John C. Montana - Mafia Associates

Mafia Associates

In 1933, John Montana created the Empire State Brewery Corp. located in Olean, NY; on paper, his business partner were the Magaddino brothers from the Falls. Charles Dotterweich built the Olean brewery in 1854 and it remained a family business until Montana purchased it. While still catering to the German market that the Dotterwyck Beverage Company allegedly made illegal alcohol for during prohibition, Montana’s Empire State Brewery sold Old Dominion Ale and Old Munich Beer. With the illegal booze networks ending, Montana and Magaddino remained the controllers of the alcohol industry through their Power City Distributing Company that sold alcohol to local taverns and restaurants; Magaddino was the president of this company from 1933 to 1958 until the business went ‘bankrupt’ and they sold the assets. As secretary-treasurer of the company, Charles Montana, John’s nephew, signed the papers to fold the business and he held a powerful position within Magaddino's Mafia Family.

After the brewery in Olean changed ownership in 1940, John Montana, the taxi tycoon, remained an active entrepreneur in Western New York’s brewing industry. Montana became a director of the Frontier Liquor Corp. Years later, Montana would go into a business partnership with Stefano Magaddino’s only son Peter in the Buffalo Beverage Company – the company formerly owned by Mayor Frank Schwab before prohibition was enacted. This company oversaw the distribution of Budweiser across Western New York and employed several alleged Mafiosi as ‘business agents.’ U.S. Senators later remarked that one notable distributor was Jimmy LaDuca, who later married one of Magaddino’s daughters. LaDuca was a known union organizer, gambler, captain, and very powerful leader in Magaddino’s Family; these links to Montana would later be his downfall.

A year after he returned from the New York Constitutional Convention and three years after being a delegate at the Republican National Convention, John Montana attended another conference that brought in the heads of Mafia families from all over the nation. In 1939, John’s nephew Charles Montana married Magaddino’s oldest daughter (20 years) Josephine at a lavish celebration in downtown Buffalo. According to FBI notes, “Informant stated he feels sure that a number of hoodlums and racketeers from the Eastern part of the United States were guests at the wedding.” Unfortunately for the FBI, no names or information could be obtained about attendees through informants.

Journalists, however, saw the wedding as an opportunity for a good mob story and got details about the event. According to the “Saturday Evening Post” in 1939:

"The Statler Hotel in Buffalo was taken over for the affair and was decked out more lavishly than Buckingham Palace. The guests of honor were 100 thugs from all over the country and for each one there were two Federal Agents and Detectives casing the crowd. Even Costello was there, the last time he showed up at an open mafia clambake. He held court in the best suite in the house, and when he went down to the lobby the underlings bowed and scraped as though he was giving Christmas baskets to the peasants."