The Utica Mob: Angelo Thomas

From an early age, Angelo Thomas was always considered one of the top figures in illegal gambling for the Utica mob.

Angelo Thomas was born in approximately 1907 (other data suggests 1902). He lived and operated almost his entire lifetime in the City of Utica, in Upstate New York. For many years he resided with his wife and kids at 1247 Hillview Drive, Utica. He had a son named Frank who became very close to Angelo as he was growing up.

They were so close to one another in fact that well into his adulthood Frank still lived under the same roof as his dad Angelo, his mother, and their respective families on Hillview Drive. Frank, his wife, and their kids resided with his mom and dad (grandma and grandpa) for many years in the typical close-knit old Italian fashion.

From the time he was a teenager his son Frank was Angelo’s constant daily companion. Angelo also had a daughter named Lucrezia who was said to have been very close to her father as well. By all accounts, Angelo Thomas was said to have been a very good family man and a very loving dad.

Angelo Thomas

Angelo eventually brought Frank into the family business, which was of course the illegal gambling rackets such as horse and sports bookmaking, policy-numbers, and a large interstate lottery network that spanned across all of New York State. They also pushed into other nearby states and Canada as well through various gambling operatives which helped expand the lottery operation tremendously.

Federal and local law enforcement authorities over the years viewed Thomas as one of the main gambling operatives and overseers in the Utica-Rome area for mob boss Joe Falcone. That seems to have been Angelo’s underworld specialty and forte’.

Unlike many other mob figures who dabble, dip, and dab in many varied rackets and criminal activities throughout their career, Angelo always gravitated to the gambling racket as his sole focus.

Maybe it was because he was so very good at it and seemed to be a natural. From an early age, Angelo was always considered one of the top figures in illegal Utica gambling. It was a reputation that he enjoyed and basked in for decades.

In fact, by the 1950s he was viewed by both federal and local law enforcement and the underworld community at large as “The” number-one kingpin over the entire territory. Not only in the Cities of Utica and Rome but also for many outer territories that their regime had dominance and control over.

He became a top target for the Utica Police Department’s Organized Crime and Vice Unit (OCVU) as well as the New York State Police Organized Crime Division. Angelo Thomas became a name synonymous with illegal organized gambling. For over five decades, he was at the top of law enforcement’s investigative priority list of major organized crime figures in the upstate area. And he had the criminal arrest record to show for it.

Angelo Thomas was listed at the very top of the Utica Police Department’s Organized Crime & Vice Unit’s list of known gamblers, or “KGs,” as they are referred to by law enforcement personnel.

His police record "yellow sheet" was a mile long, and almost all of his arrests were gambling-related. From what we could document he was arrested at least a dozen times, on dozens and dozens of criminal counts, for either horse bookmaking, possession of bookmaking records, conspiracy to commit gambling offenses, loitering for the purposes of gambling, policy numbers, violating federal interstate gambling laws, interstate transportation of gambling supplies, conspiracy to contrive a lottery, possessing illegal lottery tickets, possession of gambling devices and gaming paraphernalia, etc.

In most instances during his career, he’d received small fines and suspended sentences. But as the years passed and his criminal record grew longer and his reputation grew more notorious, Angelo started getting banged a bit harder.

The gambling laws started to change and eventually grew big teeth, and law enforcement started taking a harder stance against organized gambling racketeers. Especially those whom they viewed as being ‘connected’ to Italian organized crime families.

As the early 1960s approached, whenever arrested Angelo and his aides and codefendants were now most often charged with multiple felony counts as opposed to years ago when many of the charges were only misdemeanors. That meant upon possible conviction they faced heavier fines and probable jail time.

Misdemeanors carried a maximum of one year in jail. Felonies meant exposure of up to five years in jail on each count. Monetary fines were greatly increased as well…it became a more serious game of ‘cops and robbers’ from that time forward. A ‘cat and mouse’ game that gamblers now had to be extra cautious about while operating.

ButtonGuys has reconstructed his arrest record the best we could to show the reader how many times Angelo was picked up. His ‘yellow jacket’ sported at least 10 gambling arrests. And I suspect there were possibly other arrests that were either not documented or weren’t publicly listed that I missed. His known NYS arrest record is as follows:

1959 - operating a horse room, bookmaking

1963 - contriving a lottery, gambling conspiracy

1963 - felony interstate gambling, conspiracy, operating an illicit lottery (Treasury Balance Tickets)

1964 - horse bookmaking and conspiracy

1967 - bookmaking (3 counts), conspiracy

1969 - promoting felony sports gambling

1972 - felony possession of gambling records (2 counts)

1979 - possessing bookmaking records (2 counts)

1979 - felony promoting gambling - bookmaking (3 counts)

1981 - promoting gambling, possession of gambling records (a football lottery)

His son Frank was also arrested along with his father on multiple occasions for gambling. So was Angelo’s daughter Lucrezia. She was once nabbed for possession of gambling records in a case involving two other crew associates of her father.

He was an intimate friend and contemporary to most members and important associates of the Falcone crew through the decades. Especially those men who involved themselves in allied gambling businesses such as Thomas and his son Frank were involved with.

Although on occasion he interacted with practically all members of their mob faction, and their second-tier affiliates as well, among his closer associates on a daily and weekly basis were the “KGs” or known gamblers of both the Falcone regime and top gamblers of the Magaddino crime family to whom the Falcone crew was directly allied to.

Side Note: It is important to note that although Angelo had the surname of “Thomas,” it is believed that he was Italian by birth. His first name is undoubtedly Italian. His son Frank and daughter Lucrezia have typical Italian first names as well. The family may have altered their Italian-sounding surname at some point early after they immigrated to the United States to more easily blend into their new American surroundings and culture.

That was a very common occurrence for Italians who had very ethnic-sounding names during the early 1900s, through the 1940s time period.

It has never been officially documented by the FBI that Angelo Thomas was a fully "inducted" member of Cosa Nostra. But if he had been a "made" man, that would not surprise me in the least. He traveled in very lofty underworld circles and was given a tremendously wide berth and mobility as far as racket operations went.

Angelo Thomas was a highly trusted ‘insider’ within the regime, and he was close to Joe Falcone personally and several other top soldiers as well. The level of confidence and heavy responsibilities he was entrusted with was also unprecedented for a mere "associate" to have.

He had extremely significant responsibilities for even a "soldier" to be entrusted with, let alone an associate. It was a multimillion-dollar ‘cash cow’ gambling operation. For an associate to control such vast gambling networks, and to be viewed as the acknowledged "kingpin" over those networks was a significant achievement, to say the least.

He may have indeed been an inducted mafia member. But regardless of whether he was or wasn’t, Angelo was a very highly respected racketeer who was a pivotal underworld player for decades. I can’t even imagine the vast amounts of money and large profits he brought into the ‘borgata’ on a weekly and annual basis.

As further proof of his importance to the Magaddino empire, in 1963 it was documented by the FBI that Angelo was in steady contact with top members of the Buffalo borgata. Angelo was surveilled meeting with the boss himself, Steve Magaddino, as well as underboss Freddy (Lupo the Wolf) Randaccio, consigliere Vincent (Jimmy) Scro, and capo Pasquale (Patty Titters) Natarelli at the Eberhardt Motel in Liverpool, NY, on January 21, 1963.

Federal agents further stated that Thomas was in regular telephonic contact with Highland Enterprises of Pittsburgh, PA. This company supplied Thomas with the winning numbers for the U.S. Treasury Balance weekly. Angelo would then in turn place calls to gambling operatives and contacts in such cities as Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Toronto, Canada, to provide the winning numbers.

His right-hand man Tony Parisi would then regularly deliver boxes of lottery tickets to such notorious gambling operatives in those cities as Elio (Al Decker) DiChirico, William Spaulding, Joseph Fusco, Sam Sapienza, Fred Capisano, Thaddeus (Teddy the Goose) Wedalowski, and Herb Cowles, who operated in Watertown.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) reported that the main key Canadian operative for Angelo was Dante (Danny) Gasparrini, of Hamilton, Ontario. A known narcotics violator, Gasparrini was considered a top mafioso in Hamilton, and the man entrusted with the distribution of Treasury Balance Tickets for boss Steve Magaddino across all of Canada.

The first list below names many of the hoodlum gamblers who were active in the immediate Utica-Rome area. Each of these individuals was known to have interacted with Angelo as either bet "runners" who had their own "sheets" of gambling customers, or men who referred their bettors to Thomas’ “wire room” where telephone ‘clerks’ accepted the wagers over the phone.

Some alternately operated as direct bookmakers themselves in which case they took the bets and then called them directly into the wire-room to the clerks. Others named on the list acted as money collectors, phone and wire-room clerks, sheet writers, ‘cheese box’ and back-strap wiring specialists, interstate delivery men for pre-printed lottery tickets, debt collectors, and so on.

His reputation and abilities were such that some of the men listed below (who were major gambling figures in their own right) often interacted with Thomas’ operation to "hedge off" more betting volume than they could handle at one time.

If a bookmaker found that he had accepted in excess or an overflow of wagers that would cripple his business financially if bettors won those wagers, he would then "lay off" or "hedge" that extra volume to Angelo’s wire room as a safety measure.

The following 68 men were "key" members of his gambling operation. Some were in-house phone clerks, others were runners who accepted bets and worked on either quarter-sheets or half-sheets with him.

Many were smaller semi-independent bookies who worked with Angelo as limited partners in compartmentalized small facets of his overall business. Still others only ‘edged off’ to him.

Many of these seasoned gamblers were instructed to bring their bet business into Angelo’s ‘office’ by other wiseguys because he was so efficient at what he did, his honesty, or because he was known to be running it for the Falcone crew.

Many other professional gamblers were "personals" whom Angelo had cultivated on his own. But all were closely connected to Angelo and his gambling ring over the years in one fashion or another. Local Utica-based gamblers included:

Raymond Allesandrini Michael J. Ambroselli Ottavio Artessa James Babcock Philip Barris, Jr. Vito Basile Thomas W. Black Patrick (Patty) Brindisi, Jr. Vincent (Jimmy) Calabrese Frank A. Caramadre Anthony J. Carlo Dominick (Nicky) Carriero Fred J. Centolella Ralph Centolella Louis Chambrone Joseph R. (Joe Chick) Cichello Thomas Colisimo, Sr. Michael Costello Herbert Cowles Florio Custadero Louis (Coke) DeFazio Joseph (Joe D) DeLuca, Jr. Samuel J. Farrar Anthony M. Furmarola Frank (Chick) Garcea Angelo J. Gigliotti Anthony J. (Chick) Gigliotti Joseph A. Greico Carmen Grimaldi Joseph J. Guarnieri Anthony Inserra Frank L. Inserra Frank R. (The Mook) Inserra Mark A. Intino Louis Kallasy Martin W. Kasparek James Kipper Frederick (Freddy) LaBella Anthony Longo Joseph J. Marcese Albert (Big Al) Marrone Vincent L. Marrone Joseph (Blackie) Mazza Jack (Jake) Minicone Joseph J. Monico, Jr. Russell J. Morreale Steven Niznik Curtis O’Dell Anthony (Guy) Parisi Joseph Pentasuglia Dominick (Little Dom) Pinti Thomas Powers Daniel D. Riccardi Joseph Riccardi Peter Rinaldi Samuel J. Roe Dominick J. Rose Edward Sageer George A. (Butchie) Sandouk Salvatore R. Sgroi Ronald Sierak Vito J. Sinisgalli Joseph Simonetti John Sposi Frank A. Thomas Emedio Vendetti Paul Yorio Jack (Jake the Turk) Zogby

The next group of gambling operatives listed below were based in Syracuse, the Niagara Falls-Buffalo area, Pittsburgh, or elsewhere and included such names as these sixteen gamblers:

Frank Bagozzi Joseph J. Fusco Thaddeus (Teddy the Goose) Wadalowski Fred Campisano Daniel A. Parrillo Pascal (Patty Titters) Natarelli Elio (Al Decker) DiChirico, Sr. Al Decker, Jr. Anthony (Tony the Hat) DeStefano Anthony Pinialis Joseph Rampino Stephen Attwell Cornelius Sullivan Samuel Amico Orlando Paone William Spalding

Angelo Thomas ran one of the largest gambling networks on the entire eastern seaboard for many years. It was one of the biggest operations in terms of betting volume and annual gross, and one of the most varied in terms of the exotic types of bets and games offered to their customers.

Despite the size of this massive behemoth of an illicit gaming operation, Angelo oversaw it all for years from a quiet little storefront eatery he owned and operated along with his son Frank that was named the Victory Luncheonette located at 965 Bleecker Street in Utica.

In fact, as was later discovered by the FBI and NYState Police, not only did the Victory Luncheonette become the de facto headquarters for the huge multi-faceted interstate gambling network he headed, but it also served as ground zero for capo Joe Falcone and nearly every key member of their crew.

NY State Police hold a news conference to announce a state-wide crackdown on multimillion-dollar organized crime gambling operations.

During multiple investigations over the years, law enforcement discovered that Falcone and his minions would make it a habit to visit the little eatery nearly every day.

Some dropped in for only five or ten minutes or so. Others stayed and hung around for hours. But if police were patient enough and waited long enough they were able to document nearly every single important local mafia member, mob associate, or gambler at one point or another who’d drop by to make an appearance.

Authorities also say that Thomas was a close friend and associate of both Joe Falcone and one of his most notorious soldiers by the name of Rosario (Russ) Mancuso. Both of whom gained tremendous exposure and notoriety in 1957 when they were captured by state police at the estate of Binghamton boss Giuseppe (Joe) Barbara, Sr.

It had been Barbara of course who had hosted the infamous Apalachin Mafia Meeting where 60 of the nation’s top mafiosi were arrested at the historic underworld barbecue, Falcone and Mancuso among them.

He most often ran dual gambling businesses by operating a busy wire room that accepted a massive amount of bookmaking wagers on both horse races, and all types of both college and professional sports teams on such games as baseball, football, basketball, boxing, and hockey.

Dating to the early 1950s his betting operation (as a partner and manager for the Utica regime under Falcone) and by proxy to Magaddino, grossed several million dollars a year. It had dozens of 50/50 half-sheet runners and smaller sub-bookies that accepted wagers from hundreds and hundreds of bettors.

By the late 1960s and well into the mid-1970s this gambling network was said to be grossing over $25,000,000 a year in horse and sports bookmaking.

Thomas was also considered one of the largest and best operators of a far-flung, multimillion-dollar policy operation through dozens of runners who went around to all the local bars and grills, eateries and diners, candy stores, factories, little shops, and retail businesses accepting small cash bets on the outcome of the next day’s ‘daily number’ which was based on the total mutual handle at any given local racetrack they had so designated for that purpose.

Angelo Thomas and some of his men after a major arrest that cracked their gambling network.

A third facet to his sprawling gambling empire was Angelo’s deep involvement in the distribution and sale of another form of illicit lottery, the aforementioned Treasury Balance Lottery. This was a gambling phenomenon that worked like a charm for many years in Upstate New York and its surrounding territories such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and even Canada.

The racketeers most often used a local legitimate printing company to print up millions of ‘tickets’ for the Treasury Balance Lottery Game which was extremely popular among the residents of those rural areas and small cities. The pre-printed tickets typically sold for .50 cents to $1 each. Some tickets sold for $1.50 up to $2, depending upon what city it was being offered in.

The drawing was on a semi-regular basis and was premised on the total dollar volume of the United States Treasury on any given set day as predetermined by the gamblers. Those who selected the correct combination of numbers won varying amounts of money that could amount to a very large payday for the winner, sometimes running into the thousands of dollars.

Whereas the regular daily "number" was offered and played by local residents and usually confined within the Utica and Rome areas for bettors. These Treasury Balance tickets were wide-ranging in their appeal and popularity. They were sold by gambling racketeers across the entire spectrum. Good examples of where they were offered included places as far away as Pittsburgh, PA., and Montreal, CN.

Angelo Thomas under arrest.

Closer to home, the state police and federal investigators discovered these lottery tickets were usually delivered to a wide swath of cities and towns across the entire state that included Utica, Buffalo, Niagara-Falls, North Tonawanda, Cheektowaga, Syracuse, Corning, Watertown, Newburgh, Troy, Rochester, Plattsburgh, Binghamton, Auburn, Schenectady, Albany, Saratoga Springs, Gloversville, Town of Gates, West Seneca, Kenmore, Lockport, Grand Island, Ferndale, Waterford, Dunkirk, Angola, Kingston, Ellenville, Fredonia, Yonkers, White Plains, Peekskill, Middletown, and Port Jervis, and nearly everywhere in between.

At the height of the operation, police said Angelo and his gambling syndicate were distributing 100,000 tickets weekly and each ticket sold for $1 apiece. It was a $5,000,000 per year lottery racket, NY State Police said. They said winning prizes varied from a low of $3 to a high of $5000, depending upon the nearness of the number on the lottery ticket to the actual Treasury balance total, which was carried in all the daily newspapers.

Law enforcement explained that a typical Treasury balance lottery gambling syndicate was comprised of a ‘kingpin’ operator as the top man (such as Angelo Thomas), a Cosa Nostra Family behind him acting as the “insurance” and financial ‘bank’ who had the required resources to pay off any major winners, key wholesale distributors who acted as middlemen for bulk sales in various cities, and the actual ‘runners’ or ticket ‘salesmen’ themselves who received 15% to 25% off the face of any ticket volume they sold.

Note: The breakdown and logistics of this particular type of lottery were very similar to a traditional numbers business in that runners usually received 25% of the gross dollar volume they sold each day.

The wholesalers or controllers received a percentage as well (usually 10% in traditional numbers), and the remaining gross of 65% went back to the bank’s primary operators such as Angelo and his immediate superiors, which of course was capodecina Joe Falcone.

Ultimately, a piece of any net profits after all the ‘hits’ were paid out was sent back up to the big boss in Buffalo, Steve Magaddino.

A fourth source of income in those years for Angelo and his mob was yet another form of gambling lottery also based on sports. Called “Football Parley Sheets,” this was also a pre-printed type ticket that was distributed each week to betting customers. The most popular form of ticket was a long narrow sheet that listed all the upcoming college games on one side and all the upcoming weekend professional games on the other side.

Next to each team’s name was the name of the team they were opposing for the week and their betting odds, and any other pertinent data. At the bottom of the sheet was a tear-off ticket that listed the amount you bet and the number of teams you picked to win for the bet. The more teams you picked, the more money you’d win on your bet. After handing over your picks and your money, the runner would tear off the bottom stub and give you that as your receipt.

‘Football Tickets’ were considered a form of "lottery" as opposed to straight sports bookmaking because you had to pick at least two or three games out of the dozens of teams listed who were playing for the week. If any one of your picks lost, then you lost your total bet.

To win your bet each team you picked had to win. But the payoff was significant, the money won was multiplied according to the degree of difficulty involved. Some bettors picked 8, 10, even 12 game combos. It was a long shot for sure. But the possible big money you could ‘win’ reflected that.

It became a big business for Angelo and those other professional gamblers who engaged in this particular activity. He was once arrested with several dozen other suspects for heading up a $2,000,000-a-year football parley sheet lottery ring.

Authorities who raided their operation said that it became such a lucrative type enterprise that Angelo had even expanded the business by printing up and selling other types of sports lotteries as well. During the execution and arrest of the suspects, police raiders found college and professional baseball and basketball game parley tickets as well.

The one type of illegal gambling racket that Angelo was never tied into was his involvement in any illegal card or dice games or for that matter any other style of underground casino games such as roulette, slot machines, Ziganette, craps, etc. For whatever reason, this particular activity was not one of his mainstays or focuses…I guess he knew where his ‘strength’ was, which was clearly in the arena of bookmaking, policy, and number lotteries.

Despite the deaths of resident capodecina Salvatore Falcone in 1972 and the passing of his younger brother Joseph twenty years later in 1992, as well as the deaths through the years of many other key members of their clan, the quickly greying and aging crew members who remained active continued with the rackets the best they could.

Well into the 1980s, both Angelo and Frank Thomas were still at it, running various gambling rackets as they had all their lives. And they continued to get their names in the newspapers after each arrest as well.

There was no specific date of death for his passing. And no public record was available at the time of this writing which even listed his demise. But he would be 114 years of age if he was still alive today. So I think it’s a safe bet that Angelo Thomas went up to that big horse parlor in the sky. That's one sure money bet that I’d take regardless of the odds given. I bet Angelo would too!

During his lifetime Angelo Thomas was undoubtedly one of the most prolific and most accomplished professional mobbed-up gamblers in the entire Upstate New York area.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

The Utica Mob: Angelo Thomas

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