Rough Draft Of The Mafia Essay

Organized crime; is a group of individuals that work together to illicit profit through illegal and sometimes often violent methods1 and two of the most famous groups are the Mafia and the Irish Mob. The two groups can be traced as far back as the 1800’s and had originally formed together for their financial gain to improve their lives and to protect themselves against the corrupt police officers. However over the years they have developed this infamous reputation tying both groups together, when there are substantial differences between the two. For instance one is based in the country of Sicily and the other was formed right here in the United States. Both groups have different origins, histories, systems and traditions thus making both

The Gambino crime family is one of the five families in New York City. The Gambino crime family is one of the most infamous criminal organizations committing crimes such as racketeering, extortion, money laundering and prostitution. In 1957, the family expanded its power after Albert Anastasia was gunned down while sitting in a barber chair in Manhattan. The Gambino family was named after crime boss Carlo “Don Carlo” Gambino also known as “The Godfather”. He was the boss known for keeping a low profile and reigned from 1959 through 1976 when he died of a heart attack. As the organization grew bosses like Paul Castellano and

Once the organized crime families were established they were the main contributors to the illegal “Bootlegging” of alcohol. During the 20’s there was a great deal of violent crimes. Most of them could be connected back to the organized crime families. Alphonse Gabriel “Al” Capone was a gangster who led illegal activities such as the smuggling and the bootlegging of alcohol during the prohibition. Even though he had a tough exterior he was a caring man he was the first to open up a soup kitchen in Chicago (hammer). Capone’s estimated annual revenue was around 100 million dollars. He had many men working for him such as Frank Nitti, August Pisano and Louis Morganno. He supplied Chicago with most of its alcohol. (Capone: the man and his era).

The Mafia was first developed in Sicily in feudal times to protect the estates of landlords who were out of town. The word Mafia, derived from the Sicilian word, Mafioso, means family. Today, Mafia is a name which describes a loose association of criminal groups. These groups can be bound together by blood, oath or sworn secrecy. Many people had considered the Sicilian Mafia as the most ruthless mobsters of the twentieth century.

“It was during the troubled years of the 1860s that the Italian kingdom’s ruling class ruling class first heard talk of the mafia in Siciliy” (Dickie, s38, 2004). In this quote we find a potential reason to why the idea that the mafia was born during the making of the modern Italian state has become leading with scholars. Most likely this event shaped the mafia into what it has become because of the political influence that the Italian state bestowed upon Sicily. However, it is not unlikely that the mafia wasn’t already existing in Sicily during this time, and most definitely that criminal gangs of Sicily before this time had traits that were transferred into the mafia as it evolved under the new Italian kingdom. While the mafia is largely

Since it is known that the mafia is a criminal organization, but is also, and above all, for many, a way of understanding life, a kind of fundamentalism that cancels out the individuality of its members, whose identity is no longer belong to the member in order to be part of the new identity of the society in which the member will belong to. In fact, every member that was going to be part of that organization had to understand the term of family and had to live as a family. As brothers, the Flenory founded their organization of drug distribution in Detroit at the end of the 90s and gave it that name especially because of their family relationship.

     Exactly what is the Mafia? Mafia, more specifically the Italian-American Mafia, is a group of criminals organized into "families," and operating primarily in North America. Also known as La Cosa Nostra, at one time there were 26 families in the United States - roughly one for each major city. The Mafia composed of bosses of numerous families, mostly New York, was the overseeing authority for all of the other La Cosa Nostra families. New York City is the place of origin for organized crime in the United States. Currently, there are five families in the New York City outfit of the La Cosa Nostra. The five families are, the Gambinos, Genovese, Colombo,

The Five families operate mostly in the State of New York and little through New Jersey. Mainly within five areas like Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, Staten Island and in Northern New Jersey. Since 1960’s the mafia has increased its influence in areas like Long Island and counties like Westchester and Albany. The Five families also have some control in other states like: Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Connecticut and South Florida. The Genovese family operates mostly in Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn and New Jersey and has many influence in other areas inside as well as outside the state. Each family has many crews, which manage every area that their family controls. The Gambino family operates mainly in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and New Jersey and has influence in some other areas around Manhattan and other states. The Bonanno family shares some of its areas with the Gambino family, mainly operates in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island. The Lucchese family controls areas like the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey. And finally the Colombo family operates only in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. Many of these families have the same areas of influence, but they have very distinct borders of operations on the areas they share control. Today five families do not have as many members as around 5,000 20-30 years ago, today’s count is around 500-600 people in all five families. Four out five big bosses are either jailed or sentenced to life imprisonment. But

The Gambino crime family was considered to be the fiercest Italian Mafia ever. Carlo Gambino was determined to become the Boss of Bosses. It did not take long for Gambino to accomplish his lifelong dream. His determination was proven when his former bosses, if he was asked to kill than he would do it without hesitation. This was just the beginning of his control in the Mafia.

The Mafia way of life may seem like a romantic updated version of the western movie played out on the streets of the big cities where the good guys and the wise guys who share the same instincts and values do battle before an enthralled public but it is actually very different. The Mafia is really just a group of uneducated thugs making money by victimizing the public. Initially, the Mafia was setup as a prominent supplier of bootlegged liquor, but it has spread into many different areas of crime. During this research paper I will discuss three aspects of the Mafia which are crime, structure and decline in leadership.

La Cosa Nostra Perhaps one of the most poignant moments in American cinema is the closing scene in the film “The Godfather” when Don Vito Corleone’s son Michael takes over his father’s position... and one of the most unforgettable moments, a severed horses’s head lies bloody in a man’s bed. It is this tradition and brutality that characterizes the Mafia, a secret Sicilian society that lives and functions just as much today on American soil as it did and does still in Italy. To understand this organized crime, one must begin to understand how it came to be organized in the first place. During the medieval times in Sicily, Arabs invaded the land and native Sicilians fled and took refuge in the hills. Some of these refugees formed a

The heaviest presence is in New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Chicago. The most well-known group though, is still the Italian Mafia.

One of the most successful Mafia bosses involved in bootlegging and prostitution was Charles "Lucky" Luciano. He was born in 1897 in Sicily, Italy. At the age of 9 he moved to the Lower East Side of New York. In 1920 he began his own prostitution

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century, criminal organizations have begun to develop within various nations throughout the world. Some of these criminal organizations consist of various national and ethnic groups who centralized themselves as a single enterprise and various illegal activity which results in monetary gains, such as drug trafficking, racketeering, human trafficking, setting up illegal gambling establishments, and corrupting the local government with members of their own. For example, the Mexican drug cartels control one of the vast drug routes in Latin America while the Sicilian Mafia have set up a large protection racketing system throughout Italy. The Yakuza have established themselves in Japan and are

One of the largest Organized crime bust occurred in 2011. Close to 130 members of the New York City Mafia were arrested along with other East Coast cities. The Bonnanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Luchese were all part of the New York’s five families. Members of each of the five families were arrested to include some of the