The Society of the Banana may not sound threatening. But to the families who were extorted, it was a danger with no defense except to pay.
This Thing of Ours Is Bananas
Finding endogamy through Social Network Analysis
Family trees are like Ore graphs: everyone has two parents, and no one is their own ancestor. In my most recent post here on Mafia Genealogy, about the hierarchy of a Mafia “Family,” or cosca, I briefly demonstrated the utility of network science in understanding how the Mafia is organized. Looking at the hierarchy from... Continue Reading →
How is the Mafia organized?
The FBI’s Mafia Org Chart is the most familiar picture of Mafia organization, but it’s not the model most scholars have used in the past forty years, because it doesn’t do an adequate job of explaining how the Mafia works over time and in a variety of scenarios.
Three “tells” of Mafia families
The extended family of brothers Ciro and Vincent Terranova and their nephews, Jimmy and Joe “Baker” Catania, have three distinctive “tells” of Mafia families.
Little Sicily, Chicago: The Saloon on Gault Court
The Nicolosi and Marino families of Chicago's Little Sicily held one of the last neighborhood Mafia gangs before Al Capone's Outfit.
Interview with Bob Sorrentino on Italian Genealogy
Justin Cascio of Mafia Genealogy talks with Bob Sorrentino about his ancestors’ olive oil business, doing genealogy research, and what distinguishes old school gangsters from the New Mafia.
Chicago Joe Aiello
While Al Capone’s Outfit was fighting its way to the top of Chicago’s underworld, one of his chief rivals was the mafioso Joe Aiello.
Southern fried Mafia: the story of Chicken Louie
In addition to the poultry business, Dallas Mafia associate Louis Ferrantello was a nightclub owner and a bookmaker.
Is the Mafia a cult?
Cults, gangs, and the Mafia are very similar.
Pip the Blind
Joseph Gagliano, who was known by the nickname “Pip the Blind,” was called “the mastermind of one of the biggest opium rings in the country” by the assistant district attorney who prosecuted him for narcotics trafficking in 1946.
Mafia Genealogy 