Frank LoTempio
Batavia Leader of the Southsiders
Contemporary accounts consistently described Frank as personable, well-liked, and sociable. Lots of friends, a large extended family, well known around town probably due to his profession, running more than a few dice and card games around town. He spent most of his time taking bets on everything under the sun, but mainly horse racing. The word around town was that when it became required, he always paid off on time and with no complaints. In his community, this was for the best. He was no deadbeat and many of his customers were regulars. New ones came to him by reputation and word of mouth. In his line of work, he wanted that word to always be positive. Frank did everything he could to maintain an amiable and dependable reputation. The amount of money changing hands might not be particularly significant to Frank, but to the person placing the wager, it could be everything.
Besides, he would certainly get it all back eventually.
Russell Lotempio
The Trouble Maker
The police were heard quoted as saying: “Where there is trouble, there is Russell Tempio.”
Card games, Dice Games, Disorderly House Operations, Boot Legging, White Slavery, Poolrooms, Lotteries, Sports Pools. Nothing was off limits to Russell. He lost a leg in an attempted murder when the Mafia planted a car bomb that exploded in Medina. Tragedy hit hard with the lost of his wife and child to tuberculosis. Even with all of that, he was a regular contributor of his time and money to St. Anthony's Church in Batavia. Family members remember Russell in later life as a sweet and generous gentleman in his later years, soft-spoken, respected, always whistling a tune, and well-liked by those who knew him best.
Joseph Lotempio
The Kid Brother
Joseph Michael LoTempio spent nearly all of his seventy-six years on Batavia's Southside. Born in 1900, he grew up in the neighborhood during the earliest years of Batavia's Italian community. Like many boys growing up in the neighborhood, Joseph found himself in trouble in 1912, at the age of twelve, arrested with several other boys after revolvers and ammunition, stolen from a Batavia hardware store, were discovered in his possession on the grounds of the Pringle School. He worked a variety of jobs over the years, including proprietor, cigar store clerk, restaurant operator, and a truck driver. Gambling, the family business, remained a recurring part of his life with horse room bookmaking taking center stage. He was a lifelong member of St. Anthony's and contributed his time to fund raising activities.
Alfonza Angelo (Alfred) Panepinto
The Mortician Gambler
Few who knew him had anything negative to say about Alfred. He entered Batavia High School as a freshman at the age of seventeen and attended four years, graduating in 1922 at the age of twenty-one years old. During that time, he excelled academically and athletically. Winner of the Batavia High School Huntley Contest he went on to become a certified funeral director and mortician. He was gifted in mathematics which he applied to his incessant gambling habit. With his business in Niagara Falls he unintentionally fell victim of the Stefano Magaddino crime family and paid the ultimate price for being a Southsider.