Raymond Márquez
Encyclopedia
Raymond Márquez a.k.a. "Spanish Raymond" is a reputed American gangster of Puerto Rican
descent who was considered the "king" of the illegal numbers
racket in Harlem
from the 1950s until his retirement in 2001.
to New York City
in the late 1920s and settled in the Harlem
section of Manhattan
. He was born and raised in Harlem; there he also received his primary and secondary education. His father was able to establish a grocery store, however the family economic situation was not a good one and when Márquez graduated from Textile High School in 1947, at the age of 17, his parents were unable to send him to college.
Márquez had few legal scrapes during his early years. By 1958, law enforcement authorities publicly identified him as an underworld kingpin and that is when an investigator from the New York Police Department (NYPD), nicknamed him "Spanish Raymond", a moniker which has stood since then. Also in 1958, Marquez was accused in a killing related to his gambling activities. A grand jury failed to indict him for the murder. Márquez acknowledged bribing the police in the 1950s and 1960s to prevent raids on his illicit network. Marquez also was believed to have paid a percentage of his profits to Mafia boss Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno
. Marquez denied that he did business with the Mafia, and said that while he was friends with Salerno he was not a business partner.
In 1969, Márquez was arrested by the FBI on Federal gambling and extortion charges. He was convicted and sentenced to concurrent terms of three and five years imprisonment. He served a total of five years from 1970 to 1975. In 1975 he was released and continued in his former activities. This was during the post Knapp Commission era in which the NYPD was the focus of a scandal arising from pervasive corruption and the crackdown on the numbers racket was sidelined due to a moratorium on numbers gambling resulting from concerns that systemic corruption of the NYPD would continue to flourish. Protection payoffs to the police were no longer necessary.
Two years after his release from prison, in 1977, Marquez was briefly kidnapped, and was freed after payment of $8,100 in jewelry as ransom by his wife. He was found in the trunk of his car in Flushing, Queens
. Marquez was identified in The New York Times
as allegedly running a $25 million a year numbers racket.
Marquez received attention in the late 1970s, when a New York State Supreme Court justice, Andrew Tyler, was convicted of perjury for allegedly lying about a meeting with Marquez in 1975. The conviction was overturned in 1978.
In April 1994, he was arrested on state gambling charges. Prosecutors claimed that he had amassed a small fortune by illegal means and that therefore said fortune should be confiscated. The indictment led to a legal battle over attempts by city authorities to seize $6.5 million from him in unpaid taxes from wealth that they say was generated by illegal activities from 1990 to 1993. The prosecutors contended that Márquez and his organization handled about $30 million a year in wagers that were made at 41 parlors and that his organization faxed the reported earnings to his wife's yacht. His wife, Alice, also pleaded guilty to a gambling charge.
Márquez claimed that his wife had accumulated a fortune, including three motels, a 63-foot yacht and a home in Great Neck, N.Y., through legitimate investments. It was later shown that the home, the yacht and motels had all been acquired prior to 1990.
In 1995, Márquez was indicted on 221 counts of running a criminal enterprise. The charges were reduced to two counts, a "C" felony for attempted enterprise corruption and "E" felony for promoting gambling.
On January 13, 1995, 500 NYPD police officers raided 69 locations, including nearly a dozen money banks, which were allegedly under the Márquez family's control. Police arrested 75 employees on felony gambling charges, confiscated over $100,000 in cash, and seized over a dozen keys to safety deposit boxes.
According to a law enforcement official, the operation was managed by his two nephews, Peter and Robert Marquez Jr., grossed between $25 and $30 million per year, and was headquartered in a row of four contiguous buildings on St. Nicholas Avenue and 113th Street which were connected by a series of doors, tunnels and trapdoors.Robert and Peter Marquez were arrested, along with their sister, Christine, and father Fernando.
On April 1996, Márquez pleaded guilty after making an agreement with District Attorney's office to forfeit $1 million and to serve a 90-day jail sentence with four years nine months of probation.
However, it was discovered by the Appeals Bureau at the D.A.'s office that a split sentence with a "C" felony was reserved only for those with a narcotics conviction, thus making the deal invalid. Marquez's lawyer sought to withdraw the guilty plea, which was denied by the court. Marquez was sentenced to five years probation and a $1 million fine.
In 1998, Marquez and three associates were indicted on 52 counts and charged with running a criminal organization, in the culmination of a year-long NYPD investigation. The prosecution built a case on circumstantial evidence consisting of recordings of Marquez's cell-phone conversations and numerous surveillance videos and photographs of him driving by reputed gambling parlors. Márquez, who was represented by his son, claimed that he was doing research on his autobiography and that was the reason that he showed up on the surveillance tapes. He and three co-defendants were all acquitted after a three month trial.
In 2001, Márquez sued the City of New York for $15 million dollars, claiming that he contracted bladder cancer caused by the secondhand cigarette smoke he inhaled at Rikers Island
and the Tombs while confined there for 29 months in the 1990s. Marquez admitted he smoked for three decades before quitting in the 1970s. His son and lawyer, David Marquez, maintained that he had not inhaled deeply when he smoked, that the ventilation system at Rikers Island was inadequate, and that by the time he went to Rikers he hadn't smoked in 23 years. In 2008, a jury rejected the claim after a trial in New York State Supreme Court.
. In an interview with the New York Daily News
, Marquez described the numbers game as "a source of entertainment to the people" and professed his innocence to the various criminal charges that had been leveled against him over the years. Prosecutors responded that Marquez's "saint act doesn't ring true" and that numbers rackets enforce their control through violence.
After his retirement, Marquez is running hotels in Commack, Long Island, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida
.
In 2011, Marquez was targeted by New York City authorities for owing $1.6 million in unincorporated business taxes, making him one of the city's top scofflaws. His son said Marquez would never pay it, saying Marquez was judgement-proof.
Puerto Rican people
A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...
descent who was considered the "king" of the illegal numbers
Numbers game
Numbers game, also known as a numbers racket, policy racket or Italian lottery, is an illegal lottery played mostly in poor neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day...
racket in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
from the 1950s until his retirement in 2001.
Early years
Márquez's parents moved from Puerto RicoPuerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in the late 1920s and settled in the Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
section of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. He was born and raised in Harlem; there he also received his primary and secondary education. His father was able to establish a grocery store, however the family economic situation was not a good one and when Márquez graduated from Textile High School in 1947, at the age of 17, his parents were unable to send him to college.
Harlem numbers racket and legal battles
In 1947, Márquez looked upon people who were prosperous, well dressed and involved in numbers activities as his role models He began his career in the Harlem numbers racket as a pickup boy. As a pick up boy, he would go around Harlem, gathering the betting slips from the runners. The runners are those who solicited the wagers from the betting customers. Márquez would then turn in the slips to a regional controller and eventually the listed slips would end up at the headquarters of the gambling organization, known as a bank. Márquez branched out for himself within a year and gained a reputation for paying winning customers promptly.Márquez had few legal scrapes during his early years. By 1958, law enforcement authorities publicly identified him as an underworld kingpin and that is when an investigator from the New York Police Department (NYPD), nicknamed him "Spanish Raymond", a moniker which has stood since then. Also in 1958, Marquez was accused in a killing related to his gambling activities. A grand jury failed to indict him for the murder. Márquez acknowledged bribing the police in the 1950s and 1960s to prevent raids on his illicit network. Marquez also was believed to have paid a percentage of his profits to Mafia boss Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno
Anthony Salerno
Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno was a New York mobster who served as front boss of the Genovese crime family to family boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante from the 1970s until his conviction in 1986...
. Marquez denied that he did business with the Mafia, and said that while he was friends with Salerno he was not a business partner.
In 1969, Márquez was arrested by the FBI on Federal gambling and extortion charges. He was convicted and sentenced to concurrent terms of three and five years imprisonment. He served a total of five years from 1970 to 1975. In 1975 he was released and continued in his former activities. This was during the post Knapp Commission era in which the NYPD was the focus of a scandal arising from pervasive corruption and the crackdown on the numbers racket was sidelined due to a moratorium on numbers gambling resulting from concerns that systemic corruption of the NYPD would continue to flourish. Protection payoffs to the police were no longer necessary.
Two years after his release from prison, in 1977, Marquez was briefly kidnapped, and was freed after payment of $8,100 in jewelry as ransom by his wife. He was found in the trunk of his car in Flushing, Queens
Flushing, Queens
Flushing, founded in 1645, is a neighborhood in the north central part of the City of New York borough of Queens, east of Manhattan.Flushing was one of the first Dutch settlements on Long Island. Today, it is one of the largest and most diverse neighborhoods in New York City...
. Marquez was identified in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
as allegedly running a $25 million a year numbers racket.
Marquez received attention in the late 1970s, when a New York State Supreme Court justice, Andrew Tyler, was convicted of perjury for allegedly lying about a meeting with Marquez in 1975. The conviction was overturned in 1978.
In April 1994, he was arrested on state gambling charges. Prosecutors claimed that he had amassed a small fortune by illegal means and that therefore said fortune should be confiscated. The indictment led to a legal battle over attempts by city authorities to seize $6.5 million from him in unpaid taxes from wealth that they say was generated by illegal activities from 1990 to 1993. The prosecutors contended that Márquez and his organization handled about $30 million a year in wagers that were made at 41 parlors and that his organization faxed the reported earnings to his wife's yacht. His wife, Alice, also pleaded guilty to a gambling charge.
Márquez claimed that his wife had accumulated a fortune, including three motels, a 63-foot yacht and a home in Great Neck, N.Y., through legitimate investments. It was later shown that the home, the yacht and motels had all been acquired prior to 1990.
In 1995, Márquez was indicted on 221 counts of running a criminal enterprise. The charges were reduced to two counts, a "C" felony for attempted enterprise corruption and "E" felony for promoting gambling.
On January 13, 1995, 500 NYPD police officers raided 69 locations, including nearly a dozen money banks, which were allegedly under the Márquez family's control. Police arrested 75 employees on felony gambling charges, confiscated over $100,000 in cash, and seized over a dozen keys to safety deposit boxes.
According to a law enforcement official, the operation was managed by his two nephews, Peter and Robert Marquez Jr., grossed between $25 and $30 million per year, and was headquartered in a row of four contiguous buildings on St. Nicholas Avenue and 113th Street which were connected by a series of doors, tunnels and trapdoors.Robert and Peter Marquez were arrested, along with their sister, Christine, and father Fernando.
On April 1996, Márquez pleaded guilty after making an agreement with District Attorney's office to forfeit $1 million and to serve a 90-day jail sentence with four years nine months of probation.
However, it was discovered by the Appeals Bureau at the D.A.'s office that a split sentence with a "C" felony was reserved only for those with a narcotics conviction, thus making the deal invalid. Marquez's lawyer sought to withdraw the guilty plea, which was denied by the court. Marquez was sentenced to five years probation and a $1 million fine.
In 1998, Marquez and three associates were indicted on 52 counts and charged with running a criminal organization, in the culmination of a year-long NYPD investigation. The prosecution built a case on circumstantial evidence consisting of recordings of Marquez's cell-phone conversations and numerous surveillance videos and photographs of him driving by reputed gambling parlors. Márquez, who was represented by his son, claimed that he was doing research on his autobiography and that was the reason that he showed up on the surveillance tapes. He and three co-defendants were all acquitted after a three month trial.
In 2001, Márquez sued the City of New York for $15 million dollars, claiming that he contracted bladder cancer caused by the secondhand cigarette smoke he inhaled at Rikers Island
Rikers Island
Rikers Island is New York City's main jail complex, as well as the name of the island on which it sits, in the East River between Queens and the mainland Bronx, adjacent to the runways of LaGuardia Airport. The island itself is part of the borough of the Bronx, though it is included as part of...
and the Tombs while confined there for 29 months in the 1990s. Marquez admitted he smoked for three decades before quitting in the 1970s. His son and lawyer, David Marquez, maintained that he had not inhaled deeply when he smoked, that the ventilation system at Rikers Island was inadequate, and that by the time he went to Rikers he hadn't smoked in 23 years. In 2008, a jury rejected the claim after a trial in New York State Supreme Court.
Retirement
Marquez announced his retirement in 2001, saying that he was fed up of being targeted by the office of Manhattan's District Attorney Robert M. MorgenthauRobert M. Morgenthau
Robert Morris Morgenthau is an American lawyer. From 1975 until his retirement in 2009, he was the District Attorney for New York County, the borough of Manhattan.-Early life:...
. In an interview with the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
, Marquez described the numbers game as "a source of entertainment to the people" and professed his innocence to the various criminal charges that had been leveled against him over the years. Prosecutors responded that Marquez's "saint act doesn't ring true" and that numbers rackets enforce their control through violence.
After his retirement, Marquez is running hotels in Commack, Long Island, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
.
In 2011, Marquez was targeted by New York City authorities for owing $1.6 million in unincorporated business taxes, making him one of the city's top scofflaws. His son said Marquez would never pay it, saying Marquez was judgement-proof.
Further reading
- Gangsters of Harlem by Ron Chepesiuk; Publisher: Barricade Books; ISBN 1569803188; ISBN 978-1569803189