The Mafia Boss of Niagara Falls: The True Story of “The Undertaker”
The Undertaker Who Ruled from the Falls
“Go up to Buffalo. Lay low. Nobody will find you there.”
— Once Upon a Time in America
In Sergio Leone’s gangster masterpiece, Buffalo is the place you go to disappear.
But for one man, it was where an empire began.
That man was Stefano “The Undertaker” Magaddino, the Mafia boss who ruled the Niagara Frontier for half a century — from the shadows of the Falls.
From Sicily to the Niagara Frontier
Born in 1891 in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Magaddino came from the same Sicilian bloodlines that produced Joseph Bonanno, his great-nephew. After violent feuds and assassinations in his hometown, he fled to America in 1902 and joined the secret world of the Castellammarese clan in New York.
After being tied to what became known as the “Good Killers” case—a series of revenge murders between Sicilian factions—Magaddino fled New York City. He landed quietly in Niagara Falls, where he would soon turn the border into his personal kingdom.
Blood and Bootlegging: Power at a Price
It all started with opportunity.
When Prohibition began in 1920, Niagara Falls was more than a natural wonder — it was a gold mine. The border became a smuggler’s dream: short crossings, foggy nights, and endless demand. Stefano Magaddino saw what others didn’t — that the river itself could be turned into a highway of profit. His men moved millions of dollars in Canadian whiskey and wine across the water each year, hidden in trucks, fishing boats, and even coffins from his funeral home. By the early 1930s, the operation was generating what would be tens of millions in today’s dollars — untaxed, untraceable, and unstoppable.
The money poured in from speakeasies in Buffalo, Rochester, and Cleveland. Magaddino controlled everything that moved across the water—from liquor and gambling to labor rackets. He wasn’t just making a living; he was building an empire—a shadow economy that rivaled the legitimate one on both sides of the border. This was how The Undertaker got rich: on whiskey, fear, and the river itself.
Don Stefano’s Niagara Empire
To the public, he was a respectable businessman—the owner of Magaddino Memorial Chapel, a funeral home on Niagara Street. But behind that quiet facade, “The Undertaker” ran one of the most powerful crime syndicates in North America.
During Prohibition, the Niagara River became his lifeline. He smuggled Canadian whiskey across the border from Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake into Buffalo speakeasies and beyond. His criminal network stretched east to Utica and Amsterdam, south to Youngstown, Ohio, and north to Toronto and Montreal.
By the 1930s, Magaddino’s reach made him one of the most influential figures in organized crime. He earned a seat on Lucky Luciano’s National Commission, the Mafia’s ruling council—a position he would hold longer than almost any other boss in American history.
The old Maggaddino funeral home, in Niagara Falls, NY.
But power like that came with blood.
In 1936, rivals planted a bomb meant to kill Magaddino. It missed its target—but destroyed his family. The explosion tore through his home, killing his own sister. Even hardened mobsters whispered about that night. Some said it changed him—made him colder, quieter, and more ruthless.
Two decades later, in 1958, another attempt came.
A hand grenade was tossed through the kitchen window of his house in Lewiston.
By sheer luck—or fate—it didn’t explode.
Magaddino reportedly stood over the grenade afterward, silent, then told his men only:
“If they missed once, they won’t again. Find them.”
The Niagara boss survived both attempts, but those attacks sealed his legend as the man who could not be killed—and who trusted no one.
A Family Affair
Magaddino’s empire was run like a family—literally. His son Peter Magaddino became a made man in the Buffalo family, while his daughters married into other local Mafia families—the Montanas, LaDucas, and Scros—cementing alliances across the region.
But power brought danger. In 1936, assassins planted a bomb meant for Magaddino; it killed his sister instead. In 1958, a grenade was tossed into his kitchen window but failed to detonate. Even as rivals like Joe Bonanno plotted against him, Don Stefano survived, outlasting nearly every one of his peers.
The Apalachin Summit: When the Mafia Was Exposed
In 1957, Magaddino helped organize the Apalachin Summit, a secret meeting of Mafia bosses in upstate New York meant to restore order among rival families. Instead, it blew the Mafia’s cover.
When state troopers discovered dozens of luxury cars parked at the meeting site, mobsters fled through the woods in expensive suits. The arrests that followed made headlines worldwide and confirmed what the FBI had long denied—the Mafia was real, and its reach was national.
Though the meeting wasn’t held in Niagara, Magaddino’s fingerprints were all over it. His influence made Western New York one of organized crime’s key crossroads.
The Fall of the Undertaker
By the late 1960s, his reign began to crumble. Police found $500,000 in cash hidden in his funeral home and his son’s attic—money he had told his men didn’t exist. The betrayal shattered loyalty within the family and ended an era of near-mythic power.
Magaddino died of a heart attack in 1974 at the age of 82 at Mount St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston, New York. His funeral was held at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, and he was buried at St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Niagara Falls—the city he had ruled in life, and still haunts in legend.
Echoes Beneath the Falls
Today, Niagara Falls is known for beauty, romance, and light. But beneath its mist lies another story—a story of power, crime, and ambition.
The Falls weren’t just a natural wonder. For men like Magaddino, they were a borderland of opportunity, a gateway for smuggling, secrecy, and survival.
At Go Niagara Tours, we tell that full story—from the daredevils who risked it all to the gangsters who built empires in the shadows of the rushing water.
🌊 Experience the real Niagara.
Book a tour that reveals the legends, crimes, and characters that made the Falls more than a wonder—it made them unforgettable.
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Stefano “The Undertaker” Magaddino.