Bufalino crime family
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The Bufalino Crime Family is a criminal organization based in Scranton, Pittston and Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania USA within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known familiarly as the Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra). The Bufalino Crime Family exercises influence in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Northwestern New Jersey, Southern and Western New York while maintaining strong contacts with mafia counterparts in New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and New England.
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[edit] Impact of the Bufalino Crime Family
The impact of organized crime is generally regarded as a global phenomenon, and the Italian Mafia in the United States is seen as having connections to other ethnic criminal organizations operating within the United States (including Asian gangs, Russian Mafiya, Albanian Organized Crime, Biker Gangs, etc.), to their counterparts in Sicily and southern Italy, as well as to other international criminal organizations including stolen car rings abroad.
The Bufalino Crime Family has been connected to labor racketeering, counterfeiting, prostitution, loansharking and extortion, illegal gambling, cartage theft, fraud, and automobile theft among other criminal operations that bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in profit each year, in addition to many legitimate enterprises over which they exercise control. While the Bufalino may be one of the smaller criminal organizations within the Mafia phenomenon, the extent of its influence and strength has often been underestimated by observers in law enforcement and the media.
However, many reports claim that a large portion of the organization's income is through "sweetheart contracts" obtained through government bidding in the area of construction and waste management and through money laundering. In the early days, much of the family's income was derived by its control of the coal industry, especially through its manipulative influence over the labor unions governing coal miners.
Law enforcement estimates that the Bufalino family consists of approximately 30 members, and an unknown (but presumably large) number of associates, operating chiefly in the area of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Northwestern New Jersey, Southern and Western New York while maintaining strong contacts with mafia counterparts in Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and New England.
[edit] History of the Bufalino Crime Family
[edit] The Barbara Era to Apalachin
Joe Barbara's estate off Highway 17 was the scene of a big meet to peacefully divide up assassinated Albert Anastasia's Brooklyn rackets including lucrative Pier One in 1957. New York State Trooper raid caught either the heads of families or in odd case his deputy, but prosecutions and convictions for lying to them about why they were there were thrown out by the Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
[edit] The Bufalino Era
During Barbara's reign he made one brilliant move by naming Russell Bufalino as his underboss. Bufalino took over the family after Barbara's death in 1959 and ran it until a conviction in the 1980s, after which the aging boss retired. Besides being Boss of his crime family, Bufalino was rumored to have also been "Acting Boss" of one of the New York "Five Families" at one point in his mafia career, but more accurately he was sanctioned by the Commission to be the trustee of the Genovese crime family during an internal disagreement over the Boss succession sometime during the 1970s. * sidenote - most likely during the early 1970s after the death of Vito Genovese in 1969, possibly after the death of acting/front boss, Thomas Eboli and sometime before Frank Tieri was a chosen as Eboli's successor.
When Bufalino was imprisoned in the late 1970s, Edward Sciandra, the family's consigliere, became the acting boss.
[edit] Recent Years
Since Russell Bufalino's death in 1994, and Edward Sciandra's "retirement" to Florida, William D'Elia became the new boss of the crime family in Northeastern Pennsylvania. D'Elia, born in 1946, started his career in the Bufalino family in the late 1960s and 1970s as Russell Bufalino's driver.
D'Elia's background in solid waste brokering, and keen business sense made him a valuable asset and aided in developing close connections with counterparts in New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. Regarded as a peacemaker, he has helped resolve disputes over territory and business interests that could have erupted into bloodshed.
Over the last decade, William D'Elia has attempted to better his image and avoid prosecution by engaging in more legitimate enterprises. In addition to the solid waste business, D'Elia maintains an active presence in the management of Spaniel Transportation, a trucking concern, and an equity share in the Newcastle Group, possibly from money laundering. However, he continues to earn income from traditional criminal activities: drug trafficking, loansharking, illegal gambling and bookmaking, securities fraud, and cartage theft.
In the 1990s D'Elia's name was linked to a money laundering scheme that involved a weekly newspaper in Exeter, Pennsylvania called The Metro. Internal Revenue Service investigators from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania claim that $3 million, the proceeds of a drug and prostitution ring, were laundered through the newspaper. The Wilkes-Barre Citizen's Voice reported, "The money is believed to have purchased bogus advertisements and subscribers that never existed. The publication ceased operation in 1998."
D'Elia's long run as mob boss without being prosecuted for anything, and his ability to stay on the street and out of prison, have led some observers to speculate that D'Elia has been a long-time government informant, informing on other Cosa Nostra families. While this would explain his extraordinary run of good luck, it is entirely speculation at this point.
However, many mafia observers have pointed out that D'Elia's days as a free man may be numbered. D'Elia was at one time involved in gambling junkets to Atlantic City, New Jersey, recording almost $6 million in losses in a three-year period where he reported $8,000 per year in income to the IRS. On May 31, 2001 agents from the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS, US Postal Inspectors and Pennsylvania State Police executed search warrants at the homes of D'Elia, his mistress, and three others, seizing records in an ongoing investigation. On February 26, 2003, D'Elia was banned for life from stepping foot in casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey by New Jersey's Division of Gaming Enforcement based on information shared by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the now defunct Pennsylvania Crime Commission. On May 31, 2006 D'Elia was indicted on federal charges of laundering $600,000 in illegal drugs proceeds and trying to have a co-defendant in the case killed.
In January 2008, Roman Catholic priest Father Joseph Sica was arrested for perjury after prosecutors gathered evidence that they believe reveals Sica misrepresented his relationship with Russell Bufalino. In testimony to a grand jury regarding the purchase of a casino in northeastern Pennsylvania by Louis DeNaples, whom prosecutors believe had ties to the Bufalino family. Prosecutors say letters and photos show that Sica and Bufalino had a "substantial relationship" despite Sica's testimony that the two had met by chance and were not close.
In March of 2008, D'Elia pleaded guilty to reduced charges, a possible sign that he has agreed to testify against Louis A. DeNaples, owner of the recently opened Mount Airy Casino Resort in the Poconos and accused of lying to get a casino license.
D'Elia had been facing 18 counts, including solicitation of murder, but pleaded guilty to only two, witness tampering and conspiracy to launder money. D'Elia's attorney, James Swetz, refused to say Friday whether D'Elia received a deal in exchange for his guilty plea, or whether he agreed to testify against DeNaples.
[edit] Bosses of the Bufalino Crime Family
- 1905–1908 — Stefano LaTorre (1886–1984) (stepped down in 1908, but continued to be recognized as a senior member of the crime family, died in 1984 at the ripe old age of 98)
- 1908–1933 — Santo Volpe ( –1933) (LaTorre's brother-in-law, retired in 1933, but continued to be recognized as a senior member of the crime family, died 1959)
- 1933–1940 — Giacomo "John" Sciandra (1899–1940) (murdered)
- 1940–1959 — Giuseppe "Joe the Barber" Barbara, Sr. (1905–1959) (semi-retired by 1956 due to ill health. The Apalachin meeting debacle caused him a great deal of stress and a loss of power and influence within the mafia before he died in 1959)
- 1956–1959 — Rosario Alberto "Russell" Bufalino (acting boss) (ascended to the leadership as a result of the Apalachin fiasco and the death of Barbara)
- 1959–1994 — Rosario Alberto "Russell" Bufalino (1903–1994) (imprisoned from 1978-82 and throughout the second half of the 1980s, released from prison in 1990 he was effectively retired and living in a nursing home, but like so other highly respected mafia bosses over the years he held the title of boss until he died on February 25, 1994)
- 1978–1989 — Edward "Eddie the Conductor" Sciandra (1913–present) (acting boss) (jailed in 1981 for less than a year on income tax evasion charges, effectively retired in 1989, but is still recognized as a senior member of the crime family)
- 1990–1993 — William "Big Billy" D'Elia (acting boss) (officially ascended to the leadership with the death of Bufalino)
- 1994–present — William "Big Billy" D'Elia (1946–present) (indicted October 17, 2006 on 18 charges including solicitation of homicide and money laundering)
"RAT"
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- George Anastasia The Goodfella Tapes (Avon, 1998) ISBN 0-380-79637-6
- Charles Brandt I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran and the Inside Story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, and the Final Ride of Jimmy Hoffa (Steerforth, 2004) ISBN 1-58642-077-1
[edit] External links
- The Pittston Family
- Northeastern Pennsylvania from Rick Porrello's AmericanMafia.com
