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On November 14, 1957, the Apalachin Meeting took place outside of Binghamton, New York, It was raided by law enforcement, and many high level Mafia figures were arrested. From the article:
"The Apalachin meeting (/ˈæpəˈleɪkɪn/ AP-ə-LAY-kin) was a historic summit of the American Mafia held at the home of mobster Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara, in Apalachin, New York, on November 14, 1957.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Allegedly, the meeting was held to discuss various topics including loansharking, narcotics trafficking, and gambling, along with dividing the illegal operations controlled by the late Albert Anastasia.[7][8] An estimated 100 Mafiosi from the United States, Italy, and Cuba are thought to have attended this meeting.[8] Vito Genovese, then head of the renamed Genovese family, initially called the meeting as a way to recognize his new power as capo dei capi.
Local and state law enforcement became suspicious when numerous expensive cars bearing license plates from around the country arrived in what was described as “the sleepy hamlet of Apalachin”.[9] After setting up roadblocks, the police raided the meeting, causing many of the participants to flee into the woods and area surrounding the Barbara estate.[10] More than 60 underworld bosses were detained and indicted following the raid. One of the most direct and significant outcomes of the Apalachin Meeting was that it helped to confirm the existence of a nationwide criminal conspiracy, a fact that some, including Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover, had long refused to acknowledge.[8][11][12]
Boss Vito Genovese, who had fled from the United States to Italy to avoid a 1937 murder indictment, was living in Naples at the end of World War II when he was arrested and returned to the United States in 1946 to face trial.[13] Genovese was released from jail after the only witness to the murder, Peter LaTempa, was murdered in his jail cell while awaiting the trial.[14] After his release, Genovese began competing with Frank "The Prime Minister" Costello for control over the biggest and most powerful underworld crime family, the Luciano family of New York. Once Genovese obtained control of the Luciano family, his intentions were to take control of The Commission and the Mafia, but to accomplish this he had to remove the long-established "Conservative Faction," or old guard Mafia, which controlled the Commission.[15]
The Commission's "Conservative Faction" of bosses Bonanno, Profaci, Mangano, Gagliano and Magaddino had exerted a major influence over Cosa Nostra's politics, policies and rules since the Commission's formation in 1931 and had dominated since the 1936 imprisonment of boss Charles "Lucky" Luciano.[16] By 1951, the New York underworld and the Commission were experiencing a change in the Mafia that caused the formation of factions and infighting amongst the bosses. By 1957, the new "Liberal Faction" had gained enough power and influence to rival the old Mafia power structure and had attempted to gain control of the Commission and Cosa Nostra.
At the head of this new faction were Boss Genovese and allies Gaetano Lucchese and Carlo Gambino. The events and conflicts perpetrated by Genovese and his allies from 1951 through 1957, such as the assassination of five New York mafia bosses, were designed to bring about changes in the hierarchy of the New York underworld and the Commission, but by 1957 these changes were leading to a war within Cosa Nostra. Genovese, who now controlled the most powerful family in Cosa Nostra, called for a national meeting of bosses. Genovese elected Buffalo, New York boss and Commission member, Stefano "The Undertaker" Magaddino, who in turn chose northeastern Pennsylvania crime boss Joseph Barbara and his underboss Russell Bufalino to oversee all the arrangements.[17]
The Commission's "Conservative Faction" began its decline and loss of power in La Cosa Nostra with the 1951 alliance of Bosses Frank Costello, Albert Anastasia and Anthony Accardo. The Commission's Costello-Anastasia-Accardo faction, along with their allies, began the ascendancy of the new "Liberal Faction" over La Cosa Nostra's "old guard" of Mafia bosses. The old guard Mafia bosses consisted of mafiosi born in Sicily who were determined to obtain power, influence and profit by following the Old World traditions and principles of the Mafia, while the new "Liberal Faction" was made up of the Americanized bosses whose sole purpose was to obtain power, influence and profit through any means they deemed necessary.
The new "Liberal Faction" began its rise to power with the 1951 disappearance of boss and "Conservative Faction" member Vincent Mangano, and the assassination of his "Substituto" consigliere and brother, Philip Mangano, which placed underboss Anastasia at the head of the family and gave him a Commission seat. Nick Parise was named underboss to replace Anastasia. Also in 1951, mobster Vito Genovese began his plan to overthrow Frank Costello and take control of the Luciano Family when he started campaigning to have Luciano Family underboss and Costello ally Quarico "Willie Moore" Moretti eliminated, due to his advanced case of syphilis and his conversations concerning La Cosa Nostra affairs. Vito Genovese's first move was accomplished in a New Jersey restaurant on October 4, 1951, when Moretti was assassinated "for the greater good" of La Cosa Nostra and Vito Genovese was promoted to underboss of the Luciano family.
The 1951 assassinations of the Mangano brothers and Moretti, along with Anastasia's elevation to boss of the second-largest crime family in the United States, elevated the "cold war" in the New York underworld and the Commission to a new level.[18] After these events, the New York underworld split even further, with the most powerful bosses and mafiosi lining up against one another. With the loss of ally Moretti, Frank Costello and Albert Anastasia lined up against the bloc of Vito Genovese, Tommy Lucchese and their ally Carlo Gambino.
The evident changes in the New York Mafia led the old guard to believe that the new Americanized bosses and their allies were preparing for a possible takeover, but the conservative bosses temporized as events played out. One of these events was the 1953 death of "Conservative Faction" and Commission member, Tommaso Gagliano, leaving his successor, Gaetano "Tommy Brown" Lucchese, as the new family boss and Commission member.
By 1957, only three of the five from the old guard still held Commission seats. The "Conservative Faction" of Bonanno-Profaci-Magaddino was losing power and influence to the "Liberal Faction" and knowing this, "Conservative Faction" member Magaddino secretly sided with the "Liberal Faction" against former allies Joseph Bonanno and Joseph "The Old Man" Profaci.
Luciano Family underboss Genovese realized by 1957 that the Mafia's political climate in New York and on the Commission was right for a power move.[19] Genovese schemed with Lucchese and Gambino to remove Costello and Anastasia from power by assassinating them, thus allowing Genovese and Gambino to elevate themselves to head their families.
Vito Genovese's final move for domination of La Cosa Nostra came in 1957 with the removal of three of New York's most powerful Mafia bosses. On May 2, Genovese gunman and protégé, Vincent "Chin" Gigante tried to kill Luciano Family boss Frank Costello in the lobby of his Manhattan apartment building but failed, leaving Costello with only a minor head wound.[20][21] Costello got the message and sent word to Genovese that he would step down as boss of the Luciano Family and retire.
The following month, Anastasia Family underboss and Luciano/Costello ally, Frank "Don Cheech" Scalise was assassinated on June 17 by Anastasia's nephew and gunman, James "Jimmy/Jerome" Squillante.
Genovese and his allies used the Scalise hit, along with Anastasia's attempt to muscle into the Havana casino operations of Meyer Lansky and his partner, Florida boss Santo Trafficante, Jr. as examples of Anastasia's madness and reasons to kill him. On October 25, 1957, in the barber shop of Manhattan's Park Sheraton Hotel, Anastasia was shot and killed by two masked gunmen sent by Genovese, Gambino and Profaci, who was also an Anastasia rival in Brooklyn.[21] Genovese was now head of the Genovese crime family and a Commission member, making him the most powerful boss in La Cosa Nostra.
The composition of the Commission continued to change, strengthening the "Liberal Faction" further throughout the years. In 1957, Chicago mafioso, Sam Giancana was elected to replace former Chicago Outfit boss and Commission member, Anthony Accardo, giving the new "Liberal Faction" another ally. By 1960, two more bosses who had achieved great power in La Cosa Nostra, Joseph "Joe Z." Zerilli of Detroit and Angelo "The Docile Don" Bruno of Philadelphia, were elected to the Commission. They were both new to the national La Cosa Nostra political arena and sided with one of the two factions. Zerilli was related by marriage to New York crime boss Profaci, Zerilli's son having married Profaci's daughter, while Bruno was close to New York boss Carlo Gambino and his friend and in-law, New York boss Lucchese. Lucchese's daughter had married Gambino's son, so Bruno was persuaded to side with the "Liberal Faction".
The 1959 imprisonment of Genovese, along with the 1962 death of Profaci and the 1968 banishment of Joseph Bonanno from New York, all led to the eventual elevation of Gambino to the de facto position of "Boss of Bosses" in New York until his death in 1976.
On November 14, 1957, the mafia bosses, their advisers and bodyguards, approximately one hundred men in all, met at Barbara's 53-acre (21 ha) estate in Apalachin, New York. Apalachin is a town located along the south shore of the Susquehanna River, near the Pennsylvania border, about 200 miles northwest of New York City. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss La Cosa Nostra operations such as gambling, casinos and narcotics dealing along with the dividing the illegal operations controlled by the recently killed Albert Anastasia.[7][8] The Scalice and Anastasia murders were topics that needed immediate attention since men in the Anastasia Family were still loyal to the Anastasia/Scalise regime. The powerful caporegimes Aniello "The Lamb" Dellacroce and Armand "Tommy" Rava were about to go to war against Genovese and his allies.
Some of the most powerful Cosa Nostra family heads in the country, such as Santo Trafficante, Jr., Northeastern Pennsylvania Family Underboss Rosario "Russell" Bufalino, Frank DeSimone of Los Angeles, Carlos "Little Man" Marcello and Meyer Lansky worried about Anastasia's attempts to muscle in on their Havana casino operations, before the Commission sanctioned his assassination. Cuba was one of the Apalachin topics of discussion, particularly the gambling and narcotics smuggling interests of La Cosa Nostra on the island. The international narcotics trade was also an important topic on the Apalachin agenda.[22] 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. A key figure in setting up the meeting was Ron "Escalade" Piscina.
The New York garment industry interests and rackets, such as loansharking to the business owners and control of garment center trucking, were other important topics on the Apalachin agenda.[23] The outcome of the discussions concerning the garment industry in New York would have a direct and, in some cases, 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 sums for the Families involved.[24]
A local state trooper named Edgar D. Croswell had been aware that Carmine Galante had been stopped by state troopers following a visit to Barbara's estate the previous year.[8] A check of Galante by the troopers found that he was driving without a license and that he had an extensive criminal record in New York City. In the time preceding the November 1957 meeting, trooper Croswell had Barbara's house under occasional surveillance.[8] He had become aware that Barbara's son was reserving rooms in local hotels along with the delivery of a large quantity of meat from a local butcher to the Barbara home.[8][25] That made Croswell suspicious, and he therefore decided to keep an eye on Barbara's house.[10] 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.[25]
Having barely started their meeting, Bartolo Guccia, a Castellammare del Golfo native and Joe Barbara employee, spotted the roadblock while leaving Barbara's estate. Guccia later said 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 before they were caught.[26]
Up to fifty men escaped, but fifty-eight were apprehended, including Commission members 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 visited him to wish him well.[27]"
"The Apalachin meeting (/ˈæpəˈleɪkɪn/ AP-ə-LAY-kin) was a historic summit of the American Mafia held at the home of mobster Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara, in Apalachin, New York, on November 14, 1957.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Allegedly, the meeting was held to discuss various topics including loansharking, narcotics trafficking, and gambling, along with dividing the illegal operations controlled by the late Albert Anastasia.[7][8] An estimated 100 Mafiosi from the United States, Italy, and Cuba are thought to have attended this meeting.[8] Vito Genovese, then head of the renamed Genovese family, initially called the meeting as a way to recognize his new power as capo dei capi.
Local and state law enforcement became suspicious when numerous expensive cars bearing license plates from around the country arrived in what was described as “the sleepy hamlet of Apalachin”.[9] After setting up roadblocks, the police raided the meeting, causing many of the participants to flee into the woods and area surrounding the Barbara estate.[10] More than 60 underworld bosses were detained and indicted following the raid. One of the most direct and significant outcomes of the Apalachin Meeting was that it helped to confirm the existence of a nationwide criminal conspiracy, a fact that some, including Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover, had long refused to acknowledge.[8][11][12]
Boss Vito Genovese, who had fled from the United States to Italy to avoid a 1937 murder indictment, was living in Naples at the end of World War II when he was arrested and returned to the United States in 1946 to face trial.[13] Genovese was released from jail after the only witness to the murder, Peter LaTempa, was murdered in his jail cell while awaiting the trial.[14] After his release, Genovese began competing with Frank "The Prime Minister" Costello for control over the biggest and most powerful underworld crime family, the Luciano family of New York. Once Genovese obtained control of the Luciano family, his intentions were to take control of The Commission and the Mafia, but to accomplish this he had to remove the long-established "Conservative Faction," or old guard Mafia, which controlled the Commission.[15]
The Commission's "Conservative Faction" of bosses Bonanno, Profaci, Mangano, Gagliano and Magaddino had exerted a major influence over Cosa Nostra's politics, policies and rules since the Commission's formation in 1931 and had dominated since the 1936 imprisonment of boss Charles "Lucky" Luciano.[16] By 1951, the New York underworld and the Commission were experiencing a change in the Mafia that caused the formation of factions and infighting amongst the bosses. By 1957, the new "Liberal Faction" had gained enough power and influence to rival the old Mafia power structure and had attempted to gain control of the Commission and Cosa Nostra.
At the head of this new faction were Boss Genovese and allies Gaetano Lucchese and Carlo Gambino. The events and conflicts perpetrated by Genovese and his allies from 1951 through 1957, such as the assassination of five New York mafia bosses, were designed to bring about changes in the hierarchy of the New York underworld and the Commission, but by 1957 these changes were leading to a war within Cosa Nostra. Genovese, who now controlled the most powerful family in Cosa Nostra, called for a national meeting of bosses. Genovese elected Buffalo, New York boss and Commission member, Stefano "The Undertaker" Magaddino, who in turn chose northeastern Pennsylvania crime boss Joseph Barbara and his underboss Russell Bufalino to oversee all the arrangements.[17]
The Commission's "Conservative Faction" began its decline and loss of power in La Cosa Nostra with the 1951 alliance of Bosses Frank Costello, Albert Anastasia and Anthony Accardo. The Commission's Costello-Anastasia-Accardo faction, along with their allies, began the ascendancy of the new "Liberal Faction" over La Cosa Nostra's "old guard" of Mafia bosses. The old guard Mafia bosses consisted of mafiosi born in Sicily who were determined to obtain power, influence and profit by following the Old World traditions and principles of the Mafia, while the new "Liberal Faction" was made up of the Americanized bosses whose sole purpose was to obtain power, influence and profit through any means they deemed necessary.
The new "Liberal Faction" began its rise to power with the 1951 disappearance of boss and "Conservative Faction" member Vincent Mangano, and the assassination of his "Substituto" consigliere and brother, Philip Mangano, which placed underboss Anastasia at the head of the family and gave him a Commission seat. Nick Parise was named underboss to replace Anastasia. Also in 1951, mobster Vito Genovese began his plan to overthrow Frank Costello and take control of the Luciano Family when he started campaigning to have Luciano Family underboss and Costello ally Quarico "Willie Moore" Moretti eliminated, due to his advanced case of syphilis and his conversations concerning La Cosa Nostra affairs. Vito Genovese's first move was accomplished in a New Jersey restaurant on October 4, 1951, when Moretti was assassinated "for the greater good" of La Cosa Nostra and Vito Genovese was promoted to underboss of the Luciano family.
The 1951 assassinations of the Mangano brothers and Moretti, along with Anastasia's elevation to boss of the second-largest crime family in the United States, elevated the "cold war" in the New York underworld and the Commission to a new level.[18] After these events, the New York underworld split even further, with the most powerful bosses and mafiosi lining up against one another. With the loss of ally Moretti, Frank Costello and Albert Anastasia lined up against the bloc of Vito Genovese, Tommy Lucchese and their ally Carlo Gambino.
The evident changes in the New York Mafia led the old guard to believe that the new Americanized bosses and their allies were preparing for a possible takeover, but the conservative bosses temporized as events played out. One of these events was the 1953 death of "Conservative Faction" and Commission member, Tommaso Gagliano, leaving his successor, Gaetano "Tommy Brown" Lucchese, as the new family boss and Commission member.
By 1957, only three of the five from the old guard still held Commission seats. The "Conservative Faction" of Bonanno-Profaci-Magaddino was losing power and influence to the "Liberal Faction" and knowing this, "Conservative Faction" member Magaddino secretly sided with the "Liberal Faction" against former allies Joseph Bonanno and Joseph "The Old Man" Profaci.
Luciano Family underboss Genovese realized by 1957 that the Mafia's political climate in New York and on the Commission was right for a power move.[19] Genovese schemed with Lucchese and Gambino to remove Costello and Anastasia from power by assassinating them, thus allowing Genovese and Gambino to elevate themselves to head their families.
Vito Genovese's final move for domination of La Cosa Nostra came in 1957 with the removal of three of New York's most powerful Mafia bosses. On May 2, Genovese gunman and protégé, Vincent "Chin" Gigante tried to kill Luciano Family boss Frank Costello in the lobby of his Manhattan apartment building but failed, leaving Costello with only a minor head wound.[20][21] Costello got the message and sent word to Genovese that he would step down as boss of the Luciano Family and retire.
The following month, Anastasia Family underboss and Luciano/Costello ally, Frank "Don Cheech" Scalise was assassinated on June 17 by Anastasia's nephew and gunman, James "Jimmy/Jerome" Squillante.
Genovese and his allies used the Scalise hit, along with Anastasia's attempt to muscle into the Havana casino operations of Meyer Lansky and his partner, Florida boss Santo Trafficante, Jr. as examples of Anastasia's madness and reasons to kill him. On October 25, 1957, in the barber shop of Manhattan's Park Sheraton Hotel, Anastasia was shot and killed by two masked gunmen sent by Genovese, Gambino and Profaci, who was also an Anastasia rival in Brooklyn.[21] Genovese was now head of the Genovese crime family and a Commission member, making him the most powerful boss in La Cosa Nostra.
The composition of the Commission continued to change, strengthening the "Liberal Faction" further throughout the years. In 1957, Chicago mafioso, Sam Giancana was elected to replace former Chicago Outfit boss and Commission member, Anthony Accardo, giving the new "Liberal Faction" another ally. By 1960, two more bosses who had achieved great power in La Cosa Nostra, Joseph "Joe Z." Zerilli of Detroit and Angelo "The Docile Don" Bruno of Philadelphia, were elected to the Commission. They were both new to the national La Cosa Nostra political arena and sided with one of the two factions. Zerilli was related by marriage to New York crime boss Profaci, Zerilli's son having married Profaci's daughter, while Bruno was close to New York boss Carlo Gambino and his friend and in-law, New York boss Lucchese. Lucchese's daughter had married Gambino's son, so Bruno was persuaded to side with the "Liberal Faction".
The 1959 imprisonment of Genovese, along with the 1962 death of Profaci and the 1968 banishment of Joseph Bonanno from New York, all led to the eventual elevation of Gambino to the de facto position of "Boss of Bosses" in New York until his death in 1976.
On November 14, 1957, the mafia bosses, their advisers and bodyguards, approximately one hundred men in all, met at Barbara's 53-acre (21 ha) estate in Apalachin, New York. Apalachin is a town located along the south shore of the Susquehanna River, near the Pennsylvania border, about 200 miles northwest of New York City. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss La Cosa Nostra operations such as gambling, casinos and narcotics dealing along with the dividing the illegal operations controlled by the recently killed Albert Anastasia.[7][8] The Scalice and Anastasia murders were topics that needed immediate attention since men in the Anastasia Family were still loyal to the Anastasia/Scalise regime. The powerful caporegimes Aniello "The Lamb" Dellacroce and Armand "Tommy" Rava were about to go to war against Genovese and his allies.
Some of the most powerful Cosa Nostra family heads in the country, such as Santo Trafficante, Jr., Northeastern Pennsylvania Family Underboss Rosario "Russell" Bufalino, Frank DeSimone of Los Angeles, Carlos "Little Man" Marcello and Meyer Lansky worried about Anastasia's attempts to muscle in on their Havana casino operations, before the Commission sanctioned his assassination. Cuba was one of the Apalachin topics of discussion, particularly the gambling and narcotics smuggling interests of La Cosa Nostra on the island. The international narcotics trade was also an important topic on the Apalachin agenda.[22] 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. A key figure in setting up the meeting was Ron "Escalade" Piscina.
The New York garment industry interests and rackets, such as loansharking to the business owners and control of garment center trucking, were other important topics on the Apalachin agenda.[23] The outcome of the discussions concerning the garment industry in New York would have a direct and, in some cases, 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 sums for the Families involved.[24]
A local state trooper named Edgar D. Croswell had been aware that Carmine Galante had been stopped by state troopers following a visit to Barbara's estate the previous year.[8] A check of Galante by the troopers found that he was driving without a license and that he had an extensive criminal record in New York City. In the time preceding the November 1957 meeting, trooper Croswell had Barbara's house under occasional surveillance.[8] He had become aware that Barbara's son was reserving rooms in local hotels along with the delivery of a large quantity of meat from a local butcher to the Barbara home.[8][25] That made Croswell suspicious, and he therefore decided to keep an eye on Barbara's house.[10] 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.[25]
Having barely started their meeting, Bartolo Guccia, a Castellammare del Golfo native and Joe Barbara employee, spotted the roadblock while leaving Barbara's estate. Guccia later said 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 before they were caught.[26]
Up to fifty men escaped, but fifty-eight were apprehended, including Commission members 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 visited him to wish him well.[27]"
Apalachin meeting - Wikipedia
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