Friday, September 26, 2008

Rochester's Frank Valenti dies at 97

A longtime boss of the Mafia in Rochester, NY, Frank J. Valenti died Sept. 20 at a Houston, TX, nursing home, according to a story by Gary Craig of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. He was 97.

Valenti (right) and his brother Constenze "Stanley" Valenti were attendees of the 1957 mob convention at Apalachin, NY. In Rochester, he is believed to have supervised gambling, extortion and prostitution rackets. Authorities say he steered clear of involvement in narcotics. While he was regarded as leader of the Rochester underworld, he reportedly took his orders from Stefano Magaddino, Buffalo-Niagara Falls-based boss of the western New York Mafia.

In 1961, Valenti moved to Pittsburgh after a Rochester conviction for voting fraud. He returned to Rochester in 1964. In the 1970s, younger racketeers attempted to seize control of the Valenti organization. Valenti left Rochester and headed west, living first in Arizona.

The Houston Chronicle reports today that Valenti died at Sugar Land Nursing Homes. The Chronicle says Valenti was connected to the Bonanno Crime Family of New York and Arizona.

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Writer, editor, researcher, web publisher, specializing in organized crime history. (Available to assist with historical/genealogical research, writing, editing. Email at tphunt@gmail.com.)
Editor/publisher of crime history journal, Informer; publisher of American Mafia history website Mafiahistory.us; moderator of online forums; author of Wrongly Executed?; coauthor of Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia and DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime; contributor of U.S. Mafia history to Australian-published Mafia: The Necessary Reference to Organized Crime; writer/co-writer of crime history articles for several publications.
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