- Pete Panto
Pete Panto (1911 –
July 14 ,1939 ) was alongshoreman and union activist who was executed by the mob for attempting to revolt against union leadership.Revolt
Pete Panto was the leader of a revolt against
Joseph P. Ryan and his colleagues, many of them allegedlymafia , who ran theInternational Longshoremen's Association [ILA] . Corruption was rampant among ILA leaders and working conditions were deplorable. Panto attempted to expose this corruption via the Brooklyn Rank-and-File Committee, a group of "left wing" dockworkers. He and the Rank-And-File Committee held open air assemblies attracting over 1500 longshoreman at a time. This was a serious threat to Ryan, Anastasia, and other corrupt officials. Panto was lured from his home onJuly 14 ,1939 following a phone call from an unknown individual and was never seen again. His body would later be found during January 1941, in a lime pit inLyndhurst, New Jersey . [ [http://www.i-italy.org/3406/chi-pete-panto] i-ITALY. Retrieved Aug. 04, 2008.]Albert Anastasia was suspected of ordering the execution butAbe Reles , the chief witness, died in 1941 while supposedly trying to escape from custodies. He either "jumped or fell" from a room held guard by six police officers. Panto's murder was allegedly carried out by Mendy Weiss ofMurder Inc. Although Anastasia and Weiss were never indicted, Weiss would receive the electric chair in 1944 for a seperate murder, whereas Anastasia was murdered by rival mobsters in 1957. Ryan resigned in 1953 following New York State Industrial Commissioner Edward Corsi and GovernorThomas E. Dewey 's investigation into corruption charges. [http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID={2C7A14EF-A0C8-40E1-B3DE-25D46DF0E1C1 FrontPage Magazine. February 11, 2005. Retrieved August 31, 2007]Trivia
*A screenplay, titled “The Hook”, portrays Panto’s "doomed attempt to overthrow the feudal gangsterism of the New York docks."
ee also
*
On the Waterfront External links
* [http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID={2C7A14EF-A0C8-40E1-B3DE-25D46DF0E1C1} True Life Tales on the Waterfront]
* [http://www.pww.org/past-weeks-1999/Waterfront%20documentary.htm Waterfront Documentary Tells Story Vividly]
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,822554-1,00.html Nine Hundred & Forty Thieves at Time Magazine]References
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