John C. Montana

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John C. Montana (1893-1964) was a labor racketeer, political fixer and leader of the Buffalo-based Magaddino crime family.

Born in Montedoro, Sicily, Montana immigrated to the United States in 1907 and, by the 1920s, had become involved in bootlegging during Prohibition. His attendance at a conference at Chicago in 1931 signaled the rise of his criminal career within organized crime eventually becoming head of the Magaddino crime family.

During the next twenty years, Montana became known as a prominent businessman and respected resident of Buffalo, New York owning the largest taxicab fleet in western New York which dominated airport, train station and upper class hotels, and was named "Man of the Year" by a local civic group in 1956. The following year however, his organized crime ties were revealed when he, among the many organized crime figures, was arrested during the Apalachin Conference and his later appearance before the McClellan Committee regarding labor racketeering. Montana later claimed that he had suffered car trouble while on his way to a business meeting in Philadelphia when had decided to stop at the home of his friend Joseph Barbara to have his car repaired in explanation for his arrest at the Apalachin meeting.

Eventually removed from leadership and reduced to the rank of soldier in the Magaddino crime family, Montana died only seven years later in 1964.