Because family is at the heart of the Mafia
In 1902 in New Orleans, Tony Luciano and his family fought a battle to the death against Francesco Genova and his allies. Following months of deadly conflict---called the Macaroni Wars---and two murder trials, Sam Sparo penetrated Luciano’s defenses and killed him in broad daylight. After his execution for murder, it was revealed that Sparo was an alias. Who was Sam Sparo?
In the unsolved murder of Gaspare Di Cola, there are many suspects and one motive.
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.
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 →
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.
The extended family of brothers Ciro and Vincent Terranova and their nephews, Jimmy and Joe “Baker” Catania, have three distinctive “tells” of Mafia families.
The Nicolosi and Marino families of Chicago's Little Sicily held one of the last neighborhood Mafia gangs before Al Capone's Outfit.
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.
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.
In addition to the poultry business, Dallas Mafia associate Louis Ferrantello was a nightclub owner and a bookmaker.
Mafia Genealogy 