Because family is at the heart of the Mafia
Eleven Sicilian men were killed by an organized mob of white men. Eight more escaped their would-be killers by hiding in the prison. The merciless attack on defenseless prisoners in a New Orleans jail is remembered as a hate crime. It also deserves recognition for another reason: as a decisive Mafia battle.
Were Carlos Marcello and murdered Lucchese associate Theresa Ferrara distantly related, as is rumored?
Giovanni Pecoraro seemed to know everyone Morello knew, and was a suspect in the most notorious Mafia conspiracy of his age. So why haven’t we heard of him?
When Joseph Parisi was in jail in Springfield in the early months of 1923, he shared a cell with Eugenio Scibelli, recently captured in Jersey City, New Jersey, and wanted in the shooting death of Antonio Bonavita in Springfield on 4 December 1920. Bonavita was a shoemaker who did business on Water Street, the main thoroughfare of Springfield’s Little Italy. According to Bonavita’s granddaughter, who wrote about her family in 2017, the shoemaker was also a bootlegger and a rising star in the criminal firmament.
The identity of the Maranzano contract killer known as “Buster from Chicago” has been debated for years.
For organizations like the American Italian Anti-Defamation League, reporting on the Mafia, or even using the term "Cosa Nostra," was an ethnic slur against Italian Americans.
"The Godfather" exemplifies the institution of Sicilian clientelism and how it conflicts with American justice.
Short documentary film "Pasqualina of Springfield" is coming to Springfield, Massachusetts on October 30.
One newspaper described the attack as the opening salvo in a “race war” between Italians and African Americans, a few blocks west of the Los Angeles River.
Society of the Banana extortionists from Trabia had a second criminal career in San Francisco.
Mafia Genealogy 