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I am starting this journal to tell you about something that I think is going to be big and powerful. I live on the little island of Sicily. When I was a little boy around 1903 this group started up. It seemed that it was going to pretty powerful. At this time, a rumor of The Honored Society or Mafia, as it was less often called, was going around Southern Italy. (Blood Power). By the early 1920 s when I was about 22, this vast criminal brotherhood had come to dominate entirely the social, political and economic life of Western Sicily.
The Honored Society's rapid rise to power was due to their ability to fulfill the needs of an abominably governed people by providing services that the state had been unwilling and unable to provide. Our mentality was predisposed to accept the kind of governance the Mafia offered. A saying that was going around then was, The law is for the rich, the gallows for the poor, and justice for the fools. (Organized). By the late 1920 s, many Men of Respect like John Joseph Gotti, Carlo Gambino, and Giuseppe Masseria had fled Sicily and migrated to the United States. Around 1926 my family and I moved to the United States. Those men that moved their before us would eventually found and develop the Mafia in the United States.
New York in the 1920 s was a city in continual eruption. At this time the United. The United States had emerged from World War I as a great power, a creditor nation and an industrial giant. It needed hard workers to fill the service jobs that were in demand. As a result, thousand of European immigrants migrated to cities like New York, and Chicago. But the country was unprepared to receive the arrival of the Italian immigrants all at once.
Our Inability to speak the language caused us to cling together so that in every city we formed a ghetto in which we lived under harsh conditions. I will write when I get another chance. A lot more has happened since I last wrote. Since they moved to the US the Mafia quickly recognized the potential for growth in this country. Joe the Boss Masseria had arrived during the prohibition of liquor. It was a way to make quick illicit profits on a sale never before seen in America or Sicily.
It was not long before a powerful rival appeared. His name was Salvatore Maranzano. Maranzano was the boss of the Castellamare family. While Joe the Boss Masseria ruled the Sicilian Mafiosos. We could see the rival building between these two.
The tension was growing rapidly between them. But soon after the tension broke when Maranzano began encroaching on Joe the Books bootlegging operations. Joe the Boss soon retaliated in 1928 by demanding a tribute from the Castallamares. Then the Castallamares refused to pay and he passed a death sentence on the entire clan. On the streets people were calling this the Castellamare War.
It had begun just like I was saying it would I knew that it would have been big. While we live here you had to choose a side you were either on one side or the other there was no alternative. Violent fighting went on for many months. When you walked on the streets you had to be carefull not to walk with the wrong crowd or you would be swimming with the fishes as they said.
Maranzano finally managed to lure two of Masseria's most trusted men into plotting against their boss. The two men were Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky. Both of Masseria's men were planning the death of Masseria's. They soon did the job and Maranzano was able to take over. Now that the war was over Maranzano proclaimed himself the boss of all bosses and then laid down the law for the future organization and functioning of the underworld in the United States. (web page). He now described the existence of the organization as Cosa Nostra.
Literally it meant our thing. He declared that the Cosa Nostra would be divided into well-defined families, each with jurisdiction over a specific territory or business. The five families were known as Colombo, Gambino, Bonanno, Genovese, and Lucchese. I will write when I get another chance. Something else has happened that I think I should get down. Salvatore Maranzano was soon hit by Lucky Luciano.
In 1931, Luciano became the defacto boss of bosses. His only great accomplishment was the Americanizing and democratizing the old Sicilian Mafia. Basically what he did was replace its practices of honor with more effective business practices. His money making methods were so effective that the Mafia would prove impervious to the erosion's of the Great Depression and would one day do business equal to that of the Nations ten largest industrial corporations combined.
At his death, Carlo Gambino succeeded him. I will write when I get another chance. This I have to get down this will be the law for the rest of the mobs, gangsters, and other organized crime. Carlo Gambino began a business he called Gambino Incorporated. Gambino Incorporated derived its sums of money from the waterfront rackets and from loansharking. Loan sharking was the liaison between the underworld and the legitimate business world.
Loan Sharking business is based upon the exorbitant rates of interest charged as the money flows from the top of Mafioso to the borrower and back to the source. No collateral is needed, even though the lenders make sure that the borrower was aware that his life was the collateral. If the borrower did not pay back; his body may be mutilated or even killed. I will write when I get another chance.
This is the start to the fight against the Mafia. Carlo Gambino's successor was Big Paul Castellano. Big Paul Castellano in turn was succeeded by present day Boss John Gotti, who happens to be incarcerated for the murder of Big Paul. The Kennedy brothers represented the new attitude towards organized crime on the part of the executive branch of the United States government. Before the Kennedys accession to power, presidents and attorney Generals did not place high priority on fighting organized crime. Robert Kennedy stated, If we do not, on a national scale, attack organized criminals with the weapons and techniques as effective as their own they will destroy us. (Organized Crime).
The Kennedys came out hitting strong in their battle against organized crime. In 1962, 350 mob defendants had been indicted and 138 convicted. By 1963, 615 had been indicted and 288 convicted. For the first time in history, organized crime was being attacked. (Organized).
I will write when I get another chance. I have to get this in also. The next fighter against organized crime was Rudolph Giulliani. Rudolph Giulliani became the United States Attorney for the southern district of New York after the resignation of John Martin, Jr. Giulliani soon learned that the FBI office had been assembling enterprise evidence against each of the Mafia families in the city using RICO statute as a guide in their investigations. Much of their evidence had been gathered from wire taps and electronic listening devices.
Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, RICO provided the prosecution of the entire criminal organization, including its leaders and Cosa Nostra's ruling body the commission. I will write when I get another chance. The FBI gets involved now. Soon the FBI would have enough evidence to take down Big Paul who was at the time the Boss of the Mafia commission. The FBI had planted a bug in the kitchen of Big Pauls luxurious house on To Hill in Staten Island. They had recorded thousand of hours of recordings that incriminated him.
Unfortunately he was murdered before the end of the trial. The FBI would soon have many recorded conversations in which John Gotti incriminated himself. John Gotti's trial ended with him being found guilty on four counts of murder and one charge of illegal gambling. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Before going to jail Gotti replied and this is going to be a Cosa Nostra till I die. Be it an hour from now when Im in jail.
Its gonna be a Cosa Nostra... Its gonna be the way I say its gonna be, and a Cosa Nostra. A Cosa Nostra! . The Mafias origin and the development, its rise to power in the United States, and finally its breakdown by the United States government are the key points in understanding the Mafia legacy. John Gotti, even though incarcerated, still leads the families and makes most of the important decisions and deals.
The Mafia dynasty will prevail, no matter how much the government tries to stop them. The Mafia and its evildoing's will continue to exist in the years to come. Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge Copyright 1993 Blood And Power Stephen Fox William Morrow And Company, INC. New York Copyright 1989 Organized Crime Alan A. Block, William J. Chambliss Elsevier Science Publishing Co. , Inc.
Copyright 1981 Mr. Capone Robert J. Schoenberg Copyright 1992
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