John Montana (July 1, 1893, - March 18, 1964)

John Montana was born July 1, 1893, in Montedoro, Sicily, one of 13 children born to Calogero and Rosa Valente Montana. He arrived in the U.S. in 1907 aboard the S.S. Perugia. He was naturalized a citizen in 1921.

Montana began his business career at an early age. While still in grammar school, he worked as a delivery boy for a west side candy store. He founded the Buffalo Taxi Service - beginning with a single vehicle - before the age of 20. His taxi business grew considerably over the years. In 1922, he purchased the Yellow Cab Company, and seven years later merged into the Van Dyke Taxi and Transfer Company. The resulting firm was the largest taxi company in western New York.

Montana also served as president of the Frontier Liquor Corporation and as an officer of the Empire State Brewery in Olean, New York. In addition, he owned Montana Motors, a Buffalo car dealership.

Politics was another of Montana's interests, and he was a respected Republican leader in the city. Beginning in 1927, he served two terms as a city councilman representing the Niagara District of Buffalo's west side. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Montana found considerable success in a more secret interest. In the early 1930s, Montana became the Buffalo-based underboss of western New York's regional crime boss Stefano Magaddino. He accompanied Magaddino to a May 1931 conference of Mafiosi hosted by Al Capone in Chicago.

Two marriages caused Montana and Magaddino to become related.  Montana's nephew, Charles Montana, married Magaddino's daughter. Montana's niece, Frances, married Magaddino's son.

Buffalo Evening News,
Aug. 13, 1940

In 1956, the Erie Club, a fraternal organization of Buffalo police officers, voted him the city's "Man of the Year" for his business achievements and civic contributions. The designation became a source of local embarrassment the following year, when Montana was found to be part of the western Buffalo-area delegation to an underworld convention at Apalachin, New York.

Scores of Mafiosi from around the country were rounded up, identified and questioned after New York State Troopers and Treasury Department agents crashed the party at Joseph Barbara's Apalachin home on Nov. 14, 1957. Troopers apprehended Montana as he attempted to flee the Barbara estate through a hilly wooded area. When police reached him, he was tangled in a barbed-wire fence.

During later questioning, Montana offered a feeble explanation for his presence among the gangsters at Apalachin. He was on his way to business meetings in Pennsylvania and New York City, he said, and car trouble near Apalachin forced him to seek assistance at the home of old friend Joseph Barbara.

Buffalo Courier Express, June 16, 1960

In 1959, Montana was one of 20 Apalachin attendees charged with conspiring to obstruct justice by refusing to testify truthfully about the gathering. He was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The conviction was later reversed, but Montana's reputation suffered irreparable damage.

Senate subcommittee hearings into organized crime in 1960 linked Montana with Joseph DiCarlo.

Montana's role as Magaddino's underboss was publicly exposed during Joseph Valachi's 1963 testimony before Senator John McClellan's committee.

Montana suffered a heart attack five months after that testimony. He died March 18, 1964, at the age of 70.

John Montana gravesite

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.