A profitable alliance: Boxing and Frankie Carbo

By Jane Feehan

Miami Beach boxing promoter Chris Dundee denied doing business with mobster Frankie Carbo, but admitted he first met the “Czar of Boxing” in 1937 at Stillman’s gym in New York City.  There was probably more to that relationship than he let on.

Carbo, part of the New York-based Lucchese crime family, had ties with boxing managers and fighters as far back as 1936. He was always ready with the “long green,” paying the gym tabs, car notes and other expenses of fighters. He also lined the pockets of managers. They were in too deep by the time they realized favors led to obligations. 

It wasn’t easy doing business without getting involved with the mob. Carbo had the connections to make things happen. Money flowed to those who associated with the unofficial “commissioner” of boxing. Fighters and managers saw money that they may not have seen otherwise. In 1959, a New York Amsterdam News reporter suggested many boxers would have remained in obscurity had it not been for Carbo.

Fight doctor Ferdie Pacheco wrote that Chris Dundee “had to join the boxing union of Frankie Carbo.” The "membership" helped Dundee, brother of manager Angelo Dundee, to develop world champions at his 5^th Street Gym. Without happy fighters and worthy matchups there was no business.

Some in the fight world would  turn over as much as 50 percent of the take to Carbo. Boxing champ Sugar Ray Robinson resisted. Though he was considered to be in Carbo’s circle of influence, he didn’t like taking orders. Famed fighter Jake La Motta admitted Carbo ordered him in 1947 to take a dive in a bout with Billy Fox. To his many boxing credits, Muhammad Ali was the first heavyweight champion to be totally free of mob ties.

Carbo, who used the alias “Mr. Gray” in arranging fights, chose the contenders; he was probably behind what was then thought to be a mismatched bout between Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) and Sonny Liston in February 1964 at the Miami Beach Auditorium. Throughout the years, however, Dundee maintained he hadn’t done business with Carbo. In 1960 he was quoted as saying boxing wasn’t “big enough any more to attract a real racketeer.” There was more money, he said, in horse racing, football and baseball.

Before that historic, if not pretty, 1964 fight, rumors flew about Chris Dundee using Carbo’s influence to obtain certain closed circuit television rights for another championship fight. But Dundee steadfastly denied connections ... and then there was the time Frankie Carbo, in the company of Chris Dundee, picked up the check of Miami News editor Howard Kleinberg and his wife at the Saxony Hotel restaurant. He asked Dundee who the friend was who waved when he attempted to pay the check. Dundee told a startled (and not entirely happy) Kleinberg it was Carbo. Wink wink.

It was reported that Carbo illegally arranged a long roster of fights at Madison Square Garden and other venues, including Miami Beach, for more than two decades. In the 1940s he kept an apartment in New York City to conduct business with boxing managers. A few years later, the FBI knew he had a place at the 2000 block of Taft Street in Hollywood, FL. Carbo was seldom there, it was reported, but it was also used for business.

More on Carbo’s pedigree: He was born in New York’s Lower East Side in 1904 as Paolo Giovanni Carbo. By age 11, he was declared a juvenile delinquent. He went on to run a Bronx taxicab protection racket in the 1920s and was arrested and convicted in 1928 for murdering a driver who would not pay up. Carbo served 20 months in prison for a reduced charge of manslaughter. The conviction precluded his obtaining a license for boxing operations. An associate of mobsters Owney Madden and the “Lord High Executioner” Albert Anastasia, Carbo was suspected of being a trigger man for Murder, Inc., with possible involvement in several mob hits including that of Bugsy Siegel (yet unsolved) in 1947 . He was also thought active in bootlegging and bookmaking during his career.

In 1958, Carbo was indicted along with Frank “Blinky” Palermo with seven counts of undercover management and two counts of unlicensed matchmaking in fights. Charges included conspiring with Herman (Hymie the Mink) Waller, New York furrier and fight manager, to commit a crime of undercover management of boxer Don Jordan. While awaiting trial on Rikers Island in New York, he was brought before the Kefauver Committee in Washington, D.C. investigating organized crime. Carbo responded to each of the 25 questions he was asked by invoking the Fifth Amendment giving up no information.

The Czar of Boxing was convicted in July of 1961 with Attorney General Robert Kennedy as U.S. prosecutor and was sentenced to 25 years at McNeil Island Penitentiary in the state of Washington. Like many mobsters during jail time, he remained a powerful influence in his criminal domain. Kennedy long suspected him of continued involvement in the fight world and particularly with Sonny Liston. Carbo was released for health reasons 12 years into his sentence. He died in 1976, aged 72 at a Miami Beach hospital.

Dundee probably didn’t need Carbo’s help during the ensuing Muhammad Ali years, but he maintained  that the czar was a gentleman, if not a friend. The Dundees are gone now and so too the electrifying days of heavyweight stars, matchups at the Miami Beach Auditorium and the roof raisers at the Garden. And mob influence?   Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For more on the 5th Street Gym, see the labels for boxing or my post: http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2015/08/brothers-dundee-5th-street-gym-and.html

Sources:

Pacheco, Ferdie. Tales from the 5^th Street Gym. University Press (2010).

Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires. Thomas Dunne Books (2006).

Chicago Daily Defender, Jul. 24, 1958

New York Amsterdam News, Jul. 25, 1958

Chicago Daily Defender, Nov. 2, 1959

New York Amsterdam News, Nov. 7, 1959

Chicago Daily Defender Mar. 21, 1962

Miami News, Nov. 29, 1954

New York Times, Nov. 11, 1976

Tags: Boxing history, Chris Dundee, Mob history, Miami Beach history

Ben "Bugsy" Siegel, Virginia Hill and Miami Beach

1928

By Jane Feehan

Ben “Bugsy” Siegel (b. 1906) was shot dead in the rented Beverly Hills home of girlfriend Virginia Hill in 1947 while she was partying in Paris.  The girl from Alabama liked to party in many cities and Miami Beach was one of them.

During Hill’s early days with the Chicago mob, she caught the eye of trucking and oil millionaire - and mob front man - Major Arterburn Riddle who took her on a vacation to Miami Beach; it was probably her first time there.  When she hooked up with Siegel, he bought her a house from publisher William Randolph Hearst’s son at Number One Sunset Isle in Miami Beach.

After Siegel’s murder, which was never solved, Hill’s brother Charles “Chick” Hill and his girlfriend Jerri Mason, took refuge at his sister’s Miami Beach home. Virginia made her way back to the U.S. and headed for Sunset Isle. While in South Florida, she bought a $6,500 car and took off for Mexico. The house was sold soon after.

Virginia Hill continued to make the news when she appeared before the U.S. Senate Crime Investigating Committee (1951) headed by Sen. Estes Kefauver.  She appeared in a $5,000 mink coat late for testimony; Kefauver excused her saying "ladies from my part of the country are traditionally late.”  When asked how she supported her lavish lifestyle, Hill said she made a living with lucky horse-racing bets. Those bets, according to some, were all won at the end of the year and in even amounts.

In 1951, Hill, who federal agents chased around the country for back taxes, married Austrian Hans Hauser, a ski instructor with whom she had a son.  She died of an apparent (and much disputed) sleeping pill overdose in Austria in 1966 at age 49. Today the 1930s Miami Beach house Virginia Hill occasionally called home still stands. Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For more on Kefauver hearings, see index

Use search box at top right to find more on gambling and mobsters.

Sources:

Miami News, Mar. 15, 1951

Miami News, Jul. 7, 1951

Palm Beach Post, Mar. 25, 1966

Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 2, 1992


Tags: Organized crime in Miami, Miami Beach history, Ben "Bugsy" Siegel, Virginia Hill, Sen. Kefauver, film researcher, Florida film research,  historical researcher

Riccio's, Miami mobster hangout, money troubles and ...

 

By Jane Feehan 

Miami was a favorite destination of mobsters in the 1930s to the 1960s.

They frequented many restaurants, including Riccio’s, which was among the best--known mob hangouts in the 1950s.

Located at 991 NE 79^th Street, Riccio’s was opened by namesake Joe Riccio in the late 1940s. Like many of its patrons, Riccio had a checkered past. According to the Miami News, the place was raided for gambling in February 1950 by then-Dade County Sheriff Jimmy Sullivan.

Gambling tables and dice were seized in a back room of the restaurant. Police later staked out the gambler’s hangout hoping for a bigger catch but were unsuccessful.  The Miami News reported Joe Riccio had several arrests for gambling but was convicted only once. Other than attracting gamblers and gangsters, Riccio's also drew city notables including a few judges. One judge was arrested for driving while intoxicated; his partying began at Riccio's. 

The restaurant chugged along but a surge in business occurred in 1953, according to news accounts, after Riccio told authorities he would give a job to notorious Jewish mobster Alex (Shondor) Birns of Cleveland.  

Birns was waiting for an extradition hearing back to Hungary but the Immigration Service gave Birns permission to move to Miami when told about the job. (According to a 1988 Plains Dealer series by Christopher Evans, Don King, later known for boxing promotions, ran numbers for Birns in Cleveland during the 1960s and was known as “The Kid.”)

By November of 1956, the Riccio restaurant entered bankruptcy, reportedly, for the third time in six years. The newspaper reported tha the business had established a reputation for stiffing creditors. Riccio’s brother, Anthony, was once tapped as head of the company (incorporated as Greater Miami Italian-American Restaurant in December, 1954) but claimed he made only $50 a week.  Joe Riccio’s wife, Ruth, admitted she and her husband actually ran the eatery. The bankruptcies became the target of a federal investigation.

Riccio’s was shuttered in 1956 but the family had plans to reopen the following winter season. A search of news archives and public documents did not reveal fruition of those plans in Florida.

Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami News, Nov. 4, 1956

The Plain Dealer, 1988 (Ohio)

Tags: Miami mobsters, Cleveland mobsters, Don King, gambling in Miami in 1950s, Miami in the 1950s, historical researcher, film researcher

Al Capone comes to Miami for rest ... and more

Capone (R) in Miami
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

“Scarface Al” Capone visited the Miami Police Station when he arrived in town early 1928. He was there he said, to “lay his cards face up on the table.” He told Chief Leslie Quigg and gathering reporters that he was in town for a vacation and a rest. He expected to be joined later that afternoon by his mother, wife and child who were en route by train.

Capone, then about 30 years-old, had recently been ordered out of Chicago by leaders who hoped his absence would bring a “truce between rival factions of machine gunners and bombers.” Capone left for Los Angeles but city officials did not want him there either. Reporters asked why.

“This is the way that happened,” Capone began. “When I got in, a bunch of the boys met me at the train. Some of them must have had guns on their hips and the police didn’t like that, so they thought I was a bad moral influence or something. They had me all wrong there and I’m glad to say my reception here has been quite different.”

Chicago “beer baron” Capone was asked if he would engage in business in Miami. He assured Quigg that he would not but also told reporters he was interested in Miami real estate. He had real estate investments on Florida’s west coast. “I believe now is the time to buy and I’m thinking of going into the market rather heavily.”

Capone in 1928 (LOC)

Capone, “somewhat shy and rather heavyset” dressed in a blue suit, gray fedora and without his walking cane and jewelry, left the station through the back door. He was accompanied by one friend - not his usual team of three body guards. Quigg said Capone should not be treated differently than any other winter tourist.

A month later, Quigg told reporters Capone was doing nothing but “staying in South Florida for his health and for that of his family. He is spending a good deal of money.” (Quigg faced corruption charges in 1928 but was later cleared.)

Capone, considered by many to be the mastermind of the 1929 murders of Chicago rivals - the Saint Valentine’s Day massacre - was at his Miami Beach Palm Island home at the time. He was convicted later in 1929 for owning a weapon and was sent to prison for one year.

In 1931 Capone was convicted of tax evasion and spent nearly a decade incarcerated. He was suspected to have been heavily involved with Miami gambling and illicit race track activities. Capone's Florida affiliation (he died in 1947 at Palm Island) probably contributed to the 1950 Kefauver Senate Committee tapping Miami as one of nine crime centers in the U.S. 

For more about Capone in Miami, see:

http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/02/homeowners-association-seeks-scarface.html

Sources:

Kleinberg, Howard. Miami Beach, a History. Miami: Centennial Press (1994).

Miami News, Jan. 10, 1928

Miami News, Feb. 21, 1928

Miami News, Jun. 26, 1946

Tags: Miami history, Miami mobsters, Al Capone in Miami, Jane Feehan film researcher,  historical researcher, gangsters

Homeowners association seeks Scarface Al Capone's ouster

Capone Palm Island estate circa 1930
 Florida State Archives/Romer

By Jane Feehan

Most everything that can be written about gangster “Scarface” Al Capone (1899-1947) probably has been published. But an interesting footnote to his history concerns the outrage of the Palm and Hibiscus Islands Improvement Association, Inc. about his taking up residence on Miami’s exclusive Palm Island. 

Late 1927 Capone left Los Angeles under orders from local law enforcement and surfaced in Miami where he checked in at the local police station.  He told the growing throng of reporters he was in town to buy a house because “Miami’s climate is more healthful than Chicago’s and warmer than California – that’s why I’m here.”

He bought a house on Palm Island through Miami middle man Parker Henderson, Jr. Henderson, son of a former Miami mayor, expedited the purchase through a real estate company owned by Mayor J.N. Lummus. The association’s directors* drew up a proposal on April 11, 1928 and presented it to the Miami City Council in hopes of getting official help to oust Capone and to place blame on the mayor for the real estate transaction. Excerpts follow:

Whereas … Capone constitutes a menace to the welfare, peace and contentment of all the residents and owners … and is a serious detriment to the value of the property … whereas, we call upon the council to take such drastic steps … to abate this situation. 

“I don’t think Capone is half as bad as some people picture him,” said Mayor Lummus. Though floored by his involvement, the association directors did not call for his resignation. The council sided with the directors and asked the police to watch the house and all Capone’s activities.

Capone reportedly paid $40,000 for the waterfront house in 1928, six years after it was built. He said he was selling it in 1931 for $100,000 but did not. He was convicted for tax evasion and spent nearly a decade in Alcatraz. 

He died on Palm Island in 1947. The Palm and Hibiscus Islands Improvement Association and residents remained and property values probably shot skyward. Capone's widow sold their mansion in 1952.

Capone in 1931

The waterfront house, which has had a few owners over the years, sits on a football-field-sized lot and was last sold in 2021 for $15.5 million to a family adjacent to the property. Efforts to place the house on a registry of historical places failed; it was demolished  in August 2023.

*Directors: Dan Hardie, John B. Orr, Hamilton Hopkins, Charles Mack, Fred Vanderpool,

Edward Robertson, D.A. Stearns

For more on Capone in Miami, see:
http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/02/al-capone-comes-to-miami-for-rest-and.html

_________

Sources:

Miami News, Jan. 10, 1928 

Miami News, June 26, 1928 

New York Daily News, July 19, 2012

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Aug. 20, 2023

Tags: Al Capone in Miami, Scarface in Miami, film research, Palm Island Miami,  historical researcher