By Number
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 575
A Christmas Murder In Hollywood
Part Eight: At Long Last, Robert Durst Convicted of Murder
39 years after Manhatten Real Estate scion Robert Durst's first wife Kathleen vanished withou a trace, and 20 years after Durst, disguized as a woman, dismembered his neighbor Morris Black in Galveston, Texas, for which he was Prosecuted but Acquitted, Robert Durst has now been convicted for the murder of his friend, Mafia Journalist Susan Berman.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 574
Jeffery Epstein and the FBI
The investigations into the crimes committed by millionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplices did not end with his death, but only have intensified with each succeeding month since.
- By Nick Christophers, Feature Articles 573
After A Near Fatal Accident Director John Gallagher Has A Second Chance To Mold His Art
After a tragic experience most probably anyone else would have given up and hang their hat after what John Gallagher endured but his love and desire to live and entertain the masses overcame the worst.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 572
Christmas In Murdertown
20th Anniversary Edition
It was Christmas Eve, one of the Holiest days of the year for those of the Christian faith, and a prayer was sent up to Heaven; a prayer for help, for Divine Intervention, as an American hero was in danger of losing his life.
- By Julie A. Thompson, Feature Articles 571
The Hunt for the Last Public Enemy in Northeastern Ohio
Alvin “Creepy” Karpis and His Road to Alcatraz
The last Public Enemy No. 1 of the Depression era, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis reportedly compiled a record of fifty-four aliases, fifteen bank robberies, fourteen murders, three jailbreaks and two kidnappings.
- By Nick Christophers, Feature Articles 570
New Book With Co-Author John Alite Takes Us Behind The Wall.
Here in the book “Prison Rules” co-author John Alite, ex-bodyguard of John Gotti Jr, takes us on a different kind of prison tour.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 569
How Landmark American Mafia Investigations Impact Robert Mueller's Russia Probe
Part Two - U. S. Media Embraces Racketeering Option
One year after Part One of this series, the Media has now embraced a narrative Exclusively proposed by this reporter in the original Feature story of March, 2018. That narrative explored how the RICO Statutes passed by Congress as a tool for Prosecuting members of the American Mafia could now be utilized to prosecute several targets of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
- By Neil Gordon, Feature Articles 568
Tony Accardo IS Joe Batters
The Brutal Reign of Chicago mob boss Tony Accardo. The last untold story of the 20th century.
After ten years of research, writing, and editing, Neil Gordon is excited to share “Tony Accardo is Joe Batters” with Mafia fans around the globe.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 567
The Mafia Discriminates
Why should only Paisani have all the fun? Only Italians need apply is surely un-American.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 566
The Model Racketeering Enterprise: Mafia
The Mafia seeks to infiltrate social, economic, political, and judicial institutions; it is a corruptive force that at its most successful corrupts civil servants to its own ends.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 565
This Is Not Your Grandfather's 'Ndrangheta
The concept of ‘Ndranghetismo makes reference to its mafia-type criminal culture that absorbs the various Calabrian clans.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 564
The Walter Mitty Syndrome
A person with a very fertile imagination who can mentally place himself in the role of another, whom he admires, but himself can never equal in status.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 563
Sin City - What Happens In Vagas Stays In Vagas
Indicators of the Vegas moral code and that of the Underworld; a distortion of the principle of manhood. After all, Vegas is a Mob creation.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 562
The Racketeer And His Customer - A Dyad - You Can't Have One Without The Other
Al Capone, said in his wisdom, 'All I am doing is giving the people what they want.' You cannot sell a product if no one wants it.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 561
Russiya Mafiya
Russia is a mafia state whose leaders ignore the crimes of their underlings in exchange for absolute loyalty.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 560
How Landmark American Mafia Investigations Impact Robert Mueller's Russia Probe
Many Americans, in order to understand the current drama regarding Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, are looking back to similar cases, notably those of Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, as well as the Iran-Contra affair.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 559
CRIMINALPOL - The FBI Of Italy
In March 1967, in Italy, a national police organization was founded referred to by the acronym Criminalpol, which coordinates the four principle police systems in Italy.
- By Nick Christophers, Feature Articles 558
Author Maria Stewart Brings Us Back To The Scene Of The Crime
There have been a few books and films made from a women’s point of view when it comes to the mob yet with the story that Maria Stewart lays out for us it is quite different and compelling with a dark history behind it.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 557
FBI Microphone Tapping of Cosa Nostra
One of the FBI’s great feats was a successful phone tap of Samuel de Cavalcante.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 556
The Model Racketeering Enterprise: MAFIA
"Mafia", is treated here as a theoretical concept, not simply as your ordinary everyday orgcrime.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 555
Racketeering Enterprises
Racketeering is the operation of illegal businesses, or when an organized crime ring uses legitimate organizations to embezzle funds.
- By Nick Christophers, Feature Articles 554
Nicky Slick says something stinks in Philly
Nicky Slick DiPietro may die in prison for a murder everyone knows he did not commit.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 553
Napoli: La Camorra Chiacchierata
The meaning of the above title is that this article is essentially a casual chat about the Camorra of Naples.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 552
Gergo Is Italian Mobspeak
The significance of the term gergo is actually broader than the word mobspeak.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 551
La Mafia is Hyper Fratellanza
The concept of Fratellanza refers to a band of reciprocal affections that tightly unites Fratelli into a Brotherhood, leading to the Brothers gathering under the same symbol, swearing mutual and enduring fidelity.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 550
People Smuggling Out Of Africa
Human trafficking in Africa is very lucrative for the many organized crime groups that seek to exploit those whose desperation is such that they will gamble in putting their fate in the hands of a very exploitive racketeering system that is the most vile the modern world has seen.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 549
The Old Out - The New In
Our mobster of legend, the Goodfella, has been replaced by a phalanx of mumbling cyberexperts of sallow complexion, poor posture, having never witnessed sunlight; radar focused, typing furiously, hacking into the infinite cybernetic expanding universe.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 548
The Italian Carabinieri
It all began on 13 July 1814 when the King of Sardinia by Royal warrant instituted for national defense the ancient Corps of the Royal Carabinieri
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 547
Mobsters Are Misunderstood
Organized crime is no more than a microcosm of the rest of American society.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 546
Camorristi and Mafiosi
Camorra earned a reputation for savagery, mafia for its stealth and infiltration into the Sicilian sociopolitical system.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 545
Do Mobsters Really Have More Fun?
The gangster of myth, so fully displayed in the entertainment culture, is a portal to the pervasive daydreaming of every wannabe.
- By Nino Perrotta, Feature Articles 544
Dual Mission:
A True Story about a Secret Service Agent and His Investigative Experiences to Include His Battle with the New York Mafia!
- By Nick Christophers, Feature Articles 543
removed by request of author
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 542
L’uomo con cinque mani
The first time I encountered the above phrase, which translates “The man with five hands,” I wondered what it meant.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 541
Mafiocracy
In the field of mafiology, mafiocracy is a neologism, a new concept, a form of governing.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 540
I Wannabe A Wannabe
Wannabe: A person who wants or aspires to be someone else or who tries to look or act like someone else.
- By Emma Stevens, Feature Articles 539
Promises, Threats, And Prestige - How Do Organized Crime Gangs Recruit New Members?
Those brought up around organized crime are more able to slip seamlessly into life as a member of an organized criminal gang.
- By Emma Stevens, Feature Articles 538
Paternalistic Psychopathy? The Mafiosi’s Mind
Is there a particular mindset which one needs in order to be a mafiosi?
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 537
The Short One, El Chapo
Unlike other master criminals, El Chapo, not exactly a Robin Hood figure, has become a populist anti-hero, both in his mind and more importantly among those who share his very humble origins.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 536
The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the American Mafia
Franklin Roosevelt vowed to lead the fight to repeal the Prohibition Amendment which banned the sale of alcoholic beverages, an attempt at legislating morality that fueled an unprecedented expansion of organized crime.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 535
Vengeance Is Mine
Vendicare: To offend or damage someone for an act or danger done by a vendettist to us or others. (Dizionario della lingua Italiana, 1941)
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 534
License To Steal: "The Goodfellas Trial"
Part Two: Aquittal Provides Plot-Twist Ending
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 533
Changing Times: Maifa, Cosa Nostra, Camorra ....Whatever.
Is There A Difference?
When it comes to the mafia one must understand that it is an association of criminals that enrich themselves at the expense of both the people and the state.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 532
Joe Barbara, Racketeering Businessman
Giuseppe Mario Barbara went from New York City to northeastern Pennsylvania, where as a young hoodlum and strong-arm man, he made his bones with an Italian mob that was operating in the coalfields in the towns of Pittston, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 531
Narcotic Trafficking Tunnels
One thing is certain in the drug-infested, corrupt Mexico, from top to bottom: the drug cartels are in command.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 530
Mafia of the Imagination
Every guy wants to be a mafioso; every gal wants to date one.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 529
A Christmas Murder In Hollywood
Part Seven: Murder, He Wrote
Once again, New York City real estate multi-millionaire Robert Durst has been arrested for yet another murder of someone whom he knew very well; the Mafia journalist Susan Berman, who was killed inside her Hollywood home on Christmas Eve in the year 2000.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 528
CINEMATIC MOBSTERS
The Godfather, the paragon of the Hollywood industry, is the obvious example of thoughtful mob film production.
- By Christian Cipollini, Feature Articles 527
Murder Inc.
Mysteries of the Mob’s Most Deadly Hit Squad
Excerpt taken from Chapter 9 - Disappearing Acts
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 526
PROTECTION
Selling protection is at the core of any mafia-type phenomenon. Mafia insurance is for life.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 525
What Happened In Sayreville?
Today, almost overnight, Sayreville is to be found in newspapers around the world, regarding a scandal involving it’s High School football team.
- By Emma Stevens, Feature Articles 524
The Fascinating Final Years of Al Capone
Capone is often romanticized as America’s greatest gangster, however there is nothing romantic or glamorous about the realities of the life the man lived.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 523
Omertá and Solidarity
To rat-out someone is a sin from which there is no escape. Today that code is in tatters.
- By Emma Stevens, Feature Articles 522
The Drug Trade and the Demise of the American Mafia
By the
1960s, the FBN had a massive database of mobsters that would be the start of
the end for the mafia and the drugs trade.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 521
At Long Last:
The Conviction of Whitey Bulger
Part Two: Bulger Trial’s Troubled Anniversary
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 520
Narcotraffickers South Of The Border
An estimated sixty-two percent of the Mexican economy is tied up with drug money.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 519
The Popular Mafia
Mafia! Its mere utterance strikes fear in the heart of the average law-abiding citizen.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 518
FRAMED!
Part Two: The Saga of Ken Littleton
Is Kenneth Littleton a dangerous murderer, or a man falsely accused for the benefit of others?
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 517
Vendetta
Vendetta is a primordial form of justice, an action necessary to reestablish a lost equilibrium.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 516
License To Steal: "The Goodfellas Trial"
"These 'Goodfellas' thought they had a license to steal, a license to kill, and a license to do whatever they wanted!," stated FBI official George Venizelos, in announcing the arrests of 5 members of the Bonanno Mafia Family.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 515
Mafia As Metaphor
Make believe mobsters are pathetic caricatures of the real thing. The impact of such portrayals comforts the gun lobby and has a corroding influence on the body politic.
- By William Hyrb, Feature Articles 514
Vanished: The Life and Disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa
This is an excerpt from the new book, Vanished: The Life and Disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, by William Htrb. is available from, Amazon.com and other publishing outlets.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 513
Italy's Mafias
It is one of gaining influence in community affairs; alliances and collaborations with state functionaries; infiltrating segments of the society and gaining support and protection of certain enabling segments of the population.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 512
Who Killed President Kennedy?
A Special Report on the 50th Anniversary of the “Crime of the Century!”
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 511
Favela Drug Trafficking
Brazilian-Portuguese name given to a hill near Brazil's Rio de Janeiro where shanty towns were first built.
- By Allan R. May, Feature Articles 510
Crimetown U.S.A.
Why Youngstown?
“Crimetown, U.S.A.” is a narrative of organized crime in Youngstown, Ohio and the surrounding Mahoning Valley during the years 1933 to 1963.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 509
At Long Last: The Conviction Of Whitey Bulger
One of the most dangerous and brutal criminals to have ever worked for the FBI, Boston Mob Boss James "Whitey" Bulger, has finally been convicted for the drug trafficking and murders he directed during his reign of terror dating back to the 1970s.
- By Christian Cipollini, Feature Articles 508
A Hit Man's Personal Affects
This is an excerpt from the new book, Diary of a Motor City Hit Man: The Chester Wheeler Campbell Story, by Christian Cipollini. Taken from Chapter 4 - Inventory of a Hit Man and is available from, Amazon.com and other publishing outlets.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 507
Politicians and Mobsters: Russia
The Russian Mafiya did not emerge as a result of the 1991 collapse of the communist state. It was present, as were other Russian mobs. They existed before and were a consequence of the unique characteristics of the Soviet system.
- By Peter Lance, Feature Articles 506
Deal With the Devil:
The FBI's Thirty-Year Relationship With a Mafia Killer
In Deal with the Devil, five-time Emmy winning investigative reporter Peter Lance draws on three decades of once secret FBI files—and exclusive new interviews—to tell the definitive story of Gregory Scarpa Sr., aka "The Grim Reaper;" a Mafia capo, who "stopped counting" after 50 murders, while secretly betraying the Colombo crime family as a Top Echelon Criminal Informant for the Bureau.
- By Ron Chepesiuk, Feature Articles 505
Black Caesar: The Rise and Disappearance of America's Biggest Kingpin
This is an excerpt from the new book, Black Caesar: The Rise and Disappearance of America's Biggest Kingpin, by Ron Chepesiuk. The book is published by Strategic Media Books (www.strategicmediabooks.com) and is available from the web site, Amazon.com and other publishing outlets.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 504
Whitecollar Racketeering
A closer look at the complete phenomenon of racketeering reveals greater complexity and scope, particularly in the inclusion of persons, businesses and corporations that function in the legitimate economy yet dip into criminality if not most of the time certain when the occasion warrants.
- By George Hassett, Feature Articles 503
Gangsters of Boston
excerpt from Gangs of Boston By George Hassett
This is an excerpt from George Hassett's just released Gangsters of Boston, which is published by Strategic Media Books
- By George Anastasia, Feature Articles 502
Being Oscar
From Mob Lawyer to Mayor of Las Vegas - Only in America
Oscar Goodman spent more than 30 years defending some of the most notorious mobsters in America. Now he's written a book - Being Oscar - in which he talks about all that and more, much more.
- By Martin Iacampo, Sr., Feature Articles 501
Luna Park
The story Luna Park is a true story about a kid named Benny Iacampo that crossed the pond to the “Land of Opportunity” from Campobasso, Italy in 1914 with his father Carmen, searching for the same thing that all of the other immigrants were looking for; a better life.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 500
Terror Comes To Boston
In an apartment in the Boston suburb of Waltham, three young men, Brendan Mess, 25 years old, Erik Weissman, also 25, and Raphael Teken, 37, were brutally murdered, their throats having been cut with either a knife or an ice pick.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 499
The Sicilian Character
Faulty governing and daily corruption forced the population to develop and to exercise their own local remedies.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 498
Chayotes: Mexican Drug Cartel Bribery
The practice of the chayote (bribe) has had a pre-cartel history in Mexico.
- By Richard Stanley Cagan, Feature Articles 497
Mafia Cop: The Two Families of Michael Palermo; Saints Only Live in Heaven
A true docudrama of the life of New York City narcotics detective Michael Palermo. Detective Palermo built his career on his unique ability to inhabit two worlds at once: the world of law enforcement and the underworld of New York’s crime family organizations.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 496
Jamaican Posses
Jamaican criminal gangs in the United States have taken on the word "posse" after the very popular old Western films viewed widely in Jamaica.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 495
FRAMED!
This story is about three men falsely identified as criminals within the space of a few weeks in New York City in 1993.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 494
The Heroin Trade In Bulgaria
Of the former communist states, Bulgaria has been the most hard-hit by its crime wave.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 493
Giuseppe Musolino and La Picciotteria
The parish priest noted that Musolino was an ill-mannered child and was growing up without absorbing any civility.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 492
Japanese Racketeers
The Yakuza tradition contains a conduct code that specifies being brave at all times and sacrificing oneself for others.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 491
Camorra In The Mid-1800s
Its influence is found throughout the Neapolitan province in the form of territorial secret societies that bend the law to their own arbitrary and fraudulent purposes.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 490
World War Two Racketeers
A racketeer is a person engaging in fraudulent activities; full-time, part-time, individually or in collusion with others.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 489
Sicilians and Mafia Sentiment
The true mafioso, the authentic mafioso, is always humble, speaks and listens with a modest and ostensive air and chooses his words carefully.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 488
Failed State Mexico
A failed state is one that is characterized by strongman rule and weak
institutions. There is a worrisome coziness between politicians and racketeering.
- By Ron Chepesiuk, Feature Articles 487
Mexico's Narco Drug Queens
This is an excerpt from the new book, Queenpins: Notorious Women Gangsters from the Modern Era, by Ron Chepesiuk. The book is published by Strategic Media Books (www.strategicmediabooks.com) and is available from the web site, Amazon.com and other publishing outlets.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 486
The Strange Case Of Leonardo Vitale
Leonardo Vitale was the first Sicilian informant of modern times.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 485
"UNHAPPY VALLEY"
Crime and Cover-up at Penn State
On two separate occasions, 11 years ago and 9 years ago, two men walked into a shower in the building of the Penn State football team and claim they saw a football coach sexually assaulting a young boy.
- By George Anastasia and Glen Macnow, Feature Articles 484
A Conversation with George Anastasia and Glen Macnow
authors of THE ULTIMATE BOOK OF GANGSTER MOVIES
Featuring the 100 Greatest Gangster Films of All Time
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 483
Confidential Informants
The informant system is an essential tool in successful criminal investigations.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 482
Crime Scene - World Trade Center
Part Three: The Terrorists, the Mafia, and Missed Opportunities
A Special Report on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11.
- By Tony DeStefano, Feature Articles 481
"Mob Killer" and the story of Charlie Carneglia of the Gambino family
Tony DeStefano introduces his new book
Mob Killer: The Bloody Rampage of Charles Carneglia, Mafia Hit Man
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 480
Mafiusu
The Italian concepts of mafioso and mafia evolved from the old Sicilian word mafiusu.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 479
OMERTÁ
the mafia abstraction of morality.
- By Ron Chepesiuk, Feature Articles 478
One Brave Man's Stand Against the Mob
This is an excerpt from Ron Chepesiuk’s new book: Straight from the Hood: Amazing but True Gangster Tales, by Ron Chepesiuk and Scott Wilson. The book is published by Strategic Media Books (www.strategicmediabooks.com) and is available from the web site, Amazon.com and other publishing outlets.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 477
Who Shot Godfather Colombo?
A Special Report On The 40th Anniversary Of An Historic Mafia Milestone
The evidence in this case, some of which has been presented here for the first time, is incomplete, somewhat confusing, and contradictory.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 476
Charley Lucky Paroled to Italy
In 1946, as a reward for his alleged wartime cooperation, he was paroled on the condition that he depart from the United States and return to his native Sicily.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 475
Surveillance Techniques
In 1968, Congress passed Title III, a law authorizing the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to engage in the bugging and wire tapping of criminal suspects.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 474
The True Mafia
A true mafia represents a model of criminal perfection.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 473
The Mafia Is A Gentlemen's Club
No definition seemed to suffice because no definition could fully capture this illusive Sicilian "thing."
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 472
Bombs And The Mob!
Part Two: Cleveland And Youngstown, Ohio
The crime families of two cities, Cleveland and Youngstown, would utilize the bomb more so than any other of the families of the American Mafia.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 471
Bombs And The Mob!
Part One: Chicago, Illinois
First came the knife. Then came the gun. Then came the bomb. Thus was the progression of tools made by Man to kill his fellow Man.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 470
The Gangster Fixation
Organized crime is an inward, specialized world composed of individuals who reject conventionality and finding themselves selecting behavior that more suits their predispositions.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 469
Myths Of The Mob!
"The vow of silence that is part of the oath of Omerta is more myth than reality today!" --FBI Agent Janice Fedarcyk
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 468
Raymond Chandler Interviews Lucky Luciano
Raymond Chandler(1888-1959) was a noted novelist and screenwriter who influenced the modern
detective story with the fictional protagonist shamus Philip Marlowe, private
eye. The interview was commissioned by the London Sunday Times. It was never
published.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 467
Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless
Part Four: New York's Activist Clergy
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 466
The Mexican Drug War
The Mexican drug conflicts, clan against clan, began over the fight for the right to move drugs through the border cities.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 465
Prohibition Bootlegging
Prohibition was a dream come true for opportunists who saw a chance to make a clean up and a perfect breeding ground for a massive crime wave by otherwise law-abiding citizens.
- By Tim Newark, Feature Articles 464
Lucky in Nazi Germany
Tim Newark uses primary sources in US and European archives to reveal new truths about the gangster and puncture old myths.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 463
Al Capone's Income Tax Trial
The case against Capone became the most important income tax investigation in American history, setting many legal precedents.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 462
Are Informers Reliable?
Can government informers be relied upon to give true testimony about themselves and others?
- By Arthur Nash, Feature Articles 461
New York City Gangland (Images of America)
Throughout the United States, there is no single major metropolitan area more closely connected to organized crime's rapid ascendancy on a national scale than New York City.
Click here to buy the book!
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 460
"Mother Of Mercy, Is This The End Of Rico?"
The quote above is the dying words uttered by Rico, a Chicago gangster of the 1920s, after being cut down by police bullets (in the movie - Little Caeser, 1931).
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 459
Fulton Fish Market Racketeering
The Fulton Fish Market…has for decades been corruptly influenced by organized crime.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 458
Mobsters Taking The Fifth
nor shall be compelled in any Criminal case to be a witness against himself.
- By Ron Chepesiuk, Feature Articles 457
American Gangster Revisited
This is an excerpt from Ron Chepesiuk’s new book: "Sergeant Smack, The Legendary Lives and Times of Ike Atkinson., Kingpin, and his Band of Brothers.". The book is available for purchase from Amazon.com, as well as www.ikeatkinsonkingpin.com, and through local book stores.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 456
Loansharking
Crime Commissions over the years have asserted that loansharking was the second most important activity of organized crime.
- By Ron Chepesiuk, Feature Articles 455
Kill The Beard
This is an excerpt from Ron Chepesiuk’s new book: The Trafficantes: Godfathers from Tampa, Florida: The Mafia, the CIA and the JFK Assassination. The book is available for purchase from Amazon.com, as well as www.ronchepesiuk.com, and through local book stores.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 454
Mafia Legend And Myth
When truth and legend collide, the saying goes, print the legend; it's more interesting.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 453
Kosher Nostra
The rise of Kosher Nostra began in New York City at the turn of the century when Monk Eastman (nee Jacob Osterman) ended the reign of the Irish gangs in the Five Points area of the old Lower East Side.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 452
The Kefauver Crime Committe, 1950-1951
Senator Kefauver introduced a bill calling for a full-scale investigation of crime in interstate commerce.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 451
Rackets & Racketeers
Rackets are organized illegal activities. Racketeers commit crimes.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 450
'Ndrangheta Women
There is a history of active participation of women in the Calabrian 'ndrangheta 'ndrine (clans).
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 449
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Seventeen: Predictable Outcome of Latest Trial
Jurors were evenly divided in the charges involving racketeering, drug trafficking, and murders and thus, for the 4th time in 5 years, the son of the late Gambino crime family Godfather has escaped conviction in a trial prosecuted by the U. S. Attorney’s Office.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 448
La Compagnia Della Teppa
These delinquent youth constituted a teppa, a mob, under the name "La compagnia della teppa" (The Company of the Teppa). An equivalent in English is hooligans, which is derived from the Irish surname Houlihan, taking on the meaning ruffian or hoodlum (in England: teddy-boy)
- By Ron Chepesiuk, Feature Articles 447
Casino Royale-- the Mob, Gambling and Miami’s Early History
This article is adapted from a chapter in Ron Chepesiuk’s book, Gangsters of Miami: True Tales of Mobsters, Gamblers, Hitmen, Con Men and Gang Bangers from the Magic City, which Barricade Books will be published in November 2009 All rights reserved.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 446
The Trials Of Traficant
Part Eight: Traficant Returns to Youngstown
After spending 7 years in a Federal Penitentiary following his conviction on bribery and racketeering charges, former Congressman James Traficant has returned to his native Youngstown to face an uncertain future.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 445
Cosa Nostra Power In Sicily
Organized crime includes three components: the criminal group; its protectors (that is, those who defend the interests of the group); the specialists (those who knowingly render services to promote the interests of the group).
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 444
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Sixteen: Liar's Poker
The Fifth prosecution of John "Junior" Gotti, son of the late Gambino Family Godfather John Gotti, in now underway in Manhattan Federal Court (Sept 09)
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 443
Dark Brotherhoods
Before the Sicilian mafia system established a firm foothold in the 1880s, there existed earlier forms, the proto-mafias, a few of which became counter-mafias. Taken together, these delinquent societies are known as Tenebrosi Sodalizi (Dark Brotherhoods).
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 442
Replacing Robert Morgenthau
Retiring as District Attorney for Manhattan, Morgenthau has attained a record that ranks him as one of the most successful Prosecutors in U. S. history.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 441
Mafia: What's In A Word?
The term mafia has had over the course of centuries different meanings under a variety of perspectives.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 440
The Rise And Fall Of Omertà
Omertà: to be men; to have blood in your veins. From the Sicilian word omu, man.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 439
Extortion Sicilian Style
The Italian term "pizzo" signifies a form of extortion. A typical practice is to demand a percentage of earnings or a fixed monthly rate from businesses and entrepreneurs in exchange for "protection."
- By Sandra Harmon, Feature Articles 438
MAFIA SON
The Scarpa Mob Family, The FBI, and a Story of Betrayal
Bestselling author Sandra Harmon uses her inside access to the Mob, law enforcement, and jailed Mafioso Gregory Scarpa Jr. to tell an epic true story of crime and betrayal.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 437
Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless
Part Three: Another Disappointing Sentence
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 436
Casalesi Camorra Clan
The camorra boot camp began with the "spirit of the dagger."
- By Ron Chepesiuk, Feature Articles 435
Interview with Billy Corben, Director of Gangster Documentaries
Billy Corben is a 30-year old award-winning director of gangster documentaries, Corben's most noted productions, Cocaine Cowboys 1 and 2, document the rise of the cocaine trade and the resulting crime epidemic plaguing Miami in the 1970s and 1980s.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 434
The Honorable Raffaele Palizzolo, Mafia Supporter
A number of crimes were to be attributed to Palizzolo: fraud, social insurance swindles, giving false testimony and favoritism to the advantage of the mafia.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 433
Analyze This: The Criminal Mentality
Mobsters are modern-day buccaneers, working schemes, profiting from the labors of others, exploiting the weak, picking the pockets of suckers, killing without remorse.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 432
The Cuocolo Affair
The Cuocolo double-murder trial of 1911, which produced the first Neapolitan camorra informer, drew international publicity because it opened a door to a criminal secret society whose operatives were plaguing both Italy and the United States.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 431
Life And Death In The Bronx
Part Two: Getting Away With Murder
It was the performance of his career, actor Lillo Brancato, Jr., tearfully portrayed himself as a victim.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 430
There Is No Mafia In America
"There was as much difference between the mafia and an American crime syndicate as there would be between a friar and the Pope." (The Truth about the Mafia, 1962).
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 429
License to Kill: Greg Scarpa and the FBI
Part Eight: "The Four Questions" - Scarpa was one of the most prolific contract killers in American History who was on the payroll - and evident protection from prosecution - of the FBI.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 428
George Raft, Mafia Wannabe
Raft’s tough-guy persona on the silver screen was not an act—gangsters were his heroes (and sometime mentors).
- By Ron Chepesiuk, Feature Articles 427
Retired DEA Agents and NYPD Cops Sue Frank Lucas, the "American Gangster…." Again
A group of retired DEA agents and New York Police Department cops have sued NBC Universal, the producers of "American Gangster," claiming that they were defamed in the movie’s closing credits.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 426
License to Kill: Greg Scarpa and the FBI
Part Seven: Racism and The FBI - what can be told now is a very disturbing story based upon what is already known about Hoover, Scarpa, and Marcello.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 425
La Mano Nera (The Black Hand)
The phenomenon of the Black Hand at the turn of the 20th century represented a brief and turbulent chapter in the history of Italian immigrant criminality.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 424
That Thing Called Cosa Nostra
The linkage between the state and Cosa Nostra is best demonstrated by the mutual
advantages that accrue with mafia infiltration into the political system.
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 423
Hollywood vs The Mob
If audiences respond so well to mob material, why is it so hard to get mob projects made?
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 422
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Fifteen: "Junior" Gotti Indicted! Again!
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 421
Mexican Mafias
The term Mexican mafias refers generally to criminal gangs operating in the United States, Mexico, and Central America. What the gangs have in common is an Hispanic heritage that drives a spirit of comradeship and loyalty to the body or association (brotherhood) to which one belongs—an animating spirit of a collective body and devotion to its honor and interests.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 420
RICO: The Nemesis of the Mob
An acronym for "Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations," - The RICO statute had its origins in previous attempts to curtail organized crime’s infiltration into legitimate business.
- By Rick Porrello, Feature Articles 419
"Thanks Mom"
In Memoriam: Frank D’Amico
Wiseguy-turned comedian/actor Frank D’Amico passed away June 1st, 2008
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 418
The Rise & Fall of Organized Crime in America
To understand the Twentieth Century’s rise and fall of what is known as "the mob" in this country, one has to begin in Thirteenth Century Sicily and look back.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 417
Basilischi: The Fifth Mafia
There is Cosa Nostra in Sicily, ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria, Camorra in Campania and Sacra Corona Unita in Puglia. A fifth mafia has been added, the Basilischi, in the region of Basilicata (also called by its former name, Lucania).
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 416
HOLLYWOOD CONFIDENTIAL: The Rise and Fall of Anthony Pellicano
Part Two: Pellicano Convicted!
A jury convicted Pellicano on 76 counts of illegal wiretapping, identity theft, and racketeering in a trial that featured testimony from or about Hollywood stars including Chris Rock, Sylvester Stallone, Gary Shandling, Keith Carradine, and Kevin Nealon.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 415
Attendee Profiles At The 1957 Apalachin Mob Confab
On November 17, 1957, a number of gangsters gathered for a conference at Joseph Barbara’s farmstead in the hamlet of Apalachin (near Endicott village), located in the State of New York’s Southern Tier. This event would become a watershed in the history of American organized crime and the government’s response.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 414
Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless
Part Two: "Boss Hog" Pleads Guilty
McLaughlin perpetrated his various crimes against working people and their families so that he could "support his own version of ‘lifestyles of the rich and famous!'".
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 413
‘O Sistema: In The Land Of The Camorra
Long considered a minor mafia, camorra today controls entire sectors of the economy.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 412
Vito Ciancimino: Palermo's Mafia Mayor
Vito Calogero Ciancimino (1924-2002) was a part of what Sicilian journalist Nino Amadore called the zona grigia, the "gray zone," composed of members of the professional class at the service of Cosa Nostra and on its payroll.
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 411
DAGO: The Joseph Petrosino Story
There is one lawman from long ago that I’ve come to greatly admire; so much so that I’ve recently completed a screenplay based on his life.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 410
Drug Trafficking In Italy
Cigarette contrabanding and other traditional mafia earning ventures, in totality, could not match the income from the narcotrade.
- By Frank R. Hayde, Feature Articles 409
The Mafia and the Machine:
The Story of the Kansas City Mob
The Mafia and it's close alliance with the Politcal Machine in Kansas City.
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 408
R.I.P. ~ Bill Bonanno
Bill Bonanno did not choose a mob life; his father chose it for him.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 407
Mafia As Seen By Various Observers
Selected quotations from several perspectives on organized crime and gangsters, both American and Italian.
- By Ron Chepesiuk and Anthony Gonzalez, Feature Articles 406
Frank Lucas and "American Gangster"—the Myth and the Reality
Many of Lucas’s claims to fame are bogus, and "American Gangster," the movie, is largely the figment of Hollywood’s fertile imagination.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 405
A Christmas Murder In Hollywood
Part Six: The Vigil Continues
It’s becoming something of an annual Holiday tradition continuing chronicling Mafia writer Susan Berman, murdered on Christmas Eve, 2000, and Anthony Fox, the business partner of actor Johnny Depp, who disappeared during Christmas, 2001 and is presumed murdered
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 404
Donne Di Mafia (Women of the Mafia)
Some contend that the correct interpretation is to understand that a donna di mafia is not “part of” but rather “belongs to” the mafia system.
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 403
"When We Were Kings"
A contemplative look back at the good old days of mobdom, brought on by the half century anniversary of the infamous Appalachian Convention.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 402
License to Kill: Greg Scarpa and the FBI
Part Six: The "Mistress of Manipulation" - Linda Schiro, a woman who used her beauty and sexual prowess to manipulate those men in her life whom possessed whatever young Linda desired.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 401
License to Kill: Greg Scarpa and the FBI
Part Five: Giuliani and the G-Man - The "Commission" of the Godfathers of New York City’s five Mafia families allegedly took a vote on whether to sanction the assassination of Rudolph Giuliani, according to an FBI report made public in the Brooklyn murder trial of retired FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio.
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 400
Lansky and Miami
Outside of Las Vegas, there is probably no city in the United States that owes more of its development to the mob than Miami.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 399
License to Kill: Greg Scarpa and the FBI
Part Four: No Jury for Agent DeVecchio - Lindley DeVecchio, the retired G-man facing 4 counts of murder with the Mob, has waived his right to a trial by "a jury of his peers" and instead demanded he face a "Bench Trial,"
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 398
Rural Sicilian Mafia
The first Sicilian mafia, the rural mafia, also known as the Tradition, arose before the unification of Italy in the 1860s.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 397
CYBERMAFIA
Cybermafia is a term used to describe all of the cybercrimes committed utilizing computers, especially the Internet.
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 396
Arrivederci, Little Italy
The current demise of Little Italy can only be compared to the decades-long downward plunge of Atlantic City and Miami before their rebirths. Little Italy will have no such rebirth.
- J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 395
17 Days In August: A Tale of Cops, Steroids, and The Mob!
Part Two: The Author’s Personal Revisiting of a Landmark Case
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 394
Mafia Bianca: White-Collar Mafia
A supporting wing that blends seamlessly into the middle and upper-middle classes.
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 393
"Turning Mob Myths, From the Inside and Out, Inside-Out"
Some myths have been so ingrained in the public consciousness that gangsters themselves now believe them.
- By Rick Porrello, Feature Articles 392
The Chicago Mafia on Trial!
Questions and Answers about the "Family Secrets" case
The Chicago Mafia case is just in time to fill the void in available mob drama caused by Davis Chase’s rude drop of the curtain on Tony Soprano. But this is not entertainment.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 391
Bulgaria: Mafia Hotspot
Bulgaria can be said to be the linchpin of Balkan mafia activity.
- By Amy A. Kisil, Feature Articles 390
Dicing and Drugs:
Carmen Zagaria and Tommy Sinito - Part III
- By Ellen Poulsen, Feature Articles 389
People v. good people: The Luciano Trial Revisited
The Case Against Lucky Luciano: New York’s Most Sensational Vice Trial
- By Tim Newark, Feature Articles 388
Fighting the Mafia in World War Two
As the Allies entered Vito Genovese’s realm in Nola, near Naples, in the autumn of 1943, the top New York mobster offered to help them as translator and guide to the region.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 387
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Fourteen: Heroin Chic
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 386
The 'Ndrangheta In Gioia Tauro
The clans in the Plain of Gioa Tauro infiltrated the fruit industries, fixing prices and taking ill-gotten profits. The mobsters also controlled a portion of the olive oil market.
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 385
Why So Many Rats Today?
I asked a friend how many men who had testified against the mob since Joe Valachi had been caught up with and killed? He said, "None."
- By Amy A. Kisil, Feature Articles 384
Tommy James Sinito AKA The Chinaman:
The Mafia Years - Part II
content removed by request 9/6/20
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 383
Biker Mafia
Outlaw Bikers feed on fear and violence, allowing them to run narcotics, gun trafficking and prostitution operations across North America and overseas.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 382
The Japanese Mafia
The Japanese mafia — the yakuza — is arguably the largest, wealthiest and most secretive of all the organized crime syndicates in the world.
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 381
Good Friends Who Did Dumb Things
In the course of my life in the streets, I have had some friends, who did some really dumb things that resulted in their deaths.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 380
License to Kill:
Greg Scarpa and the FBI
Part Three: A Troubled Prosecution - In the space of a few weeks, four associates of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office have been involved in public scandals.
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 379
To Mob Wannabes:
As someone who lived most of my life in organized crime, trust me, guys, there’s nothing left to wannabe.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 378
The Phenomenon Of The Chinese Triads
Unlike their flashier Russian counterparts, Chinese triads prefer to do their work more quietly, sometimes using highly placed members in financial institutions and even government.
- By Amy A. Kisil, Feature Articles 377
Tommy James Sinito AKA The Chinaman:
The Early Years - Part 1
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 376
AMNESTY:
Fooled you, huh? You thought I was talking about illegals crossing the Mexican border.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 375
A Perspective On Transnational Criminality
The globalisation of crime poses further problems, as the cost of investigating and prosecuting transnational crime may be prohibitive in all but the most serious cases.
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 374
The Best True Mob Story
In the case of traditional organized crime, you're watching American history unfold.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 373
Songs Of The Mafia
The songs are quite revealing of the mafia mentality and way of life, particularly in regard to anti-authority sentiments and the vitality of the central codes of silence and respect.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 372
Russian Jewish Organized Crime
Because the Russian mob is mostly Jewish, it is a political hot potato, especially in the New York area.
- By Amy A. Kisil, Feature Articles 371
Whose Guns Tommy Longo? Whose Guns?
Speculations Part 2
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 370
A Christmas Murder In Hollywood
Part Five: Cold Cases Remain Cold
America celebrates another Holiday season with Justice still nowhere in sight for Mafia writer Susan Berman, who was murdered in Hollywood on Christmas Eve in 2000
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 369
Italian Anti-Mafia Commissions
The word mafia, a term that was basically an invention of journalists and politicians to refer to Sicilian criminality, appeared for the first time in a report by the prefect of Palermo, Filippo Gualterio, in April of 1865, with reference to an associazione malandrinesca (criminal association) in league with public officials.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 368
Tommaso Buscetta: Sicilian Mafia Witness
This was the first instance in Sicily that someone who had dedicated his life to the mafia, rising to a pinnacle position, had broken the sacred rule of omertà.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 367
Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless
If this story is shocking and outrageous to those Americans residing outside New York, for residents of the Empire State, allegations such as these are no surprise to the area’s one million rank-and-file Union members who have been similarly victimized for decades by Union leaders who steal money from working people and their families.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 366
The Politics Of Indictment
New Yorkers were stunned to witness a political scandal revolving around State Attorney General candidate Jeanine Pirro just weeks before the general election of 2006.
- By Cherie Rohn, co-author of Thief! with William "Slick" Hanner., Feature Articles 365
Interview with a Superthief
Author Cherie Rohn, in an AmericanMafia.com exclusive, interviews mobbed-up super thief, Phil "Superthief" Christopher.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 364
The Mafia Tradition, Camorra, Lucky Luciano
Mafiosi boasted that they were uomini d'onore, honorable men who were
worthy of respect. According to the Sicilians, the camorra was composed of mascalzoni, rogues of no account, dedicated to a collection of petty crimes, the sort that the mafia viewed as dysfunctional to the sense of superiority that it sought to inculcate in its members.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 363
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Thirteen: Partial Victory for Gotti and Sliwa
- By Amy A. Kisil, Feature Articles 362
Where’s Tommy Longo
Speculations. Part 1
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 361
Globalized Transnational Crime
'Transcrime' is lawlessness committed in more than one country.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 360
A Tale Of Two Murders
A Special Report On The Fifth Anniversary Of 9/11
- By Parry Desmond, Feature Articles 359
Remembering Max “Boo Boo” Hoff
Although he made his first million from small-time gambling operations while he was still in his twenties, it wasn't until the Prohibition Era, 1920 to 1933, that he and his cronies made a fortune.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 358
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Twelve: Playing the 'Race Card?'
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 357
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Seventeen: Getting Away With Murder?
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 356
Bernard Kerik, The Feds, And The Mob
Part Three: The Final Chapter
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 355
Albanian Criminality
Albania continues to recover from the ravages of the former communist regime and the fierce political struggle that resulted from the power vacuum.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 354
License to Kill:
Greg Scarpa and the FBI
Part Two: Gangsters With Badges - Stunned investigators in both law enforcement and the Media are now wondering if Angela Clemente’s assailant was a member of the Mafia, the FBI, or both.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 353
The Case Of Bernardo Provenzano
On the lam since 1963, the reputed il capo dei capi, Top Boss, of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, Bernardo Provenzano, is now in custody.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 352
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Sixteen: A Tale of Two Brothers
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 351
SECRETS OF THE PRIVATE EYES
The stuff of legend and Hollywood hype
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 350
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Eleven: First Amendment Under Siege
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 349
Defining Organized Crime
Present day organized crime (OC) is quite different from that of the past.
- By John Bollinger, Feature Articles 348
I’m Walking, Yes, Indeed, But Not Talking The Great 1929 Slot Machine Scandal
According to the American Gambling Association, in just casinos and racetracks around the US alone, slot machines annually bring in over $21 billion in revenues.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 347
La Nuova Camorra Organizzata
This new organized camorra has extended its influence throughout Italy and abroad.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 346
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Fifteen: GUILTY!
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 345
Origins Of The Camorra
Like all secret societies, the camorra is a closed sect, an organization of criminals that acts in the shadows.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 344
License to Kill:
Greg Scarpa and the FBI
Part One: Reversal of Fortune - For four decades, Scarpa was protected in his crimes against America because of his status as an FBI Informant.
- By Rick Porrello, Feature Articles 343
Angelo "Big Ange" Lonardo:
One-time Highest-Ranking Mobster to Become a Federal Witness, Dead at age 95
3-31-06
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 342
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Ten: ‘Mis-Trial and Error’
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 341
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Fourteen: ‘Courtroom of Sorrow’
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 340
Ends Of Evil:
The Final Days of Sammy "The Bull" Gravano
Part Two: The "Iceman" Goeth - In 2001 "Iceman" Richard Kuklinski appeared on an HBO Special during which he claimed he had been hired by Gravano to murder Officer Calabro.
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 339
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Nine: The Three Victims
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 338
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Eight: A Father’s Sins
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 337
The Fourth Mafia: La Sacra Corona Unita
Although it has characteristics of urban gangs, the SCU is more correctly defined in terms of a gangsteristic-mafioso phenomenon.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 336
HOLLYWOOD CONFIDENTIAL: The Rise and Fall of Anthony Pellicano
The self-described "Private Investigator to the Stars," Anthony Pellicano, has again been hit with Federal indictments stemming from his practices as a Sunset Boulevard gumshoe.
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 335
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Thirteen: The Dueling Mob Turncoats
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 334
La Stidda - The Fifth Mafia
1. Cosa Nostra (Sicily), 2. Camorra (Campagna), 3. ‘Ndrangheta (Calabria), and 4. Nuova Sacra Corona Unita (Puglia). The latest emerging threat, the so-called Fifth Mafia, is competing with Cosa Nostra for supremacy in Sicily.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 333
Organized Crime Infiltrates North Italy
The Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta began to take a greater part in legal entrepreneurial activities and also assumed a significant role in drug trafficking and it extended its operations to North Italy
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 332
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Twelve: The Revenge of Janie McCormick
- By Gary Cohen, Feature Articles 331
The Lost Journals of Meyer Lansky
At the end of his life, the legendary "Chairman of the Board" of organized crime began writing down his life story for posterity. What he said--and what he didn’t--is only part of the tale.
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 330
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Eleven: Christmas for the Mafia Cops
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 329
A Christmas Murder In Hollywood
Part Four: Another Tragic Anniversary
Another Holiday season is upon us and yet Justice is still nowhere in sight for Mafia writer Susan Berman.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 328
Life And Death In The Bronx
It has been the home of members of the American Mafia and their corrupt politicians and law enforcement cronies.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 327
The 'On The Waterfront' Trials
Part Six: The Acquitted Corpse - On November 8, 2005 Genovese Mafia Family capo Lawrence Ricci was acquitted in Brooklyn Federal Court of charges he was involved in an extortion and fraud scam with Unions representing Workers on the docks of the New York and New Jersey Waterfront.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 326
The Sicilian Triangle
The Sicilian mafia reached its zenith of power and political influence during the phase from the 1880s to the First World War.
- By J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 325
Bernard Kerik, The Feds, And The Mob
Part Two: Was Kerik Set-up?
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 324
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Ten: The Media Wars
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 323
Sammy "Bull" Gravano -- vs-- Prosecutor John Molinelli.
Is Gravano a Guility Cop Killer? Or is It a Mix of Gottti "De Ja Vue" by a lying Serial killer...and Persecution by American Justice?
- By Sonny Girard, Feature Articles 322
Snake Eyes
Sonny Girard, a former mobster, decided to have his protagonist be caught between three agencies: the GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence), the FBI, and…you guessed it…the mob.
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 321
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Nine: The Wrong Man
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 320
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Seven: ‘Plan B’ to ‘Get Gotti’
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 319
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Eight: Yet Another Murder, Another Warning
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 318
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Six: Homecoming for Junior Gotti
- By Bob Siler, Feature Articles 317
Walking In Their Footsteps - A Look At The Mob In Los Angeles
Where they lived, played, murdered, died and are buried.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 316
The Art Of The "PIZZU"
A term signifying the extraction of money, goods information etc., by means of force, intimidation, fraud, deceit or abuse of authority.
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 315
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Five: Junior’s Trial Intersects ‘Mafia Cops’ Trial
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 314
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Four: Curtis Sliwa Gets His Day In Court
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 313
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Seven: The NYPD’s ‘Other’ Mafia Cop: Steve Gardell
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 312
Multi-million dollar loss: Judge rules against Bonanno crime family Gangster Ronald Massie.
Million dollar question: Will gangster Massie (identified informant) become the next hit for the Mob?
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 311
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Six: Another Murder, Another Warning
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 310
Godfathers Of Corleone
Waiting for Brando. Busloads of American tourists walk the streets of Corleone with hope of catching a glimpse of the cinematic godfather.
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 309
A New niche in Organize crime: Italian Mafia bosses "making millions" as crime consultants.
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 308
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Three: "Dirty Dozen" Trial of Junior Gotti Begins
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 307
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Five: A Troubled Prosecution
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 306
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Four: Judge Grants Bail
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 305
Research assistance: Samula E.Coleman, (Houston Texas)
FBI target "Growing up Gotti" actor Peter Gotti Jr.
Executives and producers of the hit series "Growing up Gotti" may soon decide whether or not if they should drop Peter Gotti Jr.
- By Rick Porrello, Feature Articles 304
Sinatra:The Life --Interview
Rick Porrello interviews authors Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan
- By J. R. de Szigethy and Lou Eppolito, Jr., Feature Articles 303
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
Part Three: The Emergence of 'Crystal Meth.'
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 302
HAIL CESARE! The Life and Times of Cesare Mori, the Scourge of the Mafia
"supercop" Cesare Mori, who would become the "Iron" Prefetto of Palermo, sent to Sicily by Mussolini, in 1925, as the "bloodhound" to pursue and deal a crushing blow to the mafia.
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 301
CSI (T.V. Crime Dramas) Affects the American Criminal Justice System
Unlike real-life Mafia stories, CSI (T.V. Crime Dramas) is an in-depth piece of investigative work to show Americanmafia fans how T.V. crime shows seduce millions of viewers into a make-believe world. Called the CSI syndrome, the popularity of this blockbuster series has affected the American Criminal Justice System in ways the Mafia can only dream of.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 300
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
PART TWO: THE COP WHO LOVED SNAKES
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 299
A Whitey Bulger' Connection....Could Ex-FBI Agent John Connolly Go FREE?
Bostonians' will never forget the notorious scandal of the FBI bureau and the Irish Mafia.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 298
The Business Of The Camorra
Cosa Nostra and the Camorra have always been around and will continue to be around; unfortunately they do exist. We will have to live with this reality." (Pietro Lunardi, 2001)
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 297
Partners In Crime: The Mafia Cops
PART ONE: MAFIA COPS INDICTED!
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 296
Gangster Life Imitates Art: Russian Mafia Boss 'Stars' In Real-Life TV Crime Show
There's a new crime boss on the screen---and he's not a fictional character. This guy is the real thing. Vitali Dyomochka, 34 , a Russian gangster, is the first crime boss on the planet to 'star' in a real-life TV crime show.
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 295
Help Wanted... Who wants to Join the Mafia?
Journalist Clarence Walker Responds to Mafia fans' fascination with the Dark Underworld.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 294
Steroids and the Mob
At long last the American people are being forced to confront a serious Societal problem that many have pretended did not exist; the pervasive use of anabolic steroids by our nation’s athletes.
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 293
Russian Organize Crime Target NFL Superbowl in Multi-Billion Dollar Gambling Scheme
Super Bowl is more than a game. It's a game of money. Mafia style threat------"Pay up or you will down."
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 292
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part Two: Peter Gotti Convicted, Junior Awaits Trial - The Holiday Season was a dark one for the brother and son of former Gambino Family Godfather John Gotti; brother Peter was convicted on most of the Federal charges he was facing, which should send him to prison for the rest of his life, while "Junior" Gotti’s attorneys failed in their attempt to spring him from prison on bail.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 291
A Primer On Money Laundering
Money laundering as an activity has never been the exclusive activity of organized crime. Respected people are not above engaging in the act when extra profit is at stake.
- By James Dubro, Feature Articles 290
Strange Fugitive
Introduction to the 2004 edition of Strange Fugitive pubished by Exile Editions in Toronto
- By David Kales, Feature Articles 289
Ten Years On The Lamb And The Question Still Remains: Where's Whitey?
Rumors circulate in Boston three or four times a year of Whitey sightings. Whitey refers to James "Whitey" Bulger, Boston’s notorious gangster, who after being indicted for racketeering and murder, has skipped town and been on the lam since 1995.
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 288
Gambino Mafia Rips Off U.S. Government, Porno Lovers and Cell Phone users Across the Globe in Multi-Million Dollar Scheme
If money and brains is power the Gambino mafia is here to stay.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 287
Bernard Kerik, The Feds, And The Mob
The revelations about 9/11 hero Bernard Kerik in the wake of his withdrawal as Nominee for Director of Homeland Security has stunned Americans nationwide, but none more so than New Yorkers who held such high esteem and affection for the larger-than-life ‘cop’s cop.’
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 286
The 'Ndrangheta Looms Large
The Italian Interior Minister said the ‘Ndrangheta has become "the most powerful and dangerous criminal organization in Italy because of its viciousness."
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 285
A Christmas Murder In Hollywood
Part Three: Another Tragic Anniversary
Another Holiday season is upon us and yet Justice is still nowhere in sight for Mafia writer Susan Berman.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 284
Damon Chappie ~ 1964-2004
Damon Chappie, acknowledged as one of America’s best investigative reporters, passed away on Friday, November 5, after courageously battling a variety of illnesses during the last 20 years of his short life.
- By Ellen Poulsen, Feature Articles 283
Don’t Call Us Molls: Women of the John Dillinger Gang
So many are lost to time, their names an alias on a fading, carbon copy indictment.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 282
The American Mafia's Worst Nightmare
Namely former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, could they be the country's next Attorney General and Homeland Security Director?
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 281
Organized Crime In Italy
Capos look for a way to "wash" their ill-gotten gains into legitimate businesses.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 280
Last Days of the Gotti Gang
Part One: The Two Godfathers Vs. The Two Ladies - From the day he was born, John “Junior” Gotti was raised by his father to be a murderer.
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 279
Fallen Crime Bosses:
Gotti's Mafia Legacy, Growing Up Gotti and John Gotti Jr. Facing Life Behind Bars
- By Rick Porrello, Feature Articles 278
Rick Porrello's Report: The Golden Age of Gangsters Convention
The first ever national gangster history convention was held outside Chicago on September 10, 11 and 12, 2004. I am proud to have been involved with the planning and promotion of this unique event. Includes Photo Album
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 277
America's Children and the American Mafia
Lawyers for John 'Junior' Gotti, the son of the late Gambino Godfather, claimed in a Court proceeding that 'Junior' has renounced crime and is writing children’s books.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 276
The Strange Case of Liliana Campana and the Sacra Corona Unita
The mafia’s youngest don was in custody, Liliana Campana, 22, was led from her heavily fortified home wearing a trendy denim jacket and flashing her midriff.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 275
Crime Scene - World Trade Center
- The First Crime Scene: October 4, 1990
- The Second Crime Scene: February 26, 1993
- A Brief History of Islam and the Western World
- The Soviets Fight Back
- FBI vs. FBI
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- The Colombo Family War
- The Plot To Destroy New York
- The Boston and Chicago Government Scandals
- The Terrorist Attacks Escalate
- The Third Crime Scene: September 11, 2001
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- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 274
Blackmail In America: A Dark History
The recent revelation that New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey may have been the subject of a blackmail scheme stunned America, and if true, McGreevey’s case is just one more example of how blackmail can affect our Democracy, a scourge that is decades old, and is a frequent tactic of members of the American Mafia.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 273
The Irishman and the Quiet Don
With Bufalino's box of tools, the engine of Frank Sheeran's truck was soon running smoothly. That was the Irishman’s first encounter with Russell Bufalino, the Quiet Don, so called, whose bite was worse than his bark.
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 272
A Special Investigative Report:
American Mafia Recruits Sicilian Mafia - Mafia godfathers may turn in their graves but the American mafia is seeking new talent, preferably of Sicilian origin, to recruit into the crime family organizations.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 271
Gaetano Badalamenti and the Pizza Connection
He was eighty. Mr. Badalamenti was sentenced in 1987 to 45 years in federal prison for being one of the ring leaders of the so-called Pizza Connection, a $1.65 billion heroin and cocaine operation that used pizzerias as fronts to distribute the drugs from 1975 to 1984.
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 270
Russian Mafia Extorts Gambling Websites
This new-style gangster-ism involves extortion of gambling websites carried out in cyberspace by human forces – forces who speak foreign languages – communicating demands across the globe.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 269
Sicily And The Mafia
Part Five: Boss Rule and Political Corruption - The politics of Sicily 100 years ago was a nest of intrigue, sinister intentions, violence, and "purchased" votes -- with the mafia in the midst of it all.
- By R. Porrello - J. Pistone, Feature Articles 268
The Donnie Brasco Interview
The Way of the Wiseguy - a new book by Joe Pistone
The romanticized view of the mob gets a reality check in this
fascinating guide to the real Cosa Nostra from Pistone, who successfully
infiltrated one of New York City's five families as an FBI undercover agent in
the late 1970s and early 1980s. During his six years posing as Donnie Brasco,
Pistone managed to gain the trust of countless mobsters and was almost formally
made a member of the Mafia.
We wish to thank Mr. Pistone for spending some time with AmericanMafia.com host Rick Porrello, on the release of his new book. We are proud to present the Porrello - Pistone interview.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 267
Sicily And The Mafia
Part Four: Mussolini Takes On the Mafia - In their methods to suppress the Mafia, the Fascists would prove to be more mafioso than the mafiosi, defeating them on grounds of honor and violence.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 266
Death on the Waterfront
One of the businesses that was the inspiration for the classic motion picture 'On the Waterfront' has now quietly died after operating on the Brooklyn waterfront for 148 years. The Domino Sugar plant also reveals the troubled history of organized labor and organized crime in America.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 265
Sicily And The Mafia
Part Three: Men of Honor, Omertà, and the Cosca - "Omertà is the attitude which assumes that recourse to legal authority in cases of persecution by private enemies is a symptom of weakness, almost cowardice."
(Mosca, 1933)
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 264
Sicily And The Mafia
Part Two: Historical Background - How the word Mafia got its modern meaning. In Palermo, Sicily, in 1862 a young and penniless playwright, Gaspare Mosca, and the actor Giuseppe Rizzotto wrote and brought to the stage a play set in the new prison of the city, the Ucciardone. This production would serve to popularize the Sicilian word Mafia and to change its traditional meaning from positive to negative.
- By Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 263
Cigar City Mafia
Cigar City Mafia is the first book ever written about the Tampa mob. This enigmatic crime group extended its criminal empire across Florida, into Cuba and across the globe. Mafia traces the mob’s history from its beginnings in the Cuban/Italian ethnic enclaves of Tampa in the 1920’s through the present. The group also gave rise to one of the most powerful, yet least known mob bosses in crime history, Santo Trafficante Jr., who ran the crime family from 1954 to his death in 1987.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 262
Mob War!
Part Three: Mob Murders Investigations Continue - A new Court ruling in a murder case involving the Colombo Family War of a decade ago has not curtailed investigations of the murders of at least 12 people that were the result of that war.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 261
Sicily And The Mafia
Part One: What was the Traditional Mafia? - In 1865 the Italian government was the first to use the term Mafia to refer to a Sicilian criminal organization. The Mafia, the document stated, was bent on threat, violence, corruption and subversion.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 260
Mob War!
Part Two: Anatomy of a Frame-up - Repercussions continue to plague law enforcement officials a full decade after the bloody Colombo Family War which left at least 11 people dead.
- By Mike La Sorte, Feature Articles 259
The Mob on the Nob: The Mafia I knew
There was a group of men that made up the Mob on the Nob that engaged in a variety of illegal activities, including gambling, extortion, prostitution as well as threats to legitimate enterprises.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 258
The 'On The Waterfront' Trials
Part Five: Hollywood Investigations Continue - The Los Angeles Times reports that the FBI has for some months been investigating evidence that 'Private Investigator to the Stars' Anthony Pellicano may have violated wiretapping laws by secretly tape recording telephone conversations between clients, as well as members of the law enforcement community in California.
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 257
FBI Dark Secrets: Ex-FBI Agent arrested in 1981 Mob-Hit Murder
Another dark, sad chapter unfolded recently in the long-running scandal of corruption and other misdeeds involving America’s most elite law enforcement agency – the FBI.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 256
A Christmas Murder In Hollywood
Part Two: The Bizarre World of Club Culture
It has now been 4 years since the murder in Hollywood of Mafia reporter Susan Berman and two years since Johnny Depp's business partner Anthony Fox vanished without a trace.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 255
A Christmas Murder In Hollywood
On January 4, 2001 the Los Angeles Police Department issued a press release, announcing the murder of one Susan Berman, who was found shot to death in her Hollywood home on Christmas Eve, 2000.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 254
The 'On The Waterfront' Trials
Part Four: Steven Seagal Vindicated/ Gravano Murder Plot Revealed - In the space of a week the ongoing ’On the Waterfront’ trials have seen the vindication of action star Steven Seagal as the victim of a Mafia extortion scheme while Peter Gotti was hit with new charges that he conspired to murder former Gambino Family Underboss Sammy ’The Bull’ Gravano.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 253
The Mafia, The Mujahedin, and the Middle East
The story of these Middle Eastern terrorists has entertwined with many stories regarding the American Mafia.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 252
The 'Sopranos' Trial
Part Four: Is ‘Wiggles’ The Real-Life ‘Bada Bing Club?’ - A nudie club that for many years was run by the Acting Boss of the New Jersey Mafia Family.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 251
The 'Sopranos' Trial
Part Three: Reversal of Fortune for Mob Canary - Yet more sensational disclosures have emerged in the Federal trial of 3 men accused of being members of the New Jersey Mafia Family that is purported to be the inspiration for the HBO hit series THE SOPRANOS.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 250
The 'Sopranos' Trial
Part Two: Bizarre International Kidnap Plot Revealed in Court - Victor DiChiara, a Securities Broker on Wall Street who was among the 120 people across the country arrested in 2000 in the largest organized crime prosecution in United States history.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 249
The 'Sopranos' Trial
Part One: New Jersey Mob Boss Whacked for Gay Behavior - agents of the FBI tape recorded members of the Family talking about the hit television series and how they believe their own activities are represented in the program.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 248
The 'On The Waterfront' Trials
Part Three: ‘Oddfather’ Vincent ’’Chin’’ Gigante Admits to ‘Crazy Act’ - The bizarre ‘On the Waterfront’ trials, replete with instances of ‘Life imitating Art imitating Life,’ have taken on another strange twist with the confession by convicted Genovese Family Godfather Vincent ’’Chin’’ Gigante that his displays of irrational behavior over several decades were a performance to avoid prosecution.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 247
The 'On The Waterfront' Trials
Part Two: Three Members of the Gotti Family are Convicted - This trial will be remembered for the complexity of the charges, the trial Judge who was openly hostile to the Prosecution’s case, and the testimony of reluctant Prosecution Witness Steven Seagal, the action star renown for his roles as the good guy who single-handedly takes on the bad guys.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 246
Ends Of Evil:
The Final Days of Sammy "The Bull" Gravano - The career of former Gambino Mafia Family Underboss Sammy "The Bull" Gravano has now come full circle; the Brooklyn hood who started his résumé as a soldier in the United States Army, then as a Hairdresser, then in a succession of professions, including nightclub owner, loan shark, burglar, armed robber, construction industry worker, hitman, and Underboss of the Gambino Family, only to then be employed by America’s law enforcement community as a co-operating witness for the United States government, who then, once released from prison, enlisted his own wife, son, and daughter in a scheme peddling drugs to children, has now been charged with the murder of a member of America’s law enforcement community.
- By Ken Prendergast, Feature Articles 245
Welcome to the Hotel Sterling
When a team of FBI agents burst through the doors of Cleveland’s Hotel Sterling, people already inside the hotel appeared understandably surprised at the sudden invasion of sweatpant-clad G-men. But one man kept his wits, and his sense of humor, amid what would ordinarily be a rather upsetting turn of events.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 244
The 'On The Waterfront' Trials
Part One: The First Trial Begins in Brooklyn Federal Court - the Feds in Brooklyn are now going after Local 1814 and the ILU in two trials that will likely capture the attention of both the American public and Hollywood.
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 243
Actor Steven Seagal and the mafia: Whats the real story?
...The ruthless influence of deceased Gambino crimeboss John Gotti still rules like an iron fist...the mafia is still alive.
Consider the plot: Seagal's closest friend is a Gambino mafia associate who once served as his producer ; the actor becomes a reincarnated buddhist named "Tulka"---the producer files suit against the star for reneging to make four additional high-budget films ; the producer lose millions when Seagal backed out ; next comes the high-drama: the producer hires the Gambino mafia to threaten Seagal's life---then Seagal tells FBI he pays the mafia $700.000.00 to cool them off.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 242
The Congressman, The Senator, And The Mafia
The year 2002 has seen the demise of two of the most colorful members of the United States Congress, Senator Robert Torricelli of New Jersey and Congressman James Traficant of Ohio. Until this year, neither man had ever lost a political campaign.
- By Ken Prendergast, Feature Articles 241
The day the Cleveland mob died
Another look back at the Greene bombing 25 years ago - Perhaps the first time in the 25 years since flamboyant mobster Danny Greene was murdered by a car bomb, young Greater Clevelanders may have some idea of the fear that pervaded their metro area in those turbulent years.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 240
Senator Robert Torricelli And The Mafia,
Part Two: The Senator Quits His Re-Election Campaign - In a stunning event that some observers likened to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, Robert "The Torch" Torricelli ended his campaign for re-election to the United States Senate – and perhaps his political career as well.
- By Rick Porrello, Feature Articles 239
Danny Greene Plus 25
With almost daily media coverage of terrorist bombings, it’s hard to believe that such a vicious weapon was once used on a regular basis in Cleveland, Ohio’s underworld to settle scores and eliminate competitors – “headaches” as the mobsters called them.
- By Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 238
Sam the Fat Man
On August 6th 2002, in a crowded New York City courtroom, a jury acquitted two mobsters of conspiracy to hire a hit man. One of the mobsters, Gambino capo Greg DePalma, was no stranger to the New York press. He was a Gotti-era capo, whose loud mouth got him into trouble with the law. The other mobster, Sam ‘The Fat Man" Cagnina III was a virtual unknown to the press. Neither reporters for the New York Post nor The Daily News knew who Cagnina was. The reason is that Cagnina was not a New York gangster. He was a long-in-the-tooth Trafficante family associate from Tampa.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 237
The Agony Of Ecstasy:
The Fall Of Sammy Gravano And Peter Gatien
Fall, 2002. New York City. Salvatore Gravano, also known as Sammy "The Bull", former Underboss of the Gambino Mafia Family, is languishing in a Federal prison cell. Peter Gatien, the impresario of several successful New York nightclubs, is also languishing in a Federal prison cell.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 236
Books Worth Buying
Gangs of New York ~ An Informal History of the Underworld
Gangs of New York, thankfully published in affordable paper back, is an essential building block to any crime library. In fact, Gangs of New York should be the foundation of any crime library, from these gangs came Big Tim Murphy who gave us Arnold Rothstein, who gave us Lucky Luciano (and Legs Diamond) and so on.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 235
AKA, Tony the Hatch, DOA
Chiaramonti climbed the mob's ranks as a violent street enforcer and debt collector in the South Side rackets. Chiaramonti worked his way up as an enforcer and debt collector at east since 1967, and was known for stealing goods off trucks in highway "Stick and run" robberies.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 234
The Draft Riots
On March 3, 1863, President Lincoln signed the national conscription act which called for the registration of all males, between their ages of 18 and 45, for military service. Each city and state were given a quota, in New York the quota was 12,500 men. Those rich citizens who wanted to avoid the draft bought replacements to take their place for $300 and military exemptions were given out for frivolous reasons to all and any who had social pull. New York’s working class, had neither the money or the contacts to avoid the draft.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 233
The Rosemont Two Step
It was a simple lesson…no matter what they say about it, never, ever, deny mob ties in the public forum It will, inevitably and eventually, draw attention to people who need to live in the dark and issues that are better off forgotten. Still, some people need to learn things the hard way.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 232
Introducing John Givens
One of the more interesting characters to step onto the Mobs fleeing stage of fame in the past few years is John Givens, a self professed "one-man crime wave" is six foot four and 400 pounds, or as he put it once "A pizza shy of 400 pounds."
- By Ken Prendergast, Feature Articles 231
Cleveland’s Last Mob Hit
article removed by request of author
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 230
He Shoots! He Scores!
Part Two of Two - To add insult to injury, the government froze the properties causing an angry Gotti to ask reporters "Who's the racketeers?" and went on to claim that he was nearly broke and had to borrow money from his sister, best-selling author Victoria Gotti.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 229
Senator Robert Torricelli And The Mafia,
Part One: Mystery Associate Still Unidentified - On the surface, the story sounds like a plot line from the hit HBO series THE SOPRANOS: the owner of a New Jersey waste disposal company, in the company of a high-profile politician who has accepted thousands of dollars from alleged Mob associates, attempts to threaten a witness who has made illegal contributions to the politician.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 228
He Shoots! He Scores!
Part One of Two
article removed by request
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 227
The Trials Of Traficant:
Part Seven - The Postman rang a second time for James Traficant on the 30th of July, 2002 in the same Federal Courthouse in Cleveland where, a generation earlier, Traficant had walked out the building a folk hero, having beaten the government, acting as his own attorney in a Mafia bribery case; this second time around, a stunned and disbelieving Traficant was placed into handcuffs and taken away to jail after Judge Lesley Brooks Wells handed down an 8-year sentence for the crimes the former Congressman had been convicted of earlier this year.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 226
Fallen Prince
Depending upon who tells the story, to avoid a mob war, Gotti reportedly agreed from prison to let Nicholas "The Little Guy" Corozzo become his successor and had his son step down.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 225
The Trials Of Traficant:
Part Six - For only the second time since the Civil War, the House of Representatives has voted to expel a member for violation of House Ethics Rules. With the outcome a foregone conclusion, somber members of the House gathered on the evening of July 24 to consider the Resolution brought by the Ethics Committee recommending that Congressman James Traficant Jr. (D-Ohio) be expelled.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 224
Carmine Agnello
With his father-law and brother-in-law behind bars, the government has decided to slam dunk, Carmine Agnello, husband of Gotti's daughter, Victoria.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 223
The Trials Of Traficant:
Part Five - Public statements by embattled Congressman James Traficant suggest that Traficant and his associates have been conducting investigations into the backgrounds of the Judge and jurors who served in his recent Federal bribery trial.
- By Terry M. Mors, Ph.D., Feature Articles 222
The Rouse House Revisited:
Unraveling the Enigma of Murder, Police Corruption, and Organized Crime
Many organized crime articles and textbooks have made reference to the Rouse Casino or the Rouse House. However, those publications did not fully explain the Rouse Casino. It was more than the typical back room parlor. The Rouse mansion was a classic case of organized crime co-existing with police corruption.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 221
MOB STORY: The Vice President
For decades, Washington, DC insiders had wondered aloud about how Lyndon Johnson, a professional public servant all of his life, had acquired a fortune which included a radio and television station, considerable real estate and bank holdings worth a total of $15,000,000.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 220
Marshal Caifan: The Outside Man
The Outside man was a living reminder to the Inside men, and the card sharps, con artists and stick up men who considered stealing from casinos, that behind the glitter and glare of the Vegas lights, killers ran the show.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 219
Barry Goldwater: Friends In Low Places
The mob has come close to setting up camp in the Oval Office more then once, through Truman, Kennedy and Nixon, but their ultimate dream never actually comes to fruition, for one reason or another.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 218
Artful Eddie O'Hare
There are three things most people don't know about Chicago's O'Hare International. One, it's the world's busiest airport. Two, it's named after a Navy flyer war hero, Lt. Commander Henry "Butch" O'Hare, and three, O'Hare's father was prohibition area hoodlum with the Capone outfit.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 217
The "Last Don" and the "New Media"
The death of Gambino Family Godfather John Gotti
Whether the death of Gambino Family Godfather John Gotti indeed marks the 'end of an era,' as some pundits have claimed, is a subject for debate. However, the funeral of Gotti can also be viewed as a barometer gauging how the ‘mainstream Media’ has changed in recent years in regards to it’s coverage of major news stories.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 216
The Worlds Richest Cop
Tubbo Gilbert, The Mob and The Power of the Press
Daniel "Tubbo" Gilbert crawled out of a Chicago slum called the Valley and grew to be one of the most politically powerful, and wealthiest lawmen in American history.
- By Gary Dimmock, Feature Articles 215
Killer Cory: The Story The Mounties Don't Want Told
The Dimmock Report probes the life of an underworld enforcer turned Mounties' agent who was paid thousands in tax dollars to infiltrate his outlaw friends.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 214
King Cohn and the Horse's Head
The horse's head in the bed story. It's become the stuff of film lore and American legend. But is it true?
- By Kenneth J. Prendergast, Feature Articles 213
Cleveland’s Wars of the Waste
Garbage, of course, smells bad. When it comes to the shenanigans involving Metro Cleveland’s garbage hauling contracts, the stench has been just as putrid. Competition for rubbish hauling in Ohio’s largest metropolitan area has been marred by acts of bribery, threats and even murder, replete with organized crime connections.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 212
"I ain't no band leader!"
In 1939, an unknown but talented crooner named Albert Francis Sinatra left the working, poor, Italian neighborhoods of Hoboken, New Jersey and signed an exclusive performance agreement with the popular Tommy Dorsey Band.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 211
The Real Jimmy Blue Eyes
Jimmy 'Blue Eyes' Alo was the Mafia muscle behind Meyer Lansky, the mob's financial genius, and although his power reached from Manhattan's crowded boulevards, to the sun-drenched beaches of Cuba, to the glitter of Vegas and Hollywood, few people have ever heard of Jimmy Blue Eyes Alo.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 210
The Hump Does Hollywood
For almost four decades, Murray Humpreys was a major power behind the Chicago mob. A Welshman, the Hump started in the mob as an enforcer and labor goon for Al Capone.
- By Gary Dimmock, Feature Articles 209
Mounties Mafia-drug informant faked death:
SECRET REPORT. - THE BOY PULLED his snowmobile up to the driver's side of the van for a close look. Through the blood-streaked windows, he saw a body, its headblown off, slumped in the front seat.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 208
"Gone Hollywood"
How the Mob Extorted the Hollywood Studio System -- Willie Bioff. His name is barely known today, but for almost a decade he was at the forefront of what remains the largest extortion case in the history of American criminal justice, that set the foundation of modern organized crime.
- By Gary Dimmock, Feature Articles 207
How the mafia imports cocaine.
Inside the mob import business: The day the Montreal Mafia brought in the cocaine motherlode. - MARC FIEVET walked into the Banco Atlantico in Gibraltar on Nov. 5, 1993 carrying a sack full of money, motioned to the bank manager and went into a private room.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 206
Extortion 101.
When Willie Bioff, the Chicago pimp sent by the bosses to shake down the studio moguls, arrived in Hollywood, Chicago representative Johnny Roselli met him at the train station and gave the little pimp an orientation tour of the city and the industry he was about to bring to its knees.
- By Gary Dimmock, Feature Articles 205
Boston mob boss may be hiding in Canada.
James 'Whitey' Bulger - Before Irish mob boss James (Whitey) Bulger went into hiding in 1995, the ruthless Boston gangster secretly arranged to have untold millions of dollars stored in safety-deposit boxes in Ontario and Quebec, according to FBI intelligence.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 204
Dumping Frankie.
Frank Sinatra, Sam Giancana and the Kennedys - On July 13, 1960, the day Kennedy won the democratic nomination in Los Angeles, it was announced to the newspapers that Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Hank Sincola, a Sinatra pal and business partner, and Skinny D'Amato, a convicted white slaver, had applied for permission from the state of Nevada to take over the lodge.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 203
Johnny Hollywood.
Part Two - Johnny was also one of Hollywood's leading loan sharks, was ordered by Chicago to spread out as much mob influence among the stars and the people who ran the studios as he could, either with money or drugs, and since most of the big stars were constantly overspending themselves, his loan sharking business grew at phenomenal rates.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 202
Johnny Hollywood.
Part One - When the Chicago outfit moved in on Hollywood, the only person out west who was truly happy about the move was Johnny Roselli, because finally, after fifteen years of being exiled to the West coast, Roselli's star was starting to shine.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 201
The Lost Boy.
Jack Ruby and the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald - By 1962, the American Mafia learned that the Kennedys were as opportunistic and as vicious as they were.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 200
The Guns Of Zangara.
Part Three of Three - On February 14, 1933, the day before the shooting, Zangara went to Davis Pawn shop in downtown Miami, and spent eight dollars on a .32 revolver and ten bullets.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 199
The Trials Of Traficant:
Part Four - Just weeks before his third Federal trial began, Congressman James Traficant was hit with additional charges filed in the Cleveland Court of Judge Lesley Brooks Wells.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 198
The Guns Of Zangara.
Part Two - Zangara was born September 7, 1900, in Ferruzzano, a small and very poor village in Calabria, Italy. His mother died while he was still a small boy. His father remarried, to a women with six daughters, and Zangara, small, fragile, seldom smiling and deathly quiet, was lost in the hoard that was his new family.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 197
The Guns Of Zangara.
Part One - Almost 70 years ago, an enigmatic Italian immigrant bricklayer named Giuseppe Zangara momentarily leaped onto history's stage and took a misguided shot at President-elect Franklin Roosevelt and, accidentally, killed Chicago's reform mayor, Anton Cermak. Or so the story goes.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 196
Tales From the City of Angels.
The origins of the battle for Hollywood between New York and Chicago began in 1920 when Tommy Maloy, a union thug, took over the motion picture projectionist union local 110 in Chicago.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 195
Stunning Court Decision In Police Brutality Case
In a dramatic ruling today, a Federal Appeals Court threw out convictions against three New York City cops convicted in one of the most horrific incidents of police brutality in United States history, the August 1997 assault against Haitian immigrant Abner Louima, during which Officer Justin Volpe sodomized and nearly killed Louima by ramming a broken-off mop handle into the rectum of the handcuffed prisoner.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 194
The Meet.
The origins of the Mob and the Atlantic City Conference
In 1927 Atlantic City, New Jersey, was New York's playground, the sands
were bleach white and great hotels lined the seemingly endless Boardwalk. The
perfect place for the first major Mob conclave in American history.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 193
The Trials Of Traficant:
Part Three - Just days before his current bribery trial began, Congressman James Traficant filed a lengthy Motion in Federal Court seeking the dismissal of all charges, citing what he claimed was evidence of Prosecutorial misconduct on the part of Assistant U. S. Attorney Craig Morford and his 'accomplices.' Morford, who successfully prosecuted the 1987 tax trial against Traficant, was accused in the Motion of several crimes, including suborning Perjury from those the government targeted as witnesses against Traficant.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 192
Reprieve In Broward.
Jimmy Blue Eyes Alo rolled his new Cadillac carefully down the wide open coastal road to Hallendale, swerving to avoid the occasional gigantic wave that crashed and spilled over onto the blacktop and driving slowly around the shells of the huge land crabs that seemed big enough to puncture a car's tires.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 191
The Trials Of Traficant:
Part Two - Just as the Federal bribery trial of Congressman James Traficant was about to get underway, the fiery politician from Ohio turned up on several national talk shows to complain about the alleged government vendetta against him spawned he says by his humiliating defeat of the Feds in his Mafia bribery trial a generation ago.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 190
The Bare Facts: Part II.
Right after Rizzolo made his statement before Chicago City officials, Chicago City Attorney Andy Mine flew to Las Vegas to question Rizzolo, and was treated to a lap dance by one of the clubs dancers, according to sources.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 189
The Trials Of Traficant:
Part One - For the third time since entering politics two decades ago, Congressman James Traficant, (D-Ohio) is a Defendant on trial. Once again, a confident Traficant is adding to this drama by acting as his own attorney, even though the flamboyant politician has no background in law. Jury selection began the first full week in February at the Federal Courthouse in Cleveland, the scene of Traficant’s first Federal bribery trial a generation ago.
- By David Perlman, Feature Articles 188
The Godfather Saga : I Love It
A few weeks ago, David Foglietta attempted to trash the Godfather saga on this web site. David, maybe you need to watch them just one more time.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 187
The Bare Facts: Part I.
removed by request
- By David Foglietta, Feature Articles 186
Reflections On The Godfather Saga.
The more I watch and re-watch the Godfather Saga the more I come away thinking that the best thing about it all was the music.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 185
New York Stories.
Part 3 - Costello knew who ordered the hit and why. It was Vito Genovese, Costello's underboss. He had finally decided to make his move. To justify the hit, a week before the hit, Genovese called in his Capos, Tony Bender and Vincent Mauro and told them that Costello was an informer, and that was why he had been released early from prison.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 184
New York Stories.
Part 2 - On March 13, 1951, Frank Costello began his testimony before the committee in Manhattan. He had been forced to appear by subpoena and his attorney insisted that TV cameras present in the room did not focus directly on his client. Instead, he insisted, they were to be trained onto Costello's hands. The committee agreed and an estimated 30 million Americans watched in fascination, as Costello's hands danced across the screen, hour after hour.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 183
New York Stories.
Part 1 - No one impressed Frank Costello as much as Costello impressed himself. He regaled his own greatness and delighted in his brilliance. And now he was the Boss. The ultimate Boss. When Luciano went to prison in 1936 on a trumped up prostitution charge, Costello took over Luciano's enormous crime family with its five hundred soldiers and thirty caporegimes.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 182
The Rough Stuff.
By the mid 1940s, Frank Costello was starting to enjoy the role as the enlightened man of reason within the mob, always careful to ensure that the law understood that he was a gambler and not tied in with the rough stuff.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 181
El Rubirosa.
In 1961, one of the many things that the Chicago mob wanted was a replacement for Cuba, so they looked around for a small, poor country, close to the United States, one that could be easily controlled, preferably run by a corrupt dictator who would allow the outfit to build its casinos on his sandy shores and stockpile its dirty money in phony banks created just for them.
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 180
Life Behind Bars
A Tribute To John Gotti ( A Special Interview )
John Gotti, the Gambino crime boss was once known as the most powerful famous gangster in America since Al Capone. Gotti took full control of the Gambinos when (himself) along with mob associate Sammy ‘Bull’ Gravano murdered the reigning Gambino boss Paul Castellano in front of Spark’s Steak House on December 16th 1985 in Manhattan, New York.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 179
Mad Sam.
There is little doubt in anyone's mind that Mad Sam was completely insane. DeStefano's partner in his dope running business, rogue cop Tommy Dorso, told the FBI, "DeStefano is not normal. Mentally, physically or spiritually... and he knows it."
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 178
The Milk Men.
Al Capone was fascinated with the milk business. 'Do you know,' he would say, 'they got a bigger markup in legit fresh milk than we could ever get away with in booze? Honest to God boys, we been in the wrong racket all along.'
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 177
In the Money: Senator Robert Torricelli And His Campaign Contributors.
Convicted felons, associates of the American Mafia, Mafia-corrupted Labor Unions, Mafia-tainted gambling Casinos, international con artists, including Wanted Fugitives, and associates of Islamic terrorists are among those who have contributed to the campaigns of Senator Robert "The Torch" Torricelli, an analysis of Federal Election Commission records, published reports, and other documents reveals.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 176
The Short Career of Pony Moore
On November 22, 1905, Marshal Field Jr., heir to the shopping store fortune and member of Chicago's leading family, was found shot, a bullet in his lower belly, in his home. A butler found him the next morning and rushed him off to the Mercy hospital.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 175
The Owl
He was an underworld legend, a man's man, whose prison escapes made him a celebrity in every major prison from Atlanta to Soladad. He could drive a train, fly a plane, shoot a machine gun from a speeding car with deadly accuracy and pull off mail heists that produced a million dollars.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 174
The Raid At Apalachin
After Vito Genovese, in a surprise move, took over the Luciano organization from Frank Costello, he was in almost complete control of half of New York's underworld, and all that Genovese needed was official recognition by the national commission as head of his family, and for Carlo Gambino as head of the Anatassi family.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 173
The Wrong Man Murder Case
In 1978, a Florida Agricultural Inspector named Lenny Pease fell across two former Chicago cops, who were working for the mob, as they were smuggling drugs from Florida to Chicago in a van.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 172
Books Worth Buying
1 ) The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and its Hold on America 1947-2000
2 ) The House That Crack Built
3 ) Sins Of The City: The Real Los Angeles Noir
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 171
Televised Gangsters
Television, and the image it presents of mobsters as the premier evil in
America, has always been a thorn in the side of organized criminals.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 170
The Puppet Boss
Alphonse Tieri, also known as Frank, assumed command of the family after
Tommy Eboli was whacked. In 1972, he became the first major organized crime
figure indicted under the RICO statute.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 169
Books Worth Buying
Mob: Stories of Death and Betrayal from Organized Crime
This is a strong collection of worthy mob stories told by first-rate writers, including the late Peter Maas, that offer, intelligent, juicy portions of mob tales that stand heads above the rest.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 168
Taking Care Of Winkler
The Last of the Independents
"Smiling" Gus Winkler's motto was "Take care of Winkler first" and he had
spent most of his criminal career doing just that. The day before somebody slammed 72 bullets into him, Winkler
was seen in the FBI's Chicago office in the Bankers building, in a meeting
with Special Agent, Melvin Purvis.
- By Clarence Walker, Feature Articles 167
Crime Boss
Did FBI Frame A Former Crime Boss For Murder?
For several years former New Jersey Lucchese crime boss Martin Taccetta, serving life in prison, has always claimed he was framed by FBI, turncoat mobsters and state prosecutors, for the 1984 murder of Vincent Craporatta, which led to a racketeering conviction.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 166
Bugsy
When the Gangster Chronicles came on television in the late 1970's, a relative of Bugsy Siegel remarked to Meyer Lansky, Siegel's lifelong business partner, that he was considering suing the production company for depicting Bugsy as an uncontrollable killer.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 165
The Murder Of Matt Kolb
Matt Kolb was a 280 pound, potbellied, five foot three inch pioneer in the bootlegging business, having first entered into it in 1919 when he foresaw the coming prohibition.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 164
The Greenbaum Murder
After the Outfit whacked Bugsy Siegel, the Flamingo's next manager was Gus Greenbaum, who started in the rackets with Al Capone and who handled the wire service out West for the Chicago outfit.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 163
Muscling In
A year after the Sands casino opened its doors in Vegas in 1951, Jack Dragna, the head of the Los Angeles mob, the so-called Micky Mouse Mafia, moved in on Lansky's representative at the Flamingo, Moe Sedway.
- By Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 162
Interview With Steve Lenehan
On August 8, 1994 Steve Lenehan walked off the streets of New Jersey for the last time. He became, in the words of the U.S. Attorney in Newark, "one of the most productive cooperators the District of New Jersey has ever seen."
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 161
The Teamsters Building Raid
On May 5, 1932, the day Al Capone was taken from Chicago to begin his sentence in federal prison for tax evasion, gangster Roger Touhy, who was at war with the Syndicate, walked into a meeting at the Teamsters headquarters armed with a machine gun and held a hundred people hostage.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 160
The Mayor of Chinatown
Willie Moy is a big shot in Chicago's enormous, and growing Chinese community, or at least he was until 1991 when federal prosecutors convicted Moy of tax conspiracy. The charges stemmed from a 1986 raid on a Chinese mob casino, run by the so-called On Leong faction, which was netting the gang about two million dollars.
- By Walter Fontane, Feature Articles 159
The Rise and Fall of "Dinty" Colbeck
William Patrick Colbeck was born in 1891 in Kerry Patch, the Irish ghetto of St. Louis. At that time there were no major citywide gangs. A large collection of street gangs terrorized individual neighborhoods. Among these was the Ashley Street Gang, the future Egan’s Rats. The Ashley Street Gang dabbled in robbery and thievery, but their real purpose (like that of most other gangs) was political. From the late 1880s until 1902, a consortium known as either "The Push" or the "Butler Machine" controlled St. Louis politics.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 158
The Bloody Gennas
Capone and Dion O'Bannion's deadliest competitors were the Genna Brothers. In May of 1923, brother Angelo had met his fate a few days after his honeymoon, at the hands of O'Bannionite Bugs Moran.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 157
Cleaning Up With The Duffs
The Duff family of Chicago owns a janitorial firm that gets 100 million dollars in city government contracts. The family patriarch, John Duff Jr., is a savvy former union boss and a regular at the mobbed hang out, the Como Inn on Chicago's Northside. Duff is also a former city investigator, who in 1960 testified on behalf of mob boss Anthony Accardo, who faced income-tax fraud charges. Duff testified that he purchased beer from Accardo, who claimed that he was a salesman for a local beer distributor.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 156
Anselmi & Scalise
Albert Anselmi and John Scalise left Italy together, sometime around 1920, fleeing murder charges. They ended up in Chicago and went to work for the Gennas as merciless enforcers. When one victim fell to his knees and clasped his hands together, begging for mercy, they shot his hands off, before killing him.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 155
The Sands
In 1952, Jimmy Alo started flying out to Las Vegas on a regular basis to oversee construction of his latest investment, the Sands Casino, which opened in the first part of the year.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 154
The End of Fat Herbie
Back in the old days, Fat Herbie Blitzstein was a somebody, a man to step aside from, under Tony Spilotro, back in the 1980's when Spilotro and his crew ruled Vegas.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 153
The St. Paul Incident (Part Two)
William Hamm, "Terrible" Roger Touhy, "Creepy" Karpis. Their names are largely forgotten now, as is the dramatic incident that brought them together, and, for a brief few weeks, kept the eyes of the world on a gray and somber St. Paul's court room. Their worlds collided on June 14, 1933, an unusually hot summer's day in St. Paul.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 152
The St. Paul Incident (Part One)
William Hamm, "Terrible" Roger Touhy, "Creepy" Karpis. Their names are largely forgotten now, as is the dramatic incident that brought them together, and, for a brief few weeks, kept the eyes of the world on a gray and somber St. Paul's court room. Their worlds collided on June 14, 1933, an unusually hot summer's day in St. Paul.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 151
When Capone Murdered Roger Touhy: The Strange Case of Touhy, “Jake the Barber” and the Kidnapping That Never Happened
Book Review
[Buy this book]John William Tuohy, one of the most prolific crime writers in America, has penned a tragic, but fascinating story of Roger Touhy and John Factor. It's a tale born out of poverty and violence, a story of ambition gone wrong and deception on an enormous, almost unfathomable, scale. However, this is also a story of triumph of determination to survive, of a lifelong struggle for dignity and redemption of the spirit.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 150
Battaglia Brothers
The Battaglias, Paul Augie, Sam and Frank, crawled out of Chicago's little Italy and dominated the Chicago mob for four decades, before they fell from power.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 149
The Short Return of Charlie Lucifer (Part Two)
Luciano stayed in Naples only long enough to solidify his control over the black market there. In the early fall he received a message from Lansky that said: 'December--Hotel National.'
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 148
The Short Return of Charlie Lucifer (Part One)
In the midst of the peaceful and prosperous reign of Frank Costello, reemerged the Dark Angel himself, Lucky Luciano and announced that he was making Havana, more or less the sole domain of Lansky and Alo, the seat of his new empire.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 147
Making The Wiseguys Weep: The Jimmy Roselli Story
Book Review
[Buy this book]Before Johnny Roselli decided to flip and avoid deportation by feeding information to the feds, there was another -and is- another and different type of Roselli named Jimmy who made the wiseguys weep. But this Roselli is no rat. Thanks to the masterful writing of David Evanier, Jimmy Roselli’s fascinating and frustrating story is now an open book.
- By Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 146
Florida Updates
Inspired by John Touhy's Round Up The Usual Suspects - the latest mob news from the Sunshine State's left coast.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 145
The Last Mouthpiece: The Man Who Dared To Defend The Mob
Book Review
"The Last Mouthpiece: The Man Who Dared To Defend The Mob" "Mob lawyer" that tag followed me around for years like some sort of dime storm perfume", great sentence and this gem of a book gushes with them.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 144
Accardo
Tony Accardo, is, without a doubt, the most successful, the most powerful, most respected and the longest lived Boss the Chicago syndicate, or probably any criminal syndicate for that matter, has ever had. During his long tenure, Accardo's power was long reaching and frightfully vast.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 143
Figuring Out The Players
When the FBI entered the fight in Chicago they didn't know the structure or the leadership of the Chicago outfit. They couldn't rely on the Chicago police department for information since they had scant records on the syndicate or its leadership.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 142
The Lingle Killing
It was a known fact that Lingle was a liaison between the Capone organization and police commissioner William P. Russel, Russel and Lingle having known each other since their childhood days in the Valley. Later, after Lingle was dead and the facts of their relationship came to light, Russel resigned his position.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 141
Ambush At Clyde Avenue
Dion O'Bannion of the North Side gangs, had invited Torrio to a meeting at the Sieben brewery, claiming that he was leaving the rackets and retiring to Colorado. He wanted Torrio to buy out his final shipment of booze and the brewery itself. When Torrio arrived at the brewery, federal agents and police staged a raid and Torrio was arrested.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 140
The Ant
Tiny Tony Spilotro got into the mob largely because his father ran an old style Italian restaurant frequented by Paul Ricca and the older, powerful mob bosses. Ricca and the others took young Spilotro under their wings and corrupted him.
- By Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 139
Florida Updates
Inspired by John Touhy's Round Up The Usual Suspects - the latest mob news from the Sunshine State's left coast.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 138
May 7, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 137
"Like Cashmere On A Leper"
(Part Two) From his massive estate in River Forrest, empowered by his vast fortune, most of it in cash, Ricca was able to slip in and out of Chicago's elite society "like cashmere around a leper.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 136
April 30, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 135
"Like Cashmere On A Leper"
(Part One) From his massive estate in River Forrest, empowered by his vast fortune, most of it in cash, Ricca was able to slip in and out of Chicago's elite society "like cashmere around a leper.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 134
April 23, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 133
Album for an Age: Unconventional Words and Pictures from the Twentieth Century
Book Review
"Album for an Age: Unconventional Words and Pictures from the Twentieth Century" Tony Accardo, Abe Fortas, Khrushchev, Truman, Sinatra, Charlie Finley, Marlin Perkins, Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Spitz, Elizabeth Taylor, Joe McCarthy, Moe Dalitz, Marlon Brando, Ernest Hemingway, Jimmy Hoffa, Judy Garland, Hugh Hefner, James Jones, Deborah Kerr.... They're all here in Art Shay's book.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 132
Vinnie Ocean, Sam The Plumber And The Manhattan Excursion
The DeCavalcante's, named for founder Sam 'The Plumber' DeCavalcante, rose to dubious fame due to the so-called 'Goodfella Tapes,' which were secretly recorded in DeCavalcante's plumbing supply shop by the FBI over a period of several years (1961-65). When transcribed, single space and in small print, the tapes produced a 2,300-page log of everyday life in the Mafia.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 131
The Valley Gang
The Valley. The toughest place in Chicago. It's gone now, and for the most part, only a handful of obscure historians even know that it ever existed.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 130
Ten Percent Tony: The Story Of Chicago's Most Corrupt Mayor
Cermak was a hustler who saw his opportunity in the rough and tumble world of Chicago's ethnic politics. He organized the huge Bohemian community into a powerful voting machine and before he was old enough to vote himself, the legal age was twenty-one in those days, Tony Cermak was a political power in the area.'
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 129
Power Play: The Nitti Shooting
On the day Chicago's mayor Anton Cermak ordered syndicate boss Frank Nitti to be killed, he was stopped outside of City Hall and asked for his thoughts on the recent wounding of a Chicago City policeman by a member of the syndicate. Upset over the shooting, Cermak answered, 'I'm tired of hearing about my policemen being shot and killed by these hoodlums, for once, I would like to hear about how the cops shot the hoodlums.'
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 128
Jake The Barber, Innkeeper
After the Las Vegas Stardust casinos original owner Tony Cornero, either died of a heart attack or was poisoned, Tony Accardo called Johnny Roselli back to Chicago for a meeting at Moe's Restaurant with Murray Humpreys and Jake Guzak.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 127
March 12, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 126
The Brief Glorious Days Of Al Capone
Al Capone was at the top of the world as 1927 began. Still, on top of the world or not, Capone had taken to sleeping with a gun under his pillow and having his brother Mimi taste all of his food.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 125
March 3, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 124
Just Plain Crazy
In 1933, Frank Nitti's leading labor terrorist, Three Fingers Jack White, recruited Fur Sammons to help fight the Touhy gang in the labor wars of 1933. It was an excellent choice. Sammons was a certified psychopath and a killer and he took enormous pride in both of those facts. He specialized in labor terror although, like White, Sammons's record was long and varied.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 123
February 26, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 122
The Last Days Of Al Capone
Capone was resented, even hated in prison. Kidnapper and bank robber Alvin Karpis wrote: 'The majority of the population in any prison is made up of losers from the gutter of society. Most of them aren't even wanted at their own homes when they are released. They resent anyone who has had prosperity on the outside.'
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 121
In The Money: Congressman James Traficant And His Campaign Contributors
Convicted associates of the Pittsburgh Mafia Family, Mafia-corrupted labor Unions and Middle Eastern political operatives are among those who have contributed to the past two re-election campaigns of Congressman James Traficant, an analysis of Federal Election Commission records reveals.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 120
February 19, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 119
It Ain't Over Till The Fat Lady Sings: Defending Hoover And The FBI
You see, what some of these historians do, for lack of any other rap to tarnish his image with, is to blame Hoover for his failure to defeat the Mafia. In other words, they expected him to have won the war before the battles was over.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 118
The Ledgend Of Little Tommy Maloy
Before the First World war Little Tommy Maloy (he stood just over five feet, but barely) had been a chauffeur to labor boss Mossy Enright but left just before Enrights murder in 1920. It was at that point that Malloy went into the movie business.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 117
February 12, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 116
The Mayor of Chinatown and the Shade of Battles to Come
Willie Moy is a big shot in Chicago's enormous, and growing Chinese community, or at least he was until 1991 when federal prosecutors convicted Moy of tax conspiracy.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 115
February 5, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By Wiseguy Wally, Feature Articles 114
Death Riders: The Grim Reapers of Laval
On April 17, 2000, Normand "Biff" Hamel drove his wife and son to a pediatrician's office on St. Martin Boulevard in the Montreal suburb of Laval. As he left the building, two armed men chased him through the parking lot and shot him in the head and left arm.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 113
The Legend of Old Smoke Morrissey
We'll never see the like's of him again. At three hundred and fifty pounds, with broken fists and scarred face, mangled grammar and base ways, John Morrissey was probably Tammany Halls most outrageous experiment in political control and mismanagement.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 112
January 29, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 111
J. R.’s Mafia Year In Review – 2000
Events JR found extraordinary for 2000.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 110
January 21, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 109
The Cal-Neva Lounge
Elmer Bones Renner was an old time gangster from San Francisco who owned the Cal-Neva Lodge and Casino at Crystal Bay on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.
- By Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 108
The Suicide Of Steve Raffa
In the early morning hours of November 16, 2000 less than three weeks after his arrest, Steve Raffa, the leader of the Trafficante family's South Florida operation hung himself in his Pembrooke Pines home.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 107
January 15, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects 2
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 106
January 15, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects 1
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 105
January 8, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects 2
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 104
January 8, 2001 Round Up The Usual Suspects 1
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 103
December 18, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 2
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 102
December 18 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 1
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 101
Florida Updates
Inspired by John Touhy's Round Up The Usual Suspects - the latest mob news from the Sunshine State's left coast.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 100
December 11, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 2
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 99
December 11 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 1
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 98
December 4, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 2
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 97
December 4, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 1
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 96
November 27, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 2
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 95
November 27, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 1
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By Wiseguy Wally, Feature Articles 94
The West End Gang: Life after Dunie
After Frank Peter Ryan, known as "Dunie" in the Montreal underworld, was viciously murdered on November 13th, 1984 leadership of the notorious West End Gang was handed down to Allan Ross. "The Weasel", as he was called, had been a loyal follower of Ryan since the early sixties when the organization was simply known as "the Irish gang" and their criminal activities were concentrated in the western part of the city.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 93
November 20, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 2
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 92
November 20, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 1
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 91
November 13, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 2
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 90
November 13, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 1
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 89
November 6, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 2
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 88
November 6, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 1
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 87
Florida Updates
Inspired by John Touhy's Round Up The Usual Suspects - the latest mob news from the Sunshine State's left coast.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 86
October 30, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 2
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 85
October 30, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 1
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 84
October 23, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 2
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 83
October 23, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 1
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 82
October 15, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 2
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 81
October 15, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects 1
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 80
The Sinatra Files - The Secret FBI Dossier
Book Review "The Sinatra Files - The Secret FBI Dossier" Brothers Tom and Phil Kuntz have compiled an interesting, enjoyable and factually correct book on Sinatra which, thankfully, spares the reader all pop psychology insights or God like judgments into the singers long and fascinating life and career.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 79
October 9, 2000 A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 78
The Little Guys
Florida has always been a haven for the mob. Over the years some of the best-known mobsters in the country have made their home in the Sunshine State. Along with all the big names, though, a lot of lesser-known mobsters with ties to all major crime families made their move down south and began to set up operations. The first big influx was in the 1940’s, but the late 50’s, early 60’s saw a rise in the number of northern gangsters to the area. Almost all were unknowns, but a few would rise to bigger and arguably better things.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 77
October 2, 2000 A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 76
An Interview With RICO Expert Attorney Jeffrey Grell
On February 26, 1985, a federal grand jury in Manhattan indicted Anthony Salerno, boss of the Genovese family, Paul Castellano, head of the Gambino family, Anthony Corallo, boss of the Lucchese family, Philip Rastelli, chief of the Bonanno family, Gennaro Langella, acting boss of the Colombo family, Aniello Dellacroce, underboss of the Gambino Family, Salvatore Santoro, underboss of the Lucchese family, Christopher Furnari, consigliere of the Lucchese family and Ralph Scopo, a member of the Colombo family, and the president of the Concrete Workers District Council, LIUNA.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 75
The Tales Of Bulldog Drummond
Book Review John Drummond's book "Thirty Years in the Trenches...covering Crooks, Characters and Capers" is further proof that sometimes the smaller publishing houses turn out the best books. I'm happy to report that the book is in its second printing. John Drummond, aside from being a crack journalist and a good writer who has turned out an informative and entertaining book, John is one hell of a nice guy. He deserves this success.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 74
September 25, 2000 A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 73
September 18, 2000 A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 72
Asian Mobs And The International Sex Trade
Her name is Sue Lee, or Sierra or Fong or maybe it's Araka. Despite the grinding poverty of her life, she was, once, a lovely, sweet and happy girl. When she played, she pretended she was a beautiful princess who lived in a great castle where she was never hungry and she wore pretty clothes. She was never beaten or neglected.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 71
September 11, 2000 A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 70
Hells Angels, Starnet and Crime of the Future
Organized Crime in Canada is wearing a new face these days. While the traditional mob remains alive and well in the land of the MapleLeaf, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is quickly and brutally shootings its way to the top spot.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 69
Lucky Luciano
The Man Who Organized Crime in America
The book was originally published sixty-one years ago, in 1939, under
the tittle Ninety times guilty.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 68
September 4, 2000 A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 67
Mobbed-Up?
In the Spring of 1997 Philadelphia Detective Tom Augustine’s career lay in ruins; the crusty, award-winning veteran of numerous homicide investigations had suddenly found himself the target of a Justice Department investigation into allegations that he savagely beat five young men, two of whom claimed he forced them to sign false confessions to a brutal murder.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 66
John Gotti and Common Value
Like father, like daughter. Mrs. Angelo spoke of the governments obsession with jailing her husband, father and brother. However, she showed no remorse for their alleged crimes. No accounting as to why her father and brother belong to the Mafia, and organization dedicated to breaking the law. She had not even a passing explanation to decent Italian-Americans for the harm her family has done to their good name or their warm, rich culture.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 65
August 28, 2000 A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 64
Interview with Author Ralph Blumenthal
Stork Club; America's Most Famous Nightspot And The Lost World Of Cafe Society.
Go get a copy of Stork Club; America's Most Famous Nightspot and the Lost World of Cafe Society. Its an essential for a crime library. This is a book with meat on its bones. It's interesting and fun to read, but mostly, it has those wonderful throw away details that writer Ralph Blumenthal had the good sense not to allow his editors to toss out. And, in this case, the story is in the details. As a result, the book holds fresh insights and information on Owney Madden, Frenchy DeMange, Larry Fay, and Frank Costello.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 63
August 21, 2000 A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 62
Mobsters Of Mass Destruction.
A few weeks ago, Russia's new President Vladimir Putin held an off the cuff conference with Western business leaders on and promised to free up the Russian economy of corruption to attract foreign investment.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 61
August 14, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy and Ed Becker compile an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 60
First, We Shoot All The Lawyers.
When we last left Sammy 'the Bull' Gravano, he was in jail, in Arizona, of all places, on a $5 million bond for allegedly helping run and financing a large, multimillion dollar criminal syndicate that peddled Ecstasy to that states Yoots.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 59
August 7, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 58
The Blade
When the decomposed remains of Johnny Roselli were fished out of Biscayne Bay in 1976, police in Miami began rounding up organized crime figures from across South Florida. On February 28, 1977, an illiterate seventy-one year old resident of North Bay Village answered a subpoena at the Dade County sheriff’s office.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 57
Casino Owner Steve Wynn Once Again Forced To Deny Ties To The Genovese Crime Family.
In a suit that might, in future, block writers who fear a law suits, from referring to leading law enforcement agencies as information sources, Las Vegas casino Steve Wynn's lawyers denied that their client is a front man for the organized crime.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 56
July 31, 2000 Round Up The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy and Ed Becker compile an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 55
July 24, 2000 Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy and Ed Becker compile an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 54
Fall Out in New York as Mob Steals Millions
The fall out from the New York mob's failed attempt to manipulate the New York Stock Exchange promises to go far and wide. Prosecutors charge that DMN Capital Investments had mob ties and stole from thousands of investors across the country. The latest figure on the amount stolen is thought to be at least $50 million, possibly more.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 53
The Legend of Tommy Roe
'Fat' Leonard Caifano was a gregarious, jovial and at almost 400 pounds, an enormous man, generous and loyal to those he liked, a danger to those who crossed him.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 52
July 17, 2000 Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy and Ed Becker compile an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 51
July 10, 2000 Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy and Ed Becker compile an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 50
The Purple Gang: An interview with Paul Kavieff
When you speak to Paul Kavieff about the Detroit underworld, you can feel the excitement in his voice, and you know that this is a man who has a complete grasp on his subject. That same enthusiasm and authority comes across in his new book "THE PURPLE GANG," which has just been released by BARRICADE BOOKS and is available on AMAZON.COM.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 49
July 3, 2000 A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy and Ed Becker compile an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 48
Black Lists and Naming Names.
You can take this to the bank. The freewheeling days of global money laundering are ending. In fact, money laundering, as we know it now, probably won't make it very far into the new century.
- Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 47
The "Babe"
On April 9, 1961 a 17 year old Miami boy was walking around the shoreline of Kobe Lake, looking for an ideal place to fish. His attention was diverted by a two men in a pickup, driving near the lake. They dropped a canvas bag into the water and took off.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 46
Umberto’s Clam House Opens For Business, And Bullets, Again.
On May 18 of this year, Umberto's Clam House in New York's Little Italy reopened its doors for business, sans the bullet holes that passed through one of its most famous customers, Crazy Joe Gallo, who was gunned to his death on April 7, 1972.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 45
June 5, 2000 A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 44
Interview with Athan G. Theoharis
Dr. Athan Theoharis, a Professor of History at Marquette University, and an expert in the history of the FBI, has edited a new book for Checkmark Books, a new imprint of Facts on File, called The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide, are available through this site on AMAZON.COM
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 43
May 29, 2000 A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 42
Dumb & Dumber - Stupidity In The Underworld
Does it get dumber then Sammy Gravano's recent drug arrest because his wife supposedly was caught and recorded talking about the deals over a tapped phone line?
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 41
Mob Monthly May 22, 2000: A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 40
Mob Monthly: A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 39
The Mexican Mafia And The Battle For Tijuana
The Tijuana police claimed the men had died as a result of a car accident. But the murder of the three federal Mexican narcotics agents were revenge killings for the April arrest of the much feared Arellano Felix drug cartels alleged financial controller, Jesus "El Chuy" Labra, who is described as the cartels "Godfather" and financial wizard.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 38
Talking Tocco's
Nove Tocco, a soldier in the Detroit mob and grandson of Joseph Zerilli, the Outfit's founder, is the nearest thing that the mob has to royalty, and he's decided to turn state's evidence.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 37
As The Underworld Turns........
The continuing heart wrenching saga of the mobs first familyIn our last episode, Papa John Gotti, the mob father who never saw a camera he didn't like, was doing life in the can for, well....being John Gotti. Then, in a blatant case of "Monkey see, Monkey do" John Gotti Jr. went to jail on a five-year stretch for racketeering, extortion and other charges.
- Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 36
Charlie’s Last Shave
Taribio’s was Charlie’s favorite barbershop, and every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday Charlie drove across the bridge and got himself a shave and occasional cut.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 35
Go West, Young Comrade
The Russian Mob In AmericaThe Russian Mob, the largest of the new ethnic outfits, has been growing larger and more powerful over the past twenty-five years.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 34
Sayonara, Don Corleone
A 61-year old, slightly overweight, underboss of an enormous and powerful mob family was sitting in a popular coffee house inside a swanky hotel with two of his top lieutenants. The conversation covered the same old ground, how the younger hoods coming into the ranks didn't understand the old traditions, they didn't respect anything, how unfair the constant negative press and government pressure used against them was.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 33
Mob Monthly: A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects 4-17 thru 4-21-00
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 32
Interview with Richard Lindberg
I've had the pleasure of knowing Richard Lindberg for several years. He is, truly, a renaissance man, whose talents are displayed in his role as a journalist, award winning book and magazine author, and research historian, businessman, member of the Chicago Crime Commission, the Chicago Press Veterans, the Illinois Academy of Criminology, and President of the Society of Midland Authors.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 31
Mob Monthly: A Round Up Of The Usual Suspects 4-10 thru 4-14-00
Mr. Touhy compiles an impressive list of Organized Crime News from around the world.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 30
Interview with George Anastasia
Recently AmericanMafia.com sat down with veteran crime reporter, mob historian and author George Anastasia to get the inside story on the recent turbulent developments within the Philadelphia mob.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 29
Narco Dollars, Benny The Booster and Cyber Finance
Cleaning the mobs money is not only incredibly profitable, it's practically risk free. Automated transactions make it close too impossible to track the monies' origin, and the new digital currency...cyber banks....not only create complicated jurisdictional problems, they have no physical organization to monitor.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 28
On The Lam. The Whitey Bulger Story
The FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list turned fifty years old this year, and sitting at the very top of the list Tis Himself, Whitey Bulger.
- By Wayne A. Johnson, Feature Articles 27
Chicago Sees First Mob Hit Since 94'
The Chicago Crime Commission, over the last several months, has been fighting a trend of misinformation proclaimed by different sources over the last year, claiming the demise of Traditional Organized Crime (TOC) throughout the United States.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 26
Stardust In Your Eyes
Tony Cornero and the Stardust Hotel
If any one hoodlum can take claim for inventing Las Vegas, it was Tony
Cornero. Tony not only built the Vegas that we know today,
fittingly, he died there, dropped dead gambling at the Desert Inn, while Moe
Dalitz, the Godfather of Sin City, stood in the middle of the casino floor,
his fat, stubby little arm around the waist of his slim and much younger wife.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 25
The Short Life And Violent Times Of Two Gun Crowley And Trigger Burnke
The poverty that hung over the Irish ghettos of New York continued to spew out a whole array of gunmen well into the 20th century including the sad case of Francis "Two gun" Crowley.
- By Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 24
The Gambinos Come to Vegas
Following the killing of Herbie Blitzstein and the
ensuing cases stemming from the undercover FBI
operation, it seemed that the mob had been
successfully eradicated from Las Vegas once again.
Vegas, however, has too much allure and money to be
made, for the mob to give up on it completely. In
1998, the Gambinos were the next to try.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 23
Public Enemy Number One:
The Bloody Saga of Baby Face Nelson
George Lester Gillis was born in a Chicago slum just outside the city, near
the stockyards in 1908 and was already involved with several street gangs by his early teenage years.
- By John Tuohy, Feature Articles 22
Abuse Of Privilege
A look inside murky world of the US Pardons Attorneys Office.The jig is up on Presidential Pardons, the last imperial power of the Executive Office, and the golden parachute for the mobs monied elite.
- By Wayne A. Johnson, Feature Articles 21
The Cicero Story
On June 23rd the Chicago Crime Commission’s Committees on Police and Organized Crime held a special session in the offices of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Office of International Criminal Justice. The meeting, which was highly publicized by the local press, presented two highly regarded police officials from Cicero, IL., who were suspended allegedly for their cooperation in a Federal Investigation of the town and certain town officials.
- By James Ridgway de Szigethy, Feature Articles 20
Dis-Organized Crime: The Decline Of The Italian Mafia
Stephanie Gaffney was 8 months pregnant when a package arrived in the mail at her home in New York. Thinking it was a book a friend had sent her, the 18-year-old expectant mother thought nothing of ripping it open. The ‘gift’ was in fact a mail bomb designed to kill her and her unborn baby.
- Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 19
The KC/Tampa Drug Connection
One night in the spring of 1940, gambling kingpin Charlie Wall was being driven into downtown Tampa by his bodyguard, when the driver suddenly slammed on the brakes, smashing Wall's head into the windshield. Wall realized quickly what was happening.
- Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 18
Joey LoPicollo
LoPiccolo was an intricate part of numerous heroin rings from the fifties to the seventies, and he worked with some of the top international drug dealers.
- Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 17
King Of The Tamps Strip Clubs
Over the years Tampa has become a mecca of strip
clubs and adult businesses, generating tens of
millions in profits for owners and dancers alike. The
most visible icon of the club scene is Joe Redner, a
former client who opened up arguably the most famous
strip bar in the South, Mons Venus.
- Kenneth J. Prendergast, Feature Articles 16
A Tale Of Two Men
Post-mortem on the FBI's sting of Cleveland-area law enforcement officers.
On Jan. 21, 1998, Greater Cleveland was rocked by the news that 44 law enforcement officers were arrested in a massive FBI sting of a police-protected drug courier ring.
- Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 15
Johnny Scarface
Johnny "Scarface" Rivera always seemed to be at the
wrong place at the wrong time. At least that's what
he would tell police.
- Wiseguy Wally, Feature Articles 14
Frank Peter ("Dunie") Ryan
Leader of Montreal's West End Gang.
A look into the life and death of Frank Peter ("Dunie") Ryan, the notorious
leader of the West End Gang, a prominently Irish gang in Montreal. Ryan
came to power as a bank robber, drug dealer, money launderer and loan shark
and ruled Montreal until his tragic demise in 1984.
- Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 13
The Bedamis - First Family of the Tampa Mafia.
The patriarch of the family was Angelo Bedami Sr., a
short, stocky gambler who was close to the top names
in the Tampa rackets. Angelo Sr. was born in 1893,
and moved to Tampa with one son, Ciro (born in
Illinois) in tow, and would later have another, Joe,
both of whom would follow in their father's footsteps.
- Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 12
Looking For Phil
Phillip Piazza is an enigma to me. Or at least he was for a while. He
was a made member of the Trafficante crime family in the 1940's-
1970's, and his face was prominently featured on a chart from the
McClellan Commission in 1963, right up there with Santo Trafficante
Jr., and Frank Diecidue.
- J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 11
17 Days In August: A Tale of Cops, Steroids, and The Mob!
Some cops think in order to enforce the law, they have to break the law by using steroids to
help achieve the muscle mass they believe they need to effectively do their job.
- Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 10
Nick Scaglione - The Tampa Mob’s Gambling Man
Of all of Nick's endeavors, illegal gambling was the one that made his
fortune. Nick and his brother Alphonso, were tops in pari-mutuel
wagering, bookmaking, policy, and racetrack action.
- J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 9
MOB WAR!
Murder, Deception, and Intrigue Inside New York’s Colombo Mafia Family
- J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 8
Garbage Hauling Industry Smells Bad To Feds
Avellino is already serving a 10-year prison term for his participation in the 1989 murder of two New York independent trash carters who had co-operated with the authorities.
- Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 7
The Tampa Mob's Watering Hole
The Dream Bar was located at 2801 Nebraska Ave, near Ybor City and
downtown Tampa. The bar was built on land owned by Santo Trafficante
Sr., patriarch of the Trafficante family, who became boss in 1950
following the untimely demise of James Lumia.
- Rick Porrello, Feature Articles 6
Danny Greene:
The Most Influential Mobster You've Never Heard Of
He was fearless and cunning - loved by his neighbors and hated by his
business competitors - the members of the Cleveland Mafia.
- Scott M. Deitche, Feature Articles 5
The Beating of Joe Castellano
Joe Castellano had a lot of friends in the Tampa area. He was a popular
produce dealer. But Joe also had friends in the Tampa underworld. One
night he went for a nice quiet ride into the country with three of
them. He barely made it back.
- J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 4
MURDER – AMERICAN STYLE!
ATYPICAL MURDER CASES & THE EVOLUTION OF
ORGANIZED CRIME
I was chosen Society Editor
for CAB Magazine. This required me to go out most nights of the
week, to parties, publicity events, charity fundraisers, etc. and
chronicle what I experienced. It was exhausting work but fun also
and I met just about everybody who went out on the town in New
York.
- J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 3
Christmas In Murdertown
THE MAFIA CONSPIRACY THAT STUNNED AMERICA
This was
Christmas in Murdertown, USA, also known as Youngstown, Ohio and
the newly elected District Attorney, Paul Gains, lay on the floor
of his home, having just been shot by an assassin.
- J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 2
COURT DECISION LEADS TO PUBLIC OUTRAGE
An unprecedented legal victory on behalf of a convicted cop
killer has sparked outrage amongst New York’s law
enforcement community.
- J. R. de Szigethy, Feature Articles 1
One Degree Of Separation
Congressman Traficant & the murder of Carrabia
JR from New York writes a shocking story of scandal, bribery and murder
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