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.

Apalachin forced FBI to act against mob

The discovery of a meeting of Italian and Sicilian racketeers from around the U.S. 50 years ago today pushed the FBI into a fight against organized crime.

Many of the nation's reputed crime bosses attended the mid-November 1957 convention at Joseph Barbara's home in rural Apalachin, NY (above right). When police, alerted by State Police Sergeant Edgar Croswell, crashed the party, they found mob bigshots like Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino, Joe Profaci, Santo Trafficante and Russell Bufalino.

Though there were insufficient grounds to hold any of the more than 60 mobsters rounded up, the documented presence of so many underworld characters from so many U.S. regions made the existence of a nationwide network of crime undeniable. FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, who had repeatedly insisted that there was no such network, was compelled address the problem.