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Mafia Origins Origins and History of the Mafia "Commission" By: Richard Lindberg For years, the FBI blindly denied the existence of a National Mafia “Commission.” To even suggest that a consortium of career criminals representing the interest of twenty-four crime “families” were secretly meeting to define objectives and set national policy invited censure and hot denial from the Bureau. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was finally forced to admit that this shadowy crime cartel was a lethal force in American life following public disclosure of a secret conference of sixty-five ranking mobsters at Joseph Barbara’s sprawling estate outside Apalachin, New York on November 14, 1957. Astute state troopers, accompanied by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms tax unit, observed several well-known Mafia figures coming and going from the country house of the millionaire president of the Canada Dry Bottling Company of Endicott, New York. Road blocks were hastily set up, and in the ensuing commotion, the aging “dons” fled into the dense woods discarding money and guns as they fled in panic. While no one was charged with a crime, the attending media publicity focused national attention on this long-rumored Mafia Commission, whose origins date back to 1931, and the conclusion of the Castellammarese War. The fragmented New York underworld had coalesced under the leadership of Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria, an old-fashioned crime boss who cloaked his various illegal enterprises under the guise of familial traditions of honor, respect, and oaths of loyalty. The younger bosses, notably Joe Profaci, Thomas Lucchese, and Joseph Bonanno bitterly resented that the older bosses, cloaking themselves in outmoded and irrelevant European customs, should be telling them what to do. Thus, the Young Turk faction aligned itself to Brooklyn boss Salvatore Maranzano, himself a “Mustache Pete,” who aspired to become the “Boss of Bosses.” Maranzano was born in Castellammarese de Golfo in Sicily, and the war he initiated against the Neapolitan Masseria in 1928, came to be known as the Castellammarese War. For three years the combatants traded insults and bullets, with no immediate resolution or hope for victory on either side. Tiring of the endless bloodshed, Salvatore “Lucky” Luciano, initially an ally of Masseria, pressed for settlement of the dispute. When Masseria refused, Luciano plotted the older man’s demise with Vito Genovese, Ciro Terranova, Joe Adonis, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and Albert Anastasia, all destined to play important roles in the development of the Mafia and its ruling National Commission. Masseria was murdered inside the Nuova Villa Tammaro restaurant in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn on April 15, 1931. The Neapolitan gang boss was shot six times as he sat alone at his table gorging on antipasto and linguine after Luciano excused himself and disappeared into the bathroom. Believing himself to be invulnerable to the intrigues of his jealous upstarts, Maranzano, backed by an army of 600 “soldiers,” proclaimed himself Boss of Bosses at a secret meeting inside a Bronx, New York social hall that same year. Maranzano delineated the lines of authority and drafted the organizational structure that guided the Mafia in America through the twentieth century. Allegedly, it was Maranzano who coined the phrase “La Cosa Nostra,” meaning “this thing of ours.” Luciano and his cohorts endorsed the concept, but drew back when it became evident that Maranzano would never relinquish power. Accordingly, they had him assassinated inside his real estate office at 230 Park Avenue, September 10, 1931. Four men dressed as police officers brushed past security and emptied their revolvers into the Boss of Bosses. The body was later recovered in Newark Bay. In the next twenty-four hours, three other “Mustache Petes” from New York were systematically liquidated—far less than the nationwide bloodbath described by Donald R. Cressy in his 1969 volume Theft of the Nation. With the slate wiped clean, Luciano and Meyer Lansky reorganized the National Commission with Luciano, Joseph, Bonnano, Vincent Mangano, Joseph Profaci, Thomas Gagliano Stefano Magaddino of Buffalo, and Frank Nitti in Chicago brought in as charter members. Sam Giancana served as Chicago’s representative during his nine-year rule as head of the Outfit in the 1950s, but sensing the East Coast orientation of the Commission, Giancana kept his organization a comfortable arm’s length away. Patterned after the hierarchical structure of modern corporations, the Commission was a tightly controlled bureaucracy of crime based on patriarchy, and empowered to settle jurisdictional disputes as they arose, particularly in cities like Las Vegas, which has always been considered “open territory” for organized crime penetration. During the 1940s, a Jewish-Italian combination known as the “Big Six” (Frank Costello, Joe Adonis, Meyer Lansky, Tony Accardo, Jake Guzik, and Longy Zwillman) were influential in policy making. However, their precise role and eventual successors is open to interpretation. After Lansky passed away in 1983, the Jewish presence on the Commission all but disappeared. In his book Organized Crime, author and criminologist Howard Abadinsky cites the true purpose of the Commission as being an intervener in family disputes, approving “the initiation of new members, joint ventures between families,” while exercising control of relations between “the U.S. and Sicilian branches of La Cosa Nostra.” Within the ruling Commission, various sub-committees were often appointed to handle specific matters, or localized disputes. In April 1986, the President’s Commission on Organized Crime concluded that nationwide membership in the Mafia totaled 1,700 members belonging to twenty-four “families,” or crime groups falling under the nominal authority of the National Commission. “The Commission traditionally has consisted of the bosses or acting bosses from the five New York families, and bosses from several of the more important families around the country. Besides the five New York bosses, the La Cosa Nostra Commission currently includes bosses from Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia. The exception is the New Orleans family, which is independent in most matters,” the eighteen-member panel went on to say. Other crime groups fell under the spheres of influence of larger, better-organized families. The Chicago “Outfit” dominated the smaller Midwestern groups in Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Rockford, and Detroit. Cleveland was under the control of the Genovese family in New York. In November 1986, he heads of the five families were convicted of conducting the affairs of “the commission of La Cosa Nostra,” in a pattern or racketeering violating federal RICO statutes. The subsequent jail terms handed down in this landmark case considerably weakened the power of the National Commission to formulate policy. Others argue that the Commission was never very effective to begin with, evidenced by its inability to rein in the Gallo-Profaci combatants in the vicious war of succession that erupted in the early 1960s, and its failure to head off Joe Bonanno’s ruthless power grab later in the decade. In the wake of the RICO indictments, the New York Mafia families were thrown into chaos and disarray, but they did not disappear or disband simply because of governmental prosecutions. Younger men rushed in to fill the void, sparking internecine gang wars in the 1980s, not unlike the bitter and contentious battles that contributed to the formation of the Commission in 1931. It is believed that the Commission still exists in one form or another, but in a diminished capacity and centralized along the East Coast. http://www.search-international.com/Articles/crime/mafiaorigins.htm Copyright 2001 by Search International When one thinks of Cosa Nostra, or better known as the Mafia, it strikes fear in knowing that a ruthless criminal enterprise existed and still thrives today. The Mafia is something that Hollywood movie producers and Americans alike can’t simply seem to get enough of. The name Cosa Nostra, translated as "Our Thing," goes back hundreds of years and was founded in Sicily to offer protection to the common people of that country from police, bandits and even government agencies. Cosa Nostra, not surprisingly were treated as folk heroes, saviors of the people. The practice of keeping your mouth shut was the code and if you violated it, the wrath was swift and deadly not only to the culprit, but to his own family as well. This served as the power base for the American Mafia which was organized, depending on who you ask, during the 1920s by several leaders, most notably Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria and up and coming mobster, Salvatore Maranzano. These old style gangsters were known as "Mustache Petes" for their traditional and conservative ways of doing business. To them, rapid change and too much ambition were out of the question. In other words, they wanted their members to be complacent while they reaped the fruits of others' dastardly deeds. Salvatore Maranzano arrived in the United States in 1927. He came here not as your ordinary Italian immigrant, but was sent by the Sicilian "Boss of Bosses" Vito Cascio Ferro. Don Vito had a vision of organizing all the American crime families, including non-Italians groups, under one leadership. Once on American soil, Maranzano’s authority was recognized by Gaetano Reina of Brooklyn and his capos, Thomas Luchese and Gaetana Gagliano, by Joey Aiello, the boss of Chicago, and by Joe Zerilli, underboss of the Detroit family. These men entered the United States illegally and were identified by Italian police records as members of the Sicilian Mafia. Other Sicilian Mafia members to arrive in this manner were Carlo Gambino, Joe Bonanno, Stefano Maggadino and Joe Profaci. Collectively, these mobsters were known as the Twenties Group. When these men hit the American coast, they took shelter in an organization called Unione Siciliana which found them housing, jobs when they wanted them, and identities to cover up their illegal activities. Unione Siciliana also afforded these men the opportunity to learn English and the American way of life. This organization has received a bad rap by history because it helped mobsters and was considered "Mafia owned." This however was not true. Unione Siciliana also helped thousands of law abiding Italian immigrants in adjusting to American life. Including the family of Salvatore Lucania. Better known as Lucky Luciano. 1. Maffia Started as a patriotic organization when the Arab invaders seized the island, driving bands of citizens into the hills where they conducted guerilla operations. Later the 'Mafia' fought the French oppressors and functioned as a fraternal society initially created to protect the lives and welfare of the Sicilinas. 2. "Ma-fia, Ma-fia!" The most prevailing myth among southern-Italians of the word. In 1282, during a revolt of Sicilians against against their French occupiers, a French soldier allegedly raped a young Sicilian woman on her wedding day. Her anguished mother ran though the streets crying, "Ma-fia, Ma-fia!", infuriated Sicilians rose up and thousands of Frenchmen died in a bloodbath. 3. Squadri della Maffia The first recorded use of the word. A group of peasants supporting Giuseppe Garibladi were described as 'squadri della maffia'. Born on July 4, 1807, in Nice, France, Garibladi (1807-87) was an Italian nationalist revolutionary and leader in the struggle for Italian unification and independence. In 1833 he joined Young Italy, the movement organized by the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini to achieve the freedom of the Italian people and their unification into a self-governing republic. He promised the peasants that their years of enslavement were at an end and that unification would bring social change to Sicily. But nothing happened. Garibaldi was condemned to death in 1834, but he escaped to South America, where he lived for 12 years. 4. I mafisusi della Vicaria A celebrated play in 1863. It described the life in a Palermo prison in which there existed a 'consorteria mafiusa' - a secret society of criminals, with a hierarchy which had its own rules, ran the prison by bribing or scaring the guards into submission. 5. M.A.F.I.A. In 1282, the French Angevins "held a tight grip on Sicily," and a secret society arose to defeat this oppressive organization. The battle cry of this rebellious group was "morte alla Francia Italia anelia!" (Italian for "death to the French is Italy’s cry!"), and if the first letters of the verse are taken, the anagram MAFIA is deciphered. (Contributed by Ben Calcaterra) http://members.tripod.com/~qmcs22/rank.htm Ranks of Mafia Capo Crimini Super Boss Capo di Tutti Capi Boss of Bosses Cupola Commission Don Boss Consigliere Trusted Advisor; Counsellor; "In-house lawyer" Consiglieri Plural of Consigliere Sotto Capo Underboss (number 2 in a family) Capo Bastone Same as Underboss Contabile Financial Advisor Capodecina Captain of ten Capo Same as Caporegime Capi Plural of Capo Sgarrista High Soldier Picciotto Low Soldier; "Buttons" Giovane D'Honore Associates (non-made members) http://members.tripod.com/~qmcs22/rank.htm The Mafia Induction Oath The induction ceremony is usually conducted by the boss of the family. Present on the secret ceremony are the underboss, the consiglieri, and the rest of the top ranking capi in the family.According to the book Underboss, the group would hold hands, forming a circle. They would then break the circle, get the newly inducted into the circle and form the circle again. This symbolized that the family has opened up and accepted the newly inducted into the family. During the induction ceremony, the initiate's trigger finger is cut, blood is then drawn from the wound, and a holy card with an image of the family's patron saint is burned on his hand. The actual words of the oath may differ in words but according to secret FBI recordings made in Connecticut, in 1989, one induction oath went like this: "I (NAME GIVEN) want to enter into this organization to protect my family and to protect my friends. I swear not to divulge this secret and to obey with love and omerta. As burns this saint so will burn my soul. I enter alive into this organization and leave it dead." http://members.tripod.com/~qmcs22/rank.htm Five Families Bonanno The vestiges of Sal Maranzano's criminal organization, the Bonanno family is second only to the Colombos in terms of the publicity its leaders sought and enjoyed. Always fighting against Carlo Gambino, Joe Bonanno also chafed under the rules of the Commission and brought down its ire. Bonanno tried to have Gambino removed from power after Gambino took out Bonanno ally Albert Anastasia and when Joe Profaci died, Bonanno found his support on the Commission down to one -- himself. It didn't take long for Bonanno to go into hiding -- he said he was kidnapped -- and when a deal was struck for his "retirement" he resurfaced and moved to Arizona where he died recently at age 97. From Arizona, he penned an autobiography, "A Man of Honor," and managed to indirectly help the feds gut the New York Five Families leadership in the Commission Trial. His successor was Carmine Galante who was, like Paul Castellano, taken down by ambitious underlings. Unlike Bonanno, Galante was not given a retirement option. Today, experts estimate the Bonanno family has about 100 members and associates. Joe Bonanno Joe Bonanno took control of the former Maranzano Family in 1931 and helped form a commission that ruled the Sicilian underworld in America. His cousin, Steffano Maggadino, was a Buffalo mob boss who helped him sneak into the United States in 1924. After bootlegging for a few years, Bonanno went to work for Salvatore Maranzano. Bonanno was the boss of a powerful family that fed off the proceeds of prostitution, protection rackets, gambling, narcotics and murder. Bonanno vanished for 19 months after an apparent October 1964 kidnapping during the "Bananas Wars." Mobster Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno said the disappearance was a ploy to avoid testifying before grand juries. But Bonanno said he was grabbed by Magaddino, with whom he was feuding. After his release, Bonanno said he hid out in his Tucson home and in New York City before coming out of hiding in May 1966. He was known as Joe Bananas, but that was a nickname he hated. In 1977 Bonanno was described in the Arizona Daily Star as "the biggest and most important mobster of all. Probably the most powerful Mafioso in America, the boss west of the Rocky Mountains." He died in May 2002 at the age of 97. Colombo (profaci) Known for much of its history as the Profaci family, the Colombos have suffered through probably to most internecine battles between factions. That infighting, more than anything else has kept the Colombo mob from prospering as it could. Made up of perhaps the most ambitious wiseguys in New York City, the Colombos included such men as the Gallo brothers, Joe Profaci and Carmine Persico. Profaci was a very powerful boss who made the mistake of running his family along the model devised by Sal Maranzano, who demanded excessive tribute from his soldiers.
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