Benjamin (Benny the Bug) Ross was identified during the U.S. Senate Investigation Hearings conducted by Robert Kennedy back in the late 1950s and early 1960s as one of New York’s most prolific and accomplished labor racketeers.
Operating primarily out of Lower Manhattan, over the years, “Benny the Bug” acquired union charters for a long string of “paper locals” that he utilized as tools to shake down employers in a variety of industries, embezzle union funds, and perpetrate other labor scams.
These included labor unions with such legitimate sounding names as Local #348, International Brotherhood of Trade Unions, the Allied Crafts Union, District Council #5, International Jewelry and Trade Workers Union, and the Allied Crafts Security Guards Union, to name but a few.
Benny Ross was connected to and operated with a wide variety of hoodlums and Mafia Families over the years, not the least of which was the notorious John “Johnny Dio” Dioguardi, Ignazio “Joe Curly” Agone, and Angelo “Little Angie” Tuminaro.
Until next time…”The Other Guy”
