Binghamton Mafia Soldier Frank Cannone

Frank Cannone came from deeply mobbed-up stock. With his uncle Joe Barbara Sr. running the show up in Binghamton, and his brother Nat and several cousins also in the life, Frank was part of a well-connected clan. And while his name never made big headlines, make no mistake -- he was a fully inducted soldier in his uncle’s Upstate crew, part of what would eventually be recognized as the Russell Bufalino Family .

Francesco (Frank) Cannone -- aka Frank Cannon, Francesco Salvatore Cannone (TN) -- was born on April 9, 1931, in Lower Manhattan, one of five children born to Diego and Vita (nee’ DiMatteo) Cannone. He had an older brother named Ignatius and two sisters named Mary and Elena, better known as Eleanor.

The Cannone family grew up in a tenement building at 224 Elizabeth Street in Lower Manhattan’s famed Little Italy section, a neighborhood where the Cannones had many extended family members. By the time Frank reached his early teens, the family had moved a few doors down to 228 Elizabeth Street.

Circa 1960 — Frank Cannone

Side Note: The family patriarch, Diego (Dave) Cannone, was born on May 19, 1901, in the little village of Sicilì, located right outside the City of Naples (Salerno Province), Italy. After Diego immigrated to the U.S., he married Vita "Margie" DiMatteo in Lower Manhattan on July 5, 1923.

They had four children over 12 years. Diego died on June 13, 1945, in Manhattan. He was only 44 years old. Some years after her husband’s death, Vita, born in 1905, moved in with a daughter on Staten Island. This is where Vita would reside until she died in 1995.

On September 2, 1947, Frank Cannone, then 17, joined the United States Armed Forces. Records show he was assigned to the Medical Detachment Unit of the 9th Infantry Division.

Shortly after returning home from the war, Frank started dating a young local girl from the neighborhood by the name of Mary-Lucille Rose Santangelo. The relationship soon budded into something much more serious -- love -- and on August 18, 1951, the twenty-year-olds decided to marry. That was the day they took their vows at the altar of a New York City church and became husband and wife.

Downstate, Upstate

About a year later, by 1952, Frank and Mary-Lucille decided to leave the hustle and bustle of inner-city life for the wide-open bucolic landscape and fresh air of the countryside. With Frank’s brother Nat joining them, the newlyweds moved upstate to the City of Binghamton, where other relatives had relocated several decades earlier.

Frank and Mary moved into a small little home located at 27-1/2 Garfield Avenue in the suburb of Endicott. In the coming years, Frank and Mary would welcome two children into the world — a boy and a girl. They named their son David Frank Cannone, in honor of his grandfather and father, respectively. They named their daughter Victoria Rose Cannone.

By at least 1960, the Cannones had moved right outside Endicott to the nearby hamlet of Endwell, which had a population of 11,400. They rented another small house at 2107 Wayne Street. Later that year, Mary gave birth to their firstborn, David.

After paying rent for some years, Frank and Mary finally saved up enough money to make a down payment on their own home, which they finally purchased in April 1968. Located at 31 Arthur Avenue in Endicott, it was a spacious 2,500-sq-ft two-story wood-framed house set on a large property boasting four bedrooms and two baths.

31 Arthur Avenue, Endicott

But six years later, in 1974, Frank and Mary-Lucille relocated the family once again and lived in an equally attractive two-story colonial home at 124 Front Street in Binghamton.

During this same time, the Cannones also listed two additional home addresses downstate in New York City, specifically in the boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island. In fact, relocating back and forth between New York City and Upstate seems to have been a constant in their lives. From the early 1950s through the early 2000s, Frank and his brother Nat were both known to maintain residences downstate and upstate.

Apart from merely residing there with their wives and families, Frank and Nat were also known to maintain numerous underworld connections in both cities and operate gambling and other types of rackets there.

As late as 1995, Frank still maintained a 7th-floor apartment in a high-rise building in midtown Manhattan at 1619 Third Avenue. He also owned a second residence in upstate New York at 31 Arthur Avenue, in the town of Endicott.

1619 Third Avenue, Manhattan

A Respected Mafia Pedigree

As previously mentioned, the Cannone family was well connected to numerous members of the Mafia’s power base throughout the Empire State. But among their closest connections and ties were with some of the most important members of the Mafia faction, originally hailing from the seaside fishing village of Castellammare del Golfo (Trapani Province) in northwestern Sicily. These included key figures within the Barbara and Bonanno Families.

The brothers' bonafide ties included blood and marriage ties to Mafia boss Giuseppe (Joe) Barbara, who was their uncle through marriage. The Cannone brothers were also related by proxy to Barbara’s brother, Carlo (Charlie) Barbara, who was also a formally initiated soldier in the Mafia, serving within his brother’s Family as one of Joe’s partners and aides.

Still another familial connection was Bonanno capodecina Stefano (Stevie Beef) Cannone , who is believed to have been a cousin.

And as if that were not credentials enough, another Castellammarese-born original and one of the Joseph Bonanno Family’s closest and most important capodecina, Natale (Joe Diamond) Evola , served as Frank’s brother's baptismal godfather when Ignazio was christened.

Natale Evola

Joe Barbara started out as a top gunman for New York’s Castellammarese faction during the 1920s. He later relocated to Pittston, Pennsylvania, where he was absorbed into the Mafia clan, which was then headed by the infamous boss Santo (King of the Night) Volpe Sr.

After many years of service, Barbara relocated over the Pennsylvania state line into southern New York State, where he quickly set up shop for himself and the Volpe Family. Thereafter, Barbara quickly rose to become the territory boss and overlord of the Mafia faction based in Binghamton.

For the next several decades, Joe Barbara was widely acknowledged as the Mafia boss over the entire Triple-Cities region -- or "Southern Tier" of upstate New York.

Some years later, after the deaths of Volpe and succeeding boss Giovanni (John) Sciandra, Joe Barbara was selected and "officially" installed as the new Capo Famiglia of the entire Cosa Nostra clan headquartered in Pittston, Pennsylvania.

Side Note: Born on November 11, 1925, Ignatius Joseph (Nat) Cannone was five years older than Frank. Although Nat eventually decided to relocate to South Florida and later out west to Henderson, Nevada, Frank and Nat reportedly remained close throughout their lives.

Ignazio J. Cannone

The Business of Gambling

It appears that throughout Frank’s underworld career, for the most part, he confined his criminal activities to the field of gambling. Over the years, he became something of a gambling specialist, with a specific focus on bookmaking.

Frank started out as a local bookmaker, but with time, he became a gambling boss in control of his own sports-betting operations. At the height of Cannone’s career, his "betting office" was known to accept bets on various sports, including horse racing and college and professional baseball, basketball, football, and hockey.

During one of his early gambling arrests, Binghamton Police said they had raided a second-floor apartment where Cannone was operating a bookmaking office, which he equipped with two telephones to handle incoming betting action on college and professional football and basketball games. He put a subordinate named Michael S. Frey in charge of the office as a clerk and sheet writer, who answered the phones, handled the day-to-day incoming betting action, and kept records of the winners and losers.

Frank leaves the Federal Courthouse during a break in his trial on federal gambling charges.

Over the years, the local authorities said Frank maintained a wide array of bookmaking associates, most of whom functioned as “runners” or sub-bookies with whom he partnered in gambling operations. Frank accomplished this by giving these men what’s referred to in the business as either 1/2 sheets or 1/4 sheets, which represented the percentage of profits (or losses) generated by the gambling volume their customers bet with Cannone’s bookmaking office.

Among the dozens of bookies who worked in conjunction with Cannone as “runners” through the years -- some of whom will be discussed in more detail later -- included such locally based ‘KG’s’ or known gamblers as Richard G. (Rabbit) Ellers, Martin (Marty) Ellers, Andrew J. Quinlan, Stanley Reppucci, Michael S. (Mickey) Frey, Jon English, Benjamin (Benny) Musso, Carman DeLanzo, Nicholas M. Rich, John Lemmons, Joseph N. Maruca, Vincent Christina, Thomas Gaetani, Raymond Masciarelli, Thomas J. Abbadessa, James W. McGrath, Philip Pisani and Michael Cordisco Jr. There were many others as well.

Legitimate Business

But aside from his gambling business, Frank also made the time to engage in several legitimate or semi-legit businesses. Through the years, he was the registered owner or held interests in Surrey Ltd., a haberdashery located at 8 Washington Avenue in Endicott, where Frank placed his daughter Victoria Rose to manage and oversee for him.

He also owned several Endicoft-based travel agencies. One was Apollo Tours Inc., which specialized in running gambling junkets and vacation tours to Las Vegas hotels and casinos and other gambling venues in Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Bermuda, and elsewhere.

Another was Mercury Tours, located a bit further down the same block at 37 Washington Street. It was here, back in 1975, that FBI agents decided to place a hidden wiretap to listen in on the mob after they learned that Cannone’s store was a regular meeting place for local underworld figures and gamblers. FBI agents said that their investigation revealed that Frank was actually the hidden owner of Mercury Tours, although he made sure to only list himself as an "employee" of the business.

During this particular investigation, agents reportedly listened in on numerous conversations about illegal gambling and shylocking and heard the local banter and latest scuttlebutt between hoodlums talking about the internal machinations and structure of the Bufalino Crime Family.

One wiretapped tape recording caught Cannone discussing the armed robbery of a floating crap game with Guarnieri regime associate Stanley Reppucci.

After it came to light that law enforcement authorities had bugged the location, Cannone moved out of that storefront and rented another store a few blocks away on Conklin Avenue.

Garment Racketeering

As mentioned above, Frank generally concentrated his criminal endeavors as a professional bookmaker. But the one exception to this seems to have been Frank’s deep involvement in the Bufalino Family’s extensive garment industry rackets, for which their borgata had a well-known reputation for being deeply enmeshed in for decades.

The FBI documented that Cannone collaborated with his fellow mafiosi in upstate garment racketeering operations dating back to at least the mid-1960s, if not earlier. For instance, during one federal investigation in 1967, Frank was found to be employed by Southern-Tier Garment Carriers, Inc.

A completely mobbed-up company, Southern-Tier Garment Carriers was a major trucking firm known to be one of the largest transporters of garments to and from dress sub-contracting factories located across upstate New York and the dress manufacturers and designing firms located in Midtown Manhattan’s famed "Garment District" section.

The FBI estimated that the company enjoyed a virtual “lock” on the transportation of 90% of all new garments manufactured between upstate and downstate New York.

Subsequent undercover probes over the next decade by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and New York State Police revealed that Frank was even more deeply involved in garment rackets than law enforcement officials first believed.

Authorities discovered that Frank was also one of four registered partners in the Tri-City Dress Company, a notorious garment contracting firm fully owned and controlled by organized crime. Frank’s partners were identified as Anthony (Gov) Guarnieri -- a notorious Binghamton-based capodecina of the Bufalino Family and Cannone’s direct superior -- as well as two fellow Guarnieri crew soldiers by the names of Luigi (Lou) Marconi and Augustine (Augie) Riolo. All four of these men had been previously identified time and again by the Albany Office of the FBI as documented Cosa Nostra members.

Additionally, the FBI named Frank Cannone as having a longtime ownership interest in the Howard-Wendy Dress Company of Binghamton.

Cops, Cuffs, and Courts

Frank was first subpoenaed to testify about the underworld in July 1960 before a Broome County Grand Jury that had been empaneled to probe illegal gambling rackets and organized crime activity around Binghamton. Cannone appeared as requested but refused to testify, citing his Fifth Amendment privileges against self-incrimination under the U.S. Constitution.

Then, on March 20, 1962, while driving, Frank was stopped by local Binghamton Police Officers after they caught him exceeding the speed limit. After questioning him, Frank was placed under arrest for speeding. His automobile was also searched for contraband. It was his second traffic offense in six months. He later pleaded guilty and paid a $50 fine.

Even though the Binghamton Police Department listed him as a known gambler, Frank pretty much operated under the radar during those early years, at least for the next decade or so.

Then, on March 22, 1972, he was among 25 suspects arrested by the New York State Organized Crime Task Force and the Endicott Police regarding a multimillion-dollar, multi-county gambling and loansharking ring that extended from upstate’s Southern Tier all the way down to New York City’s five boroughs.

Circa 1975 — Frank Cannone

At a press conference held to announce the indictments, the authorities said they had infiltrated and "taken down" a major gambling lay-off "bank" that was headquartered in New York City. Prosecutors said the ring accepted wagers from at least twelve separate counties located throughout New York State. They named Queens, Nassau, Suffolk, Manhattan, Bronx, Westchester, Putnam, Broome, Chemung, Tioga, Tompkins, and Livingston.

In addition to Cannone, at least six other Binghamton-based gamblers connected to the Bufalino Family were also picked up in this police raid. They were identified as Mickey Frey, Jon English, Benjamin (Benny) Musso, Carman DeLanzo, Nicholas Rich, and John Lemmons.

Among the others charged in the case were various members and associates of New York’s Genovese and Gambino Families. They included Joseph (Porky) Larocco, of Bayside, Queens, who was named as the operation’s kingpin; his partner, Joseph Galizia; bookmaker Sam Katz; and a documented Gambino Family soldier and convicted Bronx-based narcotics peddler named Michael (Mike the Geep) Sedotto .

Despite all the media publicity, in a deal later worked out with prosecutors, Cannone was allowed to plead guilty to misdemeanor gambling charges. He paid a fine and received criminal probation.

Two years later, on November 19, 1974, Cannone was once again nabbed on gambling charges. But this time around, the case was brought by the feds.

In a highly publicized takedown, Frank became one of ten Triple-Cities men arrested by FBI agents on federal gambling-related charges. Two other suspects picked up that day included fellow Binghamton Mafia soldier Anthony R. Santacrose, Jr., and longtime mob associate Stanley Rappucci.

The others charged were Jon English, Joseph Maruca, Vincent Christina, Thomas Gaetani, Raymond Masciarelli, Thomas J. Abbadessa, and James W. McGrath -- all of whom were identified as local gambling figures.

All defendants were charged with “operating an illegal gambling business” for handling wagers on horse racing as well as on college and professional sports, including basketball, baseball, football, boxing, and other sports.

A One-Two Punch

Then, in a continuing federal investigation, on November 10, 1975, Cannone was arrested again after a Federal Grand Jury in Syracuse handed down sealed indictments against him and four other Broome County men in relation to illegal gambling activities. Besides Cannone, who was picked up by several FBI agents on a sidewalk in downtown Binghamton, the others arrested in this sweep were Stanley Reppucci, Joseph N. Maruca, Philip Pisani, and Michael Cordisco Jr.

After appearing before a U.S. Magistrate with their attorney, Remo A. Allio, the defendants were released from the federal lockup after posting $10,000 bail apiece and told they would be formally arraigned the following month in Syracuse District Federal Court.

The government charged that Cannone headed up a major interstate bookmaking ring that had operated for years, accepting sports wagers from local gamblers in Broome County as well as betting customers as far away as Pennsylvania and New York City.

During a press conference held after their arrests, the FBI announced that Cannone, Maruca, and Reppucci were also awaiting trial on another federal indictment alleging similar charges of conspiracy and operating an illegal gambling business. Authorities stated that upon conviction of these charges, the defendants faced a maximum fine of up to $20,000 and five years imprisonment.

In addition, the FBI stated that Maruca was also under federal indictment on obstruction of justice charges in connection with a beating he doled out to a potential grand jury witness in the case.

Besides the five men arrested in Broome County, FBI agents said they also arrested two other men in the towns of Auburn and Elmira in connection with a series of related gambling indictments, who they identified as Charles P. Grezo and Joseph P. Beckwith.

Icing on the Cake

As though the two indictments Frank now faced weren’t already enough of a headache, the feds decided to slam him with a third punch in the gut -- a potential knockout punch, if you will.

In 1975, working in coordination with the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Internal Revenue Service felt it had gathered enough evidence to indict Cannone on four counts of filing false income tax returns.

The IRS accused Cannone of specifically operating a large and profitable bookmaking business between the years 1967 and 1972, which had netted him substantial profits, year after year, without Cannone ever declaring any of this income on his personal tax returns for four of those years -- from 1969 through 1972.

During his subsequent jury trial, held in September 1976, government prosecutors paraded over a dozen witnesses to the stand who each testified they had placed numerous bets aggregating thousands of dollars each year with Cannone’s bookmaking office.

Speaking to the 12-member jury, prosecutor Jeffrey C. Fisher told them that Cannone was no ordinary bookie running a small-scale operation. He called Cannone a “bookmaker’s bookmaker” who serviced a wide range of big-spending, high-echelon betting clients.

Buried Under a Fourth Indictment

Toward the end of July 1976, while Frank was already fighting for his freedom under the weight of three federal criminal indictments relating to his gambling activities and alleged false income-tax returns, a United States Grand Jury sitting in Auburn returned yet another indictment against him on two felony counts of “false bank loans.”

Cannone was accused of allegedly knowing about two false statements made by his girlfriend on a bank loan application, according to a federal prosecutor assigned to the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the U.S. Justice Department.

Authorities stated that the girlfriend in question, Penny S. Lane, was not arrested or indicted in connection with the case because FBI investigators determined that Ms. Lane “had acted under Cannone’s orders, knowledge, and direction.” An FBI spokesman said the loan request for $3,000 was filed on February 5, 1975, with the Endicott Trust Company and that the two allegedly false statements involved Ms. Lane’s employment status and the purpose of the loan.

Cannone surrendered voluntarily, and on August 4, he was formally arraigned on the charges before Chief Judge James T. Foley in U.S. District Court in Albany.

Each count in the indictment carried a maximum sentence of a $5,000 fine and/or two years in a Federal Prison.

Try as we might, Button Guys could find no final disposition regarding this particular case.

The Consequences of "Clamming Up"

Nearly a decade later, in January 1984, Frank found himself in hot water again after he was indicted on multiple counts of contempt of court for refusing to answer, or failing to adequately answer, a series of questions asked of him by state prosecutors when he was summoned before an upstate grand jury empaneled to investigate and gather evidence related to current illegal gambling rackets and other organized crime-type activities.

Later that same year, on November 30th, he was found guilty on 10 counts of contempt of court after a jury trial before a Judge in the New York State Supreme Court.

Cannone, who by this point in time was living back in New York City, had been indicted after two gambling subordinates of his, Andrew J. Quinlan and Richard Ellers, were arrested by New York State Troopers for bookmaking in Tioga County. Quinlan was charged with fifth-degree conspiracy, first-degree promotion of gambling, and first-degree possession of gambling records. Cannone and Ellers were both charged with first-degree criminal contempt.

After their arrests, all three men were initially sent to the Tioga County Jail in lieu of posting bail, which had been set at $5,000 apiece for Quinlan and Ellers and $10,000 for Cannone.

If convicted, Quinlan faced up to four years in prison and a fine of up to twice the amount of whatever profit he might have been gained from the gambling operation. Cannone and Ellers each faced imprisonment for up to four years on each count of criminal contempt.

The case revolved around their alleged operation of an interstate gambling ring which had accepted wagers from bettors within the five boroughs of New York City, Tioga and Broome Counties in Upstate New York, and the State of Pennsylvania.

In a later statement, New York State Attorney General Ronald Goldstock said the charges against Frank Cannone and Richard Ellers stemmed from “Their unlawful refusal to answer grand jury questions by giving equivocal, evasive, conspicuously unbelievable and patently false answers.”

Among four specific questions Cannone was accused of refusing to answer included: whether he ever received information the police were interested in where Cannone was on the weekend of that year’s Super Bowl; whether anyone had told him police were wiretapping the telephones where he was accused of taking bets; whether Ellers had ever told Cannone he didn’t tell the grand jury the truth; and whether in the last two months Quinlan had asked Cannone whether he knew any loan sharks.

Among the questions Ellers was charged with refusing to answer were: whether Quinlan ever suggested to Ellers that he take the blame in the case; whether Quinlan ever suggested to Ellers that Quinlan would take care of Ellers if he protected Quinlan in the grand jury; and whether Ellers had filed a tax return for 1983.

By December of that year, all three defendants had been found guilty of gambling-related charges. On February 1, 1985, a State Supreme Court Judge sentenced Quinlan to a $5,000 fine and ordered him to serve one year in the Tioga County Jail.

The judge hit fifty-three-year-old Frank Cannone with a $5,000 fine and one year in the Tioga County Jail. He was sentenced to an additional three years conditional discharge.

Richard Ellers received a $1,000 fine and a three-year conditional discharge.

Remo Allio

In a related follow-up investigation, in March 1977, Endicott lawyer Remo A. Allio went on trial in U.S. District Court in Albany for violations of the Federal Internal Revenue Service Act in conjunction with Frank Cannone’s gambling operations. Allio had been specifically indicted on four felony counts of having knowingly perjured income-tax returns on Cannone’s behalf.

At one point, U.S. Prosecutor Jeffrey Fisher who was handling the government’s case stated to the jury, “The evidence indicates that Allio either had some interest in Cannone’s gambling business, or, more likely, was helping Cannone by ‘laundering’ Cannone’s gambling receipts through Allio’s law office trust account.”

For his part, Allio decided to testify on his own behalf. On the witness stand, the lawyer testified that he knew nothing about Cannone’s gambling and bookmaking operation when he helped prepare Cannone’s tax returns for 1969 through 1972.

Allio further testified that he believed that when he represented Cannone after two misdemeanor gambling arrests during the 1969-1972 time period, those arrests stemmed from isolated one-day incidents and were not part of a larger gambling business with taxable income.

Remo Allio

However, the prosecutor questioned Allio’s testimony to the jury, contending that it would make no sense for an attorney who has represented his client in connection with various gambling arrests to start handling large checks without first questioning the source of the money.

During the government’s summation, U.S. Attorney Fisher told the jury “You would have to presume that Mr. Allio knew all about Cannone’s gambling business and you should also keep in mind that although a defendant is not required to testify, should he choose to take the stand, he still is the person in the courtroom with the greatest motivation to lie.” Fisher further stated that there was no doubt that “Allio perjured himself on the stand just as he had perjured himself on those tax returns.”

In his closing summation Allio’s defense lawyer Harold Boreanaz countered to the jury that the government’s case was largely built on assumption and speculation which was not proof of any wrongdoing.

Boreanaz also pointed out that Fisher had used terms such as “perhaps” and “possibly” close to 30 times in his closing remarks and told the jury his opponent was relying on speculation, suspicion, and personal opinion.

He told the jury that the government had failed to prove its case or point out that the entire burden of proof, beyond all reasonable doubt, lies with the prosecution, and that, just because Fisher thinks there are defects in the defense, the jury should not be led to believe that the defense has failed.

On March 15, 1977, after eight hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted Attorney Remo A. Allio on all four felony counts pending against him for allegedly knowingly perjuring himself when he prepared those income tax returns for his client, Frank S. Cannone.

Side Note: Remo A. Allio was long suspected by the government of being a mobster himself. In fact, for many years, he was listed by local authorities and the FBI, as well as on U.S. Justice Department organized crime flow charts, as a formally initiated member of the Mafia.

Frank's Last Wager

As of 1995, Frank still listed New York City as his home address. In fact. He listed two addresses. One was the apartment he leased in midtown Manhattan, and the other was the Staten Island address where Frank’s mother, sister, and several other relatives resided.

An older Frank S. Cannone

By the time he had reached his mid-seventies, Frank was diagnosed with cancer. After a brief but valiant battle, he passed away on December 28, 2006, while receiving medical treatment at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Binghamton, NY.

Francesco Salvatore Cannone was 75 years old.

Frank’s beloved wife, Mary-Lucille Rose Santangelo, born in 1931, died in 2015. Mary Lou was 84 years old. Frank and Mary Lou had been married for over 55 years.

His older brother, Ignatius Joseph (Nat) Cannone, born in 1925, died on January 1, 2011, in Henderson, Nevada, where he had relocated some years earlier.

Until next time...“The Other Guy”

Binghamton Mafia Soldier Frank Cannone

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