Gangsters and Organized Crime in Buffalo: History, Hits and Headquarters

by Michael F. Rizzo

Stories abound about legendary New York City gangsters like "Lucky" Luciano, but Buffalo has housed its fair share of thugs and mobsters too. While many were nothing more than common criminals or bank robbers, a powerful crime family headed by local boss Stefano Magaddino emerged in the 1920s. Close to Canada, Niagara Falls and Buffalo were perfect avenues through which to transport booze, and Magaddino and his Mafiosi maintained a stranglehold on the city until his death in 1974. Local mob expert Michael Rizzo takes a tour of Buffalo's mafia exploits everything from these brutal gangsters' favorite hangouts to secret underground tunnels to murder.

Genres: History, True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 23, 2012

About the author

Michael F. Rizzo was born in Buffalo, New York. In the 1990s he produced and wrote a weekly television show, COMX-TV about the busy comic book industry. With his co-host, they interviewed hundreds of comic book creators and attended dozens of conventions.

His first book, Through The Mayors' Eyes, was finished in 1990 but languished for 15 years. He found self-publishing and released the book in 2005. After releasing several more self-published books, he published four books with The History Press.

Rizzo ran Zippy Delivery, a bike messenger courier business, for seven years, then started The Mob Tours, and founded two nonprofits.

In 2013 he and his family moved to the Pacific Northwest. In 2015 Rizzo co-hosted Northwest Brew Talk with his partner.

Following him at https://www.subscribepage.com/g4u1x1

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not finish this book. Very dry.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read if you like local history or even just organized crime history. the author includes a "Where to Find It" section at the back of the book so you could take your own your if desired.

[Donald · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Tough Read

This book is all over the place. One paragraph will start out talking about a mobster, then will name 4 or 5 people that mobster was associated with, then the topic will inexplicably change to one of the 4 or 5 people he listed as an associate. It was really hard to keep up with the dozens of names per page in the book (literally dozens of names per page!)
I didn’t even finish reading the book. I gave up at the halfway point and ended up thumbing through the rest of it, looking for interesting tidbits. I didn’t find many.

The research MR. Rizzo did for this book is astounding! Complete with hundreds of footnotes, this book read more like a college research paper, written by an over exuberant student.
I tip my hat to the amount of work that went into writing this book, but it was Just. Too. Much!

[Timothy Minneci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read about the history of the mafia in Western New York. Buffalo being my hometown, seeing the names of streets and locations I'm familiar with was probably more engaging for me than someone unfamiliar with area. My only criticism - it would have been nice if more first person accounts were included.. I understand that many of the people mentioned have passed away, but that's was the missing element that would have pushed it to five stars.

[Paul Decker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just the facts. It was more like reading newspaper articles that don't give you much information, or at least, not the information you were looking for. Nevertheless, it does give you a flavor of organized crime in Buffalo and the influence it had on western New York and elsewhere.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book about about Niagara Falls and Buffalo New York's mafia beginning in the 1920's with the Magaddino to present day. Especially interesting if one grew up in the area and recognized many family names. The author uses valid reference for material cited.

[Áine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to this on Audible, narrator wasn’t great. Didn’t know much about the Buffalo family so it was interesting but also seemed for the most part to be just a list of what happened as opposed to telling the story in an engaging way.

[Tracy Dankanich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great facts, interesting but kinda just that. Alot of facts and difficult to follow.

[Heidi Scarletta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok bookmark

I thought instead of dollar amounts from 2010 it should have been from 2023. Some of the names I have heard.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Especially as a resident of Buffalo, NY, I found this recount of history very intriguing. This is a rich compilation of Buffalo's gruesome relationship with the Mafia and organized crime. It is apparent how deep this connection goes through the various characters named, stories told, and locations discussed. It is nice to have a complete picture of this part of Buffalo's history, albiet perturbingly violent, that I only have received piecemeal from family members that lived through some of these times.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though I really like reading about the underworld history of my adopted city, this book had some frustrating aspects. At times, it felt like the author was presenting a laundry list of crimes and criminals in lieu of more detailed information. The odd tendency to give birthdates of the made men had me wondering if they were applying for passports rather than appearing in a history book. I'd have liked something that focused on specifics of the crimes and organization to a greater degree, if such a thing is possible (though, given the apparent corruption of local government in the mob's heyday, I guess the juiciest bits are probably long consigned to a handy basement furnace--perhaps along with some of the mobsters who vanished without a trace).

[Philip Knoerzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on headlines and their accompanying stories, it seems. I could discern no pattern; the text jumped back and forth in time; lots of photos of local mob figures and what their homes and businesses look like now. I think this book was written and published as a handbook to be taken along on one of the many "tours" around the area. There was a time when "the Arm" was very powerful--close to 80 years ago--and the on-going efforts to keep Western NY relevant seem to be a driving factor here. Lots of descriptions of killings--not enough tie-in to the rest of the NY families or to the Mafia at large. Still, I'm glad I read it...

[Mike Latona · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was more of a list of crimes and misdemeanors than a narrative. The writing was a bit choppy, more like a Wikipedia entry than a published novel and it seems the writer was only repeating what he read in newspaper archives. It was interesting to see some familiar last names, making me wonder if there is any relation to people I know.

[Doctor Sax · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing style was seriously lacking any type of cohesiveness, but I still enjoyed it because I am from Buffalo and this is the only book of its kind on this subject matter.

[Melissa Michaud · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting Buffalo history

[Lynda Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's amazing how many names I recognized and wondered if they were uncles or grandfathers of my friends growing up.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a lot of good information in this book but it was very poorly presented. More or less just a list of events that happened. A very dry read.