A U.S. census entry indicates that he was born in New York,(1) but army enlistment records from spring of 1945 reveal that he was an immigrant and had not yet become a citizen.(2) (He signed up for military service on March 19, 1945, just five months before V-J Day.)

Randaccio was a key member of the postwar Stefano Magaddino criminal organization. By the 1950s, he moved from Buffalo to Niagara Falls and is believed to have assumed control of some day-to-day Mafia operations.

Though he was not named by law enforcement officials as an attendee of the Apalachin convention in 1957 (Magaddino's brother Antonio was), he was subpoenaed to testify before a summer 1959 federal grand jury investigating the meeting.(3) He got into a bit of trouble when he didn't show up.(4) However, a U.S. District Court decided in early October that Randaccio could not be compelled to answer any Apalachin-related questions.(5)

During 1963, when Joe Valachi delivered mob information to Senate investigators, Randaccio was shown as underboss and "heir apparent" on an FBI hierarchy chart of the Magaddino Family. A Buffalo police official insisted that Randaccio controlled "all gambling, labor racketeering and other illegitimate activities for the old man [Magaddino]"(6)

Some believe Randaccio had a role in the planning of the Kennedy assassination later in 1963. Certainly, Fred the Wolf didn't seem too upset about the President's death when he was overheard congratulating a mob associate on the killing and sharing in a hearty laugh.(7)

Randaccio's prestige and power within the Buffalo-Niagara Falls mob likely increased with the 1964 death by natural causes of John Montana. Montana was a "high level" associate of boss Stefano Magaddino.(8)

Within a few years, the law began to catch up with Randaccio. He was called to New York City to testify on the disappearance of crime boss Joseph Bonanno in 1965. A bachelor party (it was in honor of Joseph Todaro, who was to wed Carol Ann Panero) he attended in Buffalo during early May of 1967 was raided by local, state and federal law enforcement officers.(9)

Later in the same month, the statement of convicted narcotics smuggler Vito Agueci were released through an Italian court. In the statement, Agueci recalled being initiated into the Buffalo-area Mafia by Randaccio, who was the organization's underboss.(10)

On June 22, Randaccio, then 59, was arrested by federal and local law enforcement agents, along with five other men. The group was charged with conspiring to commit robberies of banks and armored cars (none of the robberies were actually committed).(11)

Randaccio, Pasquale A. Natarelli, Steven Cino, Charles Caci and Louis F. Sorgi were convicted in late November.(12) Randaccio was sentenced to 20 years in prison and his influence within the Buffalo-Niagara Falls mob waned.

Shortly after his imprisonment, the Magaddino Family began to crumble. Salvatore Pieri, who had been arrested with Randaccio in the robbery conspiracy case but managed to avoid conviction, emerged as a separate underworld power within the City of Buffalo.

Related Links:

• Crime boss listing

Notes:

1. 1930 U.S. Census lists Randaccio's birthplace as New York. At the time, he was 23 and working in a garage. He and his wife Celia, 19, lived in a rented room at 934 Niagara Street in Buffalo.
2. U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, online database through Ancestry.com.
3. "Relatives of mob envoys must appear," Oswego NY Palladium Times, Aug. 1, 1959, p. 1.
4. "Persons linked to mob envoys up for contempt," Oswego NY Palladium Times, Aug. 7, 1959, p. 18
5. "Apalachin bid denied," New York Times, Oct. 3, 1959, p. 6.
6. "Buffalo testimony ends Senate's crime inquiry," Auburn NY Citizen Advertiser, Oct. 17, 1963, p. 6.
7. Findings of the Select Committee on Assassinations in the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Volume IX, Item #171: http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/jfkinfo/jfk9/hscv9a.htm
8. "Buffalo testimony...," op. cit.
9. "Charged rejected in raid on Mafia," New York Times, May 10, 1967, p. 35.
10. "Mafia's workings depicted at trial," New York Times, June 1, 1967, p. 1.
11. "6 seized in Buffalo in a robbery plot," New York Times, June 22, 1967, p. 47.
12. "U.S. agencies join in fight on crime," New York Times, Nov. 26, 1967, p. 38.