Although the great majority of mob aficionados have never even heard the name BiFulco before reading this story, for over a half-century, members of the Bifulco family operated like the legendary outlaw Jesse James and his Gang of the old Wild West.
In fact, dating back to at least the 1940s, members of this blood family wreaked criminal havoc in Long Island’s Huntington Township.
And although their criminal specialty always centered around illegal bookmaking and other gambling rackets, over the years, local police nabbed family members for everything from assault and labor-union scams to burglary, armed-bank robbery, loansharking, extortion and more.
The Bifulco family’s appetite for wanton and unbridled criminality seems to have had no stop-gap measure.
Yet, despite their notorious reputation and sordid history, until I decided to take on this project, the full historical background and criminal exploits of the Bifulco clan has never been fully fleshed out or recorded in a comprehensive and chronological format, or in any other context for that matter.
What follows is a near fifty-year history of their criminal activities.
To the best information available, none of the Bifulcos were ever formally initiated as “made men” into the ranks of Cosa Nostra. For that matter, there isn’t even any solid proof that any of them were so-called formal “on-record” associates within one of New York’s infamous Five Family structure.
Yet, the Bifulco clan operated alongside and thrived within Long Island’s organized crime community for decades, active in a myriad of successful criminal rackets that would make any bonafide Mafia soldier proud.
Even more incredulous, the Bifulcos generally ran their operations without any interference from members of “traditional” organized crime networks.
Don’t misunderstand, through the years the family’s oldest son, Joseph (Joe Biff) Bifulco, who essentially became the family’s patriarch, knew many mob figures among the Island’s borgatas. So did his sons and younger brothers. And from time-to-time, over the years, the Bifulcos were known to work in tandem with a number of mafiosi from at least four of New York’s notorious “Five Families” — most notably members and associates from the Colombo, Genovese, Gambino and Lucchese Famiiies.
Yet, strangely enough, try as they might law enforcement officials never went so far as to “formally” declare the Bifulcos as formal “on-record associates” of any particular Cosa Nostra network.
This is their story!
Often Imitated. Never Duplicated. Button Guys of The New York Mafia...There's Only One!
