The Quiet Don: The Untold Story of Mafia Kingpin Russell Bufalino by Matt Birkbeck Page B
Authors: Matt Birkbeck
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There was, after all, business to conduct.
By the end of the war, the New York mob bosses had major financial interests in the garment industry, Costello and Anastasia included. And those interests included ownership of nonunion manufacturing shops in Pennsylvania. From the end of the 1930s through World War II, the mob lords reaped their garment industry profits in relative peace with little to fear from law enforcement or anyone else, for that matter, thanks chiefly to their strongest partner, Russell Bufalino.
By 1945, Costello and Anastasia had established strong alliances with Bufalino, who himself had varied interests in their home turf of New York City. Bufalino spent a lot of time in New York, arriving in Manhattan on a Monday and staying through Wednesday. He had a suite at the Hotel Forrester in midtown and would conduct business at a restaurant he owned, the Vesuvio, in midtown on West Forty-Eighth Street.
Along with the restaurant, Bufalino owned or was a part owner of several dress shops in the garment industry and jewelry shops along Manhattan’s famed “Diamond District” on West Forty-Seventh Street. An astute jeweler, Bufalino always carried a magnifying glass to look at newly stolen loads of diamonds, gold, rubies and other precious stones that had been taken from someone’s house, a store or right off the body of a lifeless victim. Back home in Pennsylvania, Bufalino operated his wide-ranging interests, particularly those in the garment industry, with little interference from law enforcement nor any of the burgeoning unions.
And then came Min Matheson.
A representative from the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), Matheson arrived in Wilkes-Barre in 1945 with one mission: to unionize the thousands of poorly paid, overworked women who labored in garment shops like those owned by Bufalino.
Prior to Matheson’s arrival, only a handful of shops were aligned with the ILGWU, and her sudden arrival in Pittston, Bufalino’s home turf, didn’t go unnoticed. In 1946, Matheson convinced some thirty sewing-machine operators to picket in front of a Bufalino dress shop on Pittston’s Main Street. Matheson led the picket line but was treated to an onslaught of insults from some of the locals who gathered to watch. Some of Bufalino’s men were there, holding bats and waving shotguns while menacing the women. But Matheson and her strikers continued to picket the shop, and they remained there day after day for eight months. They were the first salvos in a war that would last years.
Bufalino responded in 1946 by organizing his own union, the Anthracite Needle Workers Association. Membership in Bufalino’s union was small but increased incrementally when workers pressed by Bufalino’s men were quietly reminded that just a few years earlier it was Bufalino who was behind the damage at the Lori Dress Company, where two hundred sewing machines were destroyed in a bid to put Lori Dress out of business.
Bufalino was never charged, but everyone knew, including law enforcement, who was behind it. Undeterred by Bufalino or his threats, Matheson was relentless, visiting dress and manufacturing shops throughout the region and slowly convincing women to take the leap and unionize.
By 1949, Matheson’s efforts were bearing fruit. She had union contracts with more than forty dress factories, and her war with Bufalino was now affecting the profit margins of other organized crime leaders who had interests in the Pennsylvania garment industry, among them Albert Anastasia.
Anastasia’s interests in the garment industry included stores in New York and factories in Pennsylvania. When Matheson began organizing a nonunion shop near Hazleton owned by Anastasia, his unhappiness with the situation was made clear to Bufalino. The resulting solution involved Matheson’s brother, Will Lurye. A father of four children, Lurye joined his sister as union organizer, giving up a $150-per-week job as a presser to follow
By the end of the war, the New York mob bosses had major financial interests in the garment industry, Costello and Anastasia included. And those interests included ownership of nonunion manufacturing shops in Pennsylvania. From the end of the 1930s through World War II, the mob lords reaped their garment industry profits in relative peace with little to fear from law enforcement or anyone else, for that matter, thanks chiefly to their strongest partner, Russell Bufalino.
By 1945, Costello and Anastasia had established strong alliances with Bufalino, who himself had varied interests in their home turf of New York City. Bufalino spent a lot of time in New York, arriving in Manhattan on a Monday and staying through Wednesday. He had a suite at the Hotel Forrester in midtown and would conduct business at a restaurant he owned, the Vesuvio, in midtown on West Forty-Eighth Street.
Along with the restaurant, Bufalino owned or was a part owner of several dress shops in the garment industry and jewelry shops along Manhattan’s famed “Diamond District” on West Forty-Seventh Street. An astute jeweler, Bufalino always carried a magnifying glass to look at newly stolen loads of diamonds, gold, rubies and other precious stones that had been taken from someone’s house, a store or right off the body of a lifeless victim. Back home in Pennsylvania, Bufalino operated his wide-ranging interests, particularly those in the garment industry, with little interference from law enforcement nor any of the burgeoning unions.
And then came Min Matheson.
A representative from the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), Matheson arrived in Wilkes-Barre in 1945 with one mission: to unionize the thousands of poorly paid, overworked women who labored in garment shops like those owned by Bufalino.
Prior to Matheson’s arrival, only a handful of shops were aligned with the ILGWU, and her sudden arrival in Pittston, Bufalino’s home turf, didn’t go unnoticed. In 1946, Matheson convinced some thirty sewing-machine operators to picket in front of a Bufalino dress shop on Pittston’s Main Street. Matheson led the picket line but was treated to an onslaught of insults from some of the locals who gathered to watch. Some of Bufalino’s men were there, holding bats and waving shotguns while menacing the women. But Matheson and her strikers continued to picket the shop, and they remained there day after day for eight months. They were the first salvos in a war that would last years.
Bufalino responded in 1946 by organizing his own union, the Anthracite Needle Workers Association. Membership in Bufalino’s union was small but increased incrementally when workers pressed by Bufalino’s men were quietly reminded that just a few years earlier it was Bufalino who was behind the damage at the Lori Dress Company, where two hundred sewing machines were destroyed in a bid to put Lori Dress out of business.
Bufalino was never charged, but everyone knew, including law enforcement, who was behind it. Undeterred by Bufalino or his threats, Matheson was relentless, visiting dress and manufacturing shops throughout the region and slowly convincing women to take the leap and unionize.
By 1949, Matheson’s efforts were bearing fruit. She had union contracts with more than forty dress factories, and her war with Bufalino was now affecting the profit margins of other organized crime leaders who had interests in the Pennsylvania garment industry, among them Albert Anastasia.
Anastasia’s interests in the garment industry included stores in New York and factories in Pennsylvania. When Matheson began organizing a nonunion shop near Hazleton owned by Anastasia, his unhappiness with the situation was made clear to Bufalino. The resulting solution involved Matheson’s brother, Will Lurye. A father of four children, Lurye joined his sister as union organizer, giving up a $150-per-week job as a presser to follow
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