Since the start of 2019, there have been many changes and additions at Mafiahistory.us. Here are the major developments: The planned April shutdown of the Google-Plus social network, where we hosted a longtime “community” on American Mafia history, prompted us to look into alternative methods of communicating with the 437 existing members of the community …
Tag: Articles
There have been a few updates and additions to Mafiahistory.us recently. These have included: – Detroit Bosses – new research, reorganized, reformatted. – Biographies for Frank Calabrese Sr of Chicago, Salvatore Giannola of Detroit, Antonino Giannola of Detroit, Vito Adamo of Detroit, Thomas Altamura of Florida, William Dara of Florida, Gus Alex of Chicago. – …
Salvatore Lucania, widely known as Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, late in 1931 became the most powerful crime boss in the U.S. He personally commanded a sprawling New York-based Mafia organization, held one of seven seats on the Mafia’s ruling Commission and maintained valuable alliances with non-Italian racketeering organizations across the country. Less than five years after …
The FBI makes every effort to hide the identities of its confidential underworld informants, even long after the informants have passed away. Unlike the famous Joe Valachi and other Bureau cooperating witnesses, who exchange public testimony for government protection, confidential informants continue in their dangerous underworld roles while secretly feeding information to investigators. In reports, …
The website recently added a collection of articles by writer (and history detective) Edmond Valin. Based in the Toronto area, Valin’s specialty is deducing the identities of confidential underworld informants through clues left in government documents, such as FBI files, and other sources. We are calling the article collection, “Rat Trap.” At the moment, there …
A brief biography of early New York Mafia boss and U.S. Mafia boss of bosses Giuseppe Morello has been added to the website. Entitled, “Sinistro: The Underworld Career of Giuseppe Morello (1867-1930),” the article includes more than 40 endnotes containing references to numerous sources.
Just added to the website: J. Dugard’s profile of little-known but influential Bonanno Crime Family member Frank Bonomo.
It’s a question that I’ve asked myself quite a bit over the years. It seems everyone who has written about the American Mafia has written something about Brooklyn gang boss Frankie Yale. But most of that material seems based on rumor or conjecture. Factual details about Yale’s life and career are sorely lacking. It seemed …
We have begun the process of making the autobiographical notes of Joseph Valachi, a manuscript titled, The Real Thing, available online for the free access of those interested in the subject. The manuscript is the foundation of the 1968 Peter Maas book, The Valachi Papers. In it, Valachi recalls his early personal life, his career …
We are indebted to Justin Dugard for purchasing, editing and contributing to The American Mafia website the October 14, 2008, federal court testimony of Stefan Cicale. Cicale was the government’s key witness in the racketeering/murder trial of Bonanno Crime Family associate Joseph Young. Cicale’s direct examination testimony is broken up into three web pages for …
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