Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia.
In this Gangland Wire Crime Stories episode, Gary Jenkins interviews Anthony Arillotta, author of South End Syndicate: How I Took Over the Genovese Springfield Crew. Arillotta shares his firsthand experiences within organized crime in Springfield, Massachusetts, offering a raw and authentic account of his rise through the ranks.
Arillotta discusses the historical roots of the Springfield mob, tracing its ties to the Genovese family in New York. He provides insights into the city’s Italian American community, the evolution of ethnic gangs, and how he was drawn into the criminal underworld despite his family’s legitimate business background.
From his early years in gambling and marijuana distribution to his close association with made member Al Bruno, Arillotta details the inner workings of the mob, including the delicate balance between financial success and violence. He sheds light on the mafia's induction ceremony, the betrayals, and the power struggles he faced. He discusses notorious figures like Freddie and Ty Geas and the murder of Whitey Bulger.
Beyond the crime, Arillotta reflects on his post-mafia life, his current business ventures—including a wine brand called Pazzo—and his efforts in youth mentorship to steer others away from the path he once followed.
Tune in for a gripping conversation that uncovers the realities of life inside the Genovese Springfield crew, the dangers of organized crime, and one man's journey from the underworld to redemption.
Get a copy of Anthony's book click here on the title, South End Syndicate: How I Took Over the Genovese Springfield Crew.
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[0:00] Well, hey, all you wiretappers out there. Good to be back here in the studio of Gangland Wire. I am here with Anthony Arillotta.
[0:07] As you guys, if you are on Facebook at all or on YouTube, you may know this name. He has been quite prolific, and he's got a great book out there, and he's got a hell of a story to tell. And he's a really – I just told Anthony, I said, you know, you're a great interview because you know your stuff. And, Anthony, you really do. Welcome, Anthony. Oh, thank you, Gary. Thank you for having me. Looking forward to this. Now, the book is South End Syndicate, How I Took Over the Genovese Springfield Crew.
[0:37] And so, you know, I want to read just a little bit about one thing. I'm really impressed with this particular promos for your book, little blurbs that you get other authors to write in your book. T.J. English, who is New York Times bestselling author of The Westies and several others. And I just interviewed him recently, a prince of a fella. And this guy's word means something to me. And T.J. Writes, the last days of the Roman Empire if you were populated by snitches, gamblers, mobsters, lowlifes, and homicidal maniacs. In other words, this book is entertaining as hell, chronicling one small parochial, though notorious, faction of the American mafia in Springfield, Massachusetts. Ariadna tells the story of the whole damn thing. South End Syndicate is a worthy addition to any organized crime bookshelf. So Anthony, that's, that's quite a compliment from a guy like TJ English. Wouldn't you agree? Oh, I agree. Definitely. That was a really good write-up that he gave. And, uh, you know, he knows his, uh, he knows the, um, uh, the genre. So he does, he, he knows how to write it and, and he knows it, you know, he really knows it. He really does. Yeah. And he said, he, um, you know, his re you know, he can detect. The true, the true to the faith. Yeah. It's got a good bullshit detector. I could tell that when I interviewed him. Yeah, that's, yeah, that was really impressive.
[2:02] Anyhow, so let's get down to talking about the book. You know, right now you're not in witness protection or anything. You did testify, but you're not in witness protection. So that's, I've noticed there's a lot of guys like that out there that are living on the streets so much for the old get you no matter what. But in the end, you wrote this book about your life, but you also talked a little
[2:26] bit about the old days, I believe. You know, I talked, let's talk about the old days in Springfield, Matt, just a little bit before we get into that. You know, I interviewed this, I think it was Gina Cunningham. Her grandmother was Pasqualina Albano, and she had a heck of it. And that's a heck of a story. There's a lot of inner fighting and all that going on. And that was when Springfield got connected to the Genovese family in New York. Could you explain to the guys kind of how that first worked, how they, the, the Springfield became basically a crew or not a, maybe not a crew, but a, its own entity, but yet we're connected to the Genovese family. Yeah. So like you have drugs today, you had alcohol back then.
[3:10] Organized crime really wasn't established at that time where they had traditional mafia of families back in the early 1900s, but you still had Italian immigrants. And with that came a way that the Italians lived and brought their traditional ways over to America. And so they got involved in bootlegging, protection rackets, some of the same rackets that continued on throughout the years. Springfield was heavily populated with a large Italian immigrant city. It was flooded, a lot of, you know, you know, from Calabria, Naples, Sicilians, all, you know, throughout Italy. It just flooded into Western Mass to Springfield. And so back in those days, there was a lot of gang activity, like you would call today. It was the same thing, gang activity, The only was, you know, instead of Latinos and blacks and, you know, whatever other Chinese, it was, you know, a lot of Italian, Jewish and Irish gangsters, you would call them. And so Springfield was heavily populated with that. They started to create some known figures back then. And just through the hustling and the bootlegging created an organized crime presence throughout Western Mass in Springfield. How they got involved later on.
[4:39] With the New York connections where, you know, New York is heavily populated and then it's only two hours away from Springfield. So there was some big heavyweights and a lot of people are related. This one particular guy, the Miranda family, they were like heavyweights in the Genovese family. And so I believe Philomena ended up marrying one of the Mirandas. One of her husbands was a Miranda and he was, you know, I, I believe it was, uh, Mike ended up being on the, uh, later on and like maybe in the fifties, but he was like on, uh, uh, you know, one of the panel administration for the, uh, Genovese crime family. And he had relatives in here. He was related to the Fioris.
[5:29] And so, um, you know, it's just like, you know, they had a satellite crew where they, you know, big no Sam Kane. He was from Calabria. He was, uh, you know, was in New York, but then came to, uh, Springfield. And so, you know, you got these active organized crime criminals and that's when the mafia started to get organized, you know, in the thirties and starting to get structure and territories, they started getting the territories down. So there's no, you know, they could stop the violence and the murders and, and, and have like territory split out so everyone could earn peacefully and big no sam kafari ended up being one of the uh you know well you're going back to like you know philomena she was actually a woman i think they shot her like 30 times and um there was a few murders uh the guy the one of the bosses uh siniscauchi he was murdered biori i believe was murdered there was a lot of brutal murders back in the early 1900s here. And so when Sam came in, he kind of solidified his presence. And then the structure came out where there was mafia induction ceremonies.
[6:39] And Sam ended up blasting from the thirties all the way up into 1984 when he passed away, never spending one night in prison, never going to prison. He was just, he was a legendary mafia boss that, you know, you could put up there with Carlo Gambino, Tony Accardo. There was a, But he was a very notorious, he was at the Appalachian meet in 1957 when all the mobsters got rounded up.
[7:03] And he was there as a representative. So...
[7:08] Yeah, and that's how Springfield pretty much formed its base with the Genovese side through. I know the Mirandas had a big role in it because of blood ties.
[7:19] Yeah, I think that Mike Miranda was, when Vito Genovese went into the penitentiary, he appointed a three-person commission to keep running the Genovese family. And he was one of those three people. And then he had these relatives out here at Western Mass. So just a natural kind of a connection, it sounds to me like pretty, pretty interesting stuff. How that, you know, how that developed, you know, you mentioned about comparing this to blacks or Latinos today and the gangs, you know, anytime you have a large cohort of people, newly arrived immigrants.
[7:53] And so Italians get here. What I've noticed in Kansas City, the Italians got here. Well, the Irish had been here for quite a while, and they had all the police and fire and, you know, Trice Holland jobs, you know, the lower end jobs sewed up and the unions.
