Stefano Magaddino
Stefano Magaddino | |
---|---|
Peter Magaddino | |
Relatives | Joseph Bonanno (great nephew) |
Allegiance | Buffalo crime family |
Stefano "The Undertaker" Magaddino (Italian pronunciation:
Early years
Magaddino was born on October 10, 1891, in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily.[1] Magaddino was the brother of Joseph Bonanno's maternal grandmother.[2] Magaddino's uncle of the same name led a Castellammarese clan allied with Giuseppe "Peppe" Bonanno and his older brother and advisor, Stefano, uncles to Joseph Bonanno.[2]
During the 1900s, the clans feuded with Felice Buccellato, the boss of the Buccellato Mafia clan. After the murders of Stefano and Giuseppe, their younger brother, Salvatore (the father to
In 1902, Magaddino arrived in New York and became a powerful member of the Castellammarese clan.[3] Magaddino married Carmella and the couple had four children.
His son Peter A. Magaddino, born on February 25, 1917, became a made member of the Buffalo mafia family and married the niece of Buffalo mobster Charles Montana.[3][4] The eldest daughter Josephine married Charles Montana, the nephew of Buffalo mobster John C. Montana.[4] The next daughter Angelina married James V. LaDuca, who was a member of the Buffalo family.[4] The last daughter Arcangela married Vincent Scro, a mobster in the Buffalo family.[5]
Magaddino's brother Anthony "Nino" Magaddino and his brother's son Peter J. Magaddino both became members of the Buffalo family.[6]
Criminal career
The "Good Killers" case
Magaddino orchestrated the murder of Detroit gangster Felice Buccellato in March 1917.[7]
In August 1921, a barber named Bartolo Fontana turned himself into the New York police, confessing to murdering Camillo Caiozzo a couple of weeks earlier in
Fontana revealed that the "Good Killers" were also responsible for a string of other murders.[8]
New Jersey decided not to pursue conspiracy charges in the Caiozzo murder and the charges against Magaddino were dropped despite the New York police officers' testimony about the sting linking him to the murder.[8]
Magaddino fled New York City after his release, ending up in the Buffalo, New York area.[10] Buffalo crime family boss Joseph DiCarlo died in 1922, and Magaddino succeeded him as boss.[3]
Buffalo crime family
Joseph Bonanno slipped back into the United States in 1924, by stowing away on a Cuban fishing boat bound for
In 1924, Magaddino became a naturalized U.S. citizen.[1]
Although he operated a legitimate
After Prohibition ended, Magaddino and his crime family made their money by means of
Magaddino's crime family held power in the underworld territories of Upstate and Western New York, namely, Buffalo, New York, bordering Canada and situated on Lake Erie, Rochester and Utica, along the Mohawk River as far east as Amsterdam, New York; from Eastern Pennsylvania as far west as Youngstown, Ohio, and in Canada from Fort Erie (opposite Buffalo) to Toronto, Ontario and as far east as Montreal, Quebec.[15][16] By the 1960s, it was reported that Magaddino's crime syndicate supplied drugs to the Canadian cities of Hamilton and Guelph, which in turn supplied drugs to Toronto.[17]
Magaddino led his Buffalo family through its glory years and its most powerful and profitable era. He was an old-style boss who preferred to stay in the background and not draw any attention to himself or his criminal activities if possible. Due to his territory's remoteness yet the vast amount of it he controlled and being geographically insulated from the inter-family squabbles of the New York City-based families, he was held in high regard and was at times called upon to be an arbiter involving territorial disputes between crime families based there.[citation needed]
National crime figure
For fifty years, Magaddino was a dominant presence in the
It is believed Magaddino, along with Antonio and
Magaddino had survived several
In 1963,
In October 1964, Bonanno returned to Manhattan, but on October 20, 1964, the day before Bonanno was scheduled to testify to a grand jury inquiry, his lawyers said that after having dinner with them, Bonanno was kidnapped, allegedly by Magaddino's men, as he entered the apartment house where one of his lawyers lived on Park Avenue and East 36th Street.[26]
Magaddino's empire began to crumble in 1968, when police found $500,000 stashed away in Magaddino's funeral home and his son's attic. Retired FBI agent Donald Hartnett said, "At that time, Magaddino had been telling his underlings that money was tight, and he could not afford to pay them Christmas bonuses... People began to stop trusting him when we found all that money."[27]
Death
Magaddino died of a heart attack on July 19, 1974, at age 82, at Mount Saint Mary's Hospital in Lewiston, New York.[1] His funeral was held at St. Joseph's Catholic Church. He was buried at St. Joseph's Cemetery on Pine Avenue in Niagara Falls.
Legacy
Mob Boss, written by Mike Hudson, is a book about Magaddino's life as a mob boss. Magaddino is also mentioned in Niagara Falls Confidential, also written by Mike Hudson. He also gets a passing mention in The Valachi Papers by Peter Maas. Magaddino, as head of the Buffalo/Niagara Falls crime family, is a subject throughout the two-volume history, DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime (Vol. I through 1937, Vol. II 1938 through 2012) by Thos. Hunt & Michael A. Tona (2013).
Magaddino is an unseen character in the third season of the hit HBO series, Boardwalk Empire.
References
- ^ a b c d Perlmutter, Emanuel (July 21, 1974). "Stefano Magaddino Dead at 82". New York Times. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
- ^ a b A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno By Joseph Bonanno p.24-28
- ^ a b c Jerry Capeci The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia pg.49–52
- ^ ISBN 9780312657758. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
- ^ United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations. Permament Subcommittee on Investigations (1964). Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics Hearings ... Eighty-eighth Congress, First Session Pursuant to Senate Resolution 17, 88th Congress · Volume 5, Parts 4-6. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 1036. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
- ^ "United States Government Memorandum" (PDF). Retrieved 21 February 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-4834-9627-6.
- ^ a b c Hunt, Thomas; Tona, Michael A. (Spring 2007). "The Good Killers 1921's Glimpse of the Mafia". On the Spot Journal of Crime and Law Enforcement History. Archived from the original on 11 August 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2022 – via The American Mafia.
- Brooklyn Daily Times. 17 August 1921. pp. 1–2.
- ^ Jerry Capeci The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia pg.68
- ^ Raab, Selwyn. Five Families. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005. Print.
- ^ "NOW OWNED BY FALLS, FUNERAL HOME ONCE TIED TO MOB CONDUCTS BUSINESS AS USUAL". buffalonews.com. May 18, 1992. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
- ISBN 978-1-61423-549-1.
- ISBN 978-0-9749253-6-3.
- ISBN 978-0-9749253-6-3.
- ISBN 978-1-304-26582-1.
- ^ Phillips, Alan (September 21, 1963). "ORGANIZED CRIME'S GRIP ON ONTARIO". Maclean's. Canada. Archived from the original on July 4, 2019.
- ^ Glynn, Don (November 11, 2007). "Glynn:Area delegates attended mob convention". Niagara Gazette. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
- ^ McHugh, Ray (August 26, 1963). "Federal Attack, Internal Fights Trouble Crime Clan". Lodi News-Sentinel. Archived from the original on 26 December 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
- ISBN 0-00-200016-4.
- ISBN 9781773380247.
- ^ Schneider, 2009 p.285-286 Archived 2021-01-04 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "CRIME HUNTER: Buffalo blues — last rites for the mob in Queen City". torontosun.com. May 5, 2018. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
- ^ Staff (September 1, 1967) "The Mob: How Joe Bonanno Schemed to kill – and lost" Life p.15-21
- ^ a b Bruno, Anthony. "Colombo Crime Family: Trouble and More Trouble". TruTV Crime Library. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
- ^ Raab, Selwyn (May 12, 2002). "Joe Bonanno Dies; Mafia Leader, 97, Who Built Empire". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
- ^ "Buffalo's Crimes of the Century
Mayhem, Murder and the Mafia -- Darker Moments in the City's History". The Buffalo News. December 27, 1999. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
Further reading
- Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Checkmark Books, 2005. ISBN 0816056951
External links
- "NiagaraTimes.Com". Retrieved 2005-10-09.