How was it that with all that was happening during Prohibition and afterwards , that these groups in these places seemed to be overlooked in all these Upstate towns like Schenectedy,Binghamton,Rome,Saratoga,etc. Some of them even had extensive mob histories going back to the 1900s and their stories were never told
Even after the Appalachian Raid and Valachi's terstimony, all the focus was on the 26 cities that Valachi named as part of the Cosa Nostra. With all the books written ,these places were almost never mentioned
It was as if all that mattered was what Valachi said,as if one soldier was expected to know everything there was to know about the mafia in America
Wouldn't it be common sense that if stuff was going on in these cities that looked like the mafia,acted like the mafia,talked and walked like the mafia, that these places were probably in some way connected to the mafia? Even if they were like outposts of the larger families like the Five Families,Chicago,etc. About the only city not one of the 26 name cities that was acknowledge as being under mob control was Las Vegas.
Well, I don't think they were 'overlooked' as you say, because in all these secondary cities and towns all across the nation local law enforcement did conduct many investigations, raids and arrests and prosecutions through the decades. They just didn't understand the full scope of who many of these guys were, aside from knowing they were bootleggers and racketeers.
I think i'ts more a case of LE not having the true scope and info from anyone they considered to be an 'insider' at the time other than Joe Valachi.
And lets face it, even though as a soldier his knowledge was limited, overall the info he provided was one million percent more than they had or ever imagined back in that era. So what he gave them was almost overwhelming to their resources. The did the best they could, but it took them many years to really get up to speed.
