It would take several more decades for Sam Rotella to be exposed as the mafioso he actually was. But even back then the people who needed to know all knew about his underworld status. That was clearly evident from the mobbed-up places he often frequented and the unsavory company he kept.
You see, as a boy, Sam had gone to grade school and grew up with many men who would later be identified by the FBI and the New York State Police as major underworld figures.
In fact, its been documented in later years that some of his closest friends and associates were fully inducted soldiers and capos of the Joseph Barbara family — which was later renamed the Bufalino Family. They were one of the 26 so-called “traditional” Cosa Nostra Families the FBI say operated throughout the United States.
He numbered among his closest associates such hoodlums as Anthony (The Governor) Guarnieri, who was known as a longtime strong-arm man and deadly enforcer for the Mafia. Guarnieri’s star was tied to the fortunes of another notorious Mafia figure — Giuseppe (Joe the Barber) Barbara.
