Syracuse Rackets Boss “Charlie” Simone

Before he was one of Syracuse’s most notorious racketeers, Charlie Simone was just another streetwise kid from the city’s North Side. But behind the modest facade of a local restaurant and pool hall, he built a gambling empire that would span four decades, and all under the watchful eye (and occasional indifference) of the law.

From Prohibition to police raids, subpoenas to slot machines, Simone’s story weaves through the rise of American organized crime in upstate New York — and it’s wilder than most mob movies.

Let’s open the file on Charles Angelo Simone…

Charles Angelo Simone -- aka Charles Simon, Charlie Simmons, Charles Simoni, Schmooie, and Calogero Angelo Simone (TN) -- was born on November 2, 1902. His mother was named Rosa (nee’ LaManna) Simone. The family hailed from the little town of Carpanzano (Cosenza Province) in southern Italy. Some say he was born in Syracuse, NY. But a 1920 Census data suggests that Simone may have actually been born in Italy during a family trip back to their homeland of Calabria before later immigrating back to the United States with his mother and siblings in 1911, at the age of 9.

What is known is that after arriving at Ellis Island, the Simone family traveled upstate New York to Onondaga County, where they set down permanent roots in the City of Syracuse. This is where the Simones would grow up and live their entire lives, and where young Charlie would rise to one day become one of that city’s most notorious organized crime figures.

Charlie Simone

Side Note: Charles’ father may have been named Giacomo (Jack) Simone, but there is virtually no available background data about him. Not even a dob or dod. This lack of reliable information also contributes to the confusion. There was also an Angelo Simone (born 1866, died 1899) at Syracuse, NY, who also figures into the picture. Background data shows Charles’ mother, Rosa, later married a man named Angelo Simone. The mystery increases because the Simone family also had many interactions with people over the years who had the same surname, who may have been amici, cousins, or extended family in some way.

There is additional conflicting data that points to a Rosa (Rosalie) LaManna Simone, of Syracuse, having possibly been married on three separate occasions in her life to three different men. And after either a death or a divorce, getting married again. One spouse was named Angelo Simone, who died in Syracuse in 1899 at the age of 33. Rosa, 46 at the time, then married Francesco Vercillo in 1913, but they separated just one year later. This Rosa LaManna died on October 26, 1951, at the age of 84. She had one daughter, Susana, and two sons: Saverio (Sam) Simone, born in 1890 in Italy, and Charles Angelo Simone, born in 1902. Susana and Saverio were half-siblings to Charles. Some of the confusion about birthplaces and names may also be due to Rosa and her children moving back to Italy for several years after the death of her husband, Angelo, before relocating back to the U.S. This woman is an exact match for our Rosa.

Either way, either through death or divorce, it seems that young Charlie lacked any type of strong paternal influence while he was growing up.

By 1919, the family was reportedly residing in Syracuse’s 15th Ward District. Throughout most of the 1920s, the Simones lived in a two-story clapboard dwelling located at 922 N. Townsend Street.

922 N. Townsend Street

During an early arrest for burglary as a youth, Simone once gave a different home address to the police. During the booking and fingerprinting process, he told officers he lived at 823 S. State Street, but hIs statement was probably a ruse of sorts.

The Early Years

Throughout his twenties, Simone usually listed his occupation as that of a “meat cutter.’ But on one occasion in 1929, he stated he was a “dish washer” for a local restaurant. On this particular occasion, he also stated he lived at 949 8th Street. Yet, later that same year, Charlie again listed his home address as being 922 N. Townsend Street.

Around this same time period, Charlie started dating an attractive young lady from the neighborhood by the name of Anna Mercurio. Six years his junior, their relationship soon turned serious, and on April 28, 1930, Charlie and Anna decided to wed. The young couple took their nuptials before the eyes of God at a local Roman Catholic Parish.

Charlie was already 27 years old when he took Anna for his bride. Anna, born June 30, 1908, was just two months shy of turning 22 when she said yes to him.

Over the next decade, Charlie and Anna would be blessed with three children, all daughters, whom they named Rosalinda, born in 1933, Donna, born in 1935, and Jacqueline, born in 1937.

To accommodate their expanding family, by the late 1930s, the Simones had rented a pretty two-story house located at 362 Willumae Drive in Syracuse.

By the mid-to-late 1940s, Simone was earning enough money from his varied activities that he and Anna decided to invest and buy a home of their own. They chose a pretty two-story house set on a corner lot at 135 Court Terrace, off Court Street. This is the home where they raised their daughters and lived for years to come.

362 Willumae Drive, Syracuse

135 Court Terrace, Syracuse

The Anti-Social Register

By the time Charlie had reached his early twenties, he was suspected of having already gravitated to the streets and started what would become a lifetime career in the rackets. Over the next forty years of his life, he would accumulate a long record of arrests — especially gambling-related arrests — to validate that suspicion.

His police record, or “rap sheet”, reportedly dated back to the early-1920s and included arrests for such offenses as burglary, assault, felonious assault, suspicion (bootlegging), illegal fireworks, disorderly conduct, state liquor law violations, violating the habitual criminal statue, income-tax violations, and a dozen or so gambling charges for horse and sports bookmaking, policy-numbers, lottery, operating a football pool, and running poker, blackjack and dice games.

An early burglary arrest involved the theft of clothing valued at approximately $2,000 that had been heisted from a clothing store at 717 S. Townsend Street. Simone was charged with third-degree burglary. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and was held without bail for future action by the grand jury.

One of his two assault charges allegedly stemmed from a verbal altercation that turned into a free-for-all fight in front of the Syracuse Billiard Parlor, 223 E. Washington Street, during which Charlie allegedly clocked a guy in the head with a pool cue, knocking the man unconscious.

The incident began after a team of deputy sheriffs arrived at the pool hall to arrest Louis Silvers and his brother, amateur boxer Carmen (Kid) Silvers. After cuffing their suspects, the deputies attempted to leave but were accosted on the sidewalk by a group of Silver’s friends who rushed out of the billiard parlor to confront the officers.

Allegedly, the entire original argument stemmed from a long-simmering feud between rival gangs in the neighborhood. A wild melee quickly ensued, during which a number of participants in the battle were injured, the most serious of which was Lou Silvers, who was rushed to nearby St. Joseph’s Hospital with a fractured skull.

Cops grabbed Simone on the spot, cuffed him, and brought him to police headquarters, where he was held without bail on a charge of felonious assault.

One year later, the hot-headed Charlie was charged in another fist fight. This arrest involved an incident that took place inside a downtown restaurant late one Saturday night between the then 26-year-old Simone and his 34-year-old opponent, who was later identified as a guy named Louie Mack. The altercation was thought to have started with a verbal argument between the men inside the eatery, which quickly escalated into a wild physical brawl during which both men threw punches and heaved sugar bowls at one another.

Both would-be pugilists were arrested on the spot after the restaurant’s owner called the police. Later, Simone and Mack each pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of “breach of peace,” which is similar to a disorderly conduct charge. They were released from jail after paying fines imposed by the judge. Simone was fined $25, Mack was socked with a $50 fine.

The Roaring Twenties

Despite the occasion arrests they faced, local law enforcement’s seeming ambivalence toward members of the underworld allowed Charlie and other known hoodlums and racketeers in the city to operate largely unimpeded by the Syracuse Police Department. For many years, it was the equivalent of being handed a free pass to operate as they pleased.

The result of this lax law enforcement policy was that local mob guys ran wild for decades and largely remained immune to arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment.

Not dissimilar to other major cities and towns all across America during this same time period, from the 1920s until at least the early 1950s, organized crime had a field day. This was especially true in places like Saratoga Springs, Schenectady, Utica, Albany, Rochester, and other locations across upstate New York — and maybe none more so than within the City of Syracuse.

Correlating with the start of Prohibitio,n unbridled gangsterism across America quickly became a nationwide problem after the U.S. Congress enacted the so-called Volstead Act in 1920. This was a federal law that prohibited the manufacture, possession, transport, sale, or consumption of any type of alcoholic beverages.

This widely unpopular and largely unenforceable law quickly gave birth to a nationwide network of enterprising young street hoodlums, who soon became highly organized professional “racketeers” by simply taking advantage of the situation and supplying the public with what they craved: a glass of beer, wine, or whiskey.

The underworld had a party. And much to their delight, the party lasted for thirteen fabulous years — from 1920 until 1933 — when Congress finally acted and repealed the Volstead Act, and liquor flowed free again from coast to coast.

This failed social experiment had made millionaires out of many previously down-at-the-heels street guys who now found themselves with big bankrolls, enabling them to facilitate future rackets and endeavors.

The Roaring Twenties had been very good to the mob, but it was now all over, much to the joy of the American public and the chagrin of the underworld. Everybody was happy again, that is, except the wiseguys, of course.

The bootleggers were the only ones crying in their beer.

But “The Mob” is nothing if not resilient.

Cosa Nostra and their underworld allies just smoothly transitioned into their next big thing, which was gambling!

Before long, the mob coordinated a highly synchronized coast-to-coast effort and quickly moved in to take over control of America’s illegal gambling industry.

Although they had always been in the gambling business to one degree or another, starting in the early 1930s, the American underworld — led by the Italian Mafia — would soon gain a stranglehold on most of America’s gambling rackets, wresting away control from independent gamblers who had previously controlled the action.

From lotteries and policy-numbers businesses, to horse and sports bookmaking, “one-armed bandit” slot machines, card games, floating crap games, to full-blown backdoor casinos, the mob either ran it or controlled it in some shape or form.

Gambling would soon become organized crime’s most lucrative racket yet!

Burgers, Billiards, and Bets

By the late 1930s, Charlie had gone into business for himself after opening up a billiard parlor in the neighborhood. He also started dabbling in the neighborhood as a bookie, using the pool hall as a “blind” to take bets on horses.

Charlie also expanded by opening up a local restaurant he named Simone’s Lunch Room, incorporating it into the same building where he ran the billiard parlor, 717 N. Salina Street, on Syracuse’s North Side “Little Italy” section.

The eatery and pool hall quickly became popular spots with local neighborhood denizens as well as a very popular destination with neighborhood horse betters, professional gamblers, and the hoodlum set — although notorious might be a more appropriate word for it.

“Little Italy” Syracuse, NY

Both businesses quickly grew in popularity over the next couple of years, with Charlie enmeshing himself deeper and deeper into the illegal gambling rackets. By this point in time, he had become successful as a full-time bookmaker and card game operator.

For the next 30-plus years, Simone’s Lunch Room doubled as a major illegal gambling hub in Syracuse. So much so that it became an open secret. It was almost comical….almost.

Simone operated from the restaurant for years. But the legal difficulties he faced from time to time forced him to periodically change the name of the restaurant to avoid further legal problems. Subsequently, through the years, 717 N. Salina Street became Simone’s Restaurant, Simone’s Lunch Room, and Simone’s Lunch Bar, among several other names.

But though the name atop the storefront may have been changed from time to time as the need arose or adverse public exposure demanded, everybody in town who was “in the know” knew what went on inside 717 N. Salina Street.

And that included all the beat cops and top brass of the Syracuse Police Department who were long suspected of accepting bribes and payoffs from Simone and his associates to turn a blind eye to what nearly every citizen in Syracuse knew was going on.

Like others of his ilk, through the years, Charlie Simone also capitalized on this cozy relationship with the boys in blue.

Coffee, Crap Games, and Cuffs

As mentioned, Charlie started booking horses as a young man. He soon expanded into running card and dice games and handling football ticket lotteries, too. He usually used the coffee shop’s back room and the adjacent pool hall to conduct his thriving gambling businesses.

In addition to the billiard parlor and coffee shop, through the course of his life Charlie owned several other ostensibly legal businesses which included the Marine Cigar Store, an Italian-styled grocery store (which later burned down in a suspicious arson fire), and Andre’s 700 Club, a liquor-licensed establishment that was known for consistently violating New York State’s Alcohol Beverage Control Laws (ABC).

One example of these liquor law violations was when the Syracuse Vice Squad staged a surprise early morning raid at Andre’s 700 Club, located at 700 S. Salina Street, during which police officers detained 70 persons and held more than 40 of them in custody for over eight hours before finally charging three men and releasing the other 67 people.

Deputy Chief Mathew Selinski, who coordinated the raid, later told newspaper reporters that his officers had arrested three men whom he described as being “the principals operating the illegal ‘after-hours’ club.”

He identified them as 47-year-old Charles Simone, whom he described as a restaurant owner, Simone’s brother-in-law and partner, Paul D. Renna, and Ralph DeCarlo. All three suspects were hit with multiple counts of violating state liquor laws.

Side Note: Much more about Simone’s nightclub and this incident will be discussed further down in the story, under the subtitle, “Andre’s 700 Club.”

Gambling Raids

Over the course of four decades, Simone gained a notorious criminal reputation and became the subject of numerous police investigations and arrests regarding his illicit gambling activities. And even when he didn’t actually get arrested, his gambling business would suffer because of surprise police raids and law enforcement’s scrutiny in one form or another.

A good example of this unrelenting police scrutiny occurred back on Monday, June 14, 1949, when, based on the complaint of Thomas Sardino — a self-styled “crusader” — the Syracuse police raided Simone’s Luncheonette.

Seventeen men found present inside the eatery were hauled into police headquarters for questioning. A police spokesman later said that none of the men were charged with a crime, but were interrogated in an effort to discover who was operating the high-stakes card game being run in the back room of the building.

Bedlam erupts outside Como’s Restaurant during a police raid on one of Simone’s gambling dens.

The raiding party, consisting of eight police officers and detectives, hit the premises by surprise shortly after 11 p.m. Police entered through the front door of the restaurant and walked directly through the dining area of the lunchroom into a backroom where they found a lively blackjack game in progress.

While several policemen detained those in attendance, other officers confiscated the card tables and chairs, decks of cards, and other gambling paraphernalia. A police paddy wagon had to make three trips in order to carry the 16 gamblers and all the confiscated evidence back to headquarters.

Police officials left off stating they intended to bring criminal charges against certain unnamed individuals once they questioned all the suspects.

On March 5, 1951, the Syracuse Police Department, working in conjunction with the City’s Health Department, announced that they had begun a major crackdown on what they described as “suspicious” restaurants and coffee shops operating within the city limits and that they had already closed down two spots operated by gambler Charles Simone.

Simone’s longtime nemesis, Police Chief John A. Kinney, ordered his men to “close and keep closed” Simone’s restaurant, at 717 N. Salina Street, and the East Side Coffee Shop, located at 601 Burnet Avenue.

The police chief stated that the N. Salina Street location had been the subject of many police visits in the past and that both places were on his list of locations to be closely watched and monitored, following an investigative series of newspaper stories carried by the Post-Standard.

Although Kinney’s order termed both restaurants as being “Simone owned” because one of Simone’s gambling subordinates, Michael (Mike Spagnola) DeSimone, was the listed owner of the East Side Coffee Shop, other sources advised that the eatery in question was actually operated by others.

The authorities had tied Mike DeSimone’s name to Charlie Simone back in 1948 when Mike DeSimone was convicted on a gambling charge connected to operating a gambling den headed by Charlie Simone.

Technically, authorities said that both eateries had been legally ordered shut because they did not possess the required city restaurant licenses required to operate. And officially, city authorities said that their action was completely unrelated to the current police drive to rid the city of the myriad of horse parlors and backroom card and dice games plaguing Syracuse. But unofficially, everyone suspected this crackdown was coordinated as part of a larger drive by law enforcement against the city’s criminal underworld.

It was later revealed that Police authorities were very suspicious about the N. Salina Street building having six separate telephone lines connected to it, and that each line was either listed in Simone’s name, his restaurant, or the billiard room he operated behind the restaurant.

Police had long suspected that at least some of these phone lines were being used for illegal purposes. Their suspicions were further piqued after discovering that three of the six lines in question were unlisted and not published in the telephone book and were not made available to the public.

Another Raid

October 4, 1957, a spokesman for the Syracuse Police Department reported they had once again raided the notorious Simone Lunch Bar the previous night after a routine check by two city detectives had uncovered a gambling operation there.

Described as a “spectacular and unplanned raid,” authorities said it was the second gambling arrest made there in the past two months.

Side Note: Only two months earlier, back on August 16th, detectives of the Syracuse Police Department, working in concert with a team of U.S. Treasury Agents, had arrested eight men at Simone’s place during a city-wide raid that had targeted three known gambling joints.

Syracuse Detective William Delaney stated that the six suspects nabbed in this latest raid faced several charges, including being employees of a gambling house, promoting gambling, and maintaining an illicit gambling operation.

He went on to identify one of those arrested as 54-year-old Charles Simone, who was being held on the top charge of being the “proprietor” of the gambling house.

Det. Sgt. Delaney explained that he and his partner entered the restaurant and walked into a backroom where they saw a group of men congregating around several card tables playing poker. The gamblers made a mad dash to escape through several rear exit doors. Four successfully got away, but the detectives were able to corral ten others.

1957 - News cameramen snap a birdseye view inside one of Charlie Simone’s betting parlors during a police raid.

Police later charged five men with promoting the game. Four others were also held as material witnesses. The tenth man was released. Police also confiscated four large card tables, 23 chairs, a transatlantic radio, decks of cards, and various other gambling paraphernalia such as football parley slips.

Delany said that no ticker-tape machine used by bookies for racing results was found on the premises during this raid, but that in the last raid, all three locations had a busy ticker machine spitting out race results.

Six men were arrested in the raid and charged with being inmates of a gambling house (employees). They were identified as Cosmo Napolitano, John Gambacorto, John Lynch, Gabriel Khammar, Nicholas S. Nappa, and Andrew Cariota. Held as material witnesses were George Migolian, Peter Nestico, and Egidio (Eddie) LaMura.

After several well-orchestrated delays by Charlie’s defense attorney, Paul R. Shanahan, Simone later pled out to a reduced gambling charge and paid a $100 fine. All remaining defendants later also pleaded out to lesser charges.

Side Note: Another noted Syracuse gambler was Charlie’s older brother Saverio (Sammy) Simone, who, for many years, also operated a lucrative gambling business from Simone’s Smoke Shop, a tobacco and newspaper store he owned and operated at 153 James Street, Syracuse. Sam was known to accept bets on a wide range of gambling activities, including horse races, baseball, football, and other sports. Police say he also promoted punchboards, lottery numbers, and ran occasional card games.

Saverio Simone

Gettin' Grilled

By April 1960, Simone and several other top Syracuse gamblers, including Sam Silver, had received subpoenas to testify before the NYS Crime Commission, which had started a probe to investigate illicit gambling operations being conducted throughout the State of New York. These public hearings were being held at 270 Broadway, in Lower Manhattan.

On the day he appeared before the committee, Simone was first sworn in and placed under oath. Then, under intense questioning, Charlie began testifying about his activities as a bookmaker and gambler and about what he knew about other gamblers, their activities, and what “layoff offices” serviced Simone and other bookies over the years.

He admitted to having been a bookmaker and professional gambler all his life. But he also told the investigative committee that he had long since retired from the game and was no longer active in any form of the gambling business.

Also called down to New York City to testify that day were a group of Simone’s former associates, including Sam Silver, Michael A. Baratta, and several others who also admitted to being bookmakers and working in tandem with Simone and many other Syracuse-based gamblers, as well as gambling figures in other cities.

When asked, specifically, who these gambling figures in other cities were, Silver and the others revealed several names, including a “Lefty” from Chicago, “Leo” Hirschfield from Milwaukee, an unidentified “layoff” headquarters based in Biloxi, Mississippi, and Harry Ship from Montreal, Canada.

Daniel D. Moynihan, a spokesman for the Crime Commission, later released a statement saying the commission’s findings indicated that Syracuse based bookmakers regularly maintained contacts and did business with individuals from at least 15 major cities including Boston, MA., Wilmington, DE., Washington, DC., Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, PA., Louisville and Newport, KY., Cincinnati, OH., Evansville, IN., Davenport, IA., Chicago, IL., Milwaukee, WI., Minneapolis, MN., Biloxi, MS., and Montreal, Canada.

A tense Charlie Simone as he exits the Federal Courthouse.

Moynihan stated that these connections involved supplying a daily “betting line” which was either given or received, various bets given or accepted, and race results given or accepted.

He explained that the betting “line” is the point-spread bookmakers across the country use each day to “set the betting odds” for their gambling customers. The “line” gives bookies an up-to-date report to so they can adjust the betting odds in a timely fashion.

Less than two months later, in June of 1960, Simone was once again called to appear as a witness before another Federal Grand Jury, this one based in Albany, NY. This particular grand jury investigation was empaneled in order to uncover possible violations of the Federal gambling statutes and related income-tax evasion on the part of professional syndicated gambling organizations.

Dozens of witnesses were reportedly subpoenaed to testify. Simone was said to have been among ten individuals from the Syracuse area who were called to appear on the same morning and ordered to testify.

News reports stated this latest federal government action came in the wake of information gathered from the testimony of other admitted gamblers who were given immunity from state prosecution by the NY State Investigation Commission in exchange for their honest testimony months earlier in New York City. At that time, numerous testimonies that were placed into the official record pointed to Syracuse as being the hub of a $250-million-a-year upstate gambling network that stretched into such other areas of the state as Cortland, Ithaca, Utica, Geneva, and other upstate cities.

The Kefauver Hearings

Dating back to at least 1950, the U.S. Government’s interest was first piqued by the vague possibility that a shadowy underworld syndicate existed in the United States. They were very skeptical at first, but nonetheless intrigued by the possible prospect of it. So that same year, 1950, a little-known U.S. Senator by the name of Estes Kefauver from Tennessee requested and was given the authority by Congress to establish a five-member special committee to investigate potential organized crime influence in interstate commerce.

Subsequently, on May 28, 1950, the so-called Kefauver Committee was officially launched.

Senator Kefauver chose to start his investigation down south in Miami, Florida. The committee’s first assignment was to investigate whether the criminal underworld had any control over gambling activities in the Sunshine State.

The hearings, which were televised to the public, were so popular and successful that over the course of the next fifteen months, Kefauver and his Senate Committee took their show on the road, traveling to 14 key cities across the country to hold televised hearings regarding the pervasive influence of organized crime in America.

Hundreds of known gangsters and gamblers, in addition to hundreds more law enforcement officials, politicians, and businessmen, were subpoenaed to appear and testify about what they knew.

When Kefauver and his committee reached New York City — the undisputed headquarters of organized crime and the Italian Mafia in America — the Senate committee’s daily proceedings were broadcast nationally by all major television networks and select radio stations.

Scores of gamblers and gangsters, both notorious and anonymous, were subpoenaed for their testimony. Most did their best to shy away from the glare of the media spotlight and avoided testifying by invoking their constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment against possible self-incrimination. Nonetheless, the mere appearance of these gangsters and alleged Mafia figures being grilled before the committee became riveting television for viewers across the nation.

Arguably, the hearings reached their high point when, under federal subpoena, the notorious New York City Mafia boss Frank Costello was forced to appear before them. The ever-dapper Costello’s mere appearance, let alone the testimony he so cautiously provided, became the stuff of legend — or infamy, as it were.

NYS Investigative Hearings

Taking their cue from Senator Kefauver’s success back in 1950-51, and looking to build on that success in the coming years and decades, numerous other investigative grand juries and investigative panels were started to probe organized crime’s influence in various locations across the United States.

Those ordered to testify under oath ranged from top Mafia leaders and their capos to rank-and-file soldiers and lower-echelon associates. From the biggest fish, right on down to the smallest guppies, no mobster was immune.

Beyond ordering mobsters to appear before them, subpoenas rained down on police officials, politicians, businessmen, and regular citizens alike. It made no difference whatsoever who they were. If their names came up during these investigations, they usually received a subpoena.

Within “The Empire State,” a number of important hearings were held in Manhattan to probe the mob. But as more and more testimony was elicited from the dozens and dozens of witnesses who were called to the stand, the probes quickly expanded beyond the boundaries of the five boroughs into other towns and cities located in counties throughout the state.

One of those who was repeatedly summoned down to testify was none other than our boy, Charles A. Simone. One of the main reasons Simone was subpoenaed to come in had to do with information gathered from several previous witnesses who had testified at earlier hearings.

Simone, accompanied by his defense attorney, testifying in Manhattan at a hearing before the NYS Investigation Commission.

Simone’s name came up regarding his participation in a major illegal gambling operation that was then taking place in the City of Syracuse and throughout Onondaga County and elsewhere. Evidence also pointed to Simone having been a major gambler and racketeer for decades.

Testimony revealed that, dating back as far as 1940, Charlie was running high-stakes dice games. The information received by the committee confirmed that another notorious local Syracuse gambler by the name of Samuel (Sam) Silver had once been Simone’s partner.

Silver, described by witnesses as a very wealthy man, had reportedly bankrolled Simone’s dice game in return for a piece of the action. The exact amount of money Silver received was never stated in the public record, but as the financial backer of the game, it’s probably safe to say that Silver’s end was probably substantial.

For his part, when asked about it under oath, Simone admitted to running crap games in partnership with Silver back in 1940 and stated that his contribution to their partnership was to supervise and control the game. Charlie also admitted that his cut of profits amounted to 30% of whatever money the game netted each night.

In the coming years, Simone appeared before several other grand juries and criminal probes held closer to home in Syracuse. One such investigative hearing got started in 1960. After some preliminary testimony by others, Simone was among the first “alleged” underworld figures ordered to appear.

And although each and every man was said to be a noted Syracuse racketeer in his own right, a solid argument could be made that Simone was a first among equals and the most notorious “reputed” racketeer among them.

Over the course of several appearances before the committee, Charlie was repeatedly grilled about illegal bookmaking and gambling operations, other types of rackets, and his various criminal associates. Another major part of these probes focused on police bribery and official corruption at the highest levels of city government.

But, staying true to the code of the underworld, and, in particular, the Italian underworld’s code of silence, Simone successfully bobbed and weaved time and again and ended up providing frustrated investigators with very little useful information.

…Such is the time-honored tradition of Omertà.

Neverending Trouble

Nothing would ever directly come from any of these hearings by way of arrests or indictments. But the unprecedented public exposure he received because of these investigations resulted in Charlie feeling law enforcement’s “heat” leering over his shoulder for the rest of his days.

But, like the devout gambler and lifelong fatalist he was, Simone seemed to take it all in stride. After all, as the wisemen say, “It all goes with the territory.”

In the coming years, Simone’s gambling operations would continue to suffer from periodic police raids, and Charlie and his subordinates would tolerate the occasional arrests that came along with running illicit “street businesses” of this nature. But hey, as Charlie used to like to say, “What do you want from me? It’s a living.”

Truth be told, even before Senator Estes Kefauver showed up at Simone’s door he had seen his fair share of pinches. Over the course of his “career,” he had been nabbed for a smorgasbord of anti-social behavior ranging from assaults and burglary to lighting off fireworks inside a movie theatre, not to mention all the gambling arrests.

Charlie is front-page news again.

Yet, because it was such a different atmosphere back then in America and the local police generally viewed bookmakers and street guys as friendly Damon Runyon-like characters from “Guys and Dolls” — especially in places like Syracuse — Charlie hardly ever felt a ripple. And on those rare occasions when he did, the worst that usually happened to him was that he’d plead guilty to a reduced charge and pay a nominal fine, or receive a short term of probation.

Like a guy once said, “Nice work if you can get it!”

But in the wake of the Kefauver Hearings, things started to change. By the mid-to-late 1950s, law enforcement seemed to finally wake up, because from that time forward, the proverbial “snowball” of justice began to really target organized crime in a way it never had before. And once that ball started rolling, it never stopped.

Slowly but surel,y local and federal law enforcement agencies from coast to coast fell in sync and started coordinating a nationwide effort to uncover and destroy organized crime once and for all — especially the Italian Mafia. And anyone they perceived as being connected in any way, shape, or form to that dreaded criminal “Brotherhood” became fair game for prosecutors.

Correlating with Charlie’s many appearances before these various investigative bodies, the government soon put a target on Simone’s back. By the late 1950s, he was being hounded regularly. And although he had been nabbed for gambling in the past, his bookmaking and casino operations were now being surveilled and targeted for raids like never before.

Mafia Ties

Throughout Simone’s career, local and federal law enforcement authorities have repeatedly suggested that he had ties to the national crime syndicate. Yet, they were never able to actually pinpoint and name any particular Mafia Family to tie him to. They just generally categorized him as a gambler and racketeer whose criminal activities were “organized crime” oriented.

But there is good circumstantial evidence to suggest that he was most probably affiliated in some capacity with members of the Mafia.

What we do know is that, dating as far back as the early 1900s, the City of Syracuse and its outlying territories hosted large numbers of Camorrista-type criminal clans, the most significant of which appears to have been the Scarafino-Capozzi Gang which was a loose confederation of camorrista who preyed on the city from approximately 1900, until they slowly faded from power by the early 1940s.

Thereafter, a younger generation of hoodlums rose to prominence and became active in illegal gambling, unlicensed after-hours clubs, and other rackets of the day.

Side Note: Button Guys was interested in researching the lineage of Syracuse’s younger generation of hoodlums. Our research revealed that many younger members were related to one another through either blood or marriage. It also showed that many were blood-related to original members of the old Scarafino-Capozzi clan. So, in a very real sense, at the time, the Syracuse underworld was generational in nature.

The City of Syracuse was somewhat unique in that it housed two very distinct “Little Italy” sections. Likewise, the Italian underworld seems to have divvied up the city between them, with the Sicilian clans holding sway on the city’s South Side, while those from the Italian mainland — particularly the provinces of Campania, Molise, Calabria, and Puglia — dominating the city’s North Side.

By the 1950s, although the city was still rife with organized criminal activity, no documented Cosa Nostra Family had ever chosen to plant its flag there, declaring Syracuse as its own.

Instead, the city’s organized underworld appears to have operated semi-autonomously and largely devoid of any central command. Yet, there is substantial evidence that points to some members of Syracuse’s criminal fraternity maintaining social and “business” ties to key members of traditional FBI-documented Mafia Families in various cities around the country, including New York City’s notorious Five Families, Joe Barbara’s Binghamton faction, the Magaddino Family of Buffalo, and the Chicago Outfit.

The most plausible explanation for these “decentralized” far-flung Mafia connections probably resulted from the personal friendships and business ties that developed through the years between individual mob guys, rather than through any “formal” connections of being “with” any one particular LCN Family or crew.

That being said, it does appear that Syracuse’s underworld figures favored two of New York City’s Five Families, maintaining indirect ties over the years with several individual members of the Genovese and Bonanno Families.

Yet, not one Syracuse gambler or racketeer has ever formally been identified by the FBI, or any other law enforcement agency for that matter, as “officially” or “unofficially” being a soldier or associate of any recognized Cosa Nostra Family.

The Local Boys

Although Simone was never directly connected by law enforcement authorities to any particular mafioso, he was well known as a criminal associate and on intimate terms with most of the local gamblers and underworld figures active in Syracuse.

This local cast of characters included such notables as Alfred A. (Fritzy) Gentile, Samuel J. (Sammy) Farrar, Dominick (Dom) Ferrar, Samuel (Sam) Silver, Cosmo Mandarino, John (Tops) Mandarino, Frank Bagozzi, James (Jimmy the Brute) Sampere, James DeSimone, Salvatore (Sammy) Simone, Paul D. Renna, Samuel (Blackie) Vercillo, Anthony (Mitzi) Tucci, Michael Baratta, Albert (Allie) Casale, Michael Siano, Louis (Cheech) Blasi, John Pascarella, the Sardo brothers, the DeJohn brothers, and dozens of others whom local police officials considered to be among the city’s most unsavory characters.

At one time or another, each of the men listed above was publicly named as a bookmaker, gambler, bootlegger, hoodlum, or racketeer. And through the years, some of these men have indeed been named as “associates” of officially recognized LCN factions, including the Mafia regime led by the Falcone brothers of Utica, and the Stefano Magaddino Family of Buffalo.

The Feds Take Another Shot

On August 17, 1957, U.S. Treasury Department Agents and city police conducted sweeping gambling raids at two gambling parlors on the North Side that netted them eight suspects and volumes of betting receipts and gambling paraphernalia. Police also confiscated over $8,500 in cash.

A small battalion of officers conducted synchronized raids at two locations. One was Simone’s Lunch Bar, 717 N. Salina Street. The other was Top’s Coffee Shop, located right down the block, at 319 N. Salina Street.

Agents also raided a second-floor room over the Spa Restaurant, at 127 W. Water Street. A fourth team of agents also grabbed one suspect at his residence.

Besides our boy Charlie Simone, the other men arrested that day included gamblers John Grenga, Vincent Tropea, Anthony J. Saccone, Bernard P. Riccardi, Paul (Tops) Mandarino, John Ostunio, Cosmo Ostunio, Thomas M. Cooper, and John DeMento.

The defendants were charged with failure to register with the federal government (Internal Revenue Service) as a gambler, and failure to buy the required annual $50 federal gambling tax stamp.

The criminal case that followed was prosecuted in U.S. District Court and assigned to Federal Judge Stephen W. Brennan.

During an initial court conference held by the Judge to discuss the case, one of the first bones of contention presented by defense attorneys to Judge Brennan for his decision was whether or not there was even sufficient evidence in the affidavits to justify issuing the search warrants used by the police in the first place.

The attorneys representing Simone and Grenga immediately made applications seeking to have those search warrants quashed.

If, in fact, the court had complied with the defense’s request to invalidate the search warrants, that would have been the end of the entire prosecution, because it would have forced the suppression of all the evidence gleaned from the searches, which, by extension, would have forced Judge Brennan to dismiss the entire case.

The final disposition of the case was not available.

The City Decides to Take Action

Aside from the heavy expense of paying for defense lawyers and the fines imposed each time he was arrested or convicted, the disruption and turmoil to his operations as well as the loss of betting volume generated by these types of investigations ended up taking a heavy financial toll on Simone’s bottom line — and, ultimately, on his pocketbook.

The end result was that, despite having owned a number of legitimate businesses and having spent his entire life in the rackets, Charlie always seemed to be scrambling around for money.

A good example of the gambler’s plight occurred in April of 1959 when local politicians back at Syracuse City Hall made a public announcement that they had started a concerted effort to try and shut down a notorious gambling place on the city’s North Side. They identified the targeted property as the “Coffee Shop-Restaurant” located at 717 N. Salina Street, which they said had been the focus of numerous police raids over the course of a quarter century.

During a subsequent news conference held by City Corporation Counsel George T. Driscoll, the barrister stated he had formally instituted a Supreme Court action on behalf of the City of Syracuse against three specific defendants. He identified them as Charles Simone, the operator of said business, John Pascarella, who he identified as the owner of record for the building housing said business, and the Cortland County Savings Bank, which he said was included in the legal action because they held a mortgage on the property. Attorney Driscoll cited the specific cause for action as abating “a common and public nuisance.”

Driscoll admitted that it was an unusual procedure, and one that was quite unprecedented as far as he could recall, but then stated, “it was a much-needed legal step to permanently enjoin and restrain the defendants from permitting the premises to be used for illegal purposes.”

1959 - Simone, Johnny Grenga, and “Cheech” Blasi exit the U.S. District Court, accompanied by their attorney.

Driscoll continued, “From 1936 to the present, the premises located at 717 N. Salina Street, consisting of an alleged restaurant and numerous rooms located throughout the first and second floors of the building, have been regularly used for illegal purposes in violation of Syracuse City ordinances and the penal statutes of the State of New York.”

In his complaint, he further stated that, “Habitually during the past several years, the premises have been used and occupied by various persons with the knowledge and consent of the defendant, Charles Simone, as a gambling house and under his immediate supervision and control. The charge set forth states that ‘defendants Charles Simone and John Pascarella’ did indeed permit illegal criminal operations to be conducted in said premises.”

Upon a formal court application, the City of Syracuse finally took the unprecedented action of closing down Simone’s coffee shop that very same month of April 1959, citing the location as a public nuisance. In addition to closing down his business, the city also shuttered his building and seized Simone’s property. This government action ended up taking a very heavy financial toll on Simone.

Nonetheless, like a Duracell battery that “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking,” Charlie relocated his gambling operation to a nearby location and continued his bookmaking operation.

Side Note: Years earlier, Charlie had put the ownership of the Townsend Street property in his son-in-law’s name. This was done in an attempt to avoid exposure and to help stave off any possible criminal prosecutions, income-tax matters, and to prevent the government from ever seizing his property. But at the end of the day, the government seized Simone’s property anyway.

Another Bump in the Road

One year later, on April 30, 1960, the cops raided Simone’s new gambling headquarters. Charlie was arrested again and ended up having to fight another criminal case, in addition to a previous gambling case from a year earlier. But, luckily, Simone had a crackerjack defense lawyer named Paul R. Shanahan who did an excellent job of kicking the proverbial can down the road for well over a year.

Shanahan accomplished this feat by convincing the judge to grant 13 separate postponements in the earlier case, which the judge deemed fit to do on every occasion, resulting in Simone’s first case being delayed for over a year.

This latest arrest followed a surprise police raid conducted at 316 N. Townsend Street, which was the “wire-room” Charlie was forced to open up after the city had shut down his coffee shop and gambling headquarters.

On the day Simone was arrested, Syracuse Police also nabbed two other men they identified as Francis (Frankie the Hat) Ippolito, a 34-year-old known gambler who resided at 153 Hazelhurst Avenue, and 31-year-old Matthew Saccone, of 362 Taft Avenue.

Members of the police raiding party said they captured both suspects inside the bookmaking “office” sitting at a table which was equipped with several telephones, writing pads and pencils, and piled high with hundreds of horse betting slips and over $400 in cash receipts.

The Townsend Street location became Simone’s new “office” where he employed several “clerks” to accept horse and sports wagers over the telephone. The location also doubled as a gambling den that offered games like poker, where gamblers could congregate and pass the time. Simone took a 5% “house cut” out of the pot of every hand of cards played.

Police said that as a courtesy to their players, each day the game would put out a nice spread of sandwiches, drinks, coffee, and cake, and other tidbits to encourage players to stay and keep playing. Simone operated the new club exactly the same as he had the old; it just became his successor operation. It operated similarly to any typical mob social club found in old Italian neighborhoods in cities and towns across the country.

Andre's 700 Club

As mentioned earlier, aside from his billiard parlor and coffee shop, through the years, Charlie owned a number of other local businesses, which included the Marine Cigar Store and a grocery store (which later burned down in a suspicious arson fire). At one time, he was also a partner in a popular nightclub that was consistently in trouble with its liquor license for violating New York State’s ABC Laws (Alcohol Beverage Control Laws).

One major violation occurred on January 20, 1950, when the Syracuse Police Department’s so-called “Flying Squad” staged a surprise early morning raid at Andre’s 700 Club, located at 700 S. Salina Street, for operating an Illegal “after-hours club” past the 1 a.m. deadline for serving alcoholic beverages. During the raid, police officers detained 70 persons, with more than 40 of them held for questioning for over eight hours.

The scene inside Andre’s 700 Club during the police raid.

Andre’s 700 Club gained a well-known reputation for being one of the city’s more risqué nightclubs for regularly offering burlesque dancers and suggestive entertainment. Deputy Chief Mathew Selinski, who coordinated the raid, stated that his officers arrested three men on the premises, whom he described as being the principal operators of the “after-hours” club. He identified them as 47-year-old Charles Simone, whom he described as a restaurant owner and operator of the club, Simone’s partner (and brother-in-law), Paul D. Renna, and a club employee, Ralph J. DeCarlo.

At their arraignment, each defendant was held in county jail on $1,000 bail apiece, which was promptly posted up for their release.

Authorities said that Simone was charged because various informants and employees of the club said that he exercised management over the club’s operations. Renna was charged because his name was listed on the club’s license, and DeCarlo was arrested because he had served drinks legal after-hours and had accepted money as payment.

Another 35 persons found in the club were also taken into custody and later released on $100 bail apiece as material witnesses.

A Wild Joint

Andre’s 700 Club maintained a well-deserved reputation around the city as a rough-and-tumble nightclub and illegal “after-hours” joint where customers could drink well past the legal 1 a.m. closing time, ogle scantily-clad women, and engage in other questionable activities. Andre’s was also known for being a wild joint where fights and assaults took place on a regular basis. A good example of the club’s unsavory reputation occurred less than four months after the cops raided the place back in January.

On May 4, 1950, Syracuse Police Chief John A. Kinney summoned Charlie Simone to come down to his office at police headquarters for a conference regarding several troubling incidents that had occurred several weeks before.

Simone was summoned after a second case of violence was reported to the police within one week by patrons of his establishment. Both victims had also signed formal complaints saying they had been violently attacked inside the club after the legal closing time of 1 a.m.

Charlie and his partner Paul Renna advertise their club.

During the previous month of April, the victim of the first assault said an unknown assailant badly beat him at about 2:00 a.m. in the vestibule of the club.

It was also noted that on April 18 of that very same month, Simone was fined $400 by a judge in Police Court for serving alcoholic beverages in violation of the city’s 1 a.m. curfew.

Then, less than one week later, a second victim, later identified as Walter Goldschmidt, told police he had also been attacked and beaten by three unidentified men at about 3:15 in the morning. His injuries were severe enough that he required hospital treatment for a split lower lip, a swollen eye, and several bad bruises and cuts across his face.

In light of these and other unnamed events, John W. Brown Jr., the executive officer of Onondaga County’s Alcohol Beverage Control Board, stated that his agency had started an “official action” against Andre’s 700 Club to have their liquor license permanently revoked, and said that he had forwarded the case to investigators in Albany for action by the New York State Liquor Authority (SLA).

Charlie Rolls Snake Eyes

Charles Angelo Simone died suddenly on August 14, 1965, while relaxing at home. The lifelong racketeer reportedly succumbed to a massive heart attack. Simone was only 62 years old. But one thing’s for certain, during the course of his life and career, Charlie had packed an awful lot of living into those 62 years.

He left behind his widow Anna, three grown daughters, a sister, and nine grandchildren.

Simone was waked for two days at Farone & Son Funeral Home, 723 James Street, followed by a solemn Mass of Christian Burial at St. John the Baptist R.C. Church. Charlie was then driven to his final resting place at the nearby Assumption Cemetery.

Anna, his devoted wife of 35 years, died fifteen years after her husband, in March of 1980. Anna was 71.

Postscript: Charlie’s older sister Susana (nee’ Simone) LaManna, born 1899, died on January 25, 1989, at the age of 89. Their mother, Rosa, passed away on October 26, 1951. Rosa was 84 years old. There was no available dod for Charlie’s older brother, Saverio (Sam) Simone.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Syracuse Rackets Boss “Charlie” Simone

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