The house where the Mafia held its Apalachin meeting

This is the house where the Apalachin meeting took place.

It is located at 625 McFall Road in Apalachin, New York.

At the time, the 40-acre property belonged to Joseph Barbara, who was the boss of the Bufalino crime family in Pennsylvania.

These days, it is a horseback riding facility called Hidden Farm.

The Apalachin meeting was a large summit of the Italian-American Mafia. On November 14, 1957, bosses and senior figures from more than twenty crime families descended on this rural area to discuss topics such as drug dealing, trade unions, Cuba, loansharking, and gambling.

They also planned to divide up the former operations of mob boss Albert Anastasia, who had been murdered three weeks prior.

It is estimated that more than 100 Mafia members attended the summit.

While ambitious, the meeting turned out to be a disaster for the mob, as the local community quickly noticed the sudden influx of luxury cars with out-of-state license plates.

The state police were aware that the house belonged to a reputed mobster. One year previously, the consigliere of the Bonanno crime family, Carmine Galante, had been pulled over during a traffic stop shortly after leaving the residence.

When the officers saw dozens of expensive cars parked on the property, they began checking the license plates.

Upon learning the cars belonged to convicted criminals, they erected roadblocks and called in reinforcements.

The mobsters learned about the roadblocks shortly after the summit began. This led to a chaotic scene in which they all fled in different directions.

Some attempted to run through the woods at the back of the property, while others jumped in their cars and tried to circumnavigate the roadblocks.

More than 60 Mafia members were arrested during the operation, including Carlo Gambino and Vito "Don Vito" Genovese.

The police also apprehended the underboss of the Buffalo crime family, John Montana, after they found him tangled in a barbed wire fence.

Although twenty of the men were found guilty of conspiring to obstruct justice, their convictions were eventually overturned in 1960.

The owner, Joseph Barbara, was charged with obstructing justice, income tax evasion, and fraud. However, his case never went to trial, as he died in June 1959 after suffering two heart attacks in the space of three weeks.

The hilltop mansion was later sold for $130,000 to two real estate developers named Russell Terry and Larue Quick, who planned to open it as a sightseeing destination.

The Apalachin meeting marked a pivotal moment in the history of the mob.

Up until 1957, the FBI and public officials dismissed reports about the existence of a nationwide criminal conspiracy. The arrests forced them to admit the various Italian-American crime families were far more organized and interconnected than previously thought.