Joseph Valachi's memoirs

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THunt
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Joseph Valachi's memoirs

Post by THunt » Tue, Nov 12, 2019, 7:07 am

We have been working for some time to provide access to the actual "Valachi papers" - the Joseph Valachi manuscript entitled The Real Thing. The document - totalling in excess of 1,000 pages - has been available for in-person review at the JFK Presidential Library in Boston. To our knowledge, this is the first effort to make the pages available online as plain, searchable text. At this point, 505 pages of the document are available, along with supporting information.

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For web presentation, the manuscript has been divided into four sections. The first section, running through numbered page 299 (but actually including 313 pages due to Valachi's inserting of information between already numbered pages) is available in its entirety. In this section, Valachi describes his childhood, his home life, the Little Italy community of East Harlem, his friendships, his career as a burglar, time in prison and early associations with Mafia organizations in East Harlem and the Bronx.

In the second section, a total of 115 pages are available at the moment, including the initial 84 pages (through page 376 - again some pages have been inserted between numbered pages) and additional pages here and there through the rest of the section. This portion discusses the Castellammarese War, Valachi's relationship with Salvatore Maranzano, post-war reorganization, Maranzano's assassination and the post Maranzano Mafia.

There are 44 pages available in section 3 and 33 pages available in section 4.

An introduction and table of contents have been added along with links to the National Archives "Deed of Gift" and "Donor File" for the Valachi manuscript. An index to the available pages is taking shape.

Links:
- Valachi manuscript introduction, table of contents, links.
https://mafiahistory.us/a023/therealthing.htm
- Section 1 - Pages numbered through 299.
https://mafiahistory.us/a023/therealthing1.html
- Section 2 - Pages numbered 300 through 599.
https://mafiahistory.us/a023/therealthing2.html
- Section 3 - Pages numbered 600 through 899.
https://mafiahistory.us/a023/therealthing3.html
- Section 4 - Pages numbered 900 and on.
https://mafiahistory.us/a023/therealthing4.html
- Tom Hunt
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