Read The Mob and the City Online

Authors: C. Alexander Hortis

Tags: #True Crime, #Organized Crime, #History, #United States, #State & Local, #Middle Atlantic (DC; DE; MD; NJ; NY; PA), #20th Century

The Mob and the City (55 page)

60
. Carter,
Stonewall
, pp. 131–37, 262–64; Lincoln Anderson,
Villager
, June 16–22, 2004;
New York Daily News
, July 6, 1969.

61
. Ray “Sylvia Lee” Rivera and Morty Manford, quoted in Eric Marcus,
Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights
(New York: HarperCollins, 2002), pp. 127–29; protest leaflet available at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/stonewall-leaflet/
(accessed May 21, 2013).

CHAPTER 7: THE LIVES OF WISEGUYS

1
. State of New York,
1915 New York State Census
, Philip Albeniza, Assembly District 2, New York, NY; FBI Report, Philip Joseph Albanese, May 16, 1958, in Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Record Group 65, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (hereafter “NARA College Park”).

2
.
Yonkers Herald-Statesmen
, August 13, 1953, April 15, 1955.

3
.
United States v. Philip Albanese
, 224 F.2d 879 (2d Cir. 1955);
Yonkers Herald-Statesmen
, October 6, 1954.

4
. For an overview of early Mafia memoirs, see Thomas A. Firestone, “Mafia Memoirs: What They Tell Us about Organized Crime,”
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice
9, no. 3 (August 1993): 197–220.

5
. Joshua B. Freeman,
Working-Class New York: Life and Labor since World War II
(New York: New Press, 2001), pp. 7–18; United States Department of Labor Statistics,
100 Years of U.S. Consumer Spending: Data for the Nation, New York City, and Boston
(Washington, DC: n.p., 2006), p. 22, available at
http://www.bls.gov/opub/uscs/
(accessed August 25, 2013).

6
. Luciano, quoted in
New York Times
, June 19, 1936.

7
. Rocco Morelli,
Forgetta ’bout It: From Mafia to Ministry
(Orlando, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2007), p. 35.

8
.
Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi: Hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs
, Senate, 100th Cong., 2d Sess. (1988), 203 (testimony of Joseph Pistone); Joseph D. Pistone with Richard Woodley,
Donnie Brasco
(New York: Signet, 1997), pp. 141–42. For additional examples of why men joined the Mafia, see Firestone, “Mafia Memoirs,” pp. 200–15.

9
.
Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi
, 236 (testimony of Vincent Cafaro); Tony Napoli,
My Father, My Don: A Son's Journey from Organized Crime to Sobriety
(Silver Spring, MD: Beckham, 2008), p. 47; Willie Fopiano,
The Godson: A True-Life Account of 20 Years Inside the Mob
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993), p. 8.

10
. Antonio Calderone, Pino Arlacchi, and Marc Romano,
Men of Dishonor: Inside the Sicilian Mafia
(New York: William Morrow, 1993), p. 67; Peter Maas,
Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of life in the Mafia
(New York: Harper Perennial, 1999), p. 88.

11
. Charles Siragusa,
The Trail of the Poppy, Behind the Mask of the Mafia
(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966), p. 66; Joseph Bonanno with Sergio Lalli,
A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), p. 158.

12
. Joseph Cantalupo and Thomas Renner,
Body Mike: An Unsparing Exposé by the Mafia Insider Who Turned on the Mob
(New York: Villard Books, 1990), p. 24; Joe Barboza,
Barboza
(New York: Dell Publishing, 1975), p. 103.

13
. Dennis N. Griffin and Andrew DiDonato,
Surviving the Mob: A Street Soldier's Life inside the Gambino Crime Family
(Las Vegas, NV: Huntington Press, 2010), p. 11;
Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi
, 203–204 (testimony of Joseph Pistone).

14
. Tables 7–1 and 7–3 are based on the New York Family charts in
Hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations: Organized Crime and the Illicit Traffic in Narcotics
, Senate, 88th Cong., 1st Sess. (1963). To be consistent with Table 7–2, I have narrowed the population to those 162 soldiers for whom reliable background information was available. The McClellan Committee's charts were based on arrest records and FBI and FBN intelligence files. The charts roughly reflect the primary activities of the soldiers. I have made a few minor adjustments to the data. To be consistent with chapter 5, I have limited the “narcotics” category to those actually convicted of a narcotics crime. In addition, I have supplemented the activities for two soldiers: Joseph Gallo was involved in vending machines, and Joe Valachi was involved in multiple activities.

15
. FBI Record Sheets reprinted in Charlie Carr, ed.,
New York Police Files on the Mafia
(New York: Hosehead Productions, 2012), pp. 52, 94, 176, 184, 280.

16
. DiDonato,
Surviving the Mob
, p. 6.

17
. Peter Maas,
The Valachi Papers
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1968), pp. 93, 129, 227, 232.

18
. Maas,
Underboss
, p. 289 (“Sammy at once confessed to participating, in one way or another, in eighteen or nineteen murders”).

19
. Clinton Prison Classification Clinic, Report on Carmine Galante, February 1, 1944, in Records of the Department of Correctional Services, New York State Archives, Albany, NY (hereafter “NYSA”).

20
.
Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi
, 236 (testimony of Vincent Cafaro); Joseph Stassi, quoted in “Oldest Living Mafioso,”
GQ
(September 2001), p. 376.

21
. Tony Napoli with Charles Messina,
My Father, My Don
, p. 80.

22
. Joseph Pistone,
The Way of the Wiseguy
(Philadelphia: Running Press, 2004), p. 24.

23
. Sal Profaci, quoted in George Anastasia,
The Goodfella Tapes
(New York: Avon Books, 1998) p. 89.

24
. Philip Leonetti, Scott Burnstein, and Christopher Graziano,
Mafia Prince: Inside America's Most Violent Crime Family and the Bloody Fall of La Cosa Nostra
(Philadelphia: Running Press, 2012), p. 25.

25
. Maas,
Underboss
, p. 41; Peter Reuter,
Disorganized Crime: Illegal Markets and the Mafia
(Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1985), p. 99.

26
. Theresa Dalessio with Patrick Picciarelli,
Mala Femina: A Woman's Life as the Daughter of a Don
(Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books, 2003), p. 40.

27
. Maas,
Valachi Papers
, pp. 65, 79.

28
. Pistone,
Donnie Brasco
, p. 115.

29
. Louis Ferrante,
Unlocked: A Journey from Prison to Proust
(New York: Harper, 2008), p. 10.

30
. Vincent Teresa with Thomas C. Renner,
My Life in the Mafia
(New York: Doubleday, 1973), p. 137.

31
.
New York Age
, June 6, 1953; Thomas B. Ripy,
Federal Excise Taxes on Alcoholic Beverages
(Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 1999).

32
. FBI,
Criminal Intelligence Digest
, February 11, 1965, in RG 65 (NARA College Park); case file on
United States v. Pillon and Gambino, et al.
, Case No. 38045 (E.D.N.Y. 1941), in Records of the District Court of the United States, RG 21, National Archives and Records Administration, New York, NY (hereafter “NARA New York”).

33
. Maas,
Valachi Papers
, p. 239.

34
. Acknowledging the “wealth of testimony dealing with racketeering practices and organized crime involvement in the vending industry,” in the 1950s, a later study found racketeering had dissipated by the early 1980s. Peter Reuter, Jonathan Rubinstein, and Simon Wynn,
Racketeering in Legitimate Industries: Two Case Studies
(Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, 1983), pp. 15–31. This change may be due to the entry of new public companies and video electronics. See ibid., pp. 21, 26–27.

35
.
Hearings before the Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field, Part 46
, Senate, 85th Cong., 2d. Sess. (1959) 16626–44 (testimony of Charles Lichtman), 16660–66 (testimony of Milton Green), 16667–79 (testimony of Benjamin Gottlieb).

36
. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice,
The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society
(Washington, DC: GPO, 1967), p. 189.

37
. Donald R. Cressey,
Theft of the Nation: The Structure and Operations of Organized Crime in America
(Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2008), pp. 74–75.

38
. Carl Sifakis,
The Mafia Encyclopedia
, 3rd ed. (New York: Checkmark Books, 2005), p. xv.

39
.
Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi
, 301 (testimony of Joe Valachi); Joseph Volz and Peter J. Bridge, ed.,
The Mafia Talks
(Greenwich, CT: Fawcett, 1969), p. 98.

40
. David Critchley,
The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891–1931
(New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 238, 318 nn. 26–35.

41
. In his otherwise well-researched book, Critchley relies on a skewed analysis of the income of mobsters: First, Critchley emphasizes mob boss John Gotti's “middle-class lifestyle” while conspicuously ignoring Gotti's predecessor, Paul Castellano. Castellano, the Gambino Family boss from 1976 through 1985, was a millionaire who lived in a mansion on Todt Hill, Staten Island (see below). Second, Critchley points to the 1953 divorce proceedings of Anna and Vito Genovese, noting that their house was assessed at only $55,000 and that Anna and the IRS were unable to prove Vito's illegal income. However, their $55,000 house in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, was worth more than four times the median house value in New Jersey in the 1950s (about $481,000 in 2013 dollars), which is not exactly middle class. United States Census Bureau, “Historical Census of Housing Tables Home Values,” available at
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/values.html
(accessed August 20, 2013). Furthermore, multiple underworld sources have since confirmed that Genovese was in fact receiving cash income through hidden interests in nightclubs, narcotics, and other illegal funds.
Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi
, 291–92 (testimony of Valachi); FBI Memorandum, Salvatore Granello, October 5, 1960, and FBI Report, La Cosa Nostra, August 21, 1964, both in RG 65 (NARA College Park);
United States v. Aviles
, 274 F.2d 179 (2d Cir. 1960). Third, Critchley cites a study of “a sample of wills or probates left by deceased Mafia figures in New Jersey-Pennsylvania” that “uncovered their generally leaving few or no assets.” Critchley,
Origin of Organized Crime
, p. 238 (citing Michael Libonati and Herbert Edelhertz,
Study of Property Ownership and Devolution in the Organized Crime Environment
[1983]). But that study relied on a small sample of legal estate filings for mostly low-level men (twelve of the fifteen men). As the authors themselves acknowledge, “estate probate laws and tax requirements are not taken seriously by organized crime figures,” and organized crime figures often hold a range of “non-legal property interests” that do not show up in estate filings. Libonati and Edelhertz,
Study of Property Ownership
, pp. 18–20, 38–40, available at
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/95269NCJRS.pdf
(accessed August 25, 2013). Fourth, Critchley focuses on bookmaking, with “strikingly little mention of numbers.” Shane White et al.,
Playing with Numbers: Gambling in Harlem between the Wars
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010), p. 283 n. 13. However, the numbers lottery was more territorial with higher potential profits (see chapter 2).

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