MOB TOWN: COLORADO CAPO 'BLACK JIM' COLLETTI AND THE NATIONAL MOB'S EMBARASSING MOMENT

Colletti on left of chart, second from bottom 

Colorado capo Vincenzo "Black Jim" Colletti made history as one of the La Cosa Nostra bosses to attend the infamous Apalachin meeting on Nov. 14, 1957, which confirmed the existence of a nationwide criminal conspiracy - "The Commission."

Colletti - who publicly identified himself as a cheese merchant - held the Colorado reins from Pueblo, influencing crews in Denver and other locales. Though one of the U.S. mob's modest enterprises, Colorado generated cash through gambling and loansharking. 

Top U.S. leadership called the national gathering at the home of mobster Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara in Apalachin, New York, to discuss divvying up illicit operations once controlled slain New York mob chieftain Albert Anastasia as well as other lucrative matters, i.e. gambling, loan sharking and narcotics.

Apalachin was considered safe as it is located 189 miles northwest of New York City. However, suspicious local police raided the session after observing rows of luxury cars sporting out of state license plates in the rural community.

Stunned mob bosses fled into the woods surrounding Barbara's home - an utter embarrassment for such powerful men. Law enforcement rounded up 60 mobsters and twenty were eventually charged and then convicted of obstructing justice. All the mobsters' convictions were overturned in 1958.

Colletti beat the rap in Apalachin but was arrested in Denver on unrelated charges in December 1957.