History UsefulNotes / TheMafia

But as time passed, it slowly became a [[OldGuardVersusNewBlood generational conflict]] between the old guard Sicilian mafiosi, derisively nicknamed Mustache Petes, and [[YoungGun a new faction of younger, Americanized mobsters called the Young Turks]] led by Charles "Lucky" Luciano. The Young Turks were fed up by the Mustache Petes' refusal to accept American customs and to work with other ethnic gangs and sought to seize power in their organizations. To do this, Luciano had to kill his own boss in order to make peace with Maranzano. Masseria was taken out to a Coney Island restaurant in April of 1931, where he was killed while playing cards with Luciano. Reportedly, Luciano excused himself to the restroom when Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Bugsy Siegel and Joe Adonis abruptly burst in and clipped Masseria.\\

After Masseria's death, Maranzano hosted a CriminalConvention in upstate New York. Despite introducing many of the rules that still govern the Mafia and the totem pole hierarchy to insulate bosses from the law, he [[ItsAllAboutMe declared himself]] [[KingOfThieves ''capo di tutti capi'' or "boss of all bosses"]], rankling the other mafiosi and reneging on the peace deal he made with Luciano, who had wanted a power-sharing arrangement. Maranzano also hated Luciano's association with Jewish mobsters and wanted to control the Garment District rackets that Luciano owned. Realizing [[FullCircleRevolution that they had replaced one despot with another]] and that Maranzano was just another Mustache Pete at heart, the Young Turks decided to kill him. Leveraging the fact that he was facing an IRS audit like Capone to their advantage, they sent hitmen disguised as tax agents to his office in September of 1931. Despite putting up a fight, Maranzano was garroted, stabbed and shot multiple times.\\

With Maranzano dead, his apprentice Joe Bonanno took over in late 1931. While he claimed ignorance on his mentor's death, it is implied that he secretly (albeit reluctantly) went along with the hit given that in the tell-all he wrote years later, he mentioned that Maranzano hated the Young Turks' willingness to work with other ethnic gangs that went against the Sicilian values he wanted to keep. Nicknamed "Joe Bananas" because it implied he was crazy, Bonanno forged close ties with bosses of his generation, knowing the money he would rake in by openly working with other gangs. He even became a major drug lord despite blatantly denying any involvement by smuggling heroin via the family's Canadian faction. Because of his foray in drugs, the Bonannos were pejoratively nicknamed the "Heroin" family. He also aggressively expanded in areas such as Wisconsin and Arizona, making his peers feel that he's trying to steal their rackets by "planting flags all over the world." And like his deceased mentor, Bonanno harbored a desire to become the boss of bosses by attempting to take over the Commission and killing rivals he despised in the 1960s.\\

But Bonanno's plan came to a sputtering halt when Joe Colombo, a capo in the Profaci family and the designated gunman, instead spilled the beans to the Commission. Bonanno was ordered to come forward several times, but he was a no-show and simply went AWOL in late 1964. At the same time, he was facing a federal subpoena investigating his racketeering activities. While Bonanno later claimed in a TV interview that he was picked up by the Buffalo mob, it certainly was a {{Blatant Lie|s}} as everyone (including the FBI) thought it was a FakedKidnapping. It is very likely that Bonanno hid in various safehouses both in the States and Canada with armed bodyguards during this period as he was a marked man. After months of no word from Bonanno, the Commission named Gaspar [=DiGregorio=] (who was already dismayed at Bonanno for making his son Bill the family consigliere) as the new boss in 1965, but it wasn't acknowledged by Bonanno's son, triggering an internal MobWar. However, virtually no action took place until an attempted sit-down in early 1966 resulted in a shootout. Nobody was killed, but the Commission shelved [=DiGregorio=]. The bungled hit on Bill also forced Joe to come out of hiding, and the shootings then intensified. The war only ended when Joe and his sons Bill and Joe Jr. were forcibly exiled to Arizona in late 1968, while Paul Sciacca, a [=DiGregorio=] loyalist, was named the new boss.\\

The war ended with Gallo's arrest in 1963, but Magliocco soon became embroiled in Joe Bonanno's audacious plot to take over the Commission. Magliocco went along with it because he despised how Gambino and Lucchese supported the Gallo crew's revolt. However, their scheme sputtered to an abrupt halt when Joe Colombo, another capo in the Profaci family and the designated gunman, squealed about their plans to the Commission. Since the other bosses knew that Magliocco was in poor health, he was spared but was forced to pay a $50,000 fine and resign in favor of Colombo. Bonanno was also ordered to come forward several times, but he was a no-show despite being asked to explain and [[FakedKidnapping staged a bizarre but phony kidnapping]] so he could lay low in Canada for a while. With Gambino's backing, Colombo was named the new boss. As the Five Families became public knowledge during this period due to the Valachi hearings, the family was now publicly referred to as the "Colombo" family.\\

It was at this time that the Mafia started dabbling in drug-running, but the families immediately split into two camps: those in favor believed it was a lucrative operation and felt that their competitors would crush them if they didn't join, while those opposed thought it would bring too much heat from law enforcement. Those in favor eventually won out, and many mobsters began cutting deals with other traffickers to import narcotics into America. Joe Bonanno had henchmen neck-deep in drugs to the point of establishing a crew in Canada to import heroin into the United States; this was the reason why the Bonannos were derisively nicknamed the Heroin family. Carlo Gambino, boss of the Gambino family, used Zips (imported Sicilian mafiosi) to import heroin via his cousins, while Vito Genovese was imprisoned on presumably trumped-up charges of drug dealing. Despite a ''de jure'' "ban" on drug-running being imposed in the 1950s, mafiosi often dealt on the sly and bosses looked the other way as long as nobody was pinched and they got their cut.\\

[[HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee High-profile hearings]] led by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) in 1951 determined that a vast criminal conspiracy operated by Italians did exist, but it did little to deter the Mafia. It was the [[CriminalConvention Apalachin Summit in late 1957]] that really confirmed [[NoMereWindmill the Mafia's existence]]. It was set up by Genovese, who aimed to wrest control of the Luciano family from Frank Costello and become the KingOfThieves after killing Anastasia, boss of the Mangano (now Gambino) family in October 25, 1957. Around a hundred high-level mobsters attended the meeting at the ranch of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre mafia boss Joe Barbara in the sleepy upstate New York hamlet of Apalachin, but things went awry when a suspicious state trooper [[SpottingTheThread noticed the many expensive cars with out-of-state plates parked at the ranch]] and called in reinforcements. The attendees tried to flee the scene when they realized what was happening, but more than sixty of the mobsters were caught, including Genovese himself. Others who were nabbed included Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, and Santo Trafficante. Tommy Lucchese, Steve Magaddino, and Sam Giancana eluded capture, but Joe Bonanno wasn't so lucky, as [[BlatantLies he was captured in a nearby cornfield despite claiming that he was there to visit a friend]]. Genovese ended up taking the blame, being carted off to jail for presumably trumped-up drug trafficking charges in 1959. Despite the attendees' convictions, they were overturned on appeal as there was no proof of wrongdoing before the meeting was broken up. Even then, the exposure was very damaging for a criminal syndicate that valued secrecy above all. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who had long denied that anything like the Mafia existed, ate his words and set up the Top Hoodlum Program to target the mob bosses. The legal stress from Apalachin and a drastic loss in personal wealth caused Joe Barbara to die of a heart attack in 1959. The fallout of the summit caused the Commission to "close the books", meaning that no new made men could be inducted into any of the families; they remained closed until 1976.\\

Another serious threat to the Commission came from within, when Joe Bonanno planned to kill Carlo Gambino, Tommy Lucchese, Steve Magaddino and Los Angeles boss Frank [=DeSimone=] in 1963[[note]]Bonanno's beef with the Commission stemmed from feeling cornered by the rising alliance of Gambino and Lucchese, who had backed a turf war within the Profaci family. He was also estranged from his cousin Magaddino by then, who felt Bonanno was encroaching on his Canadian turf by setting up shop in Montreal. Bonanno was quite greedy as he tried poaching Los Angeles for himself as he felt [=DeSimone=] was ineffectual. That Bonanno had a crew in Arizona made his fellow dons feel he would seize the entire West Coast for himself. Bonanno making his son Bill TheConsigliere over senior wiseguys also caused a stir as they thought Bill was too immature. Some of Bonanno's mooks felt that he prioritized Arizona over the New York City rackets. By rubbing out several of his peers, Bonanno hoped he would be the king of the underworld[[/note]]. To do this, he solicited Profaci boss Joe Magliocco's support, who farmed the job out to Joe Colombo, but the opportunistic Colombo instead spilled the beans to the intended targets. The Commission demanded an explanation for this, but only Magliocco showed up while Bonanno ran away by staging his own kidnapping and later going into hiding. Magliocco was spared but was forcibly shelved and died shortly afterwards due to poor health, while Colombo took control of the Profaci family. Bonanno was eventually exiled to Arizona for good in 1968 when he negotiated a truce with the Commission.

Siegel had been sent out to Las Vegas to oversee construction of the new Flamingo Hotel. However, Luciano and his allies became increasingly wary of Siegel, wondering how the original budget of $1 million somehow ballooned to $6 million. They came to suspect that he and his mistress Virginia Hill were embezzling mob money for themselves and planned to escape should the project fail. Despite Lansky's attempts to have him spared, the bosses were tired of Siegel and had him killed in his Los Angeles home by an unknown gunman on June 20, 1947. When the American government (especially Federal Bureau of Narcotics commissioner Harry Anslinger, whom Luciano pejoratively called "S.O.B. Asslinger" when he was deported) got wind of Luciano staying in Cuba in hopes of sneaking back into the United States illegally, they immediately threatened to halt all exports of medical supplies unless the Cubans expelled Luciano. The Cubans caved in and deported him to Genoa, Italy.\\

Another serious threat to the Commission came from within, when Joe Bonanno planned to kill Carlo Gambino, Tommy Lucchese, Steve Magaddino and Los Angeles boss Frank [=DeSimone=] in 1963[[note]]Bonanno's beef with the Commission stemmed from feeling cornered by the rising alliance of Gambino and Lucchese, who had backed a turf war within the Profaci family. He was also estranged from his cousin Magaddino by then, who felt Bonanno was encroaching on his Canadian turf by setting up shop in Montreal. Bonanno was quite greedy as he tried poaching Los Angeles for himself as he felt [=DeSimone=] was ineffectual. That Bonanno had a crew in Arizona made his fellow dons feel he would seize the entire West Coast for himself. Bonanno making his son Bill TheConsigliere over senior wiseguys also caused a stir as they thought Bill was too immature. Some of Bonanno's mooks felt that he prioritized Arizona over the New York City rackets. By rubbing out several of his peers, Bonanno hoped he would be the king of the underworld[[/note]]. To do this, he solicited Profaci boss Joe Magliocco's support, who farmed the job out to Joe Colombo, but the opportunistic Colombo instead spilled the beans to the intended targets. The Commission demanded an explanation for this, but only Magliocco showed up while Bonanno ran away by staging his own kidnapping and later going into hiding. Magliocco was spared but was forcibly shelved, while Colombo took control of the Profaci family. Bonanno was eventually exiled to Arizona for good in 1968 when he negotiated a truce with the Commission.

While some mobsters like Crazy Joey Gallo appreciated their monikers, others felt it was [[EmbarrassingNickname too embarrassing]] for them. For example, Carmine Persico was called "the Snake" by his rivals because he betrayed the Gallo crew by siding with Joe Profaci during the 1st Colombo family war in the 1960s. Persico hated it, but the name caught on among fellow criminals. Meanwhile, Joe Bonanno was called "Joe Bananas" by the New York newspapers due to a typing error, but he preferred to be called "Don Peppino."

* social club: An offshoot of mainstream Italian-American culture, these were private storefront clubs where mobsters could go to hang out with each other. Most mob business was conducted out of these. Famous ones include the Ravenite (Neil Dellacroce's, then John Gotti's home base in Manhattan), the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club (the Gotti home base in Queens), the Triangle Social Club (Vincent Gigante's home base in Little Italy), the Gemini Lounge (the home base of the notorious DiMeo crew, which lent its name to the crew's method of body disposal) and the Motion Lounge (the home base of the Sonny Black crew infiltrated by Donnie Brasco). Now more or less history due to appreciating real estate prices and increased surveillance of mob-owned establishments.

* social club: An offshoot of mainstream Italian-American culture, these were private storefront clubs where mobsters could go to hang out with each other. Most mob business was conducted out of these. Famous ones include the Ravenite (Neil Dellacroce's, then John Gotti's home base in Manhattan), the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club (the Gotti home base in Queens), the Triangle Social Club (Vincent Gigante's home base in Little Italy), and the Motion Lounge (the home base of the Sonny Black crew infiltrated by Donnie Brasco). Now more or less history due to appreciating real estate prices and increased surveillance of mob-owned establishments.

* '''[[MilkmanConspiracy Garbage hauling]]''': One area that is very notable for mob infiltration is trash disposal. To reduce the strain on their overstressed budgets, many cities in the middle of the 20th century stopped allowing commercial entities to make use of city trash services; the private companies that replaced them often used drivers from unions that were already mob-controlled, making their corruption trivial. The so-called "garbage" mobsters who ran these operations often falsified paperwork and tampered with waste scales, sometimes to skim profits from the business, and sometimes to hide ill-gotten gains in it. Crew members often got "no-show" jobs at these firms to give a legitimate reason to explain their income. They also divvied up routes in cities, rigged contract bids to favor mob-controlled garbage haulers, and quashed any outside competition to keep their prices artificially high. The Genovese family still has some control over garbage hauling through Alphonse "Allie Shades" Malangone, a capo who also has some control over the family's interests in the Fulton Fish Market. ''The Sopranos'' is quite accurate in its portrayal of the North Jersey hauling market around the turn of the 21st century: the division of New Jersey into a myriad of municipalities makes it hard to catch corrupt deals like this, though the state has intervened to block this when it has the resources. This racket has also gone transatlantic; the Camorra got started in the waste business when Naples began outsourcing its waste management in the 1990s and gummed up the works so thoroughly that trash was a huge issue for about 20 years thereafter.
* '''Construction and real estate''': Another area that is rife with mob activity is construction and real estate services. In the 1970s and 80s, most projects in New York could not go ahead without the Five Families' approval, especially if the contract was above $2 million. Many mobsters in major cities were given "no-show" jobs at mob-controlled contractors and unions to explain their income to the IRS, while union leaders were coerced in order to grab a piece of the action whenever they got hold of a construction project, and in some cases, took over the union leadership themselves. Once the Mafia had its hooks into a union, it could secretly control that union's activities and could even slow down or stop a project if contractors and developers didn't make the right pay-offs. These pay-offs to mob-controlled contractors and unions often forced outsiders to pass these costs down the chain to the consumer, causing real estate prices to skyrocket in turn. Plus, the mob has always ingrained itself within real estate crimes, such as [[TheCon "swampland-in-Florida-for-sale" scams]], predatory lending schemes and equity fraud.
* '''Freight services''': Another area that's rife with mob infiltration is in the freight industry, especially in trucking, airports and dockyards. Albert Anastasia, in addition to being a mob-hired hitman, also had control over the unions at the Brooklyn docks, while the Five Families had crews at Idlewild (now JFK) Airport committing crimes such as truck hijacking and infiltration of unions, among other activities. The Teamsters were mob-influenced, especially during Jimmy Hoffa's tenure; he even had connections with the Detroit mafia. The mob would oftentimes infiltrate and shake down unions and businesses servicing this industry, and coerce them into placing mob-friendly candidates. The Lucchese family has long had a stranglehold on the Garment District, through their infiltration of various businesses and unions.

The Mafia solicits specific people for membership — one cannot just walk up to a member and ask to join. The inductee must be a male of full Italian descent. Though this requirement has [[LoweredRecruitingStandards loosened over time]] because of increased inter-marriage, some families are more strict on whom they want to induct than others. An associate who was a cop or attended a police academy can never become an official member, though this rule has oftentimes been bent for corrupt cops. To get into the Mafia's inner circles, one must prove they're a good earner, be on call at all times, and most importantly, follow any orders they get without hesitation.\\

Before being inducted, a candidate is required to carry out a contract killing. Traditionally this was done in order to prove loyalty to the Mafia, but in modern times, it also serves to show that one is not an undercover cop (no, cops may ''not'' legally conspire to murder or assault a civilian); murders committed for [[ItsPersonal personal reasons]] do not count. Committing one's first contract murder is referred to as "making your bones," and a wannabe who does it earns his "button" in the Mafia — meaning he's on track to becoming made. However, earning one's "button" does not always involve killing; good earners or experienced associates who have not necessarily murdered but have good rackets or schemes have in the past become made men due to their valuable contributions beyond murder-for-hire. At times, though valued by higher-ups for their economic contributions, "earners" who have not committed a murder for the Mafia are sometimes derided by those made men that have committed murder to be initiated; made men who have carried out killings may ridicule those initiated due to their economic contributions as having "bought their button." The prospect does not necessarily have to be the gunman, but is expected to be if asked (particularly if they know the victim; having an associate perform ''every'' murder would give potential victims a big red flag as to whether a hit can be expected or not).\\

Many times, they will perform as a backup shooter or lookout, drive the car used to transport the body or a secondary diversion car, act as part of a clean-up or burial crew, or even serve a similar role for an aborted attempt. For example, mob stoolie Joe Valachi's main piece of "work" that qualified him for induction was renting a lookout apartment adjacent to one where a major Masseria figure was thought to live (the mark had moved shortly before the hit attempt). The murder of Paul Castellano involved 13 principals, of which only four were primary shooters (and most were either already made or ineligible to become so). Generally, anything that could get them indicted as a principal in conspiracy to commit murder would be sufficient. Many are simply "dry cleaned;" rather than being used for a specific murder, an initiate is called out for an unspecified "piece of work," watched closely, then dismissed without discussing the matter further. Also, nobody is ever going to check if the proposing captain was lying; mafia members are not police officers and do not conduct investigations. This can and has led to abuse, with some captains even accused of "selling buttons," or proposing initiates in exchange for a payoff. The killing proves that the inductee is truly dedicated to joining the Mafia, knows the risks and penalties involved if he gets out of line, and most importantly, it confirms that he is ''not'' a cop. Though the killing rule was imposed to weed out potential candidates in the past, it seems to have died out in recent years for the most part.\\

When introducing one made man to another, the phrase "a friend of ours" is used, indicating that official business can be discussed openly with him. But the phrase "a friend of mine" is used instead if the third person is an outsider — it means certain pressing matters can't be disclosed openly. Plus, introducing two made men always requires a neutral, third party.\\

The Mafia is structured in a way so the higher-ups cannot be traced back to a single crime, allowing them to pass orders down the chain of command, while the grunts kick in a piece of whatever they earned to their capos and so on. This chain of command was introduced by Sal Maranzano in 1931 as a way to structure the mob along the Roman legions and to maintain order after the Castellammarese War, while the Commission was established by Luciano, who preferred to have a council of bosses governing the mob instead of someone demanding tribute from other bosses, but retained the structure Maranzano established.

* '''[[KingOfThieves Capo di tutti capi]]''' - the Boss of all Bosses in a particular area. More a media title than anything of significance, bosses are seen as ''peers'' and don't take orders from each other. The only boss to ever claim this title for himself was Sal Maranzano after [[WonTheWarLostThePeace "winning"]] the Castellammarese War in 1931, getting to enjoy it for less than six months. Before long, the Young Turks thought he was similar to Masseria, deciding to [[DeadlyEuphemism retire]] the title and Maranzano along with it. An older term, ''capo consigliere'', denoted first among equals of the New York bosses, who would arbitrate disputes between families. This also went by the wayside after the Castellammarese War and was never reestablished afterwards.

* '''[[NumberTwo Underboss]]''' - The second-in-command of a mafia family and usually becomes the boss if the official boss is unavailable or incapacitated. The underboss's power varies by family: some are mere figureheads, while others could be very influential to the point of becoming the ''de facto'' head of the family even if the official boss is free. The former types are often "knocked down" (demoted), or "[[DeadlyEuphemism whacked]]" when their patron is no longer guiding their fortunes or if they fall out of favor with the boss. Will collect tribute from most of the family's captains (some, known as "king's men", have the honor of handing theirs directly to the boss), taking a hefty cut before passing it up, and may be in charge of larger rackets requiring citywide coordination (for example, sports betting, which requires bookies across an urban area to hedge each other's bets to collect profit with minimum risk). It should be noted that ''Capobastone'' is used mainly within the 'Ndrangheta, though, denoting the head of an '''ndrine'' (clan). Typically, the underboss arbitrates many of the disputes, but if it's a major problem, he might consult with the boss, but the boss is the one who retains ultimate authority. However he makes his illegal earnings, it is a significant enough amount to make his position one of envy, especially when prestige and the possibility of additional advancement are weighed. Just like the boss of a family, an underboss may also have a right-hand man as his protege, and the protege may speak in place of them or carry out additional tasks for the underboss.

* '''Labor racketeering''': The Mafia became notorious for infiltrating labor unions, especially in the construction, garbage hauling, food services, freight, and clothing sectors. Tommy Lucchese had a hand in controlling the Garment District, while the Detroit mafia was involved with Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters. Albert Anastasia had control of the Brooklyn docks and had ties to the International Longshoremen's Association through his younger brother Anthony, while Nicodemo Scarfo had control over the local contracting and bartending unions in Atlantic City. The New York families had enough power to halt construction activities within the city if they didn't get the right payoffs. The crimes involved in labor racketeering included union shakedowns, [[StealingFromTheTill theft of]] union benefit plans, rigging elections in favor of mob-linked candidates, forcing companies into hiring mob-controlled workers, and providing "no-show" jobs to mobsters. Because of the Mafia's extensive involvement in labor racketeering, many now perceive unions to be inefficient and corrupt. The film ''Film/OnTheWaterfront'' is a good example of detailing the rampant corruption, extortion, and racketeering in the New Jersey dockyards.

** '''Chairman of the Commission''' - There was no "ruler" of the Commission, but there was a nominated Chairman. This was used to substitute the role of ''boss of bosses'' as it had the negative connotations of the old Mustache Pete system of one-man rule. Luciano became the first chairman in 1931, but it remains unknown who took over after he was deported back to Italy in 1946. Joe Massino was the last verified chairman before he flipped in 2005.

* '''Capodecina/Caporegime''' - Also known as a captain, skipper, ''capo'', "group leader," or "crew chief," he oversees a crew of roughly 10-20 soldiers and many more associates as he can efficiently control in a certain area or racket assigned to him. Grants permission for all criminal activities in his crew (unauthorized activities may run afoul of another crew or another family's rackets), collects a cut of every score from his underlings, and kicks up a portion his crew earned to the higher-ups. Capos are, in effect, the family's "middle management." Their control over the family's earners and shooters gives them a great deal of power and are often the kingmakers if there is no official boss — in fact, protocol dictates that the capos must be polled on who should be the the boss before the Commission greenlights the decision. The latter title is unique to the American Mafia. Sometimes, if a capo is in good graces with the boss, especially if they're a good earner and are respected by the other wiseguys, the official boss may promote the capo to street or acting boss, especially if the boss is imprisoned, grooming an heir, or [[TheManBehindTheMan as a guise to prevent law enforcement from knowing who's actually in charge]]. On occasions, a capo may be placed in charge of a faction that a family has significant interests in; for example, the Genovese family, which has five crews in its New Jersey faction, appoints one of the capos to supervise it.

* '''Gambino crime family''' - Big presence in southern and western Brooklyn (Bay Ridge, Bath Beach, Gravesend, Bensonhurst and the Brooklyn docks), Queens (Howard Beach, the Rockaways and JFK Airport), Long Island and Staten Island, with smaller crews and factions in Manhattan, the Bronx, Westchester, New England, New Jersey, California and Florida. The family also has a big "Zip" faction (the Cherry Hill Gambinos), and formerly had a small crew based in the Baltimore area until the 1990s. Once the biggest crime family, it is now a shell of its former self due to [[ItsAllAboutMe John Gotti's media-hungry antics]] and subsequent imprisonment in 1992. Under family namesake Carlo Gambino's reign, it had around 450 made men, but that has since dipped to between 200-225 made men in recent years.\\

Gotti took over after Castellano's assassination, but his tenure was marred by frequent indictments as he was under intense FBI scrutiny since the 1970s, assassination attempts by rival mob bosses who were outraged at the unsanctioned hit on Castellano[[note]]notably Chin Gigante, who was quite close with Big Paul and tried to kill Gotti via a car bomb. The plan was to have the Gambinos place the blame on its Zip crew. Gotti escaped unscathed as he canceled at the last minute, but the bombing killed Frank [=DeCicco=], Gotti's first underboss[[/note]], and his media-hungry profile. Many of his own henchmen and contemporaries hated him for his flamboyant personality, and by the early 1990s, his underboss Sammy Gravano, [[DefectorFromDecadence fed up]] with his boss's antics, [[TheStoolPigeon decided to]] spill the beans about Gotti's crimes. Though Joe Massino was a staunch supporter of Gotti as both began their mob careers as truck hijackers and Gotti at one point tried to have the Bonannos regain their Commission seat, their relations slowly became strained in the 1990s as Massino feared that Gotti had planned to kill him and elevate his brother-in-law Sal Vitale as boss of the Bonannos. Gotti was imprisoned for life in 1992 after ducking several attempts by federal prosecutors to have him indicted and died of cancer 10 years later.\\

After Genovese died, the family was nominally led by a ruling panel of "dummy" bosses, but the real man in charge was Philip "Cockeyed Phil" Lombardo, the family's street boss since 1962. A reclusive man who who hated attention, Lombardo took a relaxed approach in doing things and used a committee of high-ranking capos as fronts to shield himself so the FBI would go after the wrong man while he remained hidden. Even then, Lombardo made it clear to them that they were required to get his approval before making any major decision. This elaborate ruse appeared to have worked for him, as Lombardo was never caught and retired a free man in 1981 by appointing Vincent Gigante, the alleged gunman behind the Costello hit, as his successor. To disguise this transition, Lombardo designated Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno as the new "front" boss. While it was originally thought that Salerno and the "dummy" bosses before him were running the show, Salerno's protégé Vincent "The Fish" Cafaro, who had turned informer in 1986, revealed that this ruse was going on since 1969.\\

Chin Gigante proved to be even more cautious and shadowy than Lombardo. He also ruled through "Fat Tony" Salerno, but that was just the start. Not only did he limit his contact with his underlings to some of his cronies, he rarely spoke louder than a whisper, insisted that nobody in the mob ever mention his name, and ordered his men to beat up anyone who defied his warning. Others got around this by pointing to their chins, making "C" shapes with their hands, or using the SpeakOfTheDevil trope as indirect references.[[note]]"Chin" was a childhood nickname for Gigante, whose mother had shouted his name in the old-fashioned Italian way as "vin-CHEN-zo!"[[/note]] He also [[ObfuscatingInsanity shielded himself]] from law enforcement scrutiny via the WanderingWalkOfMadness and PlayingSick, and rarely ventured outside for fear his house could be bugged. It worked until 1997, when he was imprisoned for multiple racketeering and murder charges, and finally admitted to pulling the "crazy stunt" to stymie investigations in 2003.[[note]]Ironically, some have suggested this admission was proof that he actually ''was'' nuts, since he seemed to be on the verge of getting acquitted on the basis of insanity...though it could be that he figured he could keep running family from prison, but would have a harder time doing so from a mental hospital[[/note]] Besides that, Gigante tried to murder John Gotti for killing his own boss in 1986, though he came off as a hypocrite since he actually partook in the botched hit on Frank Costello in 1957[[note]]which was reportedly unsanctioned[[/note]], who barely escaped with a scalp wound.\\

It should be noted in RealLife that there are in fact ''two'' Mafias: the '''Sicilian''' Mafia and the '''American''' Mafia. The first has operated in UsefulNotes/{{Sicily}} at least since the unification of UsefulNotes/{{Italy}} (and possibly much longer, though most of their history has been heavily romanticized). It limits its membership to Sicilian males with no police relatives, and despite massive prosecutions in Italy starting in TheEighties, they still have a heavy presence in Sicily today. They accomplished this by sending politicians on their payroll straight to [[UsefulNotes/RepublicanItaly Parliament]], and sadly the reveal of an MP sitting in the national anti-Mafia commission to have ties or suspected ties with Cosa Nostra is not that infrequent.

The Mafia solicits specific people for membership — one cannot just walk up to a member and ask to join. The inductee must be a male of full Italian descent. Though this requirement has loosened over time, some families are more strict on whom they want to induct than others. An associate who was a cop or attended a police academy can never become an official member, though this rule has oftentimes been bent for corrupt cops. To get into the Mafia's inner circles, one must prove they're a good earner, be on call at all times, and most importantly, follow any orders they get without hesitation.\\

Being an [[EqualOpportunityEvil equal-opportunity gangster]], Luciano encouraged his peers to work with each other and with other ethnic groups, noting how older mafiosi opposed their younger members' desire to work with other ethnic gangs, let alone fellow Italians. The Young Turks wanted to branch out knowing the many ways they could rake in money, but were frequently stymied by the Mustache Petes, who felt these outsiders weren't a part of their world and distrusted them. The Young Turks soon concluded that these dinosaurs were too dead-set and archaic in their ways to see the boons of working with each other and with non-Italians. Luciano also believed that the initiation ceremony was a Sicilian anachronism that didn't relate to the business-oriented American lifestyle. However, Lansky and Genovese persuaded Luciano to keep the ritual, arguing that they needed it to promote obedience and to placate the Sicilians. Luciano remained committed to the code of omert&agrave to protect the families from legal prosecution and retained the structure that Maranzano established.\\

* Through a court order, RICO forces violators to forfeit illegal gains and post a performance bond in lieu of an asset freeze. It ensures there's something to seize so they can't be hidden before judgment. This was included as the Mafia often gobbled up the assets of indicted companies, leaving nothing but a dilapidated husk.

* RICO targets omert&agrave by imposing long prison sentences and hefty fines on indicted mobsters with the aim of convincing them to turn informer. Through the WitnessProtection program, it can further entice them to start anew.

The Mafia solicits specific people for membership — one cannot just walk up to a member and ask to join. The inductee must be a male of full Italian descent. Though this requirement has loosened over time, some families are more strict on whom they want to bring in than others. An associate who was a cop or attended a police academy can never become an official member, though this rule has oftentimes been bent for corrupt cops. To get into the Mafia's inner circles, one must prove they're a good earner, be on call at all times, and most importantly, follow any orders they get without hesitation.\\

Before being inducted, a candidate is required to carry out a contract killing. Traditionally this was done in order to prove loyalty to the Mafia, but in modern times, it also serves to show that one is not an undercover cop (no, cops may ''not'' legally conspire to murder or assault a civilian); any murder committed for [[ItsPersonal personal reasons]] does not count. Committing one's first contract murder is referred to as "making your bones," and a wannabe who does it earns his "button" in the Mafia — meaning he's on track to becoming made. However, earning one's "button" does not always involve killing; good earners or experienced associates who have not necessarily murdered for the Mafia but have good rackets or schemes have in the past become made men due to their valuable contributions beyond murder-for-hire. At times, though valued by higher-ups for their economic contributions, "earners" who have not committed a murder for the Mafia are sometimes derided by those made men that have committed murder to be initiated; made men who have carried out killings may ridicule those initiated due to their economic contributions as having "bought their button." The prospect does not necessarily have to be the gunman, but is expected to be if asked (particularly if they know the victim; having an associate perform ''every'' murder would give potential victims a big red flag as to whether a hit can be expected or not).\\

Chin Gigante proved to be even more cautious and shadowy than Lombardo. He also ruled through "Fat Tony" Salerno, but that was just the start. Not only did he limit his contact with his underlings to some of his cronies, he rarely spoke louder than a whisper, insisted that nobody in the mob ever mention his name, and ordered his men to beat up anyone who defied his warning. Others got around this by pointing to their chins, making "C" shapes with their hands, or using the SpeakOfTheDevil trope as indirect references.[[note]]"Chin" was a childhood nickname for Gigante, whose mother had shouted his name in the old-fashioned Italian way as "vin-CHEN-zo!"[[/note]] He also shielded himself from law enforcement scrutiny via ObfuscatingInsanity and PlayingSick, and rarely ventured outside for fear his house could be bugged. It worked until 1997, when he was imprisoned for multiple racketeering and murder charges, and finally admitted to pulling the "crazy stunt" to stymie investigations in 2003.[[note]]Ironically, some have suggested this admission was proof that he actually ''was'' nuts, since he seemed to be on the verge of getting acquitted on the basis of insanity...though it could be that he figured he could keep running family from prison, but would have a harder time doing so from a mental hospital[[/note]] Besides that, Gigante tried to murder John Gotti for killing his own boss in 1986, though he came off as a hypocrite since he actually partook in the botched hit on Frank Costello in 1957[[note]]which was reportedly unsanctioned[[/note]], who barely escaped with a scalp wound.\\

Another blow to the mob came in 1963, when a low-level grunt named Joe Valachi became the first made man to openly flip. Valachi claimed that he was testifying as a public service and to expose the Mafia, but it's believed that he may have agreed to turn state's evidence as part of a plea bargain over a murder he'd committed while in prison for heroin trafficking.[[note]]Valachi believed that he'd been marked for death by Vito Genovese and bludgeoned another inmate to death after mistaking him for a man named Joseph [=DiPalermo=], who he thought had been assigned to whack him.[[/note]]. While there had been other mob informants before him, Valachi was the first to openly admit to the Mafia's existence. His testimony before Congress provided the American public and law enforcement with their first real glimpse of the Mafia's inner workings.\\

Initially, the Commission Case included the higher-ups of the Five Families at the time, but Rusty Rastelli was removed early as he was indicted on a separate labor racketeering case. This enabled the Bonannos to suffer less exposure than the other families. Neil Dellacroce died of cancer in December 1985 before he could be sentenced, while Paul Castellano was murdered later that month while out on bail. Tony Salerno's status as a "front" boss for Vincent "the Chin" Gigante didn't jeopardize his trial as he was charged for specific criminal acts, not for being the Genovese family boss. The Supreme Court later upheld his conviction in 1987.\\

With many mobsters facing life imprisonment, they simply began to spill the beans left and right in 1990s. Aside from Joe Valachi, among the more notable [[TheStoolPigeon stool pigeons]] was Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, whose testimony helped take down John Gotti, Vincent Gigante and others in the 1990s. Joe Massino was another example, when he became the first official boss to become an informant in 2005. Other tactics used in obtaining information included constant surveillance of mob haunts, using lip-reading experts, eavesdropping via "bugs" and tapped phones, and having someone wear a HiddenWire or TrackingDevice, though that ran the risk of them getting killed if a "pat-down" was done and the person was forced to strip down.\\

Across the pond, the Italian government itself had a sluggish start in the 1970s, but the repeated and brazen killings of anti-Mafia judges and civilians by the Corleonesi clan forced them to take a harder stance and pass their version of the RICO Act. In fact, while the American Mafia generally shuns killing a cop due to harsh sentences for even assaulting one, their Sicilian cousins have no qualms publicly murdering cops, journalists, and others who cross them. The crackdowns intensified with the Maxi Trials of the 1980s, in which 338 mafiosi received long sentences and had their convictions upheld by the Supreme Court of Cassation. Much of the evidence came from Tommaso Buscetta, who became an informant in 1984 [[TheDogBitesBack after several of his relatives were murdered]]. In retaliation, the two leading prosecutors in the Maxi Trials (Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino) were assassinated in separate car bombings in 1992. This resulted in more crackdowns, forcing the Sicilians to reduce their illegal activities much further while letting other criminal groups take the heat. Later FBI memos revealed that the American and Sicilian mob bosses wanted to kill Giuliani for his role in the anti-Mafia operations, but backed out when warned of possible LE retaliation.\\

To frustrate the feds' efforts, the Mafia sometimes used WalkAndTalk to avoid being heard on bugs and prevent lip-reading experts from picking up their conversations by covering their mouths or whispering, shunned telephones for fear of having their convos taped, did "pat-downs" to see if someone was wearing a wire, used TroubleEntendre that wouldn't hold up in court as a confession, invoked the 5th Amendment during government investigations, and "swept" their LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub for bugs regularly. More bizarre attempts to avoid prosecution included [[ObfuscatingInsanity feigned mental illness]] like Gigante or a faked kidnapping like Bonanno.\\

While the tactics used by law enforcement significantly crippled many families on both sides of the pond, the most powerful brugads remain dominant on their turf even if the new laws put more mobsters in jail and made it harder to operate.

With the old guard out of the way, Luciano now consolidated his own power base, appointing Genovese as underboss and Frank Costello as consigliere. He then revolutionized the American Mafia by forming a Commission to settle disputes and encouraging the other bosses to work with each other instead of "hitting the mattresses." By doing so, this enabled Luciano to become the ''de facto'' boss of bosses without declaring himself as one openly, aware that his peers would react negatively just as they did with Masseria and Maranzano before. However, he faced an indictment from US attorney Thomas Dewey for pandering in 1937 and was sent back to Italy in 1946, where he worked with the Sicilian mafia to establish an international drug trafficking empire. Many have noted that Luciano would never directly involve himself in such a racket and that the case itself was bogus. Having set up multiple layers of insulation, it would have been significantly out of character for Luciano to be directly involved in ''any'' criminal operation, let alone a prostitution ring.\\

Although Genovese was the prime candidate to succeed Luciano, he himself faced a murder indictment and fled to Italy in 1937, so the family was taken over by Costello, a key political fixer. Costello had huge gambling and white-collar rackets in New York City, and was always craving to go legitimate. It was once said that no municipal official or politician could accept their position without securing Costello's personal backing. He even had behind-the-scenes influence over Tammany Hall (the local Democratic political machine) through proxies such as Carmine [=DeSapio=] and Robert Wagner. But the Kefauver hearings in 1951 were aimed at proving that a secretive Italian organized crime conspiracy existed in the United States, and Costello's reputation took a big hit because of this. By the late 1950s, he faced a growing threat from Vito Genovese, who felt he should be boss while silently eliminating allies of Costello after returning to the United States in 1945, most notably William "Willie Moore" Moretti, Costello's underboss. By 1957, Genovese, with the sufficient backing of Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese, then ordered a hit on Costello in May, though Costello manages to survive the hit by getting away with only a scalp wound thanks to the gunman's unintentional warning and steps down to avoid further bloodshed.\\

Taking over after Costello's forced retirement, Genovese then ordered a hit on rival mob boss Albert Anastasia and called for a national mob meeting to consolidate his own power base in late 1957. But the Apalachin Meeting turned into a debacle as it exposed the Mafia to outside scrutiny for the first time and the other bosses (notably Gambino and Lucchese, who switched sides and supported Costello, Luciano and Lansky) had him falsely implicated on drug charges. To make matters worse, a low-level soldato named [[TheStoolPigeon Joe Valachi]] became the first made man to [[TheInformant testify about the American Mafia's inner workings in front of a Congressional panel]]. Valachi feared Genovese ordered a hit on him, but the threat of the death penalty became his rationale to cooperate with the FBI in 1963. While there were other mafiosi who were secretly passing intel, Valachi became the first to openly admit being one. Although his disclosures never led to any major prosecutions, Valachi gave a good glimpse of the Mafia's inner workings. Genovese continued to rule the family from prison via ruling panels and acting bosses until his death in 1969.\\

Chin Gigante proved to be even more cautious and shadowy than Lombardo. He also ruled through "Fat Tony" Salerno, but that was just the start. Not only did he limit his contact with his underlings to some of his cronies, he rarely spoke louder than a whisper, insisted that nobody in the mob ever mention his name, and ordered his men to beat up anyone who defied his warning. Others got around this by pointing to their chins, making "C" shapes with their hands, or using the SpeakOfTheDevil trope as indirect references.[[note]]"Chin" was a childhood nickname for Gigante, whose mother had shouted his name in the old-fashioned Italian way as "vin-CHEN-zo!"[[/note]] He also shielded himself from law enforcement scrutiny via ObfuscatingInsanity and PlayingSick, and rarely ventured outside for fear his house could be bugged. It worked until 1997, when he was imprisoned for multiple racketeering and murder charges, and finally admitted to pulling the "crazy stunt" to stymie investigations in 2003.[[note]]Ironically, some have suggested this admission was proof that he actually ''was'' nuts, since he seemed to be on the verge of getting acquitted on the basis of insanity...though it could be that he figured he could keep running family from prison, but would have a harder time doing so from a mental hospital[[/note]] Besides that, Gigante tried to murder John Gotti for killing his own boss in 1986, though he came off as a hypocrite since he actually partook in the unsanctioned attempted hit on Frank Costello in 1957, who barely escaped with a scalp wound.\\

Lucchese died of cancer in 1967 and was replaced by Carmine Tramunti, who had a good relationship with the other bosses; Tramunti later branched out in construction and narcotics trafficking. Tony "Ducks" Corallo took over as boss in 1973 after Tramunti was indicted and convicted for narcotics trafficking in the infamous French Connection case. Corallo expanded the family's rackets in labor unions, construction, and garbage hauling, which became one of their prime rackets via a cartel of mob-linked haulers and unions forcing customers to use them. One waste hauler, Robert Kubecka and his brother-in-law Donald Barstow, were murdered by capo Sal Avellino when they repeatedly refused to join the mobbed-up cartel. Under Corallo's reign, one of the most notorious robberies took place - the Lufthansa Heist. The heist occurred when several truck hijackers linked to Jimmy "the Gent" Burke and Paul Vario ran off with nearly $6 million in cash and jewelry. Like his predecessors, Corallo took a relaxed approach in running the family, being content with the small tribute he got from the New Jersey faction. Though he never discussed business during sit-downs or on phones as he feared the conversations could be taped, Corallo used a car phone in his Jaguar. He was unaware the car itself was bugged by the New York state police's organized crime unit. The recordings were later used against him during the Commission Case[[note]]other bugs placed by the FBI included Paul Castellano's mansion in Staten Island, Fat Tony Salerno's social club in East Harlem, Colombo underboss Jerry "Lang" Langella's restaurant in Brooklyn, and Colombo capo Ralph Scopo's home. Scopo was included in the Commission Case due to his backdoor influence in construction unions. Through Scopo, the Five Families (except for the Bonannos, who were exiled from the Commission at this point) could extort contractors with a 2% kickback in exchange for no labor problems[[/note]].\\

A made man must have enough success in his schemes in order to remain in favor with his superiors and avoid becoming a problem. Some associates become soldiers because of their usefulness in strong-arm work, but even they must demonstrate an ability to earn money. A soldier will be given profitable rackets to run by his superiors, but for the most part they must also generate money on their own. In essence, it's GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity for any mafioso, as even lucrative rackets can go dry if they don't have good backup schemes. Some soldati are wealthy because they choose to keep a low profile, while others are broke becauese of their free-spending habits In recent years, as Italian-Americans have gentrified and mob rackets have become both a lot more lucrative and a lot more rare, it's not uncommon for an associate to already be a millionaire at the time he is proposed for membership.\\

It should be noted in RealLife that there are in fact ''two'' Mafias: the '''Sicilian''' Mafia and the '''American''' Mafia. The first has operated in UsefulNotes/{{Sicily}} at least since the unification of UsefulNotes/{{Italy}} (and possibly much longer, though most of their history has been heavily romanticized). It limits its membership to Sicilian males with no police relatives, and despite massive prosecutions in Italy and starting from TheEighties, they still have a heavy presence in Sicily today. They accomplished this by sending politicians on their payroll straight to [[UsefulNotes/RepublicanItaly Parliament]], and sadly the reveal of an MP sitting in the national anti-Mafia commission to have ties or suspected ties with Cosa Nostra is not that infrequent.

Historians are still somewhat unsure as to when and where exactly the Mafia began in Sicily, as the Mafia itself has tended to heavily romanticize and exaggerate its own history. But Sicily semi-frequently facing various invasions by bigger powers throughout history — having been in the hands of the [[AncientRome Romans]], the UsefulNotes/{{Arab|World}}s, the [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy Normans]], and the Spanish, and finally the [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire British]],[[note]]During UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars, during which the Spanish-descended Sicilian Bourbons were forced to flee the Italian mainland to the island of Sicily, during which time the Brits basically forced the Bourbons to establish a constitutional monarchy on British lines (The Brits did more or less the same thing in the parts of Spain they held during the Peninsular War) The actual Sicilians really liked this, and were dismayed when the Bourbons reestablished absolutism upon moving back to Naples after the Peace of Vienna in 1815.[[/note]] the Neapolitans,[[note]]During the UsefulNotes/RevolutionsOf1848, Sicily threw off the Naples-based restored Bourbon monarchy and demanded (essentially) the restoration of their British-era constitution. When the Bourbon monarch in Naples refused, they declared independence (and started looking for a new king, though they found no takers) while fiercely defending themselves against Neapolitan attack for basically the whole year.[[/note]] and the Italians (a citizen of Sicily identifying as a Sicilian rather than an Italian is not uncommon today) — definitely played a role in creating a general distrust towards any outside authorities claiming dominion. What is also established is that the Mafia's structure and hierarchy show clear inspiration from customs and ideals upheld by Roman noble families.

The American Mafia began with loosely-knit protection gangs known as ''Black Hands,'' taking orders from emigrated Sicilian mafiosi. Charles "Lucky" Luciano, both a member of the Sicilian Mafia (under Joe Masseria) and a graduate of the infamous Italian-American Five Points Gang, drew members from other parts of Italy (or rather, other parts of ''Little'' Italy) under his umbrella, knocked off the old hats (known in the day as "Mustache Petes"), and reorganized the American Mafia along territorial lines (doing away with gangs based on where in Italy the mafioso's families were from). Each city in the country was given to one family, except for New York, which famously got five. This structure, along with the "Commission" (an executive body designed for resolving disputes, which included at its inception the bosses of the Five Families, the boss from Buffalo, and Chicago boss Al Capone, and at times included other families such as Philadelphia and Detroit; the modern "Commission" now consists of the bosses of the Five Families and the boss of the Chicago Outfit) is generally believed to have held up today, despite heavy law enforcement pressure. Modern-day candidates for "made guys" must be "of Italian descent," which can mean varying things according to which family is making the decision; some families, such as the Chicago Outfit, do not heavily stress the "made guy" role and do a lot of business with associates of non-Italian ethnicity (indeed, the "Chicago Outfit" was originally a coalition of many ethnic gangs, including Irish, Italians, Jews, and Poles, under the leadership of Al Capone's predecessor Johnny Torrio, who all agreed not to interfere with the other gangs' bootlegging operations; the Italians, being the most organized and having connections to the massive operations in New York, were merely first among equals); other families, such as the Bonannos, have substantial "zip" (imported Sicilian mafiosi[[note]]And later, by extension, other Southern Italian gangsters, e.g. Neapolitan camorristi[[/note]]) crews and are more stringent on whom they do business with.[[note]]This is why "zips" are relatively common in ''Series/TheSopranos''—the Lupertazzi family of which the Jersey family is a tributary is basically an amalgam of the Gambinos and Bonnanos.[[/note]]

In addition to the traditional "bread-and-butter" crimes such as loansharking, gambling, extortion, and murder (see MurderInc), the American Mafia has even branched out to other areas, such as bootlegging and gunrunning, especially in the 1920s and 1930s. They even ventured out into other crimes such as labor racketeering, political corruption, and white-collar crimes, oftentimes with other ethnic gangs. What made the American Mafia different from other ethnic criminal gangs was their unique chain of command, which was set up to insulate the higher-ups from law enforcement heat AND that they were able to infiltrate ''legitimate'' institutions of society such as businesses and political institutions in a way no other criminal society has ever done before.

The American Mafia started out as street-level gangsters, originating as Black Hand {{Loan Shark}}s and extortion rings in the early 1890s, mostly targeting the impoverished Italian ghettoes they were based in. The Five Points Gang became notorious in the 1910s and 1920s, a brief MobWar with the Camorra ended with the Camorra being decimated by informants and the remnants being absorbed into the Mafia. New Orleans became the first site of Mafia activity when the chief of police was gunned down in 1890. Whether he was killed by Italians or the hit was a frame-up remains unknown, but when the suspects were acquitted, eleven of them were brutally lynched by angry rioters. This strained Italy's relations with the United States for a brief time, but they patched it up when President Benjamin Harrison declared the first nationwide celebration of Columbus Day in 1892. On the flip side, it became a rallying cry for nativists to limit immigration to America.\\

With the advent of Prohibition, many mobsters quickly became bootleggers thanks to the national ban on alcohol sales, profiting from it by setting up illegal breweries and speakeasies. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's crackdown on the Sicilian mob in the 1920s also changed things as many mafiosi fled to set up shop in America. However, it also led to numerous {{Mob War}}s in large cities, as the Italians competed with each other and with other ethnic gangs for control over booze rackets. In Chicago, the Neapolitan UsefulNotes/AlCapone and his Chicago Outfit duked it out with not only the Sicilians, but also with Bugs Moran and the Irish Mob. But it was the New York war which ultimately changed the course of the Mafia and organized crime in general forever.\\

The Castellammarese War (as it was known because one of the warring factions came from Castellammare del Golfo, a seaside town in western Sicily) began when Joe "the Boss" Masseria, head of the Morello gang, bullied the other Italian gangs into paying a hefty "street tax" to him and hijacked their bootlegging rackets. But Salvatore Maranzano and his Castellammarese Clan openly defied Masseria's high-handedness. Soon enough, both sides went to war in 1929. While Masseria had a slight advantage in manpower, Maranzano's charisma and his gang's cohesiveness (as Castellammaresi domiciled in other cities lent their support to Maranzano) evened out things.\\

But as time passed, it slowly became a [[OldGuardVersusNewBlood generational conflict]] between the old guard Sicilian mafiosi, derisively nicknamed Mustache Petes, and [[YoungGun a new faction of younger, Americanized mobsters called the Young Turks]]. Led by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, the Young Turks believed that the Mustache Petes refused to accept American customs. To do this however, Luciano had to kill his own boss in order to make peace with Maranzano. So Masseria was taken out to a Coney Island restaurant in April of 1931, where he was killed while playing cards with Luciano. Reportedly, Luciano excused himself to the restroom when Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Bugsy Siegel and Joe Adonis abruptly burst in and clipped Masseria.\\

After Masseria's death, Maranzano hosted a CriminalConvention in upstate New York. Despite introducing many of the rules that still govern the Mafia and the totem pole hierarchy to insulate bosses from the law, he [[ItsAllAboutMe declared himself]] the mob's KingOfThieves, rankling other mafiosi and reneging on the peace deal he made with Luciano, who wanted a power-sharing arrangement. Maranzano also hated Luciano's association with Jewish mobsters and wanted to control the Garment District rackets that Luciano owned. Realizing [[FullCircleRevolution they just replaced one despot with another]] and that Maranzano was just another Mustache Pete at heart, the Young Turks decide to kill him. Leveraging the fact that he was facing an IRS audit like Capone to their advantage, they sent hitmen disguised as tax agents to his office in September of 1931. Despite putting up a fight, Maranzano was garroted, stabbed and shot multiple times.\\

After Maranzano's death, it was originally believed a [[ThePurge purge]] of Mustache Petes took place in late 1931. These rumors were seemingly confirmed by Joe Valachi's testimony in later years, but despite a few old-timers in Pittsburgh, Newark and Los Angeles being bumped off, this has been since debunked.

With the old guard out of the way, it paved the path for Luciano's rise to power. Disliking the old practice of having a mob overlord, he restructured the Mafia by introducing a Commission to resolve disputes among the various families. He also branched out to work with other ethnic mobs, including the KosherNostra (particularly fellow Young Turk [[TheConsigliere Meyer Lansky]]) and TheIrishMob, to form a [[TheSyndicate National Crime Syndicate]] that functioned more like a conglomerate. To ensure the other mobsters fell in line, Luciano even formed a Brooklyn-based gang of Italian and Jewish gunmen, later dubbed "MurderInc" by the press, to function as the Syndicate's enforcement arm. Led by Albert Anastasia and Louis Buchalter, Murder Inc. may have committed as many as 900 murders between 1931 and 1951. Plus, the money Luciano and his allies earned from traditional crimes enabled them to expand into areas such as labor unions, construction, and political corruption.\\

Knowing what happened to Masseria and Maranzano when they declared themselves boss of bosses — the power went to their heads and they immediately ill-treated their henchmen — Luciano decided it'd be better to rule by consensus rather than have a supreme leader. The Commission serves as a board of trustees where the various bosses would resolve issues, pass ukases that affect the Mafia, and vote on things that required inter-family cooperation. This way, the mob could operate more efficiently rather than waging turf wars that not only attracted attention, but also slowed everything down. Also, the bosses were to hold meetings every five years to talk about issues plaguing the underworld unless an emergency that needed everyone's attention. The original Commission in 1931 composed of the Five Families, the Buffalo Arm and the Chicago Outfit, though other cities such as Philadelphia and Detroit have had Commission seats at times. Being first among equals, Luciano became the Commission's first chairman.\\

Being an [[EqualOpportunityEvil equal-opportunity gangster]], Luciano encouraged his peers to work with each other and with other ethnic groups, noting how older mafiosi opposed their younger members' desire to work with other ethnic gangs, let alone fellow Italians. The Young Turks wanted to branch out knowing the many ways they could rake in money, but were frequently stymied by the Mustache Petes, who felt these outsiders weren't a part of their world and distrusted them. The Young Turks soon concluded that these dinosaurs were too dead-set and archaic in their mindset to see the boons of working with each other and with non-Italians. Luciano also believed that the initiation ceremony was a Sicilian anachronism that didn't relate to the business-oriented American lifestyle. However, Lansky and Genovese persuaded Luciano to keep the ritual, arguing that they needed it to promote obedience and to placate Sicilians. Luciano remained committed to omertà to protect the families from legal prosecution and retained the structure that Maranzano established.\\

One of the first problems the Commission faced was when Albert Anastasia alerted them of Dutch Schultz's intent to kill US Attorney Thomas Dewey. Almost immediately, [[VillainousRescue the bosses kiboshed the proposal]], [[PragmaticVillainy knowing what could happen to them]] if a federal prosecutor was killed. Instead, the Commission had Schultz killed off. However, things didn't go well for Luciano and he was deported back to Italy in 1946 following his conviction for running a prostitution ring; he later formed ties with the Sicilians to distribute drugs into the United States.

With the money they made from bootlegging, the Mafia made aggressive inroads into other areas, one of which included infiltrating legitimate interests to cover up their activities. In the 1940s, Meyer Lansky made inroads into the casino industry in Cuba while the Mafia was already involved in exporting Cuban sugar and rum. When Lansky's friend UsefulNotes/FulgencioBatista became president in 1952, the mob was able to make legitimate investments in legalized casinos. Under Batista's rule, Havana became known as "the Latin Las Vegas" and the Mafia's new personal playground [[ViceCity thanks to the numerous mob-owned casinos and brothels that were operating.]] Not only this, Cuba served as one of the main transfer points for drug shipments from Europe and the Middle East to various US port cities controlled by the mob. In late 1946, the major bosses secretly met in Havana to discuss the gambling opportunities in Las Vegas, whether or not to join the growing narcotics trade, and discuss why Bugsy Siegel, a longtime ally of Luciano and Lansky, was now becoming a liability for them.\\

Siegel had been sent out to Las Vegas to oversee construction of the new Flamingo Hotel since the early 1940s. However, Luciano and his allies became increasingly wary of Siegel, wondering how the original budget of $1 million somehow ballooned to $6 million and suspected he and his mistress Virginia Hill were embezzling mob money for themselves and planned to escape should the project fail. Despite Lansky's attempts to have him spared, the bosses were tired of Siegel and had him killed in his Los Angeles home by an unknown gunman on June 20, 1947. When the American government (especially Federal Bureau of Narcotics commissioner Harry Anslinger, whom Luciano pejoratively called "S.O.B. Asslinger" when he was deported) got wind of Luciano staying in Cuba in hopes of sneaking back into the United States illegally, they immediately threatened to halt all medical supplies unless the Cubans expelled Luciano. The Cubans caved in and deported him to Genoa, Italy.\\

By the late 1950s, Batista was becoming increasingly unpopular with the lower and middle classes and wanted to suppress a nascent communist rebellion led by UsefulNotes/FidelCastro. Despite generous support from the CIA to have the rebellion crushed, Batista hightailed to Portugal in 1959, allowing Castro to seize power and align Cuba with the Soviet Union instead of the West. Viewing them as symbols of capitalist decadence and immorality, Castro then nationalized all American-owned industries and shuttered the Mafia's rackets, causing the mob to lose millions and set their eyes on Las Vegas, and also work with the CIA on having Castro overthrown, but those attempts later became PR disasters, especially when the Americans severed all diplomatic ties (until 2015) and imposed an economic embargo that still stands to this day. Because of the tremendous money-making opportunities in Las Vegas, the Commission declared it to be open turf not under the control of any family, meaning that any family crew can set up shop there.\\

It was at this time that the Mafia started dabbling in drug-running, but it immediately split into two camps: those in favor believed it was a lucrative operation and felt that their competitors would crush them if they didn't join, while those opposed thought it would bring heat. Those in favor eventually won out, and many mobsters began dealing with other traffickers to import narcotics into America. Joe Bonanno had henchmen neck-deep with drugs to the point of establishing a crew in Canada to import heroin into the United States; this was the reason why the Bonannos were derisively nicknamed the Heroin family. Carlo Gambino, boss of the Gambino family, used Zips (imported Sicilian mafiosi) to import heroin via his cousins, while Vito Genovese was imprisoned on presumably trumped up charges of drug dealing. Despite a ''de jure'' "ban" on drug-running being imposed in the 1950s, mafiosi often dealt on the sly and bosses looked the other way as long as nobody was pinched and they got their cut.\\

[[HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee High-profile hearings]] led by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) in 1951 determined that a vast criminal conspiracy operated by Italians did exist, but it did nothing to dent the Mafia. It was the [[CriminalConvention Apalachin Summit in late 1957]] that really confirmed [[NoMereWindmill the Mafia's]] existence. It was set up by Genovese, who aimed to wrest control of the Luciano family from Frank Costello and become the KingOfThieves after killing Anastasia, boss of the Mangano (now Gambino) family in October 25, 1957. Around 100 mobsters attended the meeting at the ranch of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre mafia boss Joe Barbara in upstate New York, but things went awry when a curious state trooper got wind of the expensive cars at the ranch. Many mafiosi tried to scurry away in haste, but more than 60 mobsters were caught including Genovese himself. Others nabbed include Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, and Santo Trafficante. Tommy Lucchese, Steve Magaddino and Sam Giancana eluded capture, but Joe Bonanno wasn't so lucky, as [[BlatantLies he was captured in a nearby cornfield despite claiming to visit a friend]]. Genovese ended up taking the blame, being carted off to jail for presumably trumped-up drug trafficking charges in 1959. Despite the attendees' convictions, they were overturned on appeal as there was no proof of wrongdoing before the meeting was broken up. Even then, it was very damaging for a criminal syndicate that valued secrecy above all. The legal stress from Apalachin and a drastic loss in personal wealth caused Joe Barbara to die of a heart attack in 1959.\\

Another blow to the mob came in 1963, when a low-level grunt named Joe Valachi became the first made man to openly flip by providing the public a good glimpse of the Mafia's inner workings in front of Congress. While there were other mob informants before him, Valachi was the first to openly admit being one. Due to this, the Commission paused new inductions with a few exceptions before "reopening the books" in 1975 to replenish the depleted ranks.\\

Also at this time, President UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was killed on November 22, 1963, halting the Valachi hearings for the time being. Although Lee Harvey Oswald was quickly ID'd as the gunman, numerous irregularities in the records — along with Oswald's ''own'' murder by a mob-linked nightclub owner named Jack Ruby — soon led to many {{Conspiracy Theorist}}s questioning WhoShotJFK While the mob hated JFK's younger brother UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy for hounding them down since Apalachin, it remains controversial on whether a supposed clique (which sometimes included the Mafia itself) ordered JFK's death and is best discussed elsewhere.\\

Another serious threat to the Commission came from within, when Joe Bonanno planned to kill Carlo Gambino, Tommy Lucchese, Steve Magaddino and Los Angeles boss Frank [=DeSimone=] in 1963[[note]]Bonanno's beef with the Commission stems from feeling cornered by the rising alliance of Gambino and Lucchese, who backed a turf war within the Profaci family. He was also estranged with his cousin Magaddino by then, who felt Bonanno was encroaching on his Canadian turf by setting up shop in Montreal. Bonanno was quite greedy as he tried poaching Los Angeles for himself as he felt [=DeSimone=] was ineffectual. That Bonanno had a crew in Arizona made his fellow dons feel he would seize the entire West Coast for himself. Bonanno making his son Bill TheConsigliere over senior wiseguys also caused a stir as they thought Bill was too immature. Some of Bonanno's mooks felt that he prioritized Arizona over the New York City rackets. By rubbing out several of his peers, Bonanno hoped he would be the king of the underworld[[/note]]. To do this, he solicited Profaci boss Joe Magliocco's support, who farmed this out to Joe Colombo, but the opportunistic Colombo instead spilled the beans to the intended targets. The Commission demanded an explanation for this, but only Magliocco showed up while Bonanno ran away by staging his own kidnapping and later going into hiding. Magliocco was spared but was forcibly shelved, while Colombo took control of the Profaci family. Bonanno was eventually exiled to Arizona for good in 1968 when he negotiated a truce with the Commission.

Despite a sluggish start, law enforcement slowly began an aggressive effort into cracking down on organized crime. The passage of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in 1970 allowed prosecutors to build cases against individual mobsters and their families. RICO also enabled states and other countries to model their own statutes after it. By the 1980s, the feds were able to crack down on the Mafia's activities, culminating in the Commission Case, which was spearheaded by Rudy Giuliani, then an ambitious US Attorney who contemptuously felt the mob was an eyesore for honest Italian Americans. The successful undercover operation by FBI agent Joe Pistone, who infiltrated the Bonanno family, irreparably shattered the myth that the mob was invincible. Also, former boss Joe Bonanno gave a TV interview on his tell-all book ''A Man of Honor'', but it only worsened things as Giuliani later used the TV interview in the Commission Trial while making him more loathsome in the eyes of his fellow mobsters, who felt that he shouldn't have written the book in the first place.\\

Thanks to stronger gambling control laws passed by the Nevada legislature in the 1970s, it allowed corporations to take over casinos, further weakening the Mafia's hold on Las Vegas. RICO cases against mobsters in other cities also weakened the Mafia in those areas. Its success in the Commission Case later enabled prosecutors to go after other criminal groups such as the Hells Angels and Latin Kings. A RICO threat can force defendants to ConfessToALesserCrime as the asset seizure would make it hard to hire a lawyer. Despite its harsh provisions, RICO can be easily proven as it focuses on psychological behavior and most offenses committed under it are considered inchoate[[note]]seeking to commit another crime such as conspiracy, subornation of perjury, or being an accessory[[/note]].\\

* Usually, a suspect must be charged within a timeframe after the commission of most federal crimes. RICO expanded the StatuteOfLimitations to indefinite on a criminal basis, depending on when the last — not the first — crimes were committed for the entity.

* To crack down on omertà, long prison sentences and hefty fines could convince mobsters to turn informer. Through a WitnessProtection program, it can entice them to start anew.

Initially, the Commission Case included the higher-ups of the Five Families at the time, but Rusty Rastelli was removed early as he was indicted on a separate labor racketeering case. This enabled the Bonannos to suffer less exposure than the other families. Neil Dellacroce died of cancer in December 1985 before he could be sentenced, while Paul Castellano was murdered later that month while out on bail. Tony Salerno's status as a "front" boss for Chin Gigante didn't jeopardize his trial as he was charged for specific criminal acts, not for being the Genovese family boss. The Supreme Court later upheld his conviction in 1987.\\

With many mobsters facing life imprisonment, they simply began to spill the beans left and right in 1990s. Aside from Joe Valachi, among the more notable [[TheStoolPigeon stool pigeons]] was Sammy Gravano, whose testimony helped take down John Gotti, Vincent Gigante and others in the 1990s. Joe Massino was another example, when he became the first official boss to become an informant in 2005. Other tactics used in obtaining information included constant surveillance of mob haunts, using lip-reading experts, eavesdropping via "bugs" and tapped phones, and having someone wear a HiddenWire or TrackingDevice, though that ran the risk of them getting killed if a "pat-down" was done and the person was forced to strip down.\\

Across the pond, the Italian government itself had a sluggish start in the 1970s, but the repeated and brazen killings of anti-Mafia judges and civilians by the Corleonesi clan forced them to take a harder stance and pass their version of the RICO Act. In fact, while the American Mafia generally shuns killing a cop due to harsh sentences for even assaulting one, their Sicilian cousins have no qualms publicly murdering journalists. The crackdowns intensified with the Maxi Trials of the 1980s, in which 338 mafiosi received long sentences and their convictions upheld by the Supreme Court of Cassation. Much of the evidence came from Tommaso Buscetta, who became an informant in 1984 [[TheDogBitesBack after several of his relatives were murdered]]. In retaliation, the two leading prosecutors in the Maxi Trials (Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino) were assassinated in separate car bombings in 1992. This resulted in more crackdowns, forcing the Sicilians to recede their illegal activities much further while letting other criminal groups take the heat. Later FBI memos revealed that the American and Sicilian mob bosses wanted to kill Giuliani for his role in the anti-Mafia operations, but backed out when warned of possible LE retaliation.\\

To frustrate the feds' efforts, the Mafia sometimes used WalkAndTalk to avoid being heard on bugs and prevent lip-reading experts from picking up their conversations by covering their mouths or whispering, shunned telephones for fear of having their convos taped, did "pat-downs" to see if someone is wearing a wire, used TroubleEntendre that won't hold up in court as a confession, invoked the 5th Amendment during government investigations, and "swept" their LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub for bugs regularly. More bizarre cases to duck prosecution included [[ObfuscatingInsanity feigned mental illness]] like Gigante or a faked kidnapping like Bonanno.\\

While the tactics used by law enforcement significantly crippled many families on both sides of the pond, the most powerful brugads remain dominant in their turf even if the new laws put more mobsters in jail and made it harder to operate.

Despite these convictions and informants, and with the FBI now focused on terrorism since 9/11, the Mafia is down but not out: it remains a formidable force and is quietly rebuilding its lost power base, as it's rumored to earn between $50 and $90 billion a year from its rackets, and has outsourced some of its work to other gangs to avoid attention. And though many remain concerned about a possible resurgence as it regroups from the turmoil of the 80s and 90s, it's not much of a concern to law enforcement compared to terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda or more recent criminal elements such as the [[TheMafiya Russian Mafia]], [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Chinese Triads]], and [[TheCartel Mexican drug cartels]]. Also, while other ethnic gangs have grabbed a share of the loot, none of them have reached the level of success the Mafia enjoyed over the years, partly due to its totem pole-like hierarchy, and it still remains a dominant criminal organization to be reckoned with.

The Mafia does love to get their hands dirty in any illegitimate activity, be it construction or illegal gambling.

* '''Labor racketeering''': The Mafia became notorious for infiltrating labor unions, especially in the construction, garbage hauling, food services, freight, and clothing sectors. Tommy Lucchese had a hand in controlling the Garment District, while the Detroit mafia was involved with Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters; Albert Anastasia had control of the Brooklyn docks and had ties to the International Longshoremen's Association through his younger brother Anthony, while Nicodemo Scarfo had control over the local contracting and bartending unions in Atlantic City. The New York families even had enough power to halt construction activities within the city if they didn't get the right payoffs. The crimes involved in labor racketeering included union shakedowns, [[StealingFromTheTill theft of]] union benefit plans, rigging elections in favor of mob-linked candidates, forcing companies into hiring mob-controlled workers, and providing "no-show" jobs to mobsters. Because of the Mafia's involvement in labor racketeering, many now perceive unions to be inefficient and corrupt. The film ''Film/OnTheWaterfront'' is a good example of detailing the rampant corruption, extortion, and racketeering on the New Jersey dockyards.
* '''[[MilkmanConspiracy Garbage hauling]]''': One area that is very notable for mob infiltration is trash disposal. To reduce strain on their overstressed budgets, many cities in the middle of the 20th century stopped allowing commercial entities to make use of city trash services; the private companies that replaced them often used drivers from unions that were already mob-controlled, making their corruption trivial. The so-called "garbage" mobsters who ran these operations often falsified paperwork and tampered with waste scales, sometimes to skim profits from the business, and sometimes to hide ill-gotten gains in it. Crew members often got "no-show" jobs at these firms to give a legitimate reason to explain their income. They also divvied up routes in cities, rigged contract bids to favor mob-controlled garbage haulers, and quashed any outside competition to keep their prices artificially high. The Genovese family still has some control over garbage hauling through Alphonse "Allie Shades" Malangone, a capo who also has some control over the family's interests in the Fulton Fish Market. ''The Sopranos'' is also accurate in its portrayal of the North Jersey hauling market around the turn of the 21st century: the division of New Jersey into a myriad of municipalities makes it hard to catch corrupt deals like this, though the state has intervened to block this when it has the resources. This racket has also gone transatlantic; the Camorra started on this when Naples started outsourcing its waste management in the 1990s, and gummed up the works so thoroughly that trash was a huge issue for about 20 years thereafter.
* '''Construction and real estate''': Another area that is rife with mob activity is construction and real estate services. In the 1970s and 80s, most projects in New York could not go ahead without the Five Families' approval, especially if the contract was above $2 million. Many mobsters in major cities were given "no-show" jobs in mob-controlled contractors and unions to explain their income to the IRS, while union leaders were coerced in order to grab a piece of the action whenever they got hold of a construction project, and in some cases, took over the union leadership themselves. Once the Mafia had its grip on a union, it secretly could control an entire industry and could slow down a project if contractors and developers didn't make the right pay-offs. These pay-offs to mob-controlled contractors and unions often forced outsiders to pass these costs down the chain to the consumer, and in turn, forcing real estate prices to skyrocket. Plus, the mob has always ingrained itself within real estate crimes, such as [[TheCon "swampland-in-Florida-for-sale" scams]], predatory lending schemes and equity fraud.
* '''Freight services''': Another area that's rife with mob infiltration is in the freight industry, especially in trucking, airports and dockyards. Albert Anastasia, in addition to being a mob-hired hit-man, also had a great degree of control over the unions at the Brooklyn docks, while the Five Families had crews at Idlewild (now JFK) Airport, committing crimes such as truck hijacking and infiltration of unions, among other activities. The Teamsters were mob-influenced, especially during Jimmy Hoffa's tenure; he even had connections with the Detroit mafia. The mob would oftentimes infiltrate and shake down unions and businesses servicing this industry, and coerce them into placing mob-friendly candidates. The Lucchese family has had a stranglehold on the Garment District, through their infiltration of various businesses and unions.
* '''[[ProtectionRacket Infiltration of legitimate businesses]]''': The mob would often infiltrate legitimate businesses through various means, from running protection rackets, shaking them down, providing "no-show" jobs to mobsters, forming shell companies, and as a cover for illicit activities. Restaurants, waste haulers, bars, construction companies, clothing and airport services were rife with mob infiltration. This went hand in hand with:

* '''Food distribution''': This area was also rife with mob activity. Genovese capo Ciro Terranova became known as "The Artichoke King" due to his monopoly on the common Italian foodstuff. Joe Profaci was "The Olive Oil and Tomato Paste King" as his descendants still have a strong ownership stake in the US branch of Italian brand Colavita. Paul Castellano used Dial Meat Purveyors as a way to strong-arm meat distributors and supermarkets into stocking his poultry products, thanks to his prior experience as a butcher early in his mob career. The Bonannos used pizza joints as a cover to smuggle and distribute heroin into the United States; Joe Bonanno even had shadow interests in major cheese distributors such as Grande Cheese and Saputo & Sons during his mob career. The Fulton Fish Market is still rife with mob activity, especially with the Genovese family forcing outside competitors to pay a "tax" in order to sell their fish. Mobsters even infiltrated and shook down restaurants, bars and nightclubs if their owners could not pay back the loan they owed, or if they failed to pay the extortion "tax". The Luccheses used their influence in Kosher food distributors to force supermarkets into stocking their products, while the Philly mob had control over the local bartenders union in the 1970s and 1980s.
* '''Garment manufacturing''': Clothing is another sector that's still rife with mob infiltration. The seasonal and trend-driven nature of fashion means that interruption is a very expensive proposition, and manufacturers will pay large sums to ensure their products are on the shelves at the right time. The Lucchese and Gambino families have had significant interests in the trucking and production in New York's Garment District, with corresponding influence and control of various Teamsters and Ladies Garment Workers' locals, alongside with their Jewish allies Lepke Buchalter and Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro. The garment industry is divided essentially into two parts: the jobbers who design and sell the garments, and the contractors who assemble and sew the apparel. The bulk of the products were made-up in Chinatown, so there was a constant shuffling between the garment district located mainly between 34th and 39th Streets and the makers located south of Canal Street, three miles down the island. The trucking operation was the life-blood of the business, connecting the heart (the district) to the limbs (Chinatown), and whomever controlled the trucks controlled the garment industry, which by the 1950s was employing more than 300,000 workers. Via their control of the trucking and garment workers unions, the Mafia and their cronies could essentially put a halt to goods coming in and out of the Garment District if the right payoffs weren't made.
* '''WhiteCollarCrime''': Why would the mob ignore this area? From tax evasion and counterfeiting in the 1920s and 1930s, to money laundering in the 1960s, to "pump-and-dump" stock scams and mortgage fraud in recent years, the Mafia has always been involved in many financial crimes. They were also involved in confidence tricks such as {{Ponzi Scheme}}s, [[FourOneNineScam advance-fee fraud]] and are now making a foray into identity theft and cybercrimes, oftentimes with other organized crime groups. The Bonanno family was heavily involved in stock market scams during the Internet bubble of the 1990s, where they would force brokers into defrauding investors. During the late 2000s recession, mobsters took advantage of the ongoing crisis by participating in mortgage scams, whether through predatory lending schemes or InsuranceFraud. Through Michael Franzese (the son of Sonny Franzese; was nicknamed the Yuppie Don for his youthful appearance), the Colombos established a gas-tax evasion scheme to cheat the government via phony companies while selling the gas on the black market.
* '''Political corruption''': American politics is still rife with corruption, especially in cities and small towns, where machine politics still dominates a locality's budget. New York, Atlantic City, and Chicago were great examples of machine politics, and mobsters would take advantage of this to curry political favors and rig contracts in their favor. Tommy Lucchese and Frank Costello often jockeyed with one another over dominance of Tammany Hall. The mob would sometimes offer bribes to crooked politicians and officials in exchange for turning a blind eye to organized crime activities. In the 90s, two NYPD cops were revealed to be on the Lucchese family's payroll as contract killers for the mob.

* '''[[MobDebt Loansharking/shylocking]]''': Illegal gambling also led to the rise of a new activity: loansharking. Another prime moneymaker for the Mafia is to provide loans to [[TrappedByGamblingDebts desperate]] [[DescentIntoAddiction gamblers]], freelance criminals, drug addicts, and those with a bad credit history at usurious interest rates, and oftentimes with threats of violence if they didn't pay back. In fact, gambling and loansharking go hand-in-hand like PB&J. In later years, loan sharks grew even more coordinated by pooling information on debtors so they won't try to pay off one loan by borrowing from another LoanShark via the "robbing Peter to pay Paul" scheme. Similar tactics are used by the ''sarakin'' in Japan and ''Ah Long'' in Malaysia to heckle and embarrass defaulters.

* '''[[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord Extortion]]''': The Mafia has been involved in extortion of various types from the start, as it started out as Black Hand extortion rings in the early 1900s. Eventually, mobsters began to strong-arm businesses, unions, and freelance criminals, forcing them to pay a "street tax" in exchange for operating in Mafia-controlled turfs. Unlike the "Black Hand" rackets, which generally sought a single large payoff, these rackets sought periodic payouts. They could shake down businesses and individuals in many ways, including loansharking, confidence tricks, {{Protection Racket}}s, and shakedowns. Often, the ominous threat of violence was often employed in many of these rackets to ensure that they are falling in line.
* '''[[DrugsAreBad Narcotics trafficking]]''': This became the mob's biggest moneymaker after bootlegging declined in the 1930s. However, this split them into two groups, with the pro-drug faction winning out. Soon, many low-ranking mobsters began to deal actively with other organized crime groups. The idea that bosses were against drugrunning is false, as they [[LoopholeAbuse often turned a blind eye]] and got their cut from the drug sales in exchange for dealing on the sly. Joe Bonanno became very notorious for specializing in heroin and opium, as he and his henchmen used Canada as an outpost for smuggling junk from Sicily and Turkey while using pizza joints as a front.
* '''[[SmugglingIndex Contraband smuggling]]''': From bootlegging and gunrunning in the 1920s and 1930s to cigarette smuggling and human trafficking in recent years, the Mafia has been involved in all sorts of contraband smuggling to evade import duties and bring in banned items such as pirated [=CDs=], exotic animals and illegal guns. Rum-running became the mob's primary moneymaker in the 1920s, as many of the [[YoungGun Young Turks]] began their mob careers during Prohibition, and by the time it was repealed in 1933, many of them were millionaires, and soon dabbled in other areas such as numbers running, labor racketeering and narcotics trafficking. Through Michael Franzese, the Colombos formed a gas tax evasion scheme with the TheMafiya by siphoning off money that would have went to the federal government.
* '''Murder''': The Mafia would have failed if it did not employ any threat of violence in regards to its illicit activities. MurderInc, a Brooklyn-based band of Italian and Jewish hit-men, became the National Crime Syndicate's enforcement arm, and committed as many as 800 hits to ensure mobsters are falling in line. Bugsy Siegel and Albert Anastasia began their careers as hit-men, as did many of the mobsters in the 1920s, becoming bodyguards and enforcers for more powerful bosses. The Sicilian Mafia is very notorious in this, as they not only killed rival members, but also went after law enforcement officials, judges, politicians and anybody who dared to cross them; even families of made members were not spared, especially if they decided [[TheInformant to become stoolies]]. Paolo Borsellino and and Giovanni Falcone, two government prosecutors who led an anti-Mafia crusade in the 1980s, learned this the hard way when both were killed in separate car bombings in 1992, forcing the Italian government to crack down on the Sicilian mob's activities. Although shooters are popularly known as "hit men" and Mafia murder jobs are called "contracts", these are not murders-for-hire; Mafia button men are expected to offer their services on demand, with no financial consideration beyond their normal mob income.
* '''Armed robbery''': Many mobsters began their mob careers serving as enforcers and armed robbers, and by the 1970s, mobsters were hijacking trucks coming out of JFK Airport, and then selling the stolen merchandise to known fences across New York City. John Gotti, Joe Massino and Sal Vitale began their mob careers as truck hijackers in the 1960s, as did many of the [[YoungGun Young Turks]] in the 1920s. Even Paul Castellano began his mob career in the 1930s by holding up a haberdasher; despite being asked to identify his accomplices, he refused to so, and served a three-month stint as a result. This earned him the respect of local mobsters, especially his cousin Carlo Gambino.
* '''Auto theft''': The Gambino family has had a big hand in auto theft rings, especially through Roy [=DeMeo=], one of the mob's most feared hitmen. He would sell stolen cars to chop shops, who would strip them of their auto parts to be sold to scrap dealers. Criminals are also hopeful that there is little incentive on the part of the victim to search their stolen vehicle, as even if the car is found, recovery may cost more (in insurance, legal, and transportation fees) than the car is actually worth, especially if the stolen car is of low value. A chop shop must be able to take apart a car without damaging the parts and keep them organized. Time is of the essence: more cars processed equals higher profits. There is no advantage to a large inventory, as it can be done more efficiently in a "JIT" (Just In Time) manner by asking a thief only when cars are needed.

The Mafia solicits specific people for membership at random — one cannot just voluntarily join. Also, the inductee must be a male of full Italian descent. Though it has loosened over time, some families are more strict on whom they want to bring in than others. An associate who was a cop or attended a police academy can never become an official member, thought it has oftentimes been flouted for corrupt cops. To get in to the Mafia's inner circles, one must prove they're a good earner, be on call at all times, and most importantly, follow any orders they get without hesitation.\\

Before being inducted, a candidate is required to carry out a contract killing. Traditionally, it was done in order to prove loyalty to the Mafia, but in modern times, it also serves to show that one is not an undercover cop (no, cops may ''not'' legally conspire to murder or assault a civilian); any murder committed for [[ItsPersonal personal reasons]] "do not count." Committing one's first contract murder is referred to as "making your bones," and a wannabe who does it earns his "button" in the Mafia — meaning he's on track to becoming made. However, earning one's "button" does not always involve killing; good "earners," or experienced associates who have not necessarily murdered for the Mafia but have good rackets or schemes, have in the past become made men due to their valuable contributions beyond murder-for-hire. At times, though valued by higher-ups for their economic contributions, "earners" who have not committed a murder for the Mafia are sometimes derided by those made men that have committed murder to be initiated; made men who have carried out killings may ridicule those initiated due to their economic contributions as having "bought their button." The prospect does not necessarily have to be the gunman, but is expected to be if asked (particularly if they know the victim; having an associate perform ''every'' murder would give potential victims a big red flag as to whether a hit can be expected or not).\\

Many times, they will perform as a backup shooter or lookout, drive the car used to transport the body or a secondary diversion car, act as part of a clean-up or burial crew, or even serve a similar role for an aborted attempt. For example, mob stoolie Joe Valachi's main piece of "work" that qualified him for induction was renting a lookout apartment adjacent to one where a major Masseria figure was thought to live (the mark had moved shortly before the hit attempt). The murder of Paul Castellano involved 13 principals, of which only four were primary shooters (and most were either already made or ineligible to become so). Generally, anything that could get them indicted as a principal in conspiracy to commit murder would be sufficient. Many are simply "dry cleaned;" rather than being used for a specific murder, an initiate is called out for an unspecified "piece of work," watched closely, then dismissed without discussing the matter further. Also, nobody is ever going to check if the proposing captain was lying; mafia members are not police officers and do not conduct investigations. This can and has led to abuse, with some captains even accused of "selling buttons," or proposing initiates in exchange for a payoff. The killing proves that the inductee is dedicated in joining the Mafia, knows the risks and penalties involved if he gets out of line, and most importantly, it confirms that he is ''not'' a cop. Though the killing rule was imposed to weed out potential candidates in the past, it seems to have died out in recent years for the most part.\\

Made men are the only ones who can rise through the ranks of the Mafia. There is another obstacle — all potential inductees have to be vetted by the Commission. During the Castellammarese War, families would often recruit in bulk; as they could not be recognized by the other families, they easily approached the rival capos and [[DeadlyEuphemism rubbed them out]]. To stop this, all families now furnish a list of prospects to the Commission, which is then circulated among the other families so they get a shot at the vetting process.\\

Plus, the Commission imposed a cap on each family's size and roster to prevent unauthorized expansions. The Genovese and Gambino families each are allowed to have around 450 made men, while the Bonannos have a limit of around 300 made men, and the Chicago Outfit, the Luccheses, and the Colombos each have a limit of around 200 made men. Other families, such as Detroit, New Jersey, and New England each have a variable range of 50 to 100 made men, depending on their proximity to New York, the amount of rackets, the pool of candidates to draw from, and the family's significance. These are theoretical limits that are seldom, if ever, reached in modern days; there simply aren't enough rackets to allow a comfortable living for the 1500 or so made men in New York, nor are there enough associates with the qualities to induct them.

* '''Acting/Street/Front Boss''' - Temporary roles unique to the American Mafia, appearing in response to increasing LE scrutiny, rendering most "official" bosses incapable of controlling their families. It usually ends up being assigned to a capo (who still operates his own crew in the meantime), who can send a "messenger" to receive orders from the boss and pass along tribute. Even when the official boss is free, it is kept as a veneer - the Genovese family has been playing bait-and-switch with the law via this tactic since the 1970s by propping up "dummy" bosses to mask the hierarchy. This tactic has been copied by the Chicago Outfit and the Detroit Mafia as a way to shield the real boss from legal prosecution. May sometimes in fact be the ''de facto'' boss in ''all but name'', especially if the official boss is incapacitated and if the Street Boss would rather keep a low profile. There may also be acting underbosses, consiglieres, and capos, but these are often temporary roles. (Note: This, essentially, was the rank [[Series/TheSopranos Tony Soprano]] occupied for most of the series, what with the nominal head of the [=DeMeo=] crime family being a "permanent guest of the Federal government"/serving a life sentence in prison).

* '''Ruling Panel''' - Another rank unique to the American Mafia, this also appeared in response to greater LE heat in the 1980s as most of the "official" bosses faced long prison sentences. While he retains final control even in jail, the boss creates a panel of loyal capos to run the daily operations and usually relays his orders via a "messenger", who could then send orders down the chain of command to avoid suspicion. The families can also use these ruling panels to prevent outsiders from knowing who's [[TheManBehindTheMan actually calling the shots]] and to shield the higher-ups from outside scrutiny. Although the Genoveses have an official boss, FBI investigations and wiretaps have confirmed a power-sharing arrangement similar to a committee with the "dummy" bosses having discretion to make decisions without approval since the 1970s (although they still have to put it on record with the boss), thus clouding the structure.

* '''Soldier''' - a ''soldato'', "wiseguy", "button man", or "made guy." This is the lowest level of mobster who is considered an official member of the "family". Soldiers must take an oath in which they've sworn to follow the rules of the Mafia (such as ''omertà''), and with a few exceptions, must kill a person in order to be considered "made."[[note]]Since talking about killings is considered verboten, there's a bit of leeway with this requirement. When exceptions do occur, it's invariably because the man in question has brought in a ''lot'' of money for the "family"[[/note]] It gives them the full protection of the family in question. Killing or assaulting a soldier, or even infringing on their turf is a big no-no, as the offender will meet a violent end even if they had legitimate reasons. Made men will refer to each other as "a friend of ours" — which means anything can be openly discussed. Out of protocol, two made men must always be formally introduced by a third party known to both sides, even if they're father and son. ''Picciotto'' is used within the Sicilian Mafia and indicates someone of a lower rank than that of ''Soldato''. In the American Mafia, only males of Italian descent can become a made man. Another caveat is that only the Commission approves who can join as the list of wannabes gets passed on amongst the families to reject undesirables (cops, informants, etc.).
* '''Associates''' - "''Giovane d'onore''" (man of honor), "''cugino''" (cousin), or "connected guy". An associate is a person who is not a soldier in a crime family, but works for them and shares in the execution of and profits from the criminal enterprise. In Italian criminal organizations, "associates" are usually members of the criminal organization who are not of Italian descent, or junior members who may someday rise to become soldiers for the family; this process can take a decade or longer depending upon the family and the individual's qualifications. It can also be tricky sometimes, as associates with a history of making serious money often commanded respect beyond their title. Distinctions are drawn between those associates loosely associated with a family versus those who are "on record" with a specific made guy — the latter are usually prime candidates for membership. American mafiosi may refer an associate as "a friend of mine," a quiet warning to watch what is said in their presence as the person is an outsider. ''Giovane d'onore'' is unique to the Camorra. Non-Italians will never go beyond this rank, but many of them, such as Meyer Lansky, Jimmy "the Gent" Burke, Bugsy Siegel, Bumpy Johnson, and Mickey Cohen were respected and even earned the respect of actual mafiosi. Although Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were not inducted as they were NYPD officers, they solicited their services to the New York mob as cold-blooded hitmen.

With Maranzano dead, his apprentice Joe Bonanno took over in late 1931. While he claimed ignorance on his mentor's death, it is implied that he secretly (albeit reluctantly) went along with the hit given that in the tell-all he wrote years later, he mentioned that Maranzano feared that the Young Turks' willingness to work with other ethnic gangs went against the Sicilian values he wanted to retain. Nicknamed "Joe Bananas" because it implied he was crazy, Bonanno forged close ties with bosses of his generation like Luciano and Costello, knowing the money he would rake in by openly working with other gangs. He even became a major drug lord despite blatantly denying any involvement, working with other criminal gangs to smuggle heroin via the family's Canadian faction. Because of his foray in drugs, the Bonannos were pejoratively nicknamed the "Heroin" family. He also aggressively expanded in areas such as Wisconsin and Arizona, making his peers feel that he's trying to steal their rackets by "planting flags all over the world." And like his deceased mentor, Bonanno harbored a desire to become the boss of bosses by attempting to take over the Commission and killing rivals he despised in the 1960s.\\

With Rastelli in damage control mode, the other families viewed the Bonannos as pariahs and feared his overreliance on "junk men" to make up for being shunned from jointly-owned rackets could endanger them. This actually worked in their favor as it prevented them from being caught up in the Commission Case and that Rastelli was removed early on due to being sentenced on separate labor racketeering charges in 1986, allowing the family to quietly rebuild its lost power while the other families were hammered with long prison sentences and mobsters turning rat. In 1991, Rastelli died a few weeks after receiving a compassionate release, allowing his acolyte Joe Massino to take over as boss.\\

Massino quickly worked to rebuild the family to its former glory by adding new made men and expanding into white-collar rackets such as union racketeering. Wary of the surveillance that took down his contemporaries (notably John Gotti and Vincent Gigante), Massino shuttered down the usual haunts, shunned using phones as he knew they could be bugged, arranged meetings in unusual locations by passing them off as "family vacations," and used a clandestine cell system for his crews to reduce contact with other wiseguys however possible. By doing so, it enabled Massino to fly below the radar while his peers faced long prison sentences. Upset at family namesake Joe Bonanno's tell-all book and how it was used in the Commission Case, Massino tried to rename the family after himself, but it didn't catch on outside the mob. Pulling a page from Chin Gigante, Massino ordered his men to touch their ears when referencing him, causing the FBI to mockingly nickname him "the Ear" when they heard about it.\\

By the late 90s, the Bonannos made a comeback as they were now the strongest family thanks to Massino being the only official boss still on the streets, allowing him to impose new mob by-laws at a Commission meeting in 2000. Aware how Donnie Brasco nearly destroyed the mob, Massino decreed that wannabes must be supervised by two made members for some time before being sponsored to test their reliability, added restrictions on inducting those with past drug convictions, restored the full-blood rule that was sparsely enforced, and encouraged made men to induct their sons. By doing this, it would make a capo less likely to snitch as the defector's son would be vulnerable if they squealed. Massino was even proud that the Bonannos never had any rats since 1931.\\

* '''[[LoanShark Loansharking/shylocking]]''': Illegal gambling also led to the rise of a new activity: loansharking. Another prime moneymaker for the Mafia is to provide loans to [[TrappedByGamblingDebts desperate]] [[DescentIntoAddiction gamblers]], freelance criminals, drug addicts, and those with a bad credit history at usurious interest rates, and oftentimes with threats of violence if they did not pay back. In fact, gambling and loansharking go hand-in-hand like PB&J. In later years, noting how borrowers were using the "robbing Peter to pay Paul" scheme to pay off outstanding debts, loan sharks grew even more coordinated by pooling information on debtors to ensure they didn't try to pay off one loan by borrowing from another LoanShark. Similar tactics are used by the ''sarakin'' in Japan and ''Ah Long'' in Malaysia to heckle and embarrass defaulters.

Siegel had been sent out to Las Vegas to oversee construction of the new Flamingo Hotel since the early 1940s. However, Luciano and his allies became increasingly wary of Siegel, wondering how the original budget of $1 million somehow ballooned to $6 million and suspected he and his mistress Virginia Hill were embezzling mob money for themselves and planned to escape should the project fail. Despite Lansky's attempts to have him spared, the bosses were tired of Siegel and had him killed in his Los Angeles home by an unknown gunman on June 20, 1947. When the American government (especially Federal Bureau of Narcotics commissioner Harry Anslinger, whom Luciano pejoratively called him S.O.B. Asslinger when he was deported) got wind of Luciano staying in Cuba in hopes of sneaking back into the United States illegally, they immediately threatened to halt all medical supplies unless the Cubans expelled Luciano. The Cubans caved in and deported him to Genoa, Italy.\\

Across the pond, the Italian government itself had a sluggish start in the 1970s, but the repeated killings of prosecutors, cops, and civilians (sometimes openly) by the Corleonesi clan and its boss Salvatore Riina forced them to take a harder stance on the Sicilian mob and pass their version of the RICO Act. In fact, while the American Mafia generally shuns killing cops due to harsh sentences for even assaulting one, their Sicilian cousins have no qualms brazenly gunning down politicians or journalists. The crackdowns intensified with the Maxi Trials of the 1980s, in which 338 mafiosi received long sentences and their convictions upheld by the Supreme Court of Cassation. Much of the evidence came from Tommaso Buscetta, who became an informant in 1984 [[TheDogBitesBack after several of his relatives were murdered]]. In retaliation, the two leading prosecutors in the Maxi Trials (Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino) were assassinated in separate car bombings in 1992. This resulted in more crackdowns, forcing the Sicilians to recede their illegal activities much further while letting other criminal groups take the heat. Later FBI memos revealed that the American and Sicilian mob bosses wanted to kill Giuliani for his role in the anti-Mafia operations, but backed out when warned of possible LE retaliation.\\

* '''[[NumberTwo Underboss]]''' - The second-in-command of a mafia family and usually becomes the boss if the official boss is unavailable or incapacitated. The underboss's power varies by family: some are mere figureheads, while others could be very influential to the point of becoming the ''de facto'' head of the family even if the official boss is free. The former types are often "knocked down" (demoted), or "whacked" (take a guess) when their patron is no longer guiding their fortunes or if they fall out of favor with the boss. Will collect tribute from most of the family's captains (some, known as "king's men", have the honor of handing theirs directly to the boss), taking a hefty cut before passing it up, and may be in charge of larger rackets requiring citywide coordination (for example, sports betting, which requires bookies across an urban area to hedge each other's bets to collect profit with minimum risk). It should be noted that ''Capobastone'' is used mainly within the 'Ndrangheta, though, denoting the head of an '''ndrine'' (clan). Typically, the underboss arbitrates many of the disputes, but if it's a major problem, he might consult with the boss, but the boss is the one who retains ultimate authority. However he makes his illegal earnings, it is a significant enough amount to make his position one of envy, especially when prestige and the possibility of additional advancement are weighed. Just like the boss of a family, an underboss may also have a right-hand man as his protege, and the protege may speak in place of them or carry out additional tasks for the underboss.

The war ended with Gallo's arrest in 1963, but Magliocco soon became embroiled in Joe Bonanno's audacious plot to eliminate Gambino and Lucchese, and take over the Commission. Magliocco went along with it because he despised how Gambino and Lucchese supported the Gallo crew's revolt. However, their scheme sputtered to an abrupt halt when Joe Colombo, another capo in the Profaci family and the designated gunman, squealed about their plans to the Commission. Since the other bosses knew that Magliocco was in poor health, he was spared but was forced to pay a $50,000 fine and resign in favor of Colombo. Bonanno was also ordered to come forward several times, but he was a no-show despite being asked to explain and [[FakedKidnapping staged a bizarre but phony kidnapping]] so he could lay low in Canada for a while. With Gambino's backing, Colombo was named the new boss. As the Five Families became public knowledge during this period due to the Valachi hearings, the family was now publicly referred to as the "Colombo" family.\\

Carmine Persico took over the family in 1973, but used a series of "acting" bosses and ruling panels to rule the Colombos as he spent much of the time being jailed or on the lam. Persico and his acting boss, Gennaro "Jerry Lang" Langella, were later indicted on the Mafia Commission Case in 1986, facing life imprisonment. Many have pointed out that the Colombos suffered more long-term damage than the other families as Persico was younger than his peers. To retain his grip on the family, Persico even groomed his son Alphonse as his heir, but Allie Boy skipped bail and was convicted in a separate racketeering trial. Persico then nominated his cousin Victor Orena as a [[MookLieutenant fill-in]] and granted him two powers rarely given to acting bosses — inducting new members and ordering hits. It was a Catch-22 as Persico made it clear that Orena's role was temporary until his son's release.\\

However, Orena harbored bigger ambitions, felt envious of the Persicos dominating the family, and thought Carmine himself was out-of-touch with the rank-and-file. Remembering how Joe Bonanno's tell-all book and TV interview was used as evidence in the Commission Trial, Orena feared Persico was planning to pull a similar stunt, thereby bringing even more heat on the family. Orena first asked the Commission to summarily remove Persico and declare him boss, but the Commission refused, saying that Orena should instead follow Mafia protocol by asking the family capos if they supported him or Persico. Orena then asked consigliere Carmine Sessa to poll the capos on who should be boss, but Sessa instead warned Persico of Orena's machinations. Outraged that Orena tried to [[TheUsurper usurp]] his position, Persico ordered his death, but it also triggered the third and bloodiest of the internal turf wars.\\

After Genovese died, the family was nominally led by a ruling panel of "dummy" bosses, but the real man in charge was Philip "Cockeyed Phil" Lombardo, the family's street boss since 1962. A reclusive man who who hated attention, Lombardo took a relaxed approach in doing things and used a committee of high-ranking capos as fronts to shield himself so the FBI would go after the wrong man while he remained hidden. Even then, Lombardo made it clear to them that they were required to get his approval before making any major decision. This elaborate ruse appeared to have worked for him, as Lombardo was never caught and retired a free man in 1981 by appointing Vincent Gigante, the alleged gunman behind the Costello hit, as his successor. To disguise this transition, Lombardo designated Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno as the new "front" boss. While it was originally thought that Salerno and the "dummy" bosses before him were running the show, Salerno's protege Vincent "The Fish" Cafaro, who had turned informer in 1986, revealed that this ruse was going on since 1969.\\

Before his death, Gagliano annointed Lucchese as his successor. Lucchese continued to maintain the Garment District rackets and soon controlled trucking operations at the new Idlewild (now JFK) Airport. He also jockeyed with Frank Costello over domination of the Tammany Hall political machine. Lucchese also backed Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino in their fights to take control of their respective families, but chose to build a closer relationship with Gambino after the disastrous Apalachin Meeting of 1957 - in fact, Gambino's son Thomas married his daughter Frances in 1962. In return, Lucchese gave Gambino full access to rackets at JFK Airport. By 1962, Lucchese and Gambino were the dominant forces on the Commission, as they encouraged internal turf wars within the Colombo and Bonanno families, and had Genovese imprisoned on presumably trumped-up narcotics charges.\\

Though Gotti's brother Peter took over in 2002 and ran the family even behind bars until his death in 2021, the Zips are now the dominant faction and have adopted a low profile. In March 2019, Frank "Frankie Boy" Cali, the street boss for the family, was murdered outside his home, which became the first murder of a boss since the Castellano hit. Initially thought to have been ordered internally by rival mobsters, the threat seemed to have subsided when it turned out a lone gunman obsessed with the debunked far-right [=QAnon=] conspiracy[[note]]for those that don't know, [=QAnon=] centers on false claims that a cabal of elitist, [[SatanicPanic Satan-worshipping]] child abusers undermined UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump while he was president and control the world[[/note]] theory was responsible for the Cali hit, though fears still remain that he could be killed as outsiders usually meet a violent end if a made man is killed without authorization. Dominick "Italian Dom" Cefalù, the capo of the Zip crew, has taken over as the new don after Peter Gotti's death.

Both Mafias (and similar Italian groups such as the Camorra,[[note]]From Naples. Amusingly (unless you live in Naples), they actually ''are'' in the [[Series/TheSopranos waste-management business]]; the mismanagement of municipal waste collection under Camorra-linked contractors has been [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naples_waste_management_issue an ongoing issue in the city.]][[/note]] Sacra Corona Unita,[[note]]From Puglia, the "heel" and "Achilles' tendon" of the Italian "boot". The name means "United Sacred Crown."[[/note]] the 'Ndrangheta[[note]]From Calabria, the "toe" of the "boot", particularly noted for its thuggishness, rusticity, and ludicrous influence since the early 1990s. Seriously, although their reputation is more or less "stupid, violent country bumpkins," ''this'' is the most powerful gang in all Italy — largely on account of their extreme measures taken to ensure that their members are indoctrinated young and extreme penalties for becoming a ''pentito''.[[/note]] and the Corsican mafia[[note]]They have a heavy presence in southern France, especially Marseilles, and one group, Union Coarse, became the source of the infamous [[Film/TheFrenchConnection French Connection]]. While Corsica is a part of France, they are of course ethnically Italians as well; indeed, the Corsican language is closer to Standard Italian than most regional dialects within Italy (Corsican is accepted to be either a variant of or sister variety to the Tuscan speech that forms the basis of Standard Italian). It is thus unsurprising that the Corsican mafia has a similar organization to groups from mainland Italy and Sicily. Since the French Connection was shut down, they have been involved with other criminal rackets.[[/note]]) generally operate in the same manner: collection of protection money, "street taxes" on freelance criminals, union racketeering, out-and-out larceny, and gambling make up most of the income, with drug money and prostitution being big moneymakers for some parts of the family. Each "rank" within the Mafia taxes the one below it (fixed sums for capos, a percentage for soldiers and associates); money only goes from downstream to upstream. Despite the law of ''omertà'' and considerable sanctions for speaking to law enforcement, a number of mafiosi in both countries have turned state's evidence/become a ''pentito'' (Italian term for the same thing) to save themselves from long prison terms.

It should be noted in RealLife that there are in fact ''two'' Mafias: the '''Sicilian''' Mafia and the '''American''' Mafia. The first has operated in Sicily at least since the unification of Italy (and possibly much longer, though most of their history has been heavily romanticized). It limits its membership to Sicilian males with no police relatives, and despite massive prosecutions in Italy and starting from the [=1980s=], they still have a heavy presence in Sicily today. They accomplished this by sending politicians on their payroll straight to Parliament, and sadly the reveal of an MP sitting in the national anti-Mafia commission to have ties or suspected ties with Cosa Nostra is not that infrequent.

Historians are still somewhat unsure as to when and where exactly the Mafia began on Sicily, as the Mafia itself has tended to heavily romanticize and exaggerate its own history. But Sicily semi-frequently facing various invasions by bigger powers throughout history — having been in the hands of the Romans, the Arabs, the Normans, and the Spanish, and finally the British,[[note]]During UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars, during which the Spanish-descended Sicilian Bourbons were forced to flee the Italian mainland to the island of Sicily, during which time the Brits basically forced the Bourbons to establish a constitutional monarchy on British lines. (The Brits did more or less the same thing in the parts of Spain they held during the Peninsular War.) The actual Sicilians really liked this, and were dismayed when the Bourbons reestablished absolutism upon moving back to Naples after the Peace of Vienna in 1815.[[/note]] the Neapolitans,[[note]]During the UsefulNotes/RevolutionsOf1848, Sicily threw off the Naples-based restored Bourbon monarchy and demanded (essentially) the restoration of their British-era constitution. When the Bourbon monarch in Naples refused, they declared independence (and started looking for a new king, though they found no takers) while fiercely defending themselves against Neapolitan attack for basically the whole year.[[/note]] and the Italians (a citizen of Sicily identifying as a Sicilian rather than an Italian is not uncommon today) — definitely played a role in creating a general distrust towards any outside authorities claiming dominion. What is also established is that the Mafia's structure and hierarchy show clear inspiration from customs and ideals upheld by Roman noble families.

Thanks to stronger gambling control laws passed by the Nevada legislature in the 1970s, it allowed corporations to take over casinos, further weakening the Mafia's hold on Las Vegas. RICO cases against mobsters in other cities also weakened the Mafia in those areas. Its success in the Commission Case later enabled prosecutors to go after other criminal groups such as the Hells Angels and Latin Kings. A RICO threat can force defendants to ConfessToALesserCrime as the asset seizure would make it hard to hire a lawyer. Despite its harsh provisions, RICO can be easily proven as it focuses on psychological behavior and most offenses committed under it are considered inchoate[[note]]seeking to commit another crime such as conspiracy or being an accessory[[/note]].\\

But Bonanno's plan came to a sputtering halt when Joe Colombo, a capo in the Profaci family and the designated gunman, instead spilled the beans to the Commission. Bonanno was ordered to come forward several times, but he was a no-show and simply went AWOL in late 1964. At the same time, he was facing a federal subpoena investigating his racketeering activities. While Bonanno later claimed in a TV interview that he was picked up by the Buffalo mob, it certainly was a {{Blatant Lie|s}} as everyone (including the FBI) thought it was a FakedKidnapping. It is very likely that Bonanno hid in various safehouses both in the States and Canada with armed bodyguards during this 19-month period as he was a marked man. After months of no word from Bonanno, the Commission named Gaspar [=DiGregorio=] (who was already dismayed at Bonanno for making his son Bill the family consigliere) as the new boss in 1965, but it wasn't acknowledged by Bonanno's son, triggering an internal MobWar. However, virtually no action took place until an attempted sit-down in early 1966 resulted in a shootout. Nobody was killed, but the Commission shelved [=DiGregorio=]. The bungled hit on Bill also forced Joe to come out of hiding, and the shootings then intensified. The war only ended when Joe and his sons Bill and Joe Jr. were forcibly exiled to Arizona in late 1968, while Paul Sciacca, a [=DiGregorio=] loyalist, was named the new boss.\\

With Rastelli in damage control mode, the other families viewed the Bonannos as pariahs and feared his overreliance on "junk men" to make up for being shunned from jointly-owned rackets could endanger them. This actually worked in their favor as being removed from the Commission prevented them from being caught up in the Commission Case in that Rastelli was removed early on due to being sentenced on separate labor racketeering charges in 1986, allowing the family to quietly rebuild its lost power while the other families were hammered with long prison sentences and mobsters turning rat. In 1991, Rastelli died a few weeks after receiving a compassionate release, allowing his acolyte Joe Massino to take over as boss.\\

Massino quickly worked to rebuild the family to its former glory by adding new made men and expanding into white-collar rackets such as union racketeering. Wary of the surveillance that took down his contemporaries (notably John Gotti and Vincent Gigante), Massino shunned the usual haunts, avoided using phones as he knew they could be bugged, arranged meetings in remote and/or unusual locations by passing them off as "family vacations," and used a clandestine cell system for his crews to reduce contact with other wiseguys however possible. By doing so, it enabled Massino to fly below the radar while his peers faced long prison sentences. Upset at family namesake Joe Bonanno's tell-all book and how it was used in the Commission Case, Massino tried to rename the family after himself, but it didn't catch on outside the mob. Pulling a page from Chin Gigante, Massino ordered his men to touch their ears when referencing him, causing the FBI to mockingly nickname him "the Ear" when they heard about it.\\

By the late 90s, the Bonannos made a comeback as they were now the strongest family thanks to Massino being the only official boss still on the streets, allowing him to impose new by-laws at a Commission meeting in 2000. Aware how Donnie Brasco nearly destroyed the mob, Massino decreed that wannabes must be supervised by two made members for some time before being sponsored in hopes of testing their reliability, added restrictions on inducting those with drug convictions, restored the full-blood rule that was sparsely enforced, and encouraged made men to induct their sons. By doing this, it would make a capo less likely to snitch as the defector's son would be vulnerable if they squealed. Massino was even proud that the Bonannos never had any rats since 1931.\\

On the flip side, [[BadBoss Profaci]] was quite the [[TheScrooge arrogant skinflint]] in mob circles, even going so far to demand a $25 monthly "tax" from his men but paying chump change to them. The "tax" was supposedly a war chest to bribe crooked officials and foot the legal bills of imprisoned soldiers, but Profaci hoarded most of it to himself, which became a source of contention in the late 1950s. The rising dissent against Profaci finally burst open at the seams when he abruptly balked at giving Joe Gallo a lucrative numbers racket formerly owned by Brooklyn-based capo Frank "Shots" Abbatemarco, who was killed for not paying the "tribute" Profaci always demanded from his men. Gallo was widely considered to be a hot-headed capo and the alleged gunman behind the Albert Anastasia hit[[note]]though it's also speculated that Anastasia's underboss Carlo Gambino recruited disgruntled mafiosi from within the Mangano family to do the job as Gambino felt Anastasia was too reckless and reportedly had a civilian murdered in 1952. Another theory speculates the New England Mafia had a hand in Anastasia's murder.[[/note]].\\

At first, it seemed that Gallo would win this battle as he secured the backing of Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese, Profaci's ArchEnemies on the Commission, and kidnapped several of the family's top skippers (including underboss Joe Magliocco), but most of the wiseguys sided with Profaci. Carmine Persico, a Gallo loyalist who would eventually become boss, secretly changed alliances and became Profaci's right-hand man when he realized that Profaci was willing to drag it out. After switching sides, Persico decided to officially betray the Gallos by trying to kill Gallo's younger brother Larry at a bar via strangulation, but he survived the murder attempt thanks to a passing policeman who witnessed the attack, forcing Persico and his men to flee via a side exit. Because of his treachery, Persico was derisively nicknamed "the Snake" for betraying the Gallo crew, but it was never used in his face. The Gallos later tried to murder Persico twice, but he survived both attempts. Profaci died of liver cancer in 1962, but his underboss Joe Magliocco continued the battle against the Gallo crew.\\

The war ended with Gallo's arrest in 1963, but Magliocco soon became embroiled in Joe Bonanno's audacious plot to eliminate several of their rivals and take over the Commission. Magliocco went along with it because he despised how Gambino and Lucchese supported the Gallo revolt. However, their scheme sputtered to an abrupt halt when Joe Colombo, another capo in the Profaci family and the designated gunman, squealed about their plans to the Commission. Since the other bosses knew that Magliocco was having health issues, he was spared but was forced to pay a $50,000 fine and resign in favor of Colombo. Bonanno was also ordered to come forward several times, but he was a no-show despite being asked to explain and [[FakedKidnapping staged a bizarre but phony kidnapping]] so he could lay low in Canada for a while. With Gambino's backing, Colombo was named the new boss. As the Five Families became public knowledge during this period due to the Valachi hearings, the family was now publicly referred to as the "Colombo" family.\\

* '''UsefulNotes/{{Pornography}}''': Prostitution became another moneymaker for the Mafia, as they began to infiltrate peep show booths, porn distributors and smut, especially around Times Square during the [[BigRottenApple decline of New York City in the 1970s]]. The Gambino family had interests in that area, especially through Robert [=DiBernardo=], who was one of the very few thought to have become 'made' in the Mafia without committing a murder. His name was later used to discredit Geraldine Ferraro's run for the US Senate in the 1990s, when her ties to the mobster were questioned. Lucky Luciano himself was accused of pandering and deported back to Italy, despite little or no evidence that he was actually running prostitution rings. Michael "Mikey Z" Zaffarano, a now-deceased capo in the Bonanno family, even had interests in adult-only movie theaters.
* '''[[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord Extortion]]''': The Mafia has been involved in extortion of various types from the start, as it started out as Black Hand extortion rings in the early 1900s. Eventually, mobsters began to strong-arm businesses, unions, and freelance criminals, forcing them down to pay a "street tax" via strong-arm tactics in exchange for operating in Mafia-controlled territories. Unlike the "Black Hand" rackets, which generally sought a single large payoff, these rackets sought more livable sums on a continual basis. They could shake down businesses and individuals in many ways, including loansharking, confidence tricks, {{Protection Racket}}s, and shakedowns. Often, the ominous threat of violence was often employed in many of these rackets to ensure that they are falling in line.

* '''[[SmugglingIndex Contraband smuggling]]''': From bootlegging and gunrunning in the 1920s and 1930s to cigarette smuggling and human trafficking in recent years, the Mafia has been involved in all sorts of contraband smuggling to evade import duties and bring in banned items such as pirated [=CDs=], exotic animals and illegal guns. Rum-running became the mob's primary moneymaker in the 1920s, as many of the [[YoungGun Young Turks]] began their mob careers during Prohibition, and by the time it was repealed in 1933, many of them were millionaires, and soon dabbled in other areas such as numbers running, labor racketeering and narcotics trafficking. In the 80s, the Colombo family formed a gas tax evasion scheme with the TheMafiya by siphoning off money that would have went to the federal government.

The American Mafia began with loosely-knit protection gangs known as ''Black Hands,'' taking orders from emigrated Sicilian mafiosi. Charles "Lucky" Luciano, both a member of the Sicilian Mafia (under Joe Masseria) and a graduate of the infamous Italian-American Five Points Gang, drew members from other parts of Italy (or rather, other parts of ''Little'' Italy) under his umbrella, knocked off the old hats (known in the day as "Mustache Petes"), and reorganized the American Mafia along territorial lines (doing away with gangs based on where in Italy the mafioso's families were from). Each city in the country was given to one family, except for New York, which famously got five. This structure, along with the "Commission" (an executive body designed for resolving disputes, which included at its inception the bosses of the Five Families, the boss from Buffalo, and Chicago boss Al Capone, and at times included other families such as Philadelphia and Detroit; the modern "Commission" now consists of the bosses of the Five Families and the boss of the Chicago Outfit) is generally believed to have held up today, despite heavy law enforcement pressure. Modern-day candidates for "made guys" must be "of Italian descent," which can mean varying things according to which family is making the decision; some families, such as the Chicago Outfit, do not heavily stress the "made guy" role and do a lot of business with associates of non-Italian ethnicity (indeed, the "Chicago Outfit" was originally a coalition of many ethnic gangs, including Irish, Italians, Jews, and Poles, under the leadership of Al Capone's predecessor Johnny Torrio, who all agreed not to interfere with the other gangs' bootlegging operations; the Italians, being the most organized and having connections to the massive operations in New York, were merely first among equals); other families, such as the Bonannos, have substantial "zip" (imported Sicilian mafiosi) crews and are more stringent on whom they do business with.[[note]]This is why "zips" are relatively common in ''Series/TheSopranos''—the Lupertazzi family of which the Jersey family is a tributary is basically an amalgam of the Gambinos and Bonnanos.[[/note]]