American Mafia

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The American Mafia (also known as American Cosa Nostra or Italian-American Mafia) 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 (see also Italian diaspora). In North America, the Mafia often refers to Italian organized crime in general, rather than just traditional Sicilian organized crime. For example the five main Mafia families include Gambino, Lucchese, Genovese, Bonanno and Colombo crime families with only Italian-American made members.

The Italian American Mafia continues to dominate organized crime in the U.S. It uses this status to maintain control over much of both Chicago's, Boston, Providence, and New York City's organized criminal activity, as well as criminal activity in other cities in the Northeast and across the country, such as Philadelphia, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and many others. The Mafia and its reputation have become entrenched in American popular culture, being portrayed in movies, TV shows, commercial advertising and video games.

The Italian American Mafia, specifically the Five Families of New York, has its roots in the Sicilian Mafia, but has been a separate organization in the United States for many years. 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.[1].

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Origins: The Black Hand

Main article: Black Hand (blackmail)

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.[2].

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.

[edit] The rising: the Prohibition

Charles "Lucky" Luciano, one of the most infamous American bosses
Charles "Lucky" Luciano, one of the most infamous American bosses

Mafia activities were restricted until 1920, when they exploded because of the introduction of the 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 Castellamarese 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.

[edit] Post World War II

In 1951, a U.S. Senate Committee, led by Democratic Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver, determined that a "sinister criminal organization", with ties to the USSR, also known as the Mafia operated around the United States. 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. 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 battles 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.

[edit] Union corruption

Jimmy Hoffa
Jimmy Hoffa

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.

[edit] 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. All "made members" must be of an Italian background.

  • 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.[3]
  • 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. There are normally no more than two or three Underbosses in a family, if there's more than one at all.
  • Consigliere—The Consigliere is an advisor to the family and sometimes seen as the Boss's "right-hand man". They are often low profile gangsters that can be trusted. They are used as a mediator of disputes or representatives or aides in meetings with other families. They often keep the family looking as legitimate as possible and are sometimes, themselves, legitimate apart from some minor gambling or loan sharking. Some do not have crews of their own, but still wield great power in the family. They are also often the liaison between the Don and important 'bought' figures, such as politicians or Judges.
  • Caporegime (or Capo)—A Capo (sometimes called a Captain) is in charge of a crew. There are usually four to six crews in each family, possibly even seven to nine crews, each one consisting of up to ten Soldiers. Capos run their own small family but must follow the limitations and guidelines created by the Boss, as well as pay him his cut of their profits. Capos are nominated by the Underboss, but typically chosen by the Boss himself.
  • Soldier—Soldiers are members 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). Soldiers start as Associates that have proven themselves. 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. In the case that there is only one slot and multiple recommendations, the Boss will decide. The new member usually becomes part of the Capo's crew that recommended him. Some soldiers work by themselves, earning money for the Family alone though most are part of crews. Sometimes a soldier will be called a button man, because, in theory, when a capo presses a button, someone dies. 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.)[citation needed]
  • 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.[4] 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.

[edit] Rituals

The initiation ritual emerged from various sources, such as Catholic confraternities and Masonic Lodges in mid-nineteenth century Sicily[5] 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 — rent vacant apartments and have a number of soldiers sleeping on mattresses on the floor in shifts, with the others ready at the windows to fire at members of rival families.

[edit] Symbolism in murders

  • There are many symbolic deeds done during certain gangland executions that are requested by the don. 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.
  • A mobster who was thought to be skimming from gambling profits was shot dead and found with a twenty-dollar bill shoved into his rectum.
  • An associate gave a powerful capo in the Colombo crime family the middle finger and although his life was spared, his middle fingers were severed by a dull knife and sent to him preserved in vinegar in a hollowed out monkey's head.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Prominent Italian American mafiosi

See also: List of Italian American mobsters.

[edit] Law enforcement in the United States

[edit] Joint projects of the U.S. government and the Mafia

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, Inspector General's Report on Efforts to Assassinate Fidel Castro, p. 3, 14). Those allegedly involved included Sam Giancana, Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante, Jr., and John Roselli.

[edit] 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 has been known to carry out hits on law enforcement in its earlier history. New Orleans police officer Joe Petrosino was shot by Sicilian mobsters in the United States. A statue of him was later erected across the street from a Luchhese hangout.[6]

The RICO Act of the 1960s 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 70's and early 80's. Charges of racketeering convicted scores of mobsters including 2 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 United States Organized Crime Strike Force was established in the 1960s by a joint congressional effort led by Robert Kennedy. The United States Organized Crime Strike Force was under the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Labor. It was disbanded at the National Level, but continues at the state and local level today. It was jointly 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,

However 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, which contributed to a resurgence of Mafia activity in the U.S.

[edit] See also

[edit] In Film


[edit] References

  1. ^ Rick Porrello's AmericanMafia.com - 26 Mafia Families and Their Cities
  2. ^ Welcome to the Best of New Orleans! Blake Pontchartrain 03 02 04
  3. ^ Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002
  4. ^ Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002
  5. ^ "Mafia's arcane rituals, and much of the organization's structure, were based largely on those of the Catholic confraternities and even Freemasonry, colored by Sicilian familial traditions and even certain customs associated with military-religious orders of chivalry like the Order of Malta." The Mafia from bestofsicily.com
  6. ^ Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires
  • 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). The Mafia and Politics, 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

[edit] External links