Buffalo Crime Family - Magaddino Era - Arm Split

Arm Split

By late 1960s many of Magaddino's top underlings and crime family members began to believe that the Boss had become a paranoid and notoriously greedy leader with old age who was losing the respect of all his underlings. This notion was reinforced in mid 1968 when Magaddino informed his top Capos that their share of the crime family's profits would be reduced and they would no longer receive the yearly Christmas bonus of $50,000. This angered the top Capos including Joe Fino, Sam Pieri and Danny Sansanese since Magaddino's personal sports betting book was one of the largest in Western New York and was known bring in anywhere from $20,000-$30,0000 weekly. The next event sealed the fate of the Boss. On November 28, 1968, Stefano Magaddino and his son, Peter Magaddino, a Capo in the crime family, were arrested on charges of interstate bookmaking. During the subsequent arrest and search of the Magaddino homes, located on "Mafia Row" in Niagara Falls, New York, the arresting officer, former FBI agent and author Joseph Griffin and his partner located approximately $473,134 in a suitcase hidden in Peter's home. After learning about the amount of cash the Magaddino's had possessed it was reported that the top crime family members wanted to kill Boss Stefano Magaddino, but feared the retribution they would receive from the Commission for an unsanctioned hit of a Mafia Boss. In place of the hit the Buffalo crime family's top members no longer loyal to Magaddino opted to revolt and replace Magaddino as Boss.

A group of Buffalo crime family Capos including Sam Pieri, Joe Fino, Danny Sansanese, Joe Todaro Sr., Joe DiCarlo Jr. and Sam Frangiamore traveled to Rochester and met at the farmhouse of Capo, Frank Valenti to discuss the present situation in Buffalo. At this meeting is was decided by vote that they would revolt against the current leadership in Buffalo and no longer recognize Magaddino as Boss. There was only one problem with that, the Commission still recognized Stefano Magaddino as the official Boss in Buffalo so the family did what they could and the crime family split into two major faction, the "Magaddino loyalist" and those who supported the "Dissident Factions", the Buffalo crime family was now made up of four sub-groups. The Magiddino loyalists included the former Underboss who was incarcerated at the time, Freddie Randaccio, the current Consigliere, Antonio "Nino" Magaddino and Capos, Peter Magaddino, Jimmy LaDuca, Roy Carlisi, Vincent Scro and Charles A. Montana, all but Carlisi were related to Magaddino in some way. The two largest and most powerful factions were the Pieri-Frangiamore faction and the Fino-Sansanese faction, led by Capos Sam Pieri, Sam Frangiamore, Joe Fino and Danny Sansanese. The Pieri-Frangiamore faction included Capos, Joe DiCarlo, Joe Pieri Sr., John "Johnny Ray" Pieri, who was incarcerated at the time, Anthony "Tony" Romano and Toronto, Ontario soldier, Paul Volpe. The Fino-Sansanese faction included Joe Todaro Sr., John Cammilleri and Pat Natarelli who was incarcerated at the time. The final faction was the Rochester faction led by Capo, Frank Valenti, but by 1970 he used the opportunity and his close affiliation to his father in law, Pittsburgh Capo, Antonio Ripepi to announce that the Rochester crew would no longer be under the Buffalo crime family's influence and would be an autonomous crime family. The rest of the Capos such as Benjamin "Sonny" Nicoletti Sr. of Niagara Falls, New York, Albert "Babe" Billiteri Sr. of Buffalo and Joseph Falcone of Utica, New York lined up behind one of the three Buffalo area sub-groups while the Canadian Capos, John Papalia of Hamilton, Ontario, Santo Scibetta and Jack Luppino stayed relatively neutral, but where in actuality Magaddino supporters as they stayed loyal to who ever was the official Boss at the time!

Former Buffalo FBI agent Joe Griffin stated in his book that that in the beginning of 1969 he learned through informers that Sam Pieri had been elected by Acting Boss in January 1969, while in April 1969 FBI surveillance captured the dissident Buffalo crime family leaders, Sam Pieri, Joe Fino, Joe DiCarlo Jr., Sam Frangiamore and Danny Sansanese meeting on the West Side of Manhattan, New York with Genovese crime family leaders. The Genovese crime family represents the Buffalo crime family on the Commission and New York needed to be alerted that the dissident factions no longer recognized Stefano Magaddino as the Boss of the crime family. The Genovese crime family leaders affirm their recognition of the dissident leaders and sanction a vote in Buffalo to elect temporary or "Acting" Bosses until an official leader is eventually chosen. According to the Senate Hearing report, "Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi", the top Buffalo crime family members in the dissident factions met on July 9, 1969 and elected a new leadership, Sam Pieri was named Acting Boss, Joe Fino remained Underboss, a promotion he allegedly received in June 1968, a year after the arrest of Randaccio and Joe DiCarlo Jr. was named the Acting Consigliere. The Buffalo crime family had never had an internal conflict of this scale or any revolt in its roughly 50 year history, but now the crime family was split and no longer the large, strong and unified crime family it was once and it stayed this way for roughly a decade and a half.

Over the next four years until the opportunity for the Commission to choose a new Boss arrived the Buffalo crime family would still officially be under the rule of Stefano Magaddino, but there were a succession of Acting Bosses starting with Sam Pieri from January 1969 until he was soon convicted and jailed on September 25, 1970 and sentenced to five years. Then came Joe Fino who was promoted to Acting Boss while Danny Sansanese took over the position of Acting Underboss, but on September 15, 1971 Joe Fino and his brother Nick Fino were arrested on gambling charges and released on bail until the hearing, but this started to diminish the Fino-Sansanese factions power. Danny Sansanese was arrested in early 1972 and convicted of jury tampering in April 1972 which gave the Pieri-Frangiamore faction the ability to take over once again from the weaken Fino-Sansanese faction. Joe Fino stepped down as Acting Boss in July 1972 and stays on as official Underboss to the new Acting Boss, Sam Frangiamore while Joe DiCarlo Jr. has been the official Consigliere since the 1971 death of Nino Magaddino. It s known that Frangiamore was Acting Boss of the Buffalo crime family by 1973 as Ronald "Ron" Fino, son of Joe Fino, former Business Manager of Laborers Local 210 and an FBI undercover operative has stated in many instances including his testimony in Senate Hearings.

The Buffalo crime family continued with its criminal interests and legitimate business ventures and stays in solid control of the areas rackets throughout the early 1970s including the local and upstate New York area construction, labor and union rackets it has controlled for decades. Longtime Buffalo crime family Capo, John Cammilleri was the overseer of the labor and union rackets in the Buffalo areas since the late 1940s and was an influential crime family member. Cammilleri was born in Campobello di Licata Gigenti, Italy in 1905 and arrived in the Buffalo area with his family in 1910. By the mid to late 1920s he was a Buffalo crime family associate and in 1930 he was arrested for grand larceny, while over the next few years his a rap sheet included burglary, robbery, extortion and intent to kill and in 1933 he was sent to Elmira prison on a 20 years sentence. Paroled in 1939 Cammilleri soon became a "made man" in the Buffalo crime family and obtained a mid level position in Buffalo Local 210 as his cover for handling union problems as a Lieutenant for Stefano Magaddino. Cammilleri's power and influence within "The Arm" grew steadily as he had interests in gambling activities, construction companies and his union activities while gaining a reputation as a dependable man who could get the job done and do favors for organized crime associates. He stayed out of trouble until he 1971 when he was caught lying to a grand jury about his association to Buffalo gangsters, Joe and Nick Fino during their troubles concerning the gambling charges.

The Buffalo crime family like some many other LCN crime families were deeply involved in labor and union racketeering and Buffalo's LIUNA Local 210 had become a well known haven for crime family members and their relatives. It was rumored that former crime family associate, Ron Fino, was elected to his post within LIUNA Local 210 through the efforts of John Cammilleri, and as a reward, Cammilleri expected a high level executive position within the union, but Fino turned him down. Cammilleri was greatly angered by Fino's rejection and decided to plea his case in front of the acting crime family hierarchy, which in early 1974 was clearly in control of all crime family activities and operations as Stefano Magaddino had been fairly ill over the last year. Sam Pieri had been paroled in early 1974 and it is not clear exactly what his acting position was as some in law enforcement and the media believe he was the Acting Boss while others believe that Sam Frangiamore was still the leader at this time. Either way, both men were present on May 8, 1974 when Cammilleri was allowed to plead his case in a Buffalo cigar shop. The leadership denied his request and he stormed out of the meeting. Later that night he dropped of his girlfriend at a popular West Side Italian restaurant, "Roselands", and left to attend a wake. After the wake Cammilleri returned to the restaurant, parked his car and proceeded to walk across the street when someone called his name. Several shots rang out and Cammilleri was hit in the face and chest and died instantly. Several customers ran outside just in time to see a car speeding down Chenango St.

The killing of Cammilleri was seen as a part of the Pieri-Frangiamore faction's final bid to take over the Buffalo crime family, knowing that official Boss Stefano Magaddino would soon die, which happened on June 19, 1974. Magaddino was given a Catholic funeral and buried at St. Josephs Cemetery in Niagara Falls, New York.