Raymond Márquez
| Raymond Márquez | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1930 Harlem, Manhattan, NYC |
| Other names | "Spanish Raymond" |
| Occupation | Gambling, numbers racket |
| Criminal penalty | A. Imprisoned for six years B. Five years of probation and a $1 million fine. |
| Spouse(s) | Alice Márquez |
| Children | Raymond David Márquez |
| Conviction(s) | A. Federal gambling and extortion charges B. New York state gambling charges |
Raymond Márquez (born 1930), a.k.a. "Spanish Raymond" was considered the "king" of the illegal numbers racket in Harlem from the 1950s until his retirement in 2001.
Márquez's parents moved from Puerto Rico to New York City in the late 1920s and settled in the Harlem section of Manhattan. He was born and raised in Harlem; there he also received his primary and secondary education. His father was able to establish a grocery store, however the family economic situation was not a good one and when Márquez graduated from Textile High School in 1947, at the age of 17, his parents were unable to send him to college.
In 1947, Márquez looked upon people who were prosperous, well dressed and involved in numbers activities as his role models He began his career in the Harlem numbers racket as a pickup boy. As a pick up boy, he would go around Harlem, gathering the betting slips from the runners. The runners are those who solicited the wagers from the betting customers. Márquez would then turn in the slips to a regional controller and eventually the listed slips would end up at the headquarters of the gambling organization, known as a bank. Márquez branched out for himself within a year and gained a reputation for paying winning customers promptly.
Márquez had few legal scrapes during his early years. By 1958, law enforcement authorities publicly identified him as an underworld kingpin and that is when an investigator from the New York Police Department (NYPD), nicknamed him "Spanish Raymond", a moniker which has stood since then. Also in 1958, Marquez was accused in a killing related to his gambling activities. A grand jury failed to indict him for the murder. Márquez acknowledged bribing the police in the 1950s and 1960s to prevent raids on his illicit network. Marquez also was believed to have paid a percentage of his profits to Mafia boss Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno. Marquez denied that he did business with the Mafia, and said that while he was friends with Salerno he was not a business partner.
In 1969, Márquez was arrested by the FBI on Federal gambling and extortion charges. He was convicted and sentenced to concurrent terms of three and five years imprisonment. He served a total of five years from 1970 to 1975. In 1975 he was released and continued in his former activities. This was during the post Knapp Commission era in which the NYPD was the focus of a scandal arising from pervasive corruption and the crackdown on the numbers racket was sidelined due to a moratorium on numbers gambling resulting from concerns that systemic corruption of the NYPD would continue to flourish. Protection payoffs to the police were no longer necessary.
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