- Salvatore Santoro
Salvatore "Tom Mix" Santoro, Sr. (1913 – 2000) was the powerful
Underboss of theLucchese crime family during the 1980s before he was eventually convicted in theMafia Commission Trial and sentenced to 100 years in federal prison.Early life
Born in the
Bronx, New York , Santoro made his way up to the Gagliano crime family very quickly, as his early criminal activities included profiting fromextortion ,loansharking andnarcotics and prostitution during the early 1930s. He earned the mob monicker "Tom Mix " because in his younger years he closely resembled the American western film actor by that name. After he met Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo, another street thug, sometime during the late 1930s, then-current family bosses Gaetano "Tommy" Gagliano and Thomas "Tommy" Lucchese decided to make the two of them, as well as many others, into the crime family of theBronx, New York . [http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/family_epics/lucchese2/5.html]Lucchese Captain
As Santoro kept on as a soldier for the Gagliano crime family throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, he reportedly operated much with
drug trafficking andloansharking activities. According to "Crimelibrary", Santoro was a tough street soldier for the family, cracking heads along with future boss Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo, whom he continued to have a great friendship with. As longtime boss and family founder Gaetano "Tommy" Gagliano died in 1953, hisUnderboss Thomas "Tommy" Lucchese stepped up to serve the family, which from then on bore his name. As many stepped up due to the restructure of theLucchese crime family , Santoro was promotedcaporegime orcaptain of Lucchese's old crew in the family's powerful Bronx faction. Corallo was also promoted. [http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/family_epics/lucchese2/5.html]Drug Conviction
Santoro kept operating out of the
Bronx, New York during the mid 1950s, as his main racket was running a largedrug trafficking operation in the East Harlem/Bronx faction of theLucchese crime family , however, in 1958 he was arrested and tried fornarcotics charges, as well recognizing him as a partner and associate of Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, although this never was confirmed. Santoro was convicted of all charges in 1959 and went in for a long prison term. This led him away from the drug trade and went over to labor and constructionracketeering instead, in which he would do very well for himself in the future. [http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/family_epics/lucchese2/5.html]Death of Lucchese
In 1967, longtime boss and
Lucchese crime family founder Thomas "Tommy" Lucchese died ofbrain tumor and Santoro's longtime friendAnthony Corallo was seen as the most obvious candidate for Boss, however, Corallo was imprisoned during the time and the family leadership went to Carmine "Gribbs" Tramunti, who also favored the imprisoned Santoro, as well as Corallo. After Corallo released in the early 1970s from prison, he reputedly took over theLucchese crime family at once. Corallo putPaul Vario in charge asUnderboss of the family on acting basis, until his dear friend Santoro was to release from prison.Underboss
During the late 1970s, Vario and most of the Vario Crew members were sent to prison on various of charges, however, as many went down, Santoro went up, as he was reputedly recognized by US law enforement as the
Underboss of theLucchese crime family from the year of 1979, and had gone back to run the powerful Bronx faction of the family. Corallo, now the powerful family boss, chose Santoro as the head of the construction and laborracketeering operations in most areas ofNew York City . Santoro began cooperating much with reputedConsigliere Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari and other top capos of theLucchese crime family . It was around this time that Santoro began his reputation of being an excellent labor racketeer, who brought in big money, as he bought a new residence on City Island Avenue in theBronx, New York .Tony Ducks & the Jag
In the early 1980s, Corallo found a new way to discuss business without ever meeting his top underlings Santoro and Furnari. Corallo used his Jaguar with a phone inside and talked to mostly Santoro on the phone while he was driving around in
New York with his chauffeur Aniello "Neil" Migliore. This way succeeded mostly because the noise of the old Jag was so loud that it wasn't possible to hear anything, however, after the Jaguar came with a new engine and new filter to prevent any sound annoying the ones driving the car,FBI planted a bug in it, and listened to a lot of the conversations Corallo had with Santoro, mostly about the profit from the labor and constructionracketeering operations in theBronx, New York , where they extorted theunion s and made great influence in construction industry.Commission Case
As US law enforcement decided to crush most of the
organized crime activities inNew York City during the mid 1980s, they put 11 top members of all theFive Families on a trial, called theMafia Commission Trial or the Commission Case, including the entire administration of theLucchese crime family . Santoro, including Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo, and powerfulConsigliere Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari were all arrested onFebruary 25 ,1985 , on various of charges, including laborracketeering ,extortion ,loansharking ,illegal gambling andmurder charges. Every boss of theFive Families were brought to this court, which began in September of 1986. The charges also involved the execution ofBonanno crime family de facto boss Carmine "Lilo" Galante in 1979, which were allegedly on the orders of the Commission because they saw Galante as a potential rival and thought he planned to take over everything. OnNovember 19 ,1986 , Santoro and the other defendants were convicted on all counts and were sentenced to 100 years in prison and fined $250,000. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE4DF133BF933A15752C1A960948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all] After the sentencing, Santoro and the other convicted defendants met with their lawyers and each other in a backroom of the courthouse for a final Italian meal and a bottle of wine. Corallo gave the traditional Italian toast of "Cent'anni", may we live 100 years, at which time Santoro stated, "I think it's time to get a new toast?". The rest of the bosses just laughed and kept eating.New Leadership
As the entire
Lucchese crime family administration were sent to prison, Corallo chose Anthony "Buddy" Luongo as the new boss of the family to run the day-to-day activities, however, toward the year of 1987 Luongo was allegedly murdered by Furnari's protégés and Brooklyn faction leaders Vittorio "Vic" Amuso and Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso who seized the complete power of the family. As nobody wanted a new war within the organization, Furnari advised Corallo to make Amuso and Casso the new bosses in early 1987, although Santoro is to have strongly advised against it, knowing the succession of Amuso and Casso would be the biggest mistake in the crime family's history. However, Corallo still made Amuso the new boss of theLucchese crime family that same year. [http://americanmafia.com/Mob_Report/11-4-02_Mob_Report.html]Death
In 2000, Santoro died at a medical center for prisoners at the age of 87. As did Corallo only months before. Furnari and
Colombo crime family boss Carmine "Junior" Persico and Underboss Gennaro "Jerry Lang" Langella are currently serving theirlife sentence as the only survivors of the defendants from theMafia Commission Trial who received 100 years.Further reading
*Sifakis, Carl. "The Mafia Encyclopedia: Second Edition". New York, Checkmark Books. 1999
*Capeci, Jerry. "The Complete Idiots Guide to the Mafia". Indianapolis. Alpha Books. 2002
*Raab, Selwyn. "The Five Families". New York. St Martins Press, 2005.
*Lawson, Guy and Oldham, William. "The Brother Hoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia". New York. Pocket Books, 2006.External links
* http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/family_epics/lucchese2/5.html
* http://www.geocities.com/OrganizedCrimeSyndicates/LuccheseFamily.html
* Magnuson, Ed. cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,145082,00.html|title="Hitting the Mafia"|accessdate=2006-11-15 "Time".com January 24, 2001.
* http://glasgowcrew.tripod.com/comm.html Overview of the case, with photos of the defendants
* http://gangsters.inc.tripod.com/
* http://www.mafia-international.com/
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