The Mob in Reading Pa
In 1959, the Justice department said that what the Philadelphia Bruno crime family did to the city of Reading Pennsylvania was “An outright rape of an American city.”
Working with local underworld figures, like Abe Minker, AKA the General, the Bruno operatives in the 1950s and early 1960s corrupted most of the Reading city administration from the mayor on down.
The mobster set up an illegal Las Vegas of the East, in what was described as the biggest crap game east of the Mississippi if not the entire country.
The “Reading Game,” as it was called, operated out of Philadelphia from the 1950s to 1962, when the FBI finally smothered it.
The game was run nine times a week, with each game involving a pot of between $50,000 and $100,000.
Each night big gamblers from all over the East gathered in a restaurant in the heart of Philadelphia. They would be driven 50 miles to Reading where the million dollar dice game was played on high-rolling “California tables.”
A Bruno member said “Everybody made a buck on the game. They rented their limousines from a funeral director, because they only used them from ten at night until seven in the morning. They even had a cop out in front of the restaurant—he’d blow a whistle like a hotel doorman to signal a limo when he had a full load coming in for the game. It looked like opening night on Broadway. The cops never touched them.”
Reading was also home to the biggest illegal still since Prohibition, and the operation was tied right into the city water supply.
The still had a capacity for producing 4800 gallons of untaxed liquor per day and involved a tax fraud of over $3.9 million.
The still owners managed to have the City Council conduct a quick installation of a sewer to get rid of the mash and a Reading City Councilman actually made arrangements for laying the sewer line.
The owners turned out to be Philadelphia racketeers Augustine and Joseph Mazzio, Benito Tedesco, (AKA Benny Ruben) and Anthony Conoscenti of Newark.
It turned out that the distilled product was stored in a warehouse owned by the DeCavalcante family. A tape recording had boss Simone DeCavalcante telling Dominick "Corky" Vastola to repay a debt owned by one of the members in his family to another: Corky, I want you to take 75 cans [of liquor], that equals $3000 - and put it away. Because Frank (Cocchiaro) owed Dapper (Frank Dappolito) $3000.00”
Also involved in the distillery was Philadelphia-New Jersey operative Ignatius Esposito who was convicted for his part in the Reading still case to a term of five years.
Antonio Caponigro, before he was the consigliere of Angelo Bruno in the Philadelphia crime family. had been called into Reading to teach the local operators how to manage the Distillery operation. While in the grand jury waiting room, he assaulted an Alcohol Tax agent who had tried to photograph him, and was convicted in 1959 of the attack
Abe Minker was one of the largest independent syndicate leaders in Pennsylvania, He ran a conglomerate of illegal activities in Reading.
Minker let it be known that he paid 30% of his numbers profits to members of the Genovese crime family in New York. Minker’s partners in some ventures included Dominick Olivetto, underboss of the Angelo Bruno family, and Joe Profaci
Second in the Minker organization was his nephew, Alex Fudeman, until Fudeman was replaced by a hood named Benny Bonnano.
In 1957 the Attorney General of Pennsylvania published the results of an investigation which showed that $50,000 in extortion money was paid to Alex Fudeman, by independent jukebox operators. Through Fudeman, Minker had set up a phony "Berks County Amusement Association." Fudeman then demanded payments from the independents to remain in business. Later Abe Minker, John Wittig, and Alex and Louis Fudeman were indicted and charged with blackmail.
John Wittig, a convicted murderer, was Minker's top enforcer.
As the case approached trial, the principal prosecution witness refused to testify, and the state negotiated a guilty plea with Alex Fudeman and John Wittig, who received suspended sentences.