Mafia Summit by Gil Reavill

Author:Gil Reavill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2016-04-11T16:00:00+00:00

14

The Watchdogs

SUNDAY, THREE DAYS AFTER THE BUST-UP of the summit, Ed Croswell made another foray to the big stone compound at the end of McFall Road. All was silent as a tomb. The main house was buttoned up. The gravel lot in front of the garage, parked thick the day before, now was empty.

Croswell sought something specific. He cracked open the doors of a barn on the edge of the estate, near the caretaker cottages. Inside, he discovered the pink Lincoln coupe belonging to James LaDuca, the very same vehicle the owner swore was still parked in his driveway in Lewiston, a hundred and fifty miles away.

Performing a quick search of the car’s interior, Croswell pulled out a shucked-off suit coat that conveniently identified its owner with a name sewn into the lining. “Stefano Magaddino.” The Buffalo mob boss had been at the summit after all. He was one of the quick-swimming fishies, a very big one indeed, who had slipped through the net.

Croswell had Vasisko drive the Lincoln to the Vestal substation. He told the owner that if he wanted it back, he should come and get it. A couple days later, on Tuesday, November 19, LaDuca and his lawyer slunk in. Oh, that coral pink 1957 Lincoln. Yeah, that turned out not to be parked back home in the driveway after all.

Snagging the car was to be the last piece of detection, of actual physical hands-on investigating, that Investigator Croswell would do for quite some time. Beginning the week after Apalachin, and for months forward, he would be swept up in an incredible welter of government hearings, grand jury appearances, and courtroom testimony. Over the weekend he had finally gotten some shut-eye, but for the near future he would rarely be allowed to catch his breath. Everyone wanted testimony from him. Through no intent of his own, the Tall Ghost had somehow stepped into the spotlight as the man of the hour.

The ’58 elections were still a year away, but they were important—not so much on the federal level, but for the state of New York, where a governorship would be up for grabs. With a Republican-controlled senate and Democrat Averill Harriman in the statehouse, the battle lines were clearly drawn.

The GOP endured heavy losses in local elections the week before the summit. Immediately after the fact, Apalachin became a contested political topic and, by extension, so did organized crime. To have a chance in November ’59, the Republicans required a hot-button issue. They seized upon this one, dished up straight from the headlines.

Harriman had been soft on the Mafia, his political opponents charged, allowing mobsters to run wild in New York State. The gathering at Joe Barbara’s was proof positive. In Albany, the Republican senators needed a soapbox, so they convened one in the form of the Joint Legislative Committee on Government Operations, otherwise known as the Watchdog Committee.

In early December, only a month after the Apalachin meeting, the committee met in the ornate surroundings of the

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