DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime

by Thomas Hunt, Michael A. Tona

DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime is the historical biography of Mafioso Joseph J. DiCarlo, once known as “the Al Capone of Buffalo” and as western New York's “Public Enemy No. 1.”
Son of the region's first known Sicilian underworld boss, DiCarlo was rejected as heir to his father's criminal empire. After spending troubled years as a vassal of the influential Stefano Magaddino, DiCarlo and his underlings wandered, seeking their fortunes in Youngstown, Ohio, and Miami Beach, Florida, before returning home to witness the bloody disintegration of western New York's Mafia organization.
The authors utilize DiCarlo's colorful and violent life story as a window into the history of the powerful Magaddino Crime Family and the American Mafia network, while chronicling the parallels between the life of DiCarlo and the history of the criminal organization that was founded by his father.

In two volumes, DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime chronicles a century of DiCarlo family history and related developments in the American Mafia organized crime network. Volume I covers the period through 1937. Volume II focuses on the period 1938 to 1984 and includes an epilogue describing events as recent as 2012.

“This is, truly, the definitive piece about the Buffalo Mafia... An important historical chronicle of organized crime in Western New York.”
- Lee Coppola, award-winning Buffalo journalist.

570 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 29, 2013

About the author

I am a writer/researcher on the subject of organized crime (American Mafia). I most recently authored, Wrongly Executed? The Long-forgotten Context of Charles Sberna's 1939 Electrocution. I publish a quarterly true crime journal, Informer, and The American Mafia history website as well as a number of blogs. I co-wrote DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime with Michael A. Tona and Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia with Martha Macheca Sheldon. I contributed the American Mafia history sections to the Australian published, Mafia: The Necessary Reference to Organized Crime. I moderate Mafiahistory.us and Facebook discussion groups on Mafia history. Previously, I served as editor of several dmoz.org categories related to organized crime.

Married with three children and (too) numerous pets, I live and work in the Middlebury VT area.

Reviews

[C. Alexander Hortis · Rating 5 out of 5]

"DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime" will stand as the definitive book on the Mafia of upstate New York. The authors dove deep into the subject, and produced an outstanding history. What is especially fascinating is how the authors detail DiCarlo's links to Youngstown, Ohio, and Miami, Florida. After DiCarlo, mob historians will have to reassess our views of Buffalo's oft-overlooked crime syndicate. Highly recommended.

[Donna Wetzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thorough description of underworld influence in the Buffalo/Rochester and Niagara Falls area. Filled with details
that bring the events to life. As a former Buffalo native, I really
enjoyed this book. Not sensationalized, yet makes the Sopranos look mild
in comparison to actual events.