Connecticut Mobster "O.K. Benny" Marchese

For nearly sixty years, Gambino Family member “O.K. Benny” Marchese operated as an incorrigible stone-cold gangster… and he was damn proud of it too. He wasn’t flashy, and he sure as hell didn’t care about headlines. But in Connecticut, Benny ran with real weight -- the kind that didn’t need to be explained. His name never rang out like the New York bosses, but behind the scenes? He was in deep. Real deep.

Ignazio Carlo (Okay Benny) Marchese -- aka Benny O.K., Benny Marchese, Benjamin Marchese, Ignatius Marchese, and Carl Marhese -- was born on February 12, 1903, in the little town of Palma (Campania region) in Southern Italy. Other data lists his date of birth alternately as 1901 and 1902, and his birthplace as Palermo, Sicily.

He and his younger brother Michele first immigrated to the United States as young boys. The Marchese boys initially lived in Brooklyn, New York City, where they were raised in the home of their uncle, aunt, and extended family members.

Ignazio C. Marchese

As early as 1910, when he was only 8 years old, Benny Marchese and his brother were known to be living with relatives on Rockaway Avenue, in Brooklyn.

These early years in New York City are also when Marchese is believed to have become friendly with a number of organized crime figures who would later figure into his life. Even after relocating to Connecticut years later, Marchese would always maintain relations and contacts with his New York underworld cronies in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan’s Little Italy section.

Years later, during the 1960s and 1970s, Marchese was still known to make semi-regular trips to New York to coordinate criminal schemes with members and associates of the Five Families.

Over the years, Marchese was closely associated with many top-ranked mafiosi with whom he partnered in the rackets. These associates and activities will be discussed further down in the story.

Although he was never officially documented by the FBI as a fully “initiated” Mafia soldier himself, it’s quite possible -- even probable -- that he was. If not, then at the very least, Benny Marchese was a highly trusted, ranked associate-member.

As mentioned, he was intimately associated with mobsters from several different families. But based upon his history and known affiliations, it appears that Marchese was directly connected to New York’s Carlo Gambino Family, most probably serving in their Connecticut-based regime under Family capo Frank Piccolo .

The Nutmeg State

By at least the early 1930s, Marchese had already moved up to Connecticut.

Benny chose the City of Ansonia to call home. Located along the river banks of the Naugatuck River -- with a population hovering at less than 19,000 residents -- the quiet little City of Ansonia, located in New Haven County, would be the place Marchese would live and operate from for the rest of his life.

Ansonia, CT. on the map.

On February 2, 1944, in Federal District Court in New Haven, Marchese took the oath and officially became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Over the years, he listed his employment as a truck driver, laborer, and tailor. Years later, Marchese became a co-owner of record in Theresa’s Dress Company,

But, in truth, judging from his background history, he seems to have been a devout hoodlum and gangster through and through.

Marchese reportedly stood 5 feet 9 inches tall and had a stocky build at almost 200 pounds. He had brown eyes and brown hair that had turned salt-and-pepper by the time he reached his early-fifties.

Back in the late 1920s, Benny started dating Teresa Demarchi, a local Ansonia woman eight years his junior. On May 6, 1930, Marchese married Teresa, who was 21 years old at the time. In the coming years, the young couple had three children together: a daughter, Grace Marie, and two sons, Michael and Carlo, respectively.

By the late 1930s, Marchese moved his family to 5 North Spring Street, Ansonia. By 1940, Marchese had relocated right up the block and was now renting a house at 108 North Spring Street, Ansonia.

After moving several times within the Ansonia area, by 1958, Benny and Theresa decided to purchase their own home in the same general neighborhood. They chose a two-family house at 97 Myrtle Avenue. This is where Benny, Teresa, and their family would reside for many years to come.

97 Myrtle Avenue, Ansonia

FBI #4612703, Conn-SP #49778

Benny was a Very Bad Boy

Marchese’s criminal history dates back to at least 1930, the year his first arrest was recorded. That was the year he was picked up for carrying a concealed weapon.

But through the years, Benny would greatly add to his anti-social register with many additional arrests -- and prison terms -- for armed robbery with violence, burglary, possession of burglary tools, grand larceny, gambling, operating dice games, narcotics conspiracy, possession and sale of heroin, criminal conspiracy, possession of stolen goods, and the interstate transportation of stolen securities.

A 1940s view of Main Street, Ansonia

The Connecticut State Police and Ansonia Police Department listed him as a known “KG” or known gambler.

Additionally, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics & Dangerous Drugs listed Marchese in their internal records as “An interstate narcotics trafficker who obtained his supply from known high-level Mafia traffickers based in New York City.”

Marchese’s other known criminal proclivities included such diversified rackets as loft burglaries, horse bookmaking, strong-arm work, armed holdups, other types of heists, fencing stolen goods, and interstate narcotics trafficking.

Wrong Friends in All the Right Places

Among his known criminal associates were several top mafiosi from different Italian crime families around the New York tri-state area and the family based in Los Angeles, California.

These included a top Lucchese Family capodecina by the name of Anthony (Tony Higgins) Castaldi . Based in New York’s East Harlem neighborhood, Castaldi had a reputation as one of the largest wholesale heroin suppliers operating from that section of the city.

Anthony Castaldi

Marchese was also known to deal with a second member of the Lucchese Family from East Harlem by the name of Ippolito (Paulie Legs) Zerbo, who was described as an interstate drug trafficker who supplied large quantities of heroin to “connected” guys up in the New England area.

Another close associate was based in Lower Manhattan’s Little Italy section. Vincent (Jimmy the Blond) Corrao was another top Mafia capodecina — part of Carlo Gambino’s Family — who was also known for his involvement as a major heroin trafficker.

Vincenzo Corrao

Still others -- closer to home in Connecticut -- included Gambino capo Frank (The Cigar) Piccolo , family soldiers Guido (The Bull) Penosi and Ippolito (Paul the Greaser) Agresta , as well as crew associates George (Smokey) Marchese, believed to be a blood relative, Raymond (Lemons) Maresca, Vincent (Jimmy) Maresca, William (Willy the Creep) Conforte , and Vincent Auliciano.

All of the above named men were known hoodlums who were also either suspected or previously convicted as major drug peddlers.

Frank Piccolo

The Burglary Gang

On September 4, 1946, Marchese was one of three suspects arrested in connection to a burglary at the Webster Dress Co., 1570 Webster Avenue, the Bronx. Police identified the men as Marchese, 35-year-old Vincent Auliciano, of Valhalla, NY, and 25-year-old George (Smokey) Marchese, of Manhattan. All three men told police they were employed by a trucking firm.

Detectives connected to the Bathgate Avenue Station House accused them of having stolen a shipment of dresses and several sewing machines from that location.

After being arrested, the three suspects were interrogated back at the police station about a series of similar burglaries that had occurred over the past year, which amounted to over $500,000 in losses.

Bronx detectives had arrested Auliciano and George Marchese locally in New York and contacted Connecticut State Troopers, who assisted them in collaring Benny Marchese.

At the time of their arrests, law enforcement officials also recovered 500 stolen dresses the men had stashed in a nearby farmhouse.

At their subsequent arraignment, held back in New York City, the judge held the suspects under $10,000 bail each.

The defendants were each later convicted and were sentenced to serve indeterminate state jail terms.

Heisting Gambling Joints

On February 3, 1947, Benny was one of four men arrested for the armed holdup of a private illegal gambling club in Ansonia.

Police said Marchese was the only man taken into custody. The other three men, Lawrence Manzari, Anthony F. Scaffidi, and Gerardo (Jerry) Anzise, had driven into Connecticut from New York City.

Authorities said the four suspects were accused of forcing their way through a security door to enter The Spanish Club, where they held up 15 card-playing patrons inside the club at gunpoint, robbing them of $1,100 in cash.

The City of Ansonia

Police said the four men took off but were soon apprehended after a wild car chase down Boston Post Road in Westport.

Later that same month of February, just as they were about to head to trial -- realizing that they were caught dead to rights -- Marchese and his friends each pled guilty to having committed armed robbery before Judge Kenneth Wynne in State Superior Court.

Each defendant had been held in jail in default of $50,000 bail since the night of their capture.

At sentencing, the judge hit them with jail terms of five to eight years each, to be served in State Prison.

Police said that two additional unnamed members of the robbery gang had also been captured and were still being held in jail pending arraignment.

Running Gambling Joints

Then, seven years later -- in a seemingly funny twist of events -- Benny started running them instead of robbing gambling games.

Marchese was one of dozens arrested after local and state police units staged a surprise raid on a major mob-run dice game.

On July 12, 1954, in the early morning hours, the Connecticut State Police and Ansonia Police Department conducted a coordinated raid.

Authorities said the gambling establishment -- operating inside a nondescript building located at 160 Broad Street -- had been under surveillance for several months.

The raid was approved after surveillance evidence was presented to the court, and Judge J. Howard Roberts issued a bench warrant in Waterbury Superior Court.

The police raiding party struck the building at 2 a.m. Officers wielding sledgehammers broke through locked double doors to gain entry into the gambling club.

Police reported that the club's windows were also protected by steel bars, and lookouts were posted outside to keep an eye out for police, but that the raiding party struck with such swiftness that the club’s operators were taken by surprise.

What they found inside the club were dozens of patrons hovering around a large professionally designed felt-covered crap table shooting dice.

The raiding party ended up taking twenty-five people into custody and confiscating $7,500 in cash, along with various related gambling equipment like dice and cards.

In announcing the arrests, State Police Captain Leo Mulcahy said the raiding party consisted of 13 troopers led by the Ansonia Police Chief and a police sergeant.

Another law enforcement official described the dice game as “the smashing of a professional gambling setup.”

A billiard table with attached sideboards was used as a playing surface. Captain Mulcahy said that raised platforms were positioned at both ends of the crap table so that operators could look down and watch to see that players didn’t slip in their own rigged dice. He labeled the setup as that of “a professional underworld gang.”

Mulcahy also said, “Sandwiches and drinks were served to the dice players while the games were in progress.”

Three Ansonia men were accused of actually operating the crap game. They were identified as 48-year-old Joseph J. Yovino, 69-year-old Thomas J. Crowley, and our boy, 59-year-old Benny (OK) Marchese. All three were charged with criminal counts of keeping a gambling house, conspiracy, illegal gambling, and keeping a billiard table for gambling purposes. Each was held on $500 bail.

Side note: Joseph J. Yovino was later identified as a former Ansonia City Sheriff.

The twenty-two others found on the premises -- the dice players -- were each charged with frequenting a gambling house and disorderly conduct and were later released under $25 bonds. Police said the majority of those taken into custody were from the New Haven, Bridgeport, and Hartford areas.

All the suspects were booked and eventually released from the lockup for later appearances in Ansonia City Court.

Selling Junk

Then, on March 21, 1958, Marchese was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in New York on the most serious criminal charges he would ever face.

The then 55-year-old gangster -- charged under the name Benjamin Marchese -- was first arrested at his Ansonia home by narcotics agents from the bureau’s New York office the previous week based on one of those drug sales, which authorities say amounted to $75,000 worth of heroin.

He was specifically charged with “concealing, selling, and facilitating in the transportation of approximately 19.5 ounces of heroin" valued at about $75,000 in the illicit street market.

When he appeared before a United States Commissioner in New Haven, the magistrate ordered Marchese held in jail in lieu of $50,000 bail for a hearing on March 25th.

Then, weeks later, Marchese was once again charged on a wider superseding indictment regarding additional heroin transactions.

Throughout several month Agents of the Federal Narcotics Bureau had gathered evidence that Marchese, whom they described as an apparently “important supplier of heroin on the east coast,” had made multiple sales to their undercover agents, which, collectively, amounted to over 2.8 pounds of high-grade heroin, worth an estimated $200,000 in the illicit market.

A law enforcement source said this latest indictment, out of New York, was much larger and included more criminal counts against Marchese.

U.S. Attorney William D. Walsh said extradition papers were being prepared and that Marchese would be taken to New York to enter a formal plea to the indictment sometime the following week.

The particulars of the expanded indictment stated that Marchese had made a hand-to-hand sale of 19 ounces of heroin to the agents on February 14th, and a second transaction for another 17 ounces he sold on March 4th.

For his part, Benny pleaded innocent to all counts of the indictment. If convicted of the charges, Marchese faced a maximum of 20 years behind bars and a fine of $10,000 on each of the two counts.

Five months later, in August, the case finally came to trial, and Marchese was quickly convicted as a federal narcotics law violator. Convicted across the board in Manhattan Federal Court on four different counts relating to his drug activities, U.S. Criminal Court Judge Edmund L. Palmieri sentenced Marchese to serve seven years behind bars in a Federal Penitentiary.

Side Note: I wonder if “O.K. Benny” considered that sentence to be, ok?

Fencing Stolen Securities

Not one to be deterred from his chosen profession, by early 1970, Marchese was nailed by federal agents yet again.

Having since been paroled from prison for heroin trafficking, Benny wasted no time in diving in, up to his neck, into new criminal activities. This time around, it would be in conjunction with his criminally receiving and attempted fencing of stolen securities.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation charged Marchese and several accomplices with transporting a stolen $1 million U.S. Treasury note from New York to Zurich, Switzerland, in an attempt to “fence” the securities note.

Later that year, in September, Marchese found himself in the dock once again. After a short two-day trial, he and an accomplice were convicted in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Charged with conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen securities, the jury, composed of seven women and five men, quickly deliberated to return a guilty verdict against Marchese and his accomplice in the scheme, 50-year-old Salvatore Cuomo, of nearby Orange, CT.

The two men now faced a maximum sentence of 15 years in jail and a $20,000 fine each.

A third accomplice, a New York-based accountant named Irwin Ploss, was arrested in Zurich the previous year and released on $15,000 bail by a U.S. Commissioner in New York, pending a later trial date.

During their trial, the prosecutor said that the million-dollar security certificate was part of a $14 million haul of Treasury bills stolen the previous October from the Morgan Guarantee Trust Company of Lower Manhattan.

At their sentencing, held one month later, on October 27, 1970, the then 68-year-old Marchese was sentenced to serve 10 years in Federal Prison for conspiring to transport stolen Treasury bills overseas to Switzerland.

Benny Comes Home for the Last Time

By the late 1970s, Marchese had finally been released from federal prison for the last time. During his lifetime, Benny had been convicted many times and had served at least four long prison stretches totaling over 25 years behind bars.

After being paroled, he decided not to return to Ansonia but instead moved to 335 Seymour Street in the City of Derby. A few years later, he moved again, this time to Shelton.

It seems Benny finally wised up and decided to take it easy and live a bit quieter than he had in previous years. A devoted hoodlum his entire life, it appears that law enforcement may have finally knocked the wind out of Benny's sails.

Or maybe it was simply old age catching up with him. Either way, nothing more was ever publicly heard from O.K. Benny for the remaining years of his life.

Ignazio Carlo Marchese reportedly died on May 3, 1983, at his home in Shelton, Connecticut. O.K. Benny was 81 years old.

Marchese was given a one-day wake and buried at Mount Saint Peter Cemetery in nearby Derby, CT.

His devoted long-suffering wife Teresa passed away nearly twenty years later, in 2002.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Connecticut Mobster “O.K. Benny” Marchese

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