Although not identified as a “made” member of any particular crime family himself, since at least the late 1950s, Schenectady’s Paul Anthony (Legs) DiCocco associated with various hoods who were later identified as known members of Mafia Families. These included New York City’s Genovese and Bonanno Families, the Binghamton faction of the Barbara/Bufalino Family, and the Magaddino Family of Buffalo-Niagara Falls.
Among the mafiosi the FBI says DiCocco was connected to through the years included such notorious figures as Bonanno Family boss Carmine (Lilo) Galante himself; Genovese Family caporegime Frank (Frankie Skyball) Scibelli and his top soldier and heir apparent Adolfo (Big Al) Bruno, both of Springfield, MA.; Genovese soldier Eugene (Gene) Campo and Barbara/Bufalino Family soldier Louis Marconi, both of whom once lived and operated in Schenectady, as well as a mobbed-up Teamsters Union official named Nicholas Robilotto.
Federal investigations into the Bonanno Family during the 1960s determined that racketeer Paul DiCocco also maintained close connections to top members of Canada’s underworld as well, including Montreal-based Bonanno “caporegime” Vittorio (Vic the Egg) Cotroni, who controlled that city for Bonanno, and Cotroni’s “acting capo” Paolo Violi.
DiCocco was generally thought to be the central figure and leader over a large loosely-organized confederation of professional Schenectady-based gamblers and racketeers who operated a large network of bookmaking, policy-numbers, and makeshift backroom casinos offering floating dice and card games.
This was not one single monolithic gambling operation per se, but rather an interlocking network of many smaller gambling rings of which the principals all knew one another and worked together to increase profits by utilizing DiCocco to “bank” bets for a large swath of local runners and smaller bookies, sometimes partner together on crap games and other types of gambling setups, or edge off any excess overflow of wagering volume to one another through “hedge offices,” etc.
But for many years, “Legs” DiCocco and his kid brother “Jake” along with several relatives, top lieutenants, and close associates were known to dominate gambling and loansharking in Albany, Rensselaer, Montgomery, and Saratoga Counties. The “DiCocco Crew” was generally recognized as a first among equals, so to speak.
