Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara was an Italian-born American mobster who became the boss of the Bufalino crime family. Barbara hosted the abortive Apalachin meeting in 1957.
Early life
Barbara was born on August 9, 1905, in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. He immigrated to the United States in 1921, at the age of 16. He was soon working as a hitman for the Northeastern Pennsylvania crime family. During the 1930s, Barbara was arrested for several murders, including the 1933 murder of rival bootlegger Sam Wichner. Wichner had gone to Barbara's house for a business meeting, where Barbara allegedly strangled Wichner to death. However, law enforcement never obtained enough evidence to prosecute Barbara. It is also speculated that in 1940, Barbara murdered Pittston, Pennsylvania, mob boss John Sciandra in order to take over his criminal organization, although some reports say Sciandra died of natural causes in 1949. Barbara married Josephine Vivona on May 24, 1936, in Endicott, New York, and fathered two sons and a daughter.
Country estate
In 1944, Barbara bought a parcel of land in the rural town of Apalachin, New York, and built an estate on 625 McFall Road for a total of $250,000. Barbara soon involved himself in local business circles and philanthropy. When Barbara applied for a New York handgun permit, the police chief of Endicott, New York, served as a reference. In 1946, Barbara was convicted of illegally purchasing 300,000 pounds of sugar. Soon after this, Barbara entered the soft drink distribution business, buying a Canada Drybottling plant. Barbara eventually gained control of the beer and soft drink market in Binghamton, New York. In 1956, a conference between dozens of mobsters was held at Barbara's estate; Barbara also suffered a heart attack that year.
The Apalachin meeting
In 1957, after taking control of the Luciano crime family from boss Frank Costello, boss Vito Genovese wanted to legitimize his new power by holding a national Cosa Nostra meeting. Genovese elected Buffalo, New York boss and Commission member, Stefano "The Undertaker" Magaddino, who in turn chose northeastern Pennsylvania crime boss Joseph Barbara and his underboss Russell Bufalino to oversee all the arrangements. On November 14, 1957, Barbara's estate in Apalachin was used again to hold a large meeting—over 100 mafiosi from the United States, Italy and Cuba. Cuba was one of the Apalachin topics of discussion, particularly the gambling and narcotics smuggling interests of La Cosa Nostra on the island. The international narcotics trade was also an important topic on the Apalachin agenda. The New York garment industry interests and rackets, such as loansharking to the business owners and control of garment center trucking, were other important topics on the Apalachin agenda. A local state trooper named Edgar D. Croswell had been aware that Carmine Galante had been stopped by state troopers following a visit to Barbara's estate the previous year. A check of Galante by the troopers found that he was driving without a license and that he had an extensive criminal record in New York City. In the time preceding the November 1957 meeting, trooper Croswell had Barbara's house under occasional surveillance. He had become aware that Barbara's son was reserving rooms in local hotels along with the delivery of a large quantity of meat from a local butcher to the Barbara home. That made Croswell suspicious, and he therefore decided to keep an eye on Barbara's house. When the state police found many luxury cars parked at Barbara's home they began taking down license plate numbers. Having found that many of these cars were registered to known criminals, state police reinforcements came to the scene and began to set up a roadblock. Having barely started their meeting, Bartolo Guccia, a Castellammare del Golfo native and Barbara employee, spotted a police roadblock while leaving Barbara's estate. Guccia later said he was returning to the Barbara home to check on a fish order. Some attendees attempted to drive away but were stopped by the roadblock. Others trudged through the fields and woods ruining their expensive suits before they were caught. Many Mafiosi escaped through the woods surrounding the Barbara estate. Up to 50 men escaped, but over 60 were apprehended, including Commission members Genovese, Carlo Gambino, Joseph Profaci and Joseph Bonanno. Virtually all of them claimed they had heard Joseph Barbara was feeling ill and that they had visited him to wish him well.
Aftermath of Apalachin
Barbara found himself investigated by law enforcement and indicted for not testifying to a grand jury about what transpired at his home on November 14, 1957. In 1959, he was also charged with income tax evasion and submitting fraudulent corporation tax forms. Barbara's business interests declined, as he lost his lucrative bottling contract with Canada Dry. Barbara's health continued to deteriorate, suffering a heart attack on May 27, 1959, and another on June 17, 1959, in Johnson City, New York, killing him. Following his death, Barbara's Apalachin estate was sold for $130,000, and, for a time, was used for sightseeing tours. Barbara is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Johnson City, New York. The Apalachin meeting put the media spotlight directly on the secretive Cosa Nostra, triggering both state and federal hearings. As a result, Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover could no longer deny the existence of the Cosa Nostra in the United States.
