The Guarnieri Regime of Binghamton, NY

He started out as a strong-arm, gunman, and all-around hood under the auspices of mafioso Giuseppe (Joe the Barber) Barbara Sr. In time, Gov would become one of Barbara’s closest aides and his “go-to” soldier to get “the job done.” A job that was alleged to have included more than a few homicides along the way.

Binghamton

Incorporated as a city way back in 1867, Binghamton in Upstate New York has a current population of approximately 47,000 residents. But at its 1950s peak, it boasted a populous of nearly 85,000.

Located in Broome County, the City of Binghamton lies in what’s called the Southern Tier region of the state right above the Pennsylvania border. Situated confluent to the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers, it is the principal city and cultural center of the overall Binghamton metropolitan or “Triple-Cities” area and home to over 250,000 people.

With the early development of the railroad, Binghamton quickly grew in size and prosperity. It became the transportation crossroads of New York State and eventually a major manufacturing center for cigars, shoes, garments, and electronics, among many other products.

Downtown Binghamton

It also became a major location for defense contractors. The “flight simulator” was actually invented in this city. In recent decades, it is also home to computer development.

Major company names such as IBM, Endicott-Johnson Shoes, General Electric, Ansco, Valvoline, Canada Dry Beverages, and other large employers settled into the area through its early years.

At one time, it even had the well-earned moniker “Valley of Opportunity” because of the wide employment enjoyed there...but with the downturn and subsequent cuts made by defense firms after the Cold War era, the region lost much of its manufacturing industries and its previous allure.

It was among this early backdrop that many newly arrived Irish, German and Italian immigrants relocated up to the area seeking jobs.

Italians made up approximately 15 percent of the area's total population and were a first among equals in their migration up to the Triple-Cities region of Binghamton, Endwell, Endicott, and its adjoining neighborhoods and territories such as Vestal and Johnson City.

Within this Italian settlement were many Sicilian and Calabrian natives, and among these natives were a small but influential contingent of hoodlums. They would develop into factions of several “borgatas” or Mafia Families that came to call the territory their own.

But of all these factions, none was larger or more dominant than that of Castellammarese born Giuseppe (Joe) Barbara. He would rise to become the premier Mafia capo or leader in the area. He ruled a small but influential and well-respected group of mafiosi active in all the typical rackets of the day.

After the death of Pittston-based boss Giovanni Sciandra, Joe Barbara would be nominated as the overall head of a borgata that actually stretched to the Pittston-Scranton area of Pennsylvania and its outer environs as well.

An All-American Little City

But Barbara’s home base and personal fiefdom was the Binghamton and Triple-Cities area of New York State.

As far as his New York State continent went, a first among equals as far as his devoted minions, was a young man who would later be “groomed” to become his trusted “capo di decina” in the state, and in later years, even a potential successor to his throne.

That man was Anthony (The Governor) Guarnieri.

This is his story and that of the “regime” he headed. First, for his “compare” Joe Barbara, and later after Barbara’s death in 1959, for the new boss Rosario Bufalino.

Anthony (Gov) Guarnieri

Anthony (Gov) Guarnieri - aka “Antonio Francesco Guarnieri” (TN), “Governor” or “Gov” for short - was born on May 1, 1911, and raised at 902 Catherine Street in Utica, NY.

As an adult, he resided for many years at 225 Oak Hill Avenue, Endicott. He and his wife later moved to 3619 Royal Road in Johnson City, in the Endwell section of Upstate New York.

He had four brothers - Joseph, Robert, John, and Leo, one of whom, Robert or “Bobby,” would also become affiliated with the mob.

He once admitted in Senate testimony that his baptismal “godfather”, or sponsor in church as a baby, had been old-time Buffalo mafioso Joseph Brocato.

In 1936, he married the former Anna (nee Longo). They would have no children born to this marriage. They lived together for decades in Johnson City until the early-1980s, when they relocated down to Stuart, in the Fort Lauderdale section of South Florida.

Side Note: After moving to Florida, a favorite dining and meeting spot for Guarneri was Joe Sonken’s Gold Coast Restaurant, a well-known and popular seafood place among the general public and mobsters alike.

Top mob guys from across the country often ate there from Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, etc.Gov’s “compare” Russ Bufalino was a mainstay when he visited Florida.

Pittston-based boss Russ Bufalino

Joe Sonken’s was famous for their “stone crabs.” I’ve eaten them many times and I can tell you that they’re fabulous - well worth a visit if you happen to be down that way.

FBI # 5073273, NYCPD # B-319216, NY-DCI # 208194X

He stood 5-feet 8-inches tall and was a well-muscled, solid 180 pounds. Gov was bald on top with grey hair he kept close-cropped on the sides. he had hazel eyes and a ruddy complexion. He was known as a dapper dresser and always drove a late-model Cadillac.

Guarnieri was a very active hoodlum early on in an underworld career that spanned nearly 60 years.

He started out as a strong-arm, gunman, and all-around hood under the auspices of mafioso Giuseppe (Joe the Barber) Barbara Sr. In time, Gov would become one of Barbara’s closest aides and his “go-to” soldier to get “the job done.” A job that was alleged to have included more than a few homicides along the way.

As he became established as a mafioso in his own right, “Gov” Guarnieri was said to have become an active owner in several legitimate businesses over the decades which included a position as the vice-president of Tri-Cities Dress Co., Inc., of Binghamton.

He also served as president and treasurer of the Owego Textile Company of Owego, N.Y. He maintained an office at both locales.

Side Note: In 1956, Gov and his partners (Louis Marconi and Robert Guarnieri) ended up losing both businesses and their leases to the IRS after they fell behind on withholding taxes in excess of $14,000, which was in arrears. But several of his associates wisely bought back the company factories and all their machines and assets for a fraction of their value at auction once the government put them up for sale to try and recoup taxes.

Between the two companies and three factories they ran, almost 150 women had been put out of work until Guarnieri and his buddies took back the equipment and fixtures; 50 women sewing-machine workers at Tri-Cities, at Owego about 50 women seamstresses, and at a second plant they ran at Odell Avenue, another 40-50 lost jobs...so much for government intervention.

(L to R) Louis Marconi, Anthony Guarnieri, Louis Cordi.

The IRS seized his factories.

Another related area dress factory named Bidiek Textile Co., headed by Richie Marino of Endicott (a close Guarnieri associate), had also been seized several months earlier, which put another 40-50 sewing machine operators out of work. Guarnieri and Marino also bought back those assets at a government auction.

His criminal record started in 1945 and reflected at least seven arrests for:

-1945 - lottery sales and conspiracy

-1948 - operation of a lottery business, possessing policy tickets, conspiracy ($1500 fine)

-1948 - illegal possession of a Mauser Automatic pistol (4 months county jail and $300 fine)

-1952 - felonious assault (later reduced to 3rd degree-assault)

-1958 - DMV driving violations (suspended license)

-1959 - conspiracy, obstruction of justice (conviction reversed)

-1973 - conspiracy extortion, gambling, restraint of trade, stolen property

-1987 - several indictments in New York, Nevada, and Florida for possession and sale of counterfeit goods, conspiracy, fraud, interstate conspiracy to transport and distribute marijuana (2 years federal prison)

He accumulated a large number of close friendships within the national underworld over his lifetime, both in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Binghamton and Tri-Cities areas of Upstate New York, and throughout the country.

A shortlist for some of the more important of these associations are as follows:

• Joseph Barbara Sr. - Overall boss of the borgata who would later become better known as the “Bufalino Family”, to whom Gov was a key aide and disciple. Barbara was the host of the 1957 Apalachin Meeting which was held at his sprawling estate property. During his tenure as boss, Gov was considered his “right-hand man”.

Family Boss Giuseppe (Joe) Barbara

• Rosario (Russ) Bufalino - He was Barbara’s successor and although Russ was based in the Pittston-Scranton area, Gov was nonetheless one of his top men and key capos for decades, maintaining his high status throughout Bufalino’s tenure. In fact, when Bufalino acceded to boss, he actually gave Gov even more responsibility and power.

Guarnieri would eventually rise to control all operations in New York State for the borgata, essentially acting as the de facto Family underboss much the same way as Bufalino had served Joe Barbara years earlier.

Bufalino was also thought to have been the co-host at the infamous 1957 Apalachin mob bbq.

• Burgio (Bill) Medico -A multimillionaire businessman and top capo in their Family, who with several mafiosi brothers, headed a huge conglomerate of businesses that generated millions for their mob Family annually.

• Angelo (Sandy) Sciandra - FBI # 2185503. Buffalo-PD # 33957 - The son of the second official boss of their borgata, Sciandra was a top capo. Sandy Sciandra was one of the key hierarchy figures in their borgata whose main focus was overseeing the PA regime’s vast garment rackets. Attended and was caught at the Apalachin meeting.

Capo Angelo (Sandy) Sciandra

• Dominick (Nicky) Alaimo - He was a longtime garment factory owner and racketeer and former Pittston-based capo of their Family as well. With his brother Sam, also a regime soldier, the Alaimo’s operated for years as behind-the-scenes strong-arm extortionists in the labor rackets of both the coal and garment industries.

At one time Nicky Alaimo had been a top official of Local # 1005, of the United Mine Workers Union. A position he lost after his exposure as an attendee at the 1957 Apalachin Meeting raid.

• Vincenzo (Dave Osticco) Sticco - A longtime respected member who served alternately as underboss and consigliere of the borgata over the years. Another 1957 Apalachin bbq alumni.

• Edward (Eddie the Conductor) Sciandra - Another relative of former boss John Sciandra who would later rise to serve first as consigliere, and later as the “acting boss” of the entire Bufalino Family.

Early on Eddie lived in Pittston, PA, but by the 1970s had moved down to Bellmore, Long Island in the NYC downstate region where he partnered with professional gambler George Feinberg in running a large sports-bookmaking operation out of Queens, NY, and the infiltration of a cassette movie and film packaging business based in Manhattan that held a lucrative multimillion-dollar contract with a major Hollywood, California movie production company called MCA.

Sciandra also frequented South Florida where he had a second residence. It is there that he and Guarneri forged an even closer friendship and association than they previously had.

By the late 1970s, the two men worked hand-in-glove in the Sunshine State as the few key representatives left of their ailing NY/PA Family operating in the territory.

• Modesto (Murph) Loquasto and Casper (Cappy) Guimento - Two of Russ Bufalino’s most loyal Pittston, PA-based soldiers who were also close with “Gov”. They were active as enforcers, bookmakers, numbers operators, and all-around aides of the boss.

Pittston-based soldier Cappy Guimento

• Joseph Falcone Sr. and Salvatore Falcone - Brothers and the undisputed bosses of Utica, NY., since the 1930s over policy, illicit alcohol stills, and other rackets.

They and their crew members were all old, close friends and criminal associates with Gov who originally hailed from Utica, though they were technically “under” the flag of the Buffalo mob. Falcone crew soldier Rosario (Russ) Mancuso was especially friendly with Guarnieri.

• Stefano Magaddino - Undisputed boss of the “Buffalo/Niagara Falls Mob” and senior member of the national Mafia’s “Commission”, who operated in the upstate counties of Utica, Syracuse, and the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area, among other territories he controlled. Much territory was shared over the years between these two Families.

• Joseph (Lead Pope Joe) Todaro, Sr. - Successor to Magaddino heading the Buffalo Family. A fellow upstate New Yorker, Todaro became close with Guarnieri, especially in their later years hanging together in Florida.

• Herman (Nig Rosen) Stromberg and his brother Louis Stromberg - Early Jewish mob powers active in NYC and Philadelphia. Active in policy, and narcotics smuggling. Also active in garment rackets with Gov and his superior Russ Bufalino.

• Gabriel (Kelly) Mannarino - A top Pittsburgh Family capo based in New Kensington, and close friend of Guarneri, especially after Gov moved to Florida where they hung out frequently, meeting at Joe Sonken’s Stone Crabs Restaurant.

• Frank (The Wop) Gagliardi - An old-line Gambino soldier serving in Ettore Zappi’s regime who later relocated to South Florida.

• Steve Maruca -A NJ and Florida-based Bonanno soldier and active bookmaker who partnered with Guarnieri in a counterfeit goods distribution ring.

• John (Peanuts) Tronolone - Top figure in the Cleveland mob who relocated to Florida years earlier. He later becomes part of that borgata’s administration.

• Vincenzo (Jimmy Doyle) Plumeri - An iconic NYC Lucchese capo and top power in both the garment industry and boxing rackets. Worked hand-in-glove with Guarneri for years in various garment operations. Plumeri was one of the main tie-ins to the New York City Mafia that Guarnieri had and his closest connection to various “garment district” racket operations.

In his day, “Jimmy Doyle” was one of the most notorious industrial racketeers in the nation. Their close affiliation and friendship stemmed from their mutual interests in Manhattan’s garment district, and its related upstate Pennsylvania dress factories.

Lucchese capo Vincenzo (Jimmy Doyle) Plumeri

Gov Guarneri often handled the particulars and details of his borgata’s NYC garment interests as it related to that of Plumeri’s. They were alleged to have been partners in several dress factories. Bufalino often tasked Gov as his contact man with Plumeri in the handling of their mutual rackets.

• Frank Valenti - A notorious racketeer originally out of Pittsburgh, he later became boss of the mob up in Rochester, New York. Gov worked with Valenti in various racket schemes up in that neck of the woods and was actually indicted with him in later years.

Guarnieri oversaw all racket operations in New York State for his borgata, where he headed his own large crew consisting of several dozen inducted Mafia soldiers and many mob associates.

This supervision extended to his regime’s pivotal control over several important labor organizations his minions ran including Teamsters Union Local # 693, Laborers Union Local # 7, and Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers Union Local # 481, all of Binghamton, and Teamsters Local # 294 of Albany. Key vehicles by which to facilitate their lucrative labor-racketeering activities.

This regime also oversaw the smooth operation of several large garment factories and a related garment carrier over the years, large revenue producers for the borgata back in Pittston-Scranton.

The following names and profiles were among those men directly “with” Gov Guarneri after he was elevated from a soldier to a “capo di decina” and who served in his NYS based “regime” through the years. Twenty some-odd soldiers that included such familiar names as:

• Salvatore Aleccia

• Anthony Mosco

• Ignazio Cannone

• Frank Cannone

• Louis Cordi

• Samuel Rotella

• Augustine Riolo

• Louis Marconi

• Remo Allio

• Pasquale Turrigiano

• Pasquale Sciortino

• Emanuele Zicari

• Bartolo Guccia

• Salvatore and Giuseppe Galante

• Nicholas Benfante

• Carlo Barbara

• Vincenzo Coppola

• Salvatore Saraceno

• Anthony Santacroce

• William Meringolo

• Francesco Vultaggio

• ...and associates Joseph (Blackie) Mazza, Anthony (Tony Bentro) Bentrovito, Joseph Marconi, Nicholas Robilotto, Samuel Brown, Felix (Tickie) Julian, Bert Pavia, Albert (Al) Decker, Joseph (Joe Cap) Capalaces, his brother Robert (Bobby) Guarnieri, among many others.

He later also oversaw a small contingent of crew associates down in Broward County, Florida which included Charles (Charlie Lips) Fratello, Stanley Reppucci, Ellis Klepfer, and Theodore (Teddy) Fanucci.

They were active in running gambling, fencing stolen goods, drugs and distributing “fugazy” designer products such as watches and bags. Fratello operated from the Seminole Lounge, a topless bar in Pompano Beach frequented by mob guys that later became the scene of a deep undercover police investigation named “Operation Cherokee”.

The Endwell section of Binghamton

In fact, Fratello who was originally from Brooklyn, was later arrested, tried, convicted and sent away for murder after he shot a guy dead in the kitchen of the lounge one evening.

Guarnieri listed his occupation for years as a garment manufacturer, and as stated above, was a documented principal partner in the Tri-Cities Dress Co., and Owego Textile Inc., both local area dress firms that, at their peaks, employed well over 125-150 sewing machine operators.

Company partners and close associates over the years included the Schenectady-based soldier Louis Marconi and Endwell’s Louis Cordi. Both Marconi and Cordi were known as gamblers or “KG’s” and operated horse parlors, floating dice and high-stakes card games under the auspices of Guarnieri for decades.

On many occasions, both were picked up after well-publicized police raids on large bookmaking operations. They were typically always named as the heads or kingpins in these gambling probes. Cordi and Marconi were once named in extensive front-page exposes about “protected” upstate gambling rackets that paid bribes to various policemen, police brass and political figures to operate uninterrupted by law enforcement raids.

In another state law enforcement probe during the 1960s into major garment rackets operating upstate, the investigation named Guarnieri and Marconi as the owners of a major apparel trucking firm that had a “lock” on the hauling contracts of virtually every dress manufacturer based in those upstate regions.

Their dress carrier company had the contract to haul garment “piece goods” from Manhattan’s garment district designers and manufacturers up to sub-contracting factories for stitch and assembly. Once completed and sewn together, their trucking firm would haul them back down to their final destinations.

Guarnieri and his mob partners made a ton of money during the years they controlled this lucrative racket monopoly.

Additionally, the following photos show some of his more important associates, especially in the Binghamton and Endicott sections of upstate NY.

Bartolomeo Guccia

Another Binghamton-based soldier was Bartolomeo (Bart) Guccia. Born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, this “sleeper” soldier, ostensibly a lowly fishmonger by outward trade, was, in fact, a convicted gunman, accused murderer, and close, highly-trusted Barbara aide.

He had arrests since 1916 for possession of a revolver, burglary, bootlegging and homicide. When questioned about his presence at the 1957 Apalachin meeting, he pled innocence claiming he had only been on the premises while making a fish delivery to the Barbara home.

Salvatore Aleccia

Another top Upstate NY-based soldier and Guarnieri aide was Salvatore (Blackie) Aleccia. He was active as a crew enforcer and in various gambling rackets; lottery, bookmaking, and dice games. By the 1960s, he had invested into a jukebox and cigarette coin-machine vending company.

By the mid-1970s, Aleccia was indicted along with Bufalino, Guarnieri, and several Buffalo and Rochester mob figures in the group strong-arm extortion of an independent vending operator.

Aside from all the rackets operations he was tied in to by authorities over the years, and a few related run-of-the-mill arrests, Guarnieri was also connected to more serious crimes, several well-publicized murders.

And his mob career was far from all Damon Runyon-style fun and games.

It was alleged by authorities that “Gov” Guarnieri had cut his teeth early in his career by accepting and filling several “contracts” that had been ordered by the hierarchy to protect the Family’s varied interests.

Many front-page news headlines, and the intense police investigations that typically go along with it, were the order of the day during murder probes of several notorious hoodlums in the late-1940s and early 1950s era, in Binghamton and its surrounding towns.

This front-page newspaper article below, discussed the Charlie “The Sheik” Fiannaca and Jimmy “Flip” DeFilippo gangland murder probes. Guarnieri and several of his close associates had been prime suspects in both homicides.

DeFilippo, a suspected informer, was found shot twice in the back and head with .32 caliber slugs on the night of July 4, 1952. His body was discovered under a remote overpass.

Fiannaca, a notorious hoodlum in his own right, who was also a prime suspect in the DeFilippo hit, was later also shot to death.

Guarnieri was also questioned about the 1948 killing of a small-time Binghamton gambler named Martin (Marty) Agricola who was strangled, with his body thrown in a creekbed along Powderhouse Road.

And in that same busy murder year of 1948, he was quizzed about two more gangland murders. That of Leo Lampo and Tony Gance.

Overall, he was suspected of having either been the actual gunman or of having had a hand in four or five mafia-related murders during his long underworld career.

• Born in Italy in 1900, Emanuele (Manny) Zicari was another mafioso who immediately relocated up to Endicott, New York upon immigrating to America. Law enforcement considered Zicari a key “soldier” within the Guarnieri crew. A convicted counterfeiter, Zicari attended and was another of those captured at the Apalachin Meeting.

Emmanuel (Manny) Zicari

• Soldier Nicholas Benfante and his mob associate brother Giacomo (Jack) Benfante - Labor union racketeering specialists closely associated to Guarneri as well as their Family. The Benfante’s also operated as Upstate bookmakers.

• The godson of Bonanno capo Natale Evola, and a nephew of Boss Joe Barbara, Ignazio (Sonny) Cannone was a well-placed young soldier of the Family, as clearly evidenced by his attendance at the Apalachin mob meeting.

Ignazio (Sonny) Cannone

Patsy Turrigiano

Patsy Sciortino

Sonny and his brother Frank primarily engaged in gambling rackets of bookmaking and dice games. Sonny also operated several bars and taverns through the years and was suspected of illegal untaxed-alcohol bootleg traffic in conjunction with his crew.

• Based in Endicott, Patsy Turrigiano was another close associate of Gov Guarneri and Barbara. He was a former bootlegger who was once convicted for operating a 1,200-gallon alcohol still in his hometown of Endicott. Patsy was also another Apalachin meeting alumni.

• Residing in nearby Auburn, NY, another low-key soldier was Pasquale (Patsy) Sciortino, a shadowy little-known mafioso of the crew. Not much was ever uncovered about his career, with the exception that he also attended the Apalachin meet in 1957 and was thought to be associated with the brothers' Sam and Patsy Monachino in running things up in their home base of Auburn for the borgata.

Back in 1948, Guarnieri was the lead defendant in a wide sweep by NYS Troopers of gamblers arrested for operating a $5,000,000-a-year numbers-lottery ring across several Upstate counties. The police raids smashed an operation that included Marconi, Decker, and Pavia among 15 men and women who helped sell and distribute lottery tickets.

Guarnieri was also an attendee of the infamous 1957 Apalachin Meeting as a leader from the Upstate New York area. In fact, he was said by racket investigators to have helped in the setting up and preparation for the big mob bbq under the instructions of Barbara.

He was one of those caught by New York State Police trying to depart the Barbara property in a 1957 Oldsmobile operated by Patsy Monachino. Other passengers were Patsy’s brother Saverio Monachino and Brooklyn boss Joseph Profaci.

It would cause Guarnieri, as well as all those captured, a lot of grief in the ensuing years as investigation after investigation into the infamous mob summit and its attendees haunted the mafiosi through the decades.

He had the dubious honor of being the very first to ever testify before Senate racket investigators about the infamous underworld summit. He was represented by his attorney, Remo Allio (who was secretly a sworn mafia member as well). Guarnieri invoked the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution.

Although treated as an unindicted co-conspirator, Guarnieri was repeatedly grilled by Senate investigators for four- and five-hour intervals at a time while under oath.

Initially invoking his Constitutional privileges against self-incrimination 53 times on one occasion and 32 times on another, after being granted immunity from prosecution, Guarnieri was compelled to answer all questions the best he could. Still, he was as evasive as the day allowed.

This went on for several years, with multiple appearances before both local and federal grand juries. All became highly-publicized affairs in newspapers splashed across the nation.

His attendance and the black mark it painted across him as a top mafioso would negatively follow him throughout his lifetime.

Fast forward to 1971, Guarnieri’s name surfaced once again in a scandal of police corruption after the head of the newly formed New York State Organized Crime Task Force, Robert E. Fisher, was a partner in a mob-run Binghamton trucking firm (Cana Trucking) connected to a close associate of Gov.

Fisher had been a former Broome County District Attorney who later became a County Judge before his elevation to as the state’s “supercop”.

Then in April of 1973, Guarnieri was one of a gaggle of Pennsylvania and Upstate New York gangsters nabbed for an extortion-monopoly scheme aimed at a rival vending machine company, among other racket schemes.

Eighteen top mob figures were among twenty-seven arrested in a series of raids against the Magaddino, Valenti and Bufalino Families by FBI agents in Buffalo, Rochester, Binghamton and Scranton, PA., respectively.

They were charged variously with multiple counts of gambling, transporting stolen goods, interference with interstate commerce, armed robbery, perjury and obstruction of justice.

Among those swept up in the raids were Mafia leaders Russ Bufalino of Scranton himself, and Rochester boss Frank Valenti. The charges involved four separate but interconnected cases all stemming from a deep undercover probe and inside informant information.

Side Note: Batavia, NY mob figure Joseph Zito had turned rat after being convicted along with Valenti in an extortion case the previous year. Facing 20 years in prison, he allowed undercover agents to later infiltrate underworld activities in the area by Zito helping the FBI agents gain the trust of many mobsters, which in turn helped the probe to succeed.

Additionally, among many others indicted were several interesting well-known mob surnames active in that section of the Northeast region including, Bufalino soldier Salvatore (Blackie) Aleccia of Endwell, NY; and Richard Tribunella, Dominick and Vincent (Jimmy) Caci, Eugene DeFrancesco, Samuel Gingello, Leonard Fambo, Thomas Didio, Michael Vinci, Peter Talarico, Alfred Panepinto, Salvatore Russotti, Paul Comfort, Russell DeCicco, Salvatore Todaro, and Charles Russo, all of whom were top soldiers or associates of either the Buffalo or Rochester mobs.

Fifteen years later in 1988, as an old man of 77 years old, Guarnieri was again picked up and charged, this time for several mob schemes he involved himself in down by his new home of Broward County in South Florida. Gov was caught speaking in confidence to an undercover detective (Lt. David Green) who had gained his trust. Over 50 bugged conversations were recorded with Guarnieri in the process of “Operation Cherokee”.

The City of Binghamton, NY

Gov was one of a slew of mobsters nailed from varied crews including New York’s Gambino mob. He was charged with conspiracy to acquire and distribute 300 pounds of marijuana back in 1986. He was also charged with trafficking in counterfeit watches and knockoffs and fraud.

Side Note: A frail and sickly Guarnieri was suffering from a myriad of ailments including chronic heart and lung disease, a hernia, facial spasms, and cataracts. He was also going semi-senile and had a tremendous hearing loss by this time.

In fact, while the judge was conducting his plea hearing in the Florida courtroom, Guarnieri, as well as his wife who was present to support her husband, could hardly hear or understand the proceedings.

Gov later threw in the towel and pled guilty to the charge, and was sentenced to serve a two-year jail term and fined $50,000.

His plea agreement also settled two other outstanding related indictments in both Las Vegas and New York.

Shortly after having made parole, Anthony (Gov) Guarnieri passed away in 1990 while residing in South Florida where he had relocated many years earlier. He was 80 years old.

“Gov” proved himself to be a very loyal mafia member to his last days on this earth. And just like a “mafia” Duracell battery, “he took his lickin and kept on tickin” to the near very end! ...buona salute, Governatore!

The Guarnieri Regime of Binghamton, NY

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The Guarnieri Regime of Binghamton, NY

Unlock This Door to the Underworld

Take the Journey!

You May Also Enjoy

Racketeer Snapshot: Connecticut’s Frank (The Cigar) Piccolo

The Anthony Strollo Regime of NY/NJ

The Day Charlie (the Bug) Workman Saved a Horse

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