Genovese, Costello and Anastasia: The Decline And Fall Of the American Mafia

Jim Zirin at Forbes.com offers a piece on the organized crime meeting at Apalachin, New York.

This year marks the 55^th anniversary of the trial in the infamous mobster conspiracy case, United States v. Bufalino, known as the “Apalachin affair,” a case that prosecutors won before a jury, and lost on appeal.  The case involved 20 of the more than 60 mobsters who attended a summit meeting of the American Mafia on November 14, 1957 at the 130-acre estate of boss “Joe the Barber” Barbera in Apalachin, New York. The meeting, which became a scene in Mario Puzo’s Godfather, occurred in Apalachin, a sleepy hamlet along the south shore of the Susquehanna River about 145 miles northwest of New York City. The jury must have wondered why anyone would go there.

Before the meeting could get off the ground, state police and federal agents raided Barbera’s home. At the time, no one knew what was on the bill of fare. There was no evidence at trial of the purpose of the meeting or that there was anything improper or illegal about it.

The government charged the Apalachin 20 with conspiracy to obstruct justice by giving similarly false and evasive answers before the grand jury as to the nature of the meeting.  The defendants, many of whom were festooned in Italian tailor-made suits, drove expensive cars and had come long distances to attend the meeting, were apprehended as they tried to escape the house into the nearby woods, which police found strewn with newly printed hundred dollar bills.

No one at the trial was permitted to say the word “Mafia,” as it was deemed too prejudicial. Still, the jury must have known that sitting in the well of the courtroom before them was an underworld stew of evil. The guest list at the Barberas that evening read like a mobster “social register.” Among those in attendance were notorious gangsters Don Vito Genovese, the kingpin of the mob, Carlo Gambino, Joe Profaci and Joseph “Joe Bananas” Bonnano.  Questioned by police, virtually all of them claimed that they had visited the house from such far-flung locations as Buffalo, Rochester, Dallas, Denver and Los Angeles because they heard Barbera was not feeling well.  Anther claimed he had visited the house to deliver fish.

Although at least 50 men managed to escape into the woods outside Barbera’s house, state troopers and federal agents successfully arrested another 58.  State Trooper Edgar Croswell, a real life Inspector Javert who had been channeling Barbera for about a year, headed the raiding party.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jameszirin/2014/04/22/genovese-costello-and-anastasia-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-american-mafia/ 

'Inside The American Mob': Familiar Story, Endlessly Fascinating

David Hiltbrand at the Philadelphia Inquirer reviews the upcoming National Geographic Channel's new series on American organized crime.

A gritty six-part series, Inside the American Mob chronicles the decline and fall of the Mafia from its apex of power and influence in the '70s to its virtual dismantlement two decades later.

As the rub-out begins (with back-to-back episodes), the New York-based Five Families - Gambino, Colombo, Genovese, Lucchese and Bonanno - have a vise-grip on their far-flung criminal enterprises.

They use an organizational template devised by Mob architect Lucky Luciano back in 1931. A strict tradition of ethnicity (all "made men" must be 100 percent Italian) and vicious intimidation has kept them impermeable to infiltration by law enforcement agents.

Inside the American Mob, which debuts 9 p.m. Sunday on National Geographic Channel, maintains that a variety of factors altered the blood-soaked playing field in the '70s, beginning with a generational shift on both sides of the fence.

... The Inquirer's veteran crime reporter George Anastasia assumes a primary presence in next week's episode, "New York-Philly War," detailing the reign of terror that subsumed the Philadelphia Mafia after the seismic assassination of the city's "Docile Don," Angelo Bruno, in 1980.

With rival factions eager to claim the corrupt boomtown that was Atlantic City, Nicodemo Scarfo ascended to Boss, unleashing a brutal string of murders (18 in four years). Scarfo's rule was so ruthless that two of his closest associates, including his nephew Crazy Phil Leonetti, flipped, becoming extremely productive witnesses for the government.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/television/20130725_Inside_American_Mob__Familiar_story__endlessly_fascinating.html

My Crime Beat Column: The Triple Threat of Crime, Espionage And Terrorism

 

I addressed the Men's Club at the Ohev Shalom of Bucks County, Pennsyvania today.

I spoke to a group of about 40 men and women about the triple threat that faces America today - crime, espionage and terrorism.

The questions I received after my talk were lively and intelligent. I'd like to thank Mark Podob for inviting me to speak to the group.

As a Philadelphia resident, I told the Bucks County residents, I’m often asked if it is safe to visit the city. Well, despite the stories of flash mobs, drug gangs, robberies and murders, the city is relatively safe.

We received 37 million visitors in 2010, and they were not robbed or killed, and many of them returned in 2011. In Center City, the main cultural and shopping district, crime is very low and there is a strong police presence.

So if you’ve never visited the city, or not visited us lately, I invite you to check us out.

Most of you, I’m sure, are concerned about violent street crime, in Philadelphia as well as here. You fear being brutally robbed and assaulted and perhaps you fear having your home burglarized or invaded.

Law enforcement officers and security professionals say that most street crimes are preventable. The key is for you to be security conscious. Always being aware of your surroundings and take basic crime prevention measures.

I’ve had more than one cop tell me that they’ve come upon burglary scenes where the home or business owner had a burglary alarm system, but failed to turn it on. Turn on your system if you have one, and always lock your doors and windows. And to me, the best protection is a dog. Even a little, yapping, rat-looking dog. Crooks hate barking dogs.

If you’re going to the bank or going shopping, try to go with a friend or family member, as there is truly safety in numbers.

Mostly, adapt a confident air when out in the public. A crook is like a shark – they look for a weak, confused or unobservant victim. And trust your instincts.

You should also be concerned about white collar scam artists. These crooks are smooth talkers and they often say just what you want to hear. The old adage “if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t” still holds true today.

If you’re offered a deal, a discount, a prize – carefully check out where this “wonderful” deal is coming from. Usually, crooks want money up front, so that’s a clue that white collar victim’s miss.

“Yes, you’ve won a valuable prize, but first you’ll have to send us $200 dollars in administration fees.” Don’t you believe it.

You can check out potential crooks with the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, and your local police.

Besides street crime, another serious threat is organized crime. And organized crime today is not just Cosa Nostra. I’m half-Italian and from South Philly and I've coverd organized crime for newspapers and magazines for a good number of years, so I know a little something about the local mob.

But today organized crime involves a good number of ethnic groups and international organizations. Even though you may not have any direct contact with organized crime members, they do indeed affect your life.

Organized crime manufactures and distributes narcotics, which fuels street crime and murder. Organized crime also corrupts government officials.

Organized crime preys on union and business alike, sending up the cost of nearly every product or service you purchase in your daily life. This “corruption tax” on daily commerce is passed on to you - the consumer.

Espionage is another crime that may not directly touch you and you may think of it as something that only happens in a movie or novel.

But espionage affects out national security and our every day lives. Today a good number of foreign countries commit espionage against the U.S. Some countries are good at it and some are not.

Communist China is one country that I’m concerned about. They are stealing our secrets from government and businesses alike. They are not only stealing the secrets on how to make a cruise missile, they are also stealing our ideas on how to make a better mousetrap, as the saying goes.

There have been a good number of Chinese spies prosecuted in the past couple of years, but if we catch one, I wonder how many spies we missed.

China is already an economic giant and they are fast becoming a military giant as well. I fear China will be a major threat to my grandchildren in the future thanks to espionage.

The last serious threat I’d like to briefly cover this morning is terrorism. Thankfully, the U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, who was America's Public Enemy Number, but al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups remain a threat.

Thanks to our troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, America has disrupted al-Qaeda’s ability to recruit, train, equip and plan major attacks like the horrific 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

We’ve cleaned their clock on the battlefields and we’ve rolled up most of their networks.

But today al-Qaida is recruiting via the Internet. In Internet chat rooms, disgruntled and misguided people are being encouraged to go out and create murderous mishap.

As these are, for the most part, lone wolves, so it is hard for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to zoom in on them. And yet, we’ve managed to prevent more than 40 plots since 9/11.

And thankfully, some would-be-terrorists have been unlucky, poorly trained and even stupid – so we’ve not had another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

In closing, I’d like to suggest that average Americans can help the fight against crime, espionage and terrorism by simply being aware of your surroundings, and by reporting suspicious behavior to the police.

Bear in mind that it was an observant store clerk who prevented an attack on the soldiers at Fort Dix.