The Cufari/Scibelli Regime of Springfield, MA

The city of Springfield in Western Massachusetts is located in Hampden County. It has a landmass of approximately 32 square miles and has been a vibrant city almost from its inception in 1636.

It sits beside the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near the confluence of its three rivers, the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern Mill River.

Springfield has become the urban, economic, and media capital of Massachusetts’ section of the Connecticut River Valley area. Springfield has several nicknames - “The City of Firsts”, due to the many innovations developed there, such as the first American dictionary, the first machine lathe for interchangeable parts, and the first American gas-powered automobile.

Springfield, Massachusetts

Two more nicknames are “The City of Homes”, for its beautiful Victorian architecture. And “Hoop City”, because the popular game of basketball was invented there in 1891.

As of the year 2020, its estimated population exceeded 156,000, making it the third largest city in Massachusetts, the fourth most populated city in all of New England after Boston, Worcester, and Providence, and the 12th-most populous in the entire Northeastern United States.

The greater Metropolitan Springfield area boasts a current population of just over 690,000 residents that call the area their own.

Springfield has always been home to a very large Italian population. The “South End” is considered the city’s “Little Italy” neighborhood.

Every year it is very traditional to celebrate several Italian Feast Days, the largest of which is the “Our Lady Mount Carmel Society” feast.

Early Italian immigrants flocked to Springfield, settling a large community of Italian-born natives that continues to this very day.

Among these immigrants were many who hail from the Napolitano City of Bracigliano, outside of Salerno, in the Campania region of Southern Italy.

And among these legitimate hard-working people who were striving to make a success of themselves in America were a small contingent of Napolitani racketeers who would establish themselves in Springfield as well.

Starting with alcohol Prohibition in the 1920s, the area always hosted a plethora of criminals and racketeers, both organized and independents.

Downtown Springfield

These included Antonio Miranda, brother of a man who would later rise to become one of the most notorious and respected members of the American underworld, the NYC Genovese Family consigliere, Michele (Mike) Miranda.

This early Springfield connection may explain why and how New York City’s Genovese Family became the resident Mafia power of the area, even today.

There have been racketeers affiliated with other crews through the years, but the Genovese has been the primary power of the area.

In fact, both Springfield and the nearby City of Worcester have been traditionally governed by Genovese Family crews.

Resident “capo di decina” Salvatore (Big Nose Sam) Cufari in Springfield, and his “compare”, “capo di decina” Francesco (Frank I) Iacone of Worcester, were the two most powerful, early underworld leaders in those sections of Massachusetts for decades.

Worcester capo - Francesco Iaconi

Cufari and Iacone had as their two closest aides and trusted associates, Francesco (Frankie Skyball) Scibelli, and Carlo Mastrototaro, respectively.

And each would become well known in their own right.

But of all the many mafiosi who would ever operate the area through the years, the name of Frankie Skyball arguably was the most famous, or infamous, to control the territory for the Vito Genovese Family of LCN.

Serving first in the capacity as Sam Cufari’s “acting capo”, and ultimately became its official resident capo, Scibelli was widely recognized as the Czar of Springfield for over forty years.

THIS IS THEIR STORY!

Frankie Skyball

Francesco (Frankie Skyball) Scibelli was born in 1912. He was raised and reared in the South End “Little Italy” section of Springfield, Massachusetts.

He would reside at 6 Meadowbark Street in this town his entire life. He also had a beautiful home on Sea Lane overlooking the Long Island Sound in the Old Saybrook section where he maintained a summer home there for decades.

He had several brothers who he would partner with and be close to their entire lives. Both Anthony (Turk) Scibelli and Albert (Baba) Scibelli were inducted soldiers.

Baba would eventually rise to Capo status after Frankie’s death.

Baba Scibelli

Frankie Skyball was a small little man who had sharp features and jet-black hair as a young man. As he aged his hair turned all white.

He was said to have had a very outgoing and friendly personality and a very sharp mind, excellent with numbers and odds-making which helped him in his life’s work - the gambling business.

FBI # 585801

He was a longtime veteran member in the Springfield regime of the Genovese Family and is suspected to have been formally inducted by at least the early 1940s-era under the auspices and sponsorship of regime leader, Capo Salvatore (Big Nose Sam) Cufari.

Frankie Skyball was said to have been the “right arm” to Cufari.

Vito Genovese

Scibelli and his brothers served Cufari loyally over many decades with Frankie eventually rising up to become the Capodecina himself upon Cufari’s death.

During the 1950s to 1960s era, he hung out and utilized the Empire Cafe on Main Street in Springfield as his de facto headquarters and base of operations.

With a police record reportedly dating to 1932 for extortion, bootlegging, and gambling arrests… serving 19 months in jail on one conviction, Scibelli was a well-rounded mafioso active in all forms of gambling. His crew was known to specialize in sports-horse bookmaking, policy-number lottery, floating dice games, and, later, video-slot machines.

This crew also operated a large loanshark network, truck hijackings, organized thefts and the fencing of stolen goods, and bootlegging during prohibition. But their core racket was gambling per se, as is for most mob crews.

Salvatore Cufari

Scibelli's job was originally to control and oversee these varied activities for Cufari, his Massachusetts regime, and the Genovese borgata back in NYC.

In fact, “Skyball” was considered something of a numbers wizard, very good with odds and line-setting for his betting public.

He and his one-time bookmaking partner, Andy Pradella, were called “The Scholar Group” because of their information and precision in this field.

They had control of Springfield and Hartford in Connecticut, and parts of Upstate New York (Albany and Schnectady) under their dominion.

Similar to the Falcone regime of Buffalo’s Magaddino Family, who although technically “under” Magaddino ran the cities of Utica-Rome and Syracuse mostly autonomously, so to did the Scibelli regime who controlled the city of Springfield and its adjoining areas as almost a small borgata unto themselves.

Regional bosses who although technically a regime subservient to the Genovese, nonetheless ran the show up that way mostly unobstructed.

Early FBI chart of New England mafia

Both inducted soldiers and top crew associates over the years in Scibelli’s crew included:

• Nicholas Camerota

• Adolfo (Big Al) Bruno

• Anthony (Turk) Scibelli

• Albert (Baba) Scibelli

• Emilio Fusco

• Felix Tranghese

• Anthony (Skipper) Delevo

• Daniel Sacco

• Andrew Torino

• Joseph Mineo

• Mario Fiore

• William Fiore

• Andrew Predella

• John Pradella

• Alvaro Lanzetta

• Charles Tolisano

• Christopher (The Greek) Anagnos

• Thomas (Slim) DeVito

• Anthony Delmonico

• Rocco Albano

• Donald (Donny) Pepe

• Henry Siciliano

• Louis Maloni

• Anthony Maloni

• William Carranza

• Ricardo (Soggy) Songini

Adolfo Bruno

Anthony (Skipper) Delevo

Felix Tranghese

Emilio Fusco

…and

• Anthony Volpe, Sr. - who controlled the Hartford, Connecticut group for the Scibelli faction. Skyball was known to frequent the Hartford area once a week to check on his operations there. Tolisano oversaw a policy ring under the regime’s control.

It was also said that both Volpe and former NYC-based soldier Girolamo (Bobby Doyle) Santuccio - who had relocated up to Hartford years earlier - oversaw shylock collections for Scibelli and that group.

Bobby Doyle Santuccio

Additionally, they operated in tandem with mafiosi from other Genovese factions as well as the New England Mafia Family including those named below:

• Salvatore (Sabby) Basso - a top Connecticut based soldier in the Genovese mob under Pollina and John (Buster) Ardito.

• Vincent Pollina - top Connecticut based Genovese faction soldier under John Ardito.

• Cosmo (Pinky) Panarelli - a Worcester-based soldier and well-known hood.

• Carlo Mastrototaro - another Genovese boss and head of their Worcester, Mass., faction.

• William (Billy) Grasso - Connecticut-based underboss for the Patriarca mob.

• Raymond L.S. Patriarca - overall Boss of the N.E. Family based out of Providence, R.I.

Carlo Mastrototaro, William Grasso, and Raymond L.S. Patriarca

Frankie Skyball and nearly his entire core crew were indicted in 1985 on a 18-count RICO case which included various gambling rackets and a profitable gaming-junket operation from the Northeast to Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos that he’d run for years.

At the time of their arrests, federal authorities seized $739,000 found in cash as proceeds of their racket operations.

He pleaded out and was jailed in 1987, agreeing to serve a six-year prison sentence at 76 years of age. But two stipulations in his agreement was his refusal to acknowledge his affiliation or high position in Cosa Nostra or even to the very existence of it.

Mugshot

And second was that his kid brother Anthony receive a suspended jail sentence…. he was a tough old bird and a true adherent to his vow of Omertà.

In 1996, at 84 years old, he copped another plea and was sentenced to serve 15 months in prison.

He would end up serving the maximum term, finally being paroled in 1998, several years before he passed away in 2000 at the comfortable old age of 88 years old…..

Francesco (Frankie Skyball) Scibelli was a highly respected old-school throwback to a bygone era...a mafioso who held a gentlemanly manner and whose word was his bond.

All I’ve ever heard about the man were complimentary things, and Springfield would have done well to still have the likes of him, his predecessor Sam Cufari, and even his successor Big Al Bruno at the helm instead of what befell that town.

A live-wire little town that made everyone money for many decades until a new, untrained, and valueless type of character scammed their way into power….. what a shame!

The Cufari/Scibelli Regime of Springfield, MA

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The Cufari/Scibelli Regime of Springfield, MA

Unlock This Door to the Underworld

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You May Also Enjoy

The Anthony Strollo Regime of NY/NJ

The Day Charlie (the Bug) Workman Saved a Horse

Racketeer Profile – San Francisco’s “Jimmy the Hat” Lanza

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