Joseph "Joe Calabrese" Lagano: The Smartest Lucchese Capo

In the world of the Lucchese Family, the biggest names usually came with the loudest headlines. But then there’s Joseph “Joe Calabrese” Lagano.

Born in the heart of Manhattan’s Little Italy, Lagano lived a life that was the ultimate paradox: he was a high-ranking powerhouse who managed to stay virtually invisible. While his peers were busy getting measured for mugshots, Joe was busy getting measured for custom suits in the Garment District. With only one arrest to his name—a youthful indiscretion in 1928—he pulled off the rarest feat in Cosa Nostra history: he rose to the rank of Captain, became a millionaire partner to Tommy Lucchese himself, and never saw the inside of a cell again.

He wasn't just a mobster; he was a ghost in a ranch-style house, a "careful and lucky" operator who proved that in the Mafia, the smartest guys are the ones you’ve never heard of.

Joseph (Joe Calabrese) Lagano – aka Joe Lagana, Dominick Joseph Lagano, John J. Lagano, and Giovanni Giuseppe Lagano (TN) – was born in New York City on February 24, 1906. His father and mother were Antonio and Angelina Lagano, respectively.

The Lagano family lived in an apartment at 22 Prince Street in Manhattan’s “Little Italy” section. By the time he reached young adulthood, Joe was renting a small apartment for himself just a few doors down from his parents home, at 29 Prince Street.

29 Prince Street

He married a young Italian girl named Dora who also came from Little Italy. After they wed, he and Dora decided to stay and live in the neighborhood, moving to another apartment right around the corner at 217 Mulberry Street.

Joe was described as standing 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing approximately 170 pounds. He had brown eyes, black hair, and a light complexion.

Side Note: The Lagano family is thought to have originated in the Calabria Province of Southern Italy. If this is true, it probably accounts for Lagano’s underworld moniker of “Joe Calabrese” — a street nickname he acquired as a kid.

Climbing the Ladder

Although “Joe Calabrese,” as he was called, would one day become a top-ranked member of the old Tommy Lucchese Family, and, subsequently, become a priority target for both local and federal law enforcement authorities who took a keen interest in his background and underworld activities, not much was ever publicly disclosed or written about him.

In fact, to this day, although we know he had a vibrant criminal career, and, remarkably — with only one known arrest to his name — Lagano remains one of the lesser known figures of the old Gaetano Gagliano/Gaetano Lucchese Family.

What we do know is that back in 1928, he was arrested and later convicted for selling narcotics (heroin). He spent a year and a day at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Georgia. Joe was just a young, 22-year old punk when he took that pinch and served his time.

After he was paroled, he went right back to the mean streets of the Lower East Side and jumped right back into the rackets. He became a mobbed-up guy, eventually earned his button, and all indications are that Lagano became very successful in his chosen line of work.

But that short stint in the can must have served him well and really wised him up plenty, because Joe Calabrese never saw the inside of a prison cell again.

In fact, throughout Joe’s long and successful career in the Mafia, knee-deep in the rackets his entire life, he was never again arrested on any criminal charge whatsoever.

“Joe the Calabrese” must have been one very careful, smart — and lucky — mafioso.

From what limited records and background data is currently available, it appears that during his years on the streets, Joe Lagano primarily hung around the Lower East Side. He operated a variety of rackets in conjunction with his fellow Lucchese members and other hoodlums who he’d grown up with as boys in the neighborhood. As young adults, many of his friends and former schoolmates also later joined up with various crews connected to New York’s Five Families.

By at least the late 1930s, he was believed to have been formally inducted as a Family soldier. Around this time, he was also already believed to be active as a garment racketeer within the Garment District. In fact, from this point forward, garment racketeering appears to have become something of a specialty of his.

Garment Racketeering

Working in conjunction with other key Lucchese Family figures, it was Joe Calabrese’s job to help run and oversee the Lucchese Family’s vast garment center interests.

Aside from Lagano, chief among his fellow borgata members were such important mafiosi as underboss Stefano (Steve) LaSalle , capodecina Vincenzo (Jimmy Doyle) Plumeri , Joseph (Joe Palisades) Rosato and Andimo (Tommy Noto) Pappadio, as well as Pappadio’s brother, soldier Michael Pappadio, and brothers John (Johnny Dio) Dioguardi and Thomas (Tommy Dio) Dioguardi, both of whom were also soldiers.

Each of the above named mafiosi were known to be top figures within the Lucchese Family’s garment racketeering operations.

Jimmy Doyle Plumeri

These men, along with countless others in the Family, helped run or control the various design houses and garment manufacturers, sub-contracting factories, trucking companies, button and fabric supply firms, and the myriad of other businesses and sub-trades so vital to the garment industry.

For their part, men such as Lagano, Plumeri, and Pappadio served as general “overseers” for the Family’s interests.

Joe was so trusted and considered so important a member, that Family boss Tommy Lucchese , specifically installed Lagano as a corporate officer in several major garment manufacturing companies Lucchese had financial interests in.

A good example of this occurred back in the mid-1940s when Lucchese and Lagano became partners in several large and lucrative dress companies.

On March 1, 1946, Braunell Limited was first incorporated as a business. On the incorporation papers a man named Louis Kaufman was installed as president. Joseph Lagano became the vice-president and Thomas Lucchese became secretary-treasurer of the firm.

Located at 253 W. 37th Street, in the heart of the garment district, Braunell Ltd. quickly became very successful and was soon recognized by the industry as a major garment center designer and manufacturer.

Family boss Tommy Lucchese

For instance, a few years later, in 1952, Braunell reported doing upwards of $1,000,000 in business that year, a whopping sum of money for that era. These types of numbers quickly distinguished Braunell as one of the larger and more significant manufacturers in the garment center.

In fact, Braunell became so successful that Lagano and Lucchese decided to expand their interests together even further, so they opened up a second company they named Monica Modes, Inc., which was a garment firm that specialized in producing ladies dresses. This time around, Joe Lagano was listed as the company’s secretary-treasurer, while Tommy Lucchese served as vice-president.

Aside from his reported ownership interests in these two companies, law enforcement strongly suspected Lagano of having “hidden interests” in several additional garment firms.

Side Note: Although Tommy Lucchese owned or held hidden interests in dozens upon dozens of varied garment businesses, the two companies he and Lagano were partners in were among his most important and lucrative. So much so, that they later accounted for a major portion of his annual declared income to the IRS.

A review of Lucchese’s income tax returns for the years between 1942 and 1951 show a reported income of $250,000 on which he paid $70,000 in taxes due to the government. The IRS later stated that Braunell, and to a lesser degree, Monica Modes, had contributed a major portion of Lucchese’s reported gross income for that tax period.

As mentioned, these two garment firms in particular were said to be among the top dress firms owned by Lucchese. So, on review, for him to have brought Lagano in as his partner speaks volumes as to Lagano’s high-standing as a mafioso and as a close friend and trusted business partner of Lucchese.

Suburban Lifestyles

As Joe Lagano’s stock rose within the underworld, he started rubbing shoulders more and more with important legitimate businessmen in the garment industry.

So, befitting his fast-growing status as an underworld potentate and garment center power — following Tommy Lucchese’s lead — Joe decided to also elevate his lifestyle to better reflect this growing status. Subsequently, he followed his boss Tommy out to the suburbs.

Like so many of their Cosa Nostra brethren, this upwardly move to suburbia served a dual purpose. It not only provided Lucchese and Lagano’s personal families a better lifestyle, but also helped camouflage their gangster activities under a cloak of legitimacy, allowing them the appearance of being family men and country squires. It also helped solidify them as the legitimate businessmen they purported themselves to be.

Lucchese had moved to Long Island from his Queens residence back in the 1950s, purchasing a sprawling ranch-style home in the tony beachfront community of Lido Beach, on Nassau County’s south shore. Complete with four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a spacious property, Lucchese’s new home abutted the Atlantic Ocean.

Likewise, Joe decided to make the move out on Long Island as well. But, in an effort not to draw unwanted attention to himself, he and Dora decided to buy on the north shore. They chose a pricy ranch-style home at 62 Morewood Oaks, in Port Washington, a highly regarded community of neatly trimmed lawns and expensive homes on the opposite end of Nassau County, located on the extreme north shore.

62 Morewood Oaks, Port Washington

By this point in time, it is also believed that Lucchese had already bumped his buddy up to a captain’s post. From that time forward, “Joe Calabrese” would serve as one of Lucchese’s top overseers for the soldiers of their borgata who lived and operated in Lower Manhattan.

Joe Lagano now held the enviable rank of a “captain” or sub-leader in the Family — one of only eight such official positions within the entire Family. As such, he also became one of the most respected and important mob figures in the city.

Over the years, Lagano’s known activities had included garment racketeering, gambling and extortion. But truth be told, as an “overseer” of the downtown area for the Family, in charge of a large regime of soldiers and associates, in theory, he had his hand in virtually everything and anything his men were involved in.

In Lagano’s capacity as a Family “capo di decina,” he would have been on equal footing with men from New York’s four other borgatas including the Gambino Family’s Aniello (O’Neil) Dellacroce, Genovese Family capos Peter DeFeo and Gaetano (Tommy Palmer) Greco, and Bonanno Family capos Michael Sabella and Nicholas (Nicky Glasses) Marangello , to name but a few.

Each of the above named mafiosi were controlling figures for their respective borgatas, sharing jurisdictional rights on the Lower East Side with the Lucchese crew.

In his capacity as a “capo di decina,” Lagano was in charge of “cutting-up” the territorial borders along Houston Street, Broadway, Mott Street and other sections of the neighborhood.

In his quiet way, Joe did much the same for Lucchese Family interests within the garment center.

Joseph J. (Joe Calabrese) Lagano passed away in February 1973. Joe Calabrese may have been a little-known figure to the public, but within the Mafia he was very well known and very respected.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Lucchese Family Captain: Joseph “Joe Calabrese” Lagano

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