Bravado gambling -
Gravano had dyslexia , was bullied, and did poorly in school. He was held back from grade advancement on two occasions, the 4th and 7th grades, and also punched school officials on two occasions.
In , Gravano was drafted into the United States Army and served in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. While an enlisted man, Gravano mainly worked as a mess hall cook. He rose to the rank of corporal and was granted an honorable discharge after two years.
In , Gravano married Debra Scibetta; they had two children. Later in his mob career, Gravano was ordered to help arrange the murder of his brother-in-law, Nicholas Scibetta.
The Mafia had a longstanding presence in Bensonhurst via the Profaci family, which evolved into the Colombo family. Despite his father's attempts to dissuade him, Gravano, like many of his Ramper colleagues, drifted into the Cosa Nostra.
He first became associated with the Cosa Nostra in through his friend Tommy Spero , whose Uncle Shorty also named Tommy Spero was an associate of the Colombo family under future boss, Carmine "The Snake" Persico. Gravano became a particular favorite of family boss Carmine Persico , who used Gravano to picket the FBI Manhattan headquarters as part of Joe Columbo Italian-American Civil Rights League initiative.
In , Gravano committed his first murder—that of Joseph Colucci, a fellow Spero associate with whose wife Tommy Spero was having an affair. As that Beatles song played, I became a killer.
Joe Colucci was going to die. I was going to kill him because he was plotting to kill me and Shorty Spero. I felt the rage inside me. Everything went in slow motion. I could almost feel the bullet leaving the gun and entering his skull. It was strange and deafening. I didn't hear the first shot.
I didn't see any blood. His head didn't seem to move. I then shot him a second time I felt like I was a million miles away, like this was all a dream.
The Colucci murder won respect and approval from Persico for Gravano. In the early s, Colombo soldier Ralph Spero, brother of Shorty, became envious of Gravano's success, fearing that he would become a made man before his son, Tommy.
After Ronga's death, a rumor had spread that Gravano had attempted to pick up Ronga's widow Sybil Davies at a bar, though Gravano maintained that Davies was the one hitting on him.
Ralph Spero used this rumor in an attempt to gain support to have Gravano killed, or as an excuse to kill Gravano himself. While Shorty Spero believed Gravano rather than Ralph, [9] he and the Colombo hierarchy decided that to avoid conflict, it was best for Gravano to be transferred to the Gambino crime family.
Now with the Gambinos, Gravano became an associate of capo Salvatore "Toddo" Aurello. Aurello quickly took a liking to Gravano and became his mob mentor. He quit his construction job and went on a self-described "robbing rampage" for a year and a half alongside his Goombata Alexander "Allie Boy" Cuomo.
Gravano later said of this legal problem:. That pinch [arrest] changed my whole life. I never, ever stopped a second from there on in. I was like a madman. Never stopped stealing. Never stopped robbing. I was obsessed. Gravano's robbery spree impressed Aurello, who proposed him for membership in the Gambino family soon after the membership books were reopened.
In , Gravano was formally initiated into the Gambino family as a made man , along with Toddo's son, Charlie Boy Aurello. Sammy and Charlie Boy had been friends since they were kids.
In , boss Paul Castellano allegedly ordered the murder of Gambino associate Nicholas Scibetta. A cocaine and alcohol user, Scibetta participated in several public fights and insulted the daughter of George DeCicco. Since Scibetta was Gravano's brother-in-law, Castellano asked Frank DeCicco to first notify Gravano of the impending hit.
When advised of Scibetta's fate, Gravano was furious. However, Gravano was eventually calmed by DeCicco and accepted Scibetta's death as the punishment earned by his behavior. I took an oath that Cosa Nostra came before everything.
Gravano later opened an afterhours club in Bensonhurst , called The Bus Stop. The bar was the scene of a violent altercation one night, involving a rowdy biker gang intent on ransacking the establishment. Gravano then went to Castellano and received permission to "kill them all".
Along with Liborio "Louie" Milito, Gravano hunted down the leader, wounding him and killing another member of the gang. Like his predecessor Carlo Gambino , Castellano favored emphasizing more sophisticated schemes involving construction, trucking, and garbage disposal over traditional street-level activities such as loansharking , gambling, and hijackings.
Gravano became the operator of a popular discotheque , The Plaza Suite in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn. Gravano owned the building and used the bottom level as his business headquarters.
Gravano further proved himself to Castellano when he interceded in a civil war that had erupted within the Philadelphia crime family. In March , longtime Philadelphia boss Angelo Bruno was assassinated by his consigliere , Antonio Caponigro , and his brother-in-law Anthony Salerno , without authorization from The Commission.
The Commission summoned Caponigro to New York, where it sentenced him to death for his transgression. After Caponigro was tortured and killed, Philip Testa was installed as the new Philadelphia boss and Nicky Scarfo as consigliere.
The Commission subsequently placed contracts on Caponigro's co-conspirators, including John "Johnny Keys" Simone, who also happened to be Bruno's cousin.
The Simone contract was given to Gravano. After befriending Simone through a series of meetings, Gravano, with the assistance of Milito and D'Angelo, abducted Simone from Yardley Golf Club in Yardley, Pennsylvania part of suburban Trenton, New Jersey , and drove him to a wooded area on Staten Island.
Gravano then granted Simone's requests to die with his shoes off, in fulfillment of a promise he had made to his wife, and at the hands of a made man. After Gravano removed Simone's shoes, Milito shot Simone in the back of the head, killing him. Gravano later expressed admiration for Simone as a so-called "man's man", remarking favorably on the calmness with which he accepted his fate.
By the early s, the Plaza Suite was a thriving establishment. Before the transaction was completed, Fiala began acting like he already owned the club.
Later, after leaving the Plaza Suite, Gravano called Garafola and set up an ambush outside the club, involving Garafola, Milito, D'Angelo, Nicholas Mormando , Michael DeBatt Thomas Carbonara and Johnny Holmes in the plan. Milito stood over the body and fired a shot into each of Fiala's eyes as Fiala's entourage and the crowd of people on the street dispersed, screaming.
Gravano walked up to Fiala's body and spat on him. Although Gravano evaded criminal charges, he incurred Castellano's wrath over the unsanctioned killing. Gravano attempted to lie low for nearly three weeks afterwards, during which time he called his crew together and made the decision to kill Castellano if necessary.
Castellano had been given the details of what Fiala had done, but he was still livid that Gravano had not come to him for permission to kill Fiala first. Gravano was spared execution when he convinced Castellano that the reason he had kept him in the dark was to protect the boss in case something went wrong with the hit.
Fiala's murder posed one final problem for Gravano in the form of the Internal Revenue Service IRS. The high publicity generated by the incident triggered an IRS investigation into Gravano and Fiala's deal for the sale of the Plaza Suite and Gravano was subsequently charged with tax evasion.
Gravano was represented by Gerald Shargel and acquitted at trial. D'Angelo was later killed by a Colombo family associate celebrating his having been proposed for membership.
The killer was then murdered, himself, on orders from the Colombo family. In the aftermath of the Fiala murder, Gravano continued to focus on his construction business, branching out into the lucrative drywall industry. New York City's cement industry was controlled by four of the Five Families , which made millions of dollars by manipulating bids and steering contracts.
You want concrete poured in Manhattan? That was me. Tishman, Donald Trump, all these guys—they couldn't build a building without me. Gravano eventually became embroiled in a dispute with business partner Louie DiBono , a member of another Gambino crew.
Gravano excused the attorney and accountant and, once alone with DiBono, banged him around the room because of the scam. Putting hands on another made man is a death penalty in Cosa Nostra. DiBono told his captain, Patsy Conti , Conti then told Castellano and a sit-down was called. Dellacroce, however, was rising star John Gotti 's mentor, and when word got back to him that Dellacroce had supported Gravano, Gotti and other Gambino members were impressed.
During this time, the FBI had intensified its efforts against the Gambino family and in August , three members of Gotti's crew — Angelo Ruggiero , John Carneglia , and Gene Gotti — were indicted for heroin trafficking.
Castellano was against anyone in the family dealing narcotics. Castellano planned to kill Gene Gotti and Ruggiero if he believed they were drug traffickers.
Castellano asked Ruggiero for a copy of the government surveillance tapes that had Ruggiero's conversations. To save Gene Gotti and Ruggiero, Dellacroce stalled the demand. Eventually, one of the reasons for Gotti's killing Castellano was to save himself, his brother and Ruggiero.
The Ruggiero tapes not only had them talking about drugs, but also the bosses and commission. The FBI had bugged Ruggiero's house and telephone, and Castellano decided he needed copies of the tapes to justify his impending move to Dellacroce and the family's other capos.
When Castellano was indicted for both his connection to Roy DeMeo 's stolen car ring and as part of the Mafia Commission Trial , he learned his own house had been bugged on the basis of evidence from the Ruggiero tapes and he became livid. Dellacroce tried to convince Gotti and Ruggiero to comply if Castellano explained beforehand how he intended to use the tapes, but Ruggiero refused, fearing he would endanger good friends.
Prior to Castellano's indictment, Gravano was approached by Robert DiBernardo , a fellow Gambino member acting as an intermediary for Gotti.
DiBernardo informed him that Gotti and Ruggiero wanted to meet with him in Queens. Gravano arrived to find only Ruggiero was present. Ruggiero informed Gravano that he and Gotti were planning to murder Castellano and asked for Gravano's support. Gravano was initially noncommittal, wanting to confer first with Frank DeCicco.
In conversation with DeCicco, both men voiced concern that Castellano would designate his nephew, Thomas Gambino , acting boss and his driver, Thomas Bilotti , underboss in the event he was convicted and sent to prison. Neither man appealed to Gravano or DeCicco as leadership material, and they ultimately decided to support the hit on Castellano.
Gravano's first choice to become boss after Castellano's murder was Frank DeCicco , but DeCicco felt John Gotti's ego was too big to take a subservient role. DeCicco and Gravano made a secret pact to kill Gotti and take over the family as boss and underboss, respectively, if they were unhappy with Gotti's leadership after one year.
Armone's support was critical; he was a respected old-timer in the family, and it was believed he could help win over Castellano supporters to the new regime.
The next step was smoothing over the planned hit with the other families. It has long been a hard and fast rule in the Mafia that killing a boss is forbidden without the support of a majority of the Commission.
Indeed, Gotti's planned hit would have been the first off-the-record hit on a boss since Frank Costello was nearly killed in Knowing it would be too risky to approach the other four bosses directly, the conspirators got the support of several important mobsters of their generation in the Lucchese , Colombo and Bonanno families.
Gotti could thus claim he had the support of "off-the-record contacts" from three out of five families. Gotti, enraged that Castellano chose not to attend his mentor's wake, wasted little time in striking.
Not suspecting the plot against him, Castellano invited DeCicco to a meeting on December 16, , with fellow capos Thomas Gambino , James Failla , Johnny Gamorana and Danny Marino at Sparks Steak House in Manhattan. The conspirators considered the restaurant a prime location for the hit because the area would be packed with bustling crowds of holiday shoppers, making it easier for the assassins to blend in and escape.
At Gotti's suggestion, the shooters wore long white trench coats and black fur Russian hats , which Gravano considered a "brilliant" idea. Gotti and Gravano arrived at the restaurant shortly before 5 o'clock and, after circling the block, parked their car across the intersection and within view of the entrance.
As Castellano and Bilotti exited the Lincoln, they were ambushed and killed in a barrage of bullets. After Castellano's death, Gallo—the only surviving member of the hierarchy—convened a three-man committee to temporarily run the family, comprising himself, Gotti and DeCicco.
However, it was an open secret that Gotti was acting boss in all but name, and nearly all of the family's capos knew he had been the one behind the hit. Gotti was formally acclaimed as the new boss of the Gambino family at a meeting of 20 capos held on January 15, On April 13, , DeCicco was killed when his car was bombed following a visit to Castellano loyalist James Failla.
The bombing was carried out by Victor Amuso and Anthony Casso of the Lucchese family, under orders of Vincent Gigante and Lucchese boss Anthony Corallo , to avenge Castellano and Bilotti by killing their successors; Gotti also planned to visit Failla that day, but canceled.
The bomb was detonated after a soldier, Frankie Hearts asked DeCicco for a lawyers business card. DeCicco went to his car to retrieve the card and when he sat in the passenger seat, the bomb exploded. Bombs had long been banned by the Mafia out of concern that it would put innocent people in harm's way, leading the Gambinos to initially suspect that " zips " — Sicilian mafiosi working in the U.
The first person on Gravano's hit list after Castellano's murder was Nicholas "Nicky Cowboy" Mormando , a former member of his crew.
Mormando had become addicted to crack cocaine and was suspected by Gravano of getting friend and fellow crew member Michael DeBatt addicted to the drug. Gravano decided because of Nicky's reckless behavior, including getting DeBatt addicted to crack, he would get permission from Gotti to kill Mormando.
Gravano arranged to have Mormando murdered on his way to a meeting at Gravano's Bensonhurst restaurant, Tali's. After assuring Mormando of his safety, Gravano told him to pick up Joseph Paruta on his way. Paruta got in the backseat of the car and shot Mormando twice in the back of the head.
Mormando's corpse was then disposed of in a vacant lot, where it was discovered the next day. Gotti was imprisoned in May at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York , while awaiting trial on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act RICO charges. He relied heavily on Gravano, Angelo Ruggiero , and Joseph "Piney" Armone to manage the family 's day-to-day affairs while he called the major shots from his jail cell.
In June, Gravano was approached by Ruggiero and, supposedly at Gotti's behest, given orders to murder capo Robert DiBernardo for making negative remarks about Gotti's leadership. Gravano was friendly with DiBernardo and tried to get the murder called off until he had a chance to speak with Gotti after his trial.
Gravano met with Joseph Piney where Piney explained Gotti wanted DiBernardo dead. Ruggiero claimed to have met again with Gotti and told Gravano that the boss wanted DiBernardo killed right away.
Gravano arranged a meeting with DiBernardo where Joe Paruta, a member of Gravano's crew, shot DiBernardo twice in the back of the head as Gravano watched. Gotti's trial ultimately ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury and the boss was freed from jail.
Gravano's specific position within the family varied during and With Gotti's permission, Gravano set up several murders with other Gambino associates. In , Gotti underwent a racketeering trial. Jury selection for the racketeering case began again in August , [24] with Gotti standing trial alongside Gene "Willie Boy" Johnson who, despite being exposed as an informant, refused to turn state's evidence [25] , Leonard DiMaria , Tony Rampino , Nicholas Corozzo and John Carneglia.
At this point, the Gambinos were able to compromise the case when George Pape hid his friendship with Boško Radonjić and was empaneled as juror No. The American media dubbed Gotti "The Teflon Don" in reference to the failure of any charges to "stick".
With DeCicco dead, the Gambinos were left without an underboss. Gotti chose to fill the vacancy with Joseph Armone. In , Joseph N. Gallo was replaced with Gravano as consigliere, and by , Gravano was promoted to underboss to replace the acting underboss Frank LoCascio.
Gravano's success was not without a downside. First, his quick rise up the Gambino hierarchy attracted the attention of the FBI, and he was soon placed under surveillance. Second, he started to sense some jealousy from Gotti over the profitability of his legitimate business interests.
Gotti, Gravano and LoCascio were often recorded by the bugs placed throughout the Ravenite concealed in the main room, the first-floor hallway and the upstairs apartment of the building discussing incriminating events.
Gravano pleaded guilty to a superseding racketeering charge, and Gotti was charged with five murders Castellano, Bilotti, DiBernardo, Liborio Milito and Louis Dibono , conspiracy to murder Gaetano Vastola , loansharking , illegal gambling , obstruction of justice , bribery and tax evasion.
Based on tapes from FBI bugs played at pretrial hearings, the Gambino administration was denied bail. At the same time, attorneys Bruce Cutler and Gerald Shargel were disqualified from defending Gotti and Gravano after prosecutors successfully contended they were "part of the evidence" and thus liable to be called as witnesses.
Prosecutors argued that Cutler and Shargel not only knew about potential criminal activity, but had worked as " in-house counsel " for the Gambino family. The tapes also created a rift between Gotti and Gravano, as they contained recordings of the Gambino boss describing his newly appointed underboss as too greedy and included discussions of Gotti's intent to frame Gravano as the main force behind the murders of DiBernardo, Milito and Dibono.
Gotti and LoCascio were tried in the U. District Court for the Eastern District of New York before District Judge I. Leo Glasser. Jury selection began in January with an anonymous jury and, for the first time in a Brooklyn federal case, fully sequestered during the trial due to Gotti's reputation for jury tampering.
Gotti surrendered to federal authorities to serve his prison time on December 14, However, since Gravano had already served four years, the sentence amounted to less than one year.
Later in , Gravano was released early and entered the U. federal Witness Protection Program. The government moved him to various locations until Gravano left the program in after only 8 months and moved to Phoenix, AZ , where he assumed the name Jimmy Moran and started a swimming pool installation company.
A federal prosecutor later said that Gravano did not like the constraints of the program. It was reported that he had undergone plastic surgery to his face. In , Gravano was consulted several times for the biographical book about his life, Underboss , by author Peter Maas.
In it, Gravano said he became a government witness after Gotti attempted to defame him at their trial. Gravano finally realized that the Cosa Nostra code of honor was a sham.
At this time, Gravano also hired a publicist , despite the fact Gravano complained often about the publicity-seeking Gotti. In , New York State indicted Gravano on an old RICO case and seized Gravano's profits from the book.
During an interview Gravano had with the newspaper The Arizona Republic , he said federal agents he had met after becoming a government witness had become his personal friends and even visited him in Arizona while on vacation.
Gravano later said that he did not want The Republic to publish the story, but relented after the paper allegedly threatened to reveal that his family was living with him in Phoenix.
The story so incensed his former mob compatriots that they forced the Gambinos to put a murder contract on him.
By the late s, Gravano had re-engaged in criminal activity. His son, Gerard, became friends with year-old Michael Papa, a Devil Dogs gang leader.
In February , Gravano and nearly 40 other ring members — including his ex-wife Debra, daughter Karen, and Gerard — were arrested on federal and state drug charges. Gravano was implicated by informants in his own drug ring, as well as by recorded conversations in which he discussed drug profits with Debra and Karen.
On May 25, , Gravano pleaded guilty in a New York federal court to drug trafficking charges. In , Gravano was diagnosed with Graves' disease , a thyroid disorder that can cause fatigue , weight loss with increased appetite, and hair loss.
On September 7, , after numerous delays, Gravano was sentenced in New York to 20 years in prison. On February 24, , New Jersey state prosecutors announced Gravano's indictment for ordering the killing of NYPD detective Peter Calabro by murderer Richard Kuklinski.
In August , Gravano's request to leave prison early was denied for reasons citing his "long-standing reputation for extreme violence".
In , National Geographic Channel dramatized Gravano's ecstasy ring in a scene in the Banged Up Abroad episode "Raving Arizona", televised worldwide.
The episode told the story of ecstasy dealer "English" Shaun Attwood , who was Gravano's main competitor in the Arizona ecstasy market. Gravano was listed as being in the Arizona state prison system, at a CO Special Services unit. He was initially scheduled for release in March ; however, he was released in September 18, In December , Gravano started a YouTube channel and a podcast titled Our Thing.
Media related to Sammy Gravano at Wikimedia Commons. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Get shortened URL Download QR code Wikidata item.
Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons. American mobster. Brooklyn , New York, U. Debra Scibetta. Salvatore Sammy The Bull Gravano.
The New Yorker. New York City. There are five main New York City Mafia families, known as the Five Families : the Gambino , Lucchese , Genovese , Bonanno , and Colombo families.
The Italian-American Mafia has long dominated organized crime in the United States. Each crime family has its own territory and operates independently, while nationwide coordination is overseen by the Commission , which consists of the bosses of each of the strongest families.
Though the majority of the Mafia's activities are contained to the Northeastern United States and Chicago, they continue to dominate organized crime in the United States, despite the increasing numbers of other crime groups.
The word mafia Italian: [ˈmaːfja] derives from the Sicilian adjective mafiusu , which, roughly translated, means "swagger", but can also be translated as "boldness" or " bravado ".
In reference to a man, mafiusu mafioso in Italian in 19th-century Sicily signified "fearless", "enterprising", and "proud", according to scholar Diego Gambetta.
In North America, the Italian-American Mafia may be colloquially referred to as simply "The Mafia" or "The Mob". However, without context, these two terms may cause confusion; "The Mafia" may also refer to the Sicilian Mafia specifically or Italian organized crime in general, while "The Mob" can refer to other similar organized crime groups such as the Irish Mob or organized crime in general.
The first published account of what became the Mafia in the United States dates to the spring of The New Orleans Times reported that the city's Second District had become overrun by "well-known and notorious Sicilian murderers, counterfeiters and burglars, who, in the last month, have formed a sort of general co-partnership or stock company for the plunder and disturbance of the city.
Mafia groups in the United States first became influential in the New York metropolitan area , gradually progressing from small neighborhood operations in poor Italian ghettos to citywide and eventually national organizations.
It has been sometimes mistaken for the Mafia itself, which it is not. The Black Hand was a criminal society, but there were many small Black Hand gangs. Black Hand extortion was often wrongly viewed as the activity of a single organization, because Black Hand criminals in Italian communities throughout the United States used the same methods of extortion.
Giuseppe Esposito was the first known Mafia member to emigrate to the United States. From the s to in New York City the Five Points Gang , founded by Paul Kelly , were very powerful in the Little Italy of the Lower East Side.
Kelly recruited some street hoodlums who later became some of the most famous crime bosses of the century - such as Johnny Torrio , Al Capone , Lucky Luciano and Frankie Yale. They were often in conflict with the Jewish Eastmans of the same area.
There was also an influential Mafia family in East Harlem. The Neapolitan Camorra was very active in Brooklyn. In Chicago, the 19th Ward was an Italian neighborhood that became known as the "Bloody Nineteenth" due to the frequent violence in the ward, mostly as a result of Mafia activity, feuds , and vendettas.
New Orleans was possibly the site of the first Mafia incident in the United States that received both national and international attention. It is still unclear whether Italian immigrants actually killed him, or whether it was a frame-up by nativists against the reviled underclass immigrants.
An acquittal followed, with rumors of bribed and intimidated witnesses. Two were hanged, nine were shot, and the remaining eight escaped.
On January 16, , prohibition began in the United States with the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution making it illegal to manufacture, transport, or sell alcohol. Despite these bans, there was still a very high demand for it from the public.
This created an atmosphere that tolerated crime as a means to provide liquor to the public, even among the police and city politicians. There were over , cases of liquor shipped to the borders of U. The majority of the alcohol was imported from Canada, [23] [24] the Caribbean, and the American Midwest where stills manufactured illegal alcohol.
In the early s, fascist Benito Mussolini took control of Italy and waves of Italian immigrants fled to the United States. Sicilian Mafia members also fled to the United States, as Mussolini cracked down on Mafia activities in Italy. As a way to escape the poor lifestyle, some Italian immigrants chose to join the American Mafia.
The Mafia took advantage of prohibition and began selling illegal alcohol. The profits from bootlegging far exceeded the traditional crimes of protection, extortion, gambling, and prostitution. Prohibition allowed Mafia families to make fortunes.
The bootlegging industry organized members of these gangs before they were distinguished as today's known families. Gangs hijacked each other's alcohol shipments, forcing rivals to pay them for "protection" to leave their operations alone, and armed guards almost invariably accompanied the caravans that delivered the liquor.
In the s, Italian Mafia families began waging wars for absolute control over lucrative bootlegging rackets. As the violence erupted, Italians fought Irish and Jewish ethnic gangs for control of bootlegging in their respective territories.
In New York City, Frankie Yale waged war with the Irish American White Hand Gang. In Chicago, Al Capone and his family massacred the North Side Gang , another Irish American outfit. Maranzano then divided New York City into five families. This new role was received negatively, and Maranzano was murdered within six months on the orders of Charles "Lucky" Luciano.
Luciano was a former Masseria underling who had switched sides to Maranzano and orchestrated the killing of Masseria. As an alternative to the previous despotic Mafia practice of naming a single Mafia boss as capo di tutti capi , or "boss of all bosses", Luciano created The Commission in , [13] where the bosses of the most powerful families would have equal say and vote on important matters and solve disputes between families.
This group ruled over the National Crime Syndicate and brought in an era of peace and prosperity for the American Mafia. The Mafia thrived by following a strict set of rules that originated in Sicily that called for an organized hierarchical structure and a code of silence that forbade its members from cooperating with the police Omertà.
Failure to follow any of these rules was punishable by death. The rise of power that the Mafia acquired during prohibition would continue long after alcohol was made legal again. Criminal empires which had expanded on bootleg money would find other avenues to continue making large sums of money.
When alcohol ceased to be prohibited in , the Mafia diversified its money-making criminal activities to include both old and new : illegal gambling operations, loan sharking , extortion , protection rackets , drug trafficking, fencing , and labor racketeering through control of labor unions.
In New York City, most construction projects could not be performed without the Five Families ' approval. In the port and loading dock industries, the Mafia bribed union members to tip them off to valuable items being brought in. Mobsters would then steal these products and fence the stolen merchandise.
Meyer Lansky made inroads into the casino industry in Cuba during the s while the Mafia was already involved in exporting Cuban sugar and rum. One estimate of the number of casinos mobsters owned was no less than investment in the country, putting an end to the Mafia's presence in Cuba.
Las Vegas was seen as an "open city" where any family can work. Once Nevada legalized gambling, mobsters were quick to take advantage and the casino industry became very popular in Las Vegas.
Since the s, Mafia families from New York, Cleveland, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Chicago had interests in Las Vegas casinos. They got loans from the Teamsters ' pension fund, a union they effectively controlled, and used legitimate front men to build casinos.
Operating in the shadows, the Mafia faced little opposition from law enforcement. Local law enforcement agencies did not have the resources or knowledge to effectively combat organized crime committed by a secret society they were unaware existed.
Senate committee called the Kefauver Hearings determined that a "sinister criminal organization" known as the Mafia operated in the nation. In , New York State Police uncovered a meeting and arrested major figures from around the country in Apalachin, New York.
The event dubbed the " Apalachin Meeting " forced the FBI to recognize organized crime as a serious problem in the United States and changed the way law enforcement investigated it. More importantly, he revealed the Mafia's existence to the law, which enabled the Federal Bureau of Investigation to begin an aggressive assault on the Mafia's National Crime Syndicate.
The FBI put a lot more effort and resources into organized crime activities nationwide and created the Organized Crime Strike Force in various cities.
While all this created more pressure on the Mafia, it did little, however, to curb its criminal activities. Progress was made by the beginning of the s, when the FBI was able to rid Las Vegas casinos of Mafia control and made a determined effort to loosen the Mafia's stronghold on labor unions.
By the late s, the Mafia were involved in many industries, [13] including betting on college sports. Several Mafia members associated with the Lucchese crime family participated in a point shaving scandal involving the Boston College basketball team.
Rick Kuhn, Henry Hill , and others associated with the Lucchese crime family, manipulated the results of the games during the — basketball season. Through bribing and intimidating several members of the team, they ensured their bets on the point spread of each game would go in their favor.
One of the most lucrative gains for the Mafia was through gas-tax fraud. They created schemes to keep the money that they owed in taxes after the sale of millions of dollars' worth of wholesale petroleum. This allowed them to sell more gasoline at even lower prices.
Franzese was caught in Labor racketeering helped the Mafia control many industries from a macroeconomic scale. This tactic helped them grow in power and influence in many cities with big labor unions such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit and many others.
Many members of the Mafia were enlisted in unions and even became union executives. The Mafia has controlled unions all over the U.
to extort money and resources out of big business, with recent indictments of corruption involving the New Jersey Waterfront Union, the Concrete Workers Union, and the Teamster Union.
Restaurants were yet another powerful means by which the Mafia could gain economic power. A large concentration of Mafia-owned restaurants was in New York City. Not only were they the setting of many killings and important meetings, but they were also an effective means of smuggling drugs and other illegal goods.
From to , Sicilian Mafiosi in the U. Another one of the areas of the economy that the Mafia was most influential was Las Vegas, Nevada , beginning just after World War II with the opening of the first gambling resort, The Flamingo. This capital did not come from one Mafia family alone, but many throughout the country seeking to gain even more power and wealth.
Large profits from casinos, run as legitimate businesses, would help to finance many of the illegal activities of the Mafia from the s into the s.
Tourism in the city greatly increased through the s and strengthened the local economy. The s were also when the Mafia's influence in the Las Vegas economy began to dwindle, however. In , the Nevada State Legislature passed a law that made it easier for corporations to own casinos.
This brought new investors to the local economy to buy casinos from the Mafia. The U. Congress passed the RICO Act a year later. This law gave more authority to law enforcement to pursue the Mafia for its illegal activities. There was a sharp decline in mob involvement in Las Vegas in the s.
Through the RICO law, many in the Mafia were convicted and imprisoned. When the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act RICO Act became federal law in , it became a highly effective tool in prosecuting mobsters.
It provides for extended criminal penalties for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. A high-profile RICO case sentenced John Gotti and Frank Locascio to life in prison in , [49] with the help of informant Sammy Gravano in exchange for immunity from prosecution for his crimes.
This led to dozens of mobsters testifying and providing information during the s, which led to the imprisonment of hundreds of other members. As a result, the Mafia has seen a major decline in its power and influence in organized crime since the s.
On January 9, , Bonanno crime family boss Joseph Massino was arrested and indicted, alongside Salvatore Vitale , Frank Lino and capo Daniel Mongelli, in a comprehensive racketeering indictment.
The charges against Massino himself included ordering the murder of Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano.
Andres and Robert Henoch heading the prosecution. His sentencing was initially scheduled for October 12, and he was expected to receive a sentence of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.
Immediately after his July 30 conviction, as court was adjourned, Massino requested a meeting with Judge Garaufis, where he made his first offer to cooperate. In the 21st century, the Mafia has continued to be involved in a broad spectrum of illegal activities.
These include murder, extortion, corruption of public officials, gambling, infiltration of legitimate businesses, labor racketeering, loan sharking, tax fraud schemes and stock manipulation schemes. The American Mafia operates on a strict hierarchical structure. While similar to its Sicilian origins, the American Mafia's modern organizational structure was created by Salvatore Maranzano in He created the Five Families , each of which would have a boss , underboss , capos , soldiers —all only of full-blooded Italian origin—while associates could come from any background.
This signifies that they are untouchable in the criminal underworld and any harm brought to them will be met with retaliation. With the exception of associates, all mobsters within the Mafia are "made" official members of a crime family.
The three highest positions make up the administration. Below the administration, there are factions each headed by a caporegime captain , who leads a crew of soldiers and associates. They report to the administration and can be seen as equivalent to managers in a business.
When a boss makes a decision, he rarely issues orders directly to workers who would carry it out but instead passes instructions down through the chain of command. This way, the higher levels of the organization are insulated from law enforcement attention if the lower level members who actually commit the crime should be captured or investigated, providing plausible deniability.
There are occasionally other positions in the family leadership. Frequently, ruling panels have been set up when a boss goes to jail to divide the responsibility of the family these usually consist of three or five members.
This also helps divert police attention from any one member. The family messenger and street boss were positions created by former Genovese family leader Vincent Gigante. The Mafia initiation ritual to become a made man in the Mafia emerged from various sources, such as Roman Catholic confraternities and Masonic Lodges in midth century Sicily.
The oath of loyalty to the Mafia Family is called the Omerta. This was confirmed in by the pentito Tommaso Buscetta. A hit, or murder, of a made man must be approved 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," which means to prepare for a war or be prepared in a war-like stance. It was mainly derived from the film The Godfather , as the origin of the phrase is unknown.
In , John D'Amato , acting boss of the DeCavalcante family, was killed when he was suspected of engaging in homosexual activity.
The following is a list of Mafia families that have been active in the U. Note that some families have members and associates working in other regions as well. The organization is not limited to these regions.
The Bonanno crime family and the Buffalo crime family also had influence in several factions in Canada including the Rizzuto crime family and Cotroni crime family , [82] [83] [84] and the Luppino crime family and Papalia crime family , [85] [86] respectively.
Naval Intelligence entered into an agreement with Lucky Luciano to gain his assistance in keeping the New York waterfront free from saboteurs after the destruction of the SS Normandie. While it was in the process of being converted into a troopship, the luxury ocean liner, SS Normandie , mysteriously burst into flames with 1, sailors and civilians on board.
All but one escaped, but were injured and by the next day the ship was a smoking hull. In his report, twelve years later, William B. Herlands, Commissioner of Investigation, made the case for the U.
government talking to top criminals, stating "The Intelligence authorities were greatly concerned with the problems of sabotage and espionage…Suspicions were rife with respect to the leaking of information about convoy movements. The Normandie , which was being converted to war use as the Navy auxiliary Lafayette , had burned at the pier in the North River, New York City.
Sabotage was suspected. In August , Colonel Sheffield Edwards, director of the Office of Security of the Central Intelligence Agency CIA , proposed the assassination of Cuban head of state Fidel Castro by Mafia assassins.
Between August and April , the CIA, with the help of the Mafia, pursued a series of plots to poison or shoot Castro. In , Linda Schiro testified in an unrelated court case that her late boyfriend, Gregory Scarpa , a capo in the Colombo family, had been recruited by the FBI to help find the bodies of three civil rights workers who had been murdered in Mississippi in by the Ku Klux Klan.
She said that she had been with Scarpa in Mississippi at the time and had witnessed him being given a gun, and later a cash payment, by FBI agents.
She testified that Scarpa had threatened a Klansman by placing a gun in the Klansman's mouth, forcing the Klansman to reveal the location of the bodies. Similar stories of Mafia involvement in recovering the bodies had been circulating for years, and had been previously published in the New York Daily News , but had never before been introduced in court.
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.
Jewish mobster and Mafia associate 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 and thus bring unprecedented police attention to the Mafia.
However, the Mafia has carried out hits on law enforcement, especially 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.
In , a U. Senate special committee , chaired by Democratic Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver , determined that a "sinister criminal organization" known as the Mafia operated around the United States.
The United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce known as the "Kefauver Hearings" , televised nationwide, captured the attention of the American people and forced the FBI to recognize the existence of organized crime.
In , the FBI initiated the "Top Hoodlum Program". The purpose of the program was to have agents collect information on the mobsters in their territories and report it regularly to Washington to maintain a centralized collection of intelligence on racketeers. The Apalachin meeting was a historic summit of the American Mafia held at the home of mobster Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara , at McFall Road in Apalachin, New York , on November 14, As a result of the Apalachin meeting, the membership books to become a made man in the mob were closed, and were not reopened until Local and state law enforcement became suspicious when numerous expensive cars bearing license plates from around the country arrived in what was described as "the sleepy hamlet of Apalachin".
Twenty of those who attended the meeting were charged with "Conspiring to obstruct justice by lying about the nature of the underworld meeting" and found guilty in January All the convictions were overturned on appeal the following year.
Edgar Hoover , had long refused to acknowledge. Genovese crime family soldier Joe Valachi was convicted of narcotics violations in and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Valachi murdered a man in prison who he feared mob boss, and fellow prisoner, Vito Genovese had ordered to kill him. Valachi and Genovese were both serving sentences for heroin trafficking. Soon after, Valachi decided to cooperate with the U. Justice Department. McClellan 's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.
Senate Committee on Government Operations , known as the Valachi hearings , stating that the Italian-American Mafia actually existed, the first time a member had acknowledged its existence in public. He was the first member of the Italian-American Mafia to acknowledge its existence publicly, and is credited with popularization of the term cosa nostra.
Although Valachi's disclosures never led directly to the prosecution of any Mafia leaders, he provided many details of history of the Mafia , operations and rituals, aided in the solution of several unsolved murders, and named many members and the major crime families.
The trial exposed American organized crime to the world through Valachi's televised testimony. As part of the Mafia Commission Trial , on February 25, , nine New York Mafia leaders were indicted for narcotics trafficking, loansharking, gambling, labor racketeering and extortion against construction companies under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Prosecutors aimed to strike at all the crime families at once using their involvement in the Commission. In the early s, the Bonanno family were kicked off the Commission due to the Donnie Brasco infiltration, and although Rastelli was one of the men initially indicted, this removal from the Commission actually allowed Rastelli to be removed from the Commission Trial as he was later indicted on separate labor racketeering charges.
Having previously lost their seat on the Commission, the Bonannos suffered less exposure than the other families in this case. Eight defendants were convicted of racketeering on November 19, , [] with the exception of Indelicato who was convicted of murder, [] and were sentenced on January 13, , as follows: [] [].
In the early s, as the Colombo crime family war raged, the Commission refused to allow any Colombo member to sit on the Commission [] and considered dissolving the family. On January 20, , the United States Justice Department issued 16 indictments against Northeast American Mafia families resulting in charged defendants [] and more than arrests.
It has been described as the largest operation against the Mafia in U. The film Scarface is loosely based on the story of Al Capone. In , Paramount Pictures released the film The Brotherhood starring Kirk Douglas as a Mafia don, which was a financial flop. Nevertheless, Paramount's production chief Robert Evans subsidized the completion of a Mario Puzo novel with similar themes and plot elements and bought the screen rights before completion.
It immediately inspired other Mafia-related films, including a direct sequel, The Godfather Part II , also partly based on Puzo's novel , and yet another big winner at the Academy Awards , as well as films based on real Mafiosi like Honor Thy Father and Lucky Luciano both in and Lepke and Capone both in A part miniseries by NBC called The Gangster Chronicles based on the rise of many major crime bosses of the s and s, aired in Although the show is fictional, the general storyline is based on its creator David Chase's experiences growing up and interacting with New Jersey crime families.
Fat Tony in The Simpsons is described as "a mobster and the underboss of the Springfield Mafia". The Mafia has been the subject of multiple crime-related video games. The Mafia series by 2K Czech and Hangar 13 consists of three games that follow the story of individuals who inadvertently become caught up with one or multiple fictional Mafia families while attempting to rise in their ranks or bring them down as revenge for something they did to them.
The Grand Theft Auto series by Rockstar Games also features the Mafia prominently, mainly in the games set within the fictional Liberty City based on New York ; the games set in the "3D universe" canon feature the Forelli, Leone and Sindacco families, while those in the "HD universe" have the Ancelotti, Gambetti, Lupisella, Messina and Pavano families a reference to the Five Families , as well as the less-influential Pegorino family.
In all games, the different Mafia families serve as either employers or enemies to the player. In , The Godfather was released, based on the film of the same name; it spawned a sequel , itself based on the film's sequel.
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Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons. Highly organized Italian American criminal society. For other uses, see Mafia disambiguation.
Further information: Sicilian Mafia § Etymology. Main article: Black Hand extortion. Further information: The Commission American Mafia. Main article: List of Italian Mafia crime families § United States.
See also: List of Italian American mobsters and List of American mobsters by organization. Main article: Apalachin Meeting. Main article: Valachi hearings. See also: List of organized crime video games. Atlantic City Conference The Corporation "Cuban mafia" D-Company "Indian mafia" Havana Conference Jewish-American organized crime Irish-American organized crime African-American organized crime La Eme "Mexican Mafia" Timeline of organized crime Triad "Chinese mafia" Unione Corse "Corsican mafia" Yakuza "Japanese mafia" Bratva "Russian mafia" Sicilian Mafia Camorra Ndrangheta Sacra Corona Unita.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Archived from the original on March 29, Retrieved November 8, Retrieved April 11, NY Daily News. Retrieved December 18, Paoli, Letizia ed.
The Italian-American Mafia. Oxford University. doi : ISBN United Nations Archives. Archived PDF from the original on December 29, Retrieved August 5, Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia.
First Family. Random House. Dainotto The Mafia: A Cultural History pp. Organized Crime. Archived from the original on October 10, Retrieved August 7, The Wall Street Journal.
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Retrieved February 26, H, The Rum Runners: A Prohibition Scrapbook. Thornhill: Firefly Books. Rum Running and the Roaring Twenties. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Toronto: Linx Images Inc.
Pg The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 23, Retrieved February 5, Ottawa: Love Printing Service. Tough Jews 1st Vintage Books ed. New York: Vintage Books. Genovese maranzano. Kensington Publishing Corp. com — 26 Mafia Families and Their Cities". Archived from the original on December 12, Mob Rule — Inside the Canadian Mafia.
Toronto: Macmillan of Canada. Cosa Nostra James B. Jacobs, Christopher Panarella, Jay Worthington. NYU Press, SAGE Publications. Retrieved August 10, The Everything Mafia Book: True-Life Accounts of Legendary Figures, Infamous Crime Families, and Chilling Events.
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