Russell Bufalino was born September 25, 1903 in Montadoro, Caltanissetta Province, Sicily. Other reports were proven false by immigration authorities, showing a birth date of October 29, 1903, in Pittston, Pennsylvania USA. The truth is Russell Bufalino entered Ellis Island in 1914 with his family and became a resident. He was never confirmed to be a U.S. citizen. He claimed a second time to be a U.S. Citizen when he returned from a stretch of time living in Cuba in 1956. He again used forged documents to support his claim to citizenship in 1958 to prevent his deportation to Italy. The case was ruled by the immigration courts in 1973 to put an end to any further appeals.  However, since the Italian authorities refused to accept him for deportation, he was allowed to remain in the United States. Russell Bufalino was known as “McGee” by those close to him. He was an associate of James R. Hoffa “JRH”, Angelo Bruno, and Frank Sheeran among others involved with the "LCN", (La Cosa Nostra- meaning in English: “This thing of ours”) and the with the labor union known as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters,“IBT”.

 

Bufalino is listed in the "Hoffex Memo" (The FBI's official summery of the Hoffa disappearance), as a potential suspect and was considered as one of the original planners of the JRH disappearance. Russell Bufalino's rise to power in the Italian Mafia followed a familiar path seen with many other early LCN figures.  He got his start in the criminal arts and crafts as a bootlegger, small time thief, and as a fence for stolen jewelry during the days of prohibition.   We also have a document from FBI intelligence showing him as a member of the LCN “Commission” as early as 1963 in Pennsylvania.  He was a participant of the infamous mob leadership gathering known as the “Apalachin Conference” held in upstate New York in 1957. This meeting consisted of 101 of the top American mobsters representing 27 known La Cosa Nostra families of the Mafia Commission at that time. 

 

Previous to the Hoffa disappearance in 1975, Bufalino was said to be running New York’s Genovese Crime Family on an interim basis until the LCN Commission could select someone else from within that family.  Russell Bufalino's name appeared in an article in Time Magazine, June 9, 1975, connecting him to a clandestine CIA attempt to invade Cuba and assassinate Fidel Castro.  Bufalino held a personal grudge against Castro because he suffered financial loss in a casino associated with the hotel business and a racetrack when the Fidel Castro regime assumed power in Cuba. There is evidence that JRH was privy to related information and began leaking additional details to members of the U.S.  Government in exchange for leniency on the conditions of his early release by Nixon. (These conditions were prohibiting JRH from holding any office in the IBT until March 6, 1980). Theorists claim it may have been this unwanted media attention that triggered Bufalino into pushing the buttons to eliminate JRH because the Time Magazine article was published the month before Hoffa disappeared. 

 

Other facts leading up to the disappearance included public statements JRH made about his plans to run for the IBT presidency in 1976.  Hoffa also vocalized it was his intent to chase the mob out of Teamster Union affairs.  Many suggest such actions by JRH could limit the access the LCN had to the IBT Central States Pension Fund. We suggest they were already preparing for that possibility because of the establishment of the 1974 ERISA Act. This new legislation when coupled with the earlier Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959, gave the U. S.  Department of Labor the power to investigate and regulate those having control of such funds could be held accountable for any lack of fiduciary financial obligations. It was a mechanism to ensure management practices provided for the ability of pension funds to remain solvent for the benefit and protection of the union membership.  It was not going to get any easier for the LCN to "borrow" cash for their future business ventures.  So, the pressure on them was going to come from the U.S. Department of Labor on one side, and a Hoffa run IBT on the other beginning in 1976. The LCN would have to take action soon if they were to lengthen their hold on the IBT Central States Pension Fund.  At that time this fund was already known as the "Mob's Piggy Bank".  It certainly appears the LCN's later plans would include efforts to hold a tighter grip on the IBT fund trustees, labor union leaders and possibly those individuals holding power in the Department of Labor itself.  It would explain why certain key people became victims of extortion shakedowns, disappearances and murder during the years following the events of 1975.   

 

Russell Bufalino may have been known as a the "Quiet Don" but only in the context of him being "silent yet deadly". He, without a doubt, possessed a vengeful spirit. He was a man used to getting his own way. This personality feature later became his downfall. He was known to go to great lengths to collect on his investments.  For Instance, in 1978 Russell Bufalino’s name is mentioned in a Detroit Daily article as being “one of the most ruthless and powerful leaders of the Mafia in the United States”.  This information came allegedly from Joseph Valachi who had become a government informant back in 1963. It was in 1977 when another informant, placed in witness protection, testified against Bufalino for running a diamond fencing operation and an extortion ring.  Bufalino was indicted on related charges and convicted on August 8, 1978. He was sentenced to four years in prison. Upon his release from prison, he immediately attempted to hunt down this original informant. Bufalino eventually discovered who he was and where he was hiding.  To get his revenge, Bufalino ordered another mobster, Jimmy Fratianno, in California, to send out a hit squad to murder this man. But unknown to Bufalino, Fratianno had become a government informant too and he also testified against Russell Bufalino. This resulted in a second conviction and Russell Bufalino was sentenced to ten more years of prison at the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Russell Bufalino’s health later began to fail, and he was sent to the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. He then paroled in May of 1989. 

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In 2013, a book by Mat Birkbeck was published titled: “The Quiet Don: The Untold Story of Mafia Kingpin Russell Bufalino”.  In it, Birbeck outlines some of the details of Bufalino’s long history of criminal activity as a LCN crime boss. One of the most daring moves Bufalino made was when U.S. Congressman Dan Flood of Pennsylvania worked with him to secure $3,900,000 of Department of Defense contracts to produce 600,000 warheads for use in the Vietnam War through a business operated by William and Philip Medico. In addition to what was in Birbeck's book, Time Magazine in an article from March 6, 1978, reported from FBI sources, that one of the Medico brothers was a "Caporegime" of the Bufalino Crime Family. The article revealed that Bufalino was a silent partner with them in the Medico Electric Company having acquired these lucrative defense contracts. Those involved in the Medico scandal later filed suit against Time Magazine for printing these allegations. (This case was cited years later in the controversial U.S. Labor Secretary Ray Donavan federal investigation in a similar lawsuit). So, Medico a private business, Dan Flood a U.S. Congressman, and Russell Bufalino a mafia crime boss, were connected to U.S. Department of Defense contracts as far back as 1951 when Medico Industries, was the largest supplier of ammunition to the U.S. Government.  They had been awarded $800,000 in war contracts during the Korean War alone. 

 

JRH and Russell Bufalino are also tied through Hoffa’s attorney William Bufalino.  Both Bufalinos had earlier lived in the same region of Pennsylvania.  It is surmised they were related as cousins. William Bufalino eventually moved to Detroit.  The two Bufalino’s were connected when some of the listed Hoffex Memo suspects of New Jersey were brought before the Detroit Grand Jury in December of 1975. It was William Bufalino who was found to be defending those suspected of killing his former client, Jimmy Hoffa.  In addition, William Bufalino’s daughter got married on August 1, 1975, in Detroit. This wedding was 2 days after JRH disappeared in Michigan.  The event was well attended by LCN and IBT members including Russell Bufalino and Frank Sheeran. 

 

Sheeran, also a Hoffex Memo suspect, later confessed to killing JRH which resulted in the book by Charles Brant: "I Heard You Paint Houses" and became the theme of the Martin Scorsese film: "The Irishman". Both the book and the film served to raise public awareness of the Hoffex case. Even though the film contains some historical facts, it also includes speculations and assumptions concerning the JRH disappearance as well as the demise of other high-profile mob figures. 

 

Hoffex Memo suspect Frank Sheeran had joined the list of others making similar confessions. He certainly stirred up conversations concerning who really killed JRH and how the plan was carried out.  He possessed enough information to bring in Eric Shawn of Fox News to take a hard look at his claims.  It led him to the search of a house on Beaverland Street in the Detroit area.  Human blood was found inside the home under tiles having been removed from the floor. DNA testing of this blood did not confirm it belonged to JRH.  If it was not Hoffa's blood, then who did it come from? It may have belonged to a person who suffered an injury in the house in an earlier time. It could have been from a mob hit that Sheeran knew about and then used the knowledge to validate his story without having to reveal the real location of Hoffa's demise.  We may never know the answer to that question. We do know that Sheeran had dealings with Bufalino and with JRH.  He may have had a piece of the puzzle as to how the plan to take out Hoffa went down.

 

Russell Bufalino may have persuaded the LCN "Commission" to approve the hit on James R. Hoffa for reasons already stated. He was in the position to know every step of the “Master Plan”. He’s also likely to have held personal grudges with associates of Hoffa due to losing out on his pitch for defense contracts and his secure foothold by proxy within the U.S. Congress.  But there was yet another reason Russell Bufalino had to take action against JRH.  We have exposed the fact there were individuals with enough influence to impede Bufalino’s aspirations and remain in the shadows while doing it.  We have already noted the apparent difficulty with some rather powerful industrialists and CEOs long connected to JRH. This would include Roy Fruehauf and his other business associates. Fruehauf was a silent partner with businesses owned in Havanna Cuba associated with Russell Bufalino, Meyer Lansky and other well-known leaders of organized crime in the 1950s.  The Cuban connection was more extensive than previously reported. The other big-time industrialists tied to Fruehauf were concerned about the possibility of future serious problems with the LCN and its criminal activities directed at their own business ventures. Some of them were trustees on the IBT Pension Fund. They were deeply involved in business ventures with JRH. These men had an extensive reach into who, what, how, and where funds were directed through political ties with U.S. Government, defense contracts, and big businesses throughout the country. We also pointed out these kinds of arrangements affected Labor Union leaders and their associations with private businesses as well. (For references to these men, please check out the bio sketches listed under "Industrialists" on this website).

 

From WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, millions of tax dollars were doled out in U. S. Defense contracts. These prompted an unhealthy competition for organized crime to gain control of some of them too.  It appears this struggle was in gear for a dozen years before those in government, with ties to big business interests, were able to shut down the efforts made by Russell Bufalino.  It would be fitting for Russell Bufalino to make his point to all of his opponents that he still held a winning hand, especially if he could orchestrate and plan the demise of James R. Hoffa and get away with it.

 

One event prior to the Hoffa disappearance involved another little-known connection to Jimmy Hoffa's own actions to expand his businesses.  Hoffa was making a move affecting another multimillion-dollar enterprise taking place right on Bufalino's own turf.  If JRH was successful, he could have cut Russell Bufalino out of yet another avenue to expand his own profits. Knowing how vengeful Bufalino was with those standing against him, he had an expedient reason to push the LCN "Commission" to endorse a hit on Jimmy Hoffa before Hoffa himself could complete his own plans by August of 1975. JRH's pending business deal was being handled by one of his own trusted IBT attorneys David Previant. This information may have been intercepted by attorney William Bufalino. It is likely William Bufalino gave Russell a heads up that JRH was moving against him, and it could cost Russell millions of dollars if something did not happen quickly.  Again, we see Russell Bufalino was involved with another big motive to stop JRH in his tracks because he was involved with seizing the controlling interest in a business venture that Bufalino was also involved in. This late move by Hoffa predicated his mysterious disappearance. Shortly after JRH vanished, the law firm handling the Hoffa estate followed up on this matter along with members of the Hoffa family. (Much of this information came from the Pennsylvania Bureau of Criminal Investigation).

 

The LCN's goal has always been to secure continued access to large sources of money. So, The LCN Commission used, the New Jersey Provenzano crew who had twice planned to murder Hoffa along with the Detroit LCN Giacalone brothers also having planned to kill JRH twice. In addition, IBT suspect Rolland McMaster and his crew of violent thugs all held similar grudges against JRH and worked with the LCN to eliminate him.  Yes, the vindictive elements, lust for power and the assurance of securing a continued flow of cash, drove them all to the decision to make a move against Hoffa at the end of July 1975.  It appears the "Master Plan", mentioned by leaders of the Detroit Zerilli Crime Family in 2013, brought all of the steps together as directed by the LCN Commision. It goes right along with the statements in the Hoffex Memo that this was most likely a sanctioned hit from the highest elements of the LCN.  As recent as 2021, we have noted that someone else was in a position to know a few of these details. Former Caporegime Michael Franzese confirmed the order did come from the Commision in New York.  He stated publicly that Jimmy Hoffa's body was disposed of in a manner "not conducive to have been preserved for this long". He said further that his body was deposited in a place that "was very wet".  Both elements match with the premise we have laid out along with the related themes and ideas surrounding this complex mystery. 

Russell “McGee” Bufalino died at the age 90, on February 25, 1994, in Kingston, Pennsylvania.  As far as we know, he never confessed having anything to do with the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. 

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