# President's Commission on Organized Crime, The Edge (1986): Atlantic City and Local 54

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/pcoc-1986-the-edge-local-54/

The Atlantic City section of the President's Commission on Organized Crime's 1986 report on organized crime, business and labor unions, on the struggle for control of hotel workers' Local 54 after the casinos opened.

The President's Commission on Organized Crime issued "The Edge: Organized Crime, Business, and Labor Unions" in 1986. This archive read the section on Atlantic City and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union Local 54.

The report says Local 54 rose in importance after the casinos opened in 1978, and quotes a Department of Labor agent: "Next to the ownership of the casino itself, the control of Local 54 is the most important prize in the Atlantic City sweepstakes." It describes a struggle for control of the union between factions of the Philadelphia family, the killing of Roofers Local 30 president John McCullough on December 15, 1980, the Casino Control Commission's 1982 finding that the Scarfo group controlled the union, and the Supreme Court ruling that let the state regulate the qualifications of union officials. It calls Scarfo "Atlantic City LCN boss Nicodemo Scarfo."

The text was read from OCR of a photocopy, and the report spells one name both "Diadone" and "Daidone." Its statements about individuals are the Commission's own account; this archive has not checked them against court records. The Casino Control Commission's 1982 order is described by a federal court in [Local 54 v. Read](/items/courtlistener-local-54-v-read-832-f2d-263/).

## Sources

- National Criminal Justice Reference Service, scan of the report (NCJ 102922): https://ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/102922NCJRS.pdf