"In 1956 Carmine Galente was caught speeding coming from or going tot he 56 commission meeting.
there was a bid push by local political people to get the charges dropped, this led to an association with Joe Barberra, and as a result the police started keeping an eye on him.

The police overheard Joe jr renting rooms at a local hotel in 57 and figured something was up...." -Dooley36




"I think Croswell did have some kind of a personal beef with LaBarbera. Reading through some of the articles published on the raid and the interviews on him, he does come across as a braggart. Like he finally got his long sought 15 minutes in fame, giving him a great personal satisfaction and at the same time getting the chance to nail LaBarbera. That´s the feeling I get. He was aware of the mobster meeting that had taken place the year before but that had slipped through his hands. From time to time, he was conducting surveillance on the LaBarbera estate. So I doubt that there was a tip off." - HairyKnuckles


As we all know, the widely publicized story on Apalachin, was that Croswell observed all these big black cars rolling through town, and followed them to Joe Barbaras house, then called in for backup, etc.


Over the past couple of weeks, I've done a ton of reading and background searching on Carmine Galante. As these guys mentioned above, there was a lot more backstory with Croswell. I just read recently (Cant recall now exactly where, but I believe it was in Galantes FBI file, in the "FBI Vault"/Reading room), about Galantes speeding ticket, the involvement of some highly influential politicians in trying to get this ticket squashed, and the Pols involvement drawing the attention of not only the State Police, but the FBI. Supposedly Croswell was keeping regular contact with the FBI, and it was they that tipped Croswell to the upcoming summit at Joe Barbaras house. This whole spiel about Croswell just being an "observant" trooper was a cover story.

I'll try and dig up the relevant parts of this story either later today, or this evening and post back with it.