 |
| 1965 |
Angelo Lapadura was a member of the Genovese Family.
Born Arcangelo Lapadura on August 2, 1891 in San Cataldo comune of Caltanissetta, Sicily to Salvatore and Lucy Prezia.
Around late July 1909 immigrated to United States.
In May 1914 married Vida Monaco in Garfield, New Jersey. Bride's family from Santo Stefano di Camastra in Messina, Sicily.
By 1918 they were residing at 178 Lincoln Place in Garfield where Angelo worked as a mill hand.
In September 1924 the Pleasure Club was incorporated at 672 Main Ave in Clifton, New Jersey. Trustees included Angelo and his brother-in-law Charles Monaco.
He traveled to Italy at some point the following year, returning in late December aboard the S.S. Conte Rosso.
By Summer 1928 he owned property at 380 Oak St in Passaic, New Jersey which he rented to Frank Ruggiero. At the time Ruggiero worked in a nearby Italian bakery owned by Thomas Scarangello.
Thirty-five-year-old Ruggiero was shot to death inside the bakery shortly after midnight on August 23, 1928. He and fellow employee Barthold Capuana were unloading flour bags when a pair of masked gunmen entered and killed Ruggiero with two close range gunshots to the head. The killers then exited through the bakery's rear door. The murder came thirteen days after an initial attempt at the 380 Oak St address.
There were multiple possible motives presented in the ensuing investigation. Ruggiero had reportedly complained to local police of bootlegging and other criminal activity in the neighborhood. It was claimed he was abusive to his spouse, drawing the ire of his brothers-in-law, and that he had run up debts necessitating frequent moves through multiple states. He had also, investigators noted, lapsed in his rent payments to Angelo to the point where Angelo's wife had sought legal recourse. Angelo was questioned in the case and claimed he was in bed by 10:00 PM the night of the murder.
On June 26, 1929 Willard H. Elliott, Vice President of Hobart Trust Company of Passaic, was kidnapped by two men and held for six days.
On September 20, 1929 Angelo Lapadura, Possible Genovese Member Joseph 'Kid Steech' Bongiorno and others were indicted for involvement in Elliott's kidnapping. Angelo was apprehended two months later by Garfield PD and released on bail pending trial.
 |
| 1929 |
By 1930 Lapadura and Peter Curatolo were partners in the Venetian Gardens at Grenelle Ave and Passaic St in Garfield. Curatolo, also from San Cataldo, was a former Pittsburgh resident who left that city following acquittal in the May 1929 murder of bootlegger John Daniels. Within months the location was shuttered due to heavy police pressure.
As the Elliott kidnapping case approached trial, multiple murders occurred that were linked to Angelo and his associates.
On May 29, 1930 Frank LoVullo was found outside a club located on Elm St in Passaic. Taken to a local hospital, he was set up with private accomodations paid for by Angelo. It was Angelo's nephew Sam and neighbor Ignazio Alu who brought LoVullo to the hospital, and all three were held for questioning in a fruitless attempt to learn more about the shooting. Alu was born 1897 in San Cataldo. LoVullo, believed to be from the nearby comune of Serradifalco, died four days later.
The morning after LoVullo's shooting, William 'Wild Bill' Schlessinger and Anthony 'Sparky' Wilda were found brutally murdered on a desolate road in Paramus, New Jersey. From marks on the body it was determined the victims had been beaten, strangled, allowed to recover and then finished off with multiple close range gunshots from a .38 caliber firearm. Wilda was shot three times in the abdomen; Schlessinger was killed with a single shot to the temple.
It was theorized at the time that Schlessinger and Wilda were responsible for the LoVullo shooting and their murders were a retaliatory act. As with LoVullo, Angelo was briefly held for questioning. Investigation later that year pointed to Lapadura's business partner Peter Curatolo as the shooter.
After much legal wrangling the Elliott kidnapping trial began June 2, 1930. Angelo received a directed verdict of acquittal on June 18. The next day all remaining defendants were acquitted by jury.
After his release Angelo and Joseph 'Lefty' Lapadura briefly operated a sugar house at 260 Midland Ave in Garfield. Joseph was a Little Italy, Manhattan resident who rose to Capodecina in the Genovese Family decades later.
On August 3, 1930 Angelo's former business partner Peter Curatolo was shotgunned to death at the former Venetian Gardens site in Garfield. Curatolo was beckoned to the curb by occupants of a stolen automobile with Hudson, New Jersey plates, at which point he was hit in the head with multiple pellets from a 20-gauge shotgun blast. Two days later Angelo was brought in for questioning and claimed to have only returned that morning from a week-long fishing trip in Milford, Connecticut. Angelo's nephew Samuel was questioned the following day. It was while investigating Curatolo's background that police recovered the murder weapon used to kill Schlessinger and Wilda.
Fifteen days later Angelo was back in Connecticut, when he and Genovese Member Anthony 'Chicago Fats' Sabio were arrested by the Connecticut State Police in Westport. A loaded .38 caliber revolver with its serial number defaced was found in Lapadura's pocket and both were booked on a carrying concealed weapons charge.
Angelo was then operating the LaBella Trading Company at 143 Market St in East Paterson, specializing in tin cans, sugar and yeast. He became a well known source of sugar for use in illicit stills, such that he was frequently referred to in the press as New Jersey's 'Sugar King'. Later statements by local law enforcement indicated his permission was needed for aspiring bootleggers to operate.
On October 15, 1930 he was summoned by local police to the Bergen County Courthouse and given a message from Assistant Attorney General George S. Hobart that it would be best if Angelo ceased activity in the county.
Two days later Lapadura and Sabio were convicted on the Connecticut weapons charge and given sentences of nine and six months respectively. Sabio was paroled early due to ill health; Angelo was released June 1, 1931.
By 1934 the Lapaduras resided at 3 Obal Ave in East Paterson. He and Joseph Arnone were partners in Old Fashion Molasses Company in Paterson.
In December 1934 Angelo rented a house at 179 Huyler St in South Hackensack, New Jersey. Within weeks the location was hit with a joint raid conducted by the Bergen County PD and the New Jersey State Alcohol Beverage Control. Two large stills and fifteen thousand gallons of mash were recovered. Indictments of Lapadura and several others followed.
Undeterred by the raid and its legal fallout, Angelo continued to expand his businesses. By 1937 he owned both a woman's coat manufacturing plant in Passaic and an East Paterson night club.
On February 16, 1937, over two years after the still was raided, Angelo and five others began standing trial in the US District Court in Newark. A seventh defendant, the one who initially rented the Hackensack property to Lapadura, became a witness for the government. On the first day of trial the indictments against two defendants were dismissed and a third received a directed verdict of acquittal.
The following day Angelo took the stand in his own defense. He admitted previous legal trouble in Connecticut but denied any involvement in the present case. Later the same day he and his remaining co-defendants, Dominick Gesualdo and Joseph Lombardo, were convicted. Early the next month he was sentenced to four years Federal imprisonment and remanded to Hudson County Jail.
Angelo quickly requested that he be allowed release on bail pending appeal. Two months later, on July 16, he was let out of Hudson County Jail on $5,000 bail. Five days later the US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the conviction.
The following year Lapadura was again indicted on bootlegging charges, this time in a massive indictment originating from New York and naming over one hundred defendants. Lapadura and Frank Romano, the only other Bergen County defendant, were described as the 'principal wholesalers' of the group, utilizing a Jersey City olive oil business to facilitate transportation of large amounts of product into New York. Lapadura was released on $500 bail. (Romano was born 1901 in Monte San Giacomo comune of Salerno, Campania and resided on Montross Ave in Rutherford. He died in 1968.)
On April 1, 1939 Lapadura, Romano and the DiPalermo brothers were among thirty-four defendants convicted. Later that month each were sentenced by Judge John C. Knox to twenty-two months Federal imprisonment and fined $7,500.
 |
| Lewisburg (1940) |
Angelo served his sentence at USP Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
Following his release he started the Garfield Importing Company at 120 Charles St in Garfield.
By the mid-to-late 1940s he and his family moved from New Jersey to Phoenix, Arizona, living at 3662 Grand Ave and running a grocery from the same address.
By 1955 they sold the Arizona property and returned to New Jersey, residing at 382 Oak St in Passaic. That summer Angelo, Genovese Soldier Ralph Belvedere and Ralph Geraci incorporated Mill Sportswear at 211 Market St in Paterson.
In June 1961 Angelo became a naturalized US citizen at the Passaic County Courthouse in Paterson.
 |
| Gene Catena (1960s) |
By 1963 Angelo Lapadura was a member of the New Jersey based crew headed by Genovese Capodecina Eugene 'Gene' Catena. Younger brother to Family Underboss Gerard, Gene's crew included Soldiers Ralph Belvedere, Nicholas 'Bones' Bufanio, Don 'Fats' Ferraro, Michael 'Mickey Gerard' Geralle, Angelo Lapadura, Peter LaPlaca, John Lardiere, Dr. Philip Noto, Joseph 'Joe Peck' Pecora, Thomas 'Timmy Murphy' Pecora, Daniel Polidori, Anthony 'Tony Nino' Saita, Robert Tarantino and Frank Carmen 'Fat Todd' Toto.
A location Gene Catena used for meeting with his crew was bugged that year by the FBI. One conversation in late October 1963 was summarized: "(Eugene Catena) expressed an opinion that there would be many changes in Cosa Nostra upon the release of Vito Genovese from prison. He complained that many members had become indiscreet to the point that they risked the attention of law enforcement authorities. He cited the actions of two under his jurisdiction, Angelo Lapadura and Ralph Belvedere, whom he referred to as 'mustaches' believing them to be responsible for having someone beaten. According to (bug), use of this term designated old-time members who were violently inclined, and Catena contends that their method is no longer condoned."
Attended the three day wake for Genovese Soldier Daniel Polidori held in late October 1968 at the Marrocco Funeral Home in Passaic. Polidori was considered the right-hand man to Peter LaPlaca, who took over the crew following Gene Catena's death in August 1967.
Now well into his 70s, Angelo worked as a self-employed olive oil and Italian cheese salesman and frequented various hangouts in Paterson, particularly Parmelli's tavern at 583 River Rd and the S.S. Napoli Club on Cianci St. He was also reportedly partners in an unspecified Passaic bar.
 |
| Dec. 1964 NJ Surveillance Individual ahead of Lapadura closest to camera may be Angelo Salvo. |
His close associates included fellow LaPlaca crew member Ralph Belvedere, with whom he may have shared profits from a local gambling operation, and Bonanno Soldier Angelo Salvo. Lapadura was godfather to one of Salvo's grandchildren and their families frequently went to Florida together for the winter, where Salvo and his wife operated the La Sal Apartments at 530 Mandalay Ave in Clearwater Beach. One informant stated Salvo 'made a lot of money' with Lapadura 'when both were younger'.
One such trip to La Sal Apartments was made by Lapadura and Salvo in January 1970. The next month they were joined by Ralph Belvedere, and the trio took a short drive north to New Port Richey to assess a possible land purchase.
In early March 1970, still in Clearwater Beach, Lapadura was hit with a severa asthma attack that required hospitalization. He listed Angelo Salvo as his next of kin. The next month he was taken by ambulance to the airport and returned to New Jersey.
According to informants, Lapadura's asthmatic condition curtailed his activities. He continued his association with Angelo Salvo, and in early 1971 both were subpoenaed in an investigation of fraudulent driver's licenses. Also subpoenaed was Salvo's nephew, Bonanno Soldier Antonio 'Nino' Busciglio.
Lapadura was exempted from appearance due to his failing health. He died early the next year, on February 8, and was waked at Marrocco Funeral Home in Passaic. Burial was in St. Nicholas Cemetery in Lodi.
