The Falcone Regime of Utica, NY

During the Prohibition years and well into the 1950s, there were numerous gangland killings in the Utica area. Sal and Joe were known to rule their fiefdom with an iron hand and not men to be trifled with.

Joseph Falcone - aka Giuseppe Projetto (TN) - was born in 1902 in Sicily (Sciacca region). He originally settled in Brooklyn, NY, after emigrating to the U.S. By 1925, as a young 20-year-old man, he had relocated up to the “Utica-Rome” section of New York State. He was naturalized that same year.

He would eventually buy a modest home at 1623 Mohawk Street in Utica, where he would live the rest of his life. He married young, with three children, a boy and two girls. They were said to have raised a close-knit family.

Joseph Falcone

Joe’s son would grow up to become a lawyer and marry into connected families - the Aiellos of Utica and Bufalinos of Pittston, PA.

Joe stood 5-foot 5-inches tall and weighed 160-pounds with brown eyes and brown-grey hair balding on top. He liked to smoke cigars.

FBI # 1697613, Utica-PD # 6722. DCI # 653529X

The younger brother of Salvatore Falcone Sr. – the recognized longtime leader or “Boss” (capo regime) of the Utica faction, Joseph Falcone served as his underboss or (acting capo).

Both were members of, and subservient to, the Stefano Magaddino Family in Buffalo of LCN.

Salvatore Falcone

FBI # 1697794

Salvatore Falcone was born in 1891 in Sicily. He resided at 1652 Conkling Ave., in Utica. By 1946, moved to 1652 NW 62nd Stree in Miami, Florida.

By 1937, federal authorities estimated his personal fortune at between one and five million dollars.

Salvatore Falcone

He was a frequent traveler to Italy. In 1936, he made a large money contribution to a public project in Italy and was publicly honored by Benito Mussolini.

Upon his return to New York, he was personally met at the airport by Buffalo underboss, John Montana.

This Utica-Rome faction also had some control over mob operations in the cities of Syracuse, Albany, Schnectady, and surrounding towns as well.

Originally considered a stand-alone Family, one reason they were misidentified was because of the size crew they controlled, which was almost like a “Family within a Family”.

Utica, New York

Informer Joe Valachi had also named Utica as a separate borgata during his testimony before the McClellan Committee in 1963.

So, for many years, law enforcement was under a misapprehension about their true status.

Federal law enforcement (the FBI) estimated that the “Utica” regime had approximately 15 to 20 “officially” inducted members or “soldiers” over the years.

This core membership supervised, and was augmented by, an additional estimated 30 to 40 close regime “associates”.

Additionally, there were over 50 “loosely” affiliated second-tier hoodlums tied to this criminal network, varied gamblers, shylocks, thieves, burglars, strong-arm men, etc., many of whom paid “tribute” to operate under the Falcone umbrella.

Starting with bootlegging alcohol and counterfeiting in the 1920s era, this faction would soon control the vast Italian-lottery racket.

In time, they would become active in all the core rackets: bookmaking (horses and sports), policy, floating dice and card games, shylocking, extortion, strong-arm tactics, organized thefts and robberies, receiving-fencing of stolen goods, and labor racketeering. (They were suspected of international narcotics trafficking).

Russ Mancuso

Their influence spread to control all the shoe repairman shops in the area, organizing an “association” to better extract shakedown payments and maintain a monopoly in the field.

They were also active for years in construction industry shakedowns in Upstate NY, utilizing several laborers unions they influenced, through soldier Russ Mancuso, as “whips” against employers for this purpose.

And also through hidden ownership in the Nu-form Concrete Co., of Utica, which facilitated these endeavors.

For many years, he listed himself as the owner-operator of Utica Retail Liquor Co., a liquor store in that area as his official occupation.

He also owned a jukebox/pinball vending company in Utica and was said to have domination over coin machine rackets in that city.

Fun Fact: In the early decades, Utica (in Oneida County) had garnered a reputation as a lawless city rampant with police corruption. It was called “Sin City” among its more knowledgeable inhabitants.

Among the early underworld powers in this upstate area, were said to have been Pietro Lima, Dominick Aiello, and several other immigrants from Sicily and Calabria.

These early mafiosi were in operation before the formal hierarchical establishment of Cosa Nostra in 1931.

Related to the Lima and Aiello families through blood and marriage, the Falcones were also well entrenched in the area rackets way before affiliating with Magaddino.

The Falcone brothers were always closely allied as partners in racket operations through the decades.

Always Sal’s second in command, Joe became his brother's “eyes and ears”, even more so after Salvatore relocated permanently down to South Florida, semi-retiring from the day-to-day regime activity, in about 1946.

Sal, with his son Joseph, would develop a wholesale Italian-food distribution firm.

This company supplied many Miami and South Florida restaurants and pizzerias with needed supplies. It also had a retail store open to the general public.

He also bought up several parcels of real estate down in Florida.

The FBI got word from their informants that Sal Falcone was still active in various mob schemes down south and kept close friendships with many top mob guys active down there.

Side Note: Bonanno soldier turned informant, Willy Dara, told his FBI handlers in the mid-1960s that Falcone had recently ordered a Miami restaurant manager shot in the head and chest after the manager had insulted Falcone and refused to pay a meat bill from Falcone’s food company. Sal was also suspected of involvement in Miami vending machine rackets.

Sal continued in a sort of “consigliere” position to the Utica crew. He still received his percentage and was available for general consultation if required, but Joe was the one left on the scene back in Upstate New York.

This made Joe Falcone the de facto “boss” of the Utica crew. It was a position he would hold from the late 1940s until his own retirement in the early 1980s period, when he slowly faded from the Utica mob scene.

Over the years, the Falcones were actively engaged in various attempts to corrupt public officials to further their rackets and overall control of the Utica area.

Examples of this was their attempt to “buy” Dominick Assaro, a mayoral candidate, hoping to better control and “open up” the city for organized gambling operations and other rackets.

Frank Tomaino, who was assistant city editor of the Utica Observer-Dispatch Daily, was a close associate of Falcone. This affiliation helped Falcone control “bad press” over the years.

During the 1957 Mob Debacle - the ill-fated “Apalachin Meeting” - Salvatore and Joseph Falcone received an unprecedented amount of bad publicity and law enforcement scrutiny.

The brothers had attended the infamous Cosa Nostra summit that November day at the sprawling estate of Binghamton mob boss Joseph Barbara. Caught and exposed with 60 others, the Falcone dynasty would never be the same.

Side Note: He was stopped by NYS troopers in an automobile trying to leave the Barbara estate in the company of his brother Salvatore, Rosario Mancuso, and Buffalo-based mafiosi Dominick D’Agostino and Samuel Lagattuta.

In the years following Apalachin, the Falcones were constantly harassed and under the steady law enforcement microscope of both local and federal agents.

“Falcone” practically became a household name and synonymous with the Mafia. This quiet little city was suddenly front and center on the mob landscape.

Apalachin

The Falcone brothers were viewed as the actual heads of their own borgata, and Utica was wrongly considered a separate Family, not as a regime of the larger Buffalo Family.

This misidentification brought them under an even greater spotlight than they would have been. It was not until the later 1960s that it was firmly established that, indeed, they were a part of Buffalo’s mob.

In the mid-1960s, Joe Falcone and several of his men were actually caught on FBI “bugs” placed in the funeral home offices of Steve Magaddino, discussing various mob business.

These surreptitious recordings clearly demonstrated Magaddino’s dominance over Falcone and his minions.

Rosario Mancuso and Sam Grio were the regime soldiers who most often accompanied Joe Falcone on these excursions up to Buffalo to see the boss.

Falcone had only one documented arrest in 1939 for heading a huge alcohol bootlegging operation with over 40 members (violating federal liquor laws).

This was Albany-based “soldier” Sylvester Battaglia. He served under Utica NY bosses Salvatore and Joseph Falcone for decades.... Battaglia died at age 80 with his boots off.

The Falcones were said to have controlled the supply and flow of sugar to area bootleggers, which is a mandatory key ingredient in the manufacture of liquor.

They also exacted a monthly “tribute” from alky-makers and other hoodlums for the right to operate in what they considered their territory.

U.S. Treasury agents reported in 1937, that independent bootleggers operating alcohol stills were required to pay Salvatore Falcone $1 for every five-gallon can of whiskey they produced.

During the Prohibition years and well into the 1950s, there were numerous gangland killings in the Utica area. Sal and Joe were known to rule their fiefdom with an iron hand and not men to be trifled with.

In 1959, he had an additional arrest related to the Apalachin meeting – contempt and obstruction of justice-related charges (which were later overturned on appeal).

Side Note: The brothers were convicted of bootlegging and sentenced to serve two years in federal prison. This conviction was reversed on appeal...and the brothers never served a single day in prison.

His top associates over the years have included:

His brother Salvatore

Stefano Magaddino

Vincent Scro

Nicola Gentile

Sam Pieri

Andrew Alberti

...and virtually most top members of the Buffalo Italian underworld.

The Falcone brothers were also very tight knit with top New York City based mafiosi as well, especially Gambino members.

It was thought by law enforcement that the Falcones may have originally started out under the Mangano Family (later headed by Carlo Gambino), and later with the formation of Cosa Nostra in 1931, being absorbed under the Magaddino axis.

The following were confirmed or suspected by the FBI as inducted soldiers of this regime, throughout five decades from approximately 1930s era through 1980:

Salvatore Falcone – capo.

Joseph Falcone – acting capo.

Serafino (Sam) Grio - possibly held a position similar to an aide or counselor to Joe Falcone over the years, especially after his brother's move to Florida.

Rosario (Russ) Mancuso

Frank Pelli

Vincenzo (Jimmy) Femia

James Fiore

Sylvester Battaglia

Joseph Sabella

Angelo Thomas

Angelo Conte

Anthony (Tony) Falange

Vincent Marrone

John Melito

Joseph Leone

Benedetto (Benny) Carcone

Frank Russo Sr.

Anthony Damiano

Antonino (Nino Trufio) Trifio

James Travens (possibly changed his name)

...... additionally, over that same time period, the following men were considered key associates of this regime:

Joseph Mazza

Louis (Coke) DeFazio

Ralph Centolella

Frank Thomas

Albert Marrone

Anthony Inserra

Louis Kallasy

Jack (Jake) Minicone

Fred Mogavero

Peter Rinaldi

Don Ritz

Anthony Olivadotti

Ricky Caruso

James Terzini

Patrick Terzini

Sam Zappia

James Netro

Cosmo Raguzzo

Dominick Bretti

....additionally, close affiliates in the City of Syracuse included:

Anthony DeStefano

Samuel J. Farrar

Samuel Scro

Joseph Scro

Anthony Scro

Charles Scro

John Manderino

....several of the Scro brothers may have been “made” members. Their father Salvatore (Sam) was considered a respected, old-line mafioso dating back to the 1930s era.

And their brother Vincent Scro was in fact the son-in-law of Buffalo boss Stefano Magaddino, and a key mafioso in Magaddino’s borgata.

By 1977, Joe Falcone was aging and both his brother and Buffalo boss Steve Magaddino had died.

His grip and influence on the Utica underworld was slipping.

Stefano Magaddino

Many of his key soldiers had also passed away, and the new crop of mob figures out there were a sorry bunch at best.

Soon, the City of Utica became a shooting gallery again as this new generation of mobsters fought for dominance over the area rackets.

The FBI had a field day!

The quality of these new hoodlums (or should I say the lack thereof) offered little in the way of sophistication and smarts. They were a bunch of violent amateurs who were soon investigated and arrested by authorities.... the game was over!

Utica would never again be a Mafia stronghold or have the position of prominence in the underworld that it once held.

Joseph Falcone passed away in 1992 at the ripe old age of 90.

His older brother Salvatore, born in 1889, had died years earlier in 1972 down in Miami, Florida, where he’d retired almost three decades earlier.

The Falcone brothers ruled several entire Upstate New York cities on behalf of The Brotherhood for many decades, earning millions for themselves in the process.

And as I stated above, I don’t believe either Joe or his brother, Sal ever served a single, solitary day in prison... now THAT’S a mob epitaph to be emulated!

The Falcone Regime of Utica, NY

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The Falcone Regime of Utica, NY

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You May Also Enjoy

Genovese Capo Frank Iaconi and His Worcester, Massachusetts Regime

“Soldier” Carlo Barbara: Joe Barbara’s Shadowy Brother

Buffalo “Soldier” and Enforcer: Sam Miano

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