Paul Palmeri (Oct. 1, 1892, to May 7, 1955)

Paul Palmeri

Paolo (Paul) Palmeri was born Oct. 1, 1892, in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, the youngest son of Francesco and Anna Caleca Palmeri. He and his two brothers, Giovanni and Benedetto (Angelo), were raised in an upper middle class family, supported by their father's work as a merchant.

At the age of 16, Paul Palmeri sailed for the United States. He arrived in New York City aboard the S.S. Prinzess Irene on Feb. 27, 1909. He moved into the Italian colony of lower Manhattan and became employed as a barber.

Elena (Helen) Curti, born in Italy on Oct. 24, 1896, became Palmeri's bride in New York City on July 27, 1914. Palmeri's best man was Silvio Tagliagambe, a subordinate of the U.S. Mafia boss of bosses Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila. (Tagliagambe was shot to death in 1922. Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria, a D'Aquila rival, was charged with the murder.)

Paul Palmeri, his wife and their two children, Anna and Ernesto, moved from New York City to Niagara Falls in 1920. There he assisted his brother Angelo with the organization of bootlegging rackets. Two additional children, Marie and Frank, were born to Paul and Helen Palmeri while they resided in Niagara Falls.

The Palmeri brothers, in association with the Sirianni brothers, "Don Simone" Borruso, Joseph H. Sottile and Canadian crime boss Rocco Perri, controlled the flow of illegal liquor into the U.S. from Canada. At the same time, Paul and Angelo Palmeri went into business together as produce importers and commission merchants.

In 1922, Angelo left Niagara Falls for Buffalo, where he temporarily assumed control of the local Mafia organization following the death of boss Giuseppe DiCarlo.

Paul Palmeri was naturalized a U.S. citizen on June 4, 1923. A character witness on his August 1922 citizenship application was the notorious bootlegger Joseph H. Sottile.

In 1928, Palmeri went into a new line of work, partnering with Alfred Panepinto in the Panepinto & Palmeri Funeral Home in Niagara Falls. By that time, Palmeri was a trusted member of a western New York Mafia organization commanded by Stefano Magaddino.

When a factional split in the U.S. Mafia resulted in the Castellammarese War, Palmeri naturally sided with the Castellammarese and supported their New York City standard-bearer Salvatore Maranzano in his war against Giuseppe Masseria. Police investigating Maranzano's murder in September 1931 found Palmeri's address and telephone number in Maranzano's memo book.

Palmeri was arrested Nov. 9, 1931, along with four suspected accomplices in Chicago. The group was charged with kidnapping wealthy fur dealer Alexander Berg. Members of the Berg family were instructed to meet with his captors. Police went to the meeting location and found Palmeri, "Dago Lawrence" Mangano, Frank Chiaravalloti, Sylvester Agoglia and Angelo Caruso waiting in a parked car. The five men were released the following day as no evidence had been found to connect them to the abduction of Berg.

While the arrest did not result in convictions, it served to document some important underworld connections just two months after the death of Maranzano. Palmeri was a trusted member of Magaddino's western New York organization. Mangano was a prominent member of Alphonse Capone's Chicago Outfit. Chiaravalloti and Agoglia were Chicago residents - Agoglia shared a common Brooklyn gangland background with Capone. Caruso was a resident of New York City and was second-in-command of a Brooklyn-based Castellammarese crime family formerly led by Maranzano.

Palmeri was arrested in New York City the following year, as police investigated the murder of Pittsburgh Mafia boss John Bazzano. Bazzano had ordered the murder of John, James and Arthur Volpe, Neapolitan racketeers from the Pittsburgh area, and was summoned to New York to answer for his actions. Mafia leaders were unsatisfied with his explanation. Bazzano's dead body was found tied with clothesline and wrapped in a burlap sack. He had been stabbed multiple times with ice picks.

Informants led police to hotels in Manhattan and Brooklyn where visiting Mafiosi were staying. Fourteen men were arrested, including Palmeri and Sam DiCarlo from the Buffalo area, and Albert Anastasia, John "Johnny Bath Beach" Oddo, Cassandro "Tony the Chief" Bonasera, Ciro Gallo and Giuseppe Traina of Brooklyn.

In the spring of 1934, Palmeri was charged with assaulting a police officer at the scene of a traffic accident. His conviction led to his first prison sentence, thirty days in county jail.

In the mid-1930s, boss Stefano Magaddino made demands for tribute payments from regional gambling bookmakers and encountered considerable resistance. Frank and Russell LoTempio of Batavia were believed to be leaders of a group opposing Magaddino. The conflict became bloody in May 1936, when a bomb exploded in a Niagara Falls home, killing Magaddino's sister Arcangela Longo. Paul Palmeri delivered the eulogy for Longo, noting his relationship with the Magaddino family since his childhood in Sicily. Magaddino's vengeance was swift. Frank LoTempio was murdered the following month. Russell LoTempio was severely injured when a bomb exploded in his automobile a few months later.

The Panepinto & Palmeri partnership dissolved. Alfred Panepinto was a brother-in-law of the LoTempios. By 1937, he left Niagara Falls and resettled in Batavia. He was murdered there in August 1937.

Palmeri was active in the local chapter of the Castellammare del Golfo Society. The group's 25th anniversary in 1939 was marked with a ball and banquet at the Hotel Lafayette in Buffalo. Stefano Magaddino held the position of banquet general chairman. John C. Montana, president of the local Montedoro Society (and Magaddino's underboss), was an honored guest speaker at the event. Paul Palmeri served as toastmaster and praised the accomplishments of prominent Italian Americans in the region.

Speakers at the 25th anniversay banquet of the Castellammare del Golfo Society (left to right):
Northwestern University professor Dr. Cono Ciufia, hospital medical technician Mary
Cicina Gallo, toastmaster Paul Palmeri, banquet chairman Stefano Magaddino.
(Buffalo Courier Express, Jan. 12, 1939.)

Paul Palmeri chats with John Montana at the
banquet of the Castellammare del Golfo Society.
(Buffalo Times, Jan. 12, 1939.)

By 1940, Magaddino's brother Antonino joined Palmeri in his funeral home business. The Palmeri Funeral Home later became the Magaddino Funeral Home, with Stefano Magaddino's son Peter taking over as its president.

Paul Palmeri moved out of Niagara Falls in 1941, reportedly after a rift with Stefano Magaddino. He relocated to Passaic, New Jersey, and reestablished a working relationship with Willie Moretti. At the time, Moretti was a key figure in the Frank Costello (later Genovese) crime family. Decades earlier, Moretti had run gambling rackets for the Palmeris in Niagara Falls.

In 1942, Palmeri was indicted as one of the leaders of an alcohol bootlegging ring that evaded $3.5 million in federal taxes between 1933 and 1941. Palmeri was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison and a $9,000 fine.

The Palmeri-Moretti relationship was strengthened through the marriage of Palmeri's son Frank to Moretti's daughter Marie in 1947. When Moretti was murdered in 1951, police noted Palmeri's closeness to the victim and questioned him as a material witness.

Paul Palmeri died May 7, 1955, at Passaic General Hospital after a short illness. He was 62. His wife Helen passed away Sept. 15, 1998, at the age of 101.

Angelo Palmeri (Jan. 12, 1878, to Dec. 21, 1932)

Benedetto Angelo Palmeri was born Jan. 12, 1878, to Francesco and Anna Caleca Palmeri in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. Francesco was a successful merchant, and "Angelo" Palmeri was raised in an upper middle class family.

Palmeri traveled to the United States as an adult. He reached New York City aboard the S.S. Lombardia on Sept. 7, 1906. He initially found work in that city as a laborer on the docks.

In 1912, he relocated to Buffalo and opened a tavern on Dante Place. He supplemented his income by hosting gambling operations. Palmeri was one of eleven saloonkeepers arrested during an Aug. 28, 1912, gambling raid by Buffalo Police in the Canal District. He was convicted and fined $50.

Palmeri

Palmeri married Rosaria Mistretta on Oct. 5, 1913. Mistretta was a cousin of Buffalo Mafia boss Giuseppe DiCarlo's wife, Vincenza. By the end of the year, the newlywed Palmeris moved into the upper apartment of the DiCarlo family home on Buffalo's Seventh Street. There followed a period of unquestionable closeness between Angelo Palmeri and Giuseppe DiCarlo.

The two men entered into a partnership in the Dante Place saloon, and Palmeri served as underboss in DiCarlo's underworld organization.

"Their methods of operation were different," noted the police. "DiCarlo being a smooth peaceful worker and Palmeri more inclined to violence, they provided mutual protection for each other." [Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, Dec. 22, 1932.]

Palmeri's violent tendencies resulted in a 1915 arrest for assaulting a police officer. He was convicted and fined $250. His reputation was enhanced by the nickname "Buffalo Bill," reportedly awarded him because he wore cowboy hats and carried a holstered pistol.

Just a few months later, Rosaria Palmeri gave birth to a daughter. When the child was baptized in November 1915, two of Giuseppe DiCarlo's children, Joseph and Sarah, served as godparents.

Rosaria Palmeri subsequently developed serious health problems. She contracted influenza and pneumonia and died on Jan. 5, 1916, at the age of 29. Unable to tend to the needs of his infant daughter on his own, Angelo Palmeri left her in the care of his Mistretta in-laws in New York City.

Lockport Union Sun, Aug. 31, 1921

His family life in tatters, Palmeri moved away from Buffalo and opened a cigar store in Niagara Falls. The store served as a front for gambling rackets run in association with the DiCarlo Mafia. (Future New Jersey crime figure Willie Moretti reportedly got his start in the underworld by operating craps games for Palmeri in Niagara Falls.)

In 1919, Palmeri married Loretta Mistretta, the older sister of his late wife. The couple and Palmeri's daughter by his first marriage moved into a Niagara Falls apartment.

The Prohibition Era opened the following year, and Palmeri's brother Paul joined him in Niagara Falls to organize Mafia bootlegging rackets. The Palmeris worked with the Sirianni brothers, "Don Simone" Borruso, Joseph Sottile and Canadian crime boss Rocco Perri to control the smuggling of liquor between Canada and western New York.

In 1921, Angelo Palmeri was charged with the murder of Emilio Gnazzo. Gnazzo was shot by a gunman who jumped from behind a parked car and fired a bullet into his head. The victim's wife witnessed the killing and identified Palmeri as the gunman. A police investigation determined that Gnazzo, an inveterate gambler, was slow to repay a loan obtained from Palmeri.

When the murder case came to trial, prosecutors could not locate Gnazzo's wife. No other witnesses came forward to identify Palmeri as the gunman, and Palmeri was discharged due to insufficient evidence.

Following the death of Giuseppe DiCarlo in July 1922, Angelo Palmeri returned to the City of Buffalo. He moved himself and his family into the DiCarlo residence and temporarily took command of the Mafia organization in western New York. In October of that year, Stefano Magaddino was chosen as the next regional Mafia boss. Palmeri, Filippo Mazzara and Giuseppe DiBenedetto, all Castellammarese Mafiosi who held leadership positions under DiCarlo, oversaw Buffalo underworld rackets for Magaddino.

When Joseph DiCarlo was charged with intimidating a government witness in 1924, Palmeri was held as a material witness. DiCarlo and another gunman emerged from an automobile and shot at Joseph Patitucci, an informant scheduled to testify against DiCarlo in a narcotics case. Police believed Palmeri had been a passenger in the automobile.

After a review of Palmeri's pistol permit, authorities charged the underworld leader with perjury. He had sworn incorrectly on the permit application that he was a U.S. citizen. A grand jury refused to indict him, and the charge was dropped. Palmeri was naturalized a citizen on Jan. 7, 1925.

Buffalo Daily Courier, Aug. 21, 1925

Later that year, Palmeri used his influence in the Sicilian community to provide aid to the poor and emotionally devastated family of Joseph Gervase. The twelve-year-old Gervase had been molested and strangled to death by a drifter. Palmeri, Mazzara and DiBenedetto gathered donations from the shopkeepers in Buffalo's Italian colony to pay the boy's funeral expenses.

Federal Prohibition agents raided a Palmeri speakeasy in August 1928, arresting Palmeri and confiscating "a quantity of spirits."

The Prohibition Era brought vast profits to underworld organizations but it also brought violence, as rival bootlegging groups entered into bloody competition. Gangland conflict cost Palmeri a close ally in Cleveland and two western New York lieutenants. Cleveland Mafia boss Joseph Lonardo was murdered in October 1927 by Salvatore "Black Sam" Todaro and the Porrello brothers. Later that year, Filippo Mazzara was murdered in Buffalo. In February 1929, Giuseppe DiBenedetto was slain.

A bootlegging gang led by the Callea brothers was suspected in the Buffalo attacks. The Calleas, closely aligned with the Porrellos of Cleveland, sought to control bootlegging rackets in the Buffalo region.

As the Castellammarese War erupted in the U.S. Mafia in 1930, Palmeri supported Salvatore Maranzano, leader of the Castellammarese-aligned faction in New York City. Palmeri met regularly with Maranzano and Mafioso Joseph Bonanno in Brooklyn, as they plotted strategy against reigning Mafia boss of bosses Giuseppe Masseria. (In his autobiography, A Man of Honor, Bonanno discussed his close relationship with Palmeri. Bonanno told of his visit to Palmeri's home during his November 1931 honeymoon to Niagara Falls.)

Buffalo Evening News, Dec. 22, 1932.

Palmeri faced increasingly severe health problems following the end of the Castellammarese War. He died in the driver's seat of his automobile, parked in his driveway, after suffering a stroke on Dec. 21, 1932. He was 54 years old.

Buffalo Commercial Advertiser,
Dec. 22, 1932

Great numbers of residents from Buffalo's Italian colony attended Palmeri's funeral. It was said to be the "largest ever turnout for an Italian-American citizen of Buffalo." In the immigrant neighborhoods, Palmeri was remembered as a friend who provided for them in times of need, when pride kept them from appealing to organized charities.

"Many tears were shed by those whose homes were heated, whose tables were made bountiful and whose children had been clothed by the largess of Angelo Palmeri."

Ceremonies began at the Palmeri home, 295 Jersey Street, and continued with a Mass at Holy Angels Church on Porter Avenue. Palmeri was interred on Christmas Eve alongside his first wife, Rosaria, in a large family plot at Pine Hill Cemetery.

Palmeri's second wife, Loretta, also was buried in the plot following her death in 1953.

Link:

• "Death of the Mafia's 'Buffalo Bill'" (Writers of Wrongs - 21 Dec 2016)

Antonino Magaddino (June 18, 1897, to April 13, 1971)

Antonino "Nino" Magaddino was born to Giovanni and Giuseppa Ciaravino Magaddino in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, on June 18, 1897. His family was prominent in the local Mafia, and at the time of his birth the Magaddino's were engaged in an underworld feud with the Buccellato clan, also of Castellammare.

Magaddino was arrested in 1916 for falsifying a passport.

Magaddino's first arrest was recorded in Sicily when he was just a teenager. His police record grew considerably in a short time. He was charged early in 1916 with falsifying a passport. On March 15, 1916, he was arrested for conducting "clandestine activities." He was released a month later. On Aug. 14 of that year he was arrested and charged with a double-murder in Castellammare, likely a flareup in the Magaddino-Buccellato feud. Magaddino's older brother Pietro and Giovanni Buccellato both had been murdered in July 1916. Magaddino was discharged in 1917, when authorities decided that the available evidence was insufficient for prosecution.

Nino Magaddino married Vincenza Vitale in Castellammare on Feb. 2, 1922. A short time later his brother Stefano, who had risen to command of a Mafia organization in western New York, called him to the U.S. to help manage regional bootlegging rackets. Nino Magaddino arrived in the U.S. aboard the S.S. Patria on Nov. 1, 1923. He immediately became Stefano's trusted aide.

Though Magaddino was on the other side of the Atlantic, he still managed to continue to get in trouble with Italian authorities. In June 1928, he was charged with violating immigration laws. In November of that year, he was charged with robbery, rape and extortion, in connection with events that took place years earlier. All those charges were dropped by 1931. In 1948, Magaddino was naturalized a citizen of the U.S. His wife and children traveled to the U.S. and joined him in Niagara Falls in 1950.

Following Prohibition, Magaddino moved into gambling ventures and also became involved in the family's funeral home business. Paul Palmeri, operator of the Panepinto & Palmeri Funeral Home since 1925, welcomed Nino Magaddino as a partner in 1939. When Palmeri moved to New Jersey in 1941, the funeral home business was taken over by the Magaddinos. Stefano's son Peter was installed as president, and Nino Magaddino became vice president.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Nino Magaddino supervised gambling rackets in the Niagara Falls region.

Magaddino and Domenick D'Agostino
appear before a grand jury in 1958.

Magaddino was among the scores of Mafiosi taken in for questioning when New York State Troopers and agents of the U.S. Treasury Department broke up a Nov. 14, 1957, gangland convention at the Apalachin, NY, home of Joseph Barbara. Other attendees from the western New York Mafia included John Montana, James LaDuca, Roy Carlisi, Sam Lagattuta and Domenick D'Agostino. Magaddino was apprehended as he attempted to flee from Barbara's home through a wooded area.

When questioned by police, Magaddino said he was in Apalachin by accident. He insisted he was driving Montana to New York City for a business meeting, when car trouble forced them to drop by the home of his acquaintance Joseph Barbara for help.

A 1958 grand jury investigating Apalachin called Magaddino as a witness but learned nothing new from him. He refused to answer its questions, invoking the Fifth Amendment 24 times. He was subsequently indicted for conspiring to obstruct justice. The following year, federal agents attempting to serve Magaddino with papers stemming from the indictment could not locate him. He became the subject of a nationwide manhunt.

The charges against Magaddino were dropped in 1960, after an appeals court threw out obstruction convictions against other Apalachin attendees.

Nino Magaddino was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1969. He died April 13, 1971, at the age of 73.

Magaddino gravesite, St. Joseph's Cemetery, Niagara Falls.

Stefano Magaddino (Oct. 10, 1891, to July 19, 1974)

Stefano Magaddino was born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, on Oct. 10, 1891. He was the third of eight children born to Giovanni and Giuseppe Ciaravino Magaddino. At the time of his birth, the Magaddino clan and its relatives were embroiled in a bitter underworld feud with the local Buccellato family.

Stefano arrived in the U.S. aboard the S.S. San Giorgio on Feb. 7, 1909. He settled in a Castellammarese colony in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Though a number of Mafia families existed in the New York area at that time, Magaddino was inducted into the underworld society in a ceremony held in Chicago. He was regarded as a leader of Castellammarese Mafiosi in the U.S., a group that became known as "the Good Killers."

Magaddino married Carmela Caroddo in 1913 (his brother Gaspare married Carmela's sister).

In 1916, a flareup of gangland violence in Castellammare del Golfo took the life of Magaddino's brother Pietro. Camillo Caiozzo, believed to have been an accomplice in Pietro's murder, fled Sicily for New York. Magaddino responded by plotting Caiozzo's murder. In 1921, Caiozzo's dead body was pulled from a cove of the Shark River in New Jersey. Caiozzo's killer, Bartolomeo Fontana, confessed to the crime and told authorities that Castellammarese Mafiosi had forced him into it. Magaddino and several members of the Good Killers were arrested as conspirators in Caiozzo's murder. Charges were later dropped against the Good Killers, though Fontana served about 20 years in prison.

Magaddino traveled throughout the U.S. and became well known in Buffalo in the early 1920s, as local Mafia boss Giuseppe DiCarlo was forced by declining health into retirement. Upon DiCarlo's death in the summer of 1922, Magaddino was chosen as his successor.

Magaddino in 1931

The following year, Magaddino brought his brother Antonino to Buffalo from Castellammare. Antonino became a trusted adviser, as Magaddino set up a Niagara Falls, NY, headquarters for the Mafia of western New York. Angelo Palmeri and Filippo Mazzara, Castellammarese Mafiosi who held leadership positions under DiCarlo, oversaw operations within the city of Buffalo.

Magaddino was naturalized a U.S. citizen in 1924.

In the Prohibition Era, Magaddino's western New York crime family was ideally positioned to control the flow of illegal liquor into the U.S. from Canada. Bootlegging dollars greatly enhanced Magaddino's wealth and influence.

In 1930, New York City-based Mafia boss of bosses Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria decided that Magaddino and other Castellammarese Mafia leaders in the U.S. were inciting rebellion against his administration. He summoned Magaddino to appear before him in New York City. When Magaddino did not appear, Masseria imposed a death sentence against him and other Castellammarese Mafiosi.

A war between Mafia factions erupted, as Masseria was opposed in New York by forces led by Magaddino ally Salvatore Maranzano. Treachery in the Masseria camp led to Joe the Boss's assassination in spring 1931. Maranzano briefly served as Mafia boss of bosses until his own Sept. 10 assassination. Following the violence of 1930-31, the U.S. Mafia abandoned the boss of bosses position and established a representative Commission to settle disputes among crime families. Magaddino was chosen in 1932 as one of seven Commission members.

Magaddino in 1943

With the repeal of Prohibition, the western New York Mafia focused its attention on the control of illegal gambling. In 1936, a gang of rebellious bookmakers opposed Magaddino's tax on their profits. Magaddino's sister was killed in a bomb explosion at her home. Leaders of the rebel organization were executed over the following year.

The regional Mafia extended its territory into southern Ontario, Canada, and central New York in the 1940s and 1950s. It also came to control Buffalo Local 210 of the Laborers Union. John Montana, who moved into the position of Magaddino's Buffalo-based underboss, was a leading businessman and political figure in the city and helped the Magaddino Mafia secure its connections to local government.

On Nov. 14, 1957, New York State Police and agents of the U.S. Treasury Department broke up a convention of leading Mafiosi at the rural Apalachin, NY, home of Joseph Barbara. Scores of underworld figures were rounded up and identified. Magaddino brother Antonino, son-in-law James LaDuca and underboss John Montana were all taken in and questioned by police. Magaddino reportedly escaped detection at the event by hiding within a secret room at Barbara's estate.

The following year, Buffalo's FBI field office labeled Magaddino a "top hoodlum" in its territory. (FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had instituted the Top Hoodlum Program following Apalachin.) The designation came with intense law enforcement scrutiny. He avoided Apalachin-related questioning by the New York State Crime Commission in 1960 by becoming suddenly ill with a heart condition.

Surveillance photo of Magaddino and bodyguard Sam Rangatore.

American and Canadian authorities broke up a regional narcotics ring in 1961. The operation had been approved by Magaddino, who regularly took a share of its profits. Among those arrested were brothers Alberto and Vito Agueci, Magaddino underlings from Canada. The imprisoned Aguecis expected but did not receive Magaddino protection and support. Alberto was freed on bail after his wife borrowed money and sold the family home. He reportedly intended to confront Magaddino and demand that the boss provide bail for Vito Agueci's release, threatening to expose Magaddino's involvement in the narcotics ring if Vito was not released. On Nov. 23, 1961, Alberto Agueci's charred corpse was found in a cornfield near a suburb of Rochester, NY.

A year later, the FBI installed electronic eavesdropping equipment in the Magaddino Memorial Chapel, a funeral home that served as the principal meeting place for Magaddino and his underworld associates. The device gathered enough information within three years to fill 70,000 transcribed pages.

Magaddino was identified as "irrefutable boss" of the Mafia of western New York and southern Ontario before the McClellan Senate Investigating Committee in 1963.

In 1964, following the reported kidnapping of New York City crime boss Joseph Bonanno (Magaddino's cousin), newspaper columnist Walter Winchell reported that Bonanno was being held by Magaddino at a farm in upstate New York. Magaddino was subpoenaed in May 1965 to appear before a special grand jury probing the Bonanno disappearance. Magaddino did not testify, as he developed coronary symptoms the next day and was hospitalized. The press noted that it was the second time in five years that Magaddino health problems neatly coincided with a government demand for his testimony.

Federal law enforcement launched determined strikes against the leadership of the western New York Mafia in 1967. In December of that year, Magaddino lost his two top men in Buffalo - Frederico Randaccio and Pasquale Natarelli - to long prison sentences. Magaddino began pleading poverty to his remaining lieutenants, demanding greater shares of their profits and eliminating bonuses he had previously awarded them.

Stefano Magaddino, his son Peter and several bookmakers and collectors were arrested the following year following an FBI investigation of a sports betting ring. A search of Peter Magaddino's home turned up nearly a half-million dollars in cash. Buffalo Mafia leaders used the reports of the discovered cash to ignite a rebellion against the Magaddino administration.

In July 1969, the rebel faction selected Sam Pieri as its acting boss, Joseph Fino as acting underboss and Joseph DiCarlo as acting consigliere. A demand for Magaddino's resignation as boss was refused, and the rebel group brought its case to the national Commission. The Commission took no action against its longtime member, apparently content to await the death of "toothless tiger" Magaddino.

More health problems impaired the government's ability to bring the western New York crime boss to trial. Arraignment in the bookmaking case had to be conducted in the bedroom of Magaddino's home. Doctors determined that the aging Magaddino was too frail to appear in court.

In 1973, an FBI refusal to identify an informant used in their bookmaking investigation led to the charges against Magaddino being dismissed.

Stefano Magaddino suffered a heart attack and died July 19, 1974. he was buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery in Niagara Falls.

Magaddino gravesite.

Link:

• "108 years ago: Future mob boss arrives in NYC" (Writers of Wrongs - 07 Feb 2017)
• "Magaddino's wrath" (Writers of Wrongs - 23 Nov 2016)

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.