The Mob's Heyday in Saratoga

About this event

Greg Veitch didn’t set out to become Saratoga Springs’ foremost chronicler of mob history. He was a police chief doing what police chiefs do—reviewing old files in the basement archives of the Saratoga Springs Police Department—when a thin folder stopped him cold. It was labeled “Parillo Murder, 1936.” Inside was a story that echoed something Veitch had heard growing up: a half-whispered family tale about a relative who may have been riding with gangsters on the night of a killing.

That unexpected convergence of personal memory and official record set Veitch on a seven-year investigation that would transform his understanding of the city he grew up in on Circular Street. It ultimately produced two books, including A Gangster’s Paradise, his most comprehensive book on Saratoga’s long and complicated relationship with gambling and organized crime.

In a presentation that was originally scheduled for January but was cancelled in face of a blizzard, Veitch will share this story with members and guests of the Saratoga Torch Club on Monday, March 16, at the Saratoga Springs Holiday Inn.

Veitch will begin his presentation at 7 p.m, following an optional dinner that will be served starting at with a cash bar at 5:30 p.m. Seats are $40, payable at the door by cash or check. To make a reservation, please contact Richard Lynch at torchman999@gmail.com, specifying your preference for honey Dijon chicken or sweet sausage and peppers marinara over pasta.

The evening will center on Veitch’s deep archival research to explore how organized crime, local politics, and civic life became entangled in the Spa City.

What Veitch uncovered was not a simple tale of corruption, but a remarkably durable civic arrangement he calls “managed tolerance.” For decades, illegal gambling in Saratoga was not merely ignored; it was quietly integrated into the local economy. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, figures like John Morrissey and Richard Canfield ran elegant casinos governed by strict rules: no women, no Sundays, and no locals. These “gentlemen gamblers” also funded civic projects, charities, and institutions, helping Saratoga flourish.

That era ended abruptly in 1917 with the arrival of Arnold Rothstein—the architect of modern organized crime—who brought with him national syndicates, direct payoffs, and future mob legends like Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky. Saratoga became a node in a much larger criminal network, and the consequences followed. Veitch documents episodes so brazen that police officers once helped gangsters steal seized gambling equipment from their own station—and were later promoted.

“These weren’t cartoon villains or heroes,” Veitch says. “They were neighbors, voters, business owners—and sometimes criminals—all at the same time.”

The Saratoga Torch Club is a civic forum dedicated to hosting the civic conversation Saratoga most needs to have.