Frank Palermo

AKA:
Blinky
Birth Name:
Frank Palermo
Birth Date:
January 26, 1905
Birth Place:
Sicily, Italy
Death Date:
May 12, 1996
Place of Death:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Age:
91
Cause of Death:
Natural causes
Cemetery Name:
Holy Cross Cemetery
Claim to Fame:
Crime and their Victims
Boxing has a dark history of gangsters, crooked fights and mysterious murders. In the world of boxing at the time, Frank “Blinky” Palermo, a member of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra crime family, was indeed royalty. Along with his partner, Frankie Carbo, a New York Lucchese crime family member, Palermo managed and controlled many of the professional boxers around the country. Although this Philly hustler was only five feet tall, he was a giant at assault and battery, big at bootlegging, jobbing, racketeering, numbers runner, petty thief, shakedown artist, wiseguy - Blinky was a man of many talents. Palermo's partner was Mafioso Frankie Carbo, a soldier in New York's Lucchese family who had been a gunman with Murder, Inc. During the 1940s, Frankie Carbo became a boxing promoter, working along with Ettore "Eddie" Coco, James "Jimmy Doyle" Plumeri, Frank "Blinky" Palermo, Harry "Champ" Segal, & Felix Bocchicchio. The group was known as "The Combination", together they were highly successful in fixing high-profile boxing matches. Even worse Palermo would cheat his stable of fighters out of their share of the purses of their fights. In 1961, the Feds zeroed in on Carbo and Palermo and were charged, tried and convicted of committing a dozens of crimes. Blinky Palermo was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

Palermo’s Obituary Did Not Hold Back

DEATH OF A BOXING SCOUNDREL

Frank “Blinky” Palermo died a month ago at 91 but it was 50-60 years too late for boxing. The convicted extortionist who, along with Frankie Carbo and three other less lights, went to Federal prison in the mid 50s, passed away in Philadelphia, his long time fief. Hardly anybody realized he was still living let alone dying and the list of mourners was blank. Those who found out later did not shed a tear.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Holy Cross Cemetery

626 Baily Road

Yeadon, Pennsylvania, 19050

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, PA
Map of Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, PA

Grave Location:

Blessed Mother Mausoleum Cremation Wall

Grave Location Description

Drive to the top level of the Blessed Mother Mausoleum (you can see it from the front office). Park in the center and walk over to the far right building in the complex. Now look to your right for the open wall columbarium. The scourge of professional boxing can be found on the left-most wall, second from the end at eye level. By the way, if you walk all the way back to the other side of the Blessed Mother Mausoleum, walk to the open window and then look to your right for the final resting place of the mob’s greatest story teller and fabricator of Cosa Nostra history, Frank Sheeran.

Grave Location GPS

39.93395012628283, -75.25384954137071

Photos:

[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]

Read More About Frank Palermo:

Videos Featuring Frank Palermo:

See More:

Angelo Lonardo

popular name: Angelo Lonardo

date_of_death: March 31, 2006

age: 95

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Big Ange, the son of Prohibition mob boss Joseph Lonardo, took control of the Cleveland crime family in 1962. He led the family until 1984 when he was convicted of running a drug ring and was sentenced to life in prison. He then became an informant, making him the highest-ranking Mafia snitch up to that time.

Peter Genna

popular name: Peter Genna

date_of_death: May 13, 1948

age: 67

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Peter and Sam Genna arrived to Chicago in April of 1906, having been sponsored by a brother in law and both being described as farmhand/laborers. Their four brothers would later follow them to America where they would form a powerful prohibition era gang known as the "Genna Crime Family". From 1921 to 1925, the family was headed by the six Genna brothers, known as the Terrible Gennas. They were allies with fellow Italian gang the Chicago Outfit. After a bloody gang war led to the violent demise of Angelo, Mike and Antonio, the remaining Genna brothers fled Chicago and the remaining Genna gang was eventually absorbed by the Chicago Outfit. Peter eventually returned to Chicago but opted for the quiet, legal endeavor of running an olive oil import company until his death from natural causes.

Sam Battaglia

popular name: Sam Battaglia

date_of_death: September 7, 1973

age: 64

cause_of_death: Natural Causes

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Sam "Teets" Battaglia joined the Torrio-Capone gang at the age of 16, right at the beginning of the Beer Wars of the 1920s. As a high-level member of the Chicago Outfit criminal organization, Sam Battaglia quickly rose in the ranks of the gang, and was known as a brutal loan shark. He became head of the Chicago Outfit in 1966 but was convicted and sent to federal prison that same year and died at his home shortly after his release.

Back to Top