Pasquale Natarelli (July 9, 1910, - April 22, 1993)

Pasquale "Pat Titters" Natarelli was born to Italian immigrant parents in Buffalo on July 9, 1910. His father Valentino (born Feb. 18, 1881) was from Chieti in Italy's Abruzzo region, along the Adriatic Sea. His mother, Rose Panaro (born June 15, 1885) was from Bella Basilicata in the southern Italian province of Potenza.

Natarelli was first arrested at the age of 14, when he was charged with petit larceny. His juvenile arrest record grew to include six additional arrests for petit larceny, burglary and vagrancy.

Pasquale Natarelli in 1931

A 1931 burglary conviction resulted in a 90-day sentence at Erie County Penitentiary. The prison stay did little to deter him from a life of crime. By the end of 1933, his record included seven additional arrests for robbery, burglary, grand larceny and vagrancy.

As a member of the DiCarlo Gang, Natarelli became acquainted with Frederico Randaccio, John Cammilleri and the Pieri brothers. With them, he engaged in shaking down the operators of craps games and bookmaking parlors for protection payments.

On Jan. 17, 1934, four witnesses identified Natarelli as a member of a group of three bandits who held up a dice game in the rear of a Tonawanda, NY, tobacco store. Thirty patrons of the game were robbed at gunpoint of $2,400 in cash. Sam and Joseph Pieri also were arrested for participating in the holdup but were released after witnesses failed to identify them. Later investigation showed that the holdup was arranged by Joseph DiCarlo, described as "an individual who exercised considerable influence in gambling rackets in the Buffalo area" to discipline a gambling operator who failed to contribute a share of his profits.

Natarelli was sentenced to 15 years following conviction on a reduced charge of second-degree robbery. He was released early on Nov. 22, 1943, but sent back into Attica State Prison on Aug. 12, 1948, for violating parole by associating with Frederico Randaccio. His prison sentence expired Feb. 16, 1949.

During the 1950s and early 1960s, Natarelli was a key figure in the Buffalo gambling rackets supervised by Randaccio. He served 90 days in prison following a 1951 conviction for possession of policy slips. Eight years later, he was arrested in state police raids of western New York gambling establishments. He and Sam Frangiamore were convicted of conspiring to contrive a lottery and were sentenced to six months in county prison.

Pasquale Natarelli in 1962

By 1965, Natarelli was one of boss Stefano Magaddino's top lieutenants.

He was arrested in Toronto in 1965 with Albert, Eugene and Paul Volpe. The four men were charged with conspiracy and with extorting 100,000 shares of silver-mining stock from the president of a brokerage company. The case against them resulted in three mistrials and finally an acquittal.

Natarelli was taken into custody in 1966 following the Buffalo Police raid of the Blue Banner Social Club gambling parlor and again seven months later in the raid of Panaro's Lounge. In June 1967, he was arrested on federal conspiracy charges resulting from planned robberies in West Virginia and California.

Natarelli and codefendants Randaccio, Stephen Cino, Charles Caci and Louis Sorgi were convicted on Nov. 22, 1967, of violating the federal Hobbs Act, which made it a crime to conspire to obstruct interstate commerce. Natarelli and Randaccio were sentenced to maximum 20-year prison terms. The Magaddino Mafia organization was staggered by the loss of its top two Buffalo administrators.

Following his parole, the FBI learned that Natarelli had been moved into an underworld position in Niagara Falls. He had been granted permission to take a percentage of all gambling revenue in the city and was said to be shaking down larger bookmakers for his share of their profits.

Natarelli died April 22, 1993, at the age of 82. His final resting place lies a short distance from the grave of his lifetime underworld associate Frederico Randaccio.

Natarelli gravesite

Frederico Randaccio (July 1, 1907. - Oct. 4, 2004)

Frederico "Lupo" Randaccio was born in Palermo, July 1, 1907. His father Umberto (born Oct. 16, 1880) crossed the Atlantic early in 1910, arriving in the U.S. on Feb. 9, 1910. Frederico, his sister Eloisa and his mother Maria D'Amico Randaccio followed five months later, using the assumed surname of Fassi.

Frederico attended Buffalo public schools until the seventh grade. Following his thirteenth birthday in July 1920, he was arrested as a juvenile delinquent. A second juvenile delinquency arrest followed two years later.

As a member of Buffalo's DiCarlo Gang, Randaccio became acquainted with Pasquale "Pat Titters" Natarelli, John Cammilleri and the Pieri brothers. He also became well acquainted with the local authorities. He was arrested for gambling in 1925 and for bootlegging early in 1926.

One of the DiCarlo Gang's money-making rackets was extorting payments from bookmakers and operators of crap games. Randaccio became adept at extracting payments from gambling enterprises.

In 1928, he was fined $10 after being convicted of third-degree assault. A year later, he and his father were arrested on an open charge and questioned by police in connection with the murder of Joseph Syracuse.

Randaccio was sentenced to ten years in Elmira Reformatory following a September 1930 conviction for first-degree robbery. Released early, he was returned to prison for parole violation and remained there until June 11, 1941.

During the 1940s, Randaccio was closely associated with horserace wire rooms operated by Joseph DiCarlo and John Tronolone. Randaccio was questioned at length following the murder of anti-gambling crusader Edward Pospichal.

An honorable discharge after six months' service in the U.S. Army in 1945 allowed Randaccio to obtain his U.S. citizenship.

After DiCarlo's move to Youngstown, Ohio, Randaccio became the chief enforcer for Buffalo crime family leaders Vito "Buck Jones" Domiano, Angelo Acquisto and James "Julie" Caputo. Caputo's 1951 death allowed Randaccio to step into the role of Domiano's bodyguard and collector. The deaths of Acquisto in 1956 and Domiano in 1958 drew Randaccio up into the leadership of the western New York crime family commanded by Niagara Falls-based Stefano Magaddino. In 1958, Randaccio was Magaddino's chief lieutenant in Buffalo and overseer of all Mafia gambling operations in the city. At that time, Pasquale Natarelli became Randaccio's right-hand man. Randaccio's accession followed the Mafia's exposure at the Apalachin convention and coincided with an intensification of FBI efforts against racketeers. Randaccio was targeted by the Top Hoodlum Program initiated by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Randaccio's brother Victor and John Cammilleri helped to establish underworld control over Buffalo Local 210 of the International Laborers' Union.

Randaccio successfully quelled local opposition to Magaddino during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Independent-minded burglars Frank and Fred Aquino were murdered in September 1958, and Vincent Santangelo and Anthony Palestine met their violent ends in August 1961. Later that year, after Magaddino Crime Family narcotics trafficking became known to authorities, accused drug smuggler Alberto Agueci attempted to force Magaddino to provide financial support to himself and his brother, also charged with drug trafficking. Agueci's charred corpse was found in cornfield outside of Rochester on Nov. 23, 1961. FBI surveillance overheard Randaccio describing the disposal of Agueci's body.

Randaccio was arrested in the May 8, 1967, police raid on Panaro's Lounge. He and 35 others, including Joseph DiCarlo and Pasquale Natarelli, were charged with consorting with known criminals. At the time of the arrests, Randaccio flew into a rage and cursed law enforcement officers. The charges were later dismissed, but Randaccio's behavior and the failure of his political connections to warn him of the raid drew the ire of his boss Magaddino.

Randaccio, Natarelli, Stephen Cino, Charles Caci and Louis Sorgi subsequently faced federal conspiracy charges in connection with planned robberies in West Virginia and California. Testimony by mob informant Pascal Calabrese helped to convict all five defendants in November 1967. Randaccio and Natarelli were sentenced to 20-year terms in federal prison.

In the absence of the Magaddino Crime Family's top two Buffalo administrators, an anti-Magaddino faction took hold in the city's underworld.

Randaccio was paroled from prison at the age of 71. He had served 11 years of his conspiracy sentence. While law enforcement expected him to attempt to seize control of the Mafia in Buffalo, Randaccio instead settled into a quiet semi-retirement.

He died of natural causes, Oct. 4, 2004, at the age of 97.

Grave of Frederico Randaccio