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Researched by Sierra S.
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Research Summary
Basic Definition
The Mafia is also called the secret society of crime. The Mafia
is made up of different groups of people called families.
The families are very close but easily irritated by the "outside world"
or other families. If a leader (Don) gets to irritated they will
sometimes attempt murder or some other type of violence.
The Start of the Mafia
The Mafia started in the 1500’s. The gangs were called
families and the leaders were called Dons. When U.S. immigration began
in the 1800’s the Italians and the Sicilians came to the "New World".
Many of them could not speak English so they settled in areas of their
own nationality because they felt safer with their own people.
New York was usually the first stop for these people because
of Ellis Island. The first gangs were not called the Mafia but they
were called the Black Hand. There was a large amount of these gangs spread
out through the areas of the city. NOTE: The Italians and Sicilians
were not the only gangs. There was also Jewish, Irish, and German
gangs throughout areas of large cities such as New York, Miami, Chicago,
and New Orleans.
Crimes
One of the major crimes that the Mafia committed was extortion.
Extortion is when someone takes something, in this case money, from someone
else by threatening them or by harming them. A family would
not only extort money from other families, the "outside world", and their
own community, they also extorted money from politics, i.e.: congressmen,
mayors, judges, senators and police departments. NOTE: Unfortunately,
there were a number of public officials on the gang’s payroll in almost
all the major cities in the United States of America.
Events
As the gangs grew they would intrude other gang’s territory leading
to wars. One major war took place in New York City and was called
the Castellammarese war. This war was between two major families,
one led by Joe Mazzoria, the other led by a Sicilian named Salvitor Merrinzono.
From this war a leader emerged by the name of Charles "Lucky" Lucciano.
His rise to power was due to the deaths of Merrinzono and Mozzeria.
January 18, 1918 a law was passed in the United States called
the "Volstead Act", also called prohibition, which made the making and
selling of alcohol illegal. This law caused an explosion in crime.
The crime families made fortunes making and selling illegal alcohol. This
along with other illegal activities such as extortion and gambling gave
the families the financial support to become involved with political and
judicial arenas. This led to power and more wars as the wars escalated
so did the assassination of gang members and innocent citizens. Thankfully,
there were some brave people in politics and law enforcement who were not
corrupt and they started a very long battle to eliminate this corruption.
Earlier Charles "Lucky" Lucciano, the man who became head of the five major
families in New York, was mentioned. He and his partner helped calm
the wars that were raging between families throughout the United States
of America. They coined the name "Syndicate" for the five major New
York families. The 1930’s brought an end to prohibition and a start
to the great depression brought on by the collapse of the stock market
in 1929. Crime families had too find another source of revenue because
prohibition no longer existed and liqueur sales and manufacturing was now
legal. They became very involved in the union movement all across
the nation. This involvement along with their other rackets was strangling
the nation. Many people as citizens, law enforcement, political, and judicial
got together and started the battle to bring an end to the criminal organizations.
Men like Judge John Lyle, Colonel Chamberlain, and Colonel Robert McCormick
were some of the people that were instrumental in starting this battle
in the Chicago area and came up with the name "Public Enemy" and this cry
was picked up throughout the nation. Other organizations such as
the FBI, the federal government, and the internal revenue service became
involved in the long fight to rid our country of this corruption.
The Future
I predict that in the future, even though the Mafia will most
likely exist, that we will have a better idea of how the crime families
think. This will help us catch these masterminds of crime.
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