Stefano Magaddino

Infobox Person
name=Stefano Magaddino


caption=
birth_date=birth date|1891|10|10|mf=y
birth_place=Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Italy
death_date=death date and age|1974|7|19|1891|10|10|mf=y
death_place=New York, U.S.

Stefano Magaddino (October 10, 1891 – July 19, 1974) was a New York mobster who became the boss of the Buffalo crime family in western New York.

Early years

Born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Magaddino emigrated to the United States in 1909 and settled in Brooklyn, New York. One of Magadinno's cousins from Sicily was Joseph Bonanno, the future boss of the Bonanno crime family in New York City, the family Magaddino would leave behind. In 1921, in Avon, New Jersey, Magaddino was arrested for his involvement in the murder of a member of the rival Buccellato clan from Castellammare del Golfo.

Buffalo crime family

Magaddino eventually moved to Niagara Falls, New York and later to Lewiston, New York on the Canadian border. With Prohibition in effect in the United States, Maggadino ran a profitable bootlegging business smuggling Canadian alcohol across the Niagara River into New York State. After Prohibition, Magaddino and his crime family made their money through loan sharking, illegal gambling, extortion, hijacking, and labor racketeering.

The Buffalo crime family held influence in the underworld territories of Western New York, Utica, New York, Rochester, New York along the Mohawk River as far as Amsterdam, New York, in Eastern Pennsylvania, Youngstown, Ohio and as far north as Ontario, Canada. Magaddino led the Buffalo family through its glory years and its most powerful and profitable era in La Cosa Nostra. He was an old-style boss who preferred to stay in the background and not draw any attention to himself or his criminal activities if possible. He was the owner of the Magaddino Memorial Chapel, a funeral home in Niagara Falls, New York.

National crime figure

For 50 years, Magaddino was a dominating presence in the Buffalo, New York underworld. Magaddino was also deeply involved in national La Cosa Nostra affairs. Magaddino was a charter member of Charles "Lucky" Luciano's Mafia Commission and attended important underworld summits such as the 1946 Havana Conference in Havana, Cuba and the 1957 Apalachin Conference in Apalachin, New York.

Although fairly popular, Magaddino had his share of enemies and survived several assassination attempts. In 1936, rival gangsters attempted to kill Magaddino with a bomb, killing his sister instead. In 1958, an assassin tossed a hand grenade through his kitchen window, which failed to explode. This second attempt on his life was said to be directed by mobsters who blamed Magaddino for the failed Apalachin Meeting, which was raided by New York State Police.

Arrest and fall

Magaddino had never spent any significant time in prison, but in 1968 he and his son, Peter Magaddino were arrested and charged with interstate bookmaking. A raid on his son's home led to the discovery of approximately $473,134 in a suitcase. This cash discovery created great animosity between the Buffalo family members and the Magaddinos, and led to a breakdown of their cooperation concerning criminal activities. The Buffalo family split into dissident factions; the leaders met in Rochester, New York at the end of 1968 and by early 1969 ousted Magaddino as boss, leaving him to lead a faction made up of his once powerful in-laws and older crime family members from 1969 until he died several years later.

Stefano Magaddino died of a heart attack on July 19, 1974 at age 82. Given a funeral at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church, he was buried in St. Joseph cemetery on Pine Avenue in Niagara Falls.

References

*Sifakis, Carl. "The Mafia Encyclopedia". New York: Checkmark Books, 2005.ISBN 0816056951

External links

*cite web | url=http://www.ganglandnews.com/column101.htm | title=This Week in Gang Land: Big Al's Corner, Buffalo | accessdate=2005-10-09
*cite web | url=http://www.niagaratimes.com | title=NiagaraTimes.Com | accessdate=2005-10-09