NJ Soldier Salvatore (Charlie) Chiri

Charlie Chiri had a roster a mile long of unsavory mafia friends and associates he affiliated with, and, for many years, he was able to fly under law enforcement’s radar quite successfully. But his cloak of anonymity was uncovered after the disastrous Apalachin Meeting in November 1957. The FBI identified him as a top stateside representative for recently deported and notorious New Jersey mob boss Joe Adonis.

It was later revealed that Chiri and Adonis had either infiltrated, bought into, or started up what was soon to become several extremely lucrative inter-related business ventures.

Salvatore (Charlie) Chiri - aka Charles S. Chiri, Charles Cluco, Salvatore Chere, and Salvatore Charles Chiri (TN) - was born on August 10, 1888 at Villa Scalia (Palermo Province,) Sicily. His parents were Giovanni Antonio and Rosalia (nee’ Cataldo) Chiri.

He had an older brother by the name of Joseph Carlo Chiri, four years his senior, who later relocated out to Mountain View, just outside of San Francisco. By all accounts, Joe was a legitimate businessman who worked as a plasterer and later owned a cherry orchard. After he retired, Joe moved to the nearby City of San Jose.

Salvatore (Charlie) Chiri

In 1908, Chiri and his brother decided to immigrate to the United States. The 19-year-old Sicilian youth boarded the ship Nord America at Palermo Harbor and set sail for the United States. They arrived at Ellis Island in New York Harbor on January 14.

During those early years in America, Chiri, who most everyone called Charlie, resided in New York City. One of his first apartments was in a walk-up tenement building at 520 East 14th Street in Lower Manhattan, which was considered part of the “Little Italy” section.

520 East 14th St., Manhattan

This is also around the time Chiri met and married a young American-born Italian girl, nine years his junior, by the name of Maria (Mary) Graziano. By the mid-1920s, he and Maria had relocated to another apartment at 2500 Webb Avenue up in the Bronx.

On February 23, 1927, he filed a formal “Declaration of Intention” application with the Southern District of New York to become a naturalized citizen of the United States of America.

2500 Webb Avenue, Bronx

Sometime around the late 1930s or early 1940s, the Chiri family relocated over the bridge into New Jersey where they eventually bought a pretty home set on a half-acre at 2 Bridle Way, in the Fort Lee section of Bergen County. This is where they raised their two daughters, Rose (who was named after Chiri’s mother,) and Joan.

Fort Lee was a very convenient location to conduct business. It was directly over the George Washington Bridge from Upper Manhattan, giving him good access to both Northern New Jersey and New York City.

FBI #774935C, INS #5167880

At 5 feet 6 inches tall with a heavy build at 185 pounds, Charlie was a fireplug of a man. He had a dark complexion with dark brown eyes and hair he wore swept back. By the early 1960s, an old FBI photograph shows him as having thinning white hair that he wore close-cropped.

Side Note: Although he was assigned a criminal record number with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in truth, Chiri had no known arrests. But because of his ranking stature within the criminal underworld and the multitude of noted mafiosi and top racketeers he was known to be on intimate terms with, the FBI registered him in the files anyway and kept tabs on his activities and movements.

A Rogues Gallery of Good Friends

He listed among his closest friends and steady associates such legendary Luciano/Genovese Family figures as caporegima Giuseppe (Joe Adonis) Doto, underbosses Quarico (Willy Moore) Moretti, Antonio (Tony Bender) Strollo and Gerardo (Jerry) Catena , and the Family’s two bosses themselves, Salvatore (Lucky) Luciano, and his underboss and eventual successor, Vito (Don Vitone) Genovese.

Joe Adonis and soldier Solly Moretti exit a NJ courthouse.

Chiri was also considered an intimate of such other New York underworld glitterati as Family boss Gaetano (Tommy Brown) Lucchese, Gambino underboss Giuseppe (Joe Bandy) Biondo, Gambino capo Rosario (Charlie Brush) Dongarra, international narcotics smuggler Salvatore Caneba, and even Chicago’s Outfit leader, Anthony (Joe Batters) Accardo.

Other close associates included most members of Doto’s personal regime including fellow soldiers Francesco (Paul) Bonadio (who was Doto’s cousin,) Antonio (Tony Green) Guarini, Salvatore (Solly Moore) Moretti, Ralph Belvedere, Joseph (Joe Shep) Schipani, Adonis’ brother, Anthony (Tony Adonis) Doto, and crew associates Mariano (Mike Laskey) Lascari, Arthur Longano, James (Piggy) Lynch and James Rutkin.

Joe Adonis and henchman Jimmy Lynch under arrest.

Despite this roster of unsavory friends and associates, for many years, Chiri was able to fly under law enforcement’s radar quite successfully. But in late 1957, his cloak of anonymity was uncovered once and for all.

It all started with the fallout from the infamous police raid conducted by New York State Troopers when they cordoned off all the roads leading to and from the upstate home of shadowy Mafia boss Giuseppe (Joe) Barbara on November 14, 1957.

It became a watershed moment in the U.S. Government’s long battle against organized crime and the dreaded Mafia. This notorious unprecedented event would become forever known as the “Apalachin Meeting.” That day, 62 top Mafia leaders from all across the country were captured as they attempted to flee from Barbara’s estate to avoid the police.

Dressed in their silk suits and ties and alligator shoes, the raiders captured them as they ran across open fields and scurried through the underbrush in a failed attempt to get away undetected. With many of them now covered in dirt and disheveled from their failed escape, the hoodlums were hauled back to the police barracks for questioning and processing. Charlie Chiri was one of those guys.

The FBI eventually stepped in and joined the investigation probing this unprecedented incident and quickly identified Salvatore C. Chiri as a top stateside representative for recently deported New Jersey mob boss Joe Adonis.

Joe Adonis enjoying life in Italy.

The notorious Giuseppe (Joe Adonis) Doto had been kicked out of the United States the previous year, in 1956, and shipped back to his native Italy to live out his days in exile, where he comfortably settled into the northern Italian City of Milan. But he remained a highly-placed and respected figure within the American underworld, who still had many lucrative business and racket interests back in the States that allowed him to live quite handsomely. To that end, Adonis utilized a small cadre of trusted men to send his profits to him regularly.

Charlie Chiri was described by federal agents as one of several key mafia soldiers tasked with handling Doto’s stateside rackets for the exiled leader and ferrying monies to him overseas. He had been appointed to oversee his capo’s New Jersey-based operations while a fellow soldier from Long Island, New York named Joseph (Joe Shep) Schipani maintained Doto’s New York interests for him.

A Shadowy Underworld Enigma

Having been born way back in 1888, Chiri was considered to be one of the “original” mafiosi to ever set down roots in America. He was around early enough to have witnessed it all.

By the start of the Prohibition Era in 1920, he was already in his early thirties and well-poised to cash in on liquor bootlegging. But whether he ever did or not is another question altogether that will probably never be answered.

For that matter, neither will we ever know if Chiri ever participated in any illicit rackets of any kind, whatsoever. More than likely he did. But if he did, there is absolutely no known data or official police record of his participation in any organized criminality. With the one exception being the Apalachin debacle in 1957 when he was already pushing seventy years of age, Charlie had never come under serious police scrutiny before.

Salvatore Lucania

He was indeed on intimate terms with many of the most important Mafia figures and leaders to ever step foot on American soil. But, it’s also true that despite his lifelong friendship and documented partnership with one of Lucky Luciano’s closest pals, Charlie Chiri seems to have slipped under the radar.

But, obviously, Chiri was important enough that out of the thousands of men the FBI believed were actually card-carrying, formally initiated “made” members of Cosa Nostra in the United States, Chiri ranked higher enough in the pecking order that he was among the 100 or so select mafiosi thought to have attended the Mafia’s exclusive backyard barbecue at Joe Barbara’s home on that fateful day in the fall of 1957.

A Very Savvy Businessman

But regardless of whatever criminal activities he may, or may not, have been involved with in his younger days Charlie Chiri’s true underworld specialty and strength seems to have lay in his abilities as a savvy businessman-type mafioso.

Despite not being knee-deep in illicit rackets like so many of his Mafia brethren, law enforcement authorities viewed Chiri as one of the wealthier racketeers in the Northern New Jersey area.

It was revealed during several subsequent FBI investigations and U.S. Senate Committee Hearings into his relationship with his caproregime Joe Adonis, that the two mafiosi had either infiltrated, bought into, or started up what was soon to become several extremely lucrative inter-related business ventures.

The FBI suspected Doto and Chiri had used their underworld connections and mob influence with various labor unions to form several successful business partnerships. The most significant of these was a New Jersey-based, nationwide automobile transportation company they named the Automotive-Conveying Corporation, located at 248 George Road in Cliffside. The business also operated another related company, under a similar name, at a second location in Mahwah.

Joe Adonis inspecting one of his automobile storage yards in NJ.

Essentially, these companies were two large depots and storage yards that leased large tracts of land where new Ford automobiles, fresh off the assembly line that had been shipped in from Detroit, were stored. Automotive-Conveying Corporation’s job was to then load up and redistribute the cars on open car carriers to various Ford dealerships up and down the northeast corridor.

Side Note: Using Mafia strong-arm tactics and labor pressure, Doto and Chiri leveraged their positions in Cosa Nostra to secure themselves a decades-long, multimillion-dollar contract to haul all new cars for the Ford Motor Company to the East Coast.

This partnership also included a third mafioso, a low-keyed Doto Regime soldier (and cousin of Doto) named Paul Bonadio. It is believed they were equal partners in the business. In fact, because Bonadio also had a relatively clean record, Adonis and Chiri decided to list Bonadio as the nominal president and frontman for the company.

Although Joe was a primary partner in the business, Charlie and Paul were generally tasked with the day-to-day operations and overseeing of their multimillion-dollar enterprise.

The Garment Rackets

Chiri was also known to be active in Manhattan’s garment manufacturing industry as a registered partner in the I. & C. Dress Company, a dress-contracting factory located at 341 West 38th Street in the heart of New York’s Garment District.

“Contracting shops" or “sub-contracting factories,” as they are typically called, were generally set up in loft buildings. These factories were hired by garment manufacturers and designers to assemble the various cut “piece” goods to form completed garments. Once fully assembled, they are then boxed up and shipped out to wholesale apparel buyers all across the United States.

Joe Adonis was known as a handsome hood and a very well-dressed one, too!

Dress factories usually had upwards of anywhere from 30 to 100 sewing machines, and employed dozens of women seamstresses to assemble and stitch the garments together.

Although Chiri visited his dress factory several days each week, and business associates knew they could contact him there, he generally hung around Northern New Jersey. He favored several Genovese Family watering holes and hangouts like the Sorrento Ristorante in Newark, Duke’s Bar & Grill in Cliffside, and La Martinique in Mountainside.

All of these locations were notorious hoodlum and racketeer hangouts, particularly for members of the old Luciano/Genovese Family’s New Jersey membership.

Duke’s was owned and operated by John (Duke) DeNoia, a low-key Genovese Family soldier in good standing. Duke’s was a hoodlum Mecca that attracted no less a figure than the likes of underboss Willie Moretti, Tony Bender, and the man himself, boss “Don Vito” Genovese. Nearly everybody who was anybody, not only within the Genovese Family but throughout the entire New York/New Jersey underworld, was known to visit Duke’s or to hold an audience with bosses of the Genovese crew.

Vito Genovese

La Martinique was another heavily mobbed-up establishment. This restaurant is where New Jersey-based Family capo Angelo (Gyp) DeCarlo was known to headquarter his regime and where his crew conducted much of their daily rackets business.

The fact that Charlie chose to regularly frequent these three establishments shows just how closely he was tied to the Genovese Family’s top leadership.

Nearing the Finish Line

By the 1960s, Charlie Chiri was already well into his mid-seventies and well past his Cosa Nostra salad days.

In the mid-1960s both the FBI and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) described Chiri as “an elderly and well-respected mafioso, whose guidance is often sought out by younger mafiosi.” By that time, Chiri was generally considered to be retired from active Cosa Nostra duty. Although he still maintained his business interests, he was no longer active as an underworld player.

Charlie’s mentor and longtime business partner Joe Adonis was long retired. And although it's believed they still occasionally talked on the telephone from time to time, they hadn’t seen one another in many years.

By then the Family’s original leader, Salvatore (Charlie Lucky) Luciano, who had also been deported and exiled back in the 1940s, had died several years earlier. Lucky passed away on January 26, 1962. He was 64 years old.

Time had moved on, and it was now getting around that time for Chiri to go meet his maker also. After a short illness, Salvatore (Charlie) Chiri died in a hospital bed at St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic, New Jersey on November 10, 1968. He was 80 years old.

His wake and funeral services were held at the Marrocco Memorial Home, followed by a Catholic Mass celebrated at the nearby St. Nicholas R.C. Church, also in Passaic, New Jersey.

His lifelong buddy, Joe (Adonis) Doto, passed away three years later, on November 26, 1971. Joe was 69 years old.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

NJ Soldier Salvatore (Charlie) Chiri

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