Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime

Record

Hearing

1964-07-30

National Criminal Justice Reference Service, scan of the printed hearings (NCJ 119303)

Exhibit 3 background sheets: Richard Boiardo's residence and gambling in Havana; Joseph Catalanotto 'deported to Italy again 1959 from Cuba' (Senate narcotics hearings, pp. 1015 and 1019)

Two Bureau of Narcotics background sheets printed in 1964: one says Richard Boiardo of Newark 'Has residences in Newark, N.J., and Havana, Cuba' and was 'active in gambling activities in Havana, Cuba'; the other says Joseph Catalanotto was deported in 1957, returned, and was 'deported to Italy again 1959 from Cuba.'

Date
1964-07-30
Kind
hearing
Source
National Criminal Justice Reference Service, scan of the printed hearings (NCJ 119303)
Retrieved
2026-10-12
Rights
A work of the United States Senate, printed by the Government Printing Office. Public domain in the United States. 17 U.S.C. § 105.

Two sheets from the appendix of background sheets printed with Exhibit 3 in Part 4, read on the text layer at printed pages 1015 and 1019 (NCJRS PDF pages 1140 and 1144).

The sheet on Richard Boiardo, with the aliases “Richie Boiardo, Ruggerio Boiardi, Diamond Boiardo,” says under “Localities frequented”: “Has residences in Newark, N.J., and Havana, Cuba. Frequents Newark, New York City, and gambling houses in Havana.” (The text layer reads “Hanava, Ouba” for the first “Havana, Cuba,” a misprint or OCR error.) Under “Modus operandi” it calls him “One of the underworld leaders from the Newark, N.J., area engaged in all types of illegal rackets; also active in gambling activities in Havana, Cuba.” The sheet gives no dates for the Havana residence and no address.

The sheet on Joseph Catalanotto, formerly of Detroit, says under “Localities frequented”: “Former resident, Detroit, Mich., deported 1957 to Italy, returned clandestinely to United States, and Cuba, deported to Italy again 1959 from Cuba.” Detroit police inspector Vincent Piersante, who spelled the name Catalanotti, testified in 1963 that he turned up in Cuba “during the tail end of the Batista regime”. The sheet does not say who ordered the 1959 removal.

These are Bureau of Narcotics dossier entries, not findings, and “underworld leaders” is the dossier’s phrase.

itemSenate narcotics hearings, 10 October 1963: Detroit's Vincent Piersante on deported men in Cuba 'during the tail end of the Batista regime' (p. 449)Detroit police inspector Vincent W. Piersante testified that Joseph Catalanotti, deported in September 1957, 'later turned up in Cuba during the tail end of the Batista regime' with two other deported men, that no Batista connection could be established, and that 'Cuba was a haven for these deported criminals.'itemExhibit 3, east coast narcotic traffic: the 1954-58 Genovese heroin conspiracy 'via Cuba' (Senate narcotics hearings, pp. 923 and 1117)The Bureau of Narcotics history printed as Exhibit 3 says the principal conspiracy case it concluded in 1958, against Vito Genovese and others, 'began in 1954 and involved the smuggling of large amounts of heroin into the United States via Cuba.'itemOrganized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics, Part 4 (July 30, 1964)The fourth printed volume: the afternoon session of July 30, 1964, with Bureau of Narcotics testimony on heroin routes and fold-out route and case charts.