Hartford Mafioso – Anthony (Tony) Volpe

Tony Volpe was the dominant mob figure in a town deemed an ‘open city,’ not subject to the control of any single organized crime group.

He was allied as a soldier with Springfield, Massachusetts's regime of capo Salvatore (Big Nosed Sam) Cufari and his chief assistant, acting capo Francesco (Frankie Skyball) Scibelli .

One former associate who knew him well stated, “He was no slouch. But he was alright. If you needed a favor, he’d give you a favor."

Antonio Davide Volpe Sr., aka “Anthony D. (Tony) Volpe,” was born on December 10, 1932, in Pratola Peligna, Italy to Emilio and Lucia (nee’ DeAngelo) Volpe. After arriving in this country, he and his family settled in the New England section, where he would grow up. As an adult, he later chose to reside and operate in the West Hartford section of Connecticut for the remainder of his life.

For many years, the Volpes owned a home at 157 South Main Street in West Hartford. He later bought a house at 5 High Gate Lane. Tony allegedly also kept a vacation home at West Hill Lake and another in Rhode Island.

Anthony Volpe

After marrying, he and his wife Dolores raised four children: two girls and two boys. By all accounts, he was a devoted family man and a very good father to his children and grandchildren, who were said to adore him.

Volpe was built large, like a ‘brick wall.’ He excelled at sports and was an outstanding athlete at Bulkeley High School, where he played football and basketball. For a time, he even played semi-professional football for the Hartford Blues.

He was known as a solidly built, physically tough guy who was not one to be trifled with. He was a tough-talking, hard-hitting member of a mob crew that controlled organized crime in that section of the state.

One former associate who knew him well stated, “He was no slouch. But he was alright. If you needed a favor, he’d give you a favor."

By his mid-thirties, Tony Volpe was identified by both local and federal law enforcement authorities as an inducted member of the Genovese Family’s Connecticut crew, based in the city of Hartford.

He was active in various gambling rackets such as a numbers-lottery, sports bookmaking, dice and card games. He also engaged loan-sharking and strong-arm tactics.

An "Open City"

By the mid-1980s, he started engaging in the food and beverage business.

Tony first owned a bar that he operated out of along New Britain Avenue. He later opened up an Italian restaurant he named Volpe’s Cafe, located at 107-111 New Britain Avenue.

He was also investigated by the SLA (State Liquor Authority) for hidden ownership in The Place, another lounge located at 107 New Britain Avenue. The liquor license and corporate lease were held in the name of his brother, Americo Volpe, who was listed as president.

As time passed, he became the dominant mob figure in a town deemed an ‘open city,’ not subject to the control of any single organized crime group.

But Volpe himself was actually allied as a soldier with Springfield, Massachusetts, regime of capo Salvatore (Big Nosed Sam) Cufari, and his chief assistant, acting-capo Francesco (Frankie Skyball) Scibelli.

He also worked in tandem with a Worcester-based soldier and that city’s resident mob boss, Carlo Mastrototaro.

A Gambling Enterprise and More

Tony usually operated from the South End section of Hartford, where he oversaw gambling and loanshark operations . In his time, the area was rife with Italian-styled restaurants, little expresso and pastry cafes, Italian bakeries, after-hours drinking joints, illegal backroom casinos, and private mob-styled social clubs. It was Connecticut’s version of a Little Italy.

Over the years, he operated or controlled numerous card games, including one located at a private social club on Standish Street in Hartford, where he raked a 5% chop, or percentage, off the top of every pot of money bet by card players.

The FBI says that aside from gambling and shylock rackets, Tony Volpe was active in truck hijackings and labor-union racketeering.

He was also a well-known shylock. The loans Tony extended ranged anywhere from 2% up to a whopping 10% weekly interest rates. But in his defense, he never claimed to be Household Finance. And he wasn’t.

In 1994, he was one of thirteen suspects arrested in early morning FBI sweeps during raids conducted across Massachusetts and Connecticut, aimed at members and associates of the Genovese Family’s so-called New England branch.

All suspects arrested were charged with various violations of the Federal RICO Statute that included racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, illegal gambling businesses, extortionate credit transactions, coercion, and assault.

Underworld Associates

Over the years, Tony Volpe numbered among his underworld associates all the key players of the New England mafia. Members of the Raymond Patriarca Family of Providence, Rhode Island, and Connecticut-based representatives of New York City’s infamous Five Families. Among his closest confederates were members and associates of the Cufari/Scibelli regime, of which Volpe was a crew member.

They included Frank (Skyball) Scibelli, Adolfo (Big Al) Bruno, Anthony (Skipper) Delevo, Anthony (The Turk) Scibelli, Albert (Baba) Scibelli, Amedeo Santaniello, Nicholas Camerota, Andrew Pradella, Girolamo (Bobby Doyle) Santucci, Alvaro Lanzetta, Emilio Fusco, Felix Tranghese, Mario Fiore, William Fiore, Louis Maloni, and Ricardo (Soggy) Songini.

Tony Volpe also had a small personal crew of men directly under his control who assisted him in running the Hartford rackets. They included John A. (Johnny B) Barile, Charles Tolisano, Pasquale (Pat the Rat) Guglietta, Dominick (Cuckoo Nicky) Scocca, John (Johnny Baskets) Della Ferra, Paul (Paulie the Wrestler) La Rosa, Patrick (Big Pat) Poland, and Walter (The Lobsterman) Bassett.

He was also allied, and interacted with, Genovese members of a small Worcester-based regime that included: Carlo Mastrototaro, Cosmo (Pinky) Panarelli, Thomas (Champ) Sanfratello, Jimmy Collaro, Salvatore (Sully) Iaconi, Angelo (Chester) Iaconi, and Francis (Jigger) Santo.

Early mugshot of Frank Piccolo.

Other top Connecticut-based operatives from the Genovese, Gambino, Colombo, and Patriarca Families that Volpe knew and dealt with over the years included; Americo (Rico the Cigar) Petrillo, Frank (The Cigar) Piccolo of Bridgeport; Thomas (Tommy the Enforcer) DeBrizzi of Fairfield County; Salvatore (Sabby) Basso, Vincent Pollina of Darby; Francis (Fat Franny) Curcio, William (Billy) Grasso of New Haven; Mariano (Mario) Grasso, of New Haven; Frank (Frankie Pugs) Pugliano, John (Sonny) Castagna, Gaetano J. Milano, Dominick (Slats) Marangelli, Louis J. Failla, Ralph (Whitey) Tropiano, and Salvatore (Butchie) D’Aquilla Jr.

These above-mentioned men were, for the most part, the dominant players in Connecticut’s underworld landscape.

Arrest Record

Volpe was arrested on racketeering charges in the late 1970s and later sent to prison for this conviction, which included hijacking a truckload of meat and using violence to collect from loan customers who had borrowed money or lost gambling bets to the mob.

A month before sentencing, over 200 friends and relatives gathered at a Rocky Hill restaurant in his honor to wish him well in prison. It was one helluva send-off.

One guest complained that “there would have been 200 more guests who attended if it wasn’t for FBI agents lurking outside snapping photographs of the affair and jotting down license plates.”

By the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, he was once again under FBI scrutiny and had become a prime target of theirs. In 1994, after concluding their probe, the FBI made an early morning sweep across Connecticut and parts of Massachusetts, arresting 13 suspects on federal charges.

Named in the 46-count indictment were soldier Volpe (then 62 years old), capos Frank Scibelli (82 years old) and Carlo Mastrototaro (78 years old), soldier Adolfo Bruno (48 years old), and a whole host of their closest mob associates on RICO counts.

Also nabbed in the sweep was a former State Representative from Hartford’s South End named Paul La Rosa.

He was specifically charged with the operation and overseeing of a gambling den for Volpe that La Rosa ran out of a backroom casino at 35 Standish Street. La Rosa also owned and operated the Casa Loma Restaurant on Wethersfield Avenue in Hartford, which was used as a mob hangout.

In 1996, they were all convicted on RICO charges. Volpe was sentenced to serve over three years in federal prison. He had decided to plead guilty rather than face a trial.

Plea Deal

The then 64-year-old Volpe settled with prosecutors for an agreed-upon 41-month sentence and a $20,000 cash forfeiture that the feds had discovered in his safe deposit box.

He also agreed to pay the government an additional $50,000, the value of his one-third ownership share of Volpe’s Cafe. The FBI had asserted that the location was used as a base for criminal activities.

Interesting Side Note: During this latest federal investigation, the FBI was able to pick up some interesting tidbits from a listening device, or “bug,” they had installed during the probe.

On wiretapped recordings, they heard several mobsters discussing Volpe’s pending 1992 formal ‘initiation’ into the ranks of the Genovese Family and the trouble the bosses were having setting up the ceremony to' make’ him an official soldier.

“Nothing’s happening now. When it happens, it’s everyone at one time. They had to get organized again,” according to the tape recordings. This conversation was to reassure Volpe that, indeed, he would be formally inducted into the Mafia at some point and to remain patient.

In addition to copping to the other charges Volpe also pleaded guilty to lying on an unrelated mortgage loan application he had submitted to the Shawmut Mortgage Company in order to secure a $90,000 mortgage loan he was seeking for his private Hartford residence.

Following these pleas, the next week, he was back in court again to plead guilty to an unrelated insurance fraud scheme the feds had uncovered while probing the mafioso’s other criminal activities and background.

It was a one-two-three punch by the feds that helped knock the wind out of the aging mafioso. He once again went to jail and was eventually paroled after serving several years behind bars.

Settling Into Retirement

Already settling into semi-retirement, one of Volpe’s last known arrests was for assault. The old hoodlum was accused of delivering a knockout punch to a man at a birthday party that was arranged by Tony’s daughter.

While Tony was enjoying himself at the party, this man insulted Volpe and then tossed a drink in his face.

Volpe was later acquitted of the charge. In his court summation, Tony’s defense lawyer asked the jurors what the alleged victim had expected would happen by challenging and then throwing a drink at him. Was Tony not supposed to defend himself and his honor?

Anthony D. Volpe Sr. died in a local hospital on December 28, 2010, of heart disease. He was one of the last old-time Genovese Family hoodlums still active in the New England region. He was also the last recognized ‘boss’ of what was left of Hartford’s underworld. Tony was 78 years old.

At the time of his death, Volpe had been mostly retired and in failing health in recent years, and most of the area’s racket activity had long since dried up.

Until next time..."The Other Guy"

Hartford Mafioso – Anthony (Tony) Volpe

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