|
Someone asked, "…is there any way out of here by walking?" Barbara
answered, "In the back of the house is a footpath that leads through the
woods to the main road and past the spot those bastards have blocked off.
Once you get on the main road, have the driver of your car pick you up
there." It was then that a disarrayed exodus of excited and nervous guests
began. Most of them crowded into their cars and drove away soon to be
stopped at the roadblock. Genovese never had the opportunity to discuss his
proposition and raise $3 million for the Hilton Casino.
In the wake
of Apalachin, authorities were forced to acknowledge that there was indeed a
significant level of cooperation among criminal gangs across the United
States. The gathering proved the existence of a national syndicate of
organized crime. Before the Apalachin conference, the McClellan Committee,
a government panel, (Chief Council was Robert Kennedy), concentrated its
investigation on corruption in organized labor. After Apalachin, the
committee shifted its attention to organized crime.
When the Apalachin story broke,
Congressmen, Senators and other elected officials wanted to know who the men
were and what they were doing.
Prior to November 1957, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI,
publicly stated that there was no such thing as a national syndicate of
organized crime. To his embarrassment, the rival Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs
had piles of documents on many of the participants in Apalachin and the
Bureau quickly displayed their data at various hearings and press
conferences that followed Apalachin.
Hoover reacted with his characteristic
anger and ordered a massive mafia intelligence gathering operation, called
the “Top Hoodlum Program.”
The FBI's mob informant program moved into high gear, which decades
later would result in a myriad of abuses and indiscretions. Massive illegal
bugging operations began against mobsters. The electronic surveillance
could not be used in court but it helped the FBI understand who and what the
American Mafia was all about. The public testimony of ex-Mafia Joseph
Valachi six years later reinforced what the FBI already knew.
The Apalachin meeting in 1957 clearly demonstrated that there was a
significant existence of organized crime in the United States. It took a
convention in Apalachin to reveal the extent of Mafia activity in the United
States. Apalachin will forever be remembered as the location of the best
known, most important and most disastrous Mafia convention in history. |
|
Timeline of events after the 1957 Mafia Convention:
* May 21, 1959 - The Barbara estate is
sold to LaRue Quick, a local builder. He paid $50,000 in cash with a
mortgage of $80,000. He and Vestal realtor Russell Terry planned to turn it
into a tourist attraction. Owego denied the zoning and won an appeal made by
LaRue and Terry.
* May 21, 1959 - Twenty seven men are
indicted over their evasive answers about Apalachin.
* June 17, 1959 – Joseph Barbara, Sr. dies of
a heart attack suffered May 29, 1959.
* 1959 - A movie called "Inside the Mafia" is
released. The Apalachin town name is changed to "Apple Lake".
* July, 19, 1959 - Mad Magazine has a feature
on Apalachin.
* December 18, 1959 - Twenty hoods are
convicted for conspiracy to obstruct justice over the Apalachin affair.
* January 13, 1960 - The twenty hoods are
sentenced. Most get five years and $10,000 fines.
* July 27, 1960 - A court injunction is filed
against the establishment of tours at the Barbara estate.
* August 24, 1960 - The Barbara estate opens
for tours.
* November 28, 1960 - The U.S. Court of
Appeals throws out the conviction of the 20 hoods. Charges against six
others who had avoided trial, were dropped.
* December 1, 1960 - Zoning ruling is upheld
quashing development plans for the Barbara estate.
* November 6, 1961 - The Barbara estate is
sold to Walter Gardner, Jr. for an estimated $125,000.
* The Barbara property was eventually bought
by the Burt family who ran Burt's Department Store. The daugher, Laura Burt,
bought the estate, (probably from her father's estate) in 1993 for $175,000.
The estate was auctioned off around 2002.
|
MAFIA IN APALACHIN?
(con't.)
