Is the Italian Mob Still Around?
The Italian Mafia has been a staple of American pop-culture, with blockbusters like The Goodfellas, Casino, The Godfather Trilogy, and The Sopranos. A concept all these works touch on is the slow decline of the Italian Mafia across America with the mob getting weaker as time goes on. The RICO charges seemed to put the metaphorical nail in the coffin for the 5 Families of New York. But is the Italian Mafia still around?
Origins
It’s April 15, 1931, in New York City, New York and the the Castellammarse War has just ended. This was a street war between Giuseppe “Joe The Boss” Masseria, notably with Charles Luciano, versus Salvatore Maranzano for control of New York’s underworld. However, the underlying conflict was between the “Old Guard” or “Mustache Petes” the traditional, older mafiosos and the “Young Turks” the usually American born, younger generation of mobsters. The conflict was over the “Old Guard” bosses handling of business as they refused to do business with non-Italians and sometime even non-Sicilians. The war ended when Luciano and his allies agreeing to switch sides to join Maranzano, assassinating Masseria.
Soon after Maranzano and Luciano organized the New York Italian gangs into the Five Families: the Maranzano, Luciano, Profaci, Mangano, and Gagliano Families. The structure of the families were also created with the boss, the underboss, the consigliere (an advisor to the boss), capos (captains which would each run a crew), soldiers (which filled the crews) and associates. Each member beside the associates, had to be “made men” which meant they would have to be full-blooded Italians who had taken their oath of Omertà. The Commission was then created, which oversaw the crime families across the country. The Italian Mafia would go on to have unprecedented hold on American business and society for decades becoming thoroughly engrained in America.
The Decline of the Italian Mafia
The syndicates first reached their immense power from the Prohibition-era liquor business. During the Prohibition, kingpins like Al Capone began to make unbelievable amounts of money; this allowed them to begin to root themselves into unions and legititimate businesses. However, this officially put the mafia into the crosshairs of the government law enforcment. This began the fight against the mob which would continue for the rest of the century.
The Mafia would continue their grip on power until the early 1950s, when Tennesse Senator Enes Kefauver would launch an investigation into organized crime in America. Though there wasn’t enough evidence to convict anyone, the televised hearings put the mafia into an uncomfortable spotlight. In 1957, the bombshell Apalachin Raid caught a meeting of 60 mobsters from the Commission. This confirmed the existence of an organized crime syndicate that existed across the country.
U.S. Attorney Robert “Bobby” Kennedy began a campaign against organized crime in America. Kennedy also had F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover focus more resources on the mob. This resulted in Joseph Valachi breaking the Mafia code of Omertà, speaking on the structure and culture of the Mafia.
In 1970 the RICO Act was passed that allowed the previously unreachable, higher ranking mobsters to be prosecuted. With the government pressure heating up on the mob, many joined the witness-protection program which allowed mobsters to go into hiding if they would testify against other members. Many believe the 80s and early 90’s to be the end of the mafia with the Mafia Commission Trial where the heads of the 5 Families and some subordinates were put away and head of the Gambino Crime Family Paul Castellano was murdered in the lead up to the trial. Then famously, the next boss of the Gambino Family: John Gotti was convicted in 1992. Even in the homeland of Italy, the government is making progress to stamp out the control of the Mafia. Though the mob was beaten, it is far from broken.
The Modern Mafia
With the terrorist attacks of 9/11, federal resources shifted focused to extremists groups rather than organized crime. This gave the Mafia breathing room to rebuild. Going back to their roots of loansharking, drug trafficking, and illegal gambling practices.
In 2011, the FBI rounded up and arrested 100 mobsters and the alleged Columbo Family street boss. However, a theme has began to show, when the mafia is dealt what should be a crippling blow they seem to come right back each time.
The Mafia is also dipping their toes into the international drug trafficing business. Forging alliances with Cartels and Italian crime syndicates, the American Mafias purchase drugs from the Cartels then distribute and smuggle the drugs into America.
In 2019, the reputed boss of the Gambino Crime Family Frank Cali was killed in outside his home in, Staten Island. Showing the inner-family conflicts and murders are still an occurence. This also momentarily casted the Mafia into the spotlight. Even though the Mafia does not appear to be as powerful and they previously have had; they are far from gone. The appearance of being weak or broken has given the mob the protection to slowly recover relatively unmolested.
