Frank Cucchiara - The Cheeseman of Boston

Frank Cucchiara - also known as "Frank the Spoon" or "Frank the Cheeseman" - was believed by both local and federal authorities to have been one of the most important early racketeers and Italian Mafia figures to ever operate in New England .

Although he appeared to be a legitimate business owner of a cheese company in Boston, authorities believed he was a behind-the-scenes financier of heroin smuggling .

Surprisingly, Cucchiara's seemingly low-key and successful mafioso life came to an abrupt end in the 1970s. But not in a way one would expect - especially as an 81-year-old-man.

Frank Cucchiara - Early Life

Francesco (Frank the Spoon) Cucchiara - aka "Frank Caruso," "Frank Russo," and "Frank the Cheeseman" - was born to Vito and Antonia (nee’ Cardonna) Cucchiara on March 29, 1895, in Salemi, Sicily (Trapani Province). He had a brother named Pietro who later immigrated to the United States along with Frank, and a sister who remained in Italy.

An early mugshot of Frank Cucchiara.

Shortly after arriving in America, the Cucchiara brothers made their way to Boston, Massachusetts. On August 10, 1931, Frank Cucchiara took the oath of allegiance and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in Boston.

As a young man, he met and later married the former Santa Lucia (nee’ Giordano), who everyone called Lucy. The Cucchiara were married for almost fifty years. They lived in a modest ranch-style home located at 282 Common Street in Watertown, MA.

Frank Cucchiara's Massachusetts home.

In their later years, they sold that home and relocated to a small apartment nearby. Frank and Lucy reportedly never had any children of their own.

Frank stood a mere 5-feet 3-inches tall in height and weighed 135 pounds as a young man. He had dark brown eyes and hair. As Frank got older, he put on another 25 pounds or so and his hair turned a brownish-grey. Police description records listing tattoos and marks noted that he had a 6-inch scar running across the palm of his left hand.

FBI #4477, Boston-PD #19057

An Important Early Racketeer

His known criminal record dates to at least 1925 when he was first arrested by Boston’s Police Department for possession of dynamite and morphine. In 1932, Boston Police arrested him once again. This time around the charge was for suspicion of murder.

Frank Cucchiara was considered by both local and Federal law enforcement authorities to have been one of the most important early racketeers and Italian Mafia figures to ever operate in New England.

He was on par with and a contemporary of such top mafiosi as New England’s earliest Mafia bosses like Gaspare Messina, Filippo (Phil) Buccola, Joseph (J.L.) Lombardo, Frank (Butsey) Morelli, and their successor, Raymond L.S. Patriarca .

Other close associates included such important mafia stalwarts as Enrico (The Referee) Tamaleo, Gennaro (Jerry) Anguilo, Ilario (Larry Baione) Zannino, Rocco and Joseph Palladino, Enrico (Henry Noyes) Selvitella, Anthony (Tony Canadian) Sandrelli, and Antonio Santaniello.

During his active years when first rising to prominence in New England’s Cosa Nostra hierarchy, and certainly at his underworld zenith, Frank Cucchiara was a highly-respected mafioso who eventually held at least a “capo di decina” rank, if not higher.

Law enforcement believed Cucchiara rose to the consigliere position by the early 1950s. Yet, despite his lofty Cosa Nostra appointments, Cucchiara was able to operate for many years mostly from the shadows.

That Infamous Meeting

However, that all changed on November 14, 1957, when he became one of sixty-two top hoodlums detained and repeatedly questioned by teams of New York State Police Troopers who raided the infamous Apalachin Meeting held at Binghamton Family boss Giuseppe (Joe the Barber) Barbara’s sprawling estate in Upstate New York.

Top Mafia bosses and their main lieutenants from key cities all across the United States were captured while holding a top-level “conference” to discuss Cosa Nostra business.

In the coming weeks, months, and years that followed, Frank Cucchiara was publicly exposed through numerous investigative newspaper reports and the glaring spotlights of a U.S. Senate Hearing Committee especially empaneled to hear testimony about the Mafia and their rackets. It was much more adverse publicity and law enforcement scrutiny than the old man was used to getting. And it made him retreat even further into the shadows.

The FBI took a special interest in Cucchiara and attempted to delve even deeper into his activities. But aside from pulling his old Boston PD file and noting several early serious arrests and interrogating several mob informants that spoke about just how important a mafioso he really was, Cucchiara largely remained unscathed from all the law enforcement scrutiny.

He was eventually charged, as were many of his fellow Apalachin attendees, with Federal counts of criminal conspiracy and obstruction of justice. But the case was ultimately dismissed on technical grounds.

Frank Cucchiara leaves court.

It appeared he was nothing more than the registered owner and operator of a local Boston business, the Purity Cheese Company located at 55-57 Endicott Street, as he had been for many years. The FBI, however, knew he was more than that - a lot more. But they could never prove it.

Underworld “sources” told the FBI that Cucchiara controlled or was a behind-the-scenes financier of various gambling joints in Boston’s Italian North End where high-stakes floating dice and card games operated unimpeded.

From at least the late 1930s through the 1960s, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics had also taken an interest in Cucchaira because of an early arrest he had for possession of narcotics.

During the early 1960s, the FBN strongly suspected and reported that despite his advanced age, “Frank the Spoon” was still playing a behind-the-scenes role as a financier in heroin smuggling and the wholesale trafficking of narcotics.

Cucchiara's name was also repeatedly mentioned before the famous McClellan U.S. Subcommittee Hearings as one of Boston's top racket figures as well as a close associate of other top mafiosi in New England and throughout the entire east coast. Senator McClellan also made sure to put into the record that Cucchiara was a controlling figure in gambling and narcotics activities within the City of Boston.

'Til Death Do Us Part

By the late 1960s, it was reported that Cucchiara was keeping a very low profile. He was already in his mid-seventies and feeling his age. He and his wife were both also reportedly suffering from unnamed health problems.

On January 23, 1976, Francesco (Frank the Spoon) Cucchiara and his wife Santa were found shot to death in their Belmont, Massachusetts apartment. Police later determined that it was a murder-suicide.

Santa Cucchiara was found her bed in a second-floor bedroom shot in the head at close range. She had been murdered before Frank apparently turned the gun on himself. He was found dead in his pajamas on the apartment's first floor, a revolver laying close to his body. The medical examiner said a bullet had entered his mouth and lodged in his brain. And police determined that the gun found next to his body had been been fired twice.

Police found no signs of a struggle or forced entry. All the doors had been securely locked. But after a couple of days when no one had heard from Frank or Santa, the apartment manager investigated, entered their apartment, and found the elderly couple dead.

At the time of his death, Frank was 81 years old. His wife Santa was 69.

Until next time…"The Other Guy”

Frank (The Spoon) Cucchiara – “The Cheeseman” of Boston

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