John C. Montana (born Giovanni Montana; July 1, 1893 – March 18, 1964) was a Buffalo, New York labor racketeer, political fixer, and elected politician who eventually became the underboss and/or consigliere of the Buffalo crime family.
Born in Montedoro, Sicily, Montana immigrated to the United States in 1907. By the 1920s, with the start of Prohibition, Montana allegedly became involved in bootlegging. His attendance at a national Mafia conference at Chicago in 1931 signaled the rise of his criminal career within organized crime, eventually becoming a high-ranking member of the Buffalo family. He had been elected to public office and held numerous prominent positions. After his arrest in 1957 by State Police at a national Mafia meeting in Apalachin, New York Montana's criminal ties became publicly known.
Early career Born in Montedoro, Sicily on July 1, 1893, Giovanni Montana came to Buffalo at the age of thirteen in June 1907 and quickly began to show his entrepreneurial business talents. In grade school, Montana worked as a messenger for a West Side candy shop running errands and messages. With his brothers Salvatore, Angelo, Peter and Joseph, the 17-year-old Montana first pushed a popcorn cart through Buffalo's Little Italy at a time when Italians lived in a high-density area on the Lower West Side and downtown. Because the demand was so great, the Montana brothers had to fold their first business as they couldn't supply the many people who wanted their goods.
In 1922, John Montana formed the Buffalo Taxi Company – his first attempt at joining Buffalo's booming transportation industry. A few years later, he bought and merged with the Yellow Cab Company in an effort to consolidate cars and call centers as well as eliminate the taxi competition.
Through political backing among leading members of the Italian community as well as prominent Buffalonians, Montana ran a campaign for the City's Common Council as a Republican; he was first elected a representative from the Niagara District in 1927 and then re-elected again in 1929. For four years Montana served the City of Buffalo on the Council and saw major advances in an already booming city. On the Council, he was the Chairman of the Housing and Slum Clearance Committee, which gave his Mafia associates a direct influence over where people lived and what reconstruction efforts would be made. He also served as Chairman of the Labor Relations and Compensation Committee, allegedly giving the Mafia some influence in different unions in the area.
John Montana lived a double life as both a trusted advisor to the Mafia's kingpin and a trusted advisor to Mayor Frank Schwab. In fact, when Mayor Schwab was fighting hard to create the first public buses in Buffalo, most leading businessmen in the transportation industry opposed the idea to public busing, which would take passengers away from taxis, trolleys and trains. Montana created the Montana Company which was awarded the first bus furnishing contract in the city's controversial push for public transportation.
As a City Councilman, Montana saw the opening of the Buffalo airport (in Cheektowaga). He allegedly passed legislation regarding the opening of the Peace Bridge, Buffalo's international gateway to Canada. He was instrumental in overseeing the two-year-long construction of the New York Central Station, which was "a 17 floor combination office and terminal building" on the East Side. He passed legislation to build the new City Hall building, still a landmark among Buffalo's downtown skyline. Many major changes came to the Queen City during his time as a political leader, and John Montana made sure that his hidden partnerships never came to light while still placing people in positions to reap the benefits of the construction and transportation boom. Montana's taxis, for instance, were given a sweetheart contract to be the sole cab operators at the new Central Terminal station; 200 trains a day were said to go through Buffalo, and Montana's taxis were the only ones allowed to pick up passengers that wanted a ride – Buffalo police even ticketed and towed other cab companies that sought fares from the train station.
During a successful re-election season for Montana, the Councilman was involved in a major business deal that left him as the most powerful taxi tycoon in the area. In late June 1929, Montana, who had previously acquired the Yellow Taxi Cab Company, convinced Fred Van Dyke to give up his business – the largest cab competitors in Western New York. Eight years before, Fred Van Dyke had bought the Charles W. Miller Transportation Company of Buffalo that had been a family-owned business for two generations; it was Buffalo's first permanent transportation company. In 1929, Montana merged his cabs with Van Dyke's pulling together more than 200 cars with more than 60 call stations. While Montana already owned a franchise at the Central Terminal, he was in a good position to grow more powerful in an increasingly mobile city. As a business-savvy communicator, John Montana informed city riders that while he now owned the second largest cab company in the state, he would keep fares the same as they were with the Yellow Cab Company – 50 cents for the first mile and 10 cents for the next three miles. (For years, taxi operators complained that Montana maintained a monopoly on taxis in Buffalo, and some claimed that the other smaller taxi companies in town were run by associates of Montana who kept businesses going solely to save Montana's companies from anti-monopoly legal proceedings).
While accusations were rare and unconfirmed, some opinions stated Montana's cabs were corrupt. While working at a legitimate and successful business, Van Dyke drivers were said at times to transport gambling paraphernalia and liquor. In the decades of prohibition on the Niagara Frontier, between 100 and 150 people were killed in Mafia-related slayings; another 125-150 people died from drinking poisoned alcohol. But while many of Montana's associates were involved in bootlegging, the Councilman was never publicly linked to the alcohol trade until after Prohibition was repealed.
The national mafia
During his term on the Council, Montana witnessed many changes in Buffalo, including the aforementioned opening of the NY Central Terminal, the Peace Bridge, the airport, and the New City Hall building. As the right-hand man of the local Mafia kingpin during prohibition, Montana also witnessed many changes in the national politics of organized crime. In the late '20s and early '30s, just as business leaders were doing, the most dominant Mafia figures were eliminating rivals and consolidating power. By forming large entities with several different levels and locales, the Mafia built itself up for a national crisis that expanded throughout some of the nation's Italian neighborhoods.
After decades of battles between the Sicilians and Neapolitan Camorra, the Sicilian Mafia became the dominant force in gambling, labor, and bootlegged liquor. By the 1930s, two major factions fought for dominance – Stefano Magaddino from Niagara Falls was a senior member of the Castellammarese families, one of the factions. Led by Salvatore Maranzano in Brooklyn, the Mafia from Castellammare del Golfo levied a war against Joe 'the boss' Masseria in Manhattan, ending in the latter's murder. Salvatore Maranzano and Charlie 'Lucky' Luciano were the winners of the Mafia feud and called the heads of families from across the nation to meet and discuss the re-organization of the Mafia. Families from diverse locations were to gather in Chicago and hear how Salvatore Maranzano defeated Joe Masseria with the help of Lucky Luciano; they were to hear a new structure for organized crime in the nation that was destined to change the face of the Mafia.
In May 1931, Stefano Magaddino planned on attending this important Mafia summit with his brother Antonio and cousin Peter. Because of his active role in the Castellammarese Family, Magaddino was in an important position among national crime bosses. To come along to Chicago to mingle with the nation's top Mafiosi, he invited his close friend and advisor John Montana, the #3 man in Buffalo's Mafia behind Stefano Magaddino and his brother Antonio.
Montana allegedly went to Chicago to watch the future of the Mafia change before his eyes while he was an elected member of the Common Council. In the self-embellished biography of Joe Bonanno, the former Brooklyn Mafia boss talks of John Montana's trip to the Chicago conference. Bonanno, who was Stefano Magaddino's younger cousin, went to the national summit by train from New York with a contingent of men including Lucky Luciano and Salvatore Maranzano. The train stopped at Central Terminal on the East Side to pick up Buffalo's Mafia leaders. According to Bonanno:
Buffalo's business elite
While his high level role within the Mafia wasn't known publicly, his stature among Buffalo's Italians was obvious. When 300 Italians representing 45 Italian organizations came to the glamorous Statler Hotel in downtown Buffalo to celebrate Columbus Day in the early 1930s, Councilman Montana was one of the honored guests noted by the local newspapers, along with the mayor, Edward H. Butler, who started the Buffalo News and the Buffalo State Library, the police commissioner, the general manager of the Chamber of Commerce, a representative from the U.S. House, a State Assemblyman, and other politically powerful Italians, including Charles Giambrone, Charles Martini, Vincent Tauriello, Msgr. Joseph Gambino, and Frank Gugino.
However, Montana wasn't always in the press as an acclaimed Buffalonian and respected civic leader. In late 1932, he was in public view because he was facing new competition in the taxicab industry. The Gray Cab Company came to town as an independent business in 1932 and brought enough money to charge substantially less than the dominant cab companies, namely Van Dyke Taxi. Van Dyke temporarily lowered their prices to meet the new competition, but many of the smaller independent companies could not afford to lower their rates and began going out of business.
While most companies saw the lowered rates as a death blow, Montana saw it as an opportunity to freeze out the competition and eliminate some rivals. In September 1932, The Association of Taxicab Owners and Operators of Buffalo, NY, asked the Common Council to combat the new taxi companies and make fares standard across the board. Allegedly, Montana (who still held a seat on the Council) shelved the issue and the City didn't act – officially because the Council didn't want to meddle in the affairs of private businesses.
After the rival cab company came to town with a lowered wage system for several months, many smaller cab businesses had to shut their doors as they couldn't compete and turn a profit. After a few went out of business, there was a labor dispute and 200 employees of the Gray Cab Company went on strike. While Montana was never publicly linked to the strike, rumors were made back in 1932 that his associates instigated the Gray Cab employees to strike for more wages, ultimately causing the company to temporarily stop transporting passengers.
While Montana's alleged role in the labor dispute was unknown, he faced his own labor problems less than three years later when some of his drivers went on strike. In January 1935, the local Teamsters union for taxi drivers was having what Montana later called a "civil war." With over three hundred drivers in the union, Business Agent Joe Gerrity of Teamsters Local 153 had a meeting in the back of a saloon and his riders decided to go on strike with a vote of 184-9. At first, the newspapers reported 325 drivers were on strike, mostly from Van Dyke Taxi owned by Montana and the 50-50 Taxi Company owned by Montana's good friend Charles Sedita.