Buffalo Mafia

The Buffalo New York Mafia family is not written about much and I have only touched on it.

I was told about the family by Jimmy Caci who was originally from Buffalo.  Jimmy had a brother Salvatore “Sam” Caci who was the LIUNA local 210 president for years.  There was also Al Caci and Charlie Caci aka Bobby Milano who were in Palm Springs, California.  I've written in past blogs about the first use of WITSEC in the Buffalo case where Bobby Milano and Fat Stevie Cino were locked up because of Paddy Calabrese.

Stefano Magaddino was born on October 10, 1891, in Castellammare, Sicily.  Because of Stefano there is a Buffalo Family.  Stefano along with his brothers Antonio and Pietro got into a feud with the Buccellato brothers in their native Sicily.  Pietro was murdered by the Buccellato faction and the remaining Magaddinos left for Brooklyn New York.

While in Brooklyn the Buccellato Clan tried to ambush Stefano and killed two innocent bystanders.  Soon after the attempted ambush a couple of Buccellatos were killed and Stefano made his way upstate to Buffalo.  

Stefano was soon taking over rackets in Buffalo and with Prohibition he quickly became an important figure in Organized Crime.  Buffalo is situated so close to Canada that the waterways became a waypoint for smuggled booze.  It was so important that Moe Dalitz made a deal with him to use the waterways to smuggle booze for Cleveland.  

The money was pouring into the family and Stefano was able to send money to Salvatore Maranzano who was in the middle of a war for control of the New York Cosa Nostra.

The Commission was soon formed and Stefano along with his cousin Joe Bonanno were sitting on it.  After the repeal of Prohibition the Buffalo Family branched out into Gambling, Shylocking and Labor racketeering.  They moved into parts of Ohio and Canada expanding the family.  

The FBI claimed there was no such thing as the Mafia until the Apalachin Mafia Summit in 1957.  A few leaders blamed Stefano for the debacle and someone even tossed a grenade through his window.  

In the early 1960’s Stefano’s cousin Joe Bonanno decided to make a move to take control of the Commision and the Cosa Nostra.  He was planning on killing Carlo Gambino, Tommy Lucchese and Stefano himself to gain power.  The Commision found out because Joe Colombo went to a Gambino and they stripped Bonanno of his position.  Some of the family did not want their leader gone so this was the beginning of the Banana War that lasted from 1964-68 until Bonanno had a heart attack.  It was during this war that Bonanno was supposedly kidnapped on orders from Stefano and held captive.  

Bonanno had made a lot of inroads into Canada where Stefano also had crews working.  Even today there is still a rogue faction of the Bonanno family.  They were active during the reign of Big Joey Massino and they were even used when the Capos were killed as portrayed in Donnie Brasco.  

Stefano had began to slow down by late 1960’s giving up control of the day to day running of the rackets to his underboss Fred "Lupo" Randaccio.  

More to come...

Lucchese Family

Back to the Lucchese Family this week.  Carmine Avellino, the younger brother of Sal Avellino (who used to be then-boss Tony "Ducks" Corallo’s driver and confidant).  It was in Sal’s Jaguar that they used to talk Mafia business which was valuable in taking down Tony Ducks in the Commission case.  Carmine followed the rest of his family into the Lucchese Family and into the Carting Rackets.  They sought to control all the carting (garbage hauling) on Long Island, and they came close to succeeding.  

When Tony Ducks went away for life in the Commission case, he first appointed Buddy Luongo as boss.  Buddy soon disappeared and that put Vic Amuso in the top spot.  Vic upped his long time partner Gaspipe Casso as the underboss.  

They soon decided that something in the Garment rackets had to change.  That something was a long time family member named Michael Pappadio.  Michael was a oldtimer who knew the “rag trade” inside and out.  He had virtually run the Lucchese's garment center racket for 30 years until Vic and Gas took over.  Soon some associate started telling them that Michael was holding back cash from the family.  They knew next to nothing about the rag trade, but what they did know is that it brought in a huge amount of cash.  They were basically drug dealers who made big money and had survived the commission case unscathed, so they were able to take over the family.

Carmine Avellino and his brother Sal were very close to Pappadio, so they were tapped to set him up for murder.  The place they chose was a Bagel Bakery in South Ozone Park Queens that Carmine had some ownership in.  On May 13, 1989, the day before Pappadio's birthday, Carmine led him into the bakery.  As soon as he entered, he yelled, “Surprise look who's here!”  Al D'Arco rushed forward with a heavy copper cable covered in rubber and smashed him on the head.  He didn't die easy, but he did die after George Zappola shot him with a 357.  Carmine went through his pockets and handed Zappola a small book and other things to be given to Gaspipe.

Today Carmine is back to his old tricks and he has been arrested for having two associates rough up two elderly shylock customers.  I always find it funny when the government uses the elderly card because Carmine is 70 years old.  They used that in California on Jimmy Caci: they claimed he deserved a longer sentence because he went after elderly people for something.  Jimmy was close to 80 when this happened so it was a waste of paper.  

Carmine had Daniel Capra and his brother Michael deal with the debtors who had started to cooperate with the FBI.  The FBI took them down and they held Carmine without bail until his daughter put up her house as a million dollar bond.  Now he is free with restrictions, but free.  

There are a lot of senior Lucchese Family members free now, so we should be seeing some big FBI operations coming down soon!