#24: Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara Sr., The Man Behind Apalachin (Part One)

In this episode, we discuss Joseph Barbara Sr., the mobster who famously hosted the ill-fated Apalachin Mob Meeting in Apalachin, New York. In this first of a two-part series, we discuss the beginning of Barbara's mob career including: His birth in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Italy His immigration to the United States in 1921 His first jobs in and around Endicott, New York as well as Old Forge, Pennsylvania His introduction to the Pittston mob of Northeastern Pennsylvania (more famously called the Bufalino Crime Family) How we gets started in the rackets during the 1920s His relationship to top Pittston mob leaders Santo Volpe, Charles Bufalino (the uncle of Russell Bufalino), Angelo Polizzi, and more His involvement in up to four murders in the Northeastern Pennsylvania area in the early 1930s Additionally, we located a long-buried photo of a young Barbara that we do not believe has been widely surfaced. Part Two will cover his ascension to leadership within the Northeastern Pennsylvania & Southern New York Mafia, and of course the events leading up to and after the Apalachin meeting in 1957.