TOP U.S. GAMBLER SAILS TO ITALY

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27858, 5 January 1956, Page 9

TOP U.S. GAMBLER SAILS TO ITALY

Deportation Order Avoided

(Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK. Jan. 3. Joe Adonis, once overlord of gambling enterprises from New York to Cuba, sailed into exile in Italy In style today still insisting he is a native of Passaic, New Jersey.

Adonis, whose real name is Joseph Doto, voluntarily left the country rather than fight a deportation order to what the Government claims is his native land. The dapper. 53-year-old gambler paid 740 dollars for one of the eight best suites on the Italian liner. Conte Biancamano. He tried to avoid reporters, but finally agreed to talk to them in a neighbouring cabin.

“I’ll give you an interview, but please, no, unfair questions.” said Adonis, who once was described by Senator Estes Kefauver as one of the three top men in the “eastern axis" of a national racketeering organisation. Adonis said he felt “all right" about leaving the United States and had no plans to try to come back. He also said he had no plans to send for his wife and four children to join him in Italy. He said he had no idea where he would live in Italy, but that he would try to stay as far as possible from Charles (“Lucky") Luciano, another exiled underworld leader.

The Government has been trying to deport Adonis as an undesirable alien since at least 1948. It claims he came here in 1909.