Organized Crime From Sicily To The United States
Uploaded by unkind on Jul 23, 2006 |
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Organized Crime From Sicily To The United States
Throughout history, crime has existed in many different forms and has been committed by not only individuals, but by groups as well. Crime is something that knows no boundaries; it exists in all cultures, is committed by all races, and has existed in all time periods. Crime exists as a part of the economic institution and is a lifestyle for many people. Crime also exists in both organized and unorganized forms. Since the early 1900's, "organized" crime has existed in the United States. The following literature review will show where, when, and why the mafia came to the United States, who organized it in the United States, and how it differed from its origins in the Sicilian mafia.
We all know that groups or organizations had to have started in some form, so the following will describe the process of how the mafia was started in Sicily, which will furthermore make its debut in the United States. In the ninth century, Arab forces occupied Sicily. The native Sicilians were oppressed and took refuge in the surrounding hills. The Sicilians formed a secret society to unite the natives against the Arab and Norman invaders. This secret society was termed mafia after the Arabic word for refuge. The society's intentions were to create a sense of family, based on ancestry and Sicilian heritage.
In the 1700's, pictures of the ‘black hand’ were distributed to the wealthy. This was an unspoken request for an amount of money in return for protection. If the money wasn't paid, the recipients could expect violence such as kidnappings, bombings, and murder. By the nineteenth century, this society grew larger and more criminally oriented. In 1876, Mafia Don Rafael Palizzolo (boss of the mafia family) ran for political office in Sicily. He forced the voters to vote for him under gunpoint. After being elected into office, he promoted Mafia Don Crispi as Prime Minister. Together, the two put Sicily under government control and funneled government funds to the society known as the Mafia.
Don Vito Cascio Ferro was the first Sicilian Capo de Tutti Capi. He fled to the United States in 1901 to escape arrest and formed a group of the Black Hand. Its' members were hardened criminals currently fugitives from Sicily. He is known as the Father of the American Mafia. In 1924, Mussolini was determined to rid Italy of the Mafia so many members fled to the United States to avoid persecution. This increased the numbers of members in the organization.
These fleeing Italians were well aware there was money to be made in the United States through extortion, prostitution, gambling and bootlegging. Every large city soon had its own Mafia chapter. Prohibition, which was a legal ban on the manufacturer and sale of intoxicating drinks, generated a wave of illegal activity since there was big money to be made. During this time, gangsters openly flaunted their wealth and power. This period established many young men as leaders in the New Age American Mafia.
The first set of topics and issues discussed were found in textbooks. A variety of books ranging from a fiction novel depicting Sicilian families living in Rochester, New York to a biography about Al Capone were used in my survey. All sources provided an extensive collaboration of information on Sicilian and Italian Immigrants to the United States.
The first book titled “Mount Allegro: A Memoir of Italian-American Life”, written by Jerry Mangione, was one of the more distinct sources I chose to analyze because it was a fictitious book. I was hesitant to use this as a source for this type of survey, but as my research prolonged, I came across several positive reviews of the book, and it is said that this book is named one of the classic American Literature books. There are many other scholarly, non-fictitious books out there that are devoted to remembering and mourning a virtually extinct culture. Mangione describes a culture that is still vital and more relevant to today’s standards.
This book can be looked at as a study of Sicilian’s and their foregoing generations in Rochester, New York. Mount Allegro is mainly about the people who lived in this culture, how they dealt with their new culture and country, and how it dealt with them. Through a series of stories, the reader learns how the immigrants started off being poor in Sicily, and remained poor when they came to the United States. The book shows that the first-generation Sicilians were low wage factory workers, but had enough social and emotional security to encourage upward economic and social mobility for their children.
One gets a sense of how tight Sicilian’s wish to stay together even after immigrating to the United States, because in one story in the book a character wishes to go to college in a nearby town and is almost ridiculed because he is not staying close to home. It was described that even after marriage, one was supposed to move near relatives, so you could keep close contact with them at all times.
Early in the book Mangione mentions how he and his family were not allowed to speak ‘American’ in their household, and that there were to only speak English outside of the house. This drew a clear line between the two worlds and made his relatives and Americans think of each other as foreigners in a sense.
Another reason why I chose this source to analyze was because you hardly ever read about organized crime and the mafia, even though it was written at he same time in one of the most notorious states.
Another book I chose to analyze was titled “Fascism and the Mafia”, by Christopher Duggan. This book starts off showing a map of Sicily and following that, is the preface. The preface of the book describes how the book is divided into two parts. The first part explains how the idea of the mafia in Sicily developed after 1860 and how there was a combination of factors that generated belief in criminal organization. The second part of the book is a detailed study of the campaign conducted by the fascist government against the mafia between 1925 and 1929. I chose to focus on what the first part of the book had to say due to time constraints.
The book begins with a discussion of the meaning and etymology of the word ‘mafia’ because the term is often misused and misunderstood. It gives dozens or concepts and etymologies toward the meaning of the word, so the only thing that part of the book did was confuse me.
Following the text analysis, I chose several potent Internet sources to discuss. I found many helpful and informative web sites in the process, but will only use the few that had the most information to contribute. The fist web site was called “The Unofficial Homepage of the New York Mafia”, which contained an essay describing the history of the mafia.
This essay provided a backbone for one my paper’s desired focuses. It gives an overview of the highlights and originators of organized crime in the United States. Towards the end it gave the distinction between the American mafia and the Sicilian mafia. Of the information provided on this site I would like to discuss the main differences between the two mafias.
At the turn of the century the American Mafia was different from the Sicilian mafia in a number of ways. The Sicilian mafia was founded on a sense of loyalty and respect for their culture, keeping a sense of family and the preservation of Sicilian heritage. The mafia was to protect its' members interests and grant them freedom in business in exchange for absolute loyalty and submission to the "family". The Sicilian mafia was based on the belief that justice, honor and vengeance are for a man to take care of, not for a government to take care of. The Sicilian mafia valued the code of "omerta", the code of honor and silence and strictly adhered to the ruling that this was a secret society, open only to those who shared Sicilian blood.
In contrast to the noble Sicilian mafia, the American mafia has proved to be a conniving, cold-hearted organization. The American mafia consists of a large group of glorified thieves, swarthy pickpockets and cold-blooded murderers. Although the American mafia began with the adoption of much of the Sicilian heritage it has evolved into an organization that's sole purpose is to make money using any illegal means possible. The members of the American mafia use extortion, bootlegging, prostitution, gambling, kidnapping, and murder to achieve their ends.
In addition to my Internet site research I chose to analyze www.AmericanMafia.com. This site described the significance of the twenty-six mafia cities around the United States. Since my focus is primarily in New York, Buffalo and Rochester are the two cities I will be discussing.
The history of the Buffalo Crime Family revolves around the reign of Stefano Magaddino. Stefano Magaddino was born on October 10, 1891, in Castellammare, Sicily. Before leaving Sicily, the Magaddino brothers, Antonino, Pietro, and Stefano, were involved in a feud with the Buccellato brothers. During this time, Pietro was murdered and the other two brothers left for the United States settling in Brooklyn. On August 16, 1921, Magaddino was arrested as a fugitive from justice involving a murder that took place in Avon, New Jersey.
Shortly after this, Magaddino and Gaspar Milazzo were shot at as they walked out of a Brooklyn store. The attempted ambush resulted in the death of two innocent bystanders. Members of the Buccellato clan had made the shooting attempt. The retaliation would claim the lives of several Buccellato men. When police suspected Magaddino and Milazzo, the both left Brooklyn for Buffalo. Before Prohibition ended, Magaddino began peddling a non-alcoholic mixture called "Home Juice". The local Italian population was compelled to purchase the concoction that was sold door-to-door.
After Prohibition, the Buffalo family continued its money making through gambling, loan sharking and labor racketeering. The family also branched out west, into Ohio and north, into Canada. Magaddino had many enemies over the years and survived several attempts on his life. In 1936, a bomb intended for him was detonated in the wrong house and killed his sister. Another assassination attempt took place in 1958 when a hand grenade was hurled through his kitchen window but failed to explode. This attempt might have come from one of the angry mobsters who had attended the debacle at Appalachian.
The other mafia city in New York I wish to discuss was located in Rochester. In the wake of the infamous Appalachian Conference in November 1957, the New York State Crime Commission began an investigation of the individuals from New York who attended the meeting. Constenze "Stanley" Valenti, the recognized boss of the Rochester Family, and his brother Frank were jailed for civil contempt after failing to answer the questions of the commission members. Stanley began his sentence in August 1958 and served 16 months. During this period, Jake Russo took advantage of Valenti's absence to seize control of the Rochester rackets.
At the time, Frank Valenti was a capo in the Pittsburgh Crime Family of John LaRocca and worked under Antonio Ripepi. Stanley Valenti was married to Ripepi's daughter. Frank was considered an ambitious man in the Pittsburgh Family and was encouraged to help his brother. When Frank tried to intervene in Russo's takeover of the Rochester activities, he was indicted for violation of New York State election laws. Frank pled guilty and was sentenced to three years probation providing that he stayed out of New York during this period. Informants later revealed that this arrest was contrived by the enemies of the Valentis' to get Frank out of Rochester.
At the end of the probation period, Frank Valenti returned to Rochester. In September 1964, he and Pittsburgh associate Angelo Vaccaro set out with brother Stanley to retake control of the family. In December, less than three months later, Russo disappeared and his body has never been found. On the night of the disappearance, Frank hosted a dinner at Eddie's Chop House in Rochester. Buying drinks for everyone, Frank let it be known that he was now "the man to see in Rochester."
I also used the on-line Encyclopedia Britannica as a source to analyze. It provided a lot of information already covered in most of my other sources, but led me to other concepts I did not think about prior to visiting Britannica. According to the encyclopedia, the term mafia is defined as “a hierarchically structured society of criminals of primarily Italian or Sicilian birth or extraction. The term applies to the traditional criminal organization in Sicily and also to a criminal organization in the United States.”
The topic of mafia in the encyclopedia pointed me towards a more specific term, organized crime, which then led me to the facts on what prohibition was and how it affected the mafia.
In hindsight to my literature review, one should be able to grasp the specific concepts of the mafia discussed. In the ninth century, Arab forces occupied Sicily. Which led to the native Sicilians, who were being oppressed, taking refuge in the surrounding hills to form a secret society to unite the natives against the Arab and Norman invaders. This secret society was termed mafia after the Arabic word for refuge. The society's intentions were to create a sense of family, based on ancestry and Sicilian heritage.
In 1876 a mafia don named, Raffaele Palizzolo ran for political office in Caccamo and won by an overwhelming margin. Voters were forced to vote for Palizzolo because at the ballots they were checked at gunpoint for a check by Palizzolo's name. While ruling in the national government Palizzolo also simultaneously conducted the rule of the Mafia. Palizzolo ruled all of western Sicily in less than ten years. Francesco Crispi, who was also a Mafia don, ran for prime minister of Sicily in 1887 and won. His success in the election was greatly credited to his fellow Mafioso, Raffaele Palizzolo. While in office Francesco also conducted legitimate government operations while on the other hand conducting Mafia operations. He used the national treasury to beef up on Mafia operations throughout Sicily.
Don Vito Cascio Ferro was the first Sicilian Capo de Tutti Capi. He fled to the United States in 1901 to escape arrest and formed a group of the Black Hand. Its' members were hardened criminals currently fugitives from Sicily. He is known as the Father of the American Mafia. In 1924, Mussolini was determined to rid Italy of the Mafia so many members fled to the United States to avoid persecution. This increased the numbers of members in the organization.
These fleeing Italians were well aware there was money to be made in the United States through extortion, prostitution, gambling and bootlegging. Every large city soon had its own Mafia chapter. Prohibition, which was a legal ban on the manufacturer and sale of intoxicating drinks, generated a wave of illegal activity since there was big money to be made. During this time, gangsters openly flaunted their wealth and power. This period established many young men as leaders in the New Age American Mafia.
The old mafia of Sicily was a pre-industrial peasant institution. Its organization was intimate and diffuse. It now operates in the highly urbanized and industrial milieu of the United States. As an urban, industrial institution, it has evolved into a different king of organization. The real and unreal kinship of the ‘old’ mafia are still utilized among fellow Sicilians and Italians, but these ties are now subordinate to bureaucratic ones as defined in terms of specialization, a hierarchy of authority, a system of rules and impersonality. |
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