La Cosa Nostra–the American Mafia

On January 20, 127 suspected mobsters affiliated with La Cosa Nostra–the American Mafia–were rounded up and charged in what U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called “one of the largest single-day operations against the Mafia in the FBI’s history.” Take a look at a selection of other significant Mafia sweeps and arrests since the Italian-American crime network first rose to prominence during the first half of the 20th century.

1936: Brothel bust unlucky for Luciano
The organized crime network known as the American Mafia or La Cosa Nostra (Italian for “our thing”) took shape during the Prohibition era of the 1920s, when Italian-American gangs in major cities like New York and Chicago dominated the booming bootleg liquor business. By the 1930s, it had come under the control of mob boss Charles “Lucky” Luciano, who established a commission to oversee the Mafia’s various racketeering activities and keep the peace among its constituent crime families.
The canny and influential Luciano, who had earned his nickname by barely surviving an assassination attempt, met his match in Thomas E. Dewey, a future New York governor and presidential candidate who in 1936 was a special prosecutor investigating organized crime. On February 1 of that year, Dewey led an evening raid on 80 New York City brothels that were believed to be part of a massive Mafia-controlled prostitution ring. By midnight, plainclothes cops had brought 125 prostitutes, madams and bookers to his offices in Manhattan’s Woolworth Building.

Dewey and his team—which included Eunice Carter, the first African-American woman to serve as a New York assistant district attorney—convinced 68 of the women to testify against Luciano and his associates. Witnesses included such memorable characters as Cokey Flo Brown, who recalled Luciano pledging to “organize cathouses just like the A&P [supermarket chain].” The famous mobster was charged with 62 counts of compulsory prostitution and sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison. Nonetheless, he continued to play a key role in La Cosa Nostra’s management structure while behind bars and after his 1946 deportation to Italy.
1957: Curious cop foils Mafiosi meeting
By the mid-1950s, escalating tensions between rival Mafia factions threatened to erupt into a full-blown gang war. Hoping to extinguish flames and make a power play in the process, New York boss Vito Genovese arranging a meeting of top Mafiosi from the United States, Canada and Italy. On November 14, 1957, more than 100 Cosa Nostra VIPs assembled at the home of mobster Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara in Apalachin, New York, a sleepy hamlet near the Pennsylvania border. They intended to hash out a plan for controlling imports and exports, gambling, casinos and narcotics distribution in New York City and across the country.
This ambitious agenda fell by the wayside when a local cop named Edgar Croswell, who’d had his eye on Apalachin’s resident gangster for months, noticed a fleet of luxury vehicles with out-of-state license plates parked outside Barbara’s home. He summoned other state troopers to the scene. Panicked mobsters in fancy suits abandoned their steak dinners and fanned out across the 53-acre estate, tossing their guns and cash as they ran for cover. Others sped off in their cars only to be stopped by a police roadblock and apprehended. Up to 50 men escaped that day, but another 58 were taken into custody. All insisted they had come to Apalachin simply to wish an ailing friend well–Barbara had recently suffered a heart attack and would die of another one in June 1959–and were eventually released.
While the raid was an embarrassment for both law enforcement and the meeting’s participants, it contributed to the public’s growing awareness that an organized racketeering network led by Italian-American mobsters was operating nationwide. (The concept had first been introduced in 1950, when Senator Estes Kefauver and other members of the U.S. Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce interviewed hundreds of witnesses on live television.) The Apalachin incident also resulted in increased scrutiny and indictments of the Mafia’s leadership: Less than two weeks later, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who until then had publicly downplayed La Cosa Nostra, launched the “Top Hoodlum” program to investigate its activities.

1985-1986: Giuliani crushes Five Families' finest
In the 1960s and 1970s, a series of developments paved the way for the U.S. government to pursue mobsters more aggressively and on a larger scale. First, in 1963, convicted New York mobster Joseph Valachi broke La Cosa Nostra’s sacred code of silence to become an informant, revealing key details about its structure and customs. In 1968 Congress passed a law allowing wiretap evidence in federal courts, providing investigators with a vital (and controversial) weapon in their war against organized crime. Two years later, it passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which allows for prosecutions against criminal organizations and the seizure of their assets.
Armed with these new tools, future New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, then a federal prosecutor, masterminded the indictment of 11 Mafia leaders, including the heads of New York’s five dominant crime families, in February 1985. The case against them relied on bugs planted in strategic locations–such as the dashboard of a Jaguar owned by Lucchese family chief Anthony “Tony Ducks” Corallo–over the course of a four-year investigation. Eight of the original defendants stood trial together and were convicted in November 1986.
Known as the Mafia Commission Trial, the case marked a turning point in prosecutors’ approach to “crushing” La Cosa Nostra, as Giuliani put it. Rather than hunting down an individual capo (boss) or underboss, who would quickly be replaced by the next in line, they would seek to dismantle entire chains of command.

1985-1987: Sicilian upper crust burned in Pizza Connection
These days, it’s an unassuming pizza-by-the-slice joint on a busy Queens street. Some 30 years ago, it was the center of an international, Mafia-controlled drug ring that imported an estimated $1.65 billion in heroin from Southwest Asia to the United States and used pizza parlors as fronts. Needless to say, Al Dente Pizzeria is now under new management.
One of the longest criminal trials to ever take place in Manhattan, the so-called “Pizza Connection” case lasted from October 1985 to March 1987. Prosecutors led by future FBI director Louis Freeh made the case that Sicilian mobsters were smuggling millions of dollars worth of heroin and cocaine into the United States, where it was then distributed by members of the New York-based Bonanno crime family. The trial ended in the convictions of 18 men, including the Pizza Connection’s alleged architect, Sicilian crime boss Gaetano Badalamenti, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison and died in 2004 at age 80.
Joseph Pistone, the FBI special agent who famously infiltrated the Bonanno crime family using the alias Donnie Brasco, learned of the operation while undercover and brought it to the attention of the bureau. He also provided key testimony during the trial.
1990-1992: Teflon Don is done
One of the most recognized gangsters in the history of organized crime in America, John Joseph Gotti Jr. rose through the ranks of the Gambino crime family and seized power after ordering the December 1985 murder of then-boss Paul Castellano outside a Manhattan steakhouse. Behind closed doors, Gotti was a ruthless, controlling figure, whose ability to elude conviction earned him his reputation as “the Teflon Don.” Publicly, he became a tabloid celebrity, famous for his swagger and expensive suits, which earned him another nickname, “the Dapper Don.”
After winning three acquittals during the 1980s, Gotti’s luck ran out in 1990. On December 11, detectives raided the Ravenite Social Club, his headquarters in New York City’s Little Italy neighborhood, arresting Gotti, his underboss Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano and Gambino consigliere Frank “Frankie Loc” LoCascio. The ensuing trial, which started in January 1992, created a media frenzy. Gravano made a deal with the government and testified in court against his boss, admitting to 19 murders, 10 of them sanctioned by Gotti. In addition, prosecutors presented secret taped conversations that incriminated Gotti.
After deliberating for 13 hours, the jury, which had been kept anonymous and sequestered during the trial, came back with a verdict on April 2, 1992, finding Gotti guilty on all counts. In the wake of the conviction, the assistant director of the FBI’s New York office, James Fox, was quoted as saying, “The don is covered in Velcro, and every charge stuck.” The mob boss was sent to the U.S. Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, where he was held in virtual solitary confinement. On June 10, 2002, Gotti died of throat cancer at age 61 at a Springfield, Missouri, medical center for federal prisoners.
Origins of the Mafia
The Mafia, a network of organized-crime groups based in Italy and America, evolved over centuries in Sicily, an island ruled until the mid-19th century by a long line of foreign invaders. Sicilians banded together in groups to protect themselves and carry out their own justice. In Sicily, the term “mafioso,” or Mafia member, initially had no criminal connotations and was used to refer to a person who was suspicious of central authority. By the 19th century, some of these groups emerged as private armies, or “mafie,” who extorted protection money from landowners and eventually became the violent criminal organization known today as the Sicilian Mafia. The American Mafia, which rose to power in the 1920s, is a separate entity from the Mafia in Italy, although they share such traditions as omerta, a code of conduct and loyalty.
The Mafia?s Sicilian Roots
For centuries, Sicily, an island in the Mediterranean Sea between North Africa and the Italian mainland, was ruled by a long line of foreign invaders, including the Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, French and Spanish. The residents of this island, which measures almost 10,000 square feet, formed groups to protect themselves from the often-hostile occupying forces, as well as from other regional groups of Sicilians. These groups, which later became known as clans or families, developed their own system for justice and retribution, carrying out their actions in secret. By the 19th century, small private armies known as “mafie” took advantage of the frequently violent, chaotic conditions in Sicily and extorted protection money from landowners. From this history, the Sicilian Mafia emerged as a collection of criminal clans or families.
Although its precise origins are unknown, the term Mafia came from a Sicilian-Arabic slang expression that means “acting as a protector against the arrogance of the powerful,” according to Selwyn Raab, author of “Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires. Raab notes that until the 19th century, the word “mafioso” did not refer to someone who was a criminal, but rather a person who was suspicious of central authority. In the 1860s, a play called “I Mafiusi della Vicaria” (“Heroes of the Penitentiary”), about a group of inmates at a Sicilian prison who maintained their own hierarchy and rituals, toured Italy and helped popularize the term Mafia in the Italian language.
The Mafia on the Rise in Italy
In 1861, Sicily became a province of recently unified Italy. However, chaos and crime reigned across the island as the fledgling Italian government tried to establish itself. In the 1870s, Roman officials even asked Sicilian Mafia clans to help them by going after dangerous, independent criminal bands; in exchange, officials would look the other way as the Mafia continued its protection shakedowns of landowners. The government believed this arrangement would be temporary, lasting just long enough for Rome to gain control; instead, the Mafia clans expanded their criminal activities and further entrenched themselves in Sicilian politics and the economy. The Mafia became adept at political corruption and intimidated people to vote for certain candidates, who were in turn beholden to the Mafia. Even the Catholic Church was involved with Mafia clans during this period, according to Raab, who notes that the church relied on Mafiosi to monitor its massive property holdings in Sicily and keep tenant farmers in line.

In order to further strengthen themselves, Sicilian clans began conducting initiation ceremonies in which new members pledged secret oaths of loyalty. Of chief importance to the clans was omerta, an all-important code of conduct reflecting the ancient Sicilian belief that a person should never go to government authorities to seek justice for a crime and never cooperate with authorities investigating any wrongdoing.
The Mafia in the 20th Century and Beyond
The Mafia’s influence in Sicily grew until the 1920s, when Prime Minister Benito Mussolini came to power and launched a brutal crackdown on mobsters, who he viewed as a threat to his Fascist regime. However, in the 1950s, the Mafia rose again when mob-backed construction companies dominated the post-World War II building boom in Sicily. Over the next few decades, the Sicilian Mafia flourished, expanding its criminal empire and becoming, by the 1970s, a major player in international narcotics trafficking.
The American Mafia, a separate entity from the Mafia in Sicily, came to power in the 1920s Prohibition era after the success of Italian-American neighborhood gangs in the booming bootleg liquor business. By the 1950s, the Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra, Italian for “Our Thing”) had become the preeminent organized-crime network in the United States and was involved in a range of underworld activities, from loan-sharking to prostitution, while also infiltrating labor unions and legitimate industries such as construction and New York’s garment industry. Like the Sicilian Mafia, American Mafia families were able to maintain their secrecy and success because of their code of omerta, as well as their ability to bribe and intimidate public officials, business leaders, witnesses and juries. For these reasons, law-enforcement agencies were largely ineffective at stopping the Mafia during the first part of the 20th century. However, during the 1980s and 1990s, prosecutors in America and Italy began successfully employing tough anti-racketeering laws to convict top-ranking mobsters. Additionally, some Mafiosi, in order to avoid long prison terms, began breaking the once-sacred code of omerta and testified against fellow mob members. By the start of the 21st century, after hundreds of high-profile arrests over the course of several decades, the Mafia appeared to be weakened in both countries; however, it was not eliminated completely and remains in business today.
The Demise of the Mafia

Based in Italy and the U.S., the Mafia is a network of organized-crime groups active in a range of underworld ventures, from drug trafficking to murder. The Mafia evolved over centuries in Sicily, an island off the southern tip of Italy that until 1861 was ruled by a line of foreign invaders. Sicilians banded into groups to protect themselves; by the 19th century, some of these groups emerged as private armies that extorted protection money from landowners and evolved into the criminal enterprise known today as the Sicilian Mafia. The American Mafia, a separate entity, rose to power in the Prohibition era of the 1920s and soon flourished. By the late 20th century, however, anti-racketeering laws and other techniques brought down high-ranking mobsters both in Italy and the United States. By the early 21st century, the Mafia had been weakened but it still has not been driven out of business.

The Mafia on the Rise
By the later part of the 19th century in Sicily, Italy, criminal gangs who had become known as the Mafia flourished by using violence and intimidation to extract protection money from landowners and merchants. By the 1920s, the Sicilian Mafia was facing a challenge from Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), who came to power in 1922. Mussolini viewed the Mafia as a threat to his Fascist regime and launched a brutal crackdown in which more than a thousand suspected Mafiosi were convicted and thrown in prison. (Some Italian mobsters escaped to the United States, where they became involved in the bootleg liquor business and the burgeoning American Mafia.) Following World War II, the Mafia rose again as mob-backed building companies worked to dominate the 1950s construction boom in Sicily.
In the United States, the Mafia developed as a separate entity during the Prohibition era of the 1920s, as Italian-American neighborhood gangs morphed into sophisticated criminal enterprises through their success in the illicit liquor trade. In 1931, mobster Lucky Luciano (1897-1962) masterminded the establishment of the Commission, which would serve as a central governing body for the more than 20 Italian-American crime groups, or families, then operating in the United States. After Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the American Mafia moved beyond bootlegging and entrenched itself in a range of illegal ventures, from drug trafficking to loan-sharking, while also infiltrating labor unions and legitimate businesses such as construction, waterfront commerce and the New York garment industry. By the mid-20th century, there were 24 known crime families operating in cities across the country, comprised of some 5,000 “made,” or inducted, members and thousands of associates. America’s capital of organized crime was New York City, which had five major Mafia families. Even though the illegal activities of these crime families were known to law-enforcement agencies, they were ineffectual at stopping the Mafia’s growth, in part because mobsters frequently paid off public officials and business leaders and bribed or intimidated witnesses and juries.
Declaring War on the Mafia, The 1950s & 1960s
In the early 1950s, Estes Kefauver (1903-1963), a U.S. senator from Tennessee, launched an investigation into organized crime and held televised public hearings that represented the first time any part of the federal government publicly recognized the existence of the American Mafia. However, citing a lack of specific evidence, the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies, along with Congress, failed to take any substantial action. Then, in 1957, police in the small upstate New York town of Apalachin raided a gathering of more than 60 mobsters from around the country. In the aftermath of the raid, the government could no longer ignore the Mafia’s existence or insist that Italian-American crime gangs operated only on a local level.

In the early 1960s, U.S. Attorney Robert Kennedy (1925-1968) stepped up government efforts to fight organized crime and corruption in labor unions. One of Kennedy’s top targets was Jimmy Hoffa (1913-1975), the head of the million-plus-member Teamsters union. Kennedy also pressured FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who had been slow to pursue the Mafia, to intensify his agency’s efforts against mobsters. The FBI, whose investigators up to that time had scant knowledge about the Mafia’s operations, began an electronic spying program that netted valuable information. Another important development came in 1963, when convicted New York mobster Joseph Valachi broke the Mafia’s sacred code of silence, or omerta, and became a government informant, revealing and confirming details about the Mafia’s structure and customs for the first time.
Taking Down the Mafia, The 1970s & Beyond
Starting in the later part of the 20th century, the government began winning its war against the Mafia. In 1970, Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which proved to be one of the most powerful tools used to take down mobsters, as it allowed the government to “attack criminal enterprises on a broad front, stripping them of their leadership and sources of both illicit and legitimate revenue in one massive prosecution,” according to a 1992 report in Congressional Quarterly. During the 1980s and 1990s, RICO laws were used to convict high-ranking mobsters, who in the past had been able to avoid prosecution. (Similar laws were effective in producing mass convictions in Italy during this time.) Some Mafiosi, faced with long prison sentences, opted to testify against fellow mobsters in exchange for a place in the witness-protection program. Additionally, Mafia membership in the U.S. declined as insular Italian-American neighborhoods, once a traditional recruiting ground for mobsters, underwent demographic shifts and became more assimilated into society.
By the early 21st century, the American Mafia was a shadow of its former self and the FBI had begun cutting resources devoted to investigating organized crime. While crime families in New York and Chicago, the longstanding centers of Mafia activity, had been battered but not driven out of business, many crime clans around the rest of the U.S. were in disarray or on the verge of extinction, according to New York Times journalist and organized crime researcher Selwyn Raab. In Italy, law-enforcement agencies continued to make progress against organized crime as well. However, the Mafia remains active there and in the United States, where it continues to be involved in some of its traditional activities, including loan-sharking and illegal gambling. At the same time, its hold on labor unions and industries such as construction has been weakened but not eliminated. Contributing to the Mafia’s ongoing survival may be the fact that following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, significant organized-crime resources were shifted to counter-terrorism work.

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