Things I've learned from Wikipedia, and sometimes other places.
This is commentary. And this is really good.
"We know from Gay Talese's book Honor Thy Father that being a professional mobster isn't all sunshine and roses. More often it's the boredom of stuffy rooms and a bad diet of carry-out food, punctuated by brief, terrible bursts of violence." Roger Ebert.
"Organized Crime-- American Mafia"
"Gangs who had limited their activities to gambling and thievery before 1920 transformed into organized groups of 'bootleggers.'"
"Near the end of the 1920s, gangs had become so organized they held a national convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 5, 1928. Twenty-three bosses, all of Sicilian families, gathered from New York City, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Tampa, and Philadelphia. Capone could not attend because he was not Sicilian, but he sent representatives."
"Although mutually suspicious of one another, they discussed common interests, problems, and explored the idea of establishing a nationwide crime syndicate... In another meeting held in May 1929 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, crime bosses from around the country divided up the United States into territories. Next they established a national 'Commission,' made up of one representative from each of the country's nine territories."
"The older bosses focused on settling old vendettas..., not on making money. The winning Luciano-Lansksy faction concentrated entirely on making money and killed anyone who got in their way. This change in direction and the activation of the commission is referred to as the Americanization of the Mafia."
"Gangsters worked their way into positions of power in a labor union and then stole from the union's retirement and health funds."
"In 1957 the New York State Police accidentally uncovered a large meeting of sixty organized crime bosses at a rural home in Apalachin, New York. As police moved in the bosses ran into the New York countryside to escape. After this incident, there was no denying the existence of an American Mafia."
"In 1985 the bosses of all five Cosa Nostra crime families in New York City received prison terms of at least one hundred years, dealing a major blow to organized crime."
As opportunities developed elsewhere, skilled individuals and potential leaders "chose to attend universities and pursue lawful careers" and "the face of organized crime began to significantly change."
"Black Hand" article on Wikipedia
"The roots of the Black Hand can be traced to the Kingdom of Naples as early as the 1750s."
"Established by Italian immigrants in the United States during the 1880s who, though fluent in their Southern Italian regional dialects, had no access to Standard Italian or even a grammar school education."
"In 1907, a Black Hand headquarters was discovered in Hillsville, Pennsylvania, a village located a few miles west of New Castle, Pennsylvania. The Black Hand in Hillsville established a school designed to train members in the use of the stiletto. Although more successful immigrants were usually targeted, possibly as many as 90% of Italian immigrants and workmen in New York and other communities were threatened with extortion."
"Typical Black hand tactics involved sending a letter to a victim threatening bodily harm, kidnapping, arson, or murder. The letter demanded a specified amount of money to be delivered to a specific place. It was decorated with threatening symbols like a smoking gun, hangman's noose, skull, or knife dripping with blood or piercing a human heart, and was in many instances, signed with a hand, 'held up in the universal gesture of warning', imprinted or drawn in thick black ink."
"Mafia in the United States"
"The American Mafia, an Italian-American organized-crime network with operations in cities across the United States, particularly in New York and Chicago, rose to power through its success in the illicit liquor trade during the 1920s Prohibition era."
"During the late 19th century and early 20th century, waves of Italians, mostly farmers, craftsmen and unskilled laborers, flocked to America... In New York City alone, the number of Italians soared from 20,000 to 250,000 between 1880 and 1890, and by 1920, that number had jumped to 500,000 immigrants and first-generation Italian Americans, or one-tenth of the city's population."
Some members of the Sicilian Mafia fled from Mussolini's government during the Prohibition, combining with more native Italian gangs in the United States, producing a slightly synthetic culture.
"In the late 1920s, a bloody power struggle known as the Castellammarese War broke out between New York City's two biggest Italian-American criminal gangs. In 1931, after the faction led by Sicilian-born crime boss Salvatore Maranzano (1886-1931) came out on top, he crowned himself the 'capo di tutti capi,' or boss of all bossess, in New York. Unhappy with Maranzano's power grab, a rising mobster named Lucky Luciano (1897-1962) had him murdered that same year. Luciano then masterminded the formation of a central organization called the Commission to serve as a sort of national board of directors for the American Mafia, which by then consisted of at least 20 crime families across the country. New York, which had become America's organized-crime capital, had been divided into five main Mafia families; everywhere else the Mafia operated, there was just one crime family per city. The Commission's role was to set policies and mediate disagreements among the families. Each of the five New York families received a vote on the Commission when it was established, while the heads of the families in Chicago and Buffalo also got one vote each."
"Typically, each American Mafia crime family was organized around a hierarchy headed by a boss, who ruled with unquestioned authority and received a cut of every money-making operation taken on by any member of his family. Second in command was the underboss and below him were the capos, or captains, who each controlled a crew of 10 or so soldiers... Each family also had a consigliere, who acted as an advisor and ombudsman. At the bottom of the chain were associates, people who worked for or did business with the family but weren't full-fledged members."
"Italian heritage was a prerequisite for every inductee (although some crime families required such lineage only from the father's side) and men often, though not always, had to commit a murder before they could be made."
After 1933, "the Mafia moved beyond bootlegging and into a range of underworld activities, from illegal gambling to loan-sharking to prostitution rings. The Mafia also sunk its tentacles into labor unions and legitimate businesses, including construction, garbage collection, trucking, restaurants and nightclubs and the New York garment industry... By the mid-20th century, the 24 known crimes families in America, comprised of an estimated 5,000 full-fledged members and thousands of associates across the country. Prior to the 1960s, some government leaders, including FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, voiced skepticism about the existence of a national Italian-American organized crime network and suggested instead that crime gangs operated strictly on a local level."
Among other factors, "Mafia membership declined as insular Italian-American neighborhoods, once a traditional recruiting ground for mobsters, underwent demographic shifts and became more assimilated into society at large. By the start of the 21st century, the American Mafia was a shadow of its former self. However... contributing to the Mafia's continuing survival may be the fact that following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America, significant resources devoted to investigating organized crime (which had already seen cuts prior to 9/11) were shifted to counterterrorism work."
"Mafia in America"
"In the year 1963, Joseph Valachi became the first American Cosa Nostra member who broke the Omerta to provide a detailed look at the inside of the organization. Having been recruited by the FBI and testifying before the US Senate McClellan Committee, he exposed the name, structure, power bases, codes, swearing-in ceremony, and members of this organization."
"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."
"The initiation ritual emerged from various sources, such as Roman Catholic confraternities and Masonic Lodges in the 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 symbolizing the annihilation of traitors."
"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."
"History of the Mafia"
"Another theory of the origin of 'mafia' begins as early as the 9th century. During that period, Sicily was ruled by Arab forces. The original inhabitants were oppressed, and desperately tried to escape and find refuge. In Arabic, the word 'mafia' means, 'refuge.' Sicily was invaded by the Normans in the 11th century and its people were forced into labor and oppression once again. Every invasion of Sicily thereafter, (French invasion in the 12th century, Spanish in the 13th century, then Germans, Austrians, and Greeks) resulted in native tribes seeking refuge in the hills of the island. The refugees eventually developed a secret society of unification intended to create a sense of family, based on Sicilian heritage. The structure of the organization was built on the idea of family and had a strong hierarchical make up. The 'dons' were the family heads, in charge of the mafia in every village. They had to report to the 'don of dons', who lived in Palermo, the capital of Sicily."
A few random pieces on members of the Chicago Outfit
Joseph Andriacchi was called the Sledgehammer "because of his unsubtle ways as a safe cracker" and the Builder.
Donald Angelini was called The Wizard of Odds.
Charles "Babe" Baron "shot and killed [James Walsh] following a prize fight in 1929."
"By age 2 [Samuel Sammuzzo 'Samoots'] Amatuna had several bank accounts and held interests in various legitimate businesses. Earning the reputation of a 'dandy,' Amatuna was seen attending operas with Angelo and other gunmen, often wearing valuable diamond studs and cufflinks... Amatuna was said to have a pleasant tenor voice and often engaged in singing for his friends and on occasion played short violin compositions. Confident that he was safe in the Bluebird [Cafe, which he owned], Amatuna never wore his two guns there. He once boasted to reporters 'No one can shoot me in here. This place is full of my friends. Any guy who would hurt me here would be torn apart by my patrons.'... The remaining Gemma Brothers later commented that Amatuna's death was inevitable after he began hiring non-Sicilian bodyguards disregarding tradition."
"Ralph [Capone] was placed in charge of the Chicago Outfit's bottling plants during the Prohibition. The Outfit was attempting to monopolize non-alcoholic beverages and soft drinks (specifically ginger ale and soda water, commonly used in mixed drinks) during this period when the sale of alcohol was banned. Ralph Capone made large profits for the Outfit and became the dominant soft drink vendor other than Coca-Cola during the 1933 World's Fair."
"Michael Corbitt was born to an Irish American family in Chicago, Illinois. After... several years in a Roman Catholic parochial school, he was transferred to public school at age 9. He would later recall that, without a Catholic school uniform to hide behind, it was obvious just how poor his family was."
"In 1981 the Chicago Outfit was out of control. Tocco's crew had taking [sic] killing to a whole new level, so that whacking a guy didn't mean anything anymore. Forget finesse or discretion. Under cover of night or in broad daylight, it didn't matter. If they had a job to do, they did it. Guys were dropping like flies, the chop shop owners were still taking a beating, and the police departments were starting to look more like Outfit crews than crime fighters." Michael J. Corbitt
"[Dominic] Cortina never was associated with the violent faction of organized crime. In fact, he and Angelini were known for not strong-arming clients but instead for treating them politely. In some cases, the prosecutors said, the duo even suggested that their clients give up gambling for their own well-being."
"[William] Daddano [Sr.] has been described as a 'ruthless and pitiless killer' who was refined in torture with ice picks and blowtorches, keeping victims alive for hours while torturing them... Daddano also had the responsibility to know who every Chicago burglar was, so that the Chicago Outfit could take a 'street tax ("Tribute")' percentage of everything he stole."
"[Jack] McGurn [born Vincenzo Antonio Gibaldi] grew up in the Chicago slums where he later took up a career in boxing as a teenager and changed his name to 'Battling' Jack McGurn because boxers with Irish names got the better bookings."
Garlic was believed by some mobsters to cause infections, according to the article on Lawrence Mangano.
As described in the article on John Factor, a "cold" gang war is one that is "fought in criminal courts, media, and civil courts."
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