La Stella Restaurant

Last updated

La Stella Restaurant was an Italian restaurant in Forest Hills, Queens. [1]

La Stella was opened by Joe and Jack Taliercio in 1970. [2] It closed in 1992. [3]

Tony Talierico later opened a location in Sunrise, Florida. [4]

On the morning of June 2, 1970, a pipe bomb exploded outside the restaurant knocking in the front door, smashing in the front window and starting a small fire. [5]

Organized crime

On September 22, 1966, Queens County District Attorney Nat Hentel organized the arrest of 13 Mafia leaders. [1] Those arrested included Carlo Gambino, Joseph Colombo, Carlos Marcello, [6] Santo Trafficante Jr., [7] Aniello Dellacroce, [8] Michele Miranda and Anthony Carollo. It was called “Little Apalachin” after the 1957 arrests. [1] Other reports say it happened on September 30 [9] and 15 were arrested. [10]

No-one was charged with any crimes but they were held as material witnesses on $100,000 bail each for a grand jury investigation which resulted in no indictments. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Castellano</span> American crime boss (1915–1985)

Constantino Paul Castellano was an American crime boss who succeeded Carlo Gambino as head of the Gambino crime family of New York City. Castellano ran the organization from 1976 until his assassination on December 16, 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlo Gambino</span> American mobster

Carlo Gambino was a Sicilian-born American crime boss who was the leader and namesake of the Gambino crime family of New York City. Following the Apalachin Meeting in 1957, and the imprisonment of Vito Genovese in 1959, Gambino took over the Commission of the American Mafia and played a powerful role in organized crime until his death from a heart attack in 1976. During a criminal career that spanned over fifty years, Gambino served only twenty-two months in prison for a tax evasion charge in 1937.

The Gambino crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. The group, which went through five bosses between 1910 and 1957, is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963, when the structure of organized crime first gained public attention. The group's operations extend from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, and fencing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph N. Gallo</span> American mobster

Joseph Nicholas Gallo was a New York mobster who served as consigliere of the Gambino crime family under three different bosses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Colombo</span> Former American mob boss

Joseph Anthony Colombo Sr. was the boss of the Colombo crime family, one of the Five Families of the American Mafia in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aniello Dellacroce</span> American mobster (1914-1985)

Aniello John "Neil" Dellacroce was an American mobster and underboss of the Gambino crime family of New York City. He rose to the position of underboss when Carlo Gambino moved Joseph Biondo aside. Dellacroce was a mentor to future Gambino boss John Gotti.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlos Marcello</span> American mobster

Carlos Joseph Marcello ;[Mor-sel-lo] born Calogero Minacore ; February 6, 1910 – March 3, 1993) was an Italian-American crime boss of the New Orleans crime family from 1947 to 1983.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Five Families</span> Five major New York City organized crime families of the Italian American Mafia

The Five Families refer to five Italian American Mafia crime families that operate in New York City. In 1931, the five families were organized by Salvatore Maranzano following his victory in the Castellammarese War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tommy Lucchese</span> Italian-American crime boss (1899–1967)

Thomas Gaetano Lucchese, sometimes known by the nicknames "Tommy", "Thomas Luckese", "Tommy Brown" or "Tommy Three-Finger Brown", was an Italian-American gangster and founding member of the Mafia in the United States, an offshoot of the Cosa Nostra in Sicily. From 1951 until 1967, he was the boss of the Lucchese crime family, one of the Five Families that dominate organized crime in New York City.

The Rudaj Organization was an Albanian mafia gang in the New York City metro area, named for the man accused of being its kingpin, Alex Rudaj of Yorktown, New York. The Rudaj Organization, called "The Corporation" by its members, was started in 1993 in Westchester and spread to the Bronx and Queens. Prosecutors say the Albanian gang was headed by Alex Rudaj and an Italian-American man named Nardino Colotti who both had ties to the late Gambino soldier Phil "Skinny" Loscalzo.

Carmine Lombardozzi was a high-ranking member of the Gambino crime family in New York. He was known as "Alberto", "The Doctor", the "King of Wall Street" and "The Italian Meyer Lansky". By the end of his criminal career, Lombardozzi was the biggest earner for the Gambino family.

Carmine "Charley Wagons" Fatico was a powerful caporegime in the New York Gambino crime family. Fatico is best known as an early mentor to Gambino boss John Gotti.

The New Orleans crime family, also known as the Marcello crime family or the New Orleans Mafia, was an Italian-American Mafia crime family based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The family had a history of criminal activity dating back to the late nineteenth century. These activities included racketeering, extortion, gambling, prostitution, narcotics distribution, money laundering, loan sharking, fencing of stolen goods, and murder. Operating along the Gulf Coast, with its main criminal activity centered in the New Orleans area, the organization reached its height of influence under bosses Silvestro Carollo and Carlos Marcello.

Thomas Francis Gambino was an Italian-American New York City mobster and a longtime caporegime of the Gambino crime family who successfully controlled lucrative trucking rackets in the New York City Garment District. He was the son of Carlo Gambino and nephew of Paul Castellano.

The Lucchese crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata; borgata is Mafia slang for criminal gang, which itself was derived from a Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese family members as "Lukes".

Joseph Francis Civello was an American mobster and the leader of the Dallas crime family from 1956 until his death in 1970.

The Bonanno crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City as part of the criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia.

Anthony Samuel Carollo was an American mobster, boss of the New Orleans crime family and son of the mob boss Silvestro Carollo. He led the organization from 1990 until his death on February 1, 2007.

Nat Herbert Hentel was a New York Supreme Court justice and an interim Queens County District Attorney, appointed by Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Marzlock, Ron (December 31, 2009). "Queens Boulevard power lunch — mob style". Queens Chronicle. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  2. "The Star of Forest Hills". Gangsters Inc. 29 August 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  3. DeStefano, Anthony M. (July 2015). Gangland New York: The Places and Faces of Mob History. Globe Pequot / Lyons Press. ISBN   978-1-4930-0600-7 . Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  4. "LA STELLA SOUTH/SUNRISE". South Florida Sun Sentinel. August 29, 2003. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  5. "Pipe Bomb Is Exploded Near Queens Restaurant". The New York Times. June 3, 1970. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  6. Jones, Thomas L. "Carlos Marcello: Big Daddy In The Big Easy". Crime Library. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  7. "Carlos Marcello". jfkassassination.net. December 23, 2011. Archived from the original on December 23, 2011. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  8. Scarpo, Ed (January 3, 2017). "Toppling Carlo Gambino on 1966 La Stella Meeting Agenda?". La Cosa Nostra News. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  9. Greene, Gael (April 7, 1969). "The Mafia Guide To Dining Out". New York . Retrieved 20 May 2023 via The Insatiable Critic.
  10. "ON THIS DAY IN 1966 15 ARE ARRESTED AT LA STELLA". National Crime Syndicate. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  11. Hevesi, Dennis (February 13, 2007). "Nat H. Hentel, 87, Former Judge and Prosecutor, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 May 2023.

40°43′34″N73°51′04″W / 40.726027°N 73.850993°W / 40.726027; -73.850993