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Russell Bufalino

Rosario Alfredo "Russell" Bufalino (29 September 1903–25 February 1994) was the boss of the Bufalino crime family from 1959 to 1994, succeeding Joseph Barbara and preceding William D'Elia. A quiet and unassuming Mafia boss, Bufalino ruled organized crime activities in the entire Northeastern Pennsylvania area, and was though of as a prime suspect in the disappearance of Teamsters Union boss Jimmy Hoffa in 1975.

Biography[]

Rosario Alfredo Bufalino was born on 29 September 1903 in Montedoro, Sicily, and he travelled back and forth between the United States and Italy with his family during his childhood before settling in Pittston, Pennsylvania in 1914. After a brief criminal career in Buffalo during his teens where he made connections with future leaders of the Buffalo crime family, Bufalino fell under the mentorship of crime boss Joseph Barbara and became involved in bootlegging during Prohibition. Barbara eventually made Bufalino his underboss and ran operations with him in Kingston, which Bufalino supervised from the Penn Drape and Curtain Company. During the 1957 Apalachin meeting at Barbara's Upstate New York home, Bufalino was arrested along with dozens of other mobsters from all over the country, but was ultimately released on appeal. After Barbara's death in 1959, Bufalino became the new boss of the family, and he was closely involved in labor politics due to his relationship with Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. When Hoffa threatened with cutting several important mobsters' Union pension fund proceeds shortly after being released from prison in 1975, Bufalino allegedly had his enforcer Frank Sheeran shoot and kill Hoffa at a suburban house in Detroit. Bufalino was later indicted several times over his attempted extortion and murder of gambler Jack Napoli, and thanks to the testimony of mob turncoat Jimmy Fratianno, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1981. He was paroled in 1989, and died of natural causes on 25 February 1994, aged 90.

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