Joseph Civello


Joseph Francis Civello was an American mobster and the leader of the Dallas crime family from 1956 until his death in 1970.

Early life

Civello was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He had moved to Dallas as early as July 1928, when he was arrested for the murder of Joe DeCarlo at the St. Paul Drug Store in Dallas. Reportedly, DeCarlo's dying words were that the close-range shotgun blast to his abdomen was accidental. Based on this information, a grand jury did not issue an indictment against Civello. Civello was an expert marksman and regularly participated in skeet shooting competitions as a longtime member of the Dallas Gun and Skeet Club.
By the early 1930s, Civello had organized a crew which included cousins Sam Civello, Louis Civello, Leon Civello, Frank Ianni, and Joe Cascio, among others. The gang operated as associates of Dallas' Piranio crime family, and was involved primarily with bootlegging and narcotics trafficking.
The Civello gang's main rival during this time was a Jewish gang headed by Nathan Biegler. In 1935, when Biegler was sentenced to 10 years in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, another Jewish gangster, Louis "Big Daddy" Ginsberg, came to Dallas from Chicago to reorganize the remnants of Biegler's gang. Both the Civello Gang and the Ginsberg Gang were heavily involved in the sale and distribution of morphine and heroin. The Civellos collaborated almost exclusively with associates of Charles "Lucky" Luciano of New York City, while the Ginsbergs' drugs came from mobsters in Chicago.
In 1937 he was sentenced to two concurrent 15-year prison terms on narcotics charges. Civello served six years in Fort Leavenworth before being released in 1944.

Criminal career

After his release, Civello resumed his organized criminal activities in Dallas and quickly moved up within the Piranio family ranks. From its beginning, the Piranio crime family was a traditional mafia organization, taking care to avoid unnecessary attention from the press and law enforcement. In fact, when family boss Joseph Piranio died at age 78, his obituary described him as a successful retired building contractor and family man; no mention was made of any involvement in the underworld. The low-key nature of the Dallas mob quickly changed once Civello assumed the reins as boss upon Piranio's death in 1956.
Civello, now the head of Marcello's operation in Dallas, represented him at the infamous Apalachin Meeting. This was an unprecedented mafia summit attended by an estimated 100 mafiosi. Marcello was angry that the Genovese crime family had attempted to kill Frank Costello that year, so he sent Civello instead of personally attending. In 1959 Civello was convicted of a "conspiracy" charge owing to his attendance at the meeting, he was sentenced to five years in prison. This was later overturned after an appeal by the lawyer Percy Foreman in 1960.
Despite his attendance at the Apalachin meeting, a report filed in February 1962 by the FBI's Dallas field office stated: "There is no evidence of illegal activity by Joseph Civello."
In its 1963 hearings regarding the links between organized crime and narcotics trafficking, the United States Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations noted that Civello had criminal associates that included Rocco and Peter Pellegrino of New York City; Frank Torticelli, Biagio Angelica, Joe Ianni, and Joe Glaviano of Texas; and Nicholas Impastato, Joseph Filadro and Joseph DeLuca of Kansas City. It described him as controlling all of the rackets in Dallas and environs. Frank Coppola transported narcotics to Civello in Dallas. This was done by a trucking company owned by John Ormento of the Lucchese crime family. He was also a close friend of James Lanza of the Lanza crime family in San Francisco. In 1967 Civello was approached to arrange a meeting between Al Marshall and Nick Civella of the Kansas City crime family. Marshall sought Civella's support in purchasing the Riviera hotel and casino with a Teamsters fund loan.
During hearings before the House Select Committee on Crime, Representative Sam Steiger asked Carlos Marcello if he recalled meeting Civello. Marcello replied only, "I've heard of him."
Civello was close to Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald. He was interviewed by the FBI on 14 January 1964. In its investigation of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the House Select Committee on Assassinations said that it recognized Ruby's murder of Oswald as a primary reason to suspect organized crime as possibly having involvement in the assassination. In its investigation of Ruby to determine if he was involved in criminal activities and if that involvement was related to the killing of Oswald, the HSCA noted that Ruby was a "personal acquaintance" of Civello and that Civello was an associate of Marcello. The Committee reported that "Oswald and Ruby showed a variety of relationships that may have matured into an assassination conspiracy" but that it "was unable firmly to identify the other gunman or the nature and extent" of a conspiracy involving organized crime.

Final days

Civello's racketeering continued, as did his expansion into legitimate businesses. Judge Irving R. Kaufman called Civello a "high ranking criminal who cloaked himself with the facade of legitimate business."
Civello died on January 17, 1970, in Dallas of natural causes. His obituary indicated no children, but listed his wife Mary, a brother and five sisters as survivors. Joseph Campisi was appointed as his replacement in Marcello's outfit. He was buried at Calvary Hill Cemetery in Dallas.