Russell Bufalino

• 1. Introduction

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  Russell Bufalino was born Rosario Alfredo Bufalino on the 29th of October 1903 in Montedoro, Sicily. He grew up to be an Italian-American mobster, and he led the Northeastern Pennsylvania crime family for decades. People came to call it the Bufalino crime family. His cousin Bill Bufalino was an attorney and the longtime counsel for Jimmy Hoffa.

  His life raises several questions. How did an immigrant child pulled back and forth between two continents end up running a criminal organization? What happened when the secret world he belonged to ran into a police roadblock in upstate New York? And how did a mob boss come to be tangled up in the casting of one of the most famous films ever made?

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• 2. Between Two Continents

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  On the 9th of July 1903, Angelo Bufalino left Sicily for the United States and settled in Pittston, Pennsylvania, where he worked as a coal miner. His wife, Cristina Buccoleri, followed with the children, including the infant Rosario. They entered the country through the Port of New York in December 1903.

  A few months after that arrival, Angelo died in a mine accident, and the family went back to Sicily. In January 1906, Bufalino emigrated to the United States a second time. His mother died in 1910, and he returned to Sicily once more.

  In February 1914, he came back to Pittston. At the age of 14, he left Pennsylvania for Buffalo, New York, and during his teenage years he became a criminal. Buffalo would supply the teachers, friends and wife who shaped everything that came next.

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• 3. Buffalo and Family Ties

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  On the 9th of August 1928, Bufalino married Carolyn Sciandra, known as Carrie, who came from a Sicilian Mafia family. The marriage fit a pattern. Family and clan ties mattered a great deal to Sicilian-American criminals. They formed a strong and secretive network that outsiders and law enforcement could not penetrate.

  In Buffalo, he worked alongside many mobsters. Some of them rose to lead the Buffalo family and other Cosa Nostra families along the East Coast. His first boss was John C. Montana, a fellow immigrant from Montedoro, and the friendship between them was a significant one.

  In the early 1920s, Bufalino began working with Joseph Barbara, another bootlegger, based in Endicott, New York. In 1940, Bufalino moved to Kingston, Pennsylvania. The Northeastern Pennsylvania family controlled organized crime in Pittston, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, and in parts of upstate New York.

  In the early 1950s, the Immigration and Naturalization Service tried several times to deport him. Every attempt failed, because the Italian government refused to take him back. He stayed in Pennsylvania, and he stayed close to Barbara.

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• 4. The Apalachin Meeting

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  In 1957, Vito Genovese took control of the Luciano crime family from boss Frank Costello. He wanted to make his new power legitimate by holding a national Cosa Nostra meeting. Genovese turned to Stefano Magaddino, nicknamed "the Undertaker," a Buffalo boss and Commission member. Magaddino chose Joseph Barbara and Bufalino to handle the arrangements.

  On the 14th of November 1957, powerful Mafiosi from the United States and Italy gathered at Barbara's estate in Apalachin, New York. Cuba was on the agenda, especially the gambling and narcotics smuggling interests the Mafia held on the island. So was the international narcotics trade. So were the New York garment industry rackets, including loansharking to business owners and control of garment centre trucking.

  A state trooper named Edgar D. Croswell was already paying attention. The year before, troopers had stopped Carmine Galante after he visited Barbara's estate. They found he had no driver's license and an extensive criminal record in New York City. Croswell kept Barbara's house under occasional watch.

  Before the meeting, Croswell learned that Barbara's son was booking rooms in local hotels. A large delivery of meat from a local butcher also arrived at the Barbara home. When police saw many luxury cars at the estate, they noted the license plates. Many of the cars belonged to known criminals, so reinforcements arrived and set up a roadblock.

  Bartolo Guccia, a Barbara employee born in Castellammare del Golfo, spotted the roadblock as he left the estate. He later said he was going back to check on a fish order. Some guests tried to drive away and were stopped. Others tramped through fields and woods, ruining their expensive suits, and were caught. Many escaped through the woods.

  Police stopped a car driven by Bufalino as it left the estate. His passengers were Genovese, Joseph Civello, Simone Scozzari and Frank DeSimone. Bufalino said he had come to visit his sick friend Barbara. Those apprehended were fined up to $10,000 each and sentenced to between three and five years in prison. All the convictions were overturned on appeal in 1960.

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• 5. Havana and Hollywood

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  In June 1959, Joseph Barbara died, and the Commission recognized Bufalino as the official boss of the family. He held interests in a racetrack and in a casino near Havana. After the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro confiscated both. Bufalino and his associates were forced to hide away $450,000.

  In 1972, the singer Al Martino lost the role of Johnny Fontane in The Godfather, and it went to Vic Damone. Martino went to Bufalino, who was his godfather. Bufalino arranged for various news articles to appear. They claimed that director Francis Ford Coppola did not know producer Albert S. Ruddy had given Martino the part.

  Damone eventually dropped out. He did not want to provoke the mob, and he was also being paid too little. The part of Johnny Fontane ended up with Martino. A year later, the FBI would come for Bufalino himself.

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• 6. Courtrooms and Cells

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  On the 20th of April 1973, FBI agents raided a nightclub in Scranton and arrested Bufalino. The charges were interference with interstate commerce, obstruction of justice, gambling and transporting stolen property. He was released on $50,000 bail.

  In 1977, Bufalino was indicted on extortion charges. Jack Napoli, who was in the Witness Protection Program, testified that Bufalino had threatened to kill him. Napoli had failed to pay a $25,000 debt owed to a jeweller in New York. After the indictment, Bufalino took steps to limit further legal trouble. He named the caporegime Edward Sciandra as acting boss and withdrew from the family's daily operations.

  On the 8th of August 1978, Bufalino was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison for the extortion attempt. He served almost three years.

  He was released in May 1981 and was soon indicted again, this time for conspiring to kill Napoli. The main prosecution witness was Jimmy Fratianno. He said that Bufalino had asked him and Michael Rizzitello to kill Napoli in 1976.

  In November 1981, Bufalino was sentenced to 10 years in prison and held at United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth. He was in his late seventies.

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• 7. Decline and Legacy

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  In 1989, Bufalino was released from prison. With him locked up again and the family under federal investigation, the organization had already begun to weaken. Operations of what remained of the Northeastern family were handed to Billy D'Elia.

  On the 25th of February 1994, Bufalino died of natural causes at Nesbitt Memorial Hospital in Kingston, Pennsylvania. He was 90 years old. He is buried in Denison Cemetery in Swoyersville, Pennsylvania.

  In 2019, Joe Pesci played Bufalino in Martin Scorsese's film The Irishman. Pesci was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the performance.

  In October 2014, Berkley Books published The Quiet Don, a book by Matt Birkbeck. Its full title calls it the true story of Mafia kingpin Russell Bufalino. Both the book and the film arrived decades after his burial in Swoyersville.

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