Phillip Musica - First Bootlegging Venture

First Bootlegging Venture

In 1920, after briefly going into the poultry business, Musica founded the Adelphi Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Company, under the alias Frank D. Costa, with Joseph Brandino as his partner. Its nominal business was the manufacture of a hair tonic called "Dandrofuge" and cosmetics. In truth, it was a front for a bootlegging venture. In those days, hair tonic and cosmetics used large quantities of alcohol. Under the Prohibition laws, access to alcohol was strictly controlled, and Musica/Costa obtained a permit to draw 5,000 gallons of raw alcohol per month.

Unlike U.S. Hair, Adelphi's business was very real. However, the great majority of his profits came from bootleggers who bought his tonic in large quantities and distilled out the alcohol to make beer and liquor. With the high premiums earned from the bootleggers, Musica was once again rolling in money. He kept two sets of books--a phony one showing sales at the normal competitive price, and a real one to account for the sales to bootleggers.

Adelphi was shut down in 1923 after telling the Treasury that Brandino had been abusing the permit. Three years earlier, he'd turned state's evidence against Brandino after the two were arrested for a Prohibition violation.