered - now with her maiden name LO VERDE. This solidifies the mother's identity and gives the father's name for the first time.Inherited
MARRIAGE: Rose (Rosina Lo Cascio) married John (Joannem) Russo on 16 FEBRUARY 1901 at the ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY church, Chicago (the civil record is 10 Feb 1901). Assumption BVM was the Italian parish on the Near North Side - the 'Little Sicily' district, the same neighbourhood tied to the Black Hand story.Inherited
NAMING CONFIRMS IT: Rose named her son CARL (Carlo Joseph Russo, b.1908) - after her own father CARLO Lo Cascio, the Sicilian custom of naming a son for the maternal grandfather.Inherited
SIBLINGS (family knowledge): Michael, Josephina and Angelina Lo Cascio - children of Carlo & Antonina. Angelina reportedly married an 'Ingo' and had a son Frank (the Angelina Ingoglia d.1922 found in Cook County had different parents - Fontana - so she is NOT this Angelina; the right one is still to be found).Inherited
BLACK HAND lead, refined: the murdered relative the family remembers is most likely ANTONINA LO VERDE (married name Lo Cascio) or her husband CARLO. Now that both names are known, the homicide index and newspapers can be re-searched under Lo Verde and Carlo Lo Cascio.Inherited
SIBLINGS VERIFIED (22 Jul 2026, testing the family-supplied names against records): MICHAEL is CONFIRMED - 'Mike Lo Cascio', born 2 April 1888 Italy, died 28 August 1947 Oak Park, wife Eva, buried Mount Carmel (Hillside); his Illinois death record names his parents as CARL LOCASCIO and ANTONINA LOVERDE - Rose's exact parents. JOSEPHINE and ANGELINA are NOT confirmed: no record surfaces with these given names AND the parents Carlo Lo Cascio / Antonina Lo Verde. The family's caution about those two names was well-founded; treat them as unverified.Confirmed
Hypothesis ORIGIN TOWN - PRIZZI, PALERMO. Searching for a 'Giuseppina Lo Cascio' surfaced Sicilian civil records showing Lo Cascio and Lo Verde families together at PRIZZI, in the province of Palermo (the specific Giuseppa found had different parents, so she is not ours - but the surname pairing in one town is telling). This aligns with the chart's long-standing 'Palermo' for the branch and gives a concrete comune to test: PRIZZI. Confirm via the Palermo civil registers (Antenati) for Rosa Lo Cascio b.~1880 and the Calogero/Carlo Lo Cascio x Antonina Lo Verde marriage.Hypothesis
[SICILIAN REGISTRY - BLOCKED, 22 Jul 2026] Attempts to pull the family's Sicilian birth/marriage records failed: neither FamilySearch's indexed Palermo civil registers nor Antenati's name index returns a Lo Cascio child with a Lo Verde mother (tried Rosa; Michele b.1888; the Calogero/Carlo x Antonina Lo Verde marriage). Antenati's index is explicitly incomplete and needs the exact COMUNE to browse the register images - which is not yet confirmed.Inherited
[TOWN - STILL UNCONFIRMED, and Palermo now in doubt] The Prizzi lead was weak (a Lo Cascio there had DIFFERENT parents). Antenati's actual 'Rosa Lo Cascio' records cluster in SANTA CATERINA VILLARMOSA (Caltanissetta) and Enna-province towns - NOT Palermo. So the chart's 'Palermo' is not supported by the surname evidence; central Sicily (Caltanissetta/Enna) is at least as likely. The comune remains open.Inherited
PATH TO THE TOWN (recommended): get a US record that names the Sicilian birthplace, THEN browse that comune on Antenati. Best candidates: (1) a CARLO LOCASCIO who DIED 5 Aug 1915, Chicago (Archdiocese of Chicago cemetery records) - possibly Rose's father; his death certificate would give the town + his parents; (2) Michael Lo Cascio's full death certificate (d.1947); (3) the family's passenger manifest (~1898-1900). Any of these should name the comune and unblock the Sicilian registers.Inherited
[FURTHER ATTEMPTS, 22 Jul 2026 - all blocked by surname mangling] Michael's WWI draft card is not findable under Locascio/Lo Cascio for a Chicago man b.1888 (the only Michael Locascio WWI card is a DIFFERENT man - New York City, b.7 Sep 1887, from a Trapani-province town). No naturalisation, no clean census household, no arrival manifest surfaces either - the same US-index wall that hid the Basile family. The town-bearing records exist but are not indexed under a searchable spelling.Inherited
REALISTIC PATHS TO THE TOWN now require a record IMAGE or an order, not an index search: (1) view MICHAEL Lo Cascio's 1947 Cook County death certificate (free at a FamilySearch affiliate library, like John Russo's) - it should name his Sicilian birthplace; (2) the CARLO Locascio d.1915 Archdiocese burial + any death certificate; (3) order Rose's or Michael's death certificate. Any one comune then unlocks the Antenati registers. Until then the town stays OPEN (and the chart's 'Palermo' is unsupported).Inherited
BLACK HAND — CONFIRMED (Sessions 49–52, superseding the July negative results above): the murdered relative was Rose's own mother, Antonina Lo Verde, shot dead on the family's front steps at 1104 Cambridge Ave. on 12 June 1915 (Chicago homicide index Case #4250 + her Cook County death certificate). The earlier searches failed only because the police register mis-spelled the surname as "Locassis." Rose's brother Michael Lo Cascio was separately a wanted suspect in the 1914 Joe Ingo killing (Case #3945). See the pages for Antonina Lo Verde and Michael Lo Cascio.Confirmed
Sources & Documents (11 sources)
Chicago marriage - John Russo & Rose Lo Cascio, 16 February 1901 (names both couples' parents) ↗"Illinois, Marriages, 1815-1935", marriage of Joannem (John) Russo and Rosinam (Rosa) Lo Cascio, 16 February 1901, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary church, Chicago (civil record 10 Feb 1901). Groom's parents: Antonini (Anthony Russo) and Maria Ocsaro. Bride's parents: Caroli (Carlo Lo Cascio) and Antoninae Lo Verde.FamilySearch / Illinois Marriages
Chicago Police Department Homicide Record Index (Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930) ↗Northwestern University School of Law digitisation of the Chicago Police Department homicide register, transcribed verbatim, covering 1870-1930. Searched 22 July 2026 for LOCASCIO and variants (Lo Cascio, Locasio, Cascio, Cascia): NO matching victim. Engine confirmed working - 'Russo' returns 20 victims. A genuine negative for a Locascio homicide victim in the City of Chicago in this period.Northwestern University School of Law
Chicago Black Hand — background (Chicagology; open web) ↗Background on the Black Hand extortion era in Chicago, c.1903-1920, centred on the Near North Side 'Little Sicily' around Sedgwick and Division Streets. Open-web and forum sources associate LOCASCIO men with a North Sedgwick Street Black Hand gang and note a 1915 bomb discovery at a 'Mrs. Locascio' home. CONTEXT ONLY - not tied to this family, and describing associates/intimidation rather than a murder. Low reliability.Chicagology / open web
Surname distribution — LOCASCIO (Geneanet) ↗Geographic distribution of the surname LOCASCIO: ranked 15,156th; Italian clusters dominated by the province of Palermo - Contessa Entellina (22), Palermo (22), Piana degli Albanesi (15), Altavilla Milicia (14), Cerda (14). DERIVATIVE SOURCE - user-submitted trees. Search-narrowing only. (Geneanet (user-submitted trees))
Portale Antenati — Italian State Archives civil registers ↗Free national portal to digitised Italian civil registers. Name index searched for ANDRIACCHI on 22 July 2026: no results. The portal states explicitly that only part of the available registers has been indexed, so this is an INDEX GAP, not evidence of absence. Control search for 'Rossi' returned 113,824 results, confirming the search function itself works. Archives for Catanzaro, Vibo Valentia, Cosenza, Reggio, Palermo and Messina all exist on the portal.Ministero della Cultura, Direzione Generale Archivi
Cook County birth certificate — Carl Joseph Russo, 1908Illinois, Cook County, Birth Certificates, 1871-1953, indexed as 'Carl Mario John or Carl Joseph Russo', born 26 April 1908, Chicago. Father John Russo; mother Rose Locascio.FamilySearch / Cook County
1910 US Census — John Russo, arrival 1897 ↗United States Census, 1910, entry for John Russo and Rosie Russo, Chicago Ward 4, Cook, Illinois; household 199, sheet 11A. States arrival year 1897.FamilySearch
Cook County death record — John Russo, 1964 (entry 17884) ↗Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1871-1998, entry for John Russo and Anthony Russo, 19 March 1964. Age 100; born 10 August 1863, Italy; address 1513 North 37th Ave, Melrose Park; widowed; occupation Photographer; buried 21 March 1964, Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery, Hillside, Township of Proviso, Cook County. Father: Anthony Russo. Carl J Russo also named on the record. (FamilySearch / Cook County (index; certificate image exists but is restricted to FamilySearch centers / affiliate libraries - collection 1463134, entry 17884))
Cook County death record — Rosa Russo (née Locascio), 8 June 1958 ↗"Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1871-1998": b. 14 Feb 1880, Sicily; d. 8 June 1958; residence 443 Beloit Ave, Forest Park; occupation Housework; buried 11 June 1958, Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery, Hillside; father Carlo Locascio, mother Nina Loverde.FamilySearch / Cook County
Family knowledge — supplied by BasileOral/handed-down family information supplied by P.J.B., July 2026, and the original family chart (Family Tree.rtf / FamilyTree.html).Family