maybe the iceman confesses to crimes he never did so that if they ever catch the real culprits theyl have reasonable doubt

It's been said that a uncultured man will kill his friends before his enemies and that's what mobsters do. The yuppie lawyers rake in the cash when these guys get arrested, even if they plead out the lawyers get paid well. Meanwhile the mob guys, while out on bail, have to keep earning to pay the lawyers/mob associates who get alot of their cash while assuming none of the risk. Than you get a prosecutor like Guiliani who makes a career of prosecuting you and has a nice run in politics to boot. The FBI guys? They run up fat expense accounts sitting at various locations conducting "surveillance" on the taxpayers dime. So at the end of the day the lawyers are putting their kids through law school, creating the next generation of high-class shysters, the FBI guys have nice nest eggs from all the promotions and work they've gotten chasing the mob guys around and the mob guy is sitting in prison with his family on the outside. A very bad life. To speak nothing of the stress of being prosecuted, prison, possibility of unexpected death and being ordered to kill.

This is a very informative post and it helps newbie's like myself. Thanks again.........

MOB MYTH: Women and Family are sacrosanct (they really mean "my family asshole! Not yours!")

I dont really want to get into cases of cavorting mobsters and such, but there's one example that I want to reference in particular.

Santo Trafficante Jr. was/is considered mob royalty by some, perhaps one of the most succesful bosses ever; be that as it may, the guy was a snake. As ruthless as he was in Tampa (as exemplified by his families part in the so called Bolita Wars) as crafty as he was in Havana (where he made millions over the years) to his diplomacy towards other borgata's, its all in the business aint it?

Well hows this for old school mob values. Now Frank Ragano isn't a mobster, and some of his claims are a little on the dubious side. One thing that rings true for me though is his account of Trafficante's eventual proposition towards his wife of many years.

Ragano, the young Sicilian lawyer, had been taken under Trafficante's wing many years ago, as "house counsel" in a way to Trafficante. Trafficante had watched him court and later marry his partner (the same woman that was supposedly introduced to Tommy Lucchese, who apparantly insisted on buying her a fur coat, after she and Ragano accompanied Trafficante to a meeting with the NY boss).

Anyway, after decades of service, there was a falling out, precipitated in part, according to Ragano, by Trafficante's entreaty to his (Ragano's) wife to leave her husband, take their child and start a new life with him as Daddy. She is said to have politely declined.

Fucked up right? Dubious as some of Ragano's claim can be, and as much as he was motivated to "embiggen" (thanks you The Simpsons) Trafficante's spirit, this sounds a little too personal. There was some further nastiness when Ragano refused to represent Trafficante in some of his latter-year legal troubles, which led to threats against Ragano's son.

Now Trafficante was Old School. And he had no compunction over fucking over and later threatening to kill the first born son of a man that had for decades considered him padrino and paisan. Thats the mafia for you eh?

Another fine example of what you say...

Vito Genovese and Anna Vernotico!

How about its sister rule, no harming women?

When Gus Greenbaum refused to run the Riviera Hotel for Tony Accardo, his innocent sister was murdered, and when he later began skimming and refused town, his throat was slit, his innocent wife as well. And this was after showgirl Estelle Carey was burned alive as a message to her informant boyfriend. When Jimmy Burke associate Angelo Sepe had finally made it through all the violence following the Lufthansa Heist, he decided to rob a mob connected dealer. He was shot with a gun with a silencer. His sleeping girlfriend who had obviously witnessed and heard nothing was killed as well. Worst of all, when Roy DeMeo murdered a female witness and was called on the carpet about it, he told Paul Castellano, 'she might have talked'. The old school Castellano just shrugged. And let's not forget the rapists in high positions, like Christie Tick and Joe Adonis. Forget the honor in the movies, the mob is no more moral than the street gangs in LA.

Agreed.

Generally I agree also. Another example would be Janice Drake, who had the misfortune of being in the company of Lil Augie Pisano when he was killed. A recent author (Allan R. May) debunked the Adonis rape story though. The story was traced to an early mob author who made it up, and later authors simply repeated it.

The Drake murder was Tony Mirra's handiwork wasnt it?

Supposedly he confessed his involvement to one of his lady friends. I find it hard to believe he would confess a heinous crime to a civilian. I've read about a couple of other possible theories.

Smart kid .

MOB MYTH: Its all one big criminal conspiracy.

REALITY: Even though back in the day alot more guys knew alot more other guys (seeing as it was well before assimiliation, immigrants were still connected to the old country, and through ties sanguinary and of town life knew the history, people and rep's of those old-world connect's very well) it was still 90% opportunistic.

But even then, even with the famous Commission in full effect, ruling on disputes across the nation...it was for the most part just random gangsters from around the country that knew each other through friends of friends. Its not like it was all figured out in the Old Country that "so and so from Palermo, yousa guys gonna do dis and so and so from Corleone, yousa gonna do dat, and youse Calabrese? Yousa gonna blow up, and youse Napolitan? Yousa gonna kill each udder"

Modern day: Just because NY and Chicago are still viable does not mean that every two bit connected bookmaker around the country is kowtowing and kicking up to them in some way..

In fact, historically rank and file NY wiseguys themselves have been unaware of such seemingly crucial facts such as which exact crime family they actually "operated" under as well as who exactly was the actual boss, or which "rival" guys were actually made etc.

Of course, a guy knows who he's kickin' up to and who his friends are; but a made guy is not supposed to introduce himself as a friend; there's instances of guys who knew the other guy was connected, but to follow the rules was not allowed to introduce himself. He had to look for another guy that knew them both. And dont think the average wiseguy gave a f**k about whether or not his crew was known as part of the "Genovese" of "Lucchese" of whatever.

Taking it further, people assume that just because this guy and that guy are both Sicilan/Calabrian/Napolitan/otherwise Italian or LCN that they are automatically on the same page, are working together in some devious master plan and/or had some seen some random murder, indictment or deportation charge in advance enough to set up some far reaching contingency.

Its bullshit. Their criminals. Thats what they have in common.

Not sure if this has been discussed yet, but I've been away from the boards for a long time.

From what I've gathered in "Joey the Hitman" (reliability disputed), a lot of the myths that came from the Godfather and Goodfellas are still in place -- such as taking care of the family of a wiseguy in the pokie. I mean, those myths gotta come from somewhere and we can't base the entire actions of the Mafia on some anecdotal evidence about one or two high-ranking people.

Hey All... I'm a new to the forum and have to say that I look forward to future discourse. You guys are very knowledgable and I'm anxious to learn more.

Welcome aboard Jimmy!

I believe it was also used sparingly in the 1970s, but it's uses came into their own from about 1981.

RICO has been used against white collar crime as well, which has caused a lot of controversy.

I've no idea where these error-ridden statements came from but they need to read my book:

Luciano also recognized that help should be welcomed from any useful sources, including non-Sicilians and even non-Italians. That’s why he nominated Al Capone as chairman of the Commission, and included Jews like Meyer Lansky, Lepke Bucholter, Dutch Shultz and Bugsy Siegel in Commission meetings.

Hey UK, yeah I never heard that before...Whomever said/wrote that must be a little whacked in the noggin'...

Does anyone know the role that the DeCalvacante family played in the casinos once NJ authroized gambling? TV specials indicate that the Atlantic City casinos were the playground of the NY and Philly families.

Woops wrong thread.

Respect!

Whats your book called?

It´s David Critchley´s "The Origin of Organized Crime".
The book is extremly interesting. Very well researched.
With all the researching, it took the author close to 10 years to write it.

Here´s another myth that has been circulating the internet for many years. The man depicted here in the attachment is NOT Salvatore Maranzano. It´s actually Salvatore Messina who was a gangster located in London, England.
There are pictures of the slain Maranzano´s body, but none of them shows his face. Nobody has ever managed to find a picture of Maranzano´s face which is quite fascinating but frustrating at the same time.

What was this guy doing in London England?!

Wow that's interesting!

Harry doesn't the Bonnano book have pictures of Maranzano in it? Joe Bonnano spoke so highly of him, seems to me he should have had some private pictures of the man.

Would be interesting to see his face, the man is an important part of Mob History.

Indeed.
He is so often mentioned, not only in articles found on the net but also in many, many mob books published throughout the years.
So it is surprising that there is no photo available that shows his face properly.
He was never arrested, so no mugshots of him exists. I know that many researchers have contacted Maranzano´s today living relatives but to no avail. Either these relatives do not possess any pictures of him or they are not willing to provide them with any pictures. Which is understandable.
However, there are, to my knowledge, three snapshots of his dead body lying on the floor of his Park Avenue office. These are genuine, since they accord to a sketch made by the New
York county coroner’s office at the time of his assassination in 1931.
The thrid one appears in the Bonanno book, but is not the best of quality and it shows only his torso if I´m not mistaken.

Thanks for the pictures Hairy.

I was familiar with the first one, but never saw the second one.

I have been meaning to get the Joe Bonnano book, but something always stopped me. As is always the case with autobiography's, they are self serving. Whether its written by a president or a mafia don, its always the same case.

Maranzano is a fascinating character. I would like to read an biography of the man, but i don't think one exists? Probably too little information available.