Here is a VERY brief history of the mafia. This was for a gen ed class, so not much real research was done, just a few books, as it only had to be like 4 pages
There are many different theories as to exactly where and when the Mafia as we know it today showed up. What historians do know is that it is, and has been, a strong force in Europe for hundreds of years. It wasn’t until it moved to America that it became the behemoth it is now. I will examine the beginnings of the Mafia in Europe, the migration into the United States, and the events surrounding the Mafia in the United States.
Many historians believe that the Mafia originated out of the Crusades. The Knights that would go to fight in the Crusades would come back and rule southern Italy and other parts of Europe. The Knights of Saint John, organized in the eighth century would turn to criminal actions. The Teutoning Knights, in the 12th Century, would rule Eastern Europe. Even though these groups would control criminal activities in Europe, it was still not the birth of the modern Mafia.
Until the eighteenth century, many Sicilian nobles actually resided on their country estates. This had changed by the 1700s, with most of the more important titled aristocrats by then resident in Palermo, Catania and Messina. Under these circumstances, Sicily's aristocratic absentee landlords often entrusted administration of their rural estates to managers called gabelloti. Until 1812, the purchase of a feudal property made its holder the count or baron of that fief, and in this way numerous gabelloti themselves became barons, by purchasing feudal lands from the men they worked for. The gabelloti were not aristocrats in the true sense, but far worse than this fact were the methods they used to intimidate the poor peasants into working the estates for poor wages. This often entailed the use of local intermediaries who made it their own business to manage such matters. These intermediaries, who today might be considered local Mafia bosses, rarely murdered anybody; they delegated that job to their underlings. In this way the myth of the "benevolent" Mafioso was born. It wasn’t only the Crusades that helped give birth to the Mafia, but also the Spanish Inquisition.
The establishment of the Inquisition was another factor that lead to the formulation of the Mafia. Though, the Inquisition started as an attack on heresy, it soon took heresy as any questioning of the church. The result of this was people becoming imprisoned by the church. The poor man's only defense to the Inquisition was the Mafia. Because Sicilians didn't like having Spain rule them, they decided to rule the country on their own. They developed their own law enforcements and protective societies that would evolve into the Mafia.
The Mafia's presence in Italy was always felt, even though they were invisible. Because it wasn't until 1861 that Italy became a nation, it was the Mafia that had control over the different territories in the country, and the entire country itself. When Italy became a nation, the Mafia gained even more powerful, taking the poor man's vote to the highest political bidder. The Mafia's power took a blow when Mussolini came to power. During his term of power, the mafia was nearly non-existent. When the fascist regimes fled Sicily after the Allied invasion, the Mafia regained control of the country. At the same time, powerful Mafias were springing up in the United States.
The Mafia is thought to have sprung up in America as early as the 1880s with the first influx of Italian immigrants. Since the immigrants usually congregated together in boroughs called “Little Italys” in some of the biggest cities, such as New York, Chicago, and New Orleans, the immigrated Mafia bosses saw the immigrants as easy prey. One of the first run-ins the law enforcement had with the Mafia took place in New Orleans in 1890. A police detective was investigating a string of murders and came up with the Mafia being the culprit. The police detective was later killed because of said investigation. Because the Mafia had infiltrated even the New Orleans Police Department, an investigation was reluctantly being pursued. The public’s outrage led to police action, of course the Mafia sprung into action as well. The “Mafiosi” were tried, but found to be innocent. But then an odd thing happened. The policemen disappeared, and the Mafiosi were murdered. The events were broadcast in newspapers around the world including The London Times.
The Mafia started to get really big in the 1920s. In 1920, Prohibition came into effect in the United States. It outlawed all alcohol. Of course people still wanted to drink, so speakeasies, or bootlegged liquor joints sprung up everywhere. Al Capone, the head of the Mafia in Chicago, became the most famous and successful bootlegger. At the age of 26, Al Capone became the leader of one of the world’s largest crime families. He oversaw over 1000 members of the Capone Mob, most of which were ruthless killers. Capone was a very popular man and was often seen in the presence of movie stars and high powered politicians. Capone was finally brought up on charges after months of investigation by Elliot Ness and his group dubbed “The Untouchables.” The charges were not for gambling, prostitution, or even extortion, but instead Capone was brought up on tax evasion charges. Capone was so careful with his day to day business that tax evasion was the only thing that investigators could pin on him. He was convicted and served seven and a half years. At the end of Prohibition, the National Crime Syndicate saw the rise of a new group in America. The purpose of this group was to kill people for mob bosses. It was called Murder, Inc.
Murder Inc. as it was called by the press, was a chapter of a so-called National Crime Syndicate in the USA. It was an enforcement arm that specialized in contract killing. It operated from the end of Prohibition until the 1950s. Murder, Inc. was established in New York and initially led by Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and Meyer Lansky, who also supplied the first killers from their gangs of Jewish and Italian gangsters in Brooklyn, New York. Later it was controlled by Louis Buchalter and Albert Anastasia. They reported to higher Syndicate bosses. Most of the killers were recruited from the gangs of Ocean City, Brownsville and East New York. They accepted murder contracts from mob bosses all around the United States.
The Murder, Inc. idea was based on the fact that killers would be strangers to the city, and sometimes even their victims, and therefore harder to trace. Police would concentrate on local suspects when killers were already en route to their hometowns. They killed quickly and effectively with numerous methods. Practically all the targets were informers or gang members who had embezzled mob money. The killers were paid a regular salary, plus an average fee of $1000-5000 per killing. Their families also received monetary benefits. If they were caught, the mob would supply the best lawyers. Murder, Inc. operated for a long time before pressure from investigators caused them to shut down business. When Murder, Inc. closed its doors to business, assassinations deals were made among the mob bosses.
The Mafia continued to grow despite minor setbacks from law enforcement. Not only were they growing in numbers, but also in money, power, and politics. The Mafia set up casinos in Cuba, and eventually in the United States in a desert town that would become Las Vegas. The casinos were run by mob bosses from all over the United States. They came from places such as Miami, Chicago, and New York. The mob saw millions upon millions of dollars in profit from the casinos. With profit came power, especially in politics. The Mafia was able to put all sorts of politicians, judges, and law enforcement into their pockets, especially with the amount of money they were making in Vegas, and Cuba before the Cuban Revolution. Mob bosses were hanging out with all sorts of celebrities, including Mr. Frank Sinatra.
Frank Sinatra was a good friend of Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana. It was Sam Gianacana, along with Sinatra, the Rat Pack, and thousands of dead Chicagoans that helped get John F. Kennedy elected. Of course, Giancana wasn’t the only mob boss friend of Sinatra’s. He also held acquaintances with Lucky Luciano. When police in Naples, Italy, searched Lucky Luciano’s home several years after the Havana getaway, they found a gold cigarette case with the inscription, “To my dear pal Lucky, from his friend, Frank Sinatra.”
Even though Sinatra and his pal Sam Giancana helped get JFK elected, Kennedy certainly did not show his appreciation. As soon as he became president, Kennedy made his brother Robert Attorney General. The major point in Robert Kennedy’s platform was cracking down and putting pressure on organized crime. That is exactly what he did when he became Attorney General. He launched investigations on the mob and angered them greatly. Some people believe that this was the reason that JFK was assassinated. Another big blow to the Mafia came with the passing of the RICO Act in 1970. The RICO Act provided for extended penalties for criminal acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. It was enacted as Title IX of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970. The Mafia began to decline in numbers, leaving only a few major cites to have a major influence.
