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Mafia in the United States
The first published account of what became the Mafia in the United States dates to the spring of 1869. The New Orleans Times reported that the city's Second District had become overrun by " Sicilian murderers, who have formed a general co-partnership or stock company for the plunder and disturbance of the city." -
Giuseppe Morello arrested in 1881
Giuseppe Morello was the first known Mafia member to immigrate to the United States.He and six other Sicilians fled to New York after murdering eleven wealthy landowners, the chancellor and a vice chancellor of a Sicilian province.He was arrested in New Orleans in 1881 and extradited to Italy. -
The first mafia murder
The city police superintendent David Hennessy is killed: this marks the first murder by the mafia. -
New Orleans
New Orleans was also the site of the first possible Mafia incident in the United States that received both national and international attention. On October 15, 1890, New Orleans Police Superintendent David Hennessy was murdered execution-style. It is still unclear whether Italian immigrants actually killed him.Hundreds of Sicilians were arrested, and 19 were eventually indicted for the murder. -
Lynching of New Orleans
On March 14, 1891, the outraged citizens of New Orleans organized a lynch mob after the acquittal, and proceeded to kill eleven of the nineteen defendants. Two were hanged, nine were shot, and the remaining eight escaped -
Ambush of Joe Petrosino
Joe Petrosino had gone to Italy on a secret mission that was supposed to inflict a serious blow to the "Black Hand".
For a leak, the details were posted in the "New York Herald". Petrosino left anyway, but at 8.45 pm on Friday 12 March 1909, four gunshots caused panic at the tram stop in Piazza Marina in Palermo. The irreducible enemy of the Italian-American Mafia was dead.
Boss Cascio Ferro was probably responsible, who has been closely watched by Petrosino since he was in New York. -
Gambino
The Gambino family was founded by Salvatore Totò D'Aquila, who will be important throughout history. In addition to Frank Calì will have as leaders Domenico Cefalù and Joseph Corozzo, but also Joseph Lanni. -
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Mafia–Camorra War
The Mafia–Camorra War was a gang war in New York City. On one side was the originally Sicilian Morello crime family of Manhattan; on the other side were gangs originally from Naples and the surrounding Campania region, based in Navy Street in Brooklyn and Coney Island referred to as the Camorra. The fight over the control of the New York rackets started after the killing of Giosue Gallucci, the undisputed King of Little Italy, and his son on May 17, 1915. -
Al Capone in the service of Johnny Torrio
Al Capone was sent to Chicago to put himself in the service of Johnny Torrio, who had taken control of that city's "Crime Syndicate" after having gangster Giacomo "Big Jim" Colosimo murdered; Capone's transfer took place with the approval of Frankie Yale and his partner, the Sicilian mafioso Giuseppe "Joe" Masseria, a leading exponent of the «Black Hand». -
Begin of prohibition
The term prohibition refers to the period in which in the United States of America, through the XVIII amendment and the Volstead Act, the ban on the manufacture, sale, import and transport of alcohol was sanctioned; prohibition in this sense is also known as "The Noble Experiment". -
Lucchese
The Lucchese family was founded in 1922 by Tommy Reina. Today it extends between the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn and has among its illegal activities those of "street business": robberies, usury and fencing. -
Capone Controls liquor operations
By this date, Al Capone had taken control of Chicago's entire illegal liquor operations, in the midst of the prohibiton era, when the govenment put a total ban on the manufacturing, selling and transportation of alcohol. -
Colombo
The Colombo family is the last of the most important families to be founded. It was created by Joe Profaci in 1928 and has always been active, particularly in Brooklyn. -
Saint Valentine's Day Massacre
The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang that occurred on Saint Valentine's Day 1929.They were lined up against a wall and shot by four unknown assailants, two dressed as police officers. The incident resulted from the struggle to control organized crime in the city during Prohibition between the Irish North Siders, headed by George "Bugs" Moran, and their Italian Chicago outfit rivals led by Al Capone. -
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Castellammarese War
Giuseppe Masseria unleashed the so-called "Castellammarese War" when he tried to gain control of organized crime throughout the country. The war ended when Salvatore Maranzano conspired with Masseria’s best soldier, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, to have Masseria killed. -
Capone Jailed
Following the St. Valentine's day massicre, Al Capone was indicted and jailed for tax avasion, putting an end to his powerful control over the mafia at the time. -
The Commission made
Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, established 'the commission, a place for the representatives from the main five families of the mafia in new york and other families across the US, to meet and they would settle disputes between each other and peacefully talked out their issues. -
Prohibition seized
When alcohol ceased to be prohibited in 1933, the Mafia diversified its money making emthods into such activities as: illegal gambling operations, loan sharking, extortion, protection rackets, drug trafficking, fencing, and labor racketeering through control of labor unions. -
Attempt to combat organised crime in New York
In June 1935, New York Governor Herbert H. Lehman appointed U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Dewey as a special prosecutor to combat organised crime in New York City. It was one of the first attempts to control the Luciano family. (Lucky Luciano) -
Luciano in prison
Luciano was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison for operating a prostitution ring. Ten years later, he was released from prison and deported to Italy, never to return. There, he became a liaison between the Sicilian Mafia and La Cosa Nostra. When he was convicted, Frank Costello became acting boss because underboss Vito Genovese had fled to Italy to avoid a murder charge. Genovese's return to the states was cleared when a key witness against him was poisoned and the charges were dropped. -
Costello
Costello led the family for approximately 20 years until May of 1957, when Genovese took control by sending soldier Vincent “the Chin” Gigante to murder him. Costello survived the attack but relinquished control of the family to Genovese, who named it after himself. Attempted murder charges against Gigante were dismissed when Costello refused to identify him as the shooter. -
Declaration of Mafia by Senate
In 1951, the U.S senate declared that a "sinister criminal organization" known as the Mafia operated in the nation. The most official recognisation nationally. -
New York Police arrest major bosses
The New York Police uncovered a meeting of major Boss and mafia family figures from around the country in the small upstate New York town. Many of the attendees were arrested. The event changed the way law enforcement battles organized crime. -
Genovese in prison
In 1959, it was Genovese’s turn to go to prison following a conviction of conspiracy to violate narcotics laws. He received a 15-year sentence but continued to run the family through his underlings from his prison cell in Atlanta, Georgia. -
Valachi- cooperation with U.S government
Valachi survived three attempts on his life behind bars. Still in prison in 1962, he killed a man he thought Genovese had sent to kill him. He was sentenced to life for the murder.The sentencing was a turning point for Valachi, who decided to cooperate with the U.S. government. Recruited by FBI agents, he appeared before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on September 27, 1963 and testified that he was a member of a secret criminal society in the U.S. known as Cosa Nostra. -
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Genovese family
Throughout the 1980s, the Genovese family hierarchy went through several changes. Tieri, recognized on the street as the Genovese family boss in the late 1970s, was convicted for operating a criminal organization through a pattern of racketeering that included murder and extortion.
Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno then fronted as boss until 1985, when he and the bosses of the other four New York families were convicted for operating a criminal enterprise—the LCN Commission. -
RICO act enacted
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act which is a law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. In the 1970s, it was used to prosecute many members of the mafia in new york and chicago. -
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Pizza Connection Trial
The trial began on September 30, and still stands as the longest criminal trial in america's history. It was revealed that a number of the defendents involved used independantly owned pizzerias to operate drug operations, shipping heroin and cocaine around america, then collecting the money and sending it to main organisations in Italy.
March 2, 1987, the pizza connection trial concludes, after all but 1 of 22 defendents of the mafia are charged and convicted using the RICO act. -
Revolt against Genovese family
In 1986, a second member turned against the Genovese family when Vincent “Fish” Cafaro, a soldier and right-hand-man to Anthony Salerno, decided to cooperate with the FBI and testify. According to Cafaro’s sworn statement, Gigante ran the family from behind the scenes while pretending to be mentally ill. Cafaro said this behavior helped further insulate Gigante from authorities while he ran the Genovese family’s criminal activities. -
Sammy Gravano Cooperation with Government
Sammy Gravano agrees to cooperate with the FBI and turn state's evidence in 1991, he helped the FBI convict top Mafia leaders in New York. -
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FBI investigations and arrest
After an FBI investigation, Gigante was convicted of racketeering and murder conspiracy in December 1997 and sentenced to 12 years. Another FBI investigation led to his indictment on January 17, 2002, accusing him of continuing to run the Genovese family from prison. He pled guilty to obstruction of justice in 2003. Gigante died in prison in December 2005.
The Genovese crime family was once considered the most powerful organized crime family in the nation.
