La Cosa Nostra: The Beginning - Essay Example

?Running Head: LA COSA NOSTRA LA COSA NOSTRA By La Cosa Nostra The existence of organized crime poses the biggest threat to the existenceof civilized society more than any other form of crimes. This is because it openly and deliberately challenges the legitimacy of legal authority and overtly taunts its effectiveness. The inability of the legal authority to meet that challenge and put down its open derision could undermine its legitimacy in the eyes of the public. In the US, the La Cosa Nostra, which literally means “our thing”, also known as the Mafia has challenged its authority since the early 20th century. It is the most notorious American organized crime in the country’s history, a notoriety that has often been depicted on the big screen such as the classic films The Godfather and The Untouchables. La Cosa Nostra: The Beginning When Sicily was annexed to Italy in the 1860s, the Sicilian authorities had trouble enforcing order due to a restructured society engendered by a land reform that redistributed public land to Sicilian peasants. Banditry became prevalent as peasants were forced to lawlessness to survive as the lands given to them were too small for them to live on. Traditional sources of livelihood such as firewood gathering were lost when church estates and public land were confiscated and redistributed by the government. The state of lawlessness gave rise to the formation of a secret society that offered its services for a fee to protect merchants and landowners from bandits and other lawless elements. This underground society was called the Mafia and protected merchants and landowners. Although the group operated through vigilante means, a member is considered “A Man of Honor” because of the protection he gave his family and society. Eventually, members became abusive and turned to extortion to force landowners and merchants to hire them at high price. This was, however, tolerated because of their role as protectors (FBI). The Sicilian Mafia eventually branched out to politics, forcing people to vote for the candidates they want, but when Benito Mussolini came to power in the early 1920s he felt threatened by it and ordered a relentless campaign against its members. This became the turning point of the Sicilian Mafia as many of them were arrested and imprisoned. Some mafia members or Mafiosi, however, were able to flee to the United States (FBI). The American Mafia Mussolini’s campaign against the Mafia in Sicily drove many of them to flee to the US illegally. However, the first Sicilian Mafia who came into the US was Giuseppe Esposito, who fled with six other Mafiosi after murdering the chancellor and vice chancellor of a Sicilian province. He was deported to Italy after arrest in 1881 in New Orleans. In 1990, the first major Mafia operation took place with the execution of David Hennessy, New Orleans police chief superintendent. Although hundreds were arrested and 19 eventually indicted, a subsequent acquittal led New Orleans citizens to organize lynch mobs and killed many of the defendants (FBI). The LCN operates in such cities as Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and in Miami, but the group’s greatest stronghold is New York. Previously, the group also operated in Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Las Vegas, LA, New Orleans and Pittsburgh, but has been greatly weakened and is now almost non-existent. Eighty per cent of its estimated 1100 membership are said to be operating in the NY metropolitan area where five families are lording it over: the Bonanno family; the Colombo family; the Genovese family; the Gambino family; and the Lucchese family (Finckenauer 1). LCN operation in the US officially began in the 1920s and since then this group has been known as the foremost criminal organization in the country associated with organized crime. The group is known for ruthless violence such as beatings and killings, which it uses as an operational tool externally and internally. Arson, bombings, explosions are used as tools by the LCN in operating its business and gain monopoly of criminal activities. Violence and the threat of violence not only scare competitors away, but ensure that family members and associates toe the line. In the 1997, a Mafia family member testified against his Boss, Gambino family head John Gotti, as having ordered the torture killing of a victim, who was burned with cigarette butts and cut by a knife, shot in the buttocks and then in the head five times (Finckenauer 2). The illegal activities of LCN cover gambling, drugs, loan sharking, extortion, hijacking, air cargo theft, and murder. In addition, the NY branch of LCN exclusively specializes in labor racketeering, business racketeering, bid-rigging, business frauds, and industry cartels. In labor racketeering, the LCN controls unions and diverts money away from pension funds. Businesses are extorted by threatening labor strikes and other labor-related troubles. In business racketeering, the LCN takes control over various industries such as construction, music and garbage as well as bars, strip joints and trucking businesses. It has imposed “mob tax,” or inflated price tax, over the hauling industry in NY for 50 years. Recently, the LCN penetrated the legal market through white-collar crimes particularly in the field of health insurance, pre-paid telephone cards and small Wall Street brokerage houses (Finckenauer 3). The La Cosa Nostra Structure In 1963, Joseph Valachi, a Mafia insider testified in the Senate public hearings sponsored by Senator John McClellan where the former agreed to testify to commute his death sentence imposed for killing a fellow inmate while in prison. During the hearing, Valachi outlined the La Cosa Nostra hierarchy structure he claimed to have taken shape from the gangland war in New York in the 1930s. Valachi described the group as consisting of families that have separate business dealings. The families may number 10 to more than a hundred, but the entry of a new family into the group must be made with the blessing of the other families. The head of each family is called the “Boss” who makes all the decisions and all money generated by the family’s business transactions go to him. The underboss comes immediately below and his function is either as delegated by the boss and/or to serve as the next-in line once something happens to the “Boss.” The capos are the lieutenants and they handle either different transactions or different territories, but the dirty work is done by the soldiers who work under them. Associates are not actual members of the family, but assist in the transactions or dealings of the family in any way such as banker or lawyer. Another non-member, but an important component of the family is the consigliere who acts as the family advisor (see Fig. 1) (Zapala-Krag 12-18). As earlier indicated, there are five LCN families operating in NY, where the group is most active. The five families was originally set up by Salvatore Maranzano, who teamed up with Lucky Luciano in 1928 to overthrow Joseph Masseria in a war called the Castellammarrese War after the latter moved to gain control of the entire LCN. After Masseria’s death, Maranzano appointed Luciano the first boss, but five months later the latter had Maranzano killed in his office. Luciano then set up the LCN Commission and assigned rackets to each of the families. In 1936, Luciano was convicted and sentenced to 30 to 50 years imprisonment, but was released 10 years thereafter. He was, however, deported immediately to Italy and Frank Costello took over the helm of the LCN, but surrendered it when a returning a Genovese, who earlier fled the country to evade a suit, marked him for assassination (FBI). Conclusion The country has a long history with the LCN and these exploits are well known to the public because of their well-publicized documentation through novels and films. It seems, however, that organized crime particularly that brought by the LCN is really difficult to completely eradicate considering that despite their notoriety and the public’s knowledge of their illegal activities, they are still very much around although in some places they are not as powerful now as they were before. Moreover, it is a wonder how they could have operated illegally and overtly for so long. It is unimaginable, for example, that they could have held hostage entire US industries for about fifty years or such vital organizations such as labor unions to extort businesses. It is also ironic that LCN could have forced the imposition of mob tax and do such other things that openly challenged the government of a country considered to be the most powerful in the world. Organized crime that is characterized by power, money and violence, as personified by the LCN, must be a very formidable and dangerous enemy, indeed. References: FBI. Italian Organized Crime. Organized Crime. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/organizedcrime/italian_mafia. Finckenauer, J. (2007). La Cosa Nostra in the United States. United Nations Activities. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/218555.pdf Zapala-Kraj, M. (2010). Mafia – the History with Mario Puzo’s Godfather in the Background: The Development of Italian Mafia in America in Context of Both Literature and Movie. Grin Verlag. Read More