Alfred (Good Looking Al) Criscuolo: Genovese Soldier and Junk Dealer

Alfred (Good Looking Al) Criscuolo was one of the most active, yet largely unknown mafioso to ever operate in New York. A key soldier in the old Vito Genovese Family serving under capo Mike Miranda , Criscuolo gained his unique, underworld moniker of “Good Lookin’ Al” as a young East Harlem hood. It was a nod to his appearance.

But authorities had a different description for "Good Looking Al" - a serious narcotics trafficker who was affiliated with some of the most notorious dope peddlers in the entire United States at the time.

Alfred Frank (Good Lookin’ Al) Criscuolo - aka Alfonso Criscuoli, Alphonse Criscolo, Albert Criscolo, Frank Romano, Ralph Esposito, Alfred Rocca, Alfred Tente, Frank Russo, Al Criscuolo, and Alphonso Francesco Criscuolo (TN) - was born in Italian East Harlem in New York City on January 22, 1911. He was the oldest of five children born to Italian-born parents Francesco and Maria (nee’ Bello) Criscuolo.

Al had three brothers named Stefano, Antonio, and Alberto as well as a sister named Carmela, whom everybody called Millie. Frank and Maria raised their kids in a walk-up tenement apartment building located at 437 Pleasant Avenue in the heart of East Harlem’s Italian district, an area rife with gangsters and mafiosi.

May 1952 - The 41-year-old Alfred Criscuolo poses for a federal mugshot.

In 1952, at the age of 41 years old, Al married a woman named Gloria V. Hausa, and they soon had a son named Louis.

By at least the 1930s or early 1940s, Criscuolo was believed to have been formally inducted as a member into what was then the Salvatore (Charlie Lucky) Luciano Family, which later became better known as the Vito Genovese crime family.

He was also believed to be related through marriage to a notorious fellow Genovese Family soldier and killer named Vincent (Vinny Bruno) Mauro .

Considered a handsome, dapper follow, as a young East Harlem hood, Al Criscuolo soon gained the lifelong mob moniker of “Good Looking Al” as a nod to his appearance.

Criscuolo reportedly only stood approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall but weighed in as a light-heavyweight at a stocky 170-180 pounds. He was also described as having dark brown hair and eyes, a dark-olive complexion, and was known as a natty dresser.

At the start of WWII, on October 16, 1940, Al Criscuolo, then 29 years old, registered for the U.S. draft.

FBI #1529336, NYCPD #B-153956, U.S.Treasury-Dept. #9088

East Harlem Alumni

Aside from his boyhood home on Pleasant Avenue, other early-known home addresses were located in East Harlem and later, the Bronx. In 1945, he was residing in a second-floor apartment located at 237 E. 121st Street in East Harlem.

By the 1950s, the Criscuolos relocated over the George Washington Bridge to Northern New Jersey where he and his wife reportedly bought a pretty, two-story brick and frame house at 353 Grove Street, New Milford, in Bergen County. This is where they would reside for decades to come.

Both federal and local law enforcement authorities who tracked his movements over the years all stated that Criscuolo was never known to hold a job or to have engaged in any type of legitimate business. Instead, he was a devout hoodlum through and through. Law enforcement described him as being mostly engaged as a policy racketeer, narcotics trafficker, and receiver of stolen goods.

His known underworld haunts included the Rex Tavern, the Negri Candy Store, and several bars and grills located along First Avenue around 123rd Street, all of which were located in East Harlem’s “Little Italy” section.

A Heavy "Rap Sheet"

Criscuolo’s police record started back in 1934, and, over the years, it grew to include at least fourteen known arrests for gambling, narcotics, and other offenses. Through the years, especially during the 1930s period, he was booked under a variety of aliases. Below are his known arrests and the names he gave the police at the time of his bookings:

June 11, 1934, as Ralph Esposito - policy numbers (paid a $25 fine, Manhattan Court)

November 26, 1935, as Alfred Rocco - policy bets (paid a $100 fine, Bronx Court)

May 14, 1936, as Frank Russo - policy gambling (suspended sentence, Bronx Court)

July 12, 1936, as Alfred Tente - policy number bets ($50 fine, Manhattan Court)

August 3, 1936, as Frank Romano - accepting policy bets (Bronx)

August 16, 1936, as Alfred Tente - possessing policy slips ($50 fine, Manhattan Court)

August 31, 1936, as Frank Romano - policy (served 30 days in the workhouse)

January 16, 1937, as Frank Romano - policy (30 days in Rikers Island Penitentiary)

February 10, 1937, as Frank Romano - vagrancy (dismissed, Bronx Court)

May 26, 1938 - burglary (detained, but later dismissed)

August 30, 1944 - Harrison Act Violation, sale of narcotics (dismissed)

March 25, 1945 - federal narcotics conspiracy (Harrison Act)

June 21, 1945 - possessing heroin with intent to distribute (indeterminate jail term)

March 29, 1946 - illegal possession of drugs (this ran concurrently with his 1945 cases)

January 7, 1961 - felony operation of a policy gambling business

A Cosa Nostra Who's Who

Authorities say that “Good Lookin’ Al” numbered among his closest criminal associates some of the most notorious members of at least three of New York’s infamous Five Families.

Almost to a man, each of whom was said to be up to their eyeballs in the heroin and opium traffic and considered by the FBN as among the most important narcotics peddlers in the entire United States. They included smugglers, wholesalers, and lesser distributors, and included known members of the Genovese, Gambino, and Lucchese Families.

His Genovese Family contacts included infamous consigliere Michele (Mike) Miranda as well as important soldiers like John G. (Buster) Ardito, Angelo (Charlie Four Cents) Salerno, Joseph (Joe) Marone, Charles (Charlie Bullets) Albero, Vincent (Vinny Bruno) Mauro, Joseph (Joe Cago) Valachi and Frank (Cheech) LIvorsi, and Family “associates” Frank (Cheech) Amendola and Albert (Big Larry) Landi.

Close Gambino Family drug contacts and friends included soldiers Germaio (Jerry) Anaclerio, Anthony (Little Tony) Carminati, and Pasquale (Patsy Jerome) Genese.

Al was also very friendly with such noted East Harlem-based Lucchese Family soldiers as Joseph (Joe Babes) Bendenelli, Joseph (Babo) Vento, Anthony (Tony Moon) Ciccone, and associate Stephen (Stevie) Puco.

Junk in the Trunk

Dating back to the 1950s, Criscuolo was identified by agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics & Dangerous Drugs as “an important member of the old 107th Street Mafia group on New York’s upper east side in East Harlem. He delivers large amounts of narcotics both locally and in interstate commerce.”

A few years later, during the 1963 so-called “Valachi Senate Hearings” Criscuolo was described by federal authorities as a longtime “soldier” serving within the regime of capo Mike Miranda.

Up to His Eyeballs in Junk

As previously mentioned, Criscuolo had been picked up for dealing on several occasions over the years.

But one of his more noted narcotics arrests occurred on March 27, 1945, when Criscuolo was one of eight mobsters swept up during raids by Federal Narcotics Agents across the country for their part in helping operate what was described at the time as an “international narcotics syndicate” said to have sold between $2,500,000 to $4,000,000 in hard narcotics throughout the United States over four years.

1945 - Al gets jammed up in a big coast-to-coast narcotics case.

Authorities said they had grabbed eight suspects up off the streets. Five arrests were made in Manhattan, two in California, and another in Miami, Florida simultaneously as major indictments were being filed in Manhattan Federal Court against a total of seventeen members of the narcotics gang.

They went on to say that at the time of the indictments, five suspects remained as fugitives, while two more were serving long prison stretches for dope dealing. Two others would never see their trial. One had been a victim of mob vengeance and another had died under mysterious circumstances.

Prosecutors explained that a pattern of murder had been the hallmark of the gang. They also stated that one of the key figures in the ring had boasted of his gang’s connections to Lucky Luciano, who, at that time, was still serving a 50-year sentence for controlling the prostitution racket in New York.

At a news conference, U.S. Attorney John F.X. McGohey explained that since March 1941, simultaneous to the start of WWII, the Mafia had had their supply of China “white” heroin from the Orient severed. So, the gang seamlessly pivoted and started smuggling opium into the country from across the Mexican border.

The bulk of these opium shipments was then transported across the country back to New York City where it was then processed into pure heroin for redistribution among top underworld traffickers in various cities.

"Big Nose Charlie" Gets Dumped!

A notorious veteran Mafia member and convicted narcotics dealer by the name of Charles (Big Nose Charlie) La Gaipa of Santa Cruz, California was identified as “the partner” of Luciano and the original leader of this massive drug network.

La Gaipa eventually disappeared and was suspected of having been murdered that previous June, months before the indictments were handed down.

Among the five mafiosi nabbed in the New York City Metropolitan area were top figures of both the Genovese and Lucchese Families. The suspects were all charged with narcotics conspiracy as well as either possession or sale of illegal narcotics. Each suspect was then held in lieu of $4,000 bail apiece.

Besides Al Criscuolo, who was 33 years old at the time of this arrest, three other fellow Genovese Family soldiers were also picked up that day, including Philip (Philly Katz) Albanese, 37 years old, of 225 W. 232nd Street, Bronx; John (Buster) Ardito, of 2049 Third Ave., Manhattan; and Joseph (Joe) Marone, 41 years old, of 1815 Grand Concourse, Bronx.

Years later, “Good Looking Al” poses for the cameras once again.

The fifth New York-based mafioso taken into custody that day was a Lucchese Family soldier named Eugenio (Gene) Giannini. A top narcotics smuggler, Giannini was at the time, unbeknownst to his mafia brethren, suspected of already cooperating as an undercover informant for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.

Others also directly connected to this ring and later charged included Genovese soldiers Joseph Dentico and Joseph (The Eye) Tocco, and a San Francisco-based soldier of the Lanza crime family named Salvatore (Sam) Maugeri.

Side Note: The mob later discovered that Giannini had become a rat. Legend has it that Charlie Lucky himself sent word back to the States from Italy that Giannini “was no good.” So, subsequently, Vito Genovese ordered Giannini eliminated, and the “contract” was assigned to underboss Anthony (Tony Bender) Strollo, who then handed it off to soldier Joseph (Joe Cago) Valachi with orders to “get it done quick!”….But that's a story for another day.

A QUIET PASSING

There was no known obituary or official date as to when Criscuolo passed away. As late as June 1983 he was still being listed in the United States Senate Hearings on Organized Crime in America as still alive and in New Milford, New Jersey.

Five years later, in April 1988, during another U.S. Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Cosa Nostra members, he was still being carried as an official Genovese Family soldier on FBI membership lists.

But a death notice was eventually uncovered in New Jersey, which stated Alphonse F. Criscuolo had died on September 15, 2003.

So, it seems “Good Looking Al” did pretty good for himself. Al was 92 years old.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Alfred (Good Looking Al) Criscuolo: Genovese Soldier and Junk Dealer

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Alfred (Good Looking Al) Criscuolo: Genovese Soldier and Junk Dealer

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