Joseph Barbara Sr., the host of the infamous 1957 Apalachin Mafia Meeting, was the undisputed capo over a small regime based in Binghamton, New York, and the towns of Pittston-Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He ran his regime for decades as a virtual unknown.
But Joe the Barber had a dark past as a top gunman and enforcer for the Castellammarese faction of the Mafia. He was allied from boyhood with such notorious mafiosi as Vito Bonventre, John Bonventre, Joseph Bonanno, Stefano Magaddino, Frank Garofalo, Carmine Galante, and Gaspare Milazzo, the original leader of all those born in the seaside town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily.
In fact, Barbara had been charged with murder on three separate occasions and was a prime suspect in a dozen more during his rise to power.
