The "Scalleat Crew" of Hazleton, PA

They named it their “Top Hoodlum” program, and Scalleat received the dubious honor of being listed as a “Top Echelon” target. The local office of the FBI also opened up a similar ‘anti-racketeering’ case on Joe’s brother, Albert Michael Scalleat, who was by then also the subject of an ‘Interstate Transportation of Wagering Information’ criminal gambling investigation.

Joseph Scalleat, Sr., was born on October 18, 1911, at Hazleton, Pennsylvania, one of eight children born to the Scalleat family. He resided for years at 594 Harrison Street and later moved to nearby 711 East Ninth Street, Hazleton.

He was a notorious hoodlum who engaged in a wide variety of rackets along with his three brothers. They were said to be largely in control of the underworld in the Hazleton territory.

Brothers Joseph and Albert Scalleat

He had a kid brother and racket partner named Albert Michael Scalleat who was born in 1920 and resided right down the block from Joe for most of their lives. Albert lived at 621 Harrison Avenue.

By the late 1980s, he had moved to 2 West 21st Street. In later years after his brother Joe had died, Albert decided to retire and move down to Fort Lauderdale in South Florida. And some years later chose to relocate again out west to the City of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Joe Scalleat’s sprawling ranch home

Albert Scalleat’s Hazleton ranch home

He was his brother’s closest associate. Together they headed a large gambling combine. Albert and Joe were also said to be partners in a thriving loan-sharking business that Albert maintained and was in charge of for them.

Joe Scalleat and his three brothers, Albert, Samuel, and Pasquale, were said to be lifelong partners to one another. The Scalleat’s were each thought to have been formally inducted ‘soldiers’ who were affiliated with one of two separate Cosa Nostra Families.

Albert was said to be formally affiliated as a soldier of the Russell Bufalino Family that operated in the northeastern part of the state where they both resided, while his brother Joe had been inducted into the Angelo Bruno Family of South Philadelphia.

Al Scalleat listed as a soldier

But regardless of any formal affiliations or where they each chose to hang their mafiosi fedoras, the Scalleat’s by and large operated their own criminal entity.

The ‘Scalleat crew’ was thought to have been composed of the four brothers, several more of their blood relatives and in-laws, and a small cadre of allied hoodlums and gamblers who came out of the Hazleton area and were directly affiliated as crew members and Bufalino mob ‘associates.’ In other words, they were all ‘with’ Joe and Albert Scalleat.

Since approximately 1960 or so Joe had listed his legitimate employment as the Elwood Kline Trucking Co., of 4229 Rising Sun Avenue, Philadelphia. His position was listed as an outside commissioned salesman.

This was necessary to stave off the IRS who were always snooping around looking for tidbits of evidence that would help make a tax-evasion case against their target. In later years he listed his business as a partner in a Hazleton garment factory.

But over the years aside from creating a ‘beard’ for the taxman, Joe Scalleat and his brother Al made it their business to infiltrate many legitimate businesses and industries.

And whether it was simply opening up and creating new businesses from the ground up, buying into existing businesses, or using underworld leverage to strong-arm their way in, Joe Scalleat was a sharp enough guy to establish himself into numerous dress manufacturing sub-contract factories, clothing firms, bars and nightclubs, and a wholesale beer distributorship.

The Scalleat brothers rose from obscure neighborhood hoodlums to eventually become recognized as being among the most prominent underworld figures in the town of Hazleton and the neighboring coal-mining towns of Wilkes-Barre, Lancaster, and Harrisburg.

The brothers successfully led their small gang of henchmen to gain control over most forms of illicit gambling operations and related rackets in those areas.

They were known to operate horse and sports-bet bookmaking rings, a large numbers lottery, high-stakes floating dice and poker games, the placement of slot machines in area businesses, and the shylocking of money to those in need.

Joe also engaged heavily in garment racketeering through his aforementioned hidden ownership in several dress manufacturing companies, and in partnerships with his close friend and ally, Gioacchino (Dandy Jack) Parisi, who was a notorious hoodlum and gunman who originally hailed from Brooklyn and was a former member of the Albert (The Executioner) Anastasia Family.

‘Dandy Jack’ Parisi

Parisi had fled New York years earlier after he became the prime suspect in two gangland killings. Anastasia had sent him to hide out in Pennsylvania until the heat died down, under the protection of fellow mafioso Joe Scalleat and his boss, Russ Bufalino. Afterwards Parisi grew to like the area so much that he decided to remain there permanently.

He and Scalleat were known to be partners in many local racket operations and the two were considered the Mafia ‘bosses’ of the area and the heads of their own gang of racketeers. At one point in time, it was said by informants that Parisi and Scalleat were very close friends and probably partners in nearly all rackets together.

In 1950, the famed Kefauver Senate Select Committee on Investigations visited Pennsylvania to probe the local underworld active in the area and mob’s control over vice and corruption throughout the state.

As prominent local hoodlums, the Scalleat brothers were almost immediately singled out for investigation and were subpoenaed before the panel for their testimony back in Washington, D.C.

Joe Scalleat was repeatedly grilled by the panel of senators about his knowledge of illegal gambling in general, the bribery of local policemen and other city officials, and his operation and control over a large floating crap game and the running of storefront horse parlors in the town of Hazleton.

By the late 1950s, Joe Scalleat had become the subject of an FBI ‘anti-racketeering’ investigation. It was during this era that J. Edgar Hoover had ordered his area case agents to develop leads on all those they deemed as top echelon targets.

They named it their “Top Hoodlum” program, and Scalleat received the dubious honor of being listed as a “Top Echelon” target. The local office of the FBI also opened up a similar ‘anti-racketeering’ case on Joe’s brother, Albert Michael Scalleat, who was by then also the subject of an ‘Interstate Transportation of Wagering Information’ criminal gambling investigation.

In tracking down and identifying their gang ‘associates,’ in 1967 local authorities named Joseph (JoJo) Sansone as a close associate and personal friend of Albert Scalleat. He was a boyhood friend who went back years with the Scalleat’s.

‘JoJo’ Sansone, of 328 West Market Street, Marietta, PA.., was the owner-operator of the U.S. Aluminum Corporation, and the Colonial Inn Tavern, of 324 West Market Street, both of Marietta. After probing deeper into his background the FBI opened a ‘jacket file’ on him.

Joseph Michael Sansone, aka “JoJo” Joe Sansone, Joe Russo, Joseph De Martino, and Joseph Gianforti; Lancaster Police Department #11340, FBI #1722939, listed only one prior arrest for disorderly conduct. But he was born on December 12, 1914, and the FBI dug deeper and discovered that the Pennsylvania State Police had a file on him dating back to 1939.

It stated that back then he and his brother Anthony ran a pool room in Harrisburg, PA. A bit later he went into the prostitution business by supplying girls to various whore houses throughout Harrisburg, Reading, Shamokin, and the Pennsylvania coal regions with his partners at the time, a madame named Esther Pensyl, and her husband Fred.

On February 25, 1939, Fred Pensyl and an associate of his named Joe Mansfield were murdered. Subsequent police investigation led to the arrests of Joseph (Jojo) Sansone and William (Billy) Hancock for the double murders. But both men produced solid alibi’s and the police had to release them.

Gioacchino (Dandy Jack) Parisi, of 672 Monges Street, Hazleton. As stated earlier, he was a member of Anastasia’s Family and a fellow Calabrian who served as a prime gunman for Albert. He was a convicted narcotics trafficker who served a six-year prison term starting in 1926 for federal narcotics law violations.

He had also been indicted in New York City in connection with two murder cases, one of which involved the infamous “Murder Inc.” Parisi went ‘on the lam’ for ten years before authorities found him in Hazleton, and arrested him as a fugitive from justice in October of 1939. He was returned to Brooklyn to stand trial but was later acquitted in connection with one murder case, and the other charge was dismissed due to lack of evidence. At the time he listed his employment as the production manager for the Nuremberg Dress Company at Nuremberg, PA.

He was also affiliated with the Madison Dress Company, and Irene Dress Company, both of Hazleton. Both firms listed Brooklyn hoodlum Harry Strasser and mafia boss Umberto (Albert) Anastasia as corporate officers. It was the opinion of the State Police that Parisi was in fact also a partner in these garment firms and served as the ‘local man’ who looked after the interests of Strasser and Anastasia.

At the age of 60, the U.S. Government decided to file deportation papers against him. Parisi was soon in the fight of his life as his lawyers fought to try and keep the government from deporting the aging mafioso back to his native birthplace in Calabria, Italy.

Jack Parisi at his deportation hearing

Another close associate of Joe’s was Michael (Hoppy) Carsia, a longtime hoodlum and Hazleton-based mob figure who assisted Scalleat in running the gambling operations around the area. Carsia was ostensibly the owner-operator of the Can-Do Coal Sales Company, of Hazleton. But in reality ‘Hoppy’ Carsia had been well documented as a top ‘associate’ of the Bufalino Family by the Pennsylvania State Crime Commission over the years. He operated and oversaw a bookmaking and lottery ring for Joe.

Michael (Hoppy) Carsia

Other close associates and crew members included Michael DeLorenzo, a brother-in-law to the Scalleat’s who aided them in the rackets, and in later years their nephew Peter Belletieri who was the son of one of their sisters.

As he came of age, Peter would go knee-deep into various gambling operations that his uncles ran. He was the owner-operator of a restaurant in Allentown but also got involved with his uncles in the shylocking business, and the fencing of stolen goods. Belletieri was later also suspected as a financier of narcotics.

He was active in the area’s vending machine industry and the placement of slots and joker-poker machines inside Hazleton area businesses. He was another individual named by the Pennsylvania State Police in testimony before Pennsylvania State Crime Commission hearings.

Other crew associates included Bethlehem-based mob member Michael Insalaco who was also closely associated with Scalleat and his nephew Belletieri in bookmaking and video poker gambling machines.

Michael Insalaco

Insalaco was the son of deceased Bufalino soldier Samuel Insalaco, and the nephew of deceased soldier Modesto (Murph) Loquasto. Insalaco had two previous convictions for gambling. He operated the J & J Amusement Co., in West Easton.

Two more of their gambling operatives were Michael Dalessandro of Allentown, who ran Lehigh Traders and allegedly handled stolen goods, and Francis (Goo Goo) Rich, a top bookmaker who was also closely allied with them.

Joe Scalleat was known to hang out at several local bars, nightclubs, and restaurants frequented by the area's known hoodlums. Among his favorite hangouts was the Ovalton Night Club, and Genetti’s Restaurant, both in Hazleton, and The Orchid Club in Scranton, which was also a favorite of boss Russ Bufalino.

He also reputedly had his own dining table on reserve at Lombardo’s Gaslight Italian Restaurant near the capitol building in Harrisburg. It was alleged by eyewitnesses that Scalleat held court there and several top state officials were said to regularly sit at his table with him. All the while a telephone also sat on that table so Joe could handle any other mob ‘business’ of his as he ate his spaghetti and veal scallopine.

Among the high ranked officials who have been spotted at Scalleat’s table over the years included Lt. Governor Ernest Klein, the State Liquor Control’s chief counsel, Harry Bowytz, and Egidio Cerilli, who was the former Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and also served as the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commissioner.

Others have stated that Scalleat often dined at Lombardi’s with members of both the Democrat and Republican parties. In fact, a major scandal involving Scalleat and Senator Frank Mazzei, a Pittsburgh-based Democrat who was later convicted in federal court on extortion charges in relation to a $20,000 ‘shakedown’ for the awarding of a state public works contract.

During the scheme, Joe Scalleat was alleged to have remarked to another senator that he, “hoped the wives and children of the seven opposing senators aren’t on the porch when the porch decides to leave the house.” Although it became a major scandal that a notorious mafioso such as Joe Scalleat would be in cahoots with a sitting Pennsylvania State Senator, no criminal indictment would ever be lodged against the wily Scalleat.

But Mazzei was not as lucky. He was convicted and ousted from his lofty political seat in Congress and saw his entire career and reputation ruined as a result of this investigation.

Dating to the late 1950s, several confidential FBI informants reported that Joe Scalleat was operating lively dice games that ‘floated’ locations throughout Schuylkill County and the town of Tamaqua, in PA. Pittston-Scranton based boss Rosario (Russ) Bufalino was said to be partners with Scalleat in these games.

Rosario (Russ) Bufalino

Based on this information, the State Police later conducted a raid on the dice game at Tamaqua on September 18, 1959. Several gamblers were arrested in the raids but no direct evidence linking Scalleat to the crap game could ever be developed.

Additional informant information named Scalleat and Bufalino as partners in the single largest horse race betting operation in Northeast Pennsylvania with their headquarters based out of Scranton, PA. This betting network was said to employ numerous ‘runners’ and sub-bookies, and spanned at least four different counties.

In 1951, Joe Scalleat was subpoenaed to appear a second time before a Congressional Hearing in Washington, D.C., to investigate Cosa Nostra’s hold on interstate commerce. Dozens of hoodlums were brought before the panel and many later faced contempt citations. Scalleat would fare no better. He was cited for criminal contempt of congress for his refusal to answer 28 questions put to him.

He repeatedly pled his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. He held fast, even after he was granted immunity from prosecution if he agreed to testify. The next year in 1952, Scalleat was eventually released from the contempt indictment and had his $1000 bail bond returned to him, as did infamous Chicago mob boss Anthony (Joe Batters) Accardo, who had also been cited for contempt.

Another friend of Scalleat and a fellow Bufalino member was Scranton racketeer Joseph (JoJo) Baldassari, who was also indicted for contempt but later beat the charge.

The Baldassari brothers

In 1967, Joe Scalleat was subpoenaed yet again for his testimony. This time he was commanded to appear before a special Federal Grand Jury investigating the gambling rackets in the Easton, PA, area. United States District Judge A. Leon Higginbotham ordered Scalleat to go before the grand jury at 10am or be citied for contempt of court.

Federal prosecutors were seeking his testimony following a series of raids made by the FBI in the Tri-State area of Easton, Northern New Jersey, and New York City. They made arrests of over twenty suspects including six ringleaders as the heads of an interstate gambling conspiracy.

Prosecutors were said to be mulling over granting Scalleat immunity from prosecution so that he would be compelled to testify about what he knew about mafia soldier Jack Parisi, Genovese Family soldier Mario Masiello, and Family bosses Tommy Lucchese and Russ Bufalino’s involvement in the bookmaking network. He was one of 44 alleged gamblers hit with subpoenas for testimony.

Also included was two top Easton bookmakers named Andrew Patti and Joseph Piperata.

The multimillion dollar gambling operation was allegedly based out of Easton and run by a friend and associate of Scalleat’s named Joseph (Mickley) Migliazza, aka “Joe Maglie,” who was formally associated with the Vito Genovese and Sam DeCavalcante Families.

Charged along with Joe and his nephew, Bruno Migliazza, was another top gambler who figured into the probe named Joseph Size.

Joseph (Joe Maglie) Migliazza

Still another hood who figured prominently in the racket was Louis Cohen of Scranton, who was the kingpin of his own huge numbers network. Cohen controlled a large territory for a hugely popular illicit gambling lottery which was based upon the daily gross ‘handle’ of the United States Treasury balance which was posted in all the local newspapers everyday.

Known as the “Treasury Balance Lottery,” racketeers utilized various legitimate printing firms to produce hundreds of thousands of lottery ‘chance tickets’ weekly. These tickets were distributed across the entire Upstate New York and Pennsylvania areas by different gambling combines to area gamblers and bookmakers who in turn sold the tickets for $1 dollar each to the public.

It was a major numbers racket and Cohen, Scalleat, and many others allied with them handled these tickets for years. The authorities stated that Cohen’s operation alone grossed over $20,000,000 annually, and despite five major police raids and arrests on his numbers operation in one year alone, Cohen’s gambling network continued to prosper.

Over the years Joe Scalleat did his best to keep his head low from probing law enforcement. And for the most part, he was successful. He was said to have steadily operated at the top levels of the Pennsylvania underworld in tandem with Bufalino who was said to have been his direct superior and other top Cosa Nostra figures.

But try as he might, the Scalleat name came up time and again through the years as federal law enforcement investigated the underworld.

In 1980, the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, in conjunction with the Federal Department of Justice back in Washington, D.C., opened up extensive hearing to garner testimony from FBI agents and various law enforcement professionals, as well as various members of the public sector and a range of mob figures to probe the deep penetration of legitimate businesses and industries across the state made by Cosa Nostra. Joe Scalleat figured quite prominently in their probe.

Over the next several months, the FBI gave sworn testimony about the various business enterprises Scalleat had either opened up or otherwise infiltrated over the years. Through investments of his ill-gotten gains, labor union leverage, strong-arming, and other methods, Joe had acquired a small laundry list of legitimate assets.

By this time, his children and nephews had grown into young adults. So he wisely often nominally placed those businesses in the names of his wife, sons, nephews, and other relatives for licensing and tax purposes. He also wanted to ensure that his kin would be well provided for in the future.

The FBI flatly stated that Joseph Scalleat Sr. was “one of the more noteworthy and significant members of the Russ Bufalino Family.” Among the businesses and corporations that were either owned by him and his relatives, or thought to be owned by him through hidden interests were as follows:

>> Miss Tonie Dress Company, 304 East Diamond Avenue, Hazleton (a garment factory owned by Joe Scalleat)

>> Anita’s Fashions, Ltd., of Hazleton (owned by the Scalleat family)

>> S. & S. Apparel Company, (a garment factory owned by partners Joe and Albert Scalleat, Russ Bufalino, Angelo Bufalino, and Jack Parisi)

>> P.J. Sportswear Inc., of Bloomsburg (owned by his nephew Pasco Scalleat and son Joe Scalleat, Jr.)

>> Close Quarters Ltd., formerly known as Bunny’s II, of Lake Harmony (owned by Scalleat’s nephews John and James Scalleat. The liquor license was in the name of Pasco Scalleat)

>> The Ovalton Bar, of Hazleton (owned by James, John, and Joe Scalleat Jr.)

>> Beer Sales Consultants, Inc., of Minersville (a beer wholesale distributor)

>> Twelve Pak, Inc. (another beer wholesale firm)

Additionally, Joe’s brother Albert was thought to be the true owner of:

>> Almik, Inc., of Fairless Hills (Albert’s wife Rose was the sole officer and company stockholder. His son Albert Jr., was listed as general manager)

>> Cardinal Container Corporation, of Mt. Carmel

During testimony, a FBI supervisory agent went in front of the congressional panel and also described Joe Scalleat’s modus operandi, underworld reputation, and management style. The agent recited several incidents that allegedly took place in 1975. One was the January 10th machine-gunning of the storefront and building that housed the Tonie Dress Company that he attributed to Joe Scalleat himself.

The second incident took place the following month on February 20th of that same year inside the Ovalton Bar. Eyewitnesses said that while a group of men was drinking at the bar, Joe Scalleat approached them. He pulled a handgun from his coat pocket and proceeded to pistol-whip two Hazleton men at the bar later identified as James Sandutch and Ralph Smith.

Police ended up arresting Scalleat for felonious assault, but all charges were later dismissed after Sandutch and Smith withdrew their criminal complaint….such was the notorious underworld reputation of Joe Scalleat that these young hoodlums feared for their lives if they pressed the complaint and testified against him.

Side Note: It appears that their hometown mafioso Joe Scalleat may have actually been doing the town of Hazleton and its residents a huge public service when he beat these two hoodlums senseless that evening at the bar. These two pieces of shit were later arrested, tried and convicted, and jailed for many years for the intentional fire-bombing murders of Lucerne County Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boyarski, his young wife, and three young children. A horrible crime that rocked Lucerne County and the local police department to its very core.

In 1989, he was brought before the Pennsylvania Crime Commission again. They were investigating mob figure William (Big Billy) D’Elia, a man who had previously been the driver-bodyguard of boss Russ Bufalino and had now risen to become one of the acting heads of the Bufalino Family. Prosecutors were trying to tie D’Elia into a labor racketeering scheme where he was granted permission to work at a $65-million dollar construction project at the Philadelphia Industrial Correction Center.

D’Elia secured a ‘job’ as a night watchman and earned at least $5500 between February and May of 1986. However, investigators believe it was actually a ‘no-show’ job and was nothing more than a shakedown of the construction firm doing the construction. They wanted to question Scalleat about his involvement and alleged help in getting permission from Nicky Scarfo’s Philadelphia-based borgata for D’Elia to operate there since it was Bruno territory. Prosecutors also wanted to ask Scalleat about a meeting he and D’Elia had in February of that year, and several phone calls that D’Elia had made to Scalleat’s home the following month.

Over the next few years, Joe backed up a bit. The Nicky Scarfo era had begun and there was nothing but trouble and problems on the horizon from federal law enforcement. The ever paranoid Scarfo was conducting a blood bath and purging of perceived dissidents within his borgata and Scalleat wanted nothing to do with him. He and Albert had lived very successful underworld careers and it was now time to make their exit off the Cosa Nostra stage.

Joseph Scalleat passed away at the comfortable age of 81 years old, on April 10, 1993. During his lifetime he had been one of the most notorious of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s underworld figures, and Hazleton’s resident mob boss for upwards of fifty years. His younger brother Albert outlived him by almost 25 years.

Albert passed away at the ripe old age of 97 years old, on October 4, 2017, at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he had retired many years earlier. He was the last surviving Scalleat brother, with their other two brothers Pasquale and Samuel having passed away many years earlier.

Joe and Albert Scalleat remain as two of the most iconic gambling racketeers and mafia soldiers to ever operate in Hazleton and its surrounding coal mine regions.

The “Scalleat Crew” of Hazleton, PA

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