American Mafia

The Mafia (Cosa Nostra)

Sicilian Mafia
Commission · Sicilian Mafia clans · Sicilian
Mafiosi

Second Mafia War · History of the Sicilian Mafia

Antimafia
Italian Antimafia Commission · Maxi Trial
American Mafia (Commission)
Mafia crime families · Italian-American crime
families
Commission member families:
Bonanno · Colombo · Gambino · Genovese ·
Lucchese · Chicago Outfit · Scarfo ·
DeCavalcante · Detroit Partnership

Castellammarese War
Chain of Command
Commission
Family (Cosca)
Don (Family head)
Consigliere (Don's advisor)
Underboss
Caporegime (Capodecina)
Soldato
Associate
Codes
Made man · Omertà · Vendetta
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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. The Italian-American Mafia continues
to dominate organized crime in the U.S[citation needed]. 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.[citation needed]

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 the Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations of the U.S. Senate Committee on Government Operations, 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 by Lucky Luciano after holding the position for only six
months).

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.

• Buffalo (Sgarioto family, headed by Nick Sgarioto)

• Chicago
• Cleveland
• Detroit
• Florida (Trafficante crime family)
• Kansas City
• Los Angeles
• New England-Providence, Boston (Patriarca family)
• New Jersey (Rota family)
• New Orleans
• The Five Families of New York (Genovese family, Gambino family,
Lucchese family, Bonanno family, Colombo family)
• Northeastern Pennsylvania (Dambro family)
• Philadelphia (Scarfo family)
• Pittsburgh
• Wilmington (DiOssi family)

Prominent Italian American mafiosi

• Joe Bonanno 'Joe Bananas': (1905–2002) First Boss of the Bonanno

Family.
• Al Capone 'Scarface': (1899–1947) Prohibition Chicago Boss.
• Paul Castellano: (1915–1985) Gambino Boss. Assassinated on the orders of
John Gotti.
• Charles Luciano 'Lucky Luciano': (1897–1962) New York Boss. Founder
of the modern American Mafia. First Boss of the Genovese Family.
• Carlo Gambino 'Don Carlo': (1902–1976) Boss and expander of the
Gambino crime family. Seen by some as the Chairman of the Commission
since 1957.
• Gaetano Gagliano 'Tommy': (1884–1951) First Boss of the Lucchese
Family.
• Joe Gallo: (1929-1972) Profaci crime family mobster who worked with
African-American gang members and started a bloody war within the
family.
• Sam Giancana: Boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1956-66.
• John Gotti 'The Dapper Don': (1940–2002) Gambino Boss. Famous for his
flamboyance and media-friendly attitude.
 • Henry Hill: (1943–present) Mob turncoat immortalized in the film
Goodfellas.
• Vincent Mangano: (1888–1951) First Boss of the Gambino Family.
• Carlos Marcello: Boss of the New Orleans crime family in the 1960s.
• Joe Profaci: (1897–1962) First Boss of the Colombo Family.
• Anthony Spilotro: (1938-1986) Intimidating Chicago Outfit enforcer,
depicted in the film Casino.
• Santo Trafficante, Jr. The most powerful mobster in Florida and Batista-era
Cuba.
• Joe Valachi 'Joe Cargo': (1903–1971) First Mafioso to turn government
informer.

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, 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.

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.

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.