Organized Crime - Mafia Apalachin

Organized Crime - Mafia Apalachin Meeting

When New York state troopers broke up a meeting of organized crime figures in Apalachin, New York in 1957, state and federal crime fighting agencies felt that they found tangible proof of the existence of the Mafia.

The police had become suspicious of criminal activity when they discovered that Joseph Barbara, host of the meeting, and the president of Canada Dry Bottling Company, was making a large number of hotel reservations, and when they observed several well-known Mafia figures in the area. When the police approached the gathering, the participants fled into the woods, and the police set up roadblocks to stop them. Fifty-eight gangsters were stopped at the roadblocks or in the surrounding area, and taken to the police station for questioning. The subsequent investigations marked the beginnings of the U.S. government's war on organized crime. The conference revealed the world of organized crime to the public, which in return resulted in an increase in governmental response to addressing organized crime. (answers.com, n.d.)

Prior to the conference the Federal Bureau of Investigation, led by J. Edgar Hoover, had been resistant to investigating claims of organized crime. In response to the discovery, the Justice Department established the Special Group on Organized Crime in the spring of 1958, and both the New York State legislature and the U.S. Senate investigated the incident. (answers.com, n.d.)

It had been nearly 40 years since the onset of prohibition expanded the reach of organized crime, yet politicians, crime fighting agencies, Italian-American civic groups, and academics still debated the existence and impact of Italian-American organized crime. This debate was particularly vigorous during the decade between the hearings chaired by Tennessee senator Estes Kefauver in 1951 and the testimony of Mafia informant Joseph Valachi in 1963. (Bernstein, 2007)

The stated purposes of the Apalachin meeting are varied, if not intriguing, and a couple of them even humorous. What is clear is that the attendees hoped the meeting would remain private. Instead, their discovery began an unraveling of a huge crime network and demonstrated to the United States government that the Mafia was more entrenched in America's society than previously realized. The Apalachin meeting erased all speculation. It became clear that top hoodlums had organized themselves into a criminal conglomerate. (Hafer, n.d.)

The meeting marked the critical point in the defeat of Meyer Lansky's foes. Several major Mafia figures were absent, either because they didn't want to attend, or because they were very much dead. We'll discuss a possible conspiracy later. (Enrique Cirules, 2004, p. 123-126)

Anastasia, and Scalise, a friend of Luciano, were both dead. Then there was the abortive attempted murder of Frank Costello which brought about much unwanted publicity. At that point, the New York families decided it was time to talk.

The Meeting and the Chase

The meeting agenda called for the more than 100 mobsters to socialize and resolve the mafia affairs in New York and La Cosa Nostra operations such as gambling, casinos and narcotics dealing. The Scalise and Anastasia murders were topics of great importance that needed immediate attention, since men in the Anastasia family still loyal to the Anastasia/Scalise regime such as the powerful caporegimes

Aniello "The Lamb" Dellacroce and Armand "Tommy" Rava were about to go to war against Vito Genovese and his allies. It hadn't been just the Genovese-Lucchese-Gambino alliance that wanted to see Albert Anastasia dead. Some of the most powerful Cosa Nostra bosses throughout the country, such as Tampa family boss Santo

Trafficante, Jr., Northeastern family Underboss Rosario "Russell" Bufalino, New Orleans family boss Carlos "Little Man" Marcello and even Jewish boss and mafia financier,

Meyer Lansky worried about Anastasia's attempts to muscle in on their Havana casino operations just before the Commission sanctioned his assassination. (absoluteastronomy.com, n.d.)

In fact, Cuba was one of the Apalachin meetings topics of discussion, particularly La Cosa Nostra's gambling and narcotics smuggling interests on the island. The international narcotics trade was also an important topic on the Apalachin agenda. Shortly before Apalachin, Bonanno family members Joseph Bonanno,

Carmine Galante, Frank Garofalo,

Giovanni Bonventre and other American Cosa Nostra representatives from Detroit, Buffalo and Montreal visited Palermo, where they held talks with Sicilian Mafiosi staying at the Grand Hotel des Palmes.

The New York garment industry interests and rackets, such as loan sharking to the business owners and control of garment center trucking were other important topics on the Apalachin agenda. (absoluteastronomy.com, n.d.)

The outcome of the discussions concerning the garment industry in New York would have a direct, and in some cases an indirect, effect on the business interests of some of the other bosses around the country, mainly those interests in garment manufacturing, trucking, labor and unions, which brought in large incomes for the families involved.

Thus overall, the state of American Mafia affairs was to be discussed at this meeting, leaving no debates or questions as to who would now be leading the new "Liberal Mafia," controlling and enforcing its national rules and policies. (absoluteastronomy.com, n.d.)

Barbara had been harassed by the local small town cops for a while after moving to the rural upstate region of New York. A local state trooper named Edgar Croswell had been aware that a guest had visited Barbara's estate the previous year; state troopers had pulled over Carmine Galante as he drove away from Barbara's house in 1956, and they had found that Galante was not only driving without a license, but he had an extensive criminal record in New York City. In the time immediately preceding the November 1957 meeting, Croswell had become obsessed with the goings on there and was aware that Barbara's son was reserving rooms in local hotels. This made Croswell suspicious, and he therefore decided to keep an eye on Barbara's house.

When the state police found many luxury cars parked at Barbara's home, they began taking down license plate numbers. Having found that many of these cars were registered to known criminals, state police reinforcements came to the scene and began to set up a roadblock. Since no crime was being committed, this was overdoing it, but gangsters made it worse by fleeing.

A absoluteastronomy.com, n.d.)

Having barely started their meeting, Bartolo Guccia, a Castellammare del Golfo native, and Joe Barbara spotted the roadblock while leaving Barbara's estate. Guccia would later state he was returning to the Barbara home to check on a fish order. Some attendees attempted to drive away but were stopped by the roadblock. Others trudged through the fields and woods, ruining their expensive suits and tossing guns and cash away in case they were caught. Locals reported finding $100 bills scattered about the countryside for months afterwards. (absoluteastronomy.com, n.d.)

Up to fifty men escaped, but fifty-eight were apprehended, including Commission members Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino, Joseph Profaci and Joseph Bonanno. Virtually all of them claimed they had heard Joseph Barbara was feeling ill and that they had just popped in to see him and wish him well. Everyone thought it very curious that so many men of Italian descent from various cities, the majority with criminal records, should happen to be all gathering at one place at the same time, but as no crime had been committed the men who were caught were all eventually released.

After the Apalachin Summit, J. Edgar Hoover, could no longer deny the National Crime Syndicate's existence and its influence on the North American underworld, as well as La Cosa Nostra's overall control and influence of the Syndicate's many branches throughout North America and abroad. Hoover created the "Top Hoodlum Program" and, with prodding from Robert Kennedy, went after the National Crime Syndicate's and La Cosa Nostra's top bosses throughout the country. Many of the National Crime Syndicate's most powerful bosses such as Vito Genovese, Joseph Bonanno, Sam "Momo" Giancana, Stefano Magaddino, Frank Costello, Carlos Marcello, Meyer Lansky, Abner "Longy" Zwillman and Philip "Dandy Phil" Kastel just to name a few, found themselves with greater law enforcement scrutiny, indictments and grand jury subpoenas being handed down. (absoluteastronomy.com, n.d.)

Cuba Connection?

Several years prior to Apalachin, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese had been competing for the position of "Top boss" of bosses in New York City. In an attempt to take the "Top boss" position, Genovese ordered a hit on Costello on May 2, 1957. Costello escaped death and walked away from the attempt with a bullet grazing his head. Genovese feared revenge from Costello, who was now in alliance with Albert Anastasia and on October 25, 1957, Genovese had Albert Anastasia assassinated in Manhattan's Park Sheraton Hotel barbershop.

It was around this time that additional information supposedly surfaced about the Apalachin meeting. In addition to pursuing policies concerning narcotics and the succession of Vito Genovese over Frank Costello and the fate of Anastasia's territory, it was alleged that the meeting was also about the Mafia's involvement in the building of gambling casinos in Cuba and the need to raise cash. However, this has little credence as a reason for calling the emergency 1957 Apalachin National Convention of La Cosa Nostra. There is not a chance that Genovese would want other mobsters to be aware of his private business. He barely knew some of these men and knew others on a casual basis. If Genovese was looking for investors in a Havana venture he would have been doing so very quietly, and among men he could easily dominate. The last place he'd look would be to powerful mob bosses who saw Vito as a rival. (Hafer, n.d., p.6)

In early 1957, shortly before he was murdered, Francisco Aguirre told Albert Anastasia that Hilton International was asking for bids to operate the Habana Hilton Hotel Casino on a concession basis. Aguirre told Anastasia it would require a minimum of $2 million to close the deal, and asked if he could use his influence as the hotel owner to try to get the Hiltons to go along with the deal. Anastasia contacted Frank Costello and asked him to become his partner in the casino deal and to finance the $2 million required for the Habana Hilton Casino operation.

Costello informed Anastasia that he was already financially committed to the Riviera Hotel Casino in Havana, and under no circumstances could he get involved in another Cuban casino.

At the same time, Vito Genovese was negotiating with a second group of Cuban casino builders that had also approached Francisco Aguirre to seek his help with the Hiltons. The New York underworld knew that Albert Anastasia and Vito Genovese vowed to get each other at the first opportunity. Now with Anastasia and Genovese vying for the lucrative Habana Hilton Casino, a showdown of some sort would soon come. When word got back to Genovese that Frank Costello might put up $1 million for Anastasia, Genovese vowed to get Costello first. (Hafer, n.d.)

After Vito Genovese's orders to assassinate Anastasia were carried out, Francisco Aguirre informed Genovese that he had very little time to put up his million-dollar guarantee. To raise $3 million Genovese contacted Joe Profaci of Brooklyn of New York and Anthony Strollo of New Jersey to help him raise the cash. Joseph Barbara's secluded mansion in Apalachin was the designated meeting place for Genovese to entertain about fifty or more wealthy potential buyers and woo them to his Cuban Hilton casino plan. (Barbara was paid $100,000 to host this fund-raising event.)

Vito Genovese told Barbara, Profaci and Strollo not to tell the guests about the true purpose of the gathering. "Tell them it's a party for the host, Barbara. The reason for the party is that he's recuperating from a heart attack...Once we get them here, we'll feed them all the liquor and food they can eat. I'll then give them my casino pitch and I'll have a couple of casino guys from Havana at the meeting to give me a hand if necessary..."

Joseph Barbara suggested November 14, to which Genovese, Profaci and Strollo agreed. About eleven o'clock on the morning of the 14th of November, Cadillacs, Lincolns and Chrysler Imperials began arriving at Joseph Barbara's hilltop mansion. By 12:30 P.M., some 28 automobiles had arrived and were parked in the parking lot and dirt road alongside the house. As Barbara was introducing the guests to one another, Barbara' wife looked out the window and spotted a marked New York state trooper's vehicle in front of the garage and a trooper recording the license numbers. (Hafer, n.d.) the rest of that part of the story we already know.

Conspiracy?

Some law enforcement members and mob historians throughout the years since the historic Apalachin Summit debacle, believe that the three senior mob members that were absent for the meeting, namely Charles Luciano, Frank Costello and Meyer Lansky conspired with each other to tip off the Apalachin and state law enforcement officials who raided Joseph Barbara's estate and discovered the existence of a national crime syndicate. No matter what the state of the affairs of the national crime syndicate or Cosa Nostra at the time of the Apalachin Summit, good or bad, may it be peace, war or otherwise, most mob watchers would never believe that two men such as Charlie "Lucky" Luciano and Frank Costello would ever break their vows of "Omerta" or betray their fellow bosses and allies who were present at Apalachin on November 14, 1957. (absoluteastronomy.com, n.d.)

The facts were that Vito Genovese had stripped Frank Costello of leadership in the Luciano family and further placed the exiled Charlie Luciano near the last vestiges of power and prestige that he maintained throughout the national crime syndicate and Cosa Nostra. Never again would Luciano regain the total domination of the so-called national crime syndicate and Cosa Nostra without a powerful family and soldiers behind him. But no matter in what position of underworld power these two men found themselves, they would never purposely try to destroy what they built from the beginning together with their childhood friends -- the most powerful criminal organization in North America. (absoluteastronomy.com, n.d.)

Also, Luciano and Costello were in awkward positions. Charlie "Lucky" Luciano had been deported to Italy in 1946 and not allowed back into the U.S., and Frank Costello had recently been shot and stripped of power on Vito Genovese's orders. Neither one could attend the Apalachin Summit, but they had contacted an old friend and ally Frank "The Cheeseman" Cucchiara, the New England Patriarca family Consigliere who was representing his boss Raymond "El Padrone" Patriarca, Sr. He also agreed to represent Luciano's and Costello's interests at the summit. As far as Meyer Lansky not being present at Apalachin, it is known that he and Joseph "Doc" Stacher declined to go, but were invited to discuss the state of casino operations in Las Vegas and Cuba, since they were two of the operation's investors and overseers. So the idea of an internal mafia conspiracy, though intriguing, is probably not what happened. (absoluteastronomy.com, n.d.)

Apalachin raised fears of a powerful nationwide conspiracy in the homeland by a criminal culture transplanted from Sicily, thus making the island the incubator of American organized crime. In fact, many ethnic backgrounds are found in the underworld and no single ethnic group has had a monopoly on organized crime in the United States. Mob informant Joseph Valachi spoke plainly in his 1963 testimony (during which he famously coined the phrase La Cosa Nostra) when he remarked, "I'm not talking about Italians, I'm talking about criminals." (Sorte, 2008)

Strange Twist or Just Another Rumor?

At first glance, the Apalachin incident seems pretty cut and dried. Law enforcement officers rounded up a number of well-dressed fellows, took them down to the station for questioning, and released them. End of story.

But the question that has always lingered about Apalachin is, what was the real agenda of the meeting? Why would all of the very top bosses and their Consigliores get together at such an unusual, remote location to discuss relatively ordinary Mafia business. Consider the following:

J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI since 1924, had steadfastly denied that there was such a group as the Mafia operating within the United States. Indeed, until he woke up on the morning of November 15, 1957, and saw the headlines about Apalachin glaring up at him, he was able to do so. Besides, with the "Red scare" of the 1950's, Hoover was busy chasing commies.

But there was one person who had a claim to power equal to that of Hoover's who had no respect of any kind for the Mafia. And that man was Robert Kennedy. While Hoover was busy looking for Communists, Kennedy had opened the files on organized crime in a way that had never been done before. (Ward, 1997)

The Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities -- or McClellan Commission, as it became known -- had named as its chief counsel, Robert Kennedy. Is it perhaps this very appointment which led to the devastating tragedy that would befall the Kennedys in the years to come?

At Christmas time 1956, just when Joe Kennedy had decided that his son, Jack, should run for president, Bobby Kennedy announced to his father that he intended to go after racketeers. Needless to say, father and son fought bitterly over this issue. Joe Kennedy had close Mafia ties back to the years of Prohibition and he would need all the help that he could get to have his Catholic son elected President.

But Bobby was a much more idealistic man than his father. He believed in what he was doing, just as Joe had believed in making money and gaining power. The McClellan Commission adjourned the second phase of their meetings on November 13, 1957, the day before the Apalachin meeting. (Ward, 1997)

The Mafia knew that Joe Kennedy was planning to launch Jack into the political arena, and the chances were good that he would gain the Presidency. Perhaps Joe had already approached the Mafia for help in electing his son. Would it profit the Mafia more to allow Bobby Kennedy a free rein for the time being? Jack's election, and a possible mob tie-in to the Presidency, could go a long way towards smoothing relations between the Mafia and Joe Kennedy.

It was perhaps this very issue that would be thrown on the table along with barbecued steaks at Joe Barbara's home. It was obvious that Bobby was making enemies. A few years later, in reply to a statement that Jack Kennedy would probably not be re-elected, Santos Trafficante, the only mobster to give a fake name when taken into custody at Apalachin, said, "No,... he is going to be hit." (Ward, 1997)