Following the unification of Italy in 1861, residents of the Southern region of Italy had a newfound optimism, hoping the newly centralized government would install a regime that would advance those who lived in impoverishment upward through social and economic mobility. However, the new centralized government, or the “Risorgimento” quickly put that optimism to rest. In the already weakened Southern Italy, due in large to the xenophobic assertions by the heavily Northern represented government, the Risorgimento imposed heavy taxes on the people of Southern Italy, enlisted a great portion of young Sicilian men into the Italian Army, and enacted tariffs on neighboring countries, which in turn led to a trade embargo with the rest of Europe, gravely damaging the Southern agriculture-sector. Furthermore, birthrates were on the rise, while death rates were on the decline, 70% of Southern Italy was illiterate, and profitable land for agriculture became scare, due to soil erosion. Nature further decimated the Southern region, with consecutive volcanoes eruptions at Mount Etna and Mount Vesuvius, and the devastating 1908 earthquake, that ravaged the Southern region and killed an estimated 100,000 people in city of Messina.
By 1880, less than twenty years after the Risorgimento, any glimmer of hope the recently unified Italy symbolized for the desolate population of Southern Italy quickly squashed any faith the population had. In turn, Southern Italians flocked in vast numbers, hoping to find refuge in the West, and arriving on Ellis Island, waiting to be emerge as residents of the United State. Through 1880 to 1920, a rough estimate of 4 million Italians immigrants had relocated in the United States, establishing homes in downtrodden neighborhood in various States, including New York and Illinois. For the most part, Italian immigrants were constrained to manual labor for the first phase of their immigration. According to Digital History, by 1890, 99% of Chicago street workers and 90% of New York public works employees were of Italian descent, finding employment opportunity’s designated laying railroad tracks, constructing bridges, and digging tunnels.
As a reoccurring theme of immigration in the United States, most European immigrants were met with the same hostilities, resentment, xenophobia, and fear that the Mexican and Latin American immigrants of present day endure. Almost as if a modern pundit copied and pasted the rhetoric of the early 20th centuries, news reports and “scientific” studies cast the Southern Italians and eastern European immigrants as amoral, crime-ridden, sub-human, and dangerous to the American way of life. One sociologist, Edward Alsworth Ross, stated that “the Mediterranean peoples are morally below the races of Northern Europeans is as certain as any social fact”, continuing his racially-ignorant analysis in favor of Northern European elitism that “The Northerners seem to surpass the Southern European in innate ethical endowment.” In fact, the distinction between Southern Italians and other Mediterranean countries is a particularly fascinating exploration in to what “being white” really means in America, proving that it is less a benign gift, rather a socially constructed phenomena to separate those who are identified as white as a superior race than the ethnic “other.” In fact, southern Italians, Irish, Jews, and other descendants of Europe were not considered fully “white” for the first half of 20th century, only getting “white” credibility, at the end of World War 2, as a socially calculated tool to further oppress African American and Latinos. By enlisting Italians, Irish, and Jews into the exclusive “white” club and further alienating the once resented European groups from the other racial groups, who to this day, endure widespread forms of racial oppression, racial anxieties, and racial violence.
Amidst the wave of Italian immigration, pseudo-social sciences began to question the Italian people as a detriment to American society, attributing the rise of crime to the culture and genetic make-up of Southern Italians. Contrary to popular belief, the “Mafia” was not a criminal organization rooted in Italy’s history, with codes of honor passed down from generation to generation, rather the Mafia as we know it today can be traced back to the Risorgimento. Following the Risorgimento, control of Sicilian land was divided amongst the growing middle class, no longer possessed by the Church or monopolized by feudal lords. In turn, the abolition of feudalism marked a shift in land-ownership rights that had previously been unattainable to members of the middle class. As the demand for labor skyrocketed, landowners sought for outside help, enlisting men known as gabelloti “violent peasant entrepreneurs” to maintain order on the estate. Landowner continued hiring the gabelloti into the 20th century, adding more local men as underlings to the gabelloti, reassuring the muscle needed for the landowner to control his laborers without the threat of any uprising. The gabelloti and the other hired group of men became known as a cosche “family”, which would be later cited as the template for the modern Mafia organization.
The actual word "Mafia" had first been introduced into the American lexicon following the death of David Hennessey in 1890, a New Orleans police officer who was shot investigating Black Hand extortion and racketeering practices in the predominately Italian neighborhoods in New Orleans. The “Black Hand” was a form of extortion that was popularized by the immigrants from Southern Italy between 1890-1920, and, to some degree, the first form of organized crime in the United States. Notably, the “Black Hand” would send ominous letters to local immigrants, primarily those who became merchants or ran a small business, with a symbol of a dagger or black hand, leaving the receiver of the letter the option to pay the fine or pay the consequence. While David Hennessey was investigating the site of murder scene that had been the result of two rival Black Hand gangs, Hennessey was shot and killed by an unidentified assailant. Hennessey’s death sent a shockwave of anger, resentment, and xenophobia targeted at the Italian neighborhoods, which resulted in the indictment and arrest of fourteen Italian men. One day later, roughly six thousand men gathered around the courthouse and apprehend a few of the arrested men, including some Italian who had nothing to do with the trial, counting at eleven in total, whom they later beat, shot, and lynched to death in what is accounted as the largest lynching in American History. Shortly after, newspapers and national media sensationalized the event as not an act of senseless and unjust violence towards Italian immigrants, rather an act of self-protection from the rise Italian organized crime or, the “mafia,” leaving some pundits to ask if Italians were simply predisposed to a criminal nature through genetic link or cultural acceptance.
Entering the 1920’s, the U.S. government would ratify an amendment that, in effect, would serve as the catalyst for the rise of organized crime in America. In 1919, due in large part to growing anxieties of WASP American elites and highly-regard middle-class women, the United States ratified the Volstead Act, an act that would prohibit the future consumption and manufacturing of alcohol. At the conclusion of the Civil War, cities began to expand at rapid rates, spurring the construction of local saloons and taverns, that enticed residents to drink at great length, resulting in fist fights, adultery, illegal gambling, and pre-marital sex, all of which were chastised as amoral acts by Protestant communities. Maine was the first state to ban the drinking in 1851, but it was in the Volstead Act, titled after Minnesota Representative Andrew Volstead, that passed with a vote of 287 to 100 in the chamber of commerce on July 22, 1919, clearly defining the rules of the act that “no person shall manufacture, sell, barter, transport, export, deliver, furnish or possess any intoxicating liquor”, defining intoxicating liquor as any beverage containing over 0.5% alcohol content. Regarded as successful endeavor by WASP’s, Protestant leaders, and anti-crime lobbyists, the short-sighted response of prohibiting Alcohol would later prove a grave mistake, not decimating crime as supporters had hoped, rather unconsciously supporting the rise of organized crime in America. Similar to the modern day War on Drugs, the 18th Amendment epitomized the supply-and-demand ideology of American capitalism, showing that by simply making something illegal would not result in a lack of demand, instead opening a free-market for street entrepreneurs to profit off the demand of common folk. The Volstead Act, in turn, resulted in the escalation of violence for gangs hoping to establish a monopoly on the product, the business model that would ensure future financial success, and exploit the nativity of a law that did not address the issue of alcoholism as disease of the mind, rather as a product of alcohol that could be removed by simply making it illegal. What the U.S. government had done was not create the template for a future utopian society free of alcohol, but instead unknowingly provided the resources for the future of organized crime. In summary, prohibition spurred the revolution of modern organized crime, a shadow government of men who would stronghold the American public and government for decades to come.
By 1920, with prohibition officially ratified as the 18th amendment of the United States constitution, a new form of criminal activity emerged, providing low-tier gangs a product that would accelerate their personal fortunes. At first, the gangsters who had become used to the violence that was prompted by territorial disputes, refused to cooperate with other gangs, vying for territory and costumers with the ferocity that had become accustomed too. However, a change in philosophy was introduced by some of the most distinguished members of the criminal underworld. Distinguished names such as Johnny Torio, the leader of the Chicago outfit and mentor too Al Capone, Enoch “Nucky” Johnson, the head of the Atlantic City outfit and notably portrayed by Steve Bushemi in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, and Arnold Rothstein, the mastermind behind the notorious 1919 World Series scandal, where eight of the nine starting players for the White Sox took a dive in a moment of utter disgrace for baseball, cashed in on the lucrative windfall that followed the Volstead act. By 1925, roughly 100,000 illegal speakeasies had been fully operation across the nation, arrests for drunkenness and disorderly conduct rose 41%, and the total deaths from poisoned liquor was 4,154, compared to the 1,064 deaths in 1920. Some Historians argue that prohibition increased the level of drinking during the period of prohibition and the modern War on Drugs has simply mirrored prohibition as a quick-fix approach to crime, that has resulted in mass incarceration, destruction of communities, and intensifying criminal behavior.
Perhaps the most notable gangster to emerge in the prohibition era is Al “Scarface” Capone, a Brooklyn born son of Italian Immigrants. At the age of 10, Al Capone became with Johnny Torrio, a Brooklyn-based mobster who had dabbled in the illegal business of prostitution, gambling, and racketeering. Trying to stay on the straight and narrow path, Capone stayed in Brooklyn while Torrio moved to set up his operations in Chicago, a decade which Capone and Torrio would not reconnect until 1920, when Torrio approached Capone to join his emerging Chicago Outfit and to partake in a hot, new lucrative business opportunity: bootlegging. During his time in Chicago, Capone proved to be a reliable ally in the bootlegging business and following an attempt on his life in 1925, Torrio relinquished control of the Chicago Outfit to his protégé Capone, who would become one of the most dominant figures of the era. Capone amassed a fortune of $100 million annually during the years he ran the Chicago Outfit, and Capone made sure to hold an unrelenting grip on the bootlegging business, monopolizing the business endeavor through intimidation, ruthlessness, and violence, while also emerging as media starlit, frequenting many publicized events, portraying himself as a modern-day Robin Hood, and basking in the acclaim that came from his criminal empire. However, the romanticized portrayal of Capone was quickly altered, following the St. Valentines Day Massacre, when Capone tasked his highly regarded capo, “Machine Gun” Jack McGurn, to murder Capone’s long-standing rival, “Bugs” Moran. On February 14, 1929, McGurn gunned down seven of Moran’s associates in a grotesque display of violence on the North Side of Chicago, although he failed in killing the main target in Moran. Immediately following the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, the public turned on Capone for good, escalating the demand of his disposal, and landing Capone as the “Public Enemy Number One” on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list. In the end, Capone was arrested and indicted on tax evasion charges that would land him in prison for 11 years, ultimately concluding the terrorizing reign of one of the most prolific gangsters in American history.
While Capone maintains an image in the public’s imagination as the symbol of the idea of a gangster, it was Charles’s “Lucky” Luciano who was the architect of what we now know as the modern-conception of the Mafia and the New York-based “Five Families.” Recruited as a gunman for Joe “the Boss” Masseria at an early age, Luciano began to learn the ins-and-outs of the organized crime business, while also befriending young, up-and-coming Jewish gangsters, Meyers Lansky and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. Luciano later worked under the tutelage of Arnold Rothstein during the first half of prohibition, during which time Luciano handled the smuggling of Canadian liquor through the Great Lakes border, and acquiring a modest income, well within the millions. However, it was murder and death of his mentor Arnold Rothstein, a notorious gambler who failed to cover his losses, and the ensuing war between the top crime bosses of New York, that Luciano would concoct the idea for modern Mafia.
Although the heads of local crime outfits initially agreed to give peace a chance, the boom of the bootlegging business proved to irresistible, pitting the heads of the local’s gangs, once again, against one another. Violence ensued, causing mayhem and bloodshed to circumvent the streets of the United States biggest cities, not only resulting the deaths of countless criminals and innocent residents, but, as Luciano saw it, drawing much unnecessary media coverage, federal intervention, and territorial disputes. For Luciano, the philosophy of spreading the wealth among the main leaders was far more profitable and logical, rather than consolidating the power and becoming the “Capo de Capo”, or “Boss of Bosses’.” Therefore, shortly after the death of his mentor Rothstein, Luciano returned to serve under Joe Masseria in 1928, who at the time, was in the preliminary stage of escalating in-all-out war on his rival counterpart, Salvatore Maranzano. The ensuing battle for king of New York would be later known in Mafia folklore as the “Castellammarese War,” the name of which was drawn from the Sicilian coastal town, Castellammarese, where both Masseria and Maranzano had been born. Shortly after the declaration of war between the rival factions, violence escalated in the streets of New York. From 1929 to 1931, battle for territory and superiority became essential, and the total deaths of known underworld accomplices in 1930 was an estimated 114 murders, however that number is still highly debated if all those deaths were a result of the Castellammarese War. Luciano himself endured the violence firsthand, serving as a soldier for the Masseria army, Luciano was abducted by assailants of the Maranzano gang on February 17th, 1929, where Luciano was tortured, stabbed, and even had his throat slit. Somehow, Luciano survived, and the origin of his “Lucky” alias is rooted in his lucky survival.
By 1930, Luciano felt little to no allegiance to Masseria, growing increasingly frustrated with Masseria’s old-school values, and began focusing on his grand image of the ideal construct of the criminal underworld. In an act of betrayal, Luciano forged an alliance with Salvatore Maranzano, under the condition that as acting “Capo de Capo,” Maranzano would relinquish absolute power, instead delegating elected leaders to specific regions of New York. Maranzano accepted, at which point, Luciano began plotting the assassination on his current boss. On April 15th, 1931, “Lucky” Luciano arranged for an afternoon of lunch and cards with Masseria, as guise to conduct business and the continued warfare. Meeting at a diner local to Coney Island, Luciano excused himself to attend the restroom midway through the card game, setting the trap for Masseria, whom was presumably unaware of any foul play, thereby leaving him at his most vulnerable. As the legend goes, with Luciano in the restroom, a collective of assassins that included “Bugsy” Siegel, Albert Anastasia, and Vito Genovese barged through the opening door and sprayed Masseria with an numerous amount of rounds at their disposal, ultimately leading to Masseria’s death and the end of the Castellammarese war. The hit would become a significant moment in Mafia history, for it led Luciano one step closer to shaping his ideal criminal underworld, yet it also accounted as the recorded hit by Murder Incorporated: a lethal assortment of freelance hitmen, that included “Bugsy” Siegel and Albert Anastasia, who, at the behest of the Five Families, released a barrage of carnage for the incoming decade.
Maranzano’s title of “Capo de Capo” was short-lived, as Luciano, unimpressed by Maranzano’s inability to fulfil the promise he made by dispersing control to multiple crime bosses, called on four hitmen to take out Maranzano, thereby leaving Luciano as the head of all criminal activity in New York. However, Luciano finally saw the opportunity to put a stop to the bloodshed, and fulfil is goal as organizing the Mafia as an efficient and well-run business. With the help of Meyers Lansky, Luciano organized a conference with the four remaining, albeit less intimidating, New York gangs, as well as the heads of Atlantic City, Buffalo, and Chicago, which was represented by Al Capone, who had still not been sentenced. Luciano proposed a division amongst the five “families” into regional territories, electing the head of each “family” to be a part of a governing body called the “Commission,” where disputes would be addressed through communication amongst one another, rather than more bloodshed. Furthermore, the “Commission” would ensure that each family abide by a certain code of strict rules, agreed upon by the five representatives, including the most important code of honor: omerta, meaning a “code of silence.” In turn, the commission, under the leadership of Luciano, who was designated to a role similar to the chairman of the board, would cooperate in all illicit business activities, ranging from prostitution, bootlegging, gambling, and extortion. By 1933, the 18th amendment was removed from the U.S. constitution, but the damage had been done. The Mafia and the Five Families, the tightly-woven, shadow government that we have come to romanticize in popular culture, was born, and would continue to be a part of American history since its founding.
Like most of history, to understand the root cause of anything can be simplified through contextualizing the history and understanding the timeline of events that lead to a moment. In the case of the birth of the Mafia and Five Families, it is not some mythical Italian right-of-passage that is has come to represent, rather the Mafia was birthed by the influx of Southern Italian immigrants who faced racial prejudice and persecution, while at the same time, being exploited by extortion practices of “Black Hand” gangs, who preyed on downtrodden immigrant neighborhoods, knowing local law enforcement would not provide the protection needed. Going further, the Volstead act and prohibition only intensified criminal activity, for it gave petty criminals and impoverished immigrants a means of quick cash that was not accessible at the time. Again, similar to the War on Drugs now, government officials were so focused on destroying the supply, yet failed to recognize the need to decimate the demand. In turn, the Mafia and Five Families were able to consolidate power in the criminal underworld, attaining large sums of money, and organizing amongst themselves to become the largest criminal empire in American history. Overall, some may argue that the organization of the Mafia would be inevitable, yet it stands to reason, that early 20th century America had their own hand in progressing the formation of the American Mafia.charle
Comments