Transcript The Birth of Organized Crime

The Birth of Organized
Crime
Immigration and Prohibition: 1920’s
• 18th Amendment gave
organized crime an
opportunity to make a
name for themselves by
making, selling and
transporting liquor
• Sicilian Mafia in Italy was
under attack by Benito
Mussolini
– Some escaped to the U.S.
• Sicilian Mafia / U.S.
Mafia: 2 separate entities
– U.S. mob families did
adopt old-country
practices: Omerta
American Mafia Gets Organized
• Late 1920’s:
Castellammarse War, NY
– Won by Sicilian born
Salvatore Maranzano:
“capo di tutti capi”
(boss of all bosses)
– Murdered by Lucky
Luciano
• Established the
Commission
Hierarchy
• At the top of “family”
was The Boss
• 2nd in command:
Underboss
• Capos or Captains
– Each controlled a crew
of 10 or more soldiers
– Each soldier had to be a
“made” man
• Inducted into the family
• Bottom were
Associates
– Not full members
Rituals
• Becoming a “made man:”
– Ritual of cutting the hand
and holding it over a
burning picture of a Saint
• Must be Italian
– Some crime families only
required lineage from the
father’s side.
• Lifetime commitment
• Obey Omerta
Mafia’s 20th Century Dominance
• Prohibition repealed in
1933
– Mafia moved beyond
bootlegging to illegal
gambling, loan-sharking,
prostitution rings, and
drug trafficking
• Mid 20th Century: 24
crime families w/5,000
members
• FBI was naive to the
Mob: very little
government intrusion
Taking Down the Mafia
• 1970 Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt Organization
(RICO) Act
– Allowed prosecutors to go
after crime families and their
sources of revenue
• 80’s & 90’s: Mafiosi who
faced life prison sentences
broke Omerta and testified
against fellow mobsters in
exchange for placement in
the FBI Witness Protection
Program
• Italian neighborhoods
shifted demographically.