The Mob and the City

by C. Alexander Hortis

  76. Memorandum of Agent Skinner, Re: Neil Migliore, September 18, 1958, in Box 5, COI (NYSA); Reuter Report, appendix A–3. The driver of the other car told police that he saw two passengers in Migliore's car. To settle the case, Neil Migliore and his father Americo Migliore signed a release saying they were passengers in the car, and Neil forged the signature of Peter Valenti, as the third passenger. None of these three men was likely to have been invited to attend the Apalachin meeting. FBI Report of Albany Field Office, August 14, 1959, in RG 65 (NARA College Park); Binghamton Press, July 24, 1959.

  77. Memorandum, Suspected Attendees, March 19, 1959, in Box 5, COI (NYSA). Joe Bonanno claimed “Lucchese, I later learned from my own sources, had avoided police detection by…grabbing a ride with a soda delivery truck.” Bonanno, Man of Honor, p. 215. This may be another face-saving story by Bonanno.

  78. Testimony of Croswell, in Box 1, COI (NYSA).

  79. Despite speculation, there is no reliable proof for the attendance of Milwaukee boss Frank Balistrieri; New England boss Raymond Patriarca; St. Louis boss John Vitale; former Boston boss Philip Buccola; Rockford, Illinois, underboss Joseph Zammuto; Detroit caporegime Anthony Giacalone; the Controni brothers of Montreal; or Giuseppe Settacase of Sicily.

  80. The FBI investigated allegations that other Floridians were present at Apalachin. However, they discovered that Bartola Failla of Miami had traveled to New Jersey for a denaturalization proceeding. FBI Memorandum, Meeting of Hoodlums, December 12, 1958, in RG 65 (NARA College Park). Although an informant reported Joe Silesi, Trafficante's gambling partner, was present, the FBI found no corroborating evidence. FBI Report, Activities of Top Hoodlums, September 14, 1959, in RG 65 (NARA College Park). The Commission and the FBI also investigated two associates of Northeastern Pennsylvania boss Russell Bufalino. They suspected Modesto “Murph” Loquasto, but an FBI informant saw him operating a craps game in Pittston, Pennsylvania, on the evening of November 14, 1957. FBI Report on Russell Bufalino, May 16, 1958, in RG 65 (NARA College Park). They also looked hard at William Medico of Pittston, but uncovered only a summer trip to Apalachin. FBI Memorandum, William Medico, June 24, 1959, in RG 65 (NARA College Park).

  81. Reavill, Mafia Summit, pp. 5, 146.

  82. Testimony of Russell, in Box 9, COI (NYSA). At most, Russell conceded, it could “possibly” have been more, but she gave no higher numbers. Ibid.

  83. Binghamton Press, August 5, 1963.

  84. Report of Trooper Greer, November 15, 1957, and Report of Trooper Cohen, November 15, 1957, both in Box 1, COI (NYSA).

  85. Interview with Croswell, in Box 1, COI (NYSA); United States v. Bufalino (S.D.N.Y. 1959) (testimony of Croswell) (NARA NY).

  86. Testimony of Croswell, in Box 1, COI (NYSA).

  87. Interview with Croswell, in Box 1, COI (NYSA).

  88. Chicago Tribune, November 15, 1957; San Francisco Chronicle, November 15, 1957; New York Times, November 15, 1957; New York Daily News, November 15, 1957.

  89. Binghamton Press, November 18 and 21, 1957; New York Times, November 26, 1957.

  90. Life, December 9, 1957.

  91. Bonanno, Man of Honor, p. 211.

  92. Life, December 9, 1957, p. 57.

  93. Bonanno, Man of Honor, p. 212.

  94. Albany Knickerbocker, October 16, 1961; Utica Press, April 12, 1962; New York Herald Tribune, November 4, 1959.

  95. United States v. Bufalino, 285 F.2d 408, 419 (2d Cir. 1960) (Clark, J., concurring); Binghamton Press, November 13, 1977.

  96. Since the appellate court reversed the convictions for insufficient evidence, it did not reach the trial court's ruling on the legality of the detention. The concurring judge, however, noted that the detention and search were “highly dubious” and that the admission of the resulting statements into evidence was of “doubtful validity.” United States v. Bufalino, 285 F.2d at 420 n. 3. These actions would likely be considered unconstitutional today. Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 53 (1979).

  97. United States v. Bufalino (S.D.N.Y. 1959) (testimony of Croswell) (NARA NY).

  98. Dennis Eisenberg, Uri Dan, and Eli Landau, Meyer Lansky: Mogul of the Mob (New York: Paddington Press, 1979), p. 248.

  99. Robert Lacey, Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life (New York: Little, Brown, 1991), p. 35. Croswell denied having any advanced knowledge of the meeting. Interview of Croswell, in Box 1, COI (NYSA).

  100. Hearings on Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi, 387–88 (testimony of Valachi); FBI Report, Meeting of Hoodlums, Apalachin, NY, October 31, 1958, in RG 65 (NARA College Park).

  101. FBI Report, Meeting of Hoodlums, Apalachin, NY, November 20, 1959, and FBI Report, Santo Trafficante, January 17, 1958, both in RG 65 (NARA College Park).

  102. Testimony of Roy Williams, quoted in James B. Jacobs, Christopher Panarella, and Jay Worthington, Busting the Mob: United States v. Cosa Nostra (New York: New York University Press, 1994), p. 187.

  103. Bonanno, Man of Honor, p. 209.

  104. Selwyn Raab, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005), pp. 118–19.

  105. Reavill, Mafia Summit, pp. 90, 206–207, 275.

  106. Reuter Report, p. 24; New York Times, July 10–11 and July 23, 1956.

  107. See chapter 4.

  108. Testimony of Joseph Profaci (1959), in Box 7, COI (NYSA); testimony of Joseph Magliocco (1958), in Box 9, COI (NYSA).

  109. Colloquy of Robert Kennedy and John Montana in Hearings before the Select Committee on Improper Activities, 12312–14.

  110. Testimony of Rao (1959), in Box 7, COI (NYSA); United States v. Bufalino (S.D.N.Y. 1959) (testimony of Croswell) (NARA NY).

  111. United States v. Bufalino, 285 F.2d at 412–19 (Clark, J., concurring). Given Croswell's prior wiretapping, defense lawyers cross-examined Croswell concerning whether he was tipped off by a wiretap that day. Croswell testified that he had not listened to a wiretap on Barbara's house in some time, and the defense had no contrary evidence. United States v. Bufalino (S.D.N.Y. 1959) (testimony of Croswell) (NARA NY).

  112. Binghamton Press, June 22, 1959.

  113. Wiretap conversation quoted in Saturday Evening Post, November 9, 1963.

  114. Bonanno, Man of Honor, p. 215.

  115. Joseph Valachi, “The Real Thing” (unpublished manuscript), p. 922, in Boxes 1–2, Joseph Valachi Personal Papers, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA.

  116. Nicholas Pileggi, Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), p. 22.

  117. President Eisenhower's Daily Appointment Schedule, Friday, November 15, 1957, available at http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/documents/dde/diary, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, Abilene, KS; Daily Logs of the Director of the FBI, November 15, 1957, in RG 65 (NARA College Park).

  118. New York Times, November 16, 1957.

  119. Interview of Robert Kennedy, quoted in Edwin Guthman and Jeffrey Shulman, eds., Robert Kennedy in His Own Words: The Unpublished Recollections of the Kennedy Years (New York: Bantam, 1988), p. 120.

  120. William C. Sullivan, The Bureau: My Thirty Years in Hoover's FBI (New York: W. W. Norton, 1979), pp. 117–22.

  121. FBI Report, MAFIA, July 9, 1958, in FBI FOIA File on Mafia Monograph, available at http://vault.fbi.gov/Mafia%20Monograph (accessed July 25, 2013).

  122. Ibid., p. 2 (underline in original). The report's evidence was weak by today's standards

  123. Sullivan, Bureau, p. 121.

  124. Roemer, Man against the Mob, p. 24.

  125. Letter of J. Edgar Hoover, March 14, 1961, reprinted in Everything Secret Degenerates: The FBI's Use of Murderers as Informants: House Rep. 108–414, House of Representatives, 108th Cong., 2d Sess. (2004), 1–15, 38–40, 126–29, 452–57; Hearings on Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi, 238–392 (testimony of Valachi).

  126. This table is derived from (1) Reports of Troopers, November 15, 1957, in Box 1, COI (NYSA); (2) M
emorandum of Lumbard to Kirk, December 4, 1958, in Box 5, COI (NYSA); and (3) the Reuter Report. The attendees’ positions are based on FBI reports and Mafia family charts in Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics: Hearings before the Committee on Government Operations, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Senate, 88th Cong., 1st Sess. (1963).

  127. Although Joseph Barbara Sr. and Russell Bufalino were technically under the Magaddino Family of Buffalo, for all practical purposes Barbara was the boss of Endicott, New York, and Bufalino was the boss of northeastern Pennsylvania. FBI Report, The Criminal “Commission;” Buffalo Division, January 14, 1963, and FBI AIRTEL, La Cosa Nostra AR–Conspiracy, April 1, 1969, both in RG 65 (NARA College Park).

  Archival Sources

  John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA

  Joseph Valachi Papers, 1964

  Records of Robert F. Kennedy, 1957–1963

  John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Lloyd Sealy Library, New York, NY

  Trial Transcripts of the County of New York, Court of General Sessions, 1883–1927

  Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Ithaca, New York

  Records of International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, Transcript in People against Macri

  National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD

  Records of the Department of State, Files of Suspected Narcotics Traffickers, 1923–1954

  Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1896–1996

  Records of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 1915–1946

  Records of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Case Files of Notorious Offenders, 1919–1975

  Records of the United States Secret Service, Daily Reports of Agents, 1875–1936

  National Archives and Records Administration, New York, NY

  Records of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

  Records of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

  National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC

  Records of the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce

  Records of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

  New York Municipal Archives, New York, NY

  Kings County District Attorney, Murder, Inc., Case Files, 1940–1945

  Lucky Luciano Closed Case File, 1936

  New York Police Department Files on Albert Anastasia Case, 1954–1963

  New York County District Attorney Records, Closed Case Files, 1895–1966

  Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Death Records, 1918–1946

  Records of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Subject Files, 1934–1945

  New York State Archives, Albany, NY

  Master Files of the New York State Temporary Commission of Investigation on Apalachin

  Records of the Department of Correctional Services

  Stanford University, Department of Special Collections, Stanford, CA

  Federal Bureau of Narcotics Agent George White Papers, 1932–1970

  University of Notre Dame, Rare Books and Special Collections, Notre Dame, IN

  Federal Bureau of Narcotics Agent Max H. Roder Journals, 1931–1959

  University of Rochester, Department of Special Collections, Rochester, NY

  Governor Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Prison Reports of Charles Luciano

  Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin

  International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America Records, 1904–1952

  Books

  Abadinsky, Howard. Organized Crime, 10th ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2013).

  Anderson, Annelise. The Business of Organized Crime: A Cosa Nostra Family (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1979).

  Bell, Daniel. The End of Ideology (New York: Collier Books, 1961).

  Block, Alan A. East Side, West Side: Organizing Crime in New York, 1930–1950 (Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1983).

  Bonanno, Joseph, with Sergio Lalli. A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983).

  Capeci, Jerry, and Gene Mustain. Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti (Indianapolis: Alpha, 1988).

  Carter, David. Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution (New York: St. Martin's, 2010).

  Courtwright, David, et al. Addicts Who Survived: An Oral History of Narcotic Use in America, 1923–1965 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989).

  Critchley, David. The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891–1931 (New York: Routledge, 2009).

  Dash, Mike. The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of the American Mafia (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009).

  Dickie, John. Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004).

  Federal Writers’ Project. New York City Guide (New York: Random House, 1939).

  Fiorentini, Gianluca, and Sam Peltzman, eds. The Economics of Organised Crime (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

  Flynn, William J. The Barrel Mystery (New York: J. A. McCann, 1919).

  Fox, Stephen. Blood and Power: Organized Crime in 20th-Century America (New York: Penguin Books, 1990).

  Gambetta, Diego. Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011).

  Gentile, Nicola. Vita di Capomafia (Rome: Editori Riuniti, 1963).

  Goldstock, Ronald, Director, and James B. Jacobs, Principal Draftsman. Corruption and Racketeering in the New York City Construction Industry: The Final Report of the New York State Organized Crime Taskforce (New York: New York University Press, 1991).

  Griffin, Joe, with Don DeNevi. Mob Nemesis: How the FBI Crippled Organized Crime (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2002).

  Hunt, Thomas, and Michael A. Tona. DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime, vols. 1 and (Raleigh, NC: lulu, 2013).

  Ianni, Francis A. J. A Family Business: Kinship and Social Control in Organized Crime (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1972).

  Jacobs, James B. Mobsters, Unions, and Feds: The Mafia and the American Labor Movement (New York: New York University Press, 2003).

  Jacobs, James B. Coleen Friel, and Robert Radick. Gotham Unbound: How New York City Was Liberated from the Grip of Organized Crime (New York: New York University Press, 1999).

  Joselit, Jenna Weissman. Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community, 1900–1940 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983).

  Lerner, Michael A. Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007).

  Levitt, Steven D., and Stephen J. Dubner. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (New York: William Morrow, 2009).

  Maas, Peter. The Valachi Papers (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1968).

  Meyer, Kathryn, and Terry Parssinen. Webs of Smoke: Smugglers, Warlords, Spies, and the History of the International Drug Trade (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002).

  Mitchell, Kevin. Jacobs Beach: The Mob, The Fights, The Fifties (New York: Pegasus, 2010).

  Nelli, Humbert. The Business of Crime: Italians and Syndicate Crime in the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976).

  Pileggi, Nicholas. Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985).

  Pistone, Joseph D. with Richard Woodley. Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia (New York: Penguin Putnam, 1989).

  Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2006).

  Reuter, Peter. Disorganized Crime: Illegal Markets and the Mafia (Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1985).

  Schatzberg, Rufus, and Robert J. Kelly. African American Organized Crime: A Social History (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997).

  Schneider, Eric C. Smack: Heroin and the
American City (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011).

  Turkus, Burton B., and Sid Feder. Murder, Inc.: The Story of the Syndicate (New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1952).

  United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Narcotics. Mafia: The Government's Secret File on Organized Crime (New York: Collins, 2007).

  Varese, Frederico. Mafias on the Move: How Organized Crime Conquers New Territories (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013).

  Valentine, Douglas. The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America's War on Drugs (New York: Verso, 2004).

  White, Shane, et al. Playing the Numbers: Gambling in Harlem between the Wars (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010).

  Witwer, David. Corruption and Reform in the Teamsters Union (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2003).

  ———. The Shadow of the Racketeer: Scandal in Organized Labor (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009).

  Wolf, George, with Joseph DiMona. Frank Costello: Prime Minister of the Underworld (New York: William Morrow, 1974).

  Woodiwiss, Michael. Organized Crime and American Power: A History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001).

  AAMONY. See Associated Amusement Machine Operators of New York (AAMONY)

  Abbattemarco, Frank, 205

  Abbattemarco, Tony, 205

  Abbrescia, Angelo, 148

  Abraham Lincoln Independent Political Club, 179

  Abruzzi, Dom, 140

  Accardi, Settimo, 202

  Accardo, Anthony (“Tony”), 267, 280

  Acropolis, John (“Little Caesar”), 121–22

  Adelstein, Bernard (“Bernie”), 120, 121–22

  Adonis, Joe, 56, 90, 235

  Adonis Social Club, 101

  Agone, Joseph, 202

  Agueci, Albert, 143

  Agueci, U.S. v., 142

  Agueci, Vito, 143

  Aiello, Joseph, 71, 76, 77, 87