The Everything Mafia Book (20 page)

Did any mobsters fight in World War II?

There were a few mobsters who fought for their country in the war. Tampa mobster Henry Trafficante served in 1943. Tampa mob associate Jimmy Donofrio also served, as did the “Cracker Mob” boss Harlan Blackburn, who used his wartime experience to deal in stolen ration stamps and run gambling operations behind the lines.

Given the fact that the Americans helped Nazi scientists escape from the clutches of the Russians in the days right before the end of and immediately after World War II, one could make the case that the American leadership may have known that these prisoners were Mafiosi. The Nazi scientists helped America in the Cold War and during the space race to the moon in the 1960s, so it is not out of character for the American government to work with unsavory characters to further its goals. In either case, the Mafia benefited from the Allied liberation of Sicily and returned to prominence in Sicilian society.

One hoodlum who benefited from Allied assistance was Calogero Vizzini. The Allies made him the mayor of his community. He and other Mafia men were given political offices because they were known in the communities and clearly commanded respect. But this was actually more fear than respect. The citizenry knew them well as Mafiosi and would not dare oppose them. Vizzini ultimately became the “Boss of Bosses” of the Sicilian Mafia. The whole Mafia made out like Sicilian bandits during the post–World War II era. They became more powerful than ever and solidified their stranglehold on the island.

When Vizzini died in 1954, the Mafia went through a metamorphosis. Gone were even the pretensions of Old-World civility and honor. The younger generation were called “gangsters,” a common and generic term in America. In Sicily, however, the dignified, albeit deadly, Mafia had disdain for this low-class criminal element and its coarse manners and tactics.

Unholy Alliance

It was during the 1950s that fences were mended and relations re-established between the Sicilian Mafia and its American brethren. Lucky Luciano was the hoodlum who extended the olive branch. The American Mafia’s “Commission” (an organization of the bosses of the biggest crime families) and the Sicilian “Cupola” joined forces in the lucrative drug trade. Both factions claimed they regretted having to get into the drug business. As enterprising gangsters, they would have been remiss not to become involved in the narcotics industry. Other criminal forces were entrenched in the trade, and the Mafia wanted a piece of the action.

The Sicilians Grow Violent

The Sicilians were even more bloodthirsty than the Americans when it came to their business practices. They committed more murders, including the brazen assassinations of judges, police, and politicians, than did their American counterparts. The Sicilians were more intertwined with the political sphere than the American Mafia. Business, politics, and even the Catholic Church interact seamlessly in Sicily, working together to achieve their goals. The Archbishop of Palermo issued a press release saying that an organized crime group called the Mafia did not exist. But of course we know this to be untrue now, and many believe that the people knew it wasn’t true at the time, either. It is indicative of how deeply entrenched the Mafia was in every aspect of Sicilian culture.

Moving on the Unions

Back in the States the Mafia was finding ways to infiltrate legitimate businesses. One of the most effective and long-standing cash cows for the mob was raiding labor union pension funds and getting loads of no-show jobs for lazy gangsters who needed a real paycheck to report on their taxes. But their influence in the unions did greater damage than almost any of their other illicit ventures. They cost citizens millions of tax dollars, they beat opponents, they killed others who stood in their way, and they irrevocably wrecked the reputations of many of the unions that were trying to do good for their members.

The American and Sicilian Mafia supposedly had a four-day summit at the Grand Hotel des Palmes in 1957. Lucky Luciano arranged a meeting between prominent Sicilian bosses and Joe Bonanno. Although no one is sure of the meeting’s particulars, it was allegedly to cement the relationship between the two groups in the heroin trade.

The Mad Hatter

Anastasia got his start on the Brooklyn docks, rising in the ranks of the mob-controlled longshoreman’s union. Known as the Mad Hatter, Anastasia was a larger-than-life mob boss. The Sicilian-born criminal brought his brother Anthony along for a ride through the world of crime. The Mad Hatter was a hot-tempered hood who killed another longshoreman early in his career. This faux pas landed him a reserved room on death row. He was granted a second trial when four of the witnesses who had testified in the first trial suddenly reversed their statements. When four key witnesses suddenly went missing before the second trial could be held, Anastasia walked.

King Hood

In other trials over the years, witnesses had a tendency to turn up dead, guaranteeing acquittals for Anastasia. One man and his wife vanished, never to be heard from again. The fact that blood stains splattered their home was a clear indication of foul play. Another man was found in the trunk of a car in the Bronx, and yet another was dumped in the Passaic River in New Jersey.

The Hatter served Lucky Luciano with gleeful enthusiasm during the violent power struggle. He was allegedly one of the four-man hit team that whacked Masseria. And given that publicity would have been bad for his particular line of work outside of Mafia circles, we will never really know how many people met their end at the Mad Hatter’s hands.

Coming Up

Luciano and fellow mobster Frank Costello could keep Anastasia on a reasonably short leash. Anastasia was a loose cannon, and cooler heads in the Mafia kept a watchful eye on him. He was loyal to these two bosses.

Though they knew he was loyal, they felt that he was unstable. Anastasia was promoted despite his apparent incompetence. His two benefactors made him boss of the Mangano crime family, much to the indignation of Vince Mangano. This created an enmity that ended when Mangano’s brother was murdered and Vince joined the ranks of the mysteriously missing folks who got in the way of Anastasia’s ambition.

His benefactors backed up Anastasia’s claim that he had uncovered a plot against him and his actions were in self-defense. As a result, the Commission deemed the hit justified and Anastasia was free from reprisals. For a little while at least.

Anastasia enjoyed his new position, but his handlers had their own reasons for promoting him. Frank Costello was in the midst of a rivalry with Vito Genovese as the two crime lords vied for control of the interests and rackets of the recently deported Lucky Luciano.

Anastasia was more interested in killing than making lucrative business deals. His lack of subtlety and finesse made him a liability rather than an asset in the long run. He even ordered the hit of a man he saw on television. The man had testified as a witness against celebrated bank robber

Willie Sutton. Sutton was the man who, when asked why he robbed banks, offered the now-famous reply, “That’s where the money is.” Anastasia was outraged at the witness’s attitude and had him murdered. This of course violated the mob’s unwritten rule not to mess with outsiders. It shines too much light on them and creates too many problems. The fact that a high-level Mafioso would so casually order a hit raised the red flag for the other members of the Commission. Anastasia’s explanation was an offhanded, “I hate stoolies.”

Just a Little off the Top

In 1957, Tampa mob boss and Havana casino magnate Santo Trafficante Jr. wrote Anastasia a letter filled with lavish promises of Anastasia’s chances of getting in on the operation of the Havana Hilton. Santo was flying to New York with two Cuban investors and told Anthony “Cappy” Coppola, Anastasia’s trusted bodyguard and a frequent visitor to Trafficante’s casinos in Cuba, to take care of his buddies.

The first night the group was in town, they got a surprise visitor at their suite. Joe DiMaggio, who was reportedly friendly with Anastasia, came up to say hello to Trafficante and his boys. Speculation was that DiMaggio was going to be one of the investors and faces of the Havana Hilton if Anastasia was let in on the deal. This was Anastasia’s last shot. His brash attitude and the typical churning of underworld waves had brought some storm clouds on his rosy future as boss of the Mangano family.

The character of Johnny Friendly, played by Lee J. Cobb in the legendary film On the Waterfront, was reportedly inspired by Albert’s brother Anthony, know on the streets as “Tough Tony.”

On October 25, 1957, Anastasia went to the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City. Two masked men entered and the Lord High Executioner was himself offed in a hail of bullets. The fact that his bodyguard did not quickly join his boss in the barbershop after parking the car indicates that there was a conspiracy in his own family, no doubt led by the man who succeeded him, Carlo Gambino. Coincidentally Trafficante was staying at the Park Sheraton and left only hours before.

Albert Anastasia’s murder

Courtesy of AP Images

The body of Mafia boss Albert Anastasia lies on the floor of the barbershop at New York’s Park Sheraton Hotel after his murder in October 1957. Anastasia’s crime family was taken over by Carlo Gambino.

Apalachin

One of the most famous, infamous, and embarrassing moments in Mafia legend, involving all five major families and most of the smaller families, was the conference held in Apalachin, New York, in 1957. They revealed themselves as the gangs that couldn’t think straight in this fiasco that put the Mafia squarely in the national spotlight, a place that most Mafiosi were prudent to avoid.

Meeting of the Minds

The Commission met regularly to resolve disputes and doom any unlucky mobster who crossed them. But occasionally large-scale meetings were needed to make major policy changes, much like a meeting of all the office managers in a multinational corporation. In 1957 the meeting was held at the upstate New York estate of Pennsylvania mobster Joseph Barbara.