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NOVEMBER 1957

INVESTIGATING THE MAFIA

Get into a conversation with a long time Queens resident and you're likely to discover a subscriber of the Long Island Star- Journal, a daily paper that informed the community about local and world news until it folded in 1968. A banner across the Star Journal masthead reminded readers that the newspaper's name came from the merger of the Long Island Daily Star (1876) and the North Shore Daily Journal - The Flushing Journal (1841).

Welcome to November 1957!

It was a month of trash talk for Star-Journal readers with extensive coverage of the Senate Rackets Committee’s probe into allegations that the Mafia had moved in New York’s garbage collection industry. On November 13^th there was a report on the FBI’s investigation of one Vincent "Jimmy" Squillante, whose office was located in Long Island City. An FBI agent testified that "Squillante, whom the committee has named as a kingpin in the garbage rackets, ‘is considered by me and my office as a major source of supply for narcotics as well as being a prominent racketeer.’ Senate Committee Chairman John L. McClellan said Squillante, a ‘self-styled godson’ of slain racketeer Albert Anastasia, had put an underworld stranglehold on traditional associations whose members do a $50 million-a-year business hauling garbage in the New York metropolitan area."

Anastasia, otherwise known as the "Mad Hatter," a boss in the Gambino crime family and the "reputed executioner of the ‘kill-for-pay’ gang, Murder, Inc., had been called as a witness before he was slain gang-style in a New York hotel barber chair last month." According to some accounts, Squillante was actually in the barber shop when Anastasia was killed.

On November 16 the Star-Journal headline read "Queens Cartmen Ruled by Hoods-State May Join Garbage Probe." "The Senate Labor Rackets Committee set the wheels in motion today for a sweeping investigation by the state into racketeering in Queens’ hoodlum-dominated garbage disposal industry. The dominant figure in yesterday’s session was pint-sized Vincent ‘Jimmy’ Squillante, 39. Squillante peered from behind black-horn rimmed glasses in refusing to answer more than 120 questions ‘on the grounds that an answer would tend to incriminate me’."

Particular attention was paid to one corporation set up by the garbage don, the Carters Land Fill Corporation. Its purpose, according to the committee, was "to provide a dumping ground for haulers at College Point. In three months, the committee said, the corporation showed a $35,000 profit on its dumping ground operation. Top officials of the Land Fill Corporation included convicted cop killer Joseph ‘Joey Surprise’ Feola, whom the committee said is one of four missing witnesses it would like to question. An underworld tinge was given the corporation by the addition of Frank ‘The Barber’ Scalise as a stockholder. Scalise was shot and killed last June as he stepped out of a Bronx fruit store, presumably after incensing ‘higher ups’ with whom he worked in the international narcotics trade."

A companion story in the November 16 issue of the Star-Journal, headlined "Forest Hills Neighbor in Upstate Roundup,’ was a profile of another alleged mobster. "Whatever police may think about Michele Miranda of Forest Hills, reputedly a kingpin in underworld royalty, he is kind and thoughtful enough to call on a sick friend, attend funerals, and is a good neighbor. Of course, Miranda’s acts of friendship come under close surveillance. For instance, police promptly moved in when the 61-year-old resident of a plush mansion on 167 Greenway North traveled to isolated Apalachin, a tiny hamlet near Binghamton, NY, to visit a ‘sick friend’."

"It was just coincidence that 64 other suspected leaders of the Mafia and syndicate leaders in the country dropped in to pay their respects to the ailing friend, Joseph Barbera, at his lavish mountain retreat. Alerted by state troopers, enforcement officers swooped down on Barbera’s home and hauled off the guests and host to the Sydney police barracks. Police said the convention was called by the leaders to meet the threat of younger gangsters and they feared a wholesale gang war. Miranda was questioned by the state troopers, FBI agents and Treasury agents and was released when police had to admit it was no crime to visit a sick friend."

"The troopers immediately alerted New York City detectives about Miranda’s visit and they were surprised to learn he was out of town. These detectives have been investigating the barber shop murder of Albert Anastasia two weeks ago in the Park Sheraton Hotel, Manhattan. By way of routine, they had questioned Miranda about any knowledge he might have had about the slaying of Miranda’s old friend, a top lord in the underworld rackets. His questioning by police didn’t prevent the kindly-inclined man from paying his last respects at a Brooklyn funeral parlor where the gangland victim’s body was laid out. Miranda didn’t attend the burial services but he was among the callers on the last night of the wake."

"Miranda didn’t visit another ‘sick friend,’ Frank Costello, when the one-time king of the rackets was wounded in a botched murder job, but police explained this readily. Costello was under 24-hour police guard, and none of Costello’s friends desired to call. Detectives did say that Miranda was not questioned in the Costello shooting. Costello is a close friend of Frank Erickson, once No.1 bookmaker in the nation, who was a neighbor of Miranda’s on Greenway North back in the days before Treasury agents sent Erickson to jail."

"As for being a good neighbor in Forest Hills, Miranda is just that. He doesn’t bother the neighbors and they don’t bother him. In fact, they know nothing about him except that he is a Cadillac salesman, a claim constantly backed up by the presence of shiny Caddys in the Miranda driveway."

"Naturally, the cops don’t take the same stand as the neighbors. They claim Miranda in his youth was a Coney Island pickpocket and was picked up many times for vagrancy but never convicted. They add that he has been a close associate of Vito Genovese, now called the king of the rackets. Genovese and Miranda were indicted in an old Brooklyn Murder. Inc. slaying back in the 1930’s, though the indictment wasn’t returned until 1944. Police were certain the two leaders hired the gunmen to wipe out a man known as ‘Shadow’ Bocchia but when it came time for the trial there wasn’t a shadow of a witness around to testify, so the men went free."

"At that time Miranda was living in a $75,000 mansion at 110-22 68^th Drive, Forest Hills, which he later exchanged for the present $100,000 English Tudor house on Greenway. Police wouldn’t say whether they will guard the Miranda house, but they pointed out they will be most interested in his future calls on ‘sick friends’ and at funerals."

"Another Long Island man who made the trek upstate to visit Big Joe was Big John Ormento, formerly of 58-19 79^th Street, Elmhurst. Ormento was also released but police were unable to find out if he had hurried home to his palatial residence at 118 Aubrey Drive, Lido Beach, in the heart of the sun and surf colony. At least police can point out Ormento is an ex-convict, having served a four-year term on a narcotics conviction. Ormento is only out a year and is staying away from his former business associates in the import trade. Cops said that this trade was mainly moving in raw opium from Italy and they have tried unsuccessfully to link Ormento with Charles (Lucky) Luciano, now vacationing in Italy at the request of the U.S. government."

On November 21, Star-Journal readers following the goings-on in gangland were told that the Queens District Attorney was looking into the activities of Miranda and another man who had attended the mobsters’ convention in Apalachin, Joseph Rosato of Jackson Heights. On the same day, Vincent "Jimmy" Squillante was indicted for extortion in connection with garbage hauling contracts with the U.S Air Force base on Mitchel Field, Long Island. And on November 23^rd, Queens District Attorney Frank O’Connor announced his intention of asking for a special grand jury to be sworn in to continue the investigation of gang rackets in Queens.

"‘We have evidence,’ the district attorney said, "that the mobs are trying to move in and we intend to stop them quick.’ Michele ‘Mike’ Miranda of Forest Hills, who was a delegate to the recent hoods’ convention in Apalachin, NY, was summoned to O’Connor’s office yesterday. Miranda ‘took the 5^th’ when O’Connor’s questions probed sensitive spots and the district attorney finally gave up-for the time being. O’Connor did not go into details, saying that ‘he did not want to tip his hand.’ He indicated that Miranda is a likely subject for the Special Rackets Grand Jury and said that he will be called back for more questioning."

"Miranda was picked up at 1.30 p.m. at the automobile agency in Manhattan where he works. A veteran of numerous police quiz sessions including the Frank Costello shooting and the Albert Anastasia killing, Miranda took this one in his stride. He expressed a little annoyance at the number of press photographers present. ‘What is this-a big show?’ he snapped."

"Assistant D.A.s Francis X. Smith of Sunnyside and Howard Steve of Kew Gardens Hills did the questioning. After he left, Smith reported that Miranda anwered questions about his name, address and occupation. However, a question about other sources of income" caused Miranda to invoke the 5^th Amendment."

"It was learned that Miranda came to this country in 1917 and is a naturalized citizen. He has a 25-year-old son who is an insurance salesman. Never convicted of a crime despite numerous arrests going back to his pickpocket days at Coney Island, Miranda presents a mild appearance with his bald head, medium stature and neat, conservative clothes. On the way to the D.A.’s office Miranda chuckled when a detective, alluding to his 1950 automobile, said ‘Mike, you’d never have made it to Apalachin in this car’."

That’s the way it was in November 1957.

Compiled by Clare Doyle, Librarian, Greater Astoria Historical Society.