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.

Salvatore Pieri (Jan. 29, 1911, - Aug. 24, 1981)

Sam Pieri in 1931

Salvatore "Sam" Pieri was born Jan. 29, 1911, in Buffalo to Sicilian immigrants Giovanni and Ignazia (Anna) Ciresi Pieri. Giovanni and Ignazia were both born in Montemaggiore Belsito, a hilly Sicilian region north of Valledolmo and Vallelunga. Giovanni entered the U.S. on April 20, 1893. Ignazia entered July 1, 1898. They were married in Buffalo's St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church on Nov. 16, 1900.

Sam was the seventh of nine children born to the couple. His siblings were Salvatora "Elsie" (married to Joseph DiCarlo on Nov. 29, 1924), Vincenza "Genevieve," Adelina, Giovanni "Johnny Rai," Giuseppina "Josephine," Giuseppe "Joe," Stefano "Steve," and Horace "Hobbie."

He first ran into trouble with the law when he was just 10 years old. He was arrested Aug. 7, 1921, for malicious mischief. He was later discharged. Grand larceny and juvenile delinquency charges against him were similarly dropped in 1926. He was charged with truancy on Oct. 27, 1927, and turned over to a truant officer. Sam completed seventh grade and then did not return to school.

As a result of Pieri's first criminal conviction, for second-degree larceny, he was sentenced in June 1928 to an indefinite period of probation.

Pieri in 1933

Pieri and brothers John and Joe became members of the DiCarlo Gang. Working for their brother-in-law Joseph DiCarlo, they extorted payments from operators of craps games and bookmaking parlors.

Sam Pieri and fellow DiCarlo Gang member Joe "the Goose" Gatti were arrested Jan. 6, 1931, along with two other alleged accomplices. They were charged with first-degree robbery in connection with the $3,000 armed holdup of a gambling establishment in Rochester. The charge was eventually dropped.

Pieri was less fortunate later that year. On Sept. 2, he and two other men were arrested as they unloaded 300 quarts of Canadian ale from a rowboat at the foot of Buffalo's Hudson Street. (A fourth member of the bootlegging group escaped by swimming away.) Pieri was convicted of bootlegging and tariff violations and sentenced to 60 days in Erie County Prison.

Pieri and "Goose" Gatti escaped conviction on another first-degree robbery charge in the spring of 1933. By the end of that year, 22-year-old Pieri made Buffalo Police Commissioner Austin J. Roche's list of Public Enemies (No. 12).

On Jan. 23, 1934, Pieri married Caroline LoTempio. DiCarlo Gangster and future Cleveland crime boss John "Peanuts" Tronolone was Pieri's best man.

Pieri, Tronolone, Anthony "Lucky" Perna and others were arrested in spring 1935 for violating the new Brownell Law, which made consorting of criminals unlawful. Though the men were convicted, their six-month prison sentences were suspended.

Pieri in 1969

Pieri earned the respect of western New York crime boss Stefano Magaddino the following year, as he imposed mob discipline upon a relative. The LoTempio brothers, Pieri cousins, were believed responsible for a May 1936 bombing that took the life of Magaddino's sister. The LoTempios were rebelling against a Magaddino-imposed tax on their gambling rackets. Pieri arranged for Frank LoTempio to attend the wedding of a relative in Buffalo. Following the reception, Pieri escorted LoTempio to his car. After a short conversation, Pieri shook LoTempio's hand and turned away. Two men emerged from a nearby parked vehicle and shot LoTempio to death.

The 1949 disappearance of gambler Patsy Quigliano was also linked to Pieri. Quigliano was deeply in debt to mob higher-ups, and Pieri reportedly was to transport him to meet with Joseph DiCarlo in Cleveland on the day he disappeared.

In the early 1950s, a three-year Federal Bureau of Narcotics investigation pointed to Sam Pieri and Salvatore Rizzo as the regional leaders of a heroin and cocaine smuggling ring involving Buffalo, New York City and Cleveland. Pieri and Rizzo were arrested May 22, 1954. Charges against Rizzo were dismissed. Pieri was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in Atlanta Federal Prison. He was released May 7, 1963.

The prison term enhanced Pieri's stature in the underworld. Within the institution's walls, he established strong relationships with members of the Profaci and Genovese crime families and became especially close to jailed crime boss Vito Genovese. Upon Pieri's release, law enforcement officials wondered if he might become more powerful than Magaddino underboss Frederico Randaccio or possibly Magaddino himself.

The Magaddino organization was staggered by the imprisonment of Buffalo underworld leaders Randaccio and Pasquale Natarelli in December of 1967. Pieri and DiCarlo took advantage of the situation, mobilizing elements of the old DiCarlo Gang to take control of gambling rackets in Buffalo.

Claiming there had been a dramatic dropoff in underworld revenues, Magaddino imposed additional taxes on his men, refused to assist in gambling racket financing and eliminated bonuses he had previously paid to his lieutenants. In November 1968, Magaddino was proved a liar, as federal agents discovered nearly a half-million dollars in cash hidden in a wall of his son Peter's home.

The events of the 1960s drove a wedge between Buffalo Mafiosi and the organization's Niagara Falls-based leadership. In July 1969, a rebel Mafia faction in Buffalo selected Pieri as its acting boss, Joseph Fino as its acting underboss and Joseph DiCarlo as its acting consigliere. When informants brought the news to the FBI, Pieri became the Bureau's top target in Buffalo.

Pieri, Anthony Romano and Ralph Jacobs stood trial in 1970 for transporting stolen jewelry. As the state was concluding its case, authorities heard evidence that Pieri had attempted to bribe a juror. A mistrial was declared, and Pieri was charged with obstruction of justice. He was convicted of jury tampering and sentenced to five years in federal prison.

Pieri in 1975

When paroled in December 1973, Pieri immediately returned to his top position in the Buffalo Crime Family. Capodecina John Cammilleri's brief challenge to Pieri's leadership ended with Cammilleri's murder on May 8, 1974.

The FBI's next move against the Pieri administration consisted of inserting an undercover agent into two Buffalo gambling clubs that featured high-stakes Ziganette card games. As a result of the investigation, Pieri was found in violation of his parole and returned to prison to complete his jury tampering sentence.

Upon his release, Pieri found federal authorities ready to try him for conspiracy and gambling in connection with the Ziganette parlors. Pieri eventually pleaded guilty to conspiracy and was sentenced to a year in prison.

Securing his release after four months, Pieri sought to reestablish discipline in a criminal organization that had been shaken by informants and law enforcement infiltration. The May 1980 murder of William "Billy" Sciolino, a mob informant, was intended as an example.

Less than a month later, the partly decomposed body of Carl Rizzo was found in the trunk of a car. Rizzo was initially suspected of also being an informant, but investigators learned he had been involved in a Pieri-sponsored racket related to union dental plans.

Pieri's hold on the Buffalo Crime Family was weakened with the October 1980 death of Joseph DiCarlo. DiCarlo provided continuity during Pieri's prison sentence and conferred legitimacy upon Pieri's leadership claims.

Seven months later, Pieri became seriously ill. He passed away Aug. 24, 1981, at the age of 70.

Pieri gravesite