More than any other section of New York City, and quite possibly, more than anywhere else in the entire country, the borough of Staten Island, quite possibly can be considered the largest bedroom community and the epicenter of Cosa Nostra activity in the city and the United States. Especially over the last twenty years or so.
With a total population just shy of 500,000 residents (495,000), Staten Island, in Richmond County, has the distinction of being New York City’s least populated and most suburban borough.
By the 1970s, it had also gained the dubious distinction of being home to more Cosa Nostra members and their blood families — pound for pound — than any other place in the entire United States. And that dark assessment hasn’t changed much over the last fifty years.
In fact, today, a strong argument could be made that The Big Apple’s fifth borough, sitting smack dab in the middle of the largest and most most vibrant city in the world — has become ground zero and the absolute unofficial headquarters for what law enforcement officials like to refer to as “traditional” organized crime, or the Italian-American Mafia.
Hosting All 6 Families
It has been well documented over the years that sprinkled throughout the many little towns and neighborhoods of Richmond County lived the widest cross section of hoodlums and racketeers of both formal and informal rank and importance of New York’s notorious “Five Family” structure, with a smattering of members from New Jersey’s only homegrown Mafia Family thrown in too for good measure.
Over the course of several months, Button Guys has researched and compiled an exhausting list of mafiosi and their allies who have called Staten Island home through the years.
Yet, although the list you are about to view is extremely in-depth and concise, Button Guys recognizes we’ve still probably only scratched the surface of all the hoods and organized crime figures who have resided there at one time or another.
And similar to other parts of the city where they reside, many of these hoods weren’t content to just live there, some of them them operated a myriad of criminal rackets and legitimate businesses there too.
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