MOB TOWN: Film tells tale of notorious 1957 underworld summit

Greedy, volatile Vito "Don Vito" wanted to be the boss of bosses. That would end at Apalachin, NY.GETTY IMAGES

On Nov. 14, 1957, mobster Vito “Don Vito” Genovese was expecting a coronation.

The location for the gangland hoedown was at the estate of Joseph “The Barber” Barbara.

It was going to be a secret bash for syndicate chieftains from around the U.S. celebrating Genovese’s ascension.

After all, he had forced the “Prime Minister” of the underworld, Frank Costello, into retirement and had whacked Murder Inc. boss Alberta Anastasia in a barber’s chair at the Park Plaza hotel in New York.

It was his moment.

But things went terribly wrong and the criminal carousing changed everything for the American Mafia.

Now, a new movie called Mob Town chronicles the fateful shindig at Barbara’s rural mansion near the small town of Apalachin, NY.

There would be 96 crime lords in attendance.

The problem is that one small town cop was suspicious of the Cadillacs, Lincolns and pristinely-dressed men who had arrived in his slice of Americana.

His name was New York State Police Sgt. Edgar Croswell.

Until Apalachin, even the FBI couldn’t bring itself to admit there was such a thing as the Mafia or a national crime syndicate.

The Mafia at the time controlled huge swaths of the American economy, infesting every aspect.

From trucking to labour unions, to traditional underworld enterprises like gambling, girls, drugs and protection.

Murder Inc. boss Albert Anastasia was iced in a barber chair at a New York hotel. GETTY IMAGES

With the shuffling of deck chairs in the Big Apple criminal milieu, Vito “Don Vito” Genovese was the last man standing.

“He ran Greenwich Village and had nightclubs, such as Birdland, which were good fronts for drug dealing,” author Gil Reaville told the New York Post.

“Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday both got their heroin from him. Nobody f–ked with Don Vito.”

Genovese called the meeting to carve up the rackets, the country and avoid a costly bloody war.

And the boys all came to tiny Apalachin.

Russell Bufalino, Buffalo’s Stefano “The Undertaker” Magaddino, up-and-comer Paul Castellano, Carlo Gambino and Chicago boss Sam Giancana — among scores of others.

But just before lunch, Croswell the intrepid local copper and agents from the ATF arrived.

A still from the new movie Mob Town.

“Four or five George Raft type guys came around a corner; the cops saw them, they saw the cops and the jig was up,” Reavill told the Post.

“Almost immediately the house looked like a clown car exploding. Nearly everyone ran out. Some took off in cars, others ran through the woods.”

“In the end, Apalachin was a sh–ty, sh–ty place to hold a mob conference.”

Those gangsters who were arrested would get a walk, but the bloom was off the rose.

To Americans, the mob was no longer a dark little whisper.

Genovese would die in the slammer while doing time on a dope beef.

Suddenly, the mob had lost some of its lustre.

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