By: Aaron M. Smith ( e mail: Supercrack@mailcity.com )

Stefano Magaddino came to Western New York in his early 30’s and was a feared Mafioso from back home in Sicily. He was seen as a leader of a Castellammarese clan in Brooklyn but left Cola Schiro in charge as he fled the City from feuding Sicilians and prying police. He arrived in Niagara Falls because it was one of the most peaceful Castellammarese communities in the nation not being plagued by rival Italians.

Shortly after he arrived in Niagara Falls and was handed the reigns of an organized underworld, Joe DiCarlo Sr. of Buffalo died. Magaddino had already been moving his operations into the City of Buffalo and locked up the bookmaking and bootlegging trades just after DiCarlo died. He became the respected and feared head of the Mafia as his GoodKillers, a group of prohibition hitmen, moved into Southern Ontario, Northern Pennsylvania, and Eastern Ohio to lock up the bootlegging and gambling circles around. He became the point man for illegal booze to be smuggled in the U.S. from Canada. As a result, his importance across the nation increased.

His power and prestige increased so much so that his defiance was the final straw that pulled Joe “The Boss” Masseria into a nationwide war in the early ‘30s. Masseria had wanted to kill the Castellammarese leaders in every city across the nation. He had his contacts in Chicago kill Joe Aiello and the Castellammarese rackets were attacked by Masseria supporter Al Capone. In Brooklyn, he had made Cola Schiro pay to save his life and then flee the city in disgrace; Masseria did not know that Salvatore Maranzano had quickly prepared the Castellammarese in Brooklyn for war. In Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Masseria was involved in disrupting the Castellammarese communities. In Detroit, Masseria called Magaddino’s friend Gaspar Milazzo to a meeting and tried to lure him into giving up his Castellammarese ties. Likewise, Masseria called Magaddino to a meeting, but the Buffalo boss suspected a double cross and did not show up to the sit-down in New York City. This angered Masseria and he vowed to kill Magaddino, Milazzo, and every other Castellammarese person out there. In what became known as the Castellammarese War, the future of the underworld was created by the victors of this war.

After Masseria and Castellammarese wartime leader Maranzano were both killed by the likes of Lucky Luciano, a Commission was formed in which leaders from New York City, Chicago, and Buffalo would meet to decide the outcome of disputes. From this instance, Magaddino’s respect as a war victor enabled him a seat on the Commission among the nation’s top leaders. As this national syndicate evolved to include leaders from other mafia-strong cities in the nation, Magaddino’s influence on the Commission grew. In the mid ‘50s, Vito Genovese, one of the leading members on the Commission, made a big power move in New York City and shot some bosses, killed other bosses, and muscled in on the rackets of even more opponents. It looked as if the country was destined for another national war like in the days of Joe Masseria. To force his opponents to either support his moves or directly oppose him, Vito Genovese called a national meeting of bosses, which usually met every five years, to be held in Chicago. To stop Genovese from either becoming the boss-of-bosses in the U.S. like he wanted or from starting a war, Magaddino had enough pull to host the national meeting at his friend Joe Barbara’s house. Barbara had come from Castellammare like Don Stefano and left Buffalo in prohibition to help Magaddino tie up the rackets along the New York-Pennsylvania border. In ’57, however, the police in this rural New York town had wanted more money from Barbara’s organization, and he had refused. As a result, the national meeting in Apalachin, NY – Vito Genovese’s self-endorsed coronation – was broken up by State Police resulting in the biggest effort to identify and scrutinize the Mafia.

After this fiasco, Genovese and Magaddino became the two biggest scapegoats to blame for the ’57 fiasco. The two became heated rivals on the Commission. Magaddino didn’t necessarily have more support on the Commission, Genovese just had more enemies. Genovese’s rivals set him up on a phony drug charge and landed him in jail. Don Stefano is alleged to have become the Chairman of the Commission and its figurehead leader – which apparently went straight to his head.

The day-to-day operations of Magaddino’s Family in Buffalo were being run by underboss Freddie “the Wolf” Randaccio who showed immense loyalty to the Old Man. Randaccio’s leadership skills helped Magaddino maintain his power in a Family of younger crews all ready to go after the throne. Randaccio was arrested and jailed by the first ‘made’ man ever to testify in court, however. In ’67, Magaddino replaced the imprisoned Randaccio with his son Peter as underboss. Peter Magaddino had never done anything of merit to earn that position and therefore didn’t have the respect that Randaccio had; he had nothing more than his father’s name. Some capos began to cheat Peter Magaddino out of money and were not loyal to the Old Guard.

Around this time, Joe Bonanno, Magaddino’s little cousin who was boss of the old Castellammarese Family in Brooklyn, began moving in on the drug trade in Buffalo’s territory in Ontario. Magaddino played his influence on the Commission and got Bonanno deposed as boss. A major conflict arose in New York City, and Bonanno was sentenced to death after he was caught trying to set up a murder plot on other Commission leaders, including his cousin Stefano Magaddino. To save him from being killed, Magaddino took responsibility for his cousin and kidnapped Bonanno until he agreed to retire. After agreeing to do so, Bonanno was released and eventually returned to Brooklyn where his loyalists in the Family were fighting the leadership installed by Magaddino and the Commission. This embarrassed Magaddino who was supposed to be responsible for solving the Bonanno problem.

Don Stefano remained the elder figurehead of the Commission and the distant leader of the Family in Buffalo but had seen a decade of embarrassment. After Apalachin fiasco, the Bonanno disaster, and the announcement of Peter Magaddino as underboss, the majority of capos were not being respectful to the Old Man. As a result, they were not given a Christmas bonus like every year in the past; Magaddino blamed it on a bad economy.

Magaddino was shortly thereafter arrested for collecting money from a gambling book in Niagara Falls run by loyal capo Benny Nicoletti Sr. While executing the warrants, the FBI raided Peter Magaddino’s house and nearly $500,000 in cash was found. Three days later, Don Stefano Magaddino’s house on Mafia Row was raided along with his three sons-in-law on their posh street in the northern suburb of Lewiston. The Family’s capos were mad that the boss wasn’t sharing his wealth and preferred to keep it locked in a briefcase in his son’s house. As a result, several dissident crews formed an alliance and approached the Commission to take control of the Family. This was the chance for various leaders in New York to do away with Magaddino’s long standing influence on the Commission. He was replaced as boss while only half of the Family supported the new leadership. Within years, Magaddino died from a heart attack; he became a legendary memory in a Family that didn’t want him anymore. He was still recorded as the boss for over 50 years – longest reign on top of a criminal organization in the history of crime.

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