COLUMBUS AVENUE
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JOSEPH L. PIAZZA
Born: Joseph Louis Piazza
April 7, 1936
San Francisco, CA
Died: February 24, 2005
Stockton, CA
Role: Soldato (Soldier), San Jose
Occupation: Car dealer, realtor, bartender
Convictions: Extortion, contempt, false imprisonment
Joseph Louis Piazza (aka Charles Joseph Piazza) was born April 7, 1936, in San Francisco, California, to Antonio Piazza and Maria Cascio. By 1950, his family had moved to San Jose, where he got involved in real estate and operated two used car dealerships. Piazza also became an alleged leader of the Sam Bailey Gang and was suspected of being a member of the San Jose mafia family by late 1964. He was identified as a recruit of Emanuele “Manny” Figlia in 1968, who became sottocapo (underboss) to Joe Cerrito following the death of Charles “Stanley” Carbone in 1967.
Manny Figlia, Joe Cerrito, Charles Carbone
The Sam Bailey Gang
The Sam Bailey Gang, which authorities named after a Boise, Idaho, roofing contractor, was believed to have had 100 members and specialized in burglarizing post offices in the Western United States from the 1950s through the 1970s. The gang employed expert safecrackers, electricians, and tunnelers, and was also involved in a variety of other criminal activities, including forgery, arson, and murder. They had splinter groups, like the Geary Gang and Station Wagon Gang in San Francisco, and the Gerald Herd Gang in the Stockton area.
Bailey’s former boss, Jimmy Ing, was killed in a 1967 shootout after an associate - said to be Joe Conforte - informed police of a pending art heist in Reno, Nevada. Conforte operated the Mustang Ranch, a notorious legal brothel in Sparks, Nevada, and was becoming a liability to not only the underworld, but to Nevada authorities. In 1969, San Jose caporegime (captain) Angelo Marino advised Los Angeles caporegime-turned-soldier (turned-informant) Frank "Bomp" Bompensiero that Sam Bailey had received the green light from the mafia, as well as a Nevada District Attorney and a Supreme Court Justice, to take over Joe Conforte’s prostitution operations if Bailey could arrange to have Conforte killed.
Joe Piazza, Sam Bailey, Angelo Marino, Frank Bompensiero, Joe Conforte
Easy Street
In April of that year, Phil Maita opened the Easy Street night club on El Camino Real in San Mateo (formerly the Fireside Lounge), where Piazza worked as a bartender. Maita was the grandson of Filippo Maita, a San Francisco caporegime under Frank Lanza in the 1930s (later demoted to soldier under Tony Lima), and Piazza’s first cousin once removed. Maita’s office at the club also became a meeting place for Jimmy “The Weasel” Fratianno. Between May and June 1969, Easy Street was raided by law enforcement four times in four weeks. Maita and several others were arrested on numerous counts of possessing and exhibiting obscene material and allowing waitresses to serve while nude.
Under questioning, Joe Piazza testified that the only time he was arrested was when he threw someone out of another bar. When asked if he had been “showing topless and bottomless (films),” he simply replied, “No, we were serving Italian food.” In January 1970, Piazza was found guilty of contempt for ordering waitresses to undress and reconnecting a projector in defiance of a court order. He was fined $1,000, which was paid by Maita.
Phil Maita filed a lawsuit for harassment against District Attorney Keith Sorensen, San Mateo Police Chief Martin McDonnell, and 50 police officers, seeking over $600,000 in damages. Easy Street would be raided several more times over the coming years, and in mid-1973, the San Mateo City Council unanimously approved a vote to impose new restrictions on nude entertainment in the city. Maita eventually moved to Nevada, where he operated the Wild Cat Ranch and died in 2015.
Phil Maita, Easy Street Ad, Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno
Joseph “The Animal” Barboza
In February 1976, New England family enforcer-turned-informant Joseph “The Animal” Barboza was gunned down at the corner of 25th Avenue and Moraga Street in San Francisco’s Sunset District by at least two individuals in a white van. The 1972 Ford was abandoned in a driveway four blocks away at 28th Avenue and Lawton Street, along with a 1912 Winchester 12-gauge shotgun. The van had been owned by a man who lived outside San Francisco who sold it to an unidentified individual for $1,600 three weeks before the shooting. An informant later revealed that San Jose boss Joe Cerrito was concerned over Joe Piazza’s involvement in acquiring the van.
A 1981 wiretap exposed that the alleged triggerman was East Boston soldier Joseph “J.R.” Russo, who had gone into hiding and was later promoted to caporegime (then consigliere) in the Patriarca (New England) family. During the 1985 racketeering trial of former Patriarca underboss Gennaro “Jerry” Angiulo, evidence from Barboza’s murder went missing from the San Francisco Police Department: two live shotgun shells, two spent shotgun shells, and a spent casing from a .30-caliber carbine.
Joseph "The Animal" Barboza, 1972 Ford & Shotgun, J.R. Russo, Jerry Angiulo
Harry Kurek & Meadows Games
Not long after Barboza’s slaying, arcade game developer Harry F. Kurek, who established Meadows Games in Sunnyvale, lost $150,000 in a business deal with Santa Clara electronic games distributor National Entertainment, a firm operated by James Januzzi, William Wasson, and David Perry. Kurek allegedly enlisted Joe Piazza and Andrew DiDomenico to help him recover the debt. DiDomenico was an associate of the San Jose family who ran Dom’s Shoe Repair in San Jose. Kurek and Piazza were charged with using strongarm tactics, extortionate threats, and violence to collect the money. DiDomenico was charged with being an accessory for assaulting James Januzzi in April, June, and October 1976.
Arcade Game "Bombs Away" by Meadows Games
The Catellis
In October 1977, 24-year old Peter Catelli attempted to extort $100,000 from Angelo Marino. Peter was the son of Orlando “Doc” Catelli, a Concord realtor and maintenance worker. Peter had borrowed over $8,000 from his father’s associates to purchase stolen liquor and cigarettes, but lost the money and accused Angelo and his son, Salvatore, of cheating him out of a deal. Peter sent a letter to Marino threatening to kill him (and others) if he didn’t pay in small bills by the following Monday.
Marino called Joe Piazza and San Jose soldier Thomas Napolitano, who summoned Doc Catelli to a meeting at the California Cheese Company. Napolitano, whose wife was a cousin of Catelli’s wife (and one of those threatened by Peter), lived in Pittsburg and owned a walnut ranch in Brentwood. Catelli was introduced to John Barbieri, an official for the company. Barbieri removed a revolver from a holster, referred to it as his crucifix, then handed it to Marino.
Peter & Orlando "Doc" Catelli, California Cheese Company
That afternoon, Marino received a call from Peter Catelli, demanding that he meet him at a Mountain View shopping center. Orlando rode with Napolitano, and Piazza rode in the back of Marino’s car, lying across the floor with a sawed-off shotgun. Peter didn’t show up, but called Marino again that evening. Angelo told him to come to the cheese company or he’d blow his father’s head away.
When the 6-foot-7 Peter eventually walked into the cheese company trailer smirking, the Marinos and Piazza all drew revolvers, with Piazza also pulling out the shotgun. Someone told Peter to get that look off his face, then Sal Marino hit him in the face with a pistol. The Marinos pushed him into a chair, then Sal pistol-whipped him again, breaking the chair and knocking Peter to the floor. He continued to beat and kick Peter until Angelo intervened. The elder Marino then took a vote on what should be done. Sal voted to “blow the no-good rat fink away.” Napolitano agreed. Piazza said, “Whatever you say. You’re the boss.” Angelo looked at Orlando and told him he’d be next.
Napolitano and Piazza brought Orlando into another room where they told him they weren’t going to hurt him; they were going to fake it. Piazza then fired a shot into a box of cheese. Another shot immediately rang out from the next room. Sal had discharged his .38-caliber revolver into the back of Peter’s head. Angelo came out and told Orlando it was an accident; Peter went for a gun and they had to shoot him. Angelo then instructed Orlando to remove his son’s body.
Orlando knelt by Peter and started to pray when Sal also shot him in the back of the head. The bullet fragmented without entering his skull, but Catelli pretended to be dead while remaining conscious. He heard Angelo ask Sal why he shot Peter. Sal replied that he thought they had killed Orlando, so “the kid had to go.” Napolitano said they’d now have to kill Orlando’s wife and other children too. The Catellis were dragged down the stairs by their legs and thrown into the trunk of Orlando’s white 1972 Cadillac.
Angelo Marino was heard telling Andrew DiDomenico, “Andy, better take a piece (gun). He might still be alive.” DiDomenico was to drive the car to Oakland Airport but went the wrong way and ended up in San Francisco, where he left the Cadillac near Garfield Square in the Mission District. The Catellis were discovered after someone heard Orlando yelling from the trunk. His family was quickly put under police protection and relocated.
Angelo Marino, Sal Marino, Thomas Napolitano, Andrew DiDomenico
Aftermath
In May 1978, California’s Organized Crime Control Commission described Joe Piazza as the “former head” of the Sam Bailey Gang with international mafia connections. Four members of the gang were arrested in March 1979 after a six-month investigation. The ring had been linked to significant burglaries all over California, including San Jose, Fremont, Martinez, Stockton, Sacramento, and San Diego, and had stolen over $400,000 (almost $2M in 2026) worth of postage stamps. They were also behind the high-profile armed robbery of the Trident restaurant in Sausalito in 1971, in which two employees were handcuffed by three men in scuba gear that used blowtorches to steal $30,000 (~$240,000) from the safe. Samuel Gayle Bailey was sentenced to 20 years.
The Catelli trial was moved to Los Angeles due to extensive publicity in the Bay Area, which coincided with a San Francisco Examiner article that listed the names of 92 people in California linked to organized crime. The list included Piazza, Angelo Marino, and Joe Cerrito. All defendants in the Catelli case were initially charged with murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and conspiracy, and held under $1 million bail, the highest in the history of Santa Clara County. Charges against Napolitano and DiDomenico were dismissed. Harry Kurek was also acquitted of extortion in December 1980, as was DiDomenico. Joe Cerrito died of a heart attack on September 8, 1978, leaving his brother-in-law, underboss Manny Figlia, the highest ranking member of the San Jose borgata.
Joe Piazza was convicted of extortion in July 1981 and sentenced to ten years in August. In April 1982, he was also convicted of false imprisonment in the Catelli case and sentenced to 40 months. Sal Marino was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to nine years. Angelo Marino suffered a heart attack after his son’s arrest. Health complications delayed his retrial until his death in February 1983.
Piazza was released on parole by late March 1985 and was active into the early 1990s. Although the boss position in San Jose remained vacant after Joe Cerrito’s death, Piazza was noted to have been in communication with Philadelphia boss John Stanfa on several occasions in 1992. Joseph Piazza died in Stockton, CA on February 24, 2005, at 68 years old. His obituary described him as an “avid outdoorsman with a flair for cooking and great love of family and friends.”
Piazza, Trident Restaurant, John Stanfa