The man who has been described in the Senate racket hearings as “perhaps an even bigger shot” than Johnny Dio is a shadowy figute even by standards of underworld obscurity.

Man in the News

Anthony (Tony Ducks) Corallo is an East Harlem racketeer who has been arrested thirteen times, starting with a grand larceny charge at the age of 16. But only one conviction stands on his record – a conviction for unlawful possession of narcotics sixteen years ago.

His name is on the national list of the Treasury’s Bureau of Narcotics, a list known as the social register of the illicit drug trade. But on the long record of his arrests the word “discharged” appears after each entry with a regularity that is galling to the police who keep trying to nail him. His sobriquet – Tony Ducks – is a back-alley badge of honor won by his ability to duck conviction so many times.

Corallo, described as a kingpin of an underworld drive to capture control of the Teamsters Joint Council here, was soft-voiced yesterday as he invoked the Fifth Amendment 120 times to keep his affairs quiet.

He refused to answer questions put to him by the Senate’s Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field.

Man of Quiet Menace

But there was quiet menace about Tony Ducks, who gave evidence he was not the kind of person to slap on the back when he wasn’t looking.

Dressed in a black suit, wearing gold links in his French cuffs, the short, stocky, swarthy racketeer displayed an impassive face at the hearings. But an observer recalled later that he felt uneasy when Corallo's eyes fell on him in a "sort of sleepy, sideways look." That look, as a matter of fact, went into the official record. Robert F. Kennedy, chief counsel of the committee, said that one unnamed employer had hired Tony Ducks to go into his place of business once every two weeks or so "and glare at the employees." The employer said that all Corallo had to do was enter and "just look at them, and that was enough to keep them at their work."

The 44-year-old “man of mystery” of New York’s underworld, a man before whom Johnny Dio is reputed to be deferential, was born in East Harlem on Feb. 12, 1913.

He was arrested in 1941, and got six months in the workhouse on Rikers Island after the police discovered a $150,000 narcotics cache (!) others in the drug ring did the selling of the narcotics. The detectives were impressed with his suavity, his fine clothes and his fine words.

The police found him to be a man “above average in intelligence,” a man of means who flashed fat bankrolls and associated with big-time gamblers who rode in big cars.

Charged with 5 Robberies

Five robbery charges were raised against Tony Ducks – all of them were discharged. One of these involved a $190,000 jewelry hold-up at 620 Fifth Avenue in 1936. Three men were sent to Federal prison at Lewisburg, Pa., for that job. The police picked up Corallo after a two-year search and charged him with acting in concert in the hold-up. He beat the rap.

According to the District Attorney’s office, Corallo controls at least five locals of the Teamsters Union and dominates at least five locals of other unions. These are the Toy and Novelty Workers Union, Painters and Decorators Union, Food Handlers, Conduit Workers and United Textile Workers.

Tony Ducks is married and has two children. He lives at 114-67 Eighth Avenue, Malba, Queens.

New York Times, August 16, 1957.



It mentions Johnny Dio being "deferential" to him. In another article from around the same time, wiretap recordings have Tony Ducks pretty much telling Dio what to do with the unions. I'm guessing he was Dio's captain.