Aniello (Neil) Migliore

Aniello (Neil) Migliore was a soldier in the Lucchese Family who was active in policy and the construction industry. He served under Joe Laratro and Tony Ducks.

Aniello (Neil) Migliore was born in 1933 at 37-20 104th Street in Corona, Queens. He later lived on Van Doren Street. After that, he moved further out in Queens to Bayside.

By approximately 1965, he had relocated to 2 Cyril Drive in Huntington in Suffolk County.

Each time he moved, it was to stay close to Joseph Laratro who also made the migration from Corona to Bayside/Little Neck, and then to exclusive Lloyd Harbor, which was a Huntington hamlet.

Neil Migliore

Migliore would later move several more times within the exclusive Nassau County communities of Oyster Bay Cove at 5 Grace Lane, Muttontown, and Old Brookville.

Side Note: Neil always kept a rooftop pigeon coop over his Corona apartment as he was growing up. It was a hobby he continued into adulthood. Even while living amongst multi-million dollar estates on Long Island's Gold Coast, he maintained his prized pet pigeons.

His father, Americo, who had been misidentified as a mob member, was legitimate but was friendly with this network, specifically Joe Laratro - top Lucchese member, who was a close neighborhood friend.

FBI # 284211E, NYCPD # B-522599

By the mid-1950s, Migliore had been arrested several times for bookmaking and had been labeled a "KG" by Queens police.

During that time, he was also identified as a gambling subordinate and minion of Laratro, one of two co-captains in the Lucchese Family, who lived in Corona and controlled that area and other adjoining northern Queens neighborhoods for the Family.

Although he was a subordinate to Joseph Lucchese as well, it was Laratro who Neil was closer to and worked with on a daily basis.

Neil would gain a lot of exposure and some prominence after the 1957 Apalachin meeting upstate.

His car license plate was identified as being in the general vicinity of the meet, leading law enforcement to speculate that he attended the infamous bbq ...but that’s NOT true!

Joe Laratro and Joe Lucchese had borrowed his car to drive up there. They had been in a fender bender with a local, and when it was revealed during later investigations, Neil’s name came up, making people think he attended.

As a young guy...he was 23 at the time...he loved it! It gave him “juice” on the street as a big man, but the reality was a bit different.

By the mid-1960s, law enforcement was listing him as a “soldier” in the Family.

Although Migliore was being carried as an inducted soldier, it was not until the late 1970s that he was indeed officially “inducted” by Tony Ducks Corallo.

Law enforcement informants did this often, identifying men who they thought were “made”, but, in reality, may have been “proposed” for membership. These guys would have to wait until the 1970s for the “books” to actually open up.

In future years, under Corallo, Neil would rise to become a top captain for Tony Ducks.

Later, he would serve either as his “consigliere” or “acting underboss.” With Corallo’s imprisonment for 100 years in 1986, Migliore helped hold the Family together during its transitional period of instability.

Eventually, this “recognition” and his perceived influence in the hierarchy caused much jealousy and suspicion among certain elements of the Family, namely the Brooklyn wing previously under Christopher (Ticker) Furnari. It would lead to trouble!

Migliore was involved in many activities, including horse/sports bookmaking, policy (Manhattan number), shylocking, police bribery, extortion, labor racketeering, and cigarette smuggling.

Hi, criminal record started in approximately 1957. It included busts for bookmaking (four times), policy (three times), possession of gambling records, disorderly conduct, bribery and conspiracy, racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, bid rigging, restraint of trade, extortion.

Migliore also had legitimate business interests, which included:

A. Migliore Tile Contractor on 103rd Street (37th Avenue) in Corona - a small 1940s tile-setting firm started by his father that Neil would later use to involve himself and Corallo in construction projects.

Migliore Funeral Homes at 37-20 104th Street (37th Road) and 49-01 104th St (49th Ave), both in Corona. Both funeral homes were actually owned and operated by his sister Raffaele (Rae), a licensed mortician, for decades.

Gossip’s Topless Club which was a large nude nightclub on Rt.110 in Melville, Long Island.

Other real estate and construction investments over the years included several parcels of land in the Huntington, Long Island area that he’d bought earlier for rental income.

He had many criminal associates over the years, including:

Joseph (Joe Brown) Lucchese - brother to Tommy, gambling power, head of the Corona regime and his brother's eyes and ears for decades.

Joseph (Joe Narrow) Laratro - close partner of Joe Lucchese, co-head of the Corona regime for four decades.

Antonio (Tony Ducks) Corallo - a Queens-based longtime captain who became boss by the mid-1970s, Neil’s eventual sponsor and mentor.

Frank (Frankie Bell) Campanello - a bagman and key gambling operative of the Corona crew from the 1940s through early 1960s era.

Anthony (Nino Brown) Lucchese - a brother to the other Luccheses and a Queens gambler. An “associate” but never formally inducted.

Eugenio (Little Gene) Giannone - a top Corona crew-based bookie and Lucchese confidant and associate.

Joseph (Joe Bikini) Brocchini - another Corona crew member, later killed by Roy Demeo in 1976.

Andimo (Tommy Noto) Pappadio - an influential capo who would be killed during a Family power struggle for the leadership between he and Tony Ducks.

In later years as he rose into the Family hierarchy, he dealt with, among others:

Salvatore (Tom Mix) Santora - became underboss to Corallo. A Bronx power.

Christopher (Christie Ticker) Furnari - a longtime soldier who would become consigliere during Corallo’s tenure.

Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno - active with Neil in coordinating construction rackets between the two Families.

Joseph (Joe D) DiNapoli - a convicted Bronx-based heroin trafficker and member who the FBI claims became very powerful in later years serving on the “ruling panel."

Matthew Madonna - a notorious convicted Harlem heroin dealer who the FBI claims was part of a recent “ruling panel” with Migliore.

Neil Migliore started out as a kid in the Queens neighborhood of Corona as a numbers runner for Joey Narrow since Neil’s father was a “compare” to Laratro.

Laratro took a liking to Neil and brought him closer, allowing him to become a sort of “right hand” or “man Friday” to Laratro despite his young age.

Migliore was soon helping to coordinate a huge bookmaking and policy operation based in Corona that also took “action” in major adjoining areas such as Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Woodside, Flushing, Bayside, and Rego Park, among other places.

During the era I’m speaking of, Corona was arguably the “Little Italy” of Queens, with a huge Italian population.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Migliore was arrested several times on bookie charges.

One incident that comes to mind was Neil being arrested with Eddie Superna and Israel Tan (two often arrested master wireroom “clerks”), who were nabbed during an early morning raid at a residential home on 43rd Avenue in Corona.

It was a quiet Sunday morning, and they were caught red-handed tallying up all the baseball action from that weekend, adding machines, tally sheets, ribbons, etc.

But you could easily “buy” your way out of the pinch in those days! Especially if you were “on the pad” already.

They were each fined and given a suspended sentence. This would be the case with several similar future arrests.

In 1967, he and Laratro were arrested by the Suffolk rackets squad for their operation and control over a vast multi-county (Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk) gambling ring that was alleged by law enforcement to gross $15,000,000 annually and have 65 runners.

Subsequently, in the coming years, several “aides” of Migliore were also arrested, including Thomas (Red) DiMaio and Sam DiMaggio, further disrupting their gambling operation.

Neil would eventually lose at trial and receive a one-year sentence for a policy conviction. He served his bit in the Suffolk County Jail.

In 1971, Migliore was said to be broke. Upon his release from jail, he had to reinvent himself.

In 1974, Migliore was among a gaggle of hoods and a policeman who was indicted for the attempted systematic bribery of Queens gambling squad detectives to “buy” protection for their bookmaking and other gambling activities in Corona and elsewhere.

Also indicted with Migliore were Lucchese mob figures Frank (Frankie A) Altimari, Nicholas (The Baron) Bonina, Frank Ruggiero, Richard Rubino, Thomas (Red) DeMaio, and brothers Michael (Mikey Strutz) and William (Willy Strutz) Struzzieri on bribery charges along with a NYPD Police Officer James Maxwell in order to protect the gambling ring.

Side Note: Officer Maxwell had grown up in Corona and was a boyhood friend of theirs. So, it was natural he’d conspire and team up with them.

Over the years, Migliore would come to know and become familiar with most of the key members of the early Lucchese Family, many of whom lived in neighboring towns to Corona.

Once Laratro “retired” down to Hallandale, Florida by 1970 or so, Neil tied his fortunes to Anthony Corallo, a nearby neighbor in the Whitestone-Malba area who he’d come to know over the years.

With the blessing of Laratro, Neil was now “put with” Corallo. With Corallo’s ascension to the helm of the Family, Neil was soon formally “inducted”!

From that point forward, Migliore would soar in both financial success and influence.

With Corallo’s backing, he dropped away from the gambling rackets which had lost their luster, appeal, and profitability (with the advent of OTB and Lotto) and concentrated on building semi-legitimate businesses such as the tile business, a trade which he’d learned from his father.

Using the Family control of construction union locals over which the Luccheses dominated at the time, he was able to gain major sub-contract work for the supply and installation of marble and tile within various NYC construction projects.

They made many, many millions together!

In time, he made a connection in the quarries of Italy to escavate and import his own tile and marble products, thereby increasing his profit margins tremendously.

He was said to have become the exclusive tile/marble supplier to Home Depot for years, which put he and Corallo over the top financially.

Also during this era, with his kid marrying into the Albicocco family of Huntington (Sam Albicocco was a major construction firm owner and businessman from the area), he became Sam’s “salesman” for Dock Port & Stone Inc., a major supplier of “shale rock” - integral to the foundation of roadways before blacktopping them. Shale rock is “crushed stone” which is laid down before paving major road projects.

This gave him and the Luccheses heavy influence over several major Long Island construction companies, including Zara Construction and Hendrickson Bros., two of the major firms in the NYC-Long Island areas for decades.

Side Note: During this era, the mid-1970s, Migliore was almost a daily visitor, with Tony Corallo, to a popular Italian restaurant in Huntington at the time - Orlando’s - on New Street. Top politicians and businessmen, along with Lucchese mobsters, were known to hang out there.

John Del Mastro, a shady business figure who owned Orlando and also the Chain-Link Fence Co. of Smithtown, Sam Albicocco, and numerous local politicians were said to be an “unholy mix” and threat to the very fabric of Suffolk government. Several Newsday exposes identified them, and investigations were started.

Migliore was no longer handling or active in any real “street rackets” such as gambling, shylocking, etc. He may have financed a few soldier's activities, but for the most part, he just basically stayed legitimate.

What did he need at that point? He was extremely well-off financially, had gotten a taste of prison, didn’t want to go back, and knew law enforcement was always watching him.

So after Corallo, his mentor, got the 100 years in the “Commission Case,” he tried to stay in the background and, if anything, just kept an administrative position within the three-man hierarchy.

He was a very well-respected (although not widely liked) member of the Family!

Migliore's reign ended when he, too, was indicted in 1986 and jailed on a massive 1988 racketeering conviction for bid rigging in the construction industry.

He was released from prison in 1991 when his conviction was overturned on appeal. This case involved scores of others, including Fat Tony Salerno, Vinny DiNapoli, top Cleveland mobsters, and construction firm owners.

Neil had only served about 30 months before reversing his conviction. He had hit the equivalent of the mob lottery! Who else do you know who had their 24-year jail term thrown out. That's what I call luck!

But a big problem was brewing with Amuso and Casso having seized the hierarchy of the Family. There was a tremendous jealousy and fear of Migliore and his possible attempt to grab the “boss seat.”

True or not! ..... Real, imagined, or perceived, soon Vic Amuso (not secure in his own skin as far as his control of the Family went), tried to eliminate the competition! One evening in 1992, Migliore, who was 59 at the time, was shotgunned right through the front plate glass window at Tesoro Italian Restaurant in Westbury.

He made the near-fatal mistake of positioning himself with his side facing the window, at a front table no less, allowing his Lucchese assailants to drive by slowly and pump a shell from a .12 gauge right through the glass dead-on. Miraculously, he survived!

The would-be killers were less than professional in their preparation for Migliore’s planned gangland “departure.”

In critical but stable condition at the hospital, Neil had taken several shotgun pellets to the face and shoulder, but he sustained non-life-threatening injuries. After his release, this caused him to really step back and be wary for his life, knowing that he was up for the “hit parade” if he didn’t.

A few years later, after Amuso, Casso, and their mob followers had all crashed and burned, slowly Neil “re-emerged”, showing his face again in public. He tried to realign and ingratiate himself with the powers that be.

Although Amuso was doing life in prison, he was still the boss! Word is that Neil sent him a large “envelope” ($100k or so) to make his peace and offer an “olive branch”, so to speak.

It was accepted because in the coming years, he would become somewhat active again with the hierarchy.

During the last 5 to 6 years or so, Neil was in declining health! All the years of wear and tear on his body began to show.

In recent years, he walked very slowly and steadied himself with a cane.

Aniello (Neil) Migliore died on September 12, 2019. He was 85 years old!

Neil, despite several murder attempts over the years on his life,and two short prison stints he served, had led a pretty charmed life!

First under the umbrella of Joey Narrow, and next under the protection of Tony Ducks, Neil became, undoubtedly, one of the richest mafioso in the city of New York among the Five Families!

He amassed a multi-million dollar portfolio of real estate, stocks, and businesses any Wall Street tycoon would be proud of!

And lived a life that many a mafioso would come to envy!

Until next time..."The Other Guy"

Aniello (Neil) Migliore

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Aniello (Neil) Migliore

Often Imitated. Never Duplicated. Button Guys of The New York Mafia...There's Only One!

Tour the Underworld with Button Guys

Dive Deeper into the Underworld

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