Joseph (Bayonne Joe) Zicarelli: Garden State Corruptor

Joseph (Bayonne Joe) Zicarelli was a very close associate and trusted partner of Lilo Galante and the overall Bonanno Family hierarchy.

Authorities were told by informants that “Bayonne Joe” had been tapped by underboss Lilo Galante to oversee Lilo’s gambling racket operations while Galante was fighting his narcotics trafficking trial in 1960.

Although he would eventually gain much notoriety and be arrested several times during the late 1960s forward, Zicarelli was an important mafioso in the New Jersey underworld.

Continue reading to learn more about Bayonne Joe Zicarelli and his far-flung exploits and rackets.

Joseph (Bayonne Joe) Zicarelli - aka “Joe Bayonne" and, “Joe Z" - was born in 1912. He had originally been raised and grew up at 255 Avenue B in Bayonne, New Jersey.

Joe Zicarelli

As a young man, he lived at 7200 Boulevard East in North Bergen. After he married and got better established, he moved his wife and kids to 363 Standish Avenue in Hackensack, New Jersey.

And finally, as a well-to-do mafioso, he relocated to 551 Branoon Place in Cliffside Park, also in New Jersey.

FBI # 1107492, NJSP # 142776 NYPD # E-7289

Joe Bayonne's activities included alcohol tax bootlegging, gambling, stolen Canadian securities, counterfeiting, international narcotics smuggling and distribution, strong-arm and enforcement, bribery, and official corruption.

Zicarelli’s lengthy police record of 13 arrests started in 1930:

1930 - violation motor vehicle law

1935 - state liquor law violations

1936 - probation violation

1937 - held as a material witness

1937 - conspiracy to violate alcohol tax laws (5 years probation)

1939 - operating illicit still and possession unregistered still (1 year)

1942 - illicit alcohol still (9 months)

1948 - maintaining a gambling den

1950 - conspiracy to defraud the US of alcohol taxes (still operation)

1952 - federal liquor law violations

1959 - investigation

1969 - atrocious assault and murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping

1970 - criminal contempt of court

1970 - bribery and conspiracy (twice)

.....most cases were related to gambling and bootlegging activity.

In 1939, in U.S. District Court, he received a year and a day plus three years probation on conspiracy to violate Internal Revenue Laws and operating an unregistered alcohol still in Newark, NJ.

In 1942, he listed employment as a Longshoreman for ILA Local # 1588 in Bayonne.

In 1952, he and Anthony Strollo tried to gain control of the Claremont Terminal.

Among his most favored hangouts were Willie’s Bar on Rt.17 in Lodi, Frankie’s Market on Rt.17 in Bergen County, and Shopper's Paradise in Spring Valley, NY.

His top criminal associates have included:

• Joseph (Joe Bananas) Bonanno

• Carmine (Lilo) Galante

• Michael Consolo

• Joseph (Little Joe) Notaro

• John (Johnny Bennett) Petrone

• Angelo (Little Moe) Presinzano

• Vito (Don Vitone) Genovese

• Anthony (Tony Bender) Strollo

• Louis LaPore (driver and bodyguard)

.....among scores of others throughout his lifetime.

In the 1950s, Zicarelli was said to have financed and backed the production and distribution of illegal alcohol. His associates set up and operated several stills in the Jersey area.

He was also suspected of dealing in arms and munitions to Israel and Cuba as an active smuggler/trafficker.

In 1954, he was connected to the Aviation Corp. of America, based in Newark - a company used as a front in the shipping of arms to Israel.

ABCO Vending Service and ABCO Sales, both of West New York, NJ, were cigarette machine vending firms that distributed throughout Northern Jersey. They got their equipment from the Runyon Sales Co., of NYC (Runyon was the largest vending firm in the Northeast, which was secretly owned by Genovese acting boss Jerry Catena).

Jerry Catena

These companies were fronted by several Jewish businessmen, Bernie Azarow and Irwin Schwartz, mob associates who also sold worthless stock on behalf of the mob and smuggled arms to Cuba.

Zicarelli and Lilo Galante also had formed the Latimer Shipping Co., another firm in Midtown Manhattan dedicated to nothing more than their various smuggling rackets. This firm was located at 10 E. 49th Street.

This was the former office of Saul Gelb, Jean Baruche, and Jean Aron, defendants in the Nig Rosen heroin conspiracy case. The offices had been used as a meeting place during the drug conspiracy.

His additional criminal associates included:

• lrving Schlindler, Thomas Duganis, and Al Toplitz - all known hoodlums and suspected narcotics dealers who had accompanied Galante to Cuba several years before.

• Sam Iarusso (FBI # 979056) - a Brooklyn racketeer, convicted counterfeiter, and associate of Joe and Sam Mannerino.

• Joseph Merola (FBI # 4989299) of New Kensington, PA. - He was another smuggler connected with Mannerino and the Pittsburgh mob. Convicted of the National Stolen Property Act for a cache of stolen rifles destined for the Castro regime in Cuba. He received 5 years in prison.

In 1959, in a related undercover probe, Marco Orlandino was nabbed by FBN agents with 10 kilos of extremely pure heroin that had been stashed at his brother's home.

It was proved that he was indeed working for Galante, Zicarelli, and Salvatore Giglio.

Bayonne Joe

They, in turn, had gotten the narcotics from the Cotroni organization in Montreal. Zicarelli was said to have been the one to arrange for the courier to travel to Canada by car and drive the heroin stashes back through the border for distribution in New York City.

This same criminal network had transferred over $12,000,000 in stolen negotiable securities grabbed during burglaries of several Canadian banks into interstate and international commerce in 1958.

Shortly thereafter, in a subsequent investigation, Cotroni and a confederate, Rene Robert, were arrested in NYC for international transportation of forged securities.

Within days of this arrest, they were again charged, this time for having sold 6 kilos of heroin to an undercover narcotics agent.

Joe Zicarelli

Cotroni would later receive 10 years imprisonment in this case. Robert got 8 years.

Back-to-back in 1960, on a superseding indictment, 29 defendants were indicted for a massive heroin conspiracy case.

Those named included Canadians Pep Cotroni, Robert, mafiosi Louis Greco and Vincenzo (Vic) Cotroni, Peter Stepanoff and Solomon (Solly Silvers) Schnapps.

Galante maintained overall control of this drug network through his primary assistants, Bonanno soldiers Greco, Salvatore Giglio, and Zicarelli. All were indicted except Zicarelli.

Authorities stated that they didn’t have enough evidence to warrant an indictment for him although he had been central to the entire conspiracy.

This case was the most important of its kind in that era. It included some of the most important mafiosi from multiple Families and showed the working relationship between them:

Bonanno

Carmine Galante • Giuseppe Cotroni • Vincent Cotroni • Salvatore Giglio

Louis Greco • Rene Robert • Marco Orlandino • Anthony Mirra

Angelo Tuminaro • Anthony DiPasqua • Frank Mari

Salvatore Sciremammano • Frank Mancino • Peter Stepanoff

Lucchese

John Ormento • Joseph Di Palermo • Angelo Loiacono • Samuel Monastersky

Carmine Panico • Salvatore Panico • William Struzzieri

Rocco Sancinella • Benjamin Indiviglio • Joseph Vecchio

Genovese

David Betillo • Carlie DiPietro • Charles Gagliodotto

Carmine Polizzano • Joseph Fernandez

Gambino

William Bentivena • Jack Gellman

Most would be convicted after a laborious trial that saw Cosa Nostra at its finest. Every conceivable delay and disruption tactic was used in an attempt to declare a mistrial.

Terror tactics such as screaming and cursing at the judge and prosecutors in the courtroom, several defendants getting up and pushing through the juror box, Mirra picking up a chair and throwing it at the judge, and the jury foreman mysteriously falling (or getting thrown) down two flights of stairs in an abandoned building became part of the trial.

The judge ordered various defendants chained and shackled and allowed the trial to continue to its conclusion.

They were all sentenced to lengthy federal prison terms.

Tony Mirra

By the mid-1960s, the FBI warned Zicarelli had expanded his underworld gambling rackets to Rockland County, New York.

He was considered a major power in Northern New Jersey.

A very close associate and trusted partner of Lilo Galante and the overall Bonanno hierarchy, authorities were told by informants that “Bayonne Joe” had been tapped by underboss Lilo Galante to oversee Lilo’s gambling racket operations while Galante was fighting his narcotics trafficking trial in 1960.

Bonanno members said to be affiliated with Zicarelli in this NJ gambling ring were Consolo, Frank Cerbone, and John Squicciarini. They were all nabbed on federal policy-gambling counts and jailed.

Joseph Zicarelli

It was said that Zicarelli had especially tight control over the city of Bayonne. His wife’s brother was Daniel Scala, deputy Mayor of Bayonne, and Joe’s sister was married to the Mayor of Bayonne.

Zicarelli’s wife was also said to have been a cousin of Al Capone.

Peter Policastro, a top police official was drawn into this scandal. He was so close to Bonanno members that he was actually listed as a “mob associate” himself.

Bayonne Joe was said to maintain control through his close associate, Jacob Zax (FBI # 7591), whose brothers Peter and William Zax were a city official and a policeman respectively.

Collectively, they oversaw the smooth running of gambling operations and interceded for Galante at the highest levels of the police department when Galante had been arrested for driving without a license.

Galante was a fugitive from the narcotics case at the time. Several mob figures were charged with harboring him while a fugitive including Moe Presinzano, Mike Consolo, and Anthony Macaluso.

Additionally, several important, well-placed members of the NJPD had been compromised by Zicarelli and his minions, giving “Joe Bayonne” and the Bonanno mob practically a “lock” for the safe operation of gambling and other rackets in that city.

This eventually led to a big scandal that saw the dismissal and subsequent arrest of several top police officials on official misconduct charges.

In 1971, after a jury trial, Zicarelli and three others were convicted of bribing John Armellino, the mayor of West New York, New Jersey. It was proved that they were paying him $1,000 a week to protect gambling operations.

He also faced a mountain of other indictments.

The previous summer, Zicarelli was indicted in a separate case along with mob associate, Frank Mallamaci, on charges of conspiring to bribe a police captain in Hudson County, a Jersey City detective, Mayor Herman Klein of Guttenberg, N.J., and John Theuer, the Hudson County Republican Party chairman, to ignore illegal gambling.

Joseph Zicarelli and Frank Mallamaci

He was also indicted along with Mallamaci for allegedly conspiring to kidnap and murder a police informant.

Also outstanding was a federal tax evasion indictment that charged him with concealing 90% of his alleged $1,000,000‐a‐year income in 1967 and 1968.

In August of 1968, Life magazine had charged in an article that Representative Cornelius E. Gallagher, the top democrat of Bayonne, was a “tool and collaborator” of Zicarelli.

Gallagher, of course, denied the charges and was reelected the following November. He would eventually face related charges himself.

Joseph (Bayonne Joe) Zicarelli died at the age of 71 in 1983.

Joseph (Bayonne Joe) Zicarelli – Garden State Corruptor

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