Joseph Todaro, Jr.

Joseph A. "Big Joe" Todaro Jr. (born 1945 or 1946) Todaro is best known as the owner of La Nova Pizzeria, a popular pizzeria chain in Buffalo, New York and the Western New York region that was founded by his father. Both Todaro Sr. and Todaro Jr. have been accused of holding regional leadership roles in the American Mafia, charges that Todaro Jr. has denied.

In 2017, Canadian court proceedings alleged that Todaro Jr. is the current boss of the Buffalo crime family, a position previously held by his father Todaro Sr.

Biography Joseph A. Todaro Jr. was born to Joseph Todaro Sr. and Josephine Santamauro. He later married Carol Ann "Cookie" and had two children Joseph E. Todaro and Carla (she later married Salvatore Pantano). In May 1967, days before Todaro Jr. was going to marry Carol A. Panaro Buffalo law enforcement agents arrested him, along with his father and 34 other men at wedding stage party.

In 1970, Todaro Jr., along with his father and three others were charged by the FBI for running illegal gambling games of dice and card in mid-air flights on rented jets to Las Vegas but the gambling case ended with no convictions.

In 1984, Todaro Jr. allegedly became the underboss of the Buffalo crime family when his father became the new head of the crime family upon the retirement of his predecessor Samuel "Sam the Farmer" Frangiamore.

In 1989, an FBI statement was filed in connection with a gambling investigation and identified Todaro Sr. and his son Todaro Jr. as the leaders of a 45 "made" member Buffalo Mafia family and were in control of various criminal activities that included labor racketeering, bookmaking, loansharking and narcotics trafficking. The court statements also claimed that Joseph Todaro Jr. was running the Mafia family because his father Todaro Sr. was in semi-retirement splitting time between his Tonawanda and Florida homes. It was also stated that Leonard F. Falzone was running a local loansharking operation and brothers Victor and Daniel Sansanese were controlling bookmaking for the Todaro's.

In 1996 Todaro Sr. and his son Todaro Jr. were listed among 24 alleged organized crime figures who were accused of influencing the Laborers International Union of North America since the 1960s.

In 1999, Joseph Todaro Jr. along with his father Joseph Todaro Sr. and 16 others were named in a civil racketeering lawsuit for controlling local 210 through the years by various racketeering acts. The court complaint identified Joseph A. Todaro Jr. as underboss and his father Joseph E. Todaro Sr. as boss of the Buffalo family and the owners of La Nova Pizzeria. His father Todaro Sr. died on December 26, 2012, at age 89 following a lengthy illness. Until Domenico Violi's trial in 2018 in Hamilton, Ontario, it was believed that Todaro Jr. had stepped down from active participation in the Buffalo Mafia in 2006 and that Leonard Falzone (who died in 2016) had taken over as boss. Ron Fino indicated that he believed that Falzone was acting as the front boss for the Todaros. by boss Todaro Jr. in October 2017 in a meeting in Florida; the first Canadian to hold the second-highest position in the American Mafia. The wiretaps also revealed the activity of The Commission (the governing body of the American Mafia) as Violi's promotion was so unusual that Todaro Jr. consulted with The Commission for permission to promote Violi as the Buffalo family's new underboss.

In a January 2023 interview, Todaro denied that he held a leadership role in organized crime.