Barbara Family Soldier – Luigi (Louis) Marconi

This next fellow bridged the gap of both street rackets and the murky nexus of the underworld’s business infiltration rackets. Lou Marconi was equally comfortable rolling up his sleeves and getting down and dirty in street rackets, or sporting a business suit and rubbing elbows with legitimate garment district businessmen. This is his life’s story.

Luigi (Louis) Marconi was born to Antonio and Josephine Marconi on March 29, 1910, in Binghamton, NY, an area commonly referred to as the “Triple-Cities Region.” It was an area heavily laden with Italian immigrants, especially those hailing from the Mediterranean island of Sicily. He grew up with one brother named Joseph.

Louis Marconi

Louie got married very young to a neighborhood girl named Ida (nee’ Pavia) that he’d met one afternoon at her parent's grocery store.

By the age of 20 or so, they were married and looking to start their own family. Louie and Ida and their two young children (daughters Arlene and Gloria) first resided in a private residence at 217 Oak Hill Avenue, Endicott. They later owned another home at 303 Robbie Avenue, Endicott.

Some years after that, they relocated to an even larger home at 3600 Royal Road which was also located in the quiet little enclave of Endicott-Endwell, a leafy suburban town in Broome County near the City of Binghamton itself.

Young Allies

As a youth, Marconi befriended and became closely allied with boys who would all grow up to one day become enmeshed in the local underworld, not the least of whom was a devout young hoodlum named Anthony (The Governor) Guarnieri.

As a youth, “Gov” as he was widely called, would eventually draw the attention of the resident mafia boss over the entire Triple-Cities region, Don Giuseppe (Joe) Barbara Sr.

The boss liked what he saw in the young hood and Guarnieri was eventually brought under Barbara’s wing and rose to become his top torpedo and righthand man overseeing their upstate area. By the late 1950s, Guarnieri had risen to Capodecina status and made sure to bring his good buddy Lou Marconi along for the ride.

Things took a slight hiatus during WWII when both legit guys and mob guys alike signed up to fight for good ole Uncle Sam. You see there was a nasty little fellow by the name of Adolf Hitler who was making a real nuisance of himself in Europe at the time.

So, the thirty-three-year-old Marconi joined the U.S. Navy in 1943 becoming a Seaman-Second Class. He was sent overseas in 1944 during the heart of the war and fought the enemy for a few years until eventually being honorably discharged to return back home to his sweetheart.

He quickly resumed his underworld activities upon his return, dropping his M-1 Rifle for the preferred tools of his future trade, a .32 caliber Colt revolver.

Officially Inducted

It is thought by federal law enforcement that Louie Marconi was officially ‘inducted’ into the mafia around that same time. He became a ‘soldier’ of the Barbara Crime Family whose name, in later years, morphed into what is now known as the Bufalino Family.

But Marconi was specifically always a close aide and soldier in the regime of his old friend Gov.

Side Note: The Marconi residence was literally right down the same block as that of his capo Gov Guarnieri who lived with his wife and children at # 3619 Royal Road, only a few doors down from one another. Years before that, they were neighbors on Oak Hill Avenue where both families also had a home. I guess they adhered to that old adage, “wiseguys who play together, stay together.”

Louie Marconi was reportedly a sharp dresser and prone to driving late-model Chrysler Imperial convertibles (his favorite color was black of course.) He was obviously also a very savvy and successful businessman by the time he was in his early twenties. I’ve logged him buying and selling numerous pieces of property from approximately 1930 through well into the early 1970s.

Early Businesses

Starting back in the mid-1940s Marconi had gone partners with a mobbed-up friend of his named Al Decker in a restaurant-supply company named New York Hotel & Restaurant Supply Co. This firm was a major supplier and distributor of restaurant machinery and bar equipment and varied supplies such as glasses, plates, utensils, pourers, napkins, chairs and tables, and other typical items typically used in those two service industries.

A few years later, in 1948, their supply company would figure prominently in statewide raids and arrests of a multimillion-dollar a year gambling ring which will be described in greater detail below. This location became the headquarters for the gambling operation.

But by at least the early 1950s, Marconi had transitioned and gone partners with Guarnieri in a brand new business venture, a dress manufacturing company called Owego Textile Company which was based in Owego, NY. Guarnieri was listed as president, Marconi as vice-president, and August (Augie) Ceresaro as secretary.

This was one of Marconi’s dress factories

Federal tax agents seen here padlocking the company’s door.

Shortly after opening Owego Textile, Marconi and his associates incorporated yet another dress firm they named Tri-Cities Dress Company. This time around they brought in Robert (Bobby) Guarnieri as a partner as well.

The mafiosi operated both these firms successfully for a number of years until they ran into major financial problems and both businesses were shut down by the IRS in 1956 for non-payment of withholding taxes totaling over $14,300.

Tax agents stormed the business storefronts one afternoon and shuttered them both. Neither the Owego Textiles or Tri-Cities Dress companies was ever reopened. In actuality, it was nothing more than a tax-evasion scheme where the hoods “busted out” the businesses.

Soon Marconi and Guarnieri were back in business again. Bigger and better than ever!

A Clear Winner

They seamlessly transitioned into the similar-sounding name of the Triple-Cities Dress Co. Inc., at 172 Conklin Avenue, as well as operating a second factory location at 76 Wall Street, both being located in Binghamton.

Originally, Guarnieri was a corporate officer. But in January of 1958, he sold his interest in this company for $1 to Marconi and thereafter the corporate setup was as follows; Marconi was installed as company president, and Guarnieri was only listed as a salesman and contact man.

Law enforcement suspected that this was done to indemnify both Guarnieri and the company from both civil and criminal tax penalties down the road should any investigation begin.

Original incorporators of the company were Louis Marconi, Anthony Guarnieri, Robert Guarnieri, and another known gambler named Joseph Capalaces. From about 1955 forward, the company’s gross sales ran approximately $110,000 annually which was a tidy little sum of money for that time and era. Tri-Cities Dresses continued to prosper in the coming years.

By 1968, Marconi made the public announcement to a local newspaper that the company had recently purchased a larger property at 26 Webster Street and would be relocating there as soon as construction was completed on the new building.

The new building was to be designed as a one-story brick structure covering over 13,000 square feet of floor space. Marconi reported that the company would relocate all its sewing machines and garment machinery as well as its 80 employees as soon as the Webster Street address was ready for occupancy.

The garment business was a clear winner for Louie and Gov and their borgata.

An interesting side note is related to three separate fires possibly deemed suspicious by the local fire department that occurred at Tri-Cities Dress Company during the early 1960s. Each fire was contained and didn’t burn down the business or building but did cause limited damage.

In one 1961 incident, the fire completely destroyed 1800 newly sewn dresses valued at $6000 then under contract from a NYC manufacturer. I suspect that Lou and Gov collected handsomely from the company’s insurance policy for that one. (after all “the boys” will be boys.)

A suspicious fire and insurance claim.

The Feds Digs Deep

By 1960, the FBI had been deep digging for several years already into the backgrounds of various mafiosi and known racketeers operating within Upstate New York. They discovered that Louis Marconi was much more than he appeared on the surface.

Further investigation into his background soon revealed that he was a pivotal figure in the underworld’s infiltration of the garment manufacturing business. He seemed to have become a point man for Barbara/Bufalino Family garment interests.

Besides being a corporate officer and general manager of both the Owego Textiles and Tri-Cities Dresses Companies, the feds discovered Marconi was also involved in the operations of Monet Fashions, Inc., of Manhattan.

Incorporated in January 1960, officers of the company included Al Herman, who was listed as president; Louis Marconi, listed as vice-president; and a local attorney Remo Allio who was installed as the secretary-treasurer. (By the early 1970s the FBI also identified Remo Allio as the new reputed ‘consigliere’ for the Barbara/Bufalino crime family.)

Monet Fashions was engaged in the manufacturing and sales of high-end women’s dresses from several “Garment District” locations in Manhattan including 463 Seventh Avenue, then identified as Monet’s main showroom where they both styled new dress designs and sold garments to wholesalers.

Federal investigators were able to make another connection by tracing major sub-contracting ‘piece work’ from Monet Fashions to various upstate-based dress factories operated by partners Marconi and Guarnieri.

The Tri-Cities Dresses Company became the primary subcontractor for Monet as well as several other Manhattan garment manufacturers. These contracts all but insured that steady profits flowed into the mob’s coffers.

The fact that Lou Marconi’s name turned up yet again in connection with another well-known mobbed-up garment firm only further convinced federal agents of his growing importance in the mafia’s garment racketeering operations.

It also served to show the close connection Marconi had forged with the new family boss Rosario (Russ) Bufalino , who by 1960 had been named the leader over the entire borgata after the 1959 death of former boss Joe Barbara.

Close Friends and Associates

Among Marconi’s closest friends and underworld associates over the years were the following well-known local hoodlums from Binghamton: Guarnieri, Louis Cordi, Salvatore (Blackie) Aleccia, Samuel Rotella, Remo Allio, Augustine (Augie) Riolo, and Joseph Santacrose. Each of these men is listed in FBI files as inducted mafia members holding the rank of at least a soldier.

Lou also brought his brother-in-law Burt Pavia into the fold.

Law enforcement documented their close association in several ventures including a numbers lottery business and other types of gambling rackets over the years.

Pavia had at least three gambling arrests on his criminal record. 2 separate arrests in 1947 for policy; (possession of 3400 Ideal Lottery tickets for which Pavia spent 30 days in jail) and again for lottery tickets in 1948. (Side note: Pavia passed away at the young age of 50, in 1967.)

Other close criminal associates were identified as the aforementioned family boss Russ Bufalino, Pittston-based underboss Vincenzo (Jimmy Osticco) Sticco, and soldiers Caspar (Cappy) Guimento, Dominick (Nicky) Alaimo, and Modesto (Murph) Loquasto. All of whom were also affiliated in garment industry businesses allied to Marconi’s.

Key Federal Informants

Important Side Note: Another extremely important aspect to this story was my uncovering of several ‘key’ federal underworld informants who up until now have never publicly been identified as stool pigeons. During my research I stumbled across several (un-redacted) FBI 302 reports that typically highlighted the interactions between FBI field agents as the ‘handlers’ for the informants they cultivated over the years.

One of these “302 reports” clearly listed the “confidential” code numbers that are typically assigned to federal informants. But in this particular case right next to each particular CI-T number (confidential informant identity) was the ‘un-redacted’ actual first and last name of that informant clearly revealed.

The particular “302” report I refer to listed the identities of six informers operating in Upstate New York. These informants themselves were actually allied hoodlums and racketeers who worked right alongside these various mafiosi (including Marconi). But all the while they were ratting their fellow mobsters out to the feds. Among the more interesting of these hoodlums who doubled as stool pigeons in providing steady info to the FBI were the following;

T-6 was Thomas Ellis, a mob associate of various Magaddino Family figures. He provided FBI steady information on mob guys.

T-7 was Frank Bagozzi, was another top Syracuse-based hoodlum active in bookmaking, numbers, operating dice games, after-hours clubs, and arson for hire, among other rackets. Turns out he was a stone rat for years providing intelligence on members of the Magaddino and Barbara Families.

T-11 was Orlando (Jumbo) Rondina, another hood who with his brother, Arnoldo (LaLa), was active around Binghamton and the surrounding areas and knee-deep in bootlegging, the gambling rackets, and other criminal activities.

T-15 was Felix Anthony Julian, this guy was deeply engaged in policy and lottery rackets. He was a confidante of several top Magaddino-based gamblers out of both Buffalo and Utica, NY.

T-16 was Ellis Klepfer. He fancied himself a tough guy but he was really a rat to the core. As a close aide and strong-arm man directly allied with capo Anthony Guarnieri he was in a position over the years to provide key info to the feds.

T-34 and last but not least, T-34 turned out to be none other than Lou Marconi’s own girlfriend, a woman named Sharon Hammond.

Each of these cretins betrayed their closest friends and associates (and in the case of Hammond, her lover) through the years by becoming “Confidential FBI Informants.” And each of these informants was documented as having provided sensitive information about Joseph Barbara, Anthony Guarnieri, Louis Marconi, Russ Bufalino, members of the Magaddino Family, and many other mob guys who were later targeted by the FBI. It took until the year 2021 for them to be revealed but “ButtonGuys of the New York Mafia” has finally exposed them for what they were…no good rats!

Traditional Rackets

Aside from the above-mentioned ostensibly legitimate and semi-legitimate businesses that Marconi invested in through the years was his involvement in the traditional underworld criminal rackets operated by him and fellow members of the Guarneri regime.

Over the years, local law enforcement authorities have connected him to various gambling activities such as horse bookmaking, illegal lotteries, and numbers pools. They also tied Marconi into strong-arm activity.

In fact, in 1951, he became one of three prime suspects (the other two being his buddies Guarnieri and Lou Cordi) in the disappearance and subsequent murder of a small-time Binghamton gambler and known police informant named James (Jimmy Flip) DeFilippo.

They had also each been grilled about the murder of another stool pigeon named Martin Agricola who had been killed a few years earlier.

After several informant tips, the New York State Police investigators discovered the bullet-riddled body of DeFilippo under a culvert along a stream outside of Binghamton. He had been shot point-blank in the back of his head and several more times in his back.

At the time of his disappearance, Agricola had likewise been found beaten and shot to death in an abandoned pit.

Guarnieri, Marconi, and Cordi were quickly pulled into police headquarters for questioning. After feigning complete ignorance about the subject matter at hand, authorities were forced to release the three for a lack of evidence.

A later grand jury investigation probing the DeFlippo and Agricola murders and related underworld activities in the Triple-Cities region came up empty-handed as well. The investigation proved fruitless and no murder indictments were ever returned.

So, two more rats got deep-sixed by the Barbara/Bufalino mob. But from the looks of all the other informants who were active at that time providing intel, it seems that DeFilippo and Agricola were the least of the mob’s problems.

The $5 Million Lottery Ring

In 1948, Marconi was one of 18 known gambling suspects arrested in early morning sweeps by the New York State Police and federal agents for operating what law enforcement described at the time as the smashing of an illegal $5,000,000 a year statewide lottery ring headquartered out of Utica. Raids were also conducted in Rome, Rochester, Endicott, Watertown, and New Hartford.

Picked up along with Marconi was his buddy and immediate superior, Anthony (Gov) Guarnieri.

Authorities also nabbed Gov’s wife Anna, Lou’s brother-in-law Bert J. Pavia, William E. English, Daniel Martinelli, Frank J. Forte, Serafino (Sam) Camiola, Clarence Kaufman, Elio (Al Decker) DeChirico, Joseph Hanna, brothers John T. and Michael D. Mariani, David Feiner, Nicholas Laskaris, Raymond Kusinski, Joseph Hunzinger, Ellsworth Underwood, and the alleged top ringleaders who ran the lottery ticket printing machines Louis Leavitt and Henry (Jack) Leavenstein.

Several more suspects were also pulled in for questioning. They were identified as Nicholas (Nicky Dell) Dellapenta and Frank Randisi, and two other female suspects. Each was hit with a command subpoena for their future testimony before the grand jury.

Authorities said the ring was printing out over 200,000 tickets weekly for sale on the payoff related to hitting the correct numbers of the “daily balance” of the U.S. Treasury balance. These tickets typically sold for between $1 and $2 each depending on what city they were sold in. It was a very lucrative racket!

(L-R) Bert Pavia, Louie Marconi, and Al Decker at NYS Police barracks after their arrests on gambling.

All the suspects were charged with violating both federal and state gambling statues by contriving a lottery, conducting an illegal gambling lottery, possession of illegal lottery tickets, possessing gambling equipment, and gambling conspiracy. Each was released on $2000 bail pending the outcome of the case.

At the time of the arrests, the police also made a sweep of several suspects homes that were searched including those of Pavia, Marconi, Guarnieri, and Decker. At the homes of both Guarnieri and Marconi, police hit pay dirt.

At Lou Marconi’s home, they found an illegal revolver and $6600 in cash which they seized. At Guarnieri’s home, police recovered another illegal handgun and almost $1400 more in cash which they also seized.

They each later pled out to one reduced felony count of contriving a lottery and were heavily fined and placed on several years criminal probation. The combined criminal fines totaled $32,200 which was a huge sum of money back in 1948.

Ringleaders Leavitt and Leavenstein were each fined $8500 and $7500 respectively and received suspended prison terms of 6-years each, then were placed on probation for three years.

Marconi and Guarnieri were allowed to plead out to misdemeanors and were each fined $1500 each and put on probation as well. But none of them served any jail time.

Side Note: But it wasn’t always work and no play for Joe Barbara’s soldiers. In 1946, the North Side Social & Athletic Club welcomed new members into their ranks with a formal dinner honoring incoming and outgoing club officers. Among the newly elected officers of the club that evening was none other than Lou Marconi, as president; Anthony F. (Gov) Guarnieri, as vice-president; and Martin Contento, as secretary-treasurer.

They joined a cadre of other legitimate businessmen who were club members. Other members of the club included numerous mafia figures such as Louis Cordi, Benjamin (Benny) Maruca, Robert Guarnieri, Samuel Rotella, and Anthony J. Guarnieri.

It was a regular mafia jamboree and a good time was had by all!

Marconi was also said to have really enjoyed bowling. So much so, that he joined up as a member of a bowling team who regularly met in competition with other local bowling teams.

Government Corruption

In 1973, Marconi figured into yet another major law enforcement probe after a federal grand jury was empaneled to investigate official government corruption and organized crime’s infiltration of legitimate business.

Several upstate business and political figures including a former Broome County District Attorney and judge named Robert Fischer and his brother William had gone partners with a fellow named Richard Marino in a company called Cana Transportation Corp in April 1961. At the time, Marino was a top Teamsters Union business agent who held sway over union activities in that section of New York State.

The three men opened a second company named SEAT, Inc., in Binghamton. Cana was also based in Binghamton. Cana was formed to act as a trucking-carrier company. SEAT was formed as a “holding company” in control of Cana’s land and building, trucks, and equipment. To get both companies up and operating the Fischer brothers obtained a $20,000 line of credit from the Marine Midland Trust Co.

Side Note: About that time it was discovered that Robert Fischer was also named by Governor Nelson Rockefeller as “special prosecutor” in charge of all investigations relating to organized crime, and corruption, in Utica and later Buffalo. He was considered the state’s ‘chief’ investigator. His brother William Fischer was no less than a former FBI agent.

Teamsters Union official Richie Marino had once owned and operated Bibiek Textile Co., a garment-factory firm that was later closed down for failure to pay income taxes….the affiliation of Marino with the Fischer brothers was an unholy alliance at best from the very start.

Four years later, in 1965, the Fischer brothers and Marino were well established with a multimillion-dollar trucking contract from Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company to haul all of the company’s newly manufactured footwear to various wholesale houses and distributors up and down the east coast.

Investigators probing possible labor racketeering violations by the Fischers and Marino had discovered the men had once successfully aided Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company in a fight to ward off union organization of their workers by the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union (AFL-CIO) in 1959, which was less than three months before the men formed Cana Transportation after receiving that lucrative hauling contract.

The allegations were of course that the hauling contract was an ‘under the table’ extortion payment for having chased the union and saved the shoe company a ton of money in employee benefits and pension fees.

More Trucking Troubles

Another damning facet adding to the corruption allegations was the discovery that Cana Transportation had also purchased a valuable parcel of land from Endicott-Johnson that they utilized as Cana’s company headquarters and dispatch center to service the carrier contract. It was estimated that by 1973 that same piece of land was worth a whopping full ‘six-hundred percent’ more than its original purchase price less than a dozen years earlier.

Back in 1965, it was brought out in open court that Marino was closely associating with Guarnieri, a known mafia capo, on a regular weekly basis. His close affiliation with both a judge and a mafia capo was very unsettling to federal authorities but no overt criminal acts could be directly ties to either man.

From 1966, through 1970, Cana did business with Triple-Cities Dress Company, the same firm owned by Guarnieri and Marconi. It was discovered that the two companies did regular business together. Then in 1968, Cana became the target of a Mafia hijacking scheme. Police said that a Cana tractor-trailer carrying a shipment of Endicott-Johnson shoes valued at $30,000 was hijacked while en route on delivery.

It was later suspected by state police that this truck hijacking was actually a “give up” where the driver or the trucking company itself was complacent with the hijackers and willfully allowed the truck and load to be stolen. At the time police believed the job was arranged by an ‘insider’ with contacts and one of the prime suspects was the brother of a high-ranking member of the Vito Genovese Family in New York City. Still, nothing ever came from the leads in the case and to this day remains unsolved.

In the Spotlight

At around this same period in time, Marconi’s close associate and fellow regime soldier Louis Cordi came to public prominence. It was while federal agents were probing Barbara/Bufalino Family garment interests and the pivotal position both Guarnieri and Marconi played in the family’s garment rackets that Cordi’s garment interests also came to light.

Federal authorities were simply amazed at the deep level of penetration upstate mafia members were able to attain across the whole spectrum of garment industry operations.

From the initial designers and dress manufacturers to the subcontractors who actually cut and sewed the garments together to the garment-carrier companies that trucked the piece goods to the contractors, and later the final finished garments from the factory to the outlet stores, it was total domination and ironclad control over the entire garment industry.

Lou Cordi was discovered to be at the very pinnacle of two extremely important pieces to this complex mobbed-up jigsaw puzzle. Cordi was the president and owner of both Southern Tier Dress Company and the Southern Tier Garment Carriers Corporation, both of Owego, NY.

The first company was known to be one of the largest garment sub-contractors in Upstate New York. It was a company that held exclusive contracts to manufacture dresses and various other garments on behalf of major dress manufacturers down in Manhattan’s garment district.

And, likewise, the later company was one of the largest garment truckers in all of Upper New York State. A company that held the exclusive rights to haul all garments for most of the important garment contractors located upstate who did business with Manhattan’s top dressmakers

Cordi was in a very enviable position as a top executive. The real question that federal investigators had was this, “How did Cordi acquire such valuable interests?”

For that matter, another key Guarnieri regime soldier named Augustine (Augie) Riolo was the operator-operator of Clotilde Dress Co., of Endicott. This was another garment contractor firm that held a lucrative contract with a Manhattan garment manufacturing company to produce their garments. And, of course, the Riolo firm did all their trucking business through Southern Tier Carriers Corp.

A Cosa Nostra Package

Back in 1966, Riolo and Marconi had partnered with another fellow named Franklin (Frankie) Amore in another dress factory they named the Lu-Char Dress Company. This firm operated their sewing machines out of a small building that used to house a former shoe factory in downtown Auburn.

All in all, it was a nicely wrapped, tidy little Cosa Nostra package all rolled into one. Millions of dollars were made annually over the years for all those racketeers involved who worked in tandem with one another. And each was coincidentally a key member of the Barbara/Bufalino Family.

Luigi (Louie) Marconi passed away in July of 1983. Louie was 73 years old. Ida Marconi. His beloved wife of over 53 years passed away 21 years later in 2004 at the ripe old age of 89.

Until next time…”The Other Guy!”

Barbara Family Soldier – Luigi (Louis) Marconi

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Barbara Family Soldier – Luigi (Louis) Marconi

Unlock This Door to the Underworld

Take the Journey!

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L.I. Mob: Mob Sharks Migrate to Long Island

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