June 1962, a federal prison in Atlanta USA: it was a bright sunny morning and all the prison inmates were being led out for their usual morning exercise. Inmate joseph Valachi, a low-level soldier in lucky Luciano’s crime family, who had dabbled in gambling and the numbers racket from 1930 to 1950, had been convicted for narcotics offenses and sentenced to fifteen years in prison was walking leisurely along with his fellow inmates. Valachi felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see the beaming face of fellow prisoner and crime boss Vito Genovese. Valachi smiled at his hero and boss, who wasted no time in preliminaries before planting the kiss of death on Valachi. The kiss of death is reserved for traitors and informers, indicating that the death warrant has been signed for breaking the code of “Omerta” or the oath of silence solemnly sworn by all members of the Mafia.
Valachi was wrongly suspected by the Mafia dons as an informer and now his life stood forfeit according to the dark and mysterious laws of the greatest crime syndicate in human history. Having served under the flag of the mafia, Valachi was fully aware of the meaning and significance of the kiss of death. Hurt, confused and fearing for his life, he panicked and was responsible for the death of another inmate who he mistook for his Mafia executioner.
Federal authorities now moved fast: Valachi was moved to a high security prison and placed in solitary confinement. A deal was now offered to Valachi by the US government: his life for information testimony about his former colleagues and partners in the secretive world of the Mafia. A US Senate crimes committee was formed headed by Senator John H. McClellan and Vellachi now became the star witness and prime informer. This was the greatest coup ever achieved by the crime-combating and law enforcing agencies of the country, as it was the first time in history that an insider from organised crime had consented to tell the story of the biggest crime syndicate in the world.
Joseph Vallachi died in prison on 3 April 1972 and his testimony was published in 1978 under the title of The Valachi Papers in which he has described in vivid and gory detail the history, membership and inner workings of the national crime syndicate known among the inner circle of organised crime as “La Cosa Nostra.”
In 1975, the US government conducted a federally sponsored survey of organised crime and the conclusions were not only alarming but also mind-boggling. It was found that the total activities of the crime-controlled assets and businesses had a yearly turnover of 50 billion US dollars. This astronomical turnover and the profits that accrue from these illegal activities is made possible by a network of highly centralised business enterprises set up for the purpose of engaging in illegal activities such as gambling, prostitution , drugs, loan-sharking, blackmail and extortion. Crime as a controlled or major business enterprise is a 20th-century phenomenon, best organised in the USA. The crime cartel in the USA is bigger than ATT, IBM, the automobile industry, oil companies, or even the fearsome Military Industrial Complex.
The origins of the mafia can be traced back to Sicily, Italy, where it was formed as a hierarchically structured society. Its predecessors were extremely secretive in nature, and dedicated to the overthrow of various foreign rulers who wanted to colonise the island of Sicily, namely the Saracens, Normans and Spaniards. Most of the early members of the Mafia were recruited from the private armies of absentee landlords who maintained these soldiers of fortune to protect their estates from marauding bandits who terrorised the countryside during the lawless period of Sicilian history. These private armies were called “Mafie” in the local language. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, these private armies grew from strength to strength and got better organised. Subsequently they became so powerful that even the most powerful land owners had to pay them heavily in return for protecting their landed estates.
The Mafia not only survived Sicily’s various governments but also continued to grow in power and influence because they won the support of the common people who were sick and tired of their despotic and corrupt foreign rulers. The Mafia devised its own system of private justice, based on a complicated moral code called “Omerta” which laid down that people were never under any circumstances to seek redress of grievances from the local system and never to inform the authorities on crimes committed or to assist in any way in the detection of crimes committed against one’s self or others. To break this oath or code of silence meant immediate, often fatal reprisals from the long arm of the mafia.
The Mafia in the US is organised on the pattern of its parent body in Sicily. In the US, the name “Cosa Nostra” has been adopted, which in Italian means “Our Thing.” All operations are controlled by 24 family groups spread all over the country. Most cities have only one family, but New York has the distinction of having five families. Heads of all families are the members of an all-powerful commission which operates like a judicial body. The head of each family is called a Don, whose authority can only be challenged by the commission.
Next to the don is an underboss who functions like a vice president, next in line is the consigliere who acts as the legal advisor and is normally a very highly qualified lawyer, licensed to practice law at the highest level. Further down the line are the caporegimes or lieutenants who act as liaisons between the don and lower levels of the organisation, thus insulating the don from any personal or direct involvement in any illegal activity. The caporegimes control battalions of soldiers, who normally hold charge of the family’s legal businesses like vending machines, hotels and licensed casinos. Some are given charge of illegal activities like gambling, prostitution and narcotics.
Valachi was wrongly suspected by the Mafia dons as an informer and now his life stood forfeit according to the dark and mysterious laws of the greatest crime syndicate in human history. Having served under the flag of the mafia, Valachi was fully aware of the meaning and significance of the kiss of death. Hurt, confused and fearing for his life, he panicked and was responsible for the death of another inmate who he mistook for his Mafia executioner.
Federal authorities now moved fast: Valachi was moved to a high security prison and placed in solitary confinement. A deal was now offered to Valachi by the US government: his life for information testimony about his former colleagues and partners in the secretive world of the Mafia. A US Senate crimes committee was formed headed by Senator John H. McClellan and Vellachi now became the star witness and prime informer. This was the greatest coup ever achieved by the crime-combating and law enforcing agencies of the country, as it was the first time in history that an insider from organised crime had consented to tell the story of the biggest crime syndicate in the world.
Joseph Vallachi died in prison on 3 April 1972 and his testimony was published in 1978 under the title of The Valachi Papers in which he has described in vivid and gory detail the history, membership and inner workings of the national crime syndicate known among the inner circle of organised crime as “La Cosa Nostra.”
In 1975, the US government conducted a federally sponsored survey of organised crime and the conclusions were not only alarming but also mind-boggling. It was found that the total activities of the crime-controlled assets and businesses had a yearly turnover of 50 billion US dollars. This astronomical turnover and the profits that accrue from these illegal activities is made possible by a network of highly centralised business enterprises set up for the purpose of engaging in illegal activities such as gambling, prostitution , drugs, loan-sharking, blackmail and extortion. Crime as a controlled or major business enterprise is a 20th-century phenomenon, best organised in the USA. The crime cartel in the USA is bigger than ATT, IBM, the automobile industry, oil companies, or even the fearsome Military Industrial Complex.
The origins of the mafia can be traced back to Sicily, Italy, where it was formed as a hierarchically structured society. Its predecessors were extremely secretive in nature, and dedicated to the overthrow of various foreign rulers who wanted to colonise the island of Sicily, namely the Saracens, Normans and Spaniards. Most of the early members of the Mafia were recruited from the private armies of absentee landlords who maintained these soldiers of fortune to protect their estates from marauding bandits who terrorised the countryside during the lawless period of Sicilian history. These private armies were called “Mafie” in the local language. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, these private armies grew from strength to strength and got better organised. Subsequently they became so powerful that even the most powerful land owners had to pay them heavily in return for protecting their landed estates.
The Mafia not only survived Sicily’s various governments but also continued to grow in power and influence because they won the support of the common people who were sick and tired of their despotic and corrupt foreign rulers. The Mafia devised its own system of private justice, based on a complicated moral code called “Omerta” which laid down that people were never under any circumstances to seek redress of grievances from the local system and never to inform the authorities on crimes committed or to assist in any way in the detection of crimes committed against one’s self or others. To break this oath or code of silence meant immediate, often fatal reprisals from the long arm of the mafia.
The Mafia in the US is organised on the pattern of its parent body in Sicily. In the US, the name “Cosa Nostra” has been adopted, which in Italian means “Our Thing.” All operations are controlled by 24 family groups spread all over the country. Most cities have only one family, but New York has the distinction of having five families. Heads of all families are the members of an all-powerful commission which operates like a judicial body. The head of each family is called a Don, whose authority can only be challenged by the commission.
Next to the don is an underboss who functions like a vice president, next in line is the consigliere who acts as the legal advisor and is normally a very highly qualified lawyer, licensed to practice law at the highest level. Further down the line are the caporegimes or lieutenants who act as liaisons between the don and lower levels of the organisation, thus insulating the don from any personal or direct involvement in any illegal activity. The caporegimes control battalions of soldiers, who normally hold charge of the family’s legal businesses like vending machines, hotels and licensed casinos. Some are given charge of illegal activities like gambling, prostitution and narcotics.