Joseph Todaro, Sr.

Joseph Todaro Sr. (September 18, 1923 – December 26, 2012) was a prominent Buffalo, New York businessman, and Mafia boss.

According to local and national law enforcement agencies, including the United States Department of Justice, Joseph Todaro Sr. was known on the streets of Buffalo and throughout the underworld as "Lead Pipe Joe", a high level member of the North American Cosa Nostra or Mafia. Todaro Sr. had been a top figure in the Buffalo crime family or "The Arm" as it is referred to in western New York since the 1960s and was suspected to have headed the family since the retirement of former boss, Samuel Frangiamore in late 1984, although his son Joseph Todaro, Jr. reportedly oversees the day-to-day operations since Todaro Sr. began frequently vacationing at his southern Florida condo during the 1990s. The testimony of government operative Ron Fino as well as Todaro Sr.'s long-documented history in labor racketeering activities had also supported such claims of his position in the organization. Despite known organized crime activity, no member of Mr. Todaro's family has ever been convicted of a major crime.

By the early 1960s, longtime Buffalo crime family boss, Stefano "The Undertaker" Magaddino had begun to plan his retirement and left running of the day-to-day activities of his crime family in the hands of acting boss, Frederico "Freddie Lupo/the Wolf" Randaccio, mistaken in the past as Frederico Fassi, his mother's maiden named used to enter the United States. Joseph Todaro Sr., known as " Lead Pipe Joe" to his crime family associates was a top crime family captain or caporegime who reportedly controlled bookmaking operations for "The Arm" with his son, Joseph "Big Joe" Todaro Jr., brother and crime family soldier, Richard Todaro. Joseph "Lead Pipe Joe" Todaro Sr. was a big earner for the Buffalo crime family with interests in bookmaking, card and dice games, loansharking, Las Vegas junkets and labor rackets. and reported directly to Freddie Randaccio. In the 1960s and 1970s the Buffalo crime family used the Blue Banner Social Club located on Prospect Ave. and run by crime family soldier Benny Spano as a principal base of operations, meeting place and gambling club, Randaccio usually met there with his capos every day in the late afternoons. On May 8, 1967, the F.B.I. received a tip from an informant and raided a stag party being held at Panaro's Snowball Lounge in Buffalo that night. The lounge was owned by Todaro family relatives, the Panaro's, a well known Buffalo family that includes Joe Todaro Sr. cousin and Buffalo crime family soldier, Robert "Bobby" Panaro, who along with former Buffalo crime family associate and present Los Angeles crime family soldier, Stephen "The Whale" Cino were sentenced in September 1999 to a prison sentence of 7½ years and 15 years for planning the murder of Chicago Outfit associate and loanshark, "Fat" Herbie Blitzstein in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1997. *sidenote – before his indictment and conviction in 1999 for helping to plan the murder of Blitzstein, allegedly so he could take over Fat Herbie's Las Vegas loansharking rackets, Panaro had no previous criminal arrests or record, unlike Steve Cino who had a lengthy criminal record, including a prison sentence of 20 years in 1967 with Buffalo family members, Freddie Randaccio and Pat Natarelli for robbery. The Panaro-Cino operations in Las Vegas in the 1900s were apparently a joint Buffalo-Los Angeles crime family operation involving gambling and loansharking. The F.B.I and the Buffalo media called the raid the "Little Apalachin Raid" being that a 'who's who" of top Buffalo crime family members were arrested, including acting boss, Freddie "Lupo" Randaccio, capos, Joseph Fino, a future boss, Salvatore "Samuel Johns" Pieri, a future boss, Daniel "Boots" Sansanese, a future underboss, Joseph "the wolf" DiCarlo, a former Youngstown, Ohio rackets boss, Samuel Frangiamore, a future boss, Pasquale "Pat Titters" Natarelli, a top enforcer, John Cammilleri, overseer of labor and union rackets, James "Jimmy" LaDuca, Magaddino son in law and apalachin attendee, Rosario "Roy" Carlisi, Apaplachin attendee and brother of former Chicago Outfit boss, Sam "Wings" Carlisi and soldier, Victor Randaccio, brother of Freddie and boss of Buffalo local 210 of the LIUNA. Joseph Todaro Sr. was also arrested at the stag party along with basically all of the top Buffalo crime family members, Todaro Sr. was outraged over the fact that Panaro's Snowball Lounge lost its liquor license and went out of business, motivating him to launch a lawsuit against the Buffalo F.B.I. alleging that they were "discriminating against persons of Italian descent" which was very common in that era, as Todaro Sr.'s actions were later supported by the Italian American Civil Rights League (IACRL) led by New York Mafia boss, Joseph Colombo, but the lawsuit was eventually dismissed.

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