Joseph Francis Civello – aka “Joe Civello,” “Joe Civillo,” and “Giuseppe Francis Civello” (TN) – was born in Port Allen, Louisiana on February 2, 1902. He was one of six children born to Filippo G. and Caterina Civello. He had a brother named Charles, and four sisters named Frances, Anna, Phyllis, and Margaret. As a young man, Joe Civello met and quickly fell in love with a girl named Mary Musso whose brother was a mafioso from Rockford, Illinois by the name of Rosario (Ross) Musso. Joe and Mary would eventually marry, but this union would never produce children for them.
Civello stood 5 feet 11 inches tall. Despite his height, Joe was very slenderly built at only 160 pounds. He had blue eyes, wore eyeglasses, and had a full head of close-cropped, curly, jet-black hair. Well into his sixties, Joe still sported a full head of salt-and-pepper hair.
Civello first started his underworld career during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s. By the time he reached thirty years old, he was suspected to have become a fully-inducted member of the local Mafia Family headed by Carlo and Joseph Piranio. This would start his meteoric rise within the Texas underworld. Upon the deaths of the Piranio brothers, Civello himself was eventually elected by the membership to head the Dallas Family.
As stated, Civello married Ross Musso’s sister. Sometime later, Musso moved to Dallas and ended up marrying Joe’s sister, Frances Civello. Joe and Ross became very close allies. Not only because they were brothers-in-law but as bonafide partners in both illicit rackets and legitimate business alike. As Civello climbed the underworld ladder, Musso become his righthand man. When Civello finally rose to become “Capo Familia” of the Texas Family in 1956, he immediately appointed Musso as his number two man and Ross Musso became the “official” underboss of the Family.
They treated one another more like brothers than brothers-in-law. In fact, they were so close that when Joe and Mary finally bought a house of their own, they invited Ross and Frances to live with them. Subsequently, the Civello and Musso families resided together for years to come. First at the modest Civello family home located at 5311 Denton Drive, Dallas, and years later relocating to another home close by at 4908 Gulfstream.
Sidenote: Mary Musso was also the niece of Clemenzia Musso Piranio who was the wife of Carlo T. Piranio, long recognized as the original “founding” boss of the Texas Family of Cosa Nostra.
Dallas-PD #7265, FBI #1222605
Civello’s limited but very serious criminal arrest record with the Dallas Police Department started in 1928 when he was first arrested as a young hoodlum for the gangland-style shotgun execution of a rival hoodlum named Joe DeCarlo. He beat that case but was arrested a second time in 1928 for violating Prohibition Liquor Laws for which he only served 40 days in the Dallas County Jail. But a few years later, he was indicted on more serious charges of Federal Narcotics Law Violations. He was convicted and sent away to serve 15 years in Leavenworth Penitentiary. Many years later in 1960, he was once again federally convicted on a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice and sentenced to serve 5 years in a federal penitentiary.
This last case was related to his attendance at the infamous November 14, 1957, Mafia conclave known as the Apalachin Meeting in Upstate, New York. But Civello’s conviction as well as that of all 60 Apalachin attendees apprehended that fateful day was later overturned on appeal.
As “boss” of the Family, Civello would typically have gotten a cut from all activities that his soldiers engaged in. But the authorities say that Civello’s primary illicit income was always derived from both gambling (bookmaking) and narcotics rackets.
Over the years, Civello made it his business to both invest in and personally operate several legitimate business ventures. These included oil leases and a wholesale-retail food and liquor import and supply company that was aptly named Civello’s Fine Foods & Liquors, located at 4236 Oak Lawn Avenue in Dallas. Both his brother Charlie and his brother-in-law Ross Musso reportedly shared in this thriving business.
As the “official” boss of a Mafia Family, it could be argued that his known criminal associates included most of the American Cosa Nostra. But over the years, both local and federal authorities clearly documented his close associations with such well-known mafiosi as the aforementioned Ross Musso, his cousins Leon and Sam Civello, as well as local hoodlums Giuseppe (Joe) Ianni, Francesco (Frank) Ianni, Biagio (Big Angelo) Angelica, Joseph and Samuel Campisi, Louis (Lou Marion) Marino, Johnny Ross Patrono, Victor Maddi, Joseph (Joe Luke) Lucca, Vincent D’Ingianni, and a host of others, all of whom were Civello Family soldiers.
Additionally, he was intimate with such top Mafia bosses as Carlos Marcello, Silvestro (Silver Sam) Carolla, and Anthony S. Carolla, all of New Orleans, LA; Santo Trafficante Jr. of Tampa, FL; Joseph Filardo and Nicolo Impastato of Kansas City, MO; Antonio (Tony) Musso and Joseph Zammuto of Rockford, IL; and Frank DeSimone (another Civello cousin) of Los Angeles, CA.
Joe Civello, through one of his top capos, Frank Ianni, was also very close to New York’s Genovese Family through caporegime Rocco (The Old Man) Pellegrino; his son, Peter Pellegrino; and Mangano/Gambino Family soldier Alfonso Attardi. All three were known to be deeply engaged in the interstate trafficking of heroin. In fact, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics strongly suspected the Pellegrino family of being the key contact for a New York to Texas drug pipeline. Back in 1937, Attardi figured into a major interstate narcotics network then operating through a variety of states, including Dallas, Tampa, Kansas City, and several other midwest cities.
Civello had always been a low-key and somewhat shadowy figure. But the tremendous law enforcement pressure and subsequent media exposure he received following his attendance at the ill-fated Apalachin Meeting led him to further retreat into the shadows.
Joseph Francis Civello died on January 17, 1970. He was only 68 years old.
Until next time…”The Other Guy”
