1961 IRS gambling raids in Massachusetts — my grandfather’s original report details moving vans, a secret Howard Johnson’s staging area, WBZ accidentally discovering the operation, and gambling machines disappearing before agents arrived
JANUARY 27, 1961,
THE RAID THAT ALMOST BLEW ITS OWN COVER
On January 27, 1961, my grandfather, IRS Intelligence Group Supervisor Fred G. Pastore, was coordinating a series of federal raids targeting illegal coin-operated gambling machines across Massachusetts.
The staging area?
A Howard Johnson’s on Route 1.
Shortly after noon, three moving vans were positioned behind the restaurant. Federal agents began transferring their equipment into them — Federal Reserve Bank canvas money bags, raid kits, crowbars and other gear.
One truck headed toward Taunton.
Another toward Southbridge.
A third toward Canton.
The raids were scheduled to begin at 1:30 PM.
Then something unexpected happened.
Fred went inside Howard Johnson’s for lunch.
While he was eating, he watched a Massachusetts State Police cruiser pull into the parking lot.
Then came a WBZ sound cruiser.
Apparently, people at Howard Johnson’s had seen a group of men loading money bags and equipment into moving vans and called authorities to report the suspicious activity.
The police — and the news media — had unknowingly stumbled onto the staging area for a federal operation.
Fred deliberately didn't identify himself. As he later wrote:
“I believed that to identify myself at that time would, in all probability, alert him to the fact that federal raids were in progress.”
At 1:30, after the raids had begun, Fred approached the WBZ driver and suggested he call his news editor.
The official press release had just gone out.
By 2:00 PM, a WBZ Channel 4 cameraman arrived and headed south on Route 128 after the agents.
Fred stayed behind at Howard Johnson’s, taking telephone reports from his agents and relaying the results to his Chief before eventually heading to Taunton himself.
But by then, word was spreading incredibly fast.
Reporters began following the agents from location to location — and someone apparently warned the owner of the gambling machines.
At four remaining locations, the machines were gone.
Then comes perhaps my favorite line in the entire report:
“Fortunately, the agents discreetly persuaded the owner of the machines…to return them to the various cafes so they could be legally seized on the search warrants.”
Fred concluded:
“I mention this merely to illustrate how fast the news travels.”
More than six decades later, I found his original account of that day among the papers he left behind.
These are the kinds of forgotten stories hidden inside The Box — firsthand records of organized crime, gambling, corruption and federal investigations in Boston and New England during an extraordinary period in American history.
CONFIDENCE OF THE MOB
The story of IRS Intelligence Group Supervisor Fred G. Pastore — told through the records he left behind.
NOTE: The document does have a typo that says 1962 on one page instead of 1961.
If you guys like these kinds of documents and stories, let me know, I’ll drop more. I have a whole box full of them. Take care.