Back in the 1950s, New Haven was a gangster’s paradise. The city was full of mafia-run businesses, from standard mobster fare like illegal gambling and loan sharking to more wholesome businesses, like running the Easter flowers and watermelon trades (yes, those are real examples). With a little help from government officials, mobsters were unstoppable.

Rumor has it the mobsters used an ice cream shop as the front for an illegal gambling operation.
Flickr/wck
The mafia had a friend in Richard C. Lee, elected mayor in 1953. Under his leadership, the mobsters felt free to run their very profitable "ice cream shop."
Whether or not it was done intentionally, the newly-minted mayor made New Haven Gangsters very rich.
Flickr/chrisamm42
Under his leadership, New Haven received more urban renewal money per capita than any other city in the nation. Because the mafia ran the city's construction businesses, the money went to them.

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With money came unchecked power. New Haven gangster Salvatore "Midge Renault" Annunziato was notorious for a lot of things, including the fact that he was a terrible driver.
Flickr/Rebekah Harris
When he had his license taken away, friend-to-the-mobsters political leader Arthur Barbieri wrote letters to government officials to get it restored. Annunziato's driving was dangerous, but so were his fists. When the former boxer beat up anyone who got in his way, victims and witnesses were terrified to testify. Even when they did, juries acquitted him and judges were lenient. Everyone feared his wrath.
Annunziato and his compatriots got away with murder, literally. Six decades after the mobsters ran the city, all but one murder remain unsolved.
Flickr/Rebekah Harris

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the FBI targeted organized crime. The mafia’s power in New Haven suddenly and significantly decreased.

If you love Connecticut history, check out these 9 colonial historic sites.

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