After decapitating the Gustin Gang, the ambitious Lombardo and Buccola extended their grasp. Given there were too many Irishmen to kill wholesale, they just eliminated a choice few, such as Frankie Wallace, to keep the peace. The North End and Boston East End Italians began to collect tribute from Irish and Jewish bootleggers throughout the city. Buccola also wisely used Boston’s foremost Irish bootlegger Dan Carroll as a partner both in managing his boxers and in his skullduggery.
In the summer of 1932, Buccola convened a meeting of Boston bookies in a room at the Boston Manger Hotel. One of the Italians said: “We’ve knocked off men in the liquor racket, so you had better take your medicine.” The police, who were in the adjacent room eavesdropping, broke up the confabulation and arrested Lombardo, Buccola and other associates.
To prove their point, the gang kidnapped one Irish bookie who refused to attend the Manger meeting—soon after, he fell in line. The strategy worked: The Mafia kept Boston gaming generally well regulated. Booking disputes were handled peaceably, the agents were honest, and violence the exception. Eventually, while underworld rivals retired, or became employees, allies, or corpses, the police became well-paid partners in crime.
As the mafia star waxed, the Gustins’ proportionately waned. The long-suffering authorities arranged for Stevie Wallace’s conviction for murder and sent him to Charlestown Prison, perhaps the most miserable half square mile of Massachusetts. With that, his fearsome Gustins limped on in history as little more than a set of violent anecdotes.
The Buccola family eliminated another rival, the Russian Jew from the West End, Charles “King” Solomon. Just after New Year’s 1933, a group of four Irishmen cornered Solomon in the restroom of the Cotton Club, a Roxbury establishment, and shot him three times. His dying words were: “The dirty rat got me”— but, actually, it was Frank Cucchiara, acting under the advice of Charles Luciano — or so the North End insiders claimed.
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