Joseph Luco Pagano

Joseph Luco Pagano (b. 1928) was a New York mobster and member of the Genovese crime family.

Born in New York, he and his brother Pasquale Pagano joined the ranks of the Genovese family in the late-1940s. With an arrest record dating back to 1946, Pagano had previously been charged with robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and narcotics. Working with Joe Valachi within Anthony Strollo's organization, then one of the biggest distributors of heroin and cocaine in East Harlem, he participated in the gangland slaying of Eugenio Giannini and Steve Franse. In 1955, Pagano served a seven year jail term.

In 1977, the New York Times claimed a group of organized crime figues under the leadership of Pagano had ordered beatings and arson in an attempt to intimidate Bronx health facility operators into extorting thousands in a Medicade fraud.

References

• Nash, Jay Robert. Encyclopedia of World Crime Vol. III (K-R). Wilmette, Illinois: CrimeBooks Inc., 1990. ISBN 0-923582-00-2
• Nash, Jay Robert. World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime. New York: Da Capo Press, 1992. ISBN 0-306-80535-9