Salvatore Scaglione - Tampa, FL Boss

Salvatore (Turiddo) Scaglione - aka "Don" Salvatore, Salvador Scaglione, Sal Scaglione, Sam Scaglione, and Salvatore Scaglioni - was thought to have been born on November 12, 1891, in the town of Rosario, at Santa Fe, Argentina to Sicilian-born parents Stefano and Rose (nee’ Bonanno) Scaglione. But other information points to Scaglione and his siblings having actually been born in the village of Alessandria della Rocca, Sicily before their parents relocated the family to Argentina.

Years later, the Scaglione family left Argentina and immigrated to the United States. Salvatore Scaglione was naturalized in Tampa, Florida on March 6, 1936.

He stood only 5 feet 4 inches tall but was heavily built at 180 pounds. Older photographs show a man with dark brown eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses and a receding salt-and-pepper hairline, parted on the side.

FBI #355220B, Tampa-PD #51472

Scaglione married an Italian woman named Maria and together the couple had four children, two sons they named Gaetano (Tom), and Stefano (after his grandfather), and two daughters named Rosina and Onofria.

Salvatore and Maria bought a small private home for their growing family at 2303 10th Avenue in the City of Tampa, located in Central Florida along the Gulf Coast.

Salvatore Scaglione

After first establishing himself with fellow Sicilian mafiosi and joining Tampa’s local “cosca,” Scaglione soon became a fixture within Tampa’s Italian district, a neighborhood called Ybor City.

This area had long been recognized as Tampa’s “Little Italy” where a majority of the city’s Sicilian nationals lived and operated small businesses such as Italian grocery stores and salumerias, dry goods shops, restaurants, taverns and bars, cafes, bakeries, and other Italian-styled businesses catering to newly arrived Sicilian and Southern Italian immigrants.

In fact, for many years, Scaglione himself owned and operated a local grocery store within the district. He was also said to have owned a Sicilian restaurant popular among the locals.

Other popular Ybor City locations and hangouts Scaglione and top members of the Trafficante Crime Family were known to frequent included the Columbia Restaurant, Italian Castle Restaurant, The Italian Club, and Yellow House Bar.

Top Mafiosi

Scaglione and members of his immediate family were almost immediately recognized as top mafiosi, and accordingly, were afforded the utmost respect within Tampa’s resident Mafia Family, and among other mafiosi nationally. It was said that his father, Stefano, was himself, a respected mafioso. Scaglione also had several brothers and cousins who reportedly joined “the life.”

In fact, he numbered among his closet criminal associates some of the most important mafiosi and organized crime figures throughout the entire United States. They included such iconic underworld figures as Tampa’s first boss Ignazio Antinori, future bosses Santo Trafficante Sr., and his successor, Santo Trafficante Jr. , acting boss Salvatore (Red) Italiano, underboss Francesco (Daddy Frank) Diecidue , his brother, Antonio Diecidue, Augustine (Primo) Lazzara, and Joseph (JoJo) Cacciatore.

During the famed 1963 United States Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Organized Crime in the United States, Scaglione was named by the investigators and senators heading up the panel as, “one of the leaders of the Mafia in Tampa.”

A hierarchical flow chart submitted into evidence, and later placed into the public record, which depicted the entire known membership of The Santo Trafficante Family listed Salvatore Scaglione as one of that underworld network’s “elder statesman” and family leaders.

U.S. Senate Hearing Mafia Chart

Yet, despite his lofty stature, over the years, Scaglione had a very limited, if serious, criminal record with both local and federal law enforcement authorities. In fact, his only recorded arrest came in 1953 when he and several other known mafiosi were charged with attempted murder for the claw-hammer attack against another local racketeer named Joseph Castellano.

Brought to trial along with Scaglione in this highly publicized court case were two fellow mafiosi, Giuseppe (Joe) MIstretta and Angelo LoScalzo. He and his codefendants were tried in county court but later cut free of all charges after the trial judge issued a directed verdict of acquittal when their intended murder victim gave conflicted testimony and refused to clearly identify them as his assailants.

Joseph Castellano

Because of his underworld stature and his status within Tampa’s Cosa Nostra, over the years Scaglione was suspected by the authorities of having shared in the racket profits derived from alcohol bootlegging, horse bookmaking, the Italian lottery, and another popular Cuban lottery game known as Bolita.

He was also long suspected by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (FBNDD) of having his hand in the international narcotics trade through several subordinates.

Scaglione shortly before his death.

Salvatore Scaglione reportedly died on Sunday, August 9, 1964 after having been admitted to a Tampa hospital. He was 72 years old.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Racketeer Snapshot – Tampa, FL Boss Salvatore (Turiddo) Scaglione

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