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121-616: Joseph Anthony Doto (born Giuseppe Antonio Doto , Italian: [dʒuˈzɛppe anˈtɔːnjo ˈdɔːto] ; November 22, 1902 – November 26, 1971), known as Joe Adonis , was an Italian-American mobster who was an important participant in the formation of the modern Cosa Nostra crime families in New York City and the National Crime Syndicate . Doto became a powerful caporegime in the Luciano crime family . Adonis

242-909: A heart attack . He was taken to a regional hospital in Ancona, where he died several days later on November 26, 1971. The U.S. government allowed Adonis's family to bring his body back to the United States for burial. Adonis' funeral Mass was held at the Church of the Epiphany in Cliffside Park, New Jersey , attended only by his immediate family. He is buried in Madonna Cemetery in Fort Lee, New Jersey under his family name of Joseph Antonio Doto. Cosa Nostra The basic group

363-488: A "sect of thieves" that operated throughout Sicily. This "sect" was mostly rural, composed of cattle thieves, smugglers, wealthy farmers, and their guards. The sect made "affiliates every day of the brightest young people coming from the rural class, of the guardians of the fields in the Palermitan countryside, and of the large number of smugglers; a sect which gives and receives protection to and from certain men who make

484-674: A 1934 murder. Costello now became acting boss of the Luciano crime family. In May 1939, Anastasia allegedly ordered the murder of Morris Diamond, a Teamsters Union official in Brooklyn who had opposed Buchalter's attempts to maintain control of the Garment District in Manhattan . In the summer of 1939, he allegedly organized the murder of Peter Panto , an International Longshoremen's Association activist who had been leading

605-508: A century later, Diego Gambetta concurred with Franchetti's analysis, arguing that the Mafia exists because the government does not provide adequate protection to merchants from property crime, fraud, and breaches of contract. Gambetta wrote that Sicily (in the early 1990s) had "no clear property rights legislation or administrative or financial codes of practice", and that its court system was "appalling" in its inefficiency. Gambetta recommended that

726-560: A certain line of conduct such as maintaining one's pride or even bullying in a given situation. On the other hand, the same word in Sicily can also indicate, not a special organization, but the combination of many small organizations, that pursue various goals, in the course of which its members almost always do things that are basically illegal and sometimes even criminal. Like Pitrè, some scholars viewed mafiosi as individuals behaving according to specific subcultural codes, but did not consider

847-457: A class of violent criminals ready and waiting for a name to define them, and, given their special character and importance in Sicilian society, they had the right to a different name from that defining vulgar criminals in other countries. Franchetti argued that the Mafia would never disappear unless the very structure of the island's social institutions were to undergo a fundamental change. Over

968-507: A clear violation of Commission rules that infuriated many high-level mobsters. According to Valachi, Anastasia had been losing large amounts of money betting on horse races , making him even more surly and unpredictable. Over the next few years, Genovese secretly won the support of Anastasia caporegime Carlo Gambino, offering him the leadership of Anastasia's family in return for his cooperation. On May 23, 1955, Anastasia pleaded guilty to tax evasion for underreporting his income during

1089-486: A fragile production system that made them quite vulnerable to sabotage. Likewise, cattle are very easy to steal. The Mafia was often more effective than the police at recovering stolen cattle; in the 1920s, it was noted that the Mafia's success rate at recovering stolen cattle was 95%, whereas the police managed only 10%. In 1864, Niccolò Turrisi Colonna , leader of the Palermo National Guard, wrote of

1210-554: A gunman shot Schuster to death on a street in Borough Park, Brooklyn . In 1963, government witness Joseph Valachi accused Anastasia of ordering the murder, but many people in law enforcement were skeptical of it. No one was ever arrested in the Schuster murder. On December 9, 1952, the federal government filed suit to denaturalize Anastasia and deport him because he lied on his citizenship application. To take control of

1331-466: A higher profit. Two days after the kidnappings, Adonis released Juffe and Wapinsky after receiving a $ 5,000 ransom payment. A month later, Wapinsky died of internal injuries from being assaulted. Adonis placed many politicians and high-ranking police officers on his payroll. Adonis used his political influence to assist members of the Luciano crime family , such as Luciano and Genovese, and mob associates such as Meyer Lansky and Louis "Lepke" Buchalter ,

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1452-442: A juridical ordering that is parallel to that of the state – a kind of anti-state. The Mafia is all of these but none of these exclusively. Diego Gambetta characterizes mafiosi as "guarantors of trust". He says that Sicilian society has a general lack of trust among its people. This is true for other parts of southern Italy, which never experienced the same post-war economic growth that northern and central Italy enjoyed due in part to

1573-444: A lack of cooperation and healthy competition among the locals. The Mafia may provide a sense of security to those who pay it for protection, but the Mafia actually increases the general amount of distrust in Sicilian society. Those who are under mafia protection have an incentive to cheat those who are not under protection. The Mafia fosters crime by making it safer for criminals to engage in illegal dealings with each other (criminals are

1694-412: A large share of public and church land to private citizens. The result was a huge increase in the number of landowners – from 2,000 in 1812 to 20,000 by 1861. With this increase in property owners and commerce came more disputes that needed settling, contracts that needed enforcing, transactions that needed oversight, and properties that needed protecting. The barons released their private armies to let

1815-416: A legal technicality, Anastasia won a retrial in 1922; four of the original prosecution witnesses had since disappeared, and Anastasia was released from custody. During that time, he legally changed his surname from "Anastasio" to "Anastasia". On June 6, 1923, Anastasia was convicted of illegal possession of a firearm and sentenced to two years in prison. In 1928, he was charged with a murder in Brooklyn, but

1936-402: A living on traffic and internal commerce. It is a sect with little or no fear of public bodies, because its members believe that they can easily elude this." It had special signals for members to recognize each other, offered protection services, scorned the law, and had a code of loyalty and non-interaction with the police known as umirtà ("code of silence"). Colonna warned in his report that

2057-521: A loyalty to Luciano that lasted for decades. At the beginning of Prohibition , Luciano, Adonis, Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel started a bootlegging operation in Brooklyn. This operation soon began supplying large amounts of alcohol to the show business community along Broadway in Manhattan. Doto soon assumed the role of a gentleman bootlegger, socializing with the theater elite. In the early 1920s, Doto started calling himself "Joe Adonis" ( Adonis

2178-545: A luxurious house in Fort Lee, New Jersey . Adonis set up a casino in Lodi, New Jersey , and provided limousine service there from New York City. During the same period, Adonis became partners with Meyer Lansky in an illegal casino in Hallandale Beach, Florida . On February 10, 1946, after being escorted from prison to a ship in Brooklyn harbor, Luciano was deported to Italy. In December 1946, Adonis and Luciano met at

2299-645: A made member of the Genovese family and operated criminal rackets in Bergen county, New Jersey. In the 1920s, Adonis became an enforcer for Frankie Yale , the boss of some rackets in Brooklyn . While working for Yale, Adonis briefly met future Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone , who was also working for Yale. Meanwhile, Luciano became an enforcer for Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria . Masseria soon became embroiled in

2420-574: A mafioso rather than employing full-time guards. A mafioso in these regions could protect multiple small estates at once, which gave him great independence and leverage to charge high prices. The landowners in this region were also frequently absent and could not watch over their properties should the protector withdraw, further increasing his bargaining power. The early Mafia was deeply involved with citrus growers and cattle ranchers, as these industries were particularly vulnerable to thieves and vandals and thus badly needed protection. Citrus plantations had

2541-820: A mafioso." The Sicilian Mafia has used other names to describe itself throughout its history, such as "The Honored Society". Mafiosi are known among themselves as "men of honor" or "men of respect". Cosa Nostra should not be confused with other mafia-type organizations in Southern Italy, such as the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria , the Camorra in Campania , or the Sacra Corona Unita and Società foggiana in Apulia . In 1876, Leopoldo Franchetti described

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2662-506: A meeting at the Nuova Villa Tammaro restaurant on Coney Island , where he was murdered. While they played cards, Luciano allegedly excused himself to the bathroom. Anastasia and other gunmen, reportedly Adonis, Genovese, and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel , then shot Masseria to death. Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova drove the getaway car; legend has it that he was too shaken up to drive away and Siegel had to shove him out of

2783-500: A mirror and asked him, "Who do you think you are, Rudolph Valentino ?" Adonis replied, "For looks, that guy's a bum!". Adonis was a cousin of Luciano crime family capo Alan Bono, who supervised Adonis's operations in Greenwich Village, Manhattan . Adonis married Jean Montemorano, and he had four children; Joseph Michael Doto, Jr., Maria Dolores Olmo, Ann Marie Arietta, and Elizabeth Doto. His son Joseph Doto, Jr. , became

2904-617: A mobster. In late May 1951, Adonis and several associates pleaded no contest to charges of operating three gambling rooms in Lodi, New Jersey , and Fort Lee, New Jersey . On May 28, 1951, Adonis was sentenced in Hackensack, New Jersey , to two to three years in state prison. On August 6, 1953, at a hearing in Adonis's prison, the US Department of Justice ordered Adonis's deportation to Italy. The government claimed that Adonis

3025-509: A movement for democratic reforms in the union's local chapters, and refused to be intimidated by ILA officials. On July 14, 1939, Panto disappeared; his body was later recovered on a farm in New Jersey . In 1941, Abe Reles, a gang leader from Brownsville, Brooklyn who had been supplying Anastasia and Murder, Inc. with hitmen for the previous decade, was arrested by law enforcement, effectively ending Murder, Inc. Reles decided to testify for

3146-480: A restaurant that he owned in Brooklyn. By 1932, Adonis was also a major criminal power in Brooklyn. Despite his wealth, Adonis still participated in jewelry robberies, a throwback to his early criminal career on the streets. In 1932, Adonis allegedly participated in the kidnapping and brutal beating in Brooklyn of Isidore Juffe and Issac Wapinsky. In 1931, Adonis had lent the two men money for investment and kidnapped them in 1932 after deciding that he should be receiving

3267-516: A reward for his military service, he received U.S. citizenship. The following year, Anastasia was honorably discharged and moved his family to a ranch house on Bluff Road in Fort Lee, New Jersey . In 1945, U.S. military authorities in Sicily returned Genovese to the U.S. to be tried for the murder of Ferdinand Boccia in 1934. However, after the death of the main prosecution witness, all charges were dropped against Genovese. In 1946, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey commuted Luciano's sentence, and

3388-447: A series of reports between 1898 and 1900, Ermanno Sangiorgi, the police chief of Palermo, identified 670 mafiosi belonging to eight Mafia clans, which went through alternating phases of cooperation and conflict. The report mentioned initiation rituals and codes of conduct, as well as criminal activities that included counterfeiting, kidnappings for ransom, murder, robbery, and witness intimidation. The Mafia also maintained funds to support

3509-461: A short reign as family boss. In 1957, after the disastrous Apalachin Meeting, Luciano, Costello, and Gambino conspired to entrap Genovese with a narcotics conviction, bribing a drug dealer to testify he had personally worked with Genovese. On July 7, 1958, Genovese was indicted on narcotics trafficking charges. On April 17, 1959, he was sentenced to 15 years in state prison. Anastasia lived in

3630-567: A sister, Maria. In 1919, Anastasia, with his brothers Joseph, Anthony, and Gerardo, illegally entered the United States after they deserted a freighter they were working aboard in New York City . They soon started working as longshoremen on the Brooklyn waterfront . On March 17, 1921, Anastasia was convicted of murdering longshoreman George Turino as the result of a quarrel. He was sentenced to death and sent to Sing Sing State Prison in Ossining , New York , to await execution. Due to

3751-421: A small fraction of the Sicilian population could vote, so a single mafia boss could control a sizable chunk of the electorate and thus wield considerable political leverage. Mafiosi used their allies in government to avoid prosecution as well as persecute less well-connected rivals. Given the highly fragmented and shaky Italian political system, cliques of Mafia-friendly politicians exerted a strong influence. In

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3872-520: A small town near the Adriatic Sea . Adonis was one of 115 suspected mobsters relocated to Serra de' Conti after the assassination in May of Pietro Scaglione , the public prosecutor of Palermo, Sicily . In late November 1971, Italian police forces transported Adonis to a small hillside shack near Ancona, Italy , for interrogation. During the lengthy questioning and some abusive treatment, Adonis suffered

3993-414: A smaller number of large estates so that there were fewer landowners, and their large estates often required its guardians to patrol it full-time. The owners of such estates needed to hire full-time guardians. By contrast, in the west, the estates tended to be smaller and thus did not require the total, round-the-clock attention of a guardian. It was cheaper for these estates to contract their protection to

4114-422: A successful campaign would strengthen him as the new leader, legitimizing and empowering his rule. He believed that such suppression would be a great propaganda coup for fascism , and it would also provide an excuse to suppress his political opponents on the island since many Sicilian politicians had Mafia links. As prime minister, Mussolini visited Sicily in May 1924 and passed through Piana dei Greci , where he

4235-456: A walk outside, leaving him unprotected. As Anastasia relaxed in the barber's chair, two men with scarves covering their faces rushed in, shoved the barber out of the way, and fired at Anastasia. After the first volley of bullets, Anastasia reportedly lunged at his killers. However, the stunned Anastasia had actually attacked the gunmen's reflections in the wall mirror of the barber shop. The gunmen continued firing until Anastasia finally fell dead on

4356-500: A war. Albert Anastasia Umberto " Albert " Anastasia ( / ˌ æ n ə ˈ s t eɪ ʒ ə / , Italian: [umˈbɛrto anastaˈziːa] ; né Anastasio [anaˈstaːzjo] ; September 26, 1902 – October 25, 1957) was an Italian-American mobster , hitman and crime boss . One of the founders of the modern American Mafia , and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder, Inc. organization, he eventually rose to

4477-601: Is a good front for illegitimate operations. The First Mafia War was the first high-profile conflict between Mafia clans in post-war Italy (the Sicilian Mafia has a long history of violent rivalries). In 1962, mafia boss Cesare Manzella organized a drug shipment to the United States with the help of two Sicilian clans, the Grecos and the La Barberas. Manzella entrusted another boss, Calcedonio Di Pisa , to handle

4598-534: Is estimated that Murder Inc. committed thousands of murders, many of which were never solved. For his leadership in Murder, Inc., Anastasia was nicknamed the " Mad Hatter " and the "Lord High Executioner". In 1935 the Commission , the governing body established by Luciano following Maranzano's murder in 1931, ordered Dutch Schultz to drop his plans to murder Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey out of fear for

4719-401: Is hard to trace because mafiosi are very secretive and do not keep historical records of their own. They have been known to spread deliberate lies about their past and sometimes come to believe in their own myths. The Mafia's genesis began in the 19th century as the product of Sicily's transition from feudalism to capitalism as well as its unification with mainland Italy . Under feudalism,

4840-477: Is known as a " family ", "clan", or cosca . Each family claims sovereignty over a territory, usually a town, village or neighborhood ( borgata ) of a larger city, in which it operates its rackets . Its members call themselves " men of honour ", although the public often refers to them as mafiosi . By the 20th century, wide-scale emigration from Sicily led to the formation of mafiosi style gangs in Australia,

4961-521: Is no proof of it. Over time, the financially struggling Luciano grew angry at the wealthy Adonis for not helping him. On January 26, 1962, Luciano died of a heart attack in Naples at age 64. Adonis attended the funeral service in Naples, bringing a huge floral wreath with the words, "So Long, Pal". In June 1971, the Italian government forced Adonis to leave his Milan residence and move to Serra de' Conti ,

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5082-415: Is not a centralized organization. It is more of a federation of independent gangs who sell their services under a common brand. This cartel claims the exclusive right to sell extralegal protection services within their territories, and by their labels ( man of honor , mafioso , etc.), they distinguish themselves from common criminals whom they exclude from the protection market. Hence the term mafia found

5203-462: Is weak or absent creates a demand for private protection (which mafia-type organizations can supply) and opportunities for extortion (also by mafia-type organizations). A 2017 study in the Journal of Economic History links the emergence of the Sicilian Mafia also to the surging demand for oranges and lemons following the late 18th-century discovery that citrus fruits cured scurvy . A 2019 study in

5324-680: The Patriarca crime family of Providence, Rhode Island , and certain drug dealers within the Gambino family. Initially, the NYPD concluded that Anastasia's homicide had been arranged by Genovese and Gambino and that it was carried out by a crew led by Gallo. At one point, Gallo boasted to an associate of his part in the hit, "You can just call the five of us the barbershop quintet ". Elsewhere, Genovese had traditionally strong ties to Patriarca boss Raymond L. S. Patriarca . Anastasia's funeral service

5445-531: The Review of Economic Studies linked Mafia activity to "the rise of socialist Peasant Fasci organizations. In an environment with weak state presence, this socialist threat triggered landowners, estate managers, and local politicians to turn to the Mafia to resist and combat peasant demands." In 1925, Benito Mussolini initiated a campaign to destroy the Mafia and assert Fascist control over Sicilian life. The Mafia threatened and undermined his power in Sicily, and

5566-405: The nobility owned most of the land and enforced the law through their private armies and manorial courts . After 1812, the feudal barons steadily sold off or rented their lands to private citizens. Primogeniture was abolished, land could no longer be seized to settle debts, and one fifth of the land became private property of the peasants. After Italy annexed Sicily in 1860, it redistributed

5687-416: The 1950s, a crackdown in the United States on drug trafficking led to the imprisonment of many American mafiosi. Cuba , a major hub for drug smuggling, was taken over by Fidel Castro and associated communists. In 1957 American mafia boss Joseph Bonanno returned to Sicily to franchise his heroin operations to the Sicilian clans. Anticipating rivalries for the lucrative American drug market, he negotiated

5808-495: The 1980s, leading social scientists like Henner Hess  [ de ] and Anton Blok that conducted the first field studies on the phenomenon between the 1960s and the early 1980s, saw the Mafia as merely a form of behaviour and power, downplaying its organisational aspects. Their thinking was shaped by sicilianismo , a late 19th-century movement opposed to the indiscriminate criminalization of all Sicilians by Italian law enforcement and public opinion, promoted in particular by

5929-654: The 25-room, 6,529-square-foot, hilltop mansion located in Fort Lee, New Jersey from 1947 until his murder. In 1958, less than a year after his death, comedian Buddy Hackett and his wife purchased the mansion, and after renovations, lived there through most of the 1960s. The mansion sold for $ 6.9 million in late December 2017. The house was last sold in December 2018, for $ 3.6 million, and demolished in March 2019. Actor and former heavyweight boxing contender Jack O'Halloran claims to be Anastasia's illegitimate son. After

6050-615: The Boss" Masseria , a powerful Sicilian -born mafia leader in Brooklyn. He soon became close associates with future Cosa Nostra bosses Joe Adonis , Charles "Lucky" Luciano , Vito Genovese and Frank Costello . In early 1931, the Castellammarese War broke out between Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano . In a secret deal with Maranzano, Luciano agreed to engineer the death of his boss, Masseria, in return for receiving Masseria's rackets and becoming Maranzano's second-in-command. On April 15, 1931, Luciano lured Masseria to

6171-644: The Commission confirmed Anastasia's ascension as boss of the renamed Anastasia family; Costello wanted Anastasia as an ally against the ambitious and resentful Genovese. Anastasia was also supported by Joseph Bonanno , who simply wanted to avoid a gang war . In March 1952, Anastasia allegedly ordered the murder of Arnold Schuster , a New York man who successfully identified fugitive bank robber Willie Sutton , resulting in Sutton's arrest. When Anastasia saw Schuster being interviewed on television, he allegedly said: "I can't stand squealers! Hit that guy!" On March 8, 1952,

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6292-464: The Italian government's brutal and clumsy attempts to crush crime only made the problem worse by alienating the populace. An 1865 dispatch from the prefect of Palermo to Rome first officially described the phenomenon as a "Mafia". An 1876 police report provides the earliest known description of the familiar initiation ritual . Mafiosi meddled in politics early on, bullying voters into voting for candidates they favored. At this period in history, only

6413-625: The Luciano family and Adonis in charge of the Syndicate. On April 27, 1940, Adonis was indicted in Brooklyn on charges of kidnapping, extortion, and assault in the 1932 Juffe/Wapinsky case. However, on February 24, 1941, the prosecutor requested a dismissal for lack of evidence. In the 1940s, Adonis moved his gambling rackets to New Jersey. New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia 's campaign against illegal gambling had made it too difficult to do business in New York. Adonis also moved his family to

6534-497: The Luciano family, Genovese needed to kill Costello. Unable to do so without also eliminating Anastasia, Genovese looked for allies. He used Anastasia's brutal behavior against him in an effort to win supporters, portraying Anastasia as an unstable killer who threatened to bring law enforcement pressure on the Cosa Nostra . In addition, Genovese pointed out that Anastasia had been selling memberships to his crime family for $ 50,000,

6655-401: The Mafia a formal organisation. Judicial investigations by Falcone and scientific research in the 1980s provided solid proof of the existence of well-structured Mafia groups with entrepreneurial characteristics. Pino Arlacchi , in his seminal 1983 study La mafia imprenditrice (Mafia Business), summarised the dominant way of looking at the mafia up to that point by writing, “Social research into

6776-487: The Mafia as the Fascist press proclaimed, but his campaign was very successful at suppressing it. There was nearly no mafia left after the war. The Sicilian families had been shut down by the prefect Mori. Sicily's murder rate sharply declined. Landowners were able to raise the legal rents on their lands, sometimes as much as ten-thousandfold. In 1943, nearly half a million Allied troops invaded Sicily. Crime soared in

6897-495: The Mafia business, but neglected the cultural symbols and codes by which the Mafia legitimized its existence and by which it rooted itself into Sicilian society. According to Lupo, there are several lines of interpretation, often blended to some extent, to define the Mafia: it has been viewed as a mirror of traditional Sicilian society; as an enterprise or type of criminal industry; as a more or less centralized secret society; and as

7018-475: The Mafia in 1992, had objected to the conflation of the term "Mafia" with organized crime in general: While there was a time when people were reluctant to pronounce the word "Mafia" ... nowadays people have gone so far in the opposite direction that it has become an overused term ... I am no longer willing to accept the habit of speaking of the Mafia in descriptive and all-inclusive terms that make it possible to stack up phenomena that are indeed related to

7139-467: The Mafia is often erroneously seen as similar to other non-Sicilian organized criminal associations. These two paradigms missed essential aspects of the Mafia that became clear when investigators were confronted with the testimonies of Mafia turncoats, like those of Buscetta to Judge Falcone at the Maxi Trial . The economic approach to explain the Mafia did illustrate the development and operations of

7260-404: The Mafia were forced to pay protection money . Many buildings were illegally constructed before the city's planning was finalized. Mafiosi scared off anyone who dared to question the illegal building. The result of this unregulated building was the demolition of many historic buildings and the erection of apartment blocks, many of which were not up to standard. Mafia organizations entirely control

7381-498: The Mafia's most important clients because they can't get protection from the legal system). And since mafiosi charge fees for their services, they increase transaction costs, which in turn leads to a higher cost of living for average Sicilians. Introduced in 1982 by Pio La Torre , article 416-bis of the Italian Penal Code defines a Mafia-type association ( associazione di tipo mafioso ) as one where "those belonging to

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7502-891: The Masseria murder. With the death of Masseria, the war ended, and Maranzano was the victor. To avoid any future wars, Maranzano reorganized all the Italian American gangs into the Five Families and anointed himself as capo di tutti capi ("boss of all bosses"). Luciano and his loyalists quickly became dissatisfied with Maranzano's power grab. When Luciano discovered that the suspicious Maranzano had ordered his murder, Luciano struck first. On September 10, 1931, several gunmen attacked and killed Maranzano in his Manhattan office. Adonis and Luciano soon controlled bootlegging in Broadway and Midtown Manhattan . At its height,

7623-623: The November 14, 1957, Apalachin Meeting , called by Genovese to discuss the future of Cosa Nostra in light of his takeover. When the meeting was raided by police, to the detriment of Genovese's reputation, Gambino's appointment was postponed to a later meeting in New York City. Under Gambino, Anthony Anastasio saw his power curtailed, and in frustration, he began passing information to the FBI shortly before his 1963 death. Genovese enjoyed

7744-543: The Panto killing. At the end of June, Romeo's body was discovered near Guyencourt , Delaware ; he had been beaten and shot a number of times. During World War II , Anastasia reportedly conceived the plan to win a pardon for the imprisoned Luciano by contributing to the war effort. With the United States needing allies in Sicily to advance the invasion of Italy , and the desire of the U.S. Navy to dedicate its resources to

7865-435: The Sicilian Mafia as an "industry of violence". In 1993, the Italian sociologist Diego Gambetta described it as a cartel of private protection firms. He further characterized mafiosi as "guarantors of trust", and that Sicilian people tend to be distrustful of each other and therefore routinely seek mafia protection in their business dealings. The central activity of the Mafia is the arbitration of disputes between criminals and

7986-429: The Sicilian ethnographer Giuseppe Pitrè . According to the sicilianisti , the term 'mafia' simply embodied an attitude, a mentality deeply rooted in the island's popular culture; an expression of the local traditional society's fundamental rejection of the foreign invaders who had ruled Sicily for centuries. "Mafia" was a "way of being", according to a definition by Pitrè: Mafia is the consciousness of one's own worth,

8107-543: The United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and South America. These diaspora-based outfits replicated the traditions and methods of their Sicilian ancestors to varying extents. The word mafia originated in Sicily. The Sicilian noun mafiusu (in Italian: mafioso ) roughly translates to mean " swagger ", but can also be translated as "boldness, bravado ". In reference to a man, mafiusu in 19th-century Sicily

8228-449: The association exploit the potential for intimidation which their membership gives them, and the compliance and omertà which membership entails and which lead to the committing of crimes, the direct or indirect assumption of management or control of financial activities, concessions, permissions, enterprises and public services for the purpose of deriving profit or wrongful advantages for themselves or others". The genesis of Cosa Nostra

8349-456: The building sector in Palermo – the quarries where aggregates are mined, site clearance firms, cement plants, metal depots for the construction industry, wholesalers for sanitary fixtures, and so on. During the 1950s, the Mafia continued its deep penetration of the construction and cement industries. The cement business was appealing because it allows high levels of local economic involvement and

8470-793: The catalyst for Mussolini's war on the Mafia. Mussolini firmly established his power in January 1925; he appointed Cesare Mori as the Prefect of Palermo in October 1925 and granted him special powers to fight the Mafia. Mori formed a small army of policemen, carabinieri and militiamen, which went from town to town rounding up suspects. To force suspects to surrender, they would take their families hostage, sell off their property, or publicly slaughter their livestock. By 1928, more than 11,000 suspects were arrested. Confessions were sometimes extracted through beatings and torture. Some mafiosi who had been on

8591-447: The driver's seat. Luciano took over Masseria's family, with Genovese as his underboss . In 1932, Anastasia was indicted on charges of murdering another man with an ice pick , but the case was dropped due to lack of witnesses. The following year, he was charged with killing a man who worked in a laundry; again, there were no witnesses willing to testify. To reward Anastasia's loyalty, Luciano placed him and Louis "Lepke" Buchalter ,

8712-408: The emergence of the Sicilian Mafia to the resource curse . Early Mafia activity was strongly linked to Sicilian municipalities abundant in sulfur , Sicily's most valuable export commodity. The combination of a weak state and a lootable natural resource made the sulfur-rich parts of Sicily vulnerable to the emergence of mafia-type organizations. A valuable natural resource in areas where law enforcement

8833-766: The establishment of a Sicilian Mafia Commission to mediate disputes. The post-war period saw a huge building boom in Palermo. Allied bombing in World War II had left more than 14,000 people homeless, and migrants were pouring in from the countryside, so there was a huge demand for new homes. Much of this construction was subsidized by public money. In 1956, two Mafia-connected officials, Vito Ciancimino and Salvatore Lima , took control of Palermo's Office of Public Works. Between 1959 and 1963, about 80 percent of building permits were given to just five people, none of whom represented major construction firms; they were likely Mafia frontmen. Construction companies unconnected with

8954-472: The exaggerated concept of individual force as the sole arbiter of every conflict, of every clash of interests or ideas. Other scholars such as Gaetano Mosca say: ...with the word Mafia, the Sicilians intend to express two things, two social phenomena, that can be analyzed in separate ways even though they are closely related. The Mafia, or rather the essence of the Mafia, is a way of thinking that requires

9075-558: The families of imprisoned members and pay defense lawyers. In an attempt to annihilate the Mafia, Italian troops arrested 64 people of Palermo in February 1898. The trial began in May 1901, but after one month, only 32 defendants were found guilty of starting a criminal association and, taking into account the time already spent in prison, many were released the next day. A 2015 study in The Economic Journal attributed

9196-617: The famous Havana Conference of US organized crime bosses in Cuba . It was Luciano's goal at the conference to regain his mob influence, using Cuba as a base. Being a loyal supporter, Adonis willingly agreed to turn over his power in the syndicate to Luciano. However, the US government soon discovered Luciano's presence in Havana and pressured the Cuban government to expel him. On February 24, 1947, Luciano

9317-551: The federal government immediately deported him to Italy. In 1948, Anastasia bought a dressmaking factory in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and left his waterfront activities in the control of his brother Anthony. In 1951, the U.S. Senate summoned Anastasia to answer questions about organized crime at the Kefauver Hearings . Anastasia refused to answer any questions. Despite being a mob power in his own right, Anastasia

9438-606: The field of organised crime but that have little or nothing in common with the Mafia. According to Mafia turncoats ( pentiti ), the real name of the Mafia is "Cosa Nostra" ("Our Thing"). Italian American mafioso Joseph Valachi testified before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate Committee on Government Operations in 1963 (at what are known as the Valachi hearings ). He revealed that American mafiosi referred to their organization by

9559-444: The first Mafia clans. In countryside towns that lacked formal constabulary, local elites responded to banditry by recruiting young men into "companies-at-arms" to hunt down thieves and negotiate the return of stolen property, in exchange for a pardon for the thieves and a fee from the victims. These companies-at-arms were often made up of former bandits and criminals, usually the most skilled and violent of them. This saved communities

9680-459: The floor. The Anastasia homicide generated a tremendous amount of public interest and sparked a high-profile police investigation. According to The New York Times journalist and Five Families author Selwyn Raab , "The vivid image of a helpless victim swathed in white towels was stamped in the public memory". However, no one was charged in the case. Speculation on who killed Anastasia has centered on Profaci crime family mobster Joe Gallo ,

9801-429: The government liberalize the drug market and abolish price-fixing of cigarettes so as to move these commodities out of the black market; to increase transparency in public contracting so that there can be no rigging, which mafiosi usually arbitrate; and redesign the voting process to make it harder to buy votes. Fixing these problems would reduce the demand for mafioso intervention in political and economic affairs. Until

9922-583: The government to save himself from the death penalty, leading to the conviction of seven members of Murder Inc. Reles also had information that could implicate Anastasia in the Diamond and Panto murders. Fearful of prosecution, Anastasia offered a $ 100,000 reward for Reles's murder. On November 12, 1941, Reles was found dead on a restaurant roof outside the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island. Reles

10043-456: The head of Murder, Inc. As a syndicate board member, Adonis, along with Buchalter, may have been responsible for assigning some murder contracts to Murder Inc. In 1936, prosecutors convicted Luciano on pandering charges and sent him to state prison for 30 years. Underboss Vito Genovese remained in charge of the family until he fled to Italy in 1937 to avoid a murder prosecution. Luciano now left Frank Costello , an Adonis ally, in charge of

10164-548: The heroin. When the shipment arrived in the United States, however, the American buyers claimed that some heroin was missing, and paid Di Pisa a commensurately lower sum. Di Pisa accused the Americans of defrauding him, while the La Barberas accused Di Pisa of embezzling the missing heroin. The Sicilian Mafia Commission sided with Di Pisa, and the La Barberas were outraged. The La Barberas murdered Di Pisa and Manzella, triggering

10285-410: The interim. Compounding these problems was banditry. Rising food prices, the loss of public and church lands, and the loss of feudal commons pushed many desperate peasants to steal. In the face of rising crime, booming commerce, and unreliable law enforcement, property owners and merchants turned to extralegal arbitrators and protectors. These extralegal protectors eventually organized themselves into

10406-472: The late 1940s. On June 3, 1955, Anastasia was sentenced to one year in federal prison and a $ 20,000 fine. After his conviction, the federal government successfully petitioned to revoke Anastasia's citizenship so he could be deported. However, on September 19, 1955, a higher court overturned this ruling. In early 1957, Genovese decided to move on Costello. On May 2, 1957, gunman Vincent Gigante shot and wounded Costello outside his apartment building. Although

10527-482: The law enforcement crackdown that would inevitably follow. An enraged Schultz refused and walked out of the meeting. Anastasia approached Luciano with information that Schultz had asked him to stake out Dewey's apartment building on Fifth Avenue . Upon hearing the news, the Commission held a discreet meeting to discuss the matter. After six hours of deliberations the Commission ordered Buchalter to eliminate Schultz. On October 23, 1935, before he could kill Dewey, Schultz

10648-469: The leading labor racketeer in the country, in control of the National Crime Syndicate 's enforcement arm, Murder, Inc. The troop, also known as "The Brownsville Boys", was a group of Jewish and Italian contract killers that operated out of the back room of Midnight Rose's, a candy store owned by mobster Louis Capone in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. During its ten years of operation, it

10769-575: The losing end of Mafia feuds voluntarily cooperated with prosecutors, perhaps as a way of obtaining protection and revenge. Charges of Mafia association were typically leveled at poor peasants and gabellotti (farm leaseholders), but were avoided when dealing with major landowners. Many were tried en masse . More than 1,200 were convicted and imprisoned, and many others were internally exiled without trial. Mori's campaign ended in June 1929 when Mussolini recalled him to Rome. He did not permanently crush

10890-660: The marauding bandits into their ranks. The changing economic landscape of Sicily shifted the Mafia's power base from rural to urban areas. The Minister of Agriculture – a communist – pushed for reforms in which peasants were to get larger shares of produce, be allowed to form cooperatives and take over badly used land, and remove the system by which leaseholders (known as " gabellotti ") could rent land from landowners for their own short-term use. Owners of especially large estates were to be forced to sell off some of their land. The Mafia had connections to many landowners and murdered many socialist reformers. The most notorious attack

11011-413: The murder plot. On April 15, 1931, Adonis allegedly participated in Masseria's murder. Luciano had lured Masseria to a meeting at a Coney Island, Brooklyn , restaurant. During the meal, Luciano excused himself to go to the restroom. As soon as Luciano was gone, Adonis, Vito Genovese , Albert Anastasia , and Bugsy Siegel rushed into the dining room and shot Masseria to death. No one was ever indicted in

11132-541: The nicknames The Earthquake , The One-Man Army , Mad Hatter and Lord High Executioner . Albert Anastasia was born Umberto Anastasio on September 26, 1902, in Parghelia , Calabria , Italy , to Bartolomeo Anastasio and Marianna Polistena. Anastasia's father was a railway worker who died after World War I , leaving behind nine children. Anastasia had seven brothers: Raffaele; Frank; Anthony ; Joseph; Gerardo; Luigi (who moved to Australia) and Salvatore Anastasio; and

11253-450: The operation grossed $ 12 million in one year and employed 100 workers. Adonis also bought car dealerships in New Jersey . When customers bought cars from his dealerships, the salesmen would intimidate them into buying "protection insurance" for the vehicle. Adonis soon moved into cigarette distribution, buying up vending machines by the hundreds and stocking them with stolen cigarettes. Adonis ran his criminal empire from Joe's Italian Kitchen,

11374-497: The organization and the enforcement of illicit agreements through the use of violence. The Mafia does not serve the general public as the police do, but only specific clients who pay them for protection. The mafia's principal activities are settling disputes among other criminals, protecting them against each other's cheating, and organizing and overseeing illicit agreements, often involving many agents, such as illicit cartel agreements in otherwise legal industries. The Sicilian Mafia

11495-466: The position of boss in what became the modern Gambino crime family . He also controlled New York City 's waterfront for most of his criminal career, mainly through the dockworker unions . Anastasia was murdered on October 25, 1957, on the orders of Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino ; Gambino subsequently became boss of the family. Anastasia was one of the most ruthless and feared organized crime figures in American history; his reputation earned him

11616-446: The question of the mafia has probably now reached the point where we can say that the mafia, as the term is commonly understood, does not exist”. Arlacchi contested that view, and stressed the economical aspects of the Mafia as a criminal organization. The Mafia was seen as an enterprise, and its economic activities became the focus of academic analyses. However, by ignoring the cultural aspects, according to historian Salvatore Lupo ,

11737-447: The state take over the job of enforcing the law, but the new authorities were not up to the task, largely due to clashes between official law and local customs. Lack of manpower was also a problem; there were often fewer than 350 active policemen for the entire island. Some towns did not have any permanent police force, and were only visited every few months by some troops to collect malcontents, leaving criminals to operate with impunity in

11858-523: The term cosa nostra ("our thing" or "this thing of ours" or simply "our cause" / "our interest"). At the time, Cosa Nostra was understood as a proper name, fostered by the FBI and disseminated by the media. The FBI added the article la to the term, calling it La Cosa Nostra (in Italy, the article la is not used when referring to Cosa Nostra ). In 1984, Mafia turncoat Tommaso Buscetta revealed to anti-mafia Italian magistrate Giovanni Falcone that

11979-404: The term was used by the Sicilian Mafia, as well. Buscetta dismissed the word "mafia" as a mere literary creation. Other defectors, such as Antonino Calderone and Salvatore Contorno , confirmed the use of Cosa Nostra by members. Mafiosi introduce known members to each other as belonging to cosa nostra ("our thing") or la stessa cosa ("the same thing"), meaning "he is the same thing as you –

12100-409: The trouble of training their own policemen, but it may have made the companies-at-arms more inclined to collude with their former brethren rather than destroy them. Scholars such as Salvatore Lupo have identified these groups as "proto-Mafia". The Mafia was (and still is) a largely western Sicilian phenomenon. There was little Mafia activity in the eastern half of Sicily. This did not mean that there

12221-829: The upheaval and chaos. Many inmates escaped from prisons, banditry returned, and the black market thrived. During the first six months of Allied occupation, party politics were banned in Sicily. Most institutions were destroyed, with the exception of the police and carabinieri, and the American occupiers had to build a new order from scratch. As Fascist mayors were deposed, the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (AMGOT) simply appointed replacements. Many turned out to be mafiosi, such as Calogero Vizzini and Giuseppe Genco Russo . They could easily present themselves as political dissidents, and their anti-communist position gave them additional credibility. Mafia bosses reformed their clans, absorbing some of

12342-407: The use of the term "mafia" began appearing in the Italian state's early reports on the group. The word was first documented in 1865 in a report by the prefect of Filippo Antonio Gualterio  [ it ] . The term mafia has become a generic term for any organized criminal network with similar structure, methods, and interests. But Giovanni Falcone , the anti-Mafia judge who was murdered by

12463-526: The vicious Castellammarese War with his archrival, Salvatore Maranzano . Maranzano represented the Sicilian clans, most of which came from Castellammare del Golfo , Sicily. As the war progressed, both bosses started recruiting more soldiers. By 1930, Adonis had joined the Masseria faction. As the war turned against Masseria, Luciano secretly contacted Maranzano about switching sides. When Masseria heard about Luciano's betrayal, he approached Adonis about killing Luciano. However, Adonis instead warned Luciano about

12584-562: The war, Anastasia orchestrated a deal to obtain lighter treatment and eventual parole for Luciano, in exchange for the Mafia's protection of the waterfront and Luciano's assistance with his associates in Sicily. In 1942, Anastasia joined the U.S. Army , possibly motivated by a desire to escape the criminal investigations that were dismantling Murder, Inc. Attaining the rank of technical sergeant , he trained soldiers to be longshoremen at Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania. In 1943, as

12705-487: The witnesses either disappeared or refused to testify in court. In 1937, Anastasia married Elsa Bargnesi and they had two sons, Umberto and Richard; and two daughters, Joyana and Gloriana. By the late 1920s, Anastasia had become a top leader of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), controlling six local chapters of the labor union in Brooklyn. He allied himself with Giuseppe "Joe

12826-635: The word include: The public's association of the word with the criminal secret society was perhaps inspired by the 1863 play " I mafiusi di la Vicaria  [ it ] " ("The Mafiosi of the Vicaria") by Giuseppe Rizzotto and Gaspare Mosca. The words mafia and mafiusi are never mentioned in the play. The drama is about a Palermo prison gang with traits similar to the Mafia: a boss, an initiation ritual, and talk of umirtà ( omertà or code of silence) and " pizzu " (a codeword for extortion money). The play had great success throughout Italy. Soon after,

12947-501: The wound was superficial, it persuaded Costello to relinquish power to Genovese and retire. Genovese then controlled what is now called the Genovese crime family . Bonanno later credited himself with arranging a sitdown, where he kept Anastasia from immediately taking Genovese to war in response. On June 17 of that year, Frank Scalice , Anastasia's underboss and the man identified as directly responsible for selling Gambino memberships,

13068-545: Was also murdered. According to Valachi, Anastasia approved the hit, and the subsequent murder of Scalice's brother Joseph, after offering to forgive his threats to avenge Frank. On the morning of October 25, 1957, Anastasia entered the barber shop of the Park Sheraton Hotel , at 56th Street and 7th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan . Anastasia's driver parked the car in an underground garage and then took

13189-484: Was ambiguous, signifying a bully, arrogant but also fearless, enterprising and proud, according to scholar Diego Gambetta . In reference to a woman, however, the feminine-form, "mafiusa" , means a beautiful or attractive female. The Sicilian word mafie refers to the caves near Trapani and Marsala , which were often used as hiding places for refugees and criminals. Sicily was once an Islamic emirate , therefore mafia might have Arabic roots. Possible Arabic roots of

13310-515: Was an illegal alien . Adonis fought deportation, claiming that he was a native-born American citizen. On August 9, 1953, Adonis was released from prison in New Jersey. On January 3, 1956, Adonis voluntarily left New York City on an ocean liner for Naples, Italy . His wife and children stayed behind in New Jersey. Once in Italy, Adonis moved into a luxurious apartment in the center of Milan . Adonis may have met with Luciano in Naples, but there

13431-412: Was being guarded in a sixth-floor room during an ongoing trial. In 1951, a grand jury ruled that Reles accidentally died while climbing down to the fifth floor using sheets tied to a heating radiator . However, many officials still suspected that Reles had been murdered. In the spring of 1942, Anastasia allegedly ordered the murder of an associate, Anthony Romeo, who had been arrested and questioned in

13552-557: Was born Giuseppe Antonio Doto on November 22, 1902, in the small town of Montemarano , Province of Avellino , Italy, to Michele Doto and Maria De Vito. He had three brothers, Antonio, Ettore and Genesio Doto. In 1909, Adonis and his family immigrated to the United States, in New York City. As a young man, Adonis supported himself by stealing and picking pockets. While working on the streets, Adonis became friends with future mob boss Charles "Lucky" Luciano and mobster Settimo Accardi , who were involved in illegal gambling . Adonis developed

13673-603: Was conducted at a Brooklyn funeral home; the Diocese of Brooklyn had refused to sanction a church burial. Anastasia was interred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn , attended by a handful of friends and relatives. It is marked "Anastasio". In 1958, his family emigrated to Canada, and changed the name to "Anisio". Gambino was expected to be proclaimed boss of Anastasia's family at

13794-405: Was little violence; the most violent conflicts over land took place in the east, but they did not involve mafiosi. In the east, the ruling elites were more cohesive and active during the transition from feudalism to capitalism. They maintained their large stables of enforcers and were able to absorb or suppress any emerging violent groups. Furthermore, the land in the east was generally divided into

13915-615: Was never found. The same day, the body of Vincent's brother Philip was discovered in Jamaica Bay . No one was ever arrested in the Mangano murders, but it was widely assumed that Anastasia had them killed. After the deaths of the Manganos, Anastasia, who had been serving as acting boss of their family, met with the Commission, claiming that the brothers wanted to kill him, yet did not admit to killing them. With Costello's prodding,

14036-443: Was nominally the underboss of the Mangano crime family, under boss Vincent Mangano . During his 20-year rule, Mangano had resented Anastasia's close ties to Luciano and Costello, particularly the fact that they had obtained Anastasia's services without first seeking Mangano's permission. This and other business disputes led to heated, almost physical fights between the two mobsters. On April 19, 1951, Mangano went missing and his body

14157-642: Was placed on a ship by Cuban authorities for deportation back to Italy. On December 12, 1950, Adonis was summoned before the US Senate Kefauver Commission on organized crime. Adonis repeatedly refused to testify, citing his right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution . Although Adonis escaped contempt charges, he suffered undesirable national exposure as

14278-502: Was received by mayor/Mafia boss Francesco Cuccia . At some point, Cuccia expressed surprise at Mussolini's police escort and whispered in his ear: "You are with me, you are under my protection. What do you need all these cops for?". After Mussolini rejected Cuccia's offer of protection, the sindaco felt that he had been slighted and instructed the townsfolk not to attend the duce ' s speech. Mussolini felt humiliated and outraged. Cuccia's careless remark has passed into history as

14399-454: Was shot in a tavern in Newark , New Jersey , and succumbed to his injuries the following day. On June 7, 1936, following a prosecution by Dewey's office masterminded by Eunice Carter , Luciano was convicted on 62 counts of forced prostitution . On July 18, he received a 30 to 50-year sentence in state prison. Genovese became acting boss, but he fled to Italy in 1937 after being indicted on

14520-517: Was the Greek god of beauty and desire). It is uncertain as to what inspired his nickname. One story states that Adonis received this nickname from a Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl who was dating him. Another story says that Adonis adopted the name after reading a magazine article on Greek mythology . Extremely vain, Adonis spent a great deal of time in personal grooming. On one occasion, Lucky Luciano saw Adonis combing his thick, dark hair in front of

14641-462: Was the Portella della Ginestra massacre , when 11 people were killed and 33 wounded during May Day celebrations on May 1, 1947. The bloodbath was perpetrated by bandit Salvatore Giuliano , who was possibly backed by local Mafia bosses. In the end, though, they were unable to stop the process, and many landowners chose to sell their land to mafiosi, who offered more money than the government. In

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