# United States v. Bufalino, 285 F.2d 408 (2d Cir. 1960)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/courtlistener-us-v-bufalino-285-f2d-408/

Second Circuit opinion reversing the convictions of Russell Bufalino and nineteen others for obstructing justice and perjury after the 14 November 1957 gathering at Apalachin, New York. The court says the government offered no evidence of the meeting's purpose.

Decided 28 November 1960. Chief Judge Lumbard wrote the opinion. The appeal came from judgments of conviction in the Southern District of New York, where Russell Bufalino and nineteen co-defendants had been convicted of conspiring to obstruct justice and commit perjury (18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 1503, 1621) by giving false and evasive testimony to federal grand juries about the gathering at Joseph Barbara's home at Apalachin on 14 November 1957. The court reversed. Quotations below are from the opinion; page pins are to 285 F.2d.

**What the court says about the gathering's purpose.** At 411: "The indictment did not allege what the November 14, 1957 gathering at Apalachin was about, and the government stated at the beginning of the trial that it could present no evidence of its purpose. There is nothing in the record of the trial to show that any violation of federal or state law took place or was planned at the gathering, although federal grand juries in the Southern and Western Districts of New York on twenty occasions over the following year and one-half, and a variety of other federal and state officials on numerous other occasions, questioned many of these present about the Apalachin gathering and the surrounding circumstances."

**The court's account of the day.** At 412: "At 12:40 P.M. on November 14, Sergeant Edgar Croswell of the New York State Police, accompanied by another state trooper and two agents of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Unit of the U. S. Treasury Department, drove from a public road into the parking lot in front of Barbara's garage. Barbara's home was an estate of 130 acres in a rural section, and his house and garage were on a dead-end dirt road. ... At 12:50, Croswell and his companions parked their car half a mile from Barbara's home and set up what amounted to a roadblock."

**Who was stopped, as the court gives it.** At 413: "During the next few hours, 58 men were stopped and asked to identify themselves. Of these, 35 were more or less perfunctorily questioned by state troopers, occasionally assisted by federal officers. At 1:20 P.M. Emanuel Zicari and Dominic Alaimo drove past the roadblock and were stopped ... Next came Russell Bufalino in his Chrysler Imperial with Joseph Ida, Gerardo Catena, Dominick Oliveto and Vito Genovese. Upon being stopped at the roadblock, they all identified themselves. ... Other cars, driven by Joseph Magliocco, John Ormento, Pasquale Turrigiano, Anthony Riela, Pasquale Monachino, Joseph Falcone, Vincent Rao, Joseph Barbara, Jr., Cannone and Guccia, were stopped in the next few minutes. Passengers in these cars were Joseph Profaci, Sam Monachino, Pasquale Sciortino, Anthony Guarnieri, Salvatore Falcone, Rosario Mancuso, Dominick D'Agostino and Sam Lagattuta."

Also at 413: "After it began to rain, at about 2:30 P.M., the officers took those stopped at the roadblock to the Vestal barracks located about seven miles away. So treated were Santo Trafficante, James Osticco, Frank DeSimone, Joseph Civello, Simone Scozzari, Joseph Rosato, Natale Evola, Frank Cucchiara, Carmine Lombardozzi, Joseph Riccobono, Paul Castellano, Carlo Gambino, Michele Miranda, Armand Rava, Constanza Valenti, Frank Valenti, Angelo Sciandra, Charles Chiri, Mike Genovese, Gabriel Mannarino, and Salvatore Tornabe." And: "Four of these men were apprehended in the fields — John Montana, Antonio Magaddino, Joseph Bonanno and Giovanni Bonventre. ... These eight and Roy Carlisi, John DeMarco, James LaDuca and John Scalish, on whom the record is not clear as to where they were apprehended, were also taken to the Vestal barracks for questioning."

**Numbers.** The opinion's opening paragraph (at 410) describes a gathering "attended by them and at least 39 others," and names seven other co-defendants and 36 co-conspirators in the indictment. The 58 men stopped is the court's count of those who were stopped. It differs from the 60 in Sergeant Crosswell's [testimony to the McClellan Committee](/items/mcclellan-part-32-crosswell-testimony-1958/) and from the "at least 61" in the [FBI's Mafia monograph](/items/fbi-vault-mafia-monograph-pt03-scan16-largest-meeting/); this archive gives each figure with its source and does not reconcile them.

**The court's closing.** At 419: "Doubtless many of Barbara's visitors are bad people, and it is surely a matter of public concern that more is not known of their activities. But bad as many of these alleged conspirators may be, their conviction for a crime which the government could not prove, on inferences no more valid than others equally supported by reason and experience, and on evidence which a jury could not properly assess, cannot be permitted to stand."

The roster is a list of who was stopped or questioned. The opinion assigns no family, rank or role to anyone on it, and this archive does not copy the names onto any chart. The court mentions a 25-page appendix of explanations that is not published in the reporter.

## Sources

- CourtListener (Free Law Project), reprinting the Second Circuit opinion: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/7019366/united-states-v-bufalino/