Frederico (Lupo the Wolf) Randaccio

Frederico Gabriele Randaccio -- known by many names but best remembered as “Lupo the Wolf” -- rose from a truant Buffalo street kid to become one of the most feared and respected figures in organized crime.

A trusted enforcer and underboss of the powerful Magaddino Family , Frdedy carved his place in history with a steely reputation, a cunning mind, and a knack for staying ahead of both rivals and the law.

From his early days running with the notorious DiCarlo Gang to his later years as a loan shark with a predator’s instincts, Randaccio left an indelible mark on the Buffalo underworld. But what truly set him apart? His longevity. Living to the age of 97, Freddy witnessed the rise and fall of countless mafiosi, proving he was the ultimate survivor.

Frederico Gabriele Randaccio -- aka Lupo, Freddy Lupo, Lupo the Wolf, Federico Randacci, Frederico Fassi, and Frederick Randazzo, among others (federal authorities documented 48 name variations and street aliases for him) -- was born on July 1, 1907, in Palermo, Sicily.

As a three-year-old child, he immigrated on a weeks-long journey by freighter to North America with his father, Umberto, his young mother, Maria (nee’ D’Amico), and his big sister, Eloisa. The Randaccio family chose to settle in the Buffalo, New York area, where his parents and the neighborhood kids soon anglicized his first name of Frederico to Freddy.

He soon entered the Buffalo Public School system and attended class until he was in the 7th grade in 1920. That year, at age 13, he was picked up as a truant and on juvenile delinquency charges. Shortly thereafter, he was nabbed a second time for juvenile delinquency.

Frederico Randaccio

These events were pivotal moments in young Freddy’s life because, from that moment forward, he made the fateful decision to drop out of grade school altogether. He would cast his dark brown wolf-like eyes toward street life. On review, it was a chosen lifestyle that young Randaccio seemed like a natural for.

Early photographs of Freddy Randaccio show a darkly handsome, olive-complected young Sicilian. Built slim at 5 feet 6 inches tall with thick jet-black wavy hair that formed a sharp widows-peak, high cheekbones, prominent dark eyebrows, and the darkest of dark eyes, which were almost black in color.

He indeed resembled a “wolf” in both physicality, stealth, and temperament. It is no wonder that he quickly gained the moniker of “Lupo,” which in Sicilian literally means “Wolf.” His appearance was that of a Hollywood cinema mafioso straight out of central casting.

Lupo the Wolf, Freddy the Wolf, Freddy Lupo, or just plain Lupo would become his lifelong nickname. And it suited him perfectly. His reputation as a top strong-arm man, capable enforcer, and competent killer for Buffalo’s underworld would soon precede him everywhere he went. Not one to be trifled with, even the most vicious hoodlums across the city would give a wide berth when Lupo the Wolf was around.

Freddy Randaccio quickly befriended several other young, tough Italian hooligans, and together, they started committing petty crimes.

They soon came to the attention of the “DiCarlo Gang,” a fast-growing band of like-minded hoods making a notorious name for themselves on the streets of Buffalo’s Italian section as they fought for control of the local burglary, bootleg, extortion, and gambling rackets.

The gang was headed by Giuseppe DiCarlo, who had the similarly scary mafia moniker of “Joe the Wolf,” and his racketeer brother Sam DiCarlo. “Joe the Wolf” DiCarlo was eventually named Buffalo’s Public Enemy #1.

He later received so much bad press and became so very notorious that he was actually banished by a judge from the city limits. The DiCarlo brothers would later relocate to Youngstown, Ohio, and Miami, Florida. But while they were operating in Buffalo, they both left their mark on the city’s underworld.

The fledgling young hoods who gathered around them would one day gain infamy in the city of Buffalo and Niagara Falls in their own right. Guys with names like Pasquale (Patty Titters) Natarelli, Rosario (Roy) Carlisi, Giovanni (Johnny) Cammelleri, Paolo (Bobby Ross) Briandi, Daniel (Boots) Sansanese, Anthony (Lucky) Perna, and the Pieri brothers….future top mafiosi one and all!

FBI # 286928, Buffalo-PD # 24313, INS-Alien Reg. # 3696167, INS-Deportation # C-6258727, Elmira-Reformatory # 36955

Stefano Magaddino's Whip

By his late teens, Lupo was already knee-deep in the rackets. This is borne out by a long criminal record that reflects arrests for gambling as early as 1925 (when he was only 18 years old), and even federal liquor law violations or bootlegging a year earlier in 1924 (at age 17).

During his lifetime, he piled up a long yellow sheet with all the typical charges one would expect from any ambitious top mafioso, including suspicion of murder. What follows is his Buffalo Police Department criminal record. It also includes all arrests related to violations of federal law as well. He was a very busy hoodlum during his lifetime.

1920 - juvenile delinquency

1922 - juvenile delinquency

1924 - disorderly conduct ($5 fine)

1924 - National Prohibition Law Violation ($250 fine)

1925 - motor vehicle violation ($50 fine, license revoked)

1925 - common gambling

1926 - vagrancy

1926 - traffic violation ($5 fine)

1927 - MVL ($5 fine)

1928 - assault ($10 fine)

1929 - carrying a concealed pistol

1930 - felonious assault (10 years at Elmira)

1930 - robbery (10 years - combined at Elmira)

1930 - robbery (combined with the above cases)

1933 - robbery

1934 - murder investigation

1934 - robbery-1st degree

1935 - traffic violation ($5 fine)

1938 - parole violation (returned to prison)

1940 - alien registration

1956 - deportation proceedings

1963 - vagrancy

1967 - armed robbery and conspiracy (20 years in federal prison)

But make no mistake, because although he would indeed garner more than his fair share of “pinches,” Freddy Lupo was a low-key, shrewd and calculating mafioso of the first order. So much so that none other than the longtime overlord of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls/Canada Mafia borgata would handpick Randaccio as his number #2 man, his underboss.

It was a position that Freddy would execute unfailingly (no pun intended) for years to come. He was to become Stefano Magaddino’s whip over the entire membership of the Buffalo Family for upwards of a decade.

Known as a top enforcer, few stepped out of line, knowing that Lupo the Wolf was waiting in the wings.

Freddy Randaccio had assumed the position held by the previous underboss of the Family, Vito Domiano, aka “Buck Jones,” a highly respected tough-guy hoodlum who served Steve Magaddino for years. Upon Domiano’s death from natural causes, his protege, Lupo Randaccio, stepped up to fill the void.

After solidly establishing himself as a force within Buffalo’s underworld, Freddy purchased a private home for him and his wife and children at 762 Richmond Avenue in Buffalo (some FBI documents have it as 562 Richmond) where he would reside for the rest of his days.

Some years later, he also made sure to lease a cozy little apartment across town for his favorite “comare,” or girlfriend, a strikingly pretty young lady by the name of Darlene Grann.

He would be an extremely “hands-on” type of underboss, out on the streets with his men. He was not a shrinking violet by any means. And I think that because of his legitimate hoodlum ways, he was looked upon favorably by the membership and highly respected for his management style.

He was what we call a “Hoodlum’s Hoodlum.” It is one of the highest respects that one mafioso can call another mafioso. That is who Freddy Lupo seems to have been.

Freddy Randaccio was deeply enmeshed in most street rackets, but perhaps most telling and certainly most appropriate to his nickname was his affinity to engage in the loan shark business. Better known to wiseguys as “shylocking,” Lupo reveled in the usurious money-lending trade. And true to his moniker of “The Wolf,” he was indeed “wolf-like” in his methods of operation.

In approximately 1962-1963, a conman and fraudster approached the FBI, claiming to have vital information to trade for his freedom from a large check-kiting scheme he had perpetrated around the Buffalo area.

He claimed that he had approached several wiseguys for a loan, who in turn referred him to a “Freddy the Wolf,” whom he met in a bar and notorious mob hangout named Panaro’s Lounge (owned by soldier Robert “Bobby Snowball” Panaro), on the west side of Buffalo.

Freddy the Wolf

The day he visited the bar, he said there were four or five Italian hoodlums there, but he was introduced to Lupo, who promptly reached into his pants pocket and handed over $10,000 in cash, informing the man that he was required to return a total of $15,000 in 30 days time for this loan.

This is a whopping 50% ‘vigorish’ in a mere month. That equates to a 600% annual interest rate, an unconscionable rate even by Mafia loanshark standards. The highest rate that is typically charged is 5% weekly (or 260% annually), and that is considered very steep.

So, this gives you a little idea of just how steep Lupo’s rates could be. “Wolf-like” is putting it mildly. Of all his racket endeavor,s it was said that Lupo the Wolf had an affinity for the loanshark trade. I can see why!

Allies and Loyal Soldiers

Among his closest allies and loyal soldiers directly “with” him, were some of the most important of this Family’s membership. The above-mentioned Patty Natarelli was a close aide. Patty was big into the numbers business.

So was “Bobby Ross” Briandi, who also doubled as an enforcer. Other soldiers he directly partnered with included gambling operators Eddie Scillia and Joe Fino, who oversaw one of the bigger bookie networks this crew ran.

Another ally was loanshark Benedetto “Benny” Spano, who was one of the larger shylocks in the city, and Danny “Boots” Sansanese, who was a top strong-arm man enforcing Randaccio’s dictates.

Other members who were said to be very close to Randaccio were soldiers Charlie Cassara and Joseph (Chicago Joe) Sciales.

He was also said to have sponsored Salvatore (Sam) Rizzo for mafia induction. Sam Rizzo handled a shylock business in partnership with Lupo; he was later said to have also dabbled in the narcotics trade, no doubt giving a piece of the profits to his mentor.

Because of the tremendous scrutiny and heat, he started receiving as the number #2 guy of the Buffalo mob, Randaccio feared FBI surveillance.

By around 1960, he began implementing precautions and countermeasures to thwart law enforcement's growing scrutiny of his activities and those of his associates.

Among the things he implemented was designating soldier Freddy Mogavero, a very close and trusted top aide of his, to become his “message drop” and the primary contact for any member of the borgata who needed to reach out to Lupo for any reason.

He further advised his men not to use their own home telephones nor call his home phone to reach him.

If contact needed to be made, he instructed them to either physically pass by Mogavero’s Texaco Gasoline Station he operated or leave a message in some manner with Mogavero, who in turn would contact the underboss.

Side Note: Once agents established that Mogavero was a main “contact” for the underboss, the FBI soon decided to install a secret electronic listening device (a bug) in the office at one of Mogavero’s gas stations. Frederick (Freddy) Mogavero actually owned two Texaco Gas Stations, one called Delaware Texaco and another called Peace-Bridge Texaco Station.

He was also a partner in a vending machine route as well. Within weeks of its installation, the feds got an earful of just how important and well-placed Freddy Mogavero actually was.

He was indeed a sworn soldier of the Family and the closest aide-confidante to Lupo in addition to being his personal driver and bodyguard.

But Mogavero turned out to be so much more than that.

It seems that Mogavero had close personal contacts with high-ranking detectives and police officials in the Buffalo Police Department, as well as various city councilmen, Buffalo City lawyers, and other important political figures.

So, he was being utilized as a contact man for more than just the underboss, but rather for the entire Buffalo mafia membership any time they needed a favor or wanted to get something done at the highest levels of local government.

It was another eye-opener for the FBI to see the pervasive corruption playing out before them as the mob and city hall played footsie together.

A Piece of All the Action

Lupo ostensibly listed himself a partner in the Delaware Vending Co., a firm that distributed jukeboxes, cigarette machines, pinball machines and other coin-operated games to Buffalo area bars and taverns, diners, storefronts, etc.

He was alleged to also have a “piece” of several neighborhood taverns.

Through several underlings and crew members, he was also suspected to have held other ownership interests as well.

Victor Randaccio

Like a good big brother, Freddy also made sure to take care of his little brother Victor by seeing to it that he was installed in a cushy, well-paying job as the primary “business agent” of the Hod Carriers and Common Laborers Union - Local # 210, a Magaddino controlled union.

Victor Randaccio would serve as a top union official for many years. He was also a documented “soldier” in their Mafia Family, serving directly under his big brother Freddy. Victor shared control with another mob underling by the name of Sam Bongiovanni, who was another official of Local # 210.

Lupo became a key member of a mafia family that had sprawling control over all of Upstate New York, which included the Western Buffalo-Niagara Falls; Utica; Syracuse; Erie, Pennsylvania; parts of Canada such as Hamilton, Ontario; and nearly everything in between.

The city of Rochester had also come under their influence until the faction later broke away from the borgata in the late 1950s.

Besides his responsibility of overseeing the entire membership on behalf of boss Steve Magaddino, Lupo himself oversaw a personal crew which was one of the largest regimes in the borgata.

Over the years, he was known to have had his polished, manicured fingers in many racket pies, both legal and illegal.

A good example of his reach and that of the Family at large was one such side deal that Freddy Lupo was partnered in with his brother, Vic, and Bongiovanni, Mogavero, and Eddie Scillia.

They negotiated the purchase of 600 acres of land near East Aurora, New York, in a property development deal with plans to build a sprawling $20,000,000 shopping plaza and homes adjacent to the plaza on the same property.

This deal fell into their lap through the Randaccio brothers' influence and control over Laborers Local # 210, which was pivotal to any construction that would take place by developers. In essence, they shoehorned themselves into this development deal and made sure to financially benefit from any project that went forward.

A Gangland-Style Trussing

There had been a series of murders of small-time hoodlums in the Buffalo area during the late 1950s-early 1960s period, which drew the attention of law enforcement. And, of course, as underboss, Randaccio would have supervised the successful execution of those hits.

But it was not until 1961 that Randaccio and his boss Magaddino really came to the attention of both local and federal authorities.

In November of that year, a well-known heroin dealer was found massacred in a cornfield outside Rochester.

The body of a Sicilian national and baker by trade named Alberto Agueci was found trussed up gangland-style. He had been severely beaten. Pounds of flesh had been carved from his body before he was doused with gasoline and set on fire. His charred remains were later discovered by investigators.

Alberto Agueci

Alberto Agueci and his brother Vito had figured prominently in a massive, international narcotics conspiracy that tied Buffalo’s Magaddino Family into New York City’s Genovese and Lucchese mobs, among others.

Both had been named in federal indictments out of the Southern District of Manhattan as drug smugglers and couriers entrusted with the safe transport of multi-kilo heroin loads brought across the Canadian/U.S. border for further distribution among mafia affiliates in several cities.

This was the same probe that nabbed the likes of such bosses as Vito Genovese, John (Big John) Ormento, Carmine (Lilo) Galante , and many other top mafiosi.

Held at the Tombs in Lower Manhattan, Vito Agueci had started making rumblings after his arrest that the “Old Man” (meaning Magaddino) had better make arrangements to pay for his defense lawyer as well as care for Agueci’s wife and kids while he was in jail awaiting trial "or else.”

Vito Agueci

This veiled threat soon became overt threats to spill the beans to the Federal Bureau of Narcotics if help was not forthcoming ASAP from Steve Magaddino, whom the brothers considered responsible for their plight since the Agueci’s worked for the Buffalo crew.

Albert Agueci received Magaddino’s answer in that lonely cornfield that fateful evening.

Needless to say, Vito Agueci chose to clam up in prison and no longer wanted to be released on bail. Who could blame him?

These incidents, as well as informer Joe Valachi’s later 1963 testimony about the Buffalo mob and narcotics dealing (of which Valachi was also a part), helped increase law enforcement pressure on the Magaddino borgata. Police soon ramped up and started a concerted campaign of harassment against Buffalo’s wiseguys.

A good example of this was in 1967 when police raided Panaro’s Lounge one evening, interrupting a major mafia meeting of the borgata.

Authorities arrested all 36 alleged mafia figures present on a “consorting with known criminals” charge and hauled them into police headquarters in a highly publicized raid that made the front pages in all the newspapers.

Among those nabbed were no less than the boss himself and his second-in-command, Lupo Randaccio.

Magaddino became incensed when an embarrassed Lupo lost his cool, flying into a rage against the raiding officers. He started cursing them until the boss gave him the evil eye and stated to the effect, “why don’t you sit back and relax,” at which time Randaccio caught himself and clammed up.

Although the charges were minor in nature, Lupo had become embarrassed at the loss of face to have been the one to set up the meeting, only to have it raided while his superior and so many key members were in attendance, no less.

In his underworld career, Randaccio is thought to have risen from a “soldato” or soldier to a capo post by the 1940s. He was later to become the recognized “official” underboss from the 1950s era through the late 1960s.

In that same year of the Panaro raid in 1967, he was convicted along with several Family minions on federal conspiracy charges and jailed for 20 years. After serving approximately 12 years behind bars, he made parole in June of 1979.

A Dubious Honor

Freddy Lupo had the dubious honor of having figured into the very first case ever brought where law enforcement relocated a potential witness. That case helped formulate the now famous Witness Protection Program (or WITSEC), which is responsible for the safekeeping of mob informants and stool pigeons who go against the organization.

The first informant or rat to ever go into the program was a half-assed armed robber and all-around thief named Pascal (Paddy) Calabrese of Buffalo. He was a sometime hang-around of various Magaddino Family members and an independent who had pulled several daring robberies that had brought him to the attention of the mob.

They subsequently started utilizing him for more heists with other big-money robberies planned for the future. But he soon got arrested for a major heist.

Sitting in jail and pondering his bleak future, Calabrese quickly turned informant, realizing that he could use his new mafia friends to barter for his freedom. This would be the beginning of the end for Randaccio, Patty Natarelli, soldier Steve Cino, his brother Bobby, and several other wiseguys.

Once he was debriefed by the police and federal agents realized the scope of his information and who Calabrese could tag with his testimony, they quickly scooped up him, his girlfriend, and her small child and whisked them away to an undisclosed location for safekeeping.

This event was the start of a program that, to this day, has safely housed 98% of the program’s informants, both before and after they testify in open court.

Paddy Calabrese became pivotal in the arrests, subsequent courtroom testimony, convictions, and imprisonment of the feared underboss and his men.

Daggers Thrown

Side Note: There came a point in time, approximately 1968 or so, when many members of the borgata started verbally throwing daggers at Randaccio. For at last year or two before that, there had been an increased onslaught of federal law enforcement scrutiny, crackdowns, and arrests of Family members.

It was felt by some that the high-profile federal case Lupo was involved with, as well as his “in your face” hoodlum style of operating while he was on the streets, had had the effect of renewing the vigor of local and federal law enforcement to probe deeper into the Magaddino empire than ever before. Whether that's true or not was never established.

Several years previous to all of this, back in approximately 1965-1966 or so, underworld rumblings had reliable street informants soon reporting to their FBI handlers that when the time came for Salvatore (Sam) Pieri to be released from federal prison down in Atlanta, Georgia where he was serving out an 8-year sentence for narcotics trafficking, there would eventually be trouble between the two hoodlums.

Both Randaccio and Pieri were known to be rough and tumble hoods and the prevailing thought was that it would come to blows over who was to be Steve Magaddino’s “right-hand man” and the underboss of the Family.

One last thought about Lupo’s case and its reverberations while we’re on the subject. There was speculation long after Lupo the Wolf had been “knocked back down” to a soldier’s status that it took his imprisonment of 20 years for Steve Magaddino to finally “officially” replace him.

The prevailing wisdom (true or not) is that Magaddino was actually somewhat hesitant to insult Randaccio with a demotion or risk an open conflict with him. While “on the street,” Lupo was thought to have been so very powerful, and his large regime of followers so loyal to him that Magaddino didn’t wanna risk an all-out gang war for control of the Family.

So, he just let him operate unimpeded until Randaccio was finally jailed, giving Magaddino a valid reason to replace him.

Many say that by the early 1960s, Lupo was just giving the boss lip service to appease his oversized ego. That in fact, Randaccio was “shorting” the envelopes he was supposed to be collecting on Magaddino’s behalf left and right.

That in essence, Lupo was controlling the streets and Magaddino was largely unaware of the true amounts of racket money being generated weekly and monthly.

It’s not inconceivable to imagine either. Maybe he was stiffing his boss; and maybe he wasn’t. But as the “official” Buffalo Family underboss and a very deadly guy at that, I don’t imagine there were too many guys willing to openly challenge Lupo about it.

Randaccio went into federal prison with his head up. He served his time quietly like the true Cosa Nostra soldato that he always was. With his eventual release from the penitentiary, he returned home and just as quietly settled back into civilian life in Buffalo’s suburbs. But a lot had changed since his days on the street…an awful lot!

His longtime Capo, the Family’s “Representante” Steve Magaddino, had since been deposed from his exalted position at the summit of their borgata.

Magaddino had ruled with an iron fist for over 50 years, but his miserly tight-fisted ways with a buck and his repeated lies to their rank-and-file membership about how the Family had no money in its coffers finally came back to bite him in the ass.

It was shortly after Randaccio’s jailing in the late fall of 1967 that Magaddino had stated to the men that there would be no Christmas envelopes forthcoming to his loyal caporegimes and soldiers that holiday season because the borgata was basically broke.

The wily old mafioso had used the arrests and legal fees spent on Freddy’s case as one of the reasons, among others, for his excuses of claiming poverty.

The men were not happy to say the least, especially after having “kicked up” fat tribute payments the whole year long to the hierarchy.

This Family had vast wealth from lucrative underworld operations in just about every single racket imaginable: a huge horse and sports bookmaking network, a massive numbers ticket-lottery and a traditional policy operation that spanned across the Upstate area, extensive loansharking, shakedowns and strong-arm extortions, control of several key Teamsters and Laborers Union locals, international heroin trafficking from Europe through Canada into Buffalo, truck hijackings, counterfeiting United States currency, robbery and burglary gangs that specialized in stolen stocks and securities, and so on.

This network’s breadth of criminal activities was so far-flung that the thought of the “Family” not having a slush fund for the holidays was an almost unbelievably hard pill for the members to swallow.

But they did. They trusted their boss, and if he said there was no money, then there was no money.

Shocking and Eye-Opening

Only months later in 1968, law enforcement authorities made a major sweep against Magaddino Family interests in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area that November. In coordinated early morning raids, local, state, and federal law enforcement brought a major offensive against Magaddino’s personal gambling operations.

Armed with search and arrest warrants, police raided Steve Magaddino’s home, that of his son Peter, the Magaddino Funeral Home, which was a base of operations, and several other key locations.

What authorities came away with was shocking and eye-opening to both police and the underworld, to say the least.

During the search of the Magaddino home at 5118 Dana Drive in the tony suburb of Lewiston, police raiders discovered a suitcase packed with a small fortune in neatly stacked, rubber-banded $10,000 bundles of U.S. currency.

They found more stashes of money in a file cabinet at the funeral home and a bulk of it in a trunk in the attic of his son’s home.

Stefano Magaddino

When all was tallied up and counted back at police headquarters, it totaled over $500,000 in cold cash. (That’s a lot of loot today, but remember that this was back in 1968 when $500,000 was truly a “half-million” dollars.)

The news was, of course, splashed across the local tabloids for all to read. Father and son were arrested by the FBI for “interstate bookmaking” and conspiracy, and the money was seized as evidence. But the criminal charges proved to be the least of the old man’s problems.

With the newfound knowledge that their trusted, longtime boss had been cheating his men all along out of their fair share of the Family’s wealth, within months, there was an internal insurrection. The membership quickly split into several different factions and stated they no longer recognized Magaddino as the Family leader.

This was to become a major crack across the borgata’s previously united, proud rank and file. It would also lead to some bloodshed as the various “capo-regimes” jockeyed for position and power within the splintered Family.

It can be argued that from this point forward, the Magaddino Family of Cosa Nostra never regained the same status and unified power that they once held.

For his part, having been jailed from almost the outset of all this underworld intrigue from mid-1967 forward, Freddy Randaccio sat on ice in federal prison watching from the sidelines.

As the underboss, I’m certain that he was consulted as to his opinion about what was happening, but regardless of any “vote” he may have cast, there wasn’t anything he could do more than maybe send out a few messages one way or the other to trusted underlings.

After much controversy, treachery, and intrigue between competing mafiosi that saw its share of strife, the Family leadership would finally pass to a low-keyed soldier named Salvatore (Sam the Farmer) Frangiamore.

Previously, for a short time, it was said that Joe Fino had stepped in, so had Sam Pieri, and several others as well, who all vied for the top post until the mantle of power was eventually permanently granted to a veteran member named Joseph (Lead-Pipe Joe) Todaro Sr.

He was thought to have served as the boss from approximately 1984 until his death in 2006, a twenty-two-year run.

Todaro had a long tenure and was arguably one of the smarter and savvier mafiosi to have ever come out of Northern New York State. He was an accomplished businessman who became a multimillionaire operating a string of highly successful La Nova Pizzerias.

He later expanded into the nationwide distribution of his wildly popular “La Nova Chicken Wings,” which are carried in eateries and food stores from coast to coast.

He had started out as a successful gambler and bookmaker and dabbled in other rackets as well. But Todaro was savvy and intelligent enough to limit his underworld activities, as well as his public exposure, frustrating law enforcement's best efforts to nab him.

In fact, I don’t believe that he was ever jailed, at least not for any significant period of time in any event.

But all these underworld machinations meant little to our “Lupo the Wolf.”

His Time Had Passed

After his release on parole from behind prison walls, Randaccio never again enjoyed the high status or power he once wielded during Steve Magaddino’s reign. Not that he necessarily even sought it out any longer. He had served well over a decade in jail, and that will certainly take the starch out of even the most devout hoodlums.

In later photographs, you can see how prison had aged the once vibrant, darkly handsome mafioso. Even in his senior years, he was still a very handsome man, but now his once strikingly handsome, Mediterranean olive-complected good looks and raven hair had thinned and turned all stark white.

He was still a very respected member of an internationally recognized network of arguably the most accomplished criminals on the face of the planet. But his time had passed, as it does for all of us. He, at least, was smart enough to know it.

If he did keep his hand in any rackets in order to generate some income for himself (and I don’t doubt for a split-second that he did,) Lupo Randaccio was savvy enough to understand that his name and face were now on “front street” with the FBI and Buffalo’s organized crime rackets squad.

Frederico (Lupo the Wolf) Randaccio

If the rumors were true that he had indeed skimmed a lot of cash off the top during his days with Steve Magaddino, hopefully, Lupo had stashed a ton of it away for a racketeer’s rainy day. Because he didn’t seem to have struggled financially in his later years.

He continued to associate in a surreptitious way with a few of his most trusted former associates. He may have maintained a small shylock “book” with some preferred customers. Or had a piece of a small bookmaking business with a partner or two. He may have operated both.

But whatever he did or didn’t do in his later years would never again draw the attention of the law. He lived a quiet life and, by all accounts, enjoyed his golden years, as they say.

Long retired, and in keeping with that old adage that “only the good die young,” Frederico Randaccio died on October 4th, 2004, at the very respectable old age of 97 years old.

In his long lifetime, he had seen it all. Freddy had seen them come, and Freddy had seen them go. But in the end, this cagey old mafioso had outlived them all.

”Lupo” had stayed true to his moniker as the shrewd and wily underworld wolf that he indeed had always been!

Until the next time….”The Other Guy! "

Freddy Randaccio on Mob Fireside Chat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-fz_rltoEE

Frederico (Lupo the Wolf) Randaccio

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