The Mob and the City

by C. Alexander Hortis

  42. Joseph “Joe Dogs” Iannuzi, Joe Dogs: The Life and Crimes of a Mobster (New York: Pocket Books, 1993), p. 10.

  43. Annelise Graebner Anderson, The Business of Organized Crime: A Cosa Nostra Family (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1979), pp. 113–14; John Kroger, Convictions: A Prosecutor's Battles against Mafia Killers, Drug Kingpins, and Enron Thieves (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009), p. 139.

  44. Martin Booth, Opium: A History (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 1998), pp. 331–32; Peter Reuter and John Haaga, The Organization of High-Level Drug Markets: An Exploratory Study (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1989). The Mafia's move to the wholesaling level made economic sense: another study showed that wholesale distributors and drug-gang leaders made far higher incomes than street-level dealers. Steven D. Levitt and Sudhir Alladi Venatesh, “An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang's Finances,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 115, no. 3 (2000): 755–89.

  45. See chapter 4.

  46. Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi, 225 (statement of Vincent Cafaro), quoted in James B. Jacobs, Mobsters, Unions, and Feds: The Mafia and the American Labor Movement (New York: New York University Press, 2006), p. 40.

  47. Jacobs, Mobsters, Unions, and Feds, pp. 33–34; David Witwer, Shadow of the Racketeer: Scandal in Organized Labor (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009), pp. 56–57.

  48. Nicholas Pileggi, Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), p. 46.

  49. Salvatore Mondello, A Sicilian in East Harlem (Youngstown, NY: Cambria Press, 2005), p. 64.

  50. See also Frances A. J. Ianni with Elizabeth Reuss-Ianni, A Family Business: Kinship and Social Control in Organized Crime (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1972), pp. 75–82.

  51. During this era, Queens, Staten Island, and the outer Bronx were largely residential, middle-class, suburban areas. Although Queens is different today, during the 1950s, it had the newest housing stock and the second-highest median income of the boroughs. The surrounding counties of Westchester County (north of New York City) and Nassau County (on Long Island) were among the most upwardly mobile counties in the nation. In suburban New Jersey, Essex, Bergen, and Union Counties each had per-capita incomes above the New York metropolitan region. The Commission on Governmental Operations of the City of New York, New York City in Transition (New York: n.p., 1960), pp. 63–69; Andrew Hurley, Diners, Bowling Alleys, and Trailer Parks: Chasing the American Dream in Postwar Consumer Culture (New York: Basic Books, 2001), p. 51; Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 237, 277, 284.

  52. This statistic is calculated from table 7–3.

  53. Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi, 277 (testimony of Valachi).

  54. Joseph Valachi, “The Real Thing” (unpublished manuscript), pp. 2–8, 11–12, 21–22, 78–79, in Boxes 1 and 2, Joseph Valachi Papers, in John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA; Letter of Federal Bureau of Prisons, Wife of Prisoner Joseph Valachi, December 7, 1962, in Box 1, Records of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC (hereafter “NARA Washington”).

  55. FBI Report, John Franzese, October 6, 1960, in RG 65 (NARA College Park); Michael Franzese with Dary Matera, Quitting the Mob: How the “Yuppie Don” Left the Mafia and Lived to Tell His Story (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), pp. 31, 74; Michael Franzese, Blood Covenant (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 2003), pp. 28–29, 33.

  56. Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi, 301 (testimony of Valachi).

  57. FBI Memorandum, Michael Coppola, Top Hoodlum Coverage, Aril 16, 1954, and FBI Memorandum, Michael Coppola, July 22, 1957, both in FBI FOIA File on Mike Coppola (copy in possession of author); Brooklyn Eagle, February 7, 1939; Hank Messick, “What Goes On Inside Mafia Life,” Miami Herald, December 8, 1968; Hank Messick with Joseph L. Nellis, The Private Lives of Public Enemies (New York: P. H. Wyden, 1973), p. 197.

  58. FBI Memorandum, Ruggiero Boiardo, May 12, 1954, in FBI FOIA File (copy in possession of author); FBI Memorandum, The Criminal Commission; Angelo Bruno, December 27, 1962, in RG 65 (NARA College Park); Richard Linnett, In the Godfather Garden: The Long Life and Times of Richie “The Boot” Boiardo (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2013), pp. 2–4.

  59. FBI Report, Crime Conditions in the New York Division, December 27, 1963, in RG 65 (NARA College Park); People v. Brown, 80 Misc.2d 778 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cnty. 1975); New York Times, April 20, 1978, April 11, 1989, July 29, 1992; testimony of Angelo Lonardo, quoted in James B. Jacobs, Christopher Panarella, and Jay Worthington, Busting the Mob: United States v. Cosa Nostra (New York: New York University Press, 1994), pp. 197–98.

  60. New York Times, August 16, 1957, July 27, 1968, February 18, 1985, September 1, 2000; FBI Report, Michelino Clemente, May 3, 1961, in RG 65 (NARA College Park).

  61. Paul Castellano on an electronic surveillance recording, quoted in President's Commission on Organized Crime, Edge, pp. xx, 200–208, 240; Joseph F. O'Brien and Andris Kurins, Boss of Bosses: The FBI and Paul Castellano (New York: Island Books, 1991), pp. 28–30, 69–72, 205–206, 261; Ronald Goldstock, Director, and James B. Jacobs, Principal Draftsman, Corruption and Racketeering in the New York City Construction Industry (New York: New York University Press, 1990), p. 84.

  62. Chicago Heights banker's report, quoted in Matthew Luzi, The Boys in Chicago Heights: The Forgotten Crew of the Chicago Outfit (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2012), p. 51; Louis Ferrante, Mob Rules: What the Mafia Can Teach the Legitimate Businessman (New York: Penguin, 2011), p. 67; Henry Hill, Gangsters and Goodfellas: The Mob, Witness Protection, and Life on the Run (Lanham, MD: M. Evans, 2004), pp. 35, 78.

  63. Teresa, My Life in the Mafia, pp. 70, 130; Hill, Gangsters and Goodfellas, pp. 35, 78; Pistone, Way of the Wiseguy, p. 34.

  64. President's Commission on Organized Crime, Organized Crime and Money Laundering: Record of Hearing II, March 14, 1984 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1984), 30–31, 40, 44–45 (testimony of Jimmy Fratianno).

  65. Jimmy Fratianno, quoted in Ovid Demaris, The Last Mafioso: The Treacherous World of Jimmy Fratianno (New York: Times Books, 1981), p. 105.

  66. Lynda Milito with Reg Potterton, Mafia Wife: My Story of Love, Murder, and Madness (New York: HarperCollins, 2003), p. 131.

  67. Briefs in United States vs. Frank Costello, Case No. 382 (2d Cir. 1936) in Records of the United States Courts of Appeal, RG 276 (NARA New York); United States v. Costello, 221 F.2d 668 (2d. Cir. 1955); Costello v. United States, 350 U.S. 359 (1956).

  68. Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi, 249 (testimony of Cafaro).

  69. Maas, Underboss, p. 73.

  70. Philip Carlo, Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), p. 95.

  71. Pileggi, Wiseguy, p. 90.

  72. Pistone, Way of the Wiseguy, p. 53.

  73. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 17, 1929.

  74. Teresa, My Life in the Mafia, p. 118.

  75. Sal Polisi and Steve Dougherty, The Sinatra Club: My Life Inside the New York Mafia (New York: Gallery Books, 2012), p. 25.

  76. Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci, Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti (Indianapolis: Alpha Books: 1988), p. 162.

  77. Pileggi, Wiseguy, pp. 54, 80.

  78. New York Daily News, January 29, 2012; “Reputed Mafia Boss John Gotti Says He's Not Living High-Life in Jail,” Associated Press, February 9, 1992; Time, September 29, 1986.

  79. Charles Luciano, quoted in American Weekly interview reprinted in Sid Feder and Joachim Joesten, The Luciano Story (New York: Da Capo Press, 1994), p. 309.

  80. Teresa, My Life in the Mafia, p. 62.

  81. Henry Hill, quoted in Pileggi, Wiseguy, p. 55.

  82. Mario Puzo, The Godfather (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1969), p. 88.

  83. Joseph Pistone and Charles Brandt, Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business (Philadelphia: Running Press, 2007), p. 34.
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  84. Donnie Brasco (Mandalay Pictures, 1997).

  85. Pistone, Unfinished Business, pp. 71–72; Sifakis, Mafia Encyclopedia, pp. 45–46; Pistone, Donnie Brasco, p. 115.

  86. Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi, 270–71 (testimony of Valachi); Bonanno, Man of Honor, pp. 105–108; Sifakis, Mafia Encyclopedia, pp. 45–46. This estimated homicide total for the 1930s is based on Eric Monkonnen, Murder in New York City (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000), pp. 9, 15–16, appendix.

  87. Peter Davidson, Bones on the Beach: Mafia, Murder, and the True Story of an Undercover Cop Who Went under the Covers with a Wiseguy (New York: Berkley, 2010), p. 39.

  88. Thomas Hunt and Martha Sheldon, Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia (Hartford, CT: iUniverse, 2007), p. 219. I thank Tom Hunt and Rick Warner for helping identify many of these informants.

  89. Report of the Questore, August 3, 1900, in Archivio central dello Stato, cited in Salvatore Lupo, History of the Mafia (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), pp. 108–11, 293 n. 72.

  90. Mike Dash, The First Family: Terror, Extortion, and the Birth of the American Mafia (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009), pp. 274, 396 (citing Secret Service Dailies, RG 87, NARA College Park).

  91. Thomas Hunt and Michael A. Tona, “The Good Killers: 1921's Glimpse of the Mafia” (2007), available at http://www.onewal.com/a014/f_goodkillers.html (accessed August 4, 2013).

  92. Nick Gentile, Vita di Capomafia (Rome: Editori Riuniti, 1963), pp. 160–62; Cable to Mr. Fuller, March 29, 1940, and Telegram from American Embassy in Rome, December 19, 1940, in Gentile File, Box 7, Name Files of Suspected Narcotics Traffickers, 1923–54, RG 59 (NARA College Park).

  93. Daily Report of Agents, Detroit, May 16, 1922, in Secret Service Dailies, RG 87, NARA College Park. Thanks to Angelo Santino and Rick Warner for this citation.

  94. Testimony of Melchiorre Allegra (1937), L'Ora articles transcribed by Extra-Legal Governance Institute (ExLEGI), University of Oxford, available at http://www.exlegi.ox.ac.uk/resources/allegra.asp (accessed August 25, 2013) (cited in Critchley, Origin of Organized Crime, p. 62).

  95. See chapter 9; Final Report of the Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field, Senate Report No. 1139, Senate, 86th Cong., 2d Sess. (1960), 500.

  96. New York Crime Commission, Public Hearing (no. 4) (1952), 222 (testimony of George White); Maas, Valachi Papers, pp. 200, 219–21.

  97. Charles Siragusa, The Trail of the Poppy: Behind the Mask of the Mafia (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1966), pp. 70–71; Maas, Valachi Papers, pp. 212–14.

  98. Binghamton Press, July 19, 1958; New York Times, July 20, 1958.

  99. FBI Special Summary Report: Angelo Bruno, July 28, 1962 (copy in possession of author). My thanks to David Critchley for supplying this document.

  100. 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7); Anthony Villano, Brick Agent: Inside the Mafia for the FBI (New York: Ballantine Books, 1977), p. 91.

  101. The Godfather Part III (Paramount Pictures 1990); “Members Only,” The Sopranos (HBO, 2006).

  102. Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi, 270–71 (testimony of Valachi).

  103. FBI Interview with William Medico, June 25, 1959, in RG 65 (NARA College Park); Lockport Union-Sun and Journal, April 3, 1970. I thank David Critchley for bringing the FBI interview of Medico to my attention.

  104. New York FBI Report, La Cosa Nostra, September 26, 1968, in RG 65 (NARA College Park); Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi, 302 (testimony of Shanley); San Diego FBI Report, La Cosa Nostra, August 22, 1968, in RG 65 (NARA College Park).

  105. Gentile, Vita di Capomafia, p. 173.

  106. Calderone, Men of Dishonor, p. 156.

  107. This list is drawn from soldiers identified in Hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations: Organized Crime and the Illicit Traffic in Narcotics, Senate, 88th Cong., 1st Sess. (1963) (“McClellan Committee charts”). For their backgrounds, I cross-referenced the names of soldiers with genealogical records from Ancestry.com, newspaper articles, FBI reports, and the 1950s versions of the FBN's International List of Persons Known to Be or Suspected of Being Engaged in the Illicit Traffic in Narcotics Drugs, June 30, 1956, in Box 175, RG 10 (NARA College Park). I eliminated names from the charts if the soldier died before 1955, there was insufficient information on his background, or he was based outside of New York City. For example, while James Colletti is listed as a Bonanno Family soldier, he was effectively the boss of Pueblo, Colorado.

  CHAPTER 8: MOUTHPIECES FOR THE MOB: CROOKED COPS, MOB LAWYERS, AND DIRECTOR HOOVER

  1. Contrary to initial reports, Ciro Terranova was not present. New York Times, December 13 and December 17, 1929, and February 16, 1930; Brooklyn Standard Union, December 30, 1929; New York Sun, January 20, 1930.

  2. New York Times, December 8 and December 24, 1929.

  3. New York Times, September 29, 1929, December 22, 1929, and March 13 and March 14, 1930.

  4. New York Times, June 25, 1930, August 21, 1931.

  5. Report and Proceedings of the Senate Committee Appointed to Investigate the Police Department of the City of New York (Albany, NY: J. B. Lyon, 1895); Commission to Investigate Allegations of Police Corruption and the City's Anti-Corruption Procedures, Commission Report (New York: n.p., 1972).

  6. Nicholas Pileggi, Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), pp. 50, 107.

  7. Robert Leuci, All the Centurions: A New York City Cop Remembers His Years on the Street, 1961–1981 (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), pp. 219–20.

  8. Brian McDonald, My Father's Gun: One Family, Three Badges, One Hundred Years in the NYPD (New York: Penguin, 1999), p. 177.

  9. Peter Maas, Serpico (New York: Viking Press, 1973), pp. 306–307.

  10. Harold R. Danforth and James D. Horan, The D. A.'s Man (New York: Crown, 1957), p. 47.

  11. Henry Hill, Gangsters and Goodfellas: The Mob, Witness Protection, and Life on the Run (Lanham, MD: M. Evans, 2004), p. 53.

  12. John Harlan Amen, Report of Kings County Investigation, 1938–1942 (New York: n.p. 1942); Alan Block, East Side, West Side: Organizing Crime in New York, 1930–1950 (Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1983), pp. 84–85.

  13. Leuci, All the Centurions, p. 176.

  14. New York Times, December 6, 1972.

  15. George P. LeBrun, It's Time to Tell (New York: William Morrow, 1962), pp. 145–46.

  16. New York Times, December 11, 1970, September 25, 1972.

  17. FBI criminal record of Antonio Corallo, October 18, 1962, and NYPD criminal record of Alex Di Bruzzi [sic], December 31, 1958, reprinted in Charlie Carr, ed., New York Police Files on the Mafia (New York: Hosehead Productions, 2012), pp. 84–85, 232–33.

  18. Richard H. Rovere, Howe & Hummel: Their True and Scandalous History (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1947), p. 79.

  19. New York Times, February 28, 1924.

  20. Samuel Leibowitz, quoted in Quentin Reynolds, Courtroom: The Story of Samuel S. Leibowitz (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999), pp. 417–18.

  21. Evan Thomas, The Man to See: Edward Bennett Williams; Ultimate Insider; Legendary Trial Lawyer (New York: Touchstone, 1991), pp. 96, 188.

  22. Frank Ragano and Selwyn Raab, Mob Lawyer (New York: Scribners, 1994), p. 362.

  23. Interview with Thomas E. Dewey (1959), in Columbia Center for Oral History (hereafter “COHC”); New York Times, January 1, 1970.

  24. Collier's, July 22, 1939.

  25. Interview with Dewey (1959) (CCOH), p. 440.

  26. New York Times, February 25, 1939, January 27, 1940, January 1, 1970.

  27. New York Times, September 10, 1973; FBI Report, Frank DeSimone, June 10, 1958, Airtel to New York, Re: La Cosa Nostra, April 27, 1964, and FBI Report, Los Angeles, May 12, 1965, both in Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Record Group 65, in National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (hereafter “N
ARA College Park”).