Schenectady’s Saintly Gambling Kingpin Tony Bernardi

Within a few years he had established a flourishing horse and sports bookmaking business that accepted bets out of several storefronts disguised as legitimate retail businesses such as candy stores, groceries, and taverns.

Aside from nationally and internationally known mobsters and mafia bosses that most mob aficionados are familiar with, there were, of course, the lower-key members and associates that were only known to members of law enforcement. Then, of course, there were hoods and gamblers who were very well known but only within the immediate confines of the towns or cities they operated in. Our next subject falls into the latter category.

Antonio (Tony) Bernardi was born in 1899. He was raised and lived as a young adult at 17 Twelfth Street in Schenectady, New York.

Tony Bernardi

In 1950, its population was 90,000. It was a small town he loved so much that Bernardi decided to spend his entire life there. In fact, as a young adult, Bernardi moved right down the block from where he’d grown up and decided to purchase a house on the very same block.

He would reside at 462 Twelfth Street for the remainder of his life.

He had a kid brother named Joseph with whom he was very close. In fact, Joe Bernardi was so close to his sibling that he and Tony were partners in the rackets all their lives. Joe was largely considered his older brother’s right-hand man.

Always Getting into Trouble

It seems that Tony was always getting into trouble, even as a young kid. He started his criminal arrest record early with the Schenectady Police Department as a mere teenager.

By the time he got into adulthood, Tony Bernardi was commonly being referred to in all the local tabloids by the more genteel label of a “Sportsman,” as illicit bookmakers and professional gamblers were called in those days.

Tony Bernardi gets pinched!

By the time the Volstead Act had been implemented into federal law in 1920 or so, the enterprising young hoodlum was able, itching, and more than ready to dip his toes into the bootleg trade.

In fact, it was more like jumping headfirst into the bootleg trade and bathtub gin. Over the next13 years, Bernardi got picked up by local police several times and was charged with either the possession or transportation of illicit alcoholic beverages.

In 1927, he and two associates were arrested after getting pulled over by Federal Customs Agents and New York State Troopers on the Interstate Thruway. Border Patrolmen F.E. Gilson, H. Mitchell, and Charles Caswell were on patrol duty near Scotia one evening when they spotted two cars coming down the highway in tandem at a high rate of speed.

They signaled to the driver of the first car to pull over for the purpose of making a search. As the driver of the first car stopped on the shoulder of the road, the driver of the second car jumped from his load and began running through a field to escape. Police took off after him and tackled him. He was identified as Stanley Newell of Schenectady.

After questioning the first car’s occupants, who identified themselves as Antonio Bernardi and Judson (Judd) Williams, and taking a peek inside the back seats and trunks of both automobiles, police discovered a large cache of bootleg whiskey and wines.

Authorities also discovered 30 bags of Ale, 10 full cases of wine, and 24 pints of Rye Whiskey. All three men were immediately arrested for possession of bootlegged alcohol, conspiracy to traffic in unlicensed liquor, and motor vehicle and traffic infractions.

The men were arraigned before Federal U.S. Magistrate G. Bixby and held for federal detention. They were later released on $2000 bail each. No final disposition of the case could be determined.

Expanding into Gambling

After Prohibition ended in 1933, Tony Bernardi and his brother switched their focus to expanding their gambling rackets which they had dabbled in previously. He and his closest associates seamlessly entered the illicit gambling business where Bernardi soon became recognized as a major player.

Tony gets booked for bookmaking

Within a few years he had established a flourishing horse and sports bookmaking business that accepted bets out of several storefronts disguised as legitimate retail businesses such as candy stores, groceries, and taverns.

Tony also operated a telephone ‘wire-room’ for his more well-heeled clientele who placed larger wagers on credit.

In addition, Tony operated as a policy racketeer in tandem with his longtime pal and partner Paul Gay, who also hailed from the Schenectady area where he resided for years in an apartment above 399 Broadway. It later doubled as their gambling headquarters.

On more than one occasion, police and local newspapers would describe Gay over the years as a “numbers kingpin.”

The lottery bank of Bernardi and Gay

He and Bernardi were largely viewed as partners and as the two most prominent racket kingpins in Schenectady. They headed a small ‘gang’ of like-minded gamblers and henchmen who followed their orders and lead, helping them control the area’s varied gambling operations.

Horse bookmaking, policy numbers, high-stakes floating dice and card games such as poker and blackjack, and other forms of gambling were all mainstays within their dominion and bailiwick.

Numbered among their closest aides and loyal henchmen over the years were well-known hoodlums including Joseph Bernardi (43), of 462 Twelfth Street, Schenectady; Stephen (Ponzi) Ponzillo (37), of 1594 Foster Avenue, Schenectady; Alfred Iovinella (36), of 2736 Edgewood Avenue, Rotterdam; Frank Reger, of 569 Crane Street, Schenectady; Frank Di Sarro (33), of 127 Van Guysling Avenue, Schenectady; and Armando Izzo.

The Grand Daddy

Bernardi was also well known and largely credited with having been the "Grand Daddy," so to speak, for a whole new younger generation of gamblers and racketeers who cut their teeth under his guidance and tutelage.

These included future Schenectady gambling kingpin Paul (Legs) Di Cocco and his brother Duilio (Jake) Di Cocco as well as many other of their neighborhood friends and future local gambling figures such as bookies and policy racketeers Arthur and Freddy Verra, Patrick (Buckshot) Bianchi, Joseph Macri, John DeBraccio, Evaristo (Joe Mace) Macerola, Joseph Vetor, Frank Bove, Louis Ragucci, and Anthony Durante.

Two other Bernardi minions were John Phass, who ran The Greek Club, a gambling den offering the greek dice game Barbut. Another was John (Scotty) Campbell, who ran Arcade Billiard Parlors, which doubled as one of their gambling dens around town.

Tony Bernardi, Paul Gay, and their associates operated for decades around Schenectady and the surrounding towns such as Scotia, Rotterdam, Cohoes, Amsterdam, Saratoga Springs, Ballston Spa, Troy, and Gloversville, and even Albany itself.

Gay, Di Sarro, and Reger head to jail

The Greater Albany Metropolitan area, known as The Capitol District, boasted a population of just over 1,100,000 residents. So, these men were active over a wide swath of lucrative territory.

First Among Equals

And although it cannot be said that Bernardi or his partner Gay were the sole underworld bosses over those territories during their tenure, they were certainly viewed as firsts among equals within Schenectady’s gambling rackets and the larger gambling fraternity.

At the height of his power and racket influence, Bernardi was said to have operated a nationwide bookmaking business that was believed to have run into the millions of dollars annually. He operated a horse and sports betting ring by telephone and ticker tape that accepted wagers from across the United States.

On one occasion, after weeks of undercover surveillance by detectives, major police raids were staged against Tony’s residence and headquarters that ended in the arrests of Bernardi and a number of his men.

Local District Attorney William M. Nicoll said of the Bernardi gambling network, “He did no local business to speak of. He took bets from other cities all over the country, some from other big-time bookmakers who had more bets than they could handle on a given race.”

One particular horse betting customer that the district attorney’s office tracked used to regularly bet $3000 to win, another $3000 to place, and kept at it for all eight races at the track of his choice.

The D.A. said that since nearly all transactions outside of town were made by telephone, an extraordinary amount of “good faith’ was involved as all wagering was done on credit.

The line-ups, scratches, track conditions, and last-minute changes in betting odds from racetracks all over the nation were relayed to Bernardi by private ticker tape from a gambling clearinghouse in Troy, NY.

Largely viewed by Schenectady’s townspeople as a hometown boy done good and their own resident racketeer, Tony could regularly be seen around town driving a brand new sleek, shiny Cadillac.

A lifelong bachelor, he cut an impressive figure with his expensive custom-tailored suits and flashy signature bowties and was known to carry around a fat wad of greenbacks in his pants pocket held together by a rubber band.

He also had the well-earned reputation of being a big sport with his money and was quick to pick up a restaurant or nightclub check for all those around him.

Tony was known to have a soft-spoken and easy demeanor about him. Outwardly, he was always sportily dressed to the nines. He was a man of medium height and build with a full head of dark wavy hair combed back and a thick streak of white running through his widow's peak. It gave him an air of debonaire and pizzazz.

Coupled with the oval-shaped eyeglasses and bowtie he regularly wore, in photos, Bernardi looked more like a bookkeeper than a bookmaker.

He and his siblings had been born in the back room of a local grocery store his parents ran. He was only formally educated through grammar school, yet he possessed an uncanny ability with numbers and mathematical figures which, of course, became a lifelong asset to Bernardi in his chosen profession.

A Begrudging Respect

Bernardi was said to have been very well-liked by some of the harshest critics of his lifestyle and business. It is even said that the local district attorney and those policemen and detectives who tracked Bernardi and his criminal associates over the years held begrudging respect and admiration for the man despite being on the ‘other side of the fence’ from Tony.

I think much of the respect he garnered from others came from his kind demeanor and philanthropic philosophy toward life and those less fortunate than him. And one of the most endearing qualities about him was his humility. Tony was said to carry on his philanthropy as quietly as he carried on his bookmaking.

Another admirable character trait of note was the fact that to the best of law enforcement’s knowledge, Bernardi was never known for committing any acts of violence. It just wasn’t his way.

I think that was another thing that endeared him to people. He forgave many a debt from bettors who couldn’t pay off their gambling losses to him. To some of those who faltered paying and had their debts forgiven, I’m sure Tony was viewed as “Saint Bernard.”

Side Note: An extremely interesting and well-known fact about Tony Bernardi was that although he was indeed widely acknowledged as a top gambling racketeer and hoodlum, Tony was also a much-beloved neighborhood rogue who Schenectady’s townspeople truly loved, fiercely protected, and respected.

He may have been considered a criminal by the standards of the Schenectady Police Department and the local District Attorney’s Office, but his warm and sincere personality, coupled with his charitable ways was the stuff of legend. Bernardi was widely viewed as a caring and much-giving philanthropist by his neighbors and Schenectady’s townspeople. Tony was thought of as their personal “honest to goodness” Robin Hood because of all the good deeds he did during his lifetime.

Some examples of his good heart and charitable ways towards friends, neighbors, and total strangers alike was his repeatedly paying for weekly groceries for families who had fallen on hard times so they could feed their kids, sending fuel oil to homes during the dead of winter so people wouldn’t freeze to death during the depression era, reaching into his pocket on a moments notice without being asked to help out a guy who’d just lost his job, etc.

It is said that he never sought repayment or any type of publicity for his efforts. That his actions were done solely from the goodness of his heart.

Apparently, Tony was a rarity in this world - not only among the bent-nose set but among people in general. How many people do you know who would even contemplate doing such things, let alone make a regular habit out of helping people in such a grandiose manner with no future reward insight?

It is said that the people of Schenectady never had anything but kind words and warm hearts toward Antonio Bernardi. He may have been a hoodlum, gambler, and racketeer, but he was ‘their’ hoodlum, gambler, and racketeer. And it is said that they were fiercely protective of him.

With Total Impunity

For nearly the next two decades, Bernardi and company operated with near-total impunity, free from law enforcement pressure and scrutiny. But by the late 1940s, their notorious reputations and shenanigans started catching up with them.

Previously, Tony had been pinched several times on misdemeanor gambling cases or motor vehicle infractions that resulted in either small fines or, at best, a few days behind bars in the local jail.

But that all started to change around mid-1946, early 1947, as local and state authorities received a directive from their superiors to crack down on the local rackets and racketeers.

Within a six-month period or so, both Bernardi and Gay, along with several of their key men, were arrested on serious gambling charges. Tony Bernardi was nabbed for heading up an extensive horse and sports bookmaking operation based out of Schenectady, and his buddy Paul Gay was arrested with two of their associates, Reger and Di Sarro, after police conducted a surprise raid on what was described by the local newspapers at the time as a “numbers headquarters” that housed their ‘bank’ and counting office.

Multiple misdemeanor or felony gambling counts were lodged against all those arrested.

In the policy-numbers raid, Gay, Di Sarro, and Reger were specifically charged with gambling conspiracy, contriving an illegal lottery, and assisting a lottery. They were released on $5000 bail bonds each. Tony Bernardi, Joe Bernardi, Iovinella, and Ponzillo were all nabbed after a raid on the Bernardi home.

Ponzillo, Iovinella, and Izzo get grabbed

Tony was charged with gambling conspiracy, illegal possession of firearms (a revolver and an automatic), pool selling, and four counts of bookmaking. His bail bond was set at $2500 on the gun charges and another $5000 on the gambling counts.

The other three men arrested with him were charged with multiple counts of bookmaking and conspiracy, and pool selling, and released on $5000 bail each.

An eighth suspected gambler was also arrested at their Broadway social club. Sylvester Thomas (56), of 395 Broadway, was charged with vagrancy.

At the time of the arrests local law enforcement officials said that the simultaneous double-raids were the start of a citywide cleanup against illicit gambling rackets and the local underworld, according to Bernardi’s long time nemesis, District Attorney William Nicoll.

Numbers King

Several years later, in 1950, during testimony before the Schenectady County Grand Jury and City Council hearings probing vice conditions, rampant gambling, and police and local Democratic Party government corruption within the city, a private detective hired by the probers recounted his discovery during the investigation of at least 50 gambling locations operating around the city that sold illegal policy-numbers or lottery pool tickets.

The detective claimed that the city was infested with gambling and stated, “my investigators purchased numbers tickets in 50 different places in the city, as well as tickets for a baseball pool, treasury balance pool, and the Italian lottery."

When asked about who were the ’numbers kings’ operating these rackets, he said, “There are three people: Anthony Bernardi, Paul Gay, and Arthur Verra.”

When the city council posed questions about these revelations to Sheriff William H. Dunn, a Republican, Dunn testified that he had “no knowledge” of any gambling in Schenectady. In fact, he said he thought Police Chief Joseph A. Peters was doing “an excellent job.”

Criminal Record

Bernardi’s known arrest record dates back to at least the early 1920s and includes 17 arrests - not counting traffic violations.

Some of his known arrests over the years that I was able to track include:

>> 1927 - bootlegging and possession of liquor

>> 1927 - maintaining a horse parlor and gambling den

>> 1930 - two counts of attempted bribery of a police officer to testify falsely at the trial of two Bernardi associates named John Maiuro and John Grasso who were charged with robbery

>> 1930 - reckless driving

>> 1935 - unlicensed driver

>> 1941 - passing a stop sign

>> 1946 -illegal possession of guns

>> 1947 -four counts of horse bookmaking, gambling conspiracy, and pool selling

Tony with Alfred Iovinella at the wheel

Cops pull Tony and Alfred from the car

By the fall of 1947, the Bernardi’s and their closest gambling associates had each crapped out. They had chosen to take their chances by rolling the dice before highly-publicized jury trials and rolled snake eyes. Each was convicted on multiple state gambling charges and sentenced to varied prison terms of up to one year each in county jail.

Each defendant had later appealed his conviction and sentence on various legal grounds. But each had also been denied relief by the New York State Supreme Court of Appeals, which had reaffirmed all the convictions.

By Christmas of 1947, the Bernardi brothers were preparing to turn themselves into the authorities and start their jail terms. Anthony and Joseph had both been sentenced to serve one-year bids behind bars in county jail and pay fines of $500 each. Ponzillo and Iovinella were also sentenced to $500 fines each, along with six months apiece in jail.

The convictions stemmed from the police raid on Bernardi’s home on April 5, 1947. Police had seized racing forms and sheets, extensive betting slips, and boxes of betting records that recorded wagering transactions from numerous gamblers.

Law enforcement also confiscated three telephones, adding machines, a time clock, and an up-to-the-minute racetrack Western Union ticker tape to track horserace results.

The beginning of the end for Tony

After exhausting all appeals, on January 7, 1949, he started serving his jail sentence. By July of that year, Tony was rushed to nearby Ellis Hospital from the Schenectady County Jail and admitted for a heart ailment.

It had been reported that during the prior year of 1948 Tony had been treated for heart disease several times and was under a doctor's care. It would be the beginning of the end of Tony Bernardi’s long underworld career.

After shuffling off to prison to serve his sentence and then later making parole Bernardi settled back into his modest home along quiet Twelfth Street and got reacquainted with his brother Joe who had also just been released, his sister Charlotte, and other immediate family who had been awaiting his return home.

Much Respect

It had been a stressful couple of years and he wanted to slow down from the wild ride that had defined his life for the last half-century. He was already close to 50 years old, not in the best of health, and really wanted to lay back and coast a bit in life.

But alas, fate can be a cruel thing sometimes and has a twisted sense of humor. Longevity was simply not in the cards dealt for his life. On July 15, 1950, Antonio (Tony) Bernardi died suddenly of a massive heart attack while in the kitchen of his residence preparing himself a snack of sautéed sweet peppers on Italian bread. He was only 50 years old.

Tony Bernardi awaits the jury’s verdict

His total financial estate and assets were publicly declared at apparently a mere $5000 in cash. "Live Fast And Die Young” could have been his mantra. But considering all the good things said about him, especially Tony’s unwavering generosity and his life’s policy of goodwill towards others, coupled with all the money he’d given out in his lifetime to those in need, more appropriate epitaphs could have been “You Can’t Take It With You” and “Only The Good Die Young.”

Bernardi’s death was widely reported in all the local newspapers at the time. He had a requiem mass of Christian burial at Our Lady of Assumption R.C. Church, in South Schenectady. He was buried at St. John’s Cemetery.

They All Came Out

A funny side story that both the Schenectady Gazette and the Union Times Daily, local daily newspapers in Schenectady, reported was that he had an entourage of 26 pallbearers for his funeral.

That’s a huge number by anybody’s count, but the real funny part is that it was reported that literally every single pallbearer there was either a known bookmaker, policy racketeer, dice game operator, or gambler of one form or another.

All of them were said to have been loyal minions and young proteges of Tony who had been ‘groomed’ into the business by him. It was their humble way of paying homage to their mentor and pal.

Among the underworld and gambling glitterati of honorary pallbearers were Paul Gay, Paul (Legs) Di Cocco, Artie Verra, Tony Morette, Jerome DeBraccio, Alfred Iovinella, Louie Viacusi, Stephen (Ponzi) Ponzillo, John Riccitelli, George Vardine, Pasquale (Patsy) Buttino, Anthony (Tony Barrie) Pavia, Anthony Mangino, Jerry Pompillio, Peter Marinelli, Oria (Orlie) Di Orio, Georgie Bernardi, Charlie Trifilo, Artie Cassella, Rocco (Little Rocky) Marinelli, William (Billy) Chism, Frank Reger, Michael Mazzarone, Isadoro (Izzy) Ambrose, Anthony Landolfi, and Frank Bove.

It was a laundry list of devoted ‘compare’ who came to pay their last respects.

A dapper Tony Bernardi in custody

And nearly to a man, every single one of them would hit the local tabloids in years to come with arrests for gambling and related charges. In a way, it can be said that they were Tony Bernardi’s legacy of sorts. He had indeed become the “granddaddy” of professional Schenectady gamblers.

Interviewed about Bernardi after his passing by a local newspaper reporter, a veteran Schenectady Police Patrolman who had gotten to know Tony well over the years had this to say about him: “A gambler? Sure. But that man he’s bought more tons of coal for guys when they were down and out than you and I can shake a stick at. He was bringing Christmas baskets and everything else and helping poor families who were going to have a baby and couldn’t pay the bills. He would never say he helped you either. That’s the type of man he was. Rich? I doubt it. With him, it was always easy come, easy go.”

I think that just about says it all, and sums up the man very well. Hoodlum or not, Antonio (Tony) Bernardi was one hell of a guy in my book - and in the book of a lot of other folks too! May God bless him! Or as we say in Italian, “che Dio lo benedica”

Until next time…”The Other Guy!”

Schenectady’s Saintly Gambling Kingpin Tony Bernardi

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Schenectady’s Saintly Gambling Kingpin Tony Bernardi

Unlock The Door to the Underworld

Take the Journey!

You May Also Enjoy

Joseph (Joe Z) Zammuto – Rockford Family Boss

Springfield, IL Mafioso “Bobby” Bommarito

Bufalino Family Soldier Swimmy DeBella – Street Smart but Dead Broke

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