Rosario Carlisi (April 10, 1909, - April 29, 1980)

Rosario "Roy" Carlisi was born April 10, 1909, in Chicago. His parents, Giuseppe and Calogera Cassaro Carlisi, were originally from the Sicilian province of Agrigento. While in Chicago, Giuseppe was involved in bootlegging activities and was reported to be a member of Al Capone's underworld "Outfit."

In 1931, the Carlisi family moved from Chicago to western New York and opened a restaurant/tavern. Roy and Giuseppe Carlisi partnered in bootlegging enterprises with Calogero Romano and apparently did so with the approval of the Magaddino Mafia. Romano, owner of a tavern on Buffalo's lower west side, was a close associate of boss Stefano Magaddino. Roy Carlisi's marriage to Romano's daughter Filippa (Fanny) strengthened his relationship to his Mafia superiors.

Roy Carlisi in 1932

In 1933, Roy and his father were questioned by Buffalo police during the investigation of the murders of Vincent and Salvatore Callea. The Calleas, supported by Mafia elements from outside western New York, had set themselves up as rivals to the Magaddino organization.

During the 1930s, Giuseppe Carlisi relocated back to Chicago. On a visit to that city in December 1937, Roy Carlisi was arrested for the first time. He and his father were charged with possession of untaxed liquor after a 300-gallon still was seized by Alcohol Revenue Agents. The charges were later dismissed in federal court.

Three years later, Roy Carlisi established the C&C Market, a wholesale seafood company in Buffalo. His underworld connections afforded him a monopoly on the wholesaling of clams in the Buffalo area, and he became known as "Roy the Clam Man." His monopoly would linger through several decades.

Carlisi, Frederico Randaccio and Willie "the Whale" Castellani were questioned at length by police after the 1945 murder of anti-gambling crusader Edward Pospichal.

Carlisi opened Club 97 in 1948. The bar/restaurant became a popular night spot for members of the Buffalo underworld. During the 1950s, Carlisi reportedly became a close associate of Stefano Magaddino and his Buffalo underbosses John Montana and Frederico Randaccio.

Buffalo Courier Express, Jan. 18, 1958

Carlisi was part of the western New York delegation rounded up by New York State Troopers and U.S. Treasury Department agents outside of Joseph Barbara's Apalachin, New York, home on Nov. 14, 1957. He was among the scores of Mafiosi taken into custody and questioned as they left Barbara's residence and encountered a police roadblock.

As the FBI joined the fight against organized crime following the events at Apalachin, the Bureau's Buffalo Field Office labeled Carlisi a "top hoodlum" in its territory and kept him under intense scrutiny.

During a grand jury investigation into the Apalachin convention, Carlisi refused to answer questions 77 times, despite a grant of immunity from prosecution and a court demand that he testify. As a result of his defiance, he was charged on March 7, 1958, with 15 counts of criminal contempt. He was found guilty and sentenced to a 60-day term in prison.

Carlisi's underworld involvement came to the attention of the New York State Liquor Authority, which revoked his liquor license forcing the closure of Club 97. The authority determined that Carlisi's failure to disclose his 1937 arrest on his liquor license application was a violation of its regulations.

A chart presented in 1963 to Senator John McClellan's committee investigating organized crime identified Carlisi as a lieutenant in the Magaddino Mafia.

Carlisi was among the three dozen men, including Joseph DiCarlo, Frederico Randaccio, Pasquale Natarelli and Joseph Fino, arrested during a May 8, 1967, police raid at Panaro's Lounge. Charges of consorting with known criminals were later dropped in Buffalo City Court.

Despite his ties to Magaddino, Carlisi became a strong supporter of a rebel Buffalo underworld faction in 1969. He was offered the leadership of the breakaway Buffalo Crime Family but refused it, fearing the additional law enforcement scrutiny that would result. The organization selected Sam Pieri as acting boss, Joseph Fino as acting underboss and Joseph DiCarlo as acting consigliere.

A Rochester, New York, Mafia organization commanded by Frank Valenti also sought its independence from Magaddino and won the support of the Buffalo Crime Family. Leaders from Buffalo and Rochester met at a Batavia restaurant on June 2, 1970, apparently to discuss the matter. Police officers raided the meeting and arrested Carlisi and Fino, as well as Rochester leaders Valenti and Rene Piccaretto. The four men were charged with loitering and suspicion of intent to commit a crime.

During the 1970s, Carlisi played an important advisory role in the Buffalo Crime Family and helped to oversee mob control of Laborers' Local 210 in Buffalo. He largely avoided the attention of law enforcement by focusing on his business roles as owner of C&C Market and co-owner of the Turf Club restaurant on Buffalo's lower west side.

Carlisi, 71, died April 29, 1980, following a heart attack.

Daniel Sansanese, Sr. (May 28, 1908, - Nov. 1, 1975)

Daniel "Danny" Sansanese was born May 28, 1908, in Buffalo to Gerardo and Maria Rinaldo Sansanese. His parents both were immigrants from Sicily who arrived in the United States in the 1890s.

Danny began criminal activities at an early age. On Dec. 15, 1921, when he was 13, he was arrested for grand larceny. The charge was reduced to juvenile delinquency. The court ordered that he be placed on probation and make restitution.

Sansanese in 1927

Following a March 13, 1927, arrest for vagrancy, the authorities noted that Danny's automobile was a match for one that had been used in a series of robberies. Sansanese was held on an open charge but later released due to lack of evidence.

Just two months later, Sansanese was critically wounded in a gun battle, when police interrupted a morning holdup of a Buffalo drug store. Sansanese's accomplice Domenic DiNapoli was killed in the exchange of gunfire. Sansanese was treated at Columbus Hospital for a bullet wound in his back. While there, he was arrested and charged with robbery. Following a guilty plea, he was sentenced to serve from seven to 15 years in prison. He was paroled on Nov. 26, 1932.

In 1935, a Bryant Street barber identified Sansanese, Angelo Polizzi and Joseph Gatti as the three men who robbed him of $114 at his shop on the morning of Nov. 19. Sansanese and Polizzi were convicted of first-degree robbery. As second-felony offenders, they were sentenced to maximum terms of 30 years at Attica State Prison. Gatti was acquitted of robbery but convicted of possession of a dangerous weapon.

Sansanese developed a strong relationship with Joseph Fino while both were doing time in Attica. They became gambling and loan shark racket partners after their releases. Sansanese was paroled from Attica on Dec. 23, 1944.

Sansanese, Fino and Edward Scillia, all of Buffalo, and Russell Mancuso of Utica, were charged in 1950 with the burglary of an American Legion Club in Oxford, NY. Mancuso pleaded guilty to misdemeanor unlawful entry. He received a one-year suspended prison sentence and a $500 fine. The other three defendants pleaded guilty to the burglary and were sentenced to two and a half to three years. They were paroled Oct. 6, 1953.

Murder suspect Sansanese

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, authorities identified Sansanese as the chief enforcer and collector for Frederico Randaccio. He was associated also with Buffalo underworld leaders Pasquale Natarelli, John Cammilleri and Joseph Fino, and seen in the company of Salvatore "George Raft" Bonito, Albert Billiteri and Pascal Politano. Sansanese was questioned in this period as the prime suspect in the unsolved gangland slayings of Frank and Fred Aquino, Richard Battaglia, Vincent Santangelo, Anthony Palestine, Alberto Agueci and Charles Gerass.

The McClellan Senate Investigating Committee learned in 1963 that Sansanese was a capodecina of the western New York Mafia and an inveterate gambler with no legitimate source of income.

Sansanese and several other high-ranking Buffalo Mafiosi were arrested for gambling during an Oct. 7, 1966, police raid on the Blue Banner Social Club. He was among the three dozen men arested in the May 8, 1967, raid at Panaro's Lounge. Charges against him were dismissed.

A strong supporter of the late 1960s rebellion of Buffalo Mafiosi against Niagara Falls-based crime boss Stefano Magaddino, Sansanese's underworld authority was increased by the success of the rebellion. When Buffalo Crime Family acting boss Sam Pieri was incarcerated in the early 1970s, acting underboss Joseph Fino stepped up to the top spot and named Sansanese his underboss.

During a 1972 investigation into attempts to tamper with the jury in a Fino gambling conspiracy case, Sansanese gave conflicting grand jury testimony and was charged with perjury. He was convicted of the charge and sentenced to five years in prison. Failing health - likely related to the prostate cancer, for which he was treated - caused his release after one year.

Sansanese, 67, died in Buffalo on Nov. 1, 1975.

Joseph Fino (March 13, 1915, - March 13, 1984)

Joseph Fino was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on March 13, 1915. His parents, Rocco (born Aug. 16, 1883) and Angeline Bertoline Fino (born Dec. 18, 1888), were both Italian immigrants to the U.S.

The Fino family moved to western New York when he was a boy. Joseph Fino was an unruly child and a habitual truant from school. At the age of 10, he was sent to Father Baker's Catholic Reformatory in Buffalo and St. John's Protectory reform school in Lackawanna. Before his 16th birthday, he had made more than a dozen appearances in Juvenile Court for offenses including petit larceny, burglary and truancy.

Joseph Fino in 1931

In the spring of 1931, 16-year-old Fino was convicted of burglary and sentenced to one year of probation. After another burglary arrest the following year, he was sent to the New York House of Refuge, a juvenile detention reformatory on Randall's Island in New York City.

Fino received a year sentence in the Erie County Prison following a 1935 conviction for second-degree assault. He was arrested in November 1937 as part of a gang involved in a series of "Lovers' Lane" robberies. Young couples in parked cars in an isolated area of Howard Road were assaulted and robbed by the gang. Fino's record of 22 previous arrests was noted as he was convicted and sentenced to 5-10 years in Attica State Prison. Fino was paroled on Aug. 11, 1943, but returned to the prison five months later as a parole violator. He was released Feb. 14, 1945.

At Attica, Fino developed a close friendship with Daniel Sansanese, who was serving a 30-year sentence for armed robbery. After their release, the two cooperated to manage gambling and loan shark rackets for the Magaddino Crime Family.

In 1945, Fino married Arlene Burkhart.

Fino, Sansanese and Edward Scillia, all of Buffalo, and Russell Mancuso of Utica were arrested June 19, 1950, and charged with the burglary of the Oxford, NY, American Legion Club. Mancuso pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor unlawful entry charge and received a suspended one-year prison sentence and a $500 fine. Guilty pleas by Fino, Sansanese and Scillia resulted in sentences of two and a half to three years in Attica. They were paroled on Oct. 6, 1953. A few years later, Fino and Scillia were arrested for accepting bets on horse races.

Buffalo Evening News, Aug. 20, 1956.

On April 19, 1956, Fino was charged with first degree assault. A complainant identified Fino as the man who fired three gunshots at him from the window of a passing car following an altercation at an Allen Street tavern.

In the 1960s, Fino focused his energies on managing bookmaking, gambling and loan sharking operations for the western New York Mafia. He was closely associated with Mafia leaders in Buffalo and often in company of underlings, such as his brother Nick Fino, Nick Mauro, Ralph Velocci and Salvatore "George Raft" Bonito. He, along with Nick Fino, Mauro and Velocci, were arrested in September 1964 for running a $5,000-a-day bookmaking operation. A jury acquitted the group of bookmaking, convicting them only of the lesser charges of possessing bookmaking records and attempting to destroy evidence.

Fino was among the three dozen men arrested at Panaro's Lounge in May 1967. Charges of consorting with known criminals were dismissed in Buffalo City Court.

Following the imprisonment of Frederico Randaccio, Fino was promoted in 1968 to the position of underboss of the Magaddino Crime Family. The next year, the crime family splintered, as Mafia leaders in Buffalo rebelled against the Niagara Falls-based Magaddino administration. The new Buffalo Crime Family selected Sam Pieri as acting boss, Fino as acting underboss and Joseph DiCarlo as acting consigliere. When Pieri was charged with transporting stolen property in 1970, Fino advanced further to the position of acting boss.

During this period, Buffalo underworld leaders supported the independence of Frank Valenti's criminal organization in Rochester from the Magaddino Mafia. In June, 1970, police officers found leaders of the two rebel organizations - Joseph Fino and Roy Carlisi of Buffalo and Frank Valenti and Rene Piccaretto of Rochester - meeting at a restaurant in Batavia. The group was arrested and charged with loitering and suspicion of intent to commit a crime.

Fino's leadership role in Buffalo made him a top target for federal investigators. In September 1971, a federal grand jury indicted him, Nick Fino, Daniel Sansanese, Sr., and Salvatore Bonito in connection with a multimillion-dollar horse race bookmaking racket. Joseph Fino was found not guilty at trial.

A factional split developed within the Buffalo Crime Family in spring 1973 over whether Victor Randaccio should continue to represent crime family interests in Local 210 of the Laborers Union. Fino, Sansanese and John Cammilleri supported the election of Fino's son Ronald to the business manager post held by Randaccio. The Pieri family, DiCarlo, Carlisi and Joseph Todaro, Sr., remained solidly behind Randaccio. Local 210 voted overwhelmingly for Ronald Fino.

Sam Pieri's December 1973 release from prison restored him to underworld leadership in Buffalo. He quickly took control of Fino's gambling operations. When Fino's close ally Cammilleri resisted, death sentences were issued for both Fino and Cammilleri. Cammilleri was shot to death in May 1974. Fino escaped a similar fate by a fortunate change in plans. He subsequently met with Pieri to negotiate his way out of the death sentence.

In the spring of 1977, federal indictments resulted from an FBI undercover operation at Buffalo Crime Family gambling parlors. Fino, Pieri and several other underworld figures were charged with conspiracy and operation of an illegal gambling business. Fino pleaded guilty to gambling conspiracy in 1979 and was sentenced to four years of probation and a $7,500 fine.

Fino settled into retirement during his probation. He died following a heart attack on March 13, 1984, the day of his 69th birthday.

John Cammilleri (May 8, 1911, - May 8, 1974)

Police surveillance photo of John Cammilleri (left) and Salvatore "George Raft" Bonito

John Cammilleri was born May 8, 1911, to Angelo and Lucia Diana Cammilleri in Campobello Licata, Sicily. He crossed the Atlantic with his mother and three siblings at the age of five, arriving in the U.S. aboard the S.S. Giuseppe Verde on May 30, 1916.

Cammilleri was 19 when he was first arrested. The original charge of grand larceny was reduced to petit larceny, and Cammilleri received a suspended three-month prison sentence and a $10 fine. He was again arrested for grand larceny on June 5, 1931. That charge, stemming from the theft of an automobile, was reduced to malicious mischief and resulted in a $15 fine.

Cammilleri's good fortune in the courtroom continued two months later. He was arrested for first-degree assault after firing a gunshot at Joseph Morabello. The court discharged him.

On Dec. 23, 1931, Cammilleri married Josephine DeCarlo in Buffalo.

Cammilleri in 1933

The following summer, he was arrested after entering a Dante Place store and stealing $58 from its cash register. Convicted of third-degree burglary, he was given a suspended prison sentence and two years of probation.

At about this time, Cammilleri joined the DiCarlo Gang and began shaking down operators of craps games and bookmaking parlors for a share of their profits. He was arrested Oct. 2, 1933, with DiCarlo Gang members Anthony Tuttino, Sam "Doc" Alessi and George Rolando. The group was charged with first-degree robbery and extortion after holding up John Rogers for $22 and threatening to kill him if he did not make $5 weekly payments to the gang. Cammilleri was convicted and sentenced on Feb. 2, 1934, to a 20-year term in Emira Reformatory.

Cammilleri was labeled "Public Enemy No. 14" on a list compiled by Buffalo Police Commissioner Austin J. Roche, and his criminal record was filed with the FBI.

Released on parole in the summer of 1936, Cammilleri became a construction labor foreman with Laborers Local 210. In 1948, he established the J.C. Concrete Company and began working closely with Victor Randaccio to ensure Magaddino Crime Family control of Local 210. Cammilleri partnered with Frederico Randaccio and "Pat Titters" Natarelli to form Frontier Lathers, Inc., in 1960. The company supplied barricades and construction warning signs. Using his influence over Local 210, Cammilleri was able to extort contactors into using the services of the new company.

Cammilleri was identified as a Magaddino Crime Family lieutenant in a chart prepared for the U.S. Senate's McClellan Committee in October 1963. The FBI kept constant watch on his activities and documented his regular meetings with higher-ups at the Magaddino Memorial Chapel in Niagara Falls. In 1965, the New York Commission of Investigation questioned him under immunity about criminal activities in Rochester.

Cammilleri was among three dozen men, including Joseph DiCarlo, Frederico Randaccio and Pasquale Natarelli, arrested in the May 8, 1967, raid at Panaro's Lounge. Charges of consorting with known criminals were later dismissed in Buffalo City Court.

Cammilleri in 1969

As events of the late 1960s drove a wedge between Buffalo Mafiosi and their Niagara Falls-based leadership, Cammilleri lent his support to a rebel underworld faction headed by acting boss Sam Pieri, underboss Joseph Fino and consigliere Joseph DiCarlo.

In 1969, Cammilleri was found guilty of testifying falsely to a federal grand jury. He was sentenced to two years of probation.

Cammilleri's links to organized crime and organized labor came to light in June 1971, as a federal grand jury probed underworld involvement in the construction of Buffalo's new Federal Building. Early stages of the project had been plagued by delays and cost overruns relating to problems with workers from Laborers Local 210. After the contractor hired Cammilleri as a labor coordinator, all proceeded smoothly.

Factions developed within the Buffalo Crime Family in spring 1973, as a disagreement erupted over Victor Randaccio's continued role with Local 210. Cammilleri joined Fino and Daniel Sansanese in support of Fino's son Ronald as Local 210 business manager. DiCarlo, the Pieris, Roy Carlisi and Joseph Todaro, Sr., remained committed to Randaccio. Running on a reform platform, Ronald Fino won election overwhelmingly. However, following his victory, Ronald Fino refused to appoint Cammilleri to his desired position of Local 210 personnel director.

Cammilleri did not keep his disappointment a secret. He spoke angrily with Joseph Fino, expressed discontentment with Pieri's leadership and threatened to pull his crew out of the Buffalo Crime Family.

On the evening of May 8, 1974, Cammilleri celebrated his 63rd birthday with friends at Buffalo's Roseland Restaurant. He left briefly to attend a wake and then went back to the restaurant. As he stepped from his automobile, a light-colored sedan squealed to a stop behind him. A man armed with a .38-caliber revolver jumped out of the sedan and fired three shots, leaving Cammilleri dead on the sidewalk.

1974 police surveillance photo of Cammilleri leaving Roseland Restaurant.