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American Mafia
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The American Mafia (usually called simply the mafia within the United States; also known as La Cosa Nostra) is an Italian-American criminal society and offshoot of the Sicilian Mafia. It emerged on the East Coast of the United States during the late 19th century following waves of Sicilian and Southern Italian emigration.
According to FBI investigations and the testimony of former members, there are thought to be five main New York City Mafia families: the Gambino, Lucchese, Genovese, Bonanno and Colombo families.
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Encyclopedia
The American Mafia (usually called simply the mafia within the United States; also known as La Cosa Nostra) is an Italian-American criminal society and offshoot of the Sicilian Mafia. It emerged on the East Coast of the United States during the late 19th century following waves of Sicilian and Southern Italian emigration.
According to FBI investigations and the testimony of former members, there are thought to be five main New York City Mafia families: the Gambino, Lucchese, Genovese, Bonanno and Colombo families. The Italian-American Mafia continues to dominate organized crime in the U.S. It uses this status to maintain control over much of Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Providence, New Jersey and New York City's organized criminal activity, as well as criminal activity in other cities in the Northeastern United States and across the country, such as Las Vegas, New Orleans, St. Louis, Miami, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Seattle, Kansas City and many others.
The Italian-American Mafia has its roots in the Sicilian Mafia, but has been a separate organization in the United States for many years. Neapolitan, Calabrian, and other Southern Italian criminal groups merged with the Sicilian Mafia to create the modern pan-Italian Mafia in North America. Today, the Italian-American Mafia cooperates in various criminal activities with different Italian organized crime groups other than just the Sicilian Mafia, such as Camorra and Ndrangheta, which are headquartered in Italy.
In 1986, according to government reports, it was estimated that there are 1,700 members of "Cosa Nostra" and thousands of associate members. Reports also are said to include the Italian-American Mafia as the largest organized crime group in the United States and continues to hold dominance over the National Crime Syndicate, despite the increasing numbers of street gangs and other organizations of neither Italian nor Sicilian ethnicity. Many members refer to the Italian Mafia as the "original Mafia", although it was neither the oldest criminal organization, nor the first to act in the U.S.
The Italian American-Cosa Nostra is most active in the New York metropolitan area, Philadelphia, New England (see the Patriarca crime family), Detroit (see the Detroit Partnership), and Chicago (see the Chicago Outfit), but there are actually around 26 Cosa Nostra family cities around the United States, with many more offshoot and splinter groups as well as associates in other cities..
History
Origins: The Black Hand
Mafia groups in the United States first became influential in the New York City area, gradually progressing from small neighborhood operations in poor Italian ghettos to citywide and eventually international organizations. The American Mafia started with La Mano Nera, "The Black Hand", extorting Italians (and other immigrants) around New York city. Black Hand gangsters would threaten them by mail if their extortion demands were not met. The threats were sometimes marked with a hand-print in black ink at the bottom of the page. As more Sicilian gangsters immigrated to the U.S., they expanded their criminal activities from extortion to loan-sharking, prostitution, drugs and alcohol, robbery, kidnapping, and murder. Many poor Italian immigrants embraced the Mafia as a possible way of gaining power and rising out of the poverty and anti-Italianism they experienced in America.
Giuseppe Esposito was the first known Sicilian Mafia member to emigrate to the United States. He and six other Sicilians fled to New York after murdering eleven wealthy landowners as well as the chancellor and a vice chancellor of a Sicilian province. He was arrested in New Orleans in 1881 and extradited to Italy.
New Orleans was also the site of the first Mafia incident in the United States that received both national and international attention. On October 15 1890, New Orleans Police Superintendent David Hennessey was murdered execution-style. It is still unclear whether Italian immigrants actually killed him or whether it was a frame-up against the feated underclass immigrants. Hundreds of Sicilians were arrested on mostly baseless charges, and nineteen were eventually indicted for the murder. An acquittal followed, with rumors of bribed and intimidated witnesses. The outraged citizens of New Orleans organized a lynch mob and proceeded to kill eleven of the nineteen defendants. Two were hanged, nine were shot, and the remaining eight escaped. The lynching was the largest mass lynching in American history..
In the 1910s and 1920s in New York City, the Sicilian Mafia developed into the Five Points Gang. In Chicago, the 19th Ward, which was an Italian neighborhood, became known as the "Bloody Nineteenth" due to the frequent violence in the ward, mostly as a result of Mafia activity, feuds, and vendettas.
The rising: the Prohibition
Mafia activities were restricted until 1920, when they exploded because of the introduction of Prohibition. Al Capone's syndicate in the 1920s ruled Chicago.
By the end of the 1920s, two factions of organized crime had emerged, causing the Castellammarese War for control of organized crime in New York City. With the murder of Joseph Masseria, the leader of one of the factions, the war ended uniting the two sides back into one organization now dubbed Cosa Nostra. Salvatore Maranzano, the first leader of American Mafia, was himself murdered within six months, and Charles "Lucky" Luciano became the new leader. Maranzano had established the code of conduct for the organization, set up the "family" divisions and structure, and established procedures for resolving disputes. Luciano set up the "Commission" to rule their activities. The Commission included bosses from six or seven families.
Post World War II
In 1951, a U.S. Senate Committee, led by Democratic Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver, determined that a "sinister criminal organization" known as the Mafia operated around the United States and that it had with ties to the USSR. There is, however, no evidence that the USSR worked with the American Mafia.
In 1957, the New York State Police uncovered a meeting of major American Cosa Nostra figures from around the country in the small upstate New York town of Apalachin (Near Waverly, NY, Tioga Count). This gathering has become known as the Apalachin Conference. Many of the attendees were arrested, and this event was the catalyst that changed the way law enforcement battled organized crime.
In 1963, Joseph Valachi became the first American Cosa Nostra member to provide a detailed look at the inside of the organization. Having been recruited by FBI special agents, and testifying before the US Senate McClellan Committee, Valachi exposed the name, structure, power bases, codes, swearing-in ceremony, and members of this organization. All of this had been secret up to this point.
Today, Cosa Nostra is involved in a broad spectrum of illegal activities. These include murder, extortion, drug trafficking, corruption of public officials, gambling, infiltration of legitimate businesses, labor racketeering, loan sharking, prostitution, pornography, tax fraud schemes, and most notably today, stock manipulation schemes.
Union corruption
In the mid-20th century, the Mafia was reputed to have infiltrated many labor unions in the United States, notably the Teamsters, whose president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared and is widely believed to have been murdered by Mateo Bari, enforcer for the Cleveland crime family. In the 1980s, the United States federal government made a determined effort to remove Mafia influence from labor unions.
Structure
The Mafia had eventually expanded to twenty-six crime families nationwide in the major cities of the United States, with the center of organized crime based in New York and its surrounding areas. After many turf wars, the Five Families ended up dominating New York, named after prominent early members: the Bonanno family, the Colombo family, the Gambino family, the Genovese family, and the Lucchese family. These families held underground conferences with other mafia notables like Joe Porrello from Cleveland, and other gang leaders, such as Al Capone.
- Boss—The head of the family, usually reigning as a dictator, sometimes called the don or "godfather". The Boss receives a cut of every operation taken on by every member of his family. Depending on the family, the Boss may be chosen by a vote from the Caporegimes of the family. In the event of a tie, the Underboss(es) must vote. In the past, all the members of a family voted on the Boss, but by the late 1950s, any gathering such as that usually attracted too much attention. In practice many of these elections are foregone conclusions such as that of John Gotti in 1986. According to Sammy Gravano a meeting was held in a basement during which all capos were searched and Gotti's men stood ominously behind him. He was then acclaimed boss.
- Underboss—The Underboss, usually appointed by the Boss, is the second in command of the family. The Underboss is in charge of all of the Capos, who are controlled by the Boss. The Underboss is usually first in line to become Acting Boss if the Boss is imprisoned or dies. An acting underboss is sometimes named if the incumbent is incarcerated.
- Consigliere—The Consigliere is an advisor to the family and sometimes seen as the Boss's "right-hand man". They are used as a mediator of disputes, representatives or aides in meetings with other families. In practice today the consigliere is normally the third ranking member of the administration of a family and does not necessarily need to be senior in age or experience for advisory purposes.
- Caporegime (or Capo)—A Capo (also Captain or Skipper) is in charge of a crew. Each crew usually contains 10-20 soldiers and many more associates. A capo is appointed by the boss and reports to him or the underboss. A captain gives a percentage of his (and his underlings) earnings to the boss and is also responsible for any tasks assigned, including murder. In labor racketeering it is usually a capo who controls the infiltration of union locals.
- Soldato (Italian for Soldier)—A Soldato is a member of the family, and can only be of Italian background (although a few families, including the Gambinos, require men to be of only half Italian descent on their father's side). Once a member is made he is untouchable, meaning a sitdown involving the soldier's capo and boss must be held before he is murdered. When the books are open, meaning that there is an open spot in the family, a Capo (or several Capos) may recommend an up-and-coming associate to be a new member. They are also called made men, who have made their bones, by committing a murder in front of Mafia witnesses or committed a murder by orders from a high member of the family (a Capo, an Underboss, a Consigliere or Boss). This ensures the soldier's reliability: he will never testify against a man who could testify against him. Being made is the beginning but not the end of a Mafia career. (The definitions of made man and making one's bones are inferred: Most books on the Mafia—fiction or nonfiction—assume these terms but never define them.)
- Associate—An Associate is not a member of the mob, and an Associate's role is more similar to that of an errand boy. They are usually a go-between or sometimes deal in drugs to keep the heat off the actual members, or they are people the family does business with (restaurant owners, etc.). In other cases, an associate might be a corrupt labor union delegate or businessman. Non-Italians will never go any further than this. However, occasionally an associate will become powerful within his own family, for example Joe Watts, a close associate of John Gotti.
The American Mafia's organizational structure and system of control were created by Salvatore Maranzano (who became the first "capo di tutti capi" in the US, though he was killed after holding the position for only six months, by Lucky Luciano).
Most recently there have been two new positions in the family leadership: the family messenger and Street Boss. These positions were created by former Genovese leader Vincent Gigante.
Each faction was headed by a caporegime, who reported to the boss. When the boss made a decision, he never issued orders directly to the soldiers who would carry it out, but instead passed instructions down through the chain of command. In this way, the higher levels of the organization were effectively insulated from incrimination if a lower level member should be captured by law enforcement. This structure is depicted in Mario Puzo's famous novel The Godfather. In The Godfather: Part II, These links are called "buffers": they provide what the intelligence community calls plausible deniability.
Rituals
The initiation ritual emerged from various sources, such as Roman Catholic confraternities and Masonic Lodges in mid-nineteenth century Sicily and has hardly changed to this day. The Chief of Police of Palermo in 1875 reported that the man of honor to be initiated would be led into the presence of a group of bosses and underbosses. One of these men would prick the initiate's arm or hand and tell him to smear the blood onto a sacred image, usually a saint. The oath of loyalty would be taken as the image was burned and scattered, thus symbolising the annihilation of traitors. This was confirmed by the first pentito, Tommaso Buscetta.
A hit, or assassination, of a "made" man had to be preapproved by the leadership of his family, or retaliatory hits would be made, possibly inciting a war. In a state of war, families would "go to the mattresses" —- an Italian phrase of uncertain origin which roughly meant to go into battle.
Symbolism in murders
- For allowing Joseph Pistone into the Bonanno crime family caporegime Dominick Napolitano had his hands severed. Later during the attempted murder of Joseph Ianuzzi this is what Tommy Agro attempted to do.
- As in the murder of Lucchese crime family soldier Bruno Facciolo, a dead canary was stuffed inside his mouth after he was shot to death.
American Mafia Families by city
Note that the Mafia has members, associates, and families in others cities as well. The organization is not limited to these cities. Many of these families have influence in other cities also.
Prominent Italian American mafiosi
See also: List of Italian American mobsters.
Law enforcement in the United States
Joint projects of the U.S. government and the Mafia
It is true that U. S. Naval Intelligence struck a deal with Lucky Luciano to keep the New York waterfront free from saboteurs during World War II. After the war, OSS became CIA and in Sicily, the U. S., the Christian Democrats and the Mafia established an alliance that was to last fifty years and serve the best interests of American anti-Communist foreign policy.
Assassination of foreign dignitaries
On very rare occasions, the United States government has conspired with organized crime figures to assassinate foreign heads of state. In August 1960, Colonel Sheffield Edwards, director of the CIA's Office of Security, proposed the assassination of Cuban head of state Fidel Castro by mafia assassins. Between August 1960 and April 1961, the CIA, without the help of the Mafia (who had taken the money and done nothing), pursued a series of plots to poison or shoot Castro (CIA, , p. 3, 14). Those allegedly involved included Sam Giancana, Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante, Jr., and John Roselli.
Joint ventures of Bayer and the Mafia
In 1874, heroin was originally synthesized from anhydrous morphine by the English chemist C. R. Alder Wright in London, England. Bayer Pharmaceutical in Germany marketed it from 1898 after Felix Hoffman independently re-synthesized it from anhydrous morphine. Heroin and aspirine were both Bayer trademarks and at the beginning of the 20th century, they were sold together to the general public as powerful painkillers; heroin was also included in cough medicines. The production of heroin was about a ton per year. Bayer stopped making heroin in 1913, after it was found highly addictive and by 1919, its prescription was forbidden by law. By then, there were thousands of addicts in the streets and they fell in the hands of illegal drug dealers like Lucky Luciano who, by 1925, ran New York's heroin traffic.
The FBI and the Mafia
Tolson and Hoover were the FBI Gay Couple and it has been conjectured that the Mafia must have had photographic evidence of the Director's homosexual inclinations, virtually blackmailing him at a time (before 1969) when homosexuality was anathema; otherwise, why should the director declare openly "there's no organized crime in America" when all the evidence showed otherwise.
KGB and the Mafia
Head of KGB Andropov gave orders to infiltrate the Mafia and recruit in its ranks Americans of Italian descent, the purpose being only one of surveillance.
Law Enforcement and the Mafia
In several Mafia families, killing a state authority is forbidden due to the possibility of extreme police retaliation. In some rare strict cases, conspiring to commit such a murder is punishable by death. The Jewish mobster Dutch Schultz was reportedly killed by his Italian peers out of fear that he would carry out a plan to kill New York City prosecutor Thomas Dewey. The Mafia did carry out hits on law enforcement in its earlier history. New York police officer Joe Petrosino was shot by Sicilian mobsters while on duty in Sicily. A statue of him was later erected across the street from a Lucchese hangout.
The RICO Act passed in 1970 made it a crime to belong to an organization that performed illegal acts, and it created programs such as the witness protection program. The Act only began to come into frequent use during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Charges of racketeering convicted scores of mobsters including two of New York's Godfathers (Anthony Corallo and Carmine Persico) during the Commission Case in 1985. (Although one of the convicted, Anthony 'Fat Tony' Salerno, was thought of as the Genovese Godfather, he was only the Underboss.) The Act continued to be used to great effect up to the end of the 20th century and hurt the Mob severely. The establishment of the United States Organized Crime Strike Force made it more possible to find and prosecute the Mafia.
The Strike Force was established in the 1960s through a joint congressional effort led by Robert Kennedy. It was under the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Labor. It was later disbanded at the national level, but continues at the state and local level today. It was responsible for investigating and eventually helping to bring down high-level Mafiosos such as Joseph Aiuppa of the Chicago Outfit, Anthony Salerno of the Genovese Family of New York and Paul Castellano of the Gambino Family. Also, the Strike Force took down and cleaned up much of the Organized Crime in The Teamsters across the country.
The Mafia is still the dominant organized crime group in the United States, despite the success of RICO. According to Selwyn Raab, author of Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires, after 9/11 the FBI has redirected most of its attention to finding terrorists.
In popular culture
- The American branch of the Mafia has provided the setting and characters for many well-regarded films. These include:
- Little Caesar
- Scarface, 1932 film loosely based on Al Capone(not to be confused with the 1983 Al Pacino film of the same name which was not about the Italian Mafia).
- The Godfather Trilogy, a series of films about the New York mob, the first two films often regarded as some of the greatest ever films
- The Untouchables, 1987 film telling the story of Elliot Ness and his fight against Capone
- Goodfellas, telling the story of mobster Henry Hill
- A Bronx Tale, the story of a young man growing up in a mafia neighborhood
- Casino, about Mafia activity in Las Vegas
- Donnie Brasco, about Joseph Pistone's infiltration of the mob
- Analyze This, a comedy where a mafia boss sees a psychiatrist to help him with his problems
- Brooklyn Rules, Mafia crime drama based on young men growning up on the low side of New york city
- American mafiosi also appear in supporting roles in many other films mostly in the crime genre, such as True Romance, The Departed, American Gangster, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight
- The Sopranos is a highly acclaimed television series about a mafia boss (played by James Gandolfini) and his balancing between his home and criminal lives.
- Mafia gangsters have also appeared in several video games, notably the Grand Theft Auto series, where the player encounters mafia members and may do missions for them.
- The Mafia is also the topic of many popular novels, most notably in the work of author Mario Puzo, which includes The Godfather, The Last Don, and Omerta, and also in James Ellroy's American Underworld Trilogy.
See also
Sources
- Arlacchi, Pino (1988). Mafia Business. The Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-285197-7
- Chubb, Judith (1989). , Cornell Studies in International Affairs, Occasional Papers No. 23.
- Servadio, Gaia (1976), Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day, London: Secker & Warburg ISBN 0-436-44700-2
External links
Further reading
- Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
- United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field Publication. Investigation of Improper Activities in the Labor Or Management Field, 1959.
- United States. Congress. Senate. Commerce. Effects of organized criminal activity on interstate and foreign commerce. 1972.
- United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Organized Crime and Use of Violence: hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. 1980.
- United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Organized Crime. For sale by the Supt. of Docs., Congressional Sales Office, U.S. G.P.O., 1988.
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