“You live by the gun and the knife and you die by the gun and the knife.” — Mob informant Joe Valachi to the McClellan Committee, 1963
The Mafia, or Cosa Nostra, first appeared in North America in the late 19th century, when gang members arriving from Italy, especially Sicily, settled in New York, Chicago and other urban centres, bringing their criminal ways with them. Loansharking, extortion, kidnapping, racketeering—they did it all and their reach was growing. It wasn’t long before these gangs were clashing with each other and with existing Jewish and Irish mobs as the newcomers gained a firm foothold in the New World.
The 1920s brought Prohibition and an unexpected windfall for the mobs. There was money—lots of it—to be made from the illegal transportation and sale of liquor in the United States. America was dry and the mobs were eager to provide. Crime was bigger business than ever before and even the authorities were prepared to turn a blind eye in order to get their take. Criminals such as Jack “Legs” Diamond and Al Capone seemed to call the shots, but it was Lucky Luciano who became the pre-eminent mob boss and who created the Commission, the ruling body that to this day oversees all mob activity and disputes, thereby reducing in-fighting. It was also Luciano who divided the New York Mafia into five families and was shrewd enough to work with the Jewish and Irish mobs, making crime more efficient and truly organized.
It took a while for law enforcement officials to move effectively against the Mafia, some apparently not even realizing—or not admitting publicly—that the organization existed. It wasn’t until 1957, when police broke in on a high-level mob meeting taking place in Apalachin, New York, that the existence of the Mafia was unquestionably verified, with further confirmation provided by mobster Joe Valachi in 1963.
Following the creation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act in 1970, strong initiatives have been put in place to curb the power of the Mafia. Despite this, it remains a powerful force today, controlling organized crime operations in New York, Chicago and Montreal in particular. But the success of the Mafia would not have been possible without the ruthless methods that the crime bosses employed. Albert “Mad Hatter” Anastasia, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, “Big Paul” Castellano—the list of Mafia victims seems endless. Mafia Hits lists the most important executions—the rival bosses, the informers, the feuds, even some of the hit-men implicated in the assassination of President Kennedy. They’re top of the lists of the “made men”, the associates and freelancers who paid the ultimate price.