The “Scalleat Crew” of Hazleton, PA

They named it their “Top Hoodlum” program, and Scalleat received the dubious honor of being listed as a “Top Echelon” target. The local office of the FBI also opened up a similar ‘anti-racketeering’ case on Joe’s brother, Albert Michael Scalleat, who was by then also the subject of an ‘Interstate Transportation of Wagering Information’ criminal gambling investigation.

Joseph Scalleat, Sr., was born on October 18, 1911, at Hazleton, Pennsylvania, one of eight children born to the Scalleat family. He resided for years at 594 Harrison Street and later moved to nearby 711 East Ninth Street, Hazleton.

He was a notorious hoodlum who engaged in a wide variety of rackets along with his three brothers. They were said to be largely in control of the underworld in the Hazleton territory. 

He had a kid brother and racket partner named Albert Michael Scalleat who was born in 1920 and resided right down the block from Joe for most of their lives. Albert lived at 621 Harrison Avenue.

By the late 1980s, he had moved to 2 West 21st Street. In later years after his brother Joe had died, Albert decided to retire and move down to Fort Lauderdale in South Florida. And some years later chose to relocate again out west to the City of Las Vegas, Nevada.

He was his brother’s closest associate. Together they headed a large gambling combine. Albert and Joe were also said to be partners in a thriving loan-sharking business that Albert maintained and was in charge of for them.

Joe Scalleat and his three brothers, Albert, Samuel, and Pasquale, were said to be lifelong partners to one another. The Scalleats were each thought to have been formally inducted ‘soldiers’ who were affiliated with one of two separate Cosa Nostra Families.

Albert was said to be formally affiliated as a soldier of the Russell Bufalino Family that operated in the northeastern part of the state where they both resided, while his brother Joe had been inducted into the Angelo Bruno Family of South Philadelphia.