The last installment in our three-part investigative series about Upstate New York’s Capital Region examines the underworld network of Paul (Legs) DiCocco Sr. who became a rackets boss when he assumed control of Schenectady’s gambling empire after the death of his former mentor, rackets kingpin Antonio (Tony) Bernardi.
The DiCocco Brothers of Schenectady
Although not identified as a “made” member of any particular crime family himself, since at least the late-1950s, Schenectady’s Paul Anthony (Legs) Di Cocco associated with various hoods who were later identified as known members of Mafia Families including 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. These included Montreal-based Bonanno “caporegime” Vittorio (Vic the Egg) Cotroni who controlled that city for Bonanno and Cotroni’s “acting capo” Paolo Violi.
