The Utica Mob – Angelo Conte

Here is the second profile and biography in a continuing series on Utica-based mafiosi which I found to be interesting.

Angelo Conte was described by the FBI as a "key" member of caporegime Joe Falcone’s Utica-based crew .

In fact, he was among the small select cadre of men who helped the Falcones run the city’s underworld for decades . I hope you enjoy his life story.

Angelo Conte - The Early Years

Angelo Dominic Conte was born on May 2, 1916, in Sicignano, Italy.

After immigrating to this country as a child with his parents and siblings, the Conte family settled upstate in the quickly developing little city of Utica, New York.

It was a city then heavily populated with Italian nationals who had settled the area early, making it their comfortable new hometown, or "paese."

Angelo Conte ducking news cameras

As a young man, Angelo quickly gravitated to the streets and crime. He became fast friends with many like-minded young hoodlums, many of whom would go on to become major racketeers and dominate the city’s underworld landscape in future years.

Conte started accumulating arrests as a teenager and continued the trend well into his twenties.

His early growing-up years were spent under his parent's roof at 532 Elizabeth Street, Utica.

But he got married early to a neighborhood girl named Mary, and they soon settled into several other nearby locations to call their own over the years where he and Mary would raise their children.

In their later years, the Conte family relocated to 707 Mapleton Drive, Utica.

He owned and operated the Gem Diamond Shop at 964 Bleecker Street, Utica. It was a location that served as both a source of legitimate business income for him as well as a base and springboard for his underworld rackets.

The Victory Luncheonette

In the 1960s, through the late 1970s era, he and other crew members also operated out of the Victory Luncheonette located at 966 Bleecker Street. The eatery was owned and operated by another key crew member named Angelo Thomas, and his son Frank.

This location was repeatedly documented over the years by the FBI as a hub for a large horse-sports bookmaking and numbers lottery network the crew ran. The Victory Luncheonette became a notorious place.

Angelo Conte getting "booked"

The Utica Police Department, the FBI, and the New York State Police Organized Crime Task Force all identified Angelo Conte as a top associate of mob capo Joseph Falcone . He was originally affiliated with Joe’s older brother, Salvatore Falcone.

But by the mid-1940s, Sal had semi-retired down to Miami Beach, Florida, where he opened up a wholesale Italian meats and foods distribution company with his young son who was coming of age.

He was still the “official” Caporegime over Utica but left his trusted brother Joe in charge of the shop back home as its resident “Acting Capo.”

With that single move, Angelo Conte along with several other top crew affiliates would become even more important to the day-to-day operations of the Falcone Regime.

Joe Falcone came to rely on Conte more and more as his eyes and ears over the general membership and as an overseer of their gambling rackets as well as other racket schemes the crew had going for themselves.

Capodecina - Joseph Falcone

A Lofty Status

Angelo Conte was never officially documented on the justice department's mafia ‘hierarchy charts’ or named by the FBI as being an actual inducted member or "soldier" in Cosa Nostra, but he was said to have enjoyed such a lofty status among the Falcone crew that it was as if Conte was indeed "inducted."

Several others said to have also enjoyed such insider status were Tony Falange , Angelo Thomas, and Sam Farrar.

Each of these four men played a pivotal role in the regime’s daily functions and racket operations for decades. Conte was among this small group of key "associates" who kept the wheels greased and the regime motors humming smoothly.

Angelo Conte was deeply involved in it all.

Authorities say that over the years, he was most heavily engaged in horse and sports bookmaking throughout the city and in the neighboring territories of Rome, Syracuse, and other cities and towns.

He was also a pivotal figure and overseer of both a vast policy-numbers business the crew ran and a huge "Treasury Balance Lottery" operation that spanned across central New York State.

He sometimes also helped with maintaining their shylock business in conjunction with Falange, who was appointed the unofficial general overseer of usurious loans the Falcone crew put “on the streets.”

FBI chart of suspected Falcone crew

Lending Money and Weekly Shakedowns

In 1967, a key federal informant reported back to his FBI handlers that a known Utica bookmaker named Louie Kallasy steadily borrowed loanshark money from the Falcone crew to help sustain his gambling business whenever he got hit hard with winning bets from his gambling customers.

On one particular occasion, the informant learned that Kallasy asked to borrow an additional $2000 in addition to other shylock monies he already owed Angelo to cover his gambling losses. But prior to lending that money, soldier Rosario Mancuso had to give his authorization on the loan.

The $2000 was delivered to Conte by crew associate Don Ritz. Angelo in turn then handed the funds over to Kallasy. The alleged interest rate was said to be 3% weekly (156% annually) as opposed to the 2.5% (130%) Kallasy normally paid on other loans.

This clearly documented to the FBI Conte’s significant involvement in the shylock business.

Conte and Falange also helped maintain the weekly shakedown of all local independent bookies and gamblers who operated on Utica city soil.

They also dabbled in the fencing of stolen goods and other criminal activities undertaken by their crew members as opportunities arose.

A good example of this is what those same informers reported to federal agents regarding Falcone’s "shakedown" rackets.

On May 5, 1966, William D. Berry the Senior Investigator for the Special Investigative Unit of the New York State Police in Utica said “information has come to my attention to the effect that Falange and Conte had contacted Frank (Coke) DeFazio, a well-known Utica bookmaker, and had demanded that DeFazio give them $25 a week, ($1300 annually), which was to be channeled to Joseph Falcone in order that DeFazio could continue to operate as a bookmaker.”

Subsequent to these informant reports, the state police began an intensive probe to investigate allegations of extortion.

The law enforcement pressure brought to bear on the local underworld soon convinced Joe Falcone to retreat from these shakedown efforts.

Law Enforcement Pressure

By November 1966, informant sources were reporting back that Falcone had since ordered all his men to stop the shakedowns.

In fact, Tony Falange was specifically told to grab hold of crew member Ralph Centolella and several other young aggressive associates including Pete Rinaldi and Don Ritz, who themselves were local gamblers and strong-arm men used by the Falcone crew for various assignments, and tell them, in no uncertain terms, to immediately stop the pressure they were exerting on local Utica gamblers for a percentage of their action.

The usually stubborn and hardheaded Centolella was also told that this was the last warning he would receive regarding this issue - that if word ever got back again to the boss that Centolella was continuing the strong-arm shakedowns “he’d end up in the river.”

Anthony (Tony) Falange

Side Note: Conte and Falange seemed to have deeper ties to one other than simply being fellow crew members.

It seems that Falange’s parents had originally immigrated from the same village in Southern Italy where Conte was born. The little town of Sicignano in the Province of Campania (Naples region) was a common denominator in their close friendship.

Although all members of the Falcone crew seemed to work together closely, this was especially true of the tight relationship between Angelo and Tony.

They handled gambling, the shylock business, as well as backed each other's play on the streets when strong-arm tactics were required.

Law enforcement documented various informers saying that Conte and Falange were often a ‘tag-team’ when it came to collecting monies due the regime.

Conte's Criminal Record

Conte's NYS criminal arrest record listed a five-decade-long rap sheet of offenses since when he was a ‘still wet behind the ears’ teenager of only 15 years old.

Dating back to at least the early 1930s, Conte’s ‘yellow sheet’ reflected at least nine arrests and several convictions, including:

1931 - driving without a NYS driver's license 1932 - robbery, grand larceny (sent to Elmira Reformatory), paroled a year later in 1933 1933 - criminal assault (indeterminate sentence) 1935 - criminal receiving stolen property, burglary, grand larceny (10 years - Attica State Prison) 1967 - bookmaking 1971 - operating an illegal numbers lottery, conspiracy 1972 - operating a dice game 1977 - promoting gambling (bookmaking) 1977 - loitering for the purpose of gambling (crap game)

Aspiring Hoodlums

Reflecting back on one of his most significant early arrests which occurred back in the early 1930s, Conte was picked up along with members of his burglary-robbery crew by the Utica Police Department.

Angelo was nabbed along with Salvatore (Sammy) Baratta, Amedio (Guy) Torchia, Federico (Freddy) Morelli, and Antonio (Tony Coronato) Coromato for a series of daring thefts they committed over a period of six months or so.

The then 16-year-old aspiring young hoodlum was hauled before the judge where the prosecutor read the laundry list of charges and criminal counts against him.

For instance, the prosecutor’s office accused Conte and his young confederates of having pulled various burglaries and robberies that included the theft of over $3000 of expensive copper-wire cable from a worksite; the burglary of 28 women's fur coats valued at over $5500 from the Doyle & Knower store, a popular high-fashion boutique; the burglary of 66 men's suits from H.H. Cooper & Company Men's Shop, valued at $1100; a large burglary-theft from Kay’s Jewelry Shop of 40 watches, 60 rings, 25 gold cigarette lighters, and 2 diamond bracelets.

They also entered the Bonne Brothers Shop and stole 40 watches valued at $1000 plus the burglary of 22 fur coats from the Bailey & Griffith Shop, valued at another $4500.

More Burglary Targets

Other major burglary targets attributed to the gang included Goldstone Brothers, Bergers Department Store, Home Dairy Lunch Company, and Ledwell’s Garage.

Conte and his gang were also thought responsible for several other area thefts over the course of a year that the Utica Police Department was unable to directly tie into them in order to even arrest or charge them but nonetheless felt the gang was also responsible for.

At 19, Angelo took a major pinch!

With the overwhelming evidence presented against him, Conte later agreed to plead guilty to multiple counts of criminally receiving stolen merchandise, burglary, and grand larceny in the first degree, all of which were felonies.

Because he was a repeat offender who had already just served a prison term at Elmira and was only newly paroled, the judge banged him and his friend Morelli with 10 years in prison each.

The other defendants all received lesser jail sentences. The prosecutor and the judge also viewed Angelo as one of the ‘guiding forces’ behind the gang.

Falcone's Key Player

Conte was viewed by law enforcement as a "key" player in Falcone’s racket operations.

He served Sal and Joe loyally for decades as both an experienced gambler, racket overseer, and "shakedown" collections manager for the regime.

He helped ensure that all independent gamblers, bookmakers, number operators, freelance thieves, and other hoodlums "kicked up" a portion of their racket spoils to the Cosa Nostra powers that be, which of course at that time, was the Falcone brothers' regime of the Stefano Magaddino Family of Western New York.

In fact, Conte was repeatedly documented by federal law enforcement as being a steady, near-daily associate, of both Joe Falcone and Russ Mancuso for years.

During the 1950s through 1970s era, the Utica Police department and the FBI had several key informants providing a steady stream of reliable information about the Utica underworld.

Rosario (Russ) Mancuso

Talking Heads

In particular, three confidential informants under FBI code numbers #AL-T3, #AL-T4, and #AL-T5, all spoke extensively about Conte’s racket operations and his close interaction with Falcone, Mancuso, Tony Falange, and Syracuse’s Sam Farrar.

They told how Farrar traveled back and forth to Utica on a weekly basis for years. He would stay in Utica for several days each week during which time he "handled" and coordinated the lottery rackets with Conte.

They told how after returning to Syracuse, he would then contact "acting capo" Anthony (Tony the Hat) DeStefano, the city’s resident mob leader to update him on their mutual gambling activities and courier messages back and forth between Conte and DeStefano and Falcone, as was required.

“AL-T5” specifically reported how Conte and Farrar would meet every Monday afternoon at the Gem Dinette in Utica. Agents suspected that these Monday meetings were made in order to "settle up" monies regarding their joint lottery gambling operations.

Traditionally, “Monday” is always "settle up" day between gamblers. So, it made perfect sense to those investigators on surveillance detail that, indeed, Conte and Farrar were discussing various gambling matters.

Policy raid nabs Falcone crew members

The Falcone Regime

In truth, Conte numbered among his closer associates and operating partners virtually the entire Falcone faction of the family and many of their outer satellite "associates" in Syracuse and Rome as well.

At the height of their power in the 1940s-1950s, the Falcone regime was thought to have hovered around 15 to 20 fully inducted members with dozens more outer-tier associates.

Over the years, the regime boasted such well-known hoodlums and gamblers as:

[Note: Known or suspected inducted mafia members are marked with an * asterisk]

Salvatore Falcone - ‘Caporegime’ * Joseph Falcone - ‘Acting Capo’ * Rosario (Russ) Mancuso * John D. Melito * Sylvester Battaglia * Dominick Aiello * Pietro Lima * Antonino (Nino Trufio) Trifio * Francesco (Frank) Pelli * Vincenzo (Jimmy) Femia * James Fiore * Anthony Damiano * Joseph Sabella * Vincent Marrone Albert Marrone James Travens * Frank D. Russo Sr. * Joseph Leone * Anthony (Tony) Falange Joseph Battaglia Angelo Thomas Frank Thomas Benedetto (Benny) Carcone Russell Carcone Vito J. Sinisgalli Anthony J. Inserra

Samuel J. Farrar Fred Centolella Ralph Centolella Frank (Chick) Garcea Anthony Gravina Jack (Jake) Minicone Jack (The Turk) Zogby Frank (Coke) DeFazio Philip DeFazio Peter Rinaldi Fred Mogavero Joseph (Blackie) Mazza Don Ritz Harold Holmes Anthony Olivadotti Ricky Caruso James Terzini Patrick Terzini Salvatore (Sam) Zappia James Netro Cosmo Raguzzo Dominick Bretti Louis Kallasy Richard Convertino Alfonso (Al) Dote

Let the Grilling Begin

Whenever Angelo wasn’t actually being handcuffed and arrested for his involvement in criminal matters, he was being steadily subpoenaed to provide testimony about various racket operations that local and federal authorities felt he had intimate knowledge of.

Conte had been grilled before multiple investigating grand juries during his underworld career.

He is recorded as having received subpoenas commanding his appearance and testimony at various federal, state, and county grand juries in 1968, 1972, 1977, and 1981.

I’m sure there were additional grand juries he was called to as well that were not publicly noted.

Grilled before the mob grand jury

A Weakened Regime

With the nationwide federal assault brought against all Cosa Nostra during the late 1970s through the 1980s era, the Falcone regime was weakened considerably.

Over those previous few decades, the regime had also lost many good members and associates through either natural death or attrition.

The remaining crew members were mostly elderly and quickly fading from the scene as well.

Between the vast reduction in available illicit rackets still left available to run that were lucrative and a much-heightened law enforcement scrutiny over Falcone and his men, the results were telling, to say the least.

Joe Falcone himself, who had long since been elevated to the "official" Capodecina position over the city of Utica since the semi-retirement, and later subsequent death of his brother Salvatore decades earlier, was getting on in years.

Joe was in failing health and his grip on the city’s underworld was slipping. There had been a steady, notable decline in his power since the death of his benefactor Buffalo Family boss Steve Magaddino in 1972.

And Unheard of Phenomenon

In the coming years, young upstarts from the Utica area even started challenging Falcone’s authority.

This was an absolutely unheard of phenomenon less than a decade earlier, but gone were his once-loyal cadre of inducted mafia soldiers and key associates who used to enforce his edicts and his every wish and command at the simple wave of his hand.

Now, independent freelancers started taking potshots at the Utica rackets that were once the sole domain of the Falcone brothers and their boss Steve Magaddino.

Even the new younger generation of mob associates that Falcone had embraced and taken into his such as Benny Carcone, Jake Minicone, Dominick Bretti, Jack Zogby, Tony Inserra, and Ralph Centolella, started giving the old man lip service to placate him while behind the scenes they vied for power amongst themselves.

It would eventually turn into a violent power struggle between them that resulted in several gangland-styled killings.

The sloppy, wanton, and careless way they planned the murders during their attempted rise to power quickly led to several well-publicized homicide investigations.

These homicide probes eventually led to them all getting arrested and prosecuted for the crime of murder. Many of their crew were sent away to serve life imprisonment.

The Rag-Tag Hoods

Note: Digressing a bit to a few years earlier, initially the few old-timers still around like Conte and his old buddy Falange had tried organizing this rag-tag bunch of amateur hoods into something resembling an honest to goodness mafia "regime."

For what it was worth, they tried stepping into the shoes of Falcone and leading the troops.

By this point in time, Falange was said to have become somewhat disillusioned with his former mentor and boss anyway.

At some point, Tony Falange and Angelo Conte agreed between themselves to sidestep Joe Falcone altogether and run things their way. That meant taking the reins of power and directing the operations of the local hoods, but it also meant collecting the majority of the loot for themselves instead of ‘kicking up’ to Falcone.

The remnants of the “Utica Crew,” now under the direct tutelage and direction of Falange and Conte, continued to operate the rackets and even attempted to expand their power and reach for the next several years.

But the tremendous jealousies and lust for money and power that's so typical of these types of guys were to get the better of them all.

Couple that up with a lack of brainpower and basic common sense, and you end up with a recipe for disaster - and that's exactly what they got!

Power and Lust for Money

Using their informants, the FBI was kept abreast of nearly every single move these amateur hoods made. A good example of their vying for power and lust for money that soon came between them is what happened to mobster Albert (Al) Marrone.

He’d been around the Falcone crew for decades since he was a kid serving as a gambler, strong-arm man, and enforcer. But Al Marrone obviously wasn’t a very smart hood, to begin with.

He was also a very frustrated and angry young hoodlum who felt the world owed him a living - especially as he finally made parole after serving a long prison sentence.

Marrone should have known better than what he tried next, especially since he had older blood family who had been ‘associates" for decades with the crew, and he himself had witnessed what happens to malcontents and greedy guys who try pushing their weight around.

He demanded to be "recognized" as a top player in their faction. Furthermore, Al Marrone decided to now stake his claim to Utica as "his" territory declaring to all who would listen that he’d kill anybody who got in his way.

In other words, he was taking over the city.

Well, that soon got the crew’s attention, and they were certainly all listening closely to what Marrone had to say - especially Tony Falange and Angelo Conte.

The Art of Murder

Legend has it that they allegedly then instructed the others during a roundtable discussion to immediately set in motion a plot to murder Albert Marrone before Marrone could strike at any of them first.

After all, Al Marrone was said to be a legit "tough guy" and quite "capable" in the art of murder. They were taking him seriously.

Not long after the Utica crew had their "dark round table," Albert Marrone was shot to death on the street near his home one evening. That event would become one of the most important threads in the final unraveling of the Utica Mafia.

Coupled with other key evidence the feds had gathered about the crew’s other homicides, violent deeds, and criminal operations, eventually, a major federal racketeering indictment came down like a hammer on practically every remaining member of their faction.

Most were convicted and received decades-long pris on terms, if not straight-out life sentences. At that point, it was all over.

But while it lasted (for over some 50 odd years at least,) members of the Falcone regime had enjoyed an underworld autonomy and ironclad control over their acknowledged racket fiefdom in Utica and Rome that few others ever had.

Key Underworld Operative

With the exception of youthful indiscretion, which unfortunately led to his being jailed several times in state prisons for several years as a young man, Angelo Conte seemingly enjoyed many decades as a key underworld operative of the mafia.

As he came into adulthood, his specialty was various forms of gambling, especially policy numbers and lotteries, dice, and bookmaking.

Although he did indeed dabble in other criminal activities as the opportunity arose, by and large, the lucrative Utica gambling rackets had been his life’s mainstay.

Angelo Dominic Conte passed away in January of 1985. He was only 68 years old.

His passing was an uneventful affair in underworld circles. By that point in time, his mob mentors Sal and Joe Falcone were long gone.

So, too, were Russ Mancuso and so many other capable hoods who had once been such a pivotal part of his daily life.

But in fact, his passing might have been a perfect time to depart in a way.

Had Angelo not died when he did, both he and Falange most certainly would have been indicted on serious federal RICO charges along with Minicone, Zogby, and the others which would have included racketeering conspiracy, and multiple murder conspiracy counts.

He probably would have spent the remaining years of his life in a damp, cold cell block anyway. So maybe it's better he ended up the way he did. Maybe he rolled a “7” after all!

Until next time…“The Other Guy”

The Utica Mob – Angelo Conte

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The Utica Mob – Angelo Conte

Unlock This Door to the Underworld

Take the Journey!

You May Also Enjoy

Racketeer Snapshot: Connecticut’s Frank (The Cigar) Piccolo

The Anthony Strollo Regime of NY/NJ

The Day Charlie (the Bug) Workman Saved a Horse

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