Joseph Barbara
"Joe Barber"
Aug. 9, 1905, to June 17, 1959.
A wealthy gangster operating in New York, Barbara owned the Apalachin, NY, estate that was the site of 1957's Mafia convention. Police crashed the gathering, taking most of those present in for questioning (a minority of Mafiosi managed to escape through the woods surrounding the Barbara estate or avoided a trip downtown simply by remaining within Barbara's home until the police were gone).
Barbara came to the United States from his native Sicily in 1920. In the post-Prohibition years, he gained control of the beer/soft drink distribution in the Binghamton, NY, region. He appears to have led a Mafia Family in the northeast Pennsylvania-western New York region beginning about 1940. That organization looked to be operating as a branch of the Luciano-Genovese Family.
At the time of the 1957 conference, Barbara had a severe heart condition that prevented him from traveling. Rosario "Russell" Bufalino was in command of day-to-day operations of the Barbara crime group.
It is believed that Vito Genovese, who had stepped on many toes with recent attacks against Frank Costello (unsuccessful), Frank Scalise (successful) and Albert Anastasia (successful), required Barbara's skills as a mediator and so decided that the hastily called convention would be held at Barbara's residence.
However, Joseph Bonanno blamed the selection of the Apalachin meeting site on his relative, Stefano Magaddino, boss of the Buffalo area Mafia. Bonanno indicated that Genovese appealed to Magaddino's vanity - and further divided the Bonanno and Magaddino Castellammarese families - by allowing him to choose the site.
After they were apprehended, many of the 60-plus Mafiosi told authorities that they were at Barbara's home to look in on him after his recent heart attack. Barbara was able to avoid much post-convention interrogation due to his heart condition (his son, however, was repeatedly interrogated). He died in June of 1959. leaving the Family to Bufalino.
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