FREE ESSAY ON ITALIAN MAFIA HISTORY

ITALIAN MAFIA HISTORY

The Mafia started early in the 9th century. This was the period in which the Arab forces
occupied Sicily. Sicilians needed a place to escape to. The word Mafia means refuge in
Arab language. The Normans invaded a Sicily in the 11th century. Once again they were
forced to work for these invaders as slaves. The only way to escape this was to hide in
the hills of the island. When Sicily was invaded the refuges were pursued just as every
time that they had been invaded before. These people in the hills formed groups to fight
against these enemies. This group wanted to create ancestry and heritage. These beliefs
were developed and used in the basic structure if the organization. Atop of all stood the
dons, or chiefs, who were the bosses of the Mafia groups in each village. They report to
the don of dons, who live in the Capital. The capital of Sicily was Palermo. They were
inducted into the Mafia through an oath which to this day says:
A vow never to reveal any Mafia secrets or members under the threat of torture or death.
Complete obedience of the boss.
Always help out fellow Mafia members.
Avenge attacks on members of the family, because every sheep is part of our flock.
Stay away from police and other government disciplinarians.
In the 19th century the Mafia grew into a large criminal society. Creating the Mafia's
own forms of authority. The Mafia began to extort many people by handing out Black Hand
notes, which been around since the 1700s. They hand out black notes to people requesting
money in return for protection. The only people that these victims needed protection
against were the same criminals who handed them these notes. Victims had to give the
money up or else their families would be victims of violence, kidnapping, bombings, and
murder.
In 1876 Don Raffaele Pazzolo ran for political office to infect the Sicilian government
with the Mafia. By having voters vote under gunpoint he reached his goal. He used his
power to get Sin Cripso to be the Prime Minister of Sicily. Sicily was now under Mafia
control due to this manipulation. This created trouble with honest politicians, which
resulted in much violence. Such as the case with Emanuel Notarbartolo, the director of
the Sicilian banks. Emanuel promised to rid the country of the Mafia once and for all. He
was assassinated in 1893, and Don Palizzolo took over for him. When Notarbartolo's son
tried to get justice for his father's death he managed to get Palizzolo indicted.
Witnesses refused to cooperate and police reports were unavailable to the court.
When Europeans started to move to America searching for opportunity the Mafia groups saw
their chance to avoid being caught in the country they once ruled. This is how the Mafia
organization came to America. They recognized opportunity just as others did. Mafia
members thrived in the Italian neighborhoods of large American cities. New Orleans was
the largest Mafia base in this country. The New Orleans Police Chief David Hennessy
investigated the murder of an Italian immigrant and Mafia member. This slowly began to
teach him about the Mafia society. He interviewed Italian citizens, requesting the help
of the Palermo police department. Hennessy prepared to destroy the Mafia organization in
New Orleans. But the Dons of the city had him assassinated. 
A public outcry followed Hennessey's elimination, and over a dozen people were charged
with his murder. The people of NO had grown angry and scared, however, and in March 1891,
a large group of citizens formed a vigilante group. They attacked the prison in which the
suspects of the murder were being held, dragged them out onto the street, and lynched
them. As a direct response to these rash actions, the Italian Ambassador demanded that
the lynch mob themselves be brought to justice, and several Italian-American citizens
organizations organized protests. Initially they got cold-shouldered by the American
government, but eventually the matter was settled when President Harrison went before
Congress to express his disapproval of the conduct of the people of NO, and awarded
$25,000 to the families of the lynched men. 
In the overall growth of the Mafia in the US, the NO lynchings did little to deter the
Sicilian criminals from setting up new chapters all over the country. By the early 1900s
every large city had its own Mafia chapter, most of which concentrated on protection
rackets in the vein of the Black Handers. The dons soon expanded their options, however,
by creating new rackets in areas such as prostitution, gambling, and, with the dawn of
the Prohibition era in the 20s, bootlegging. This time is probably the most legendary in
gangster history, with gangsters almost openly declaring their power and wealth. In
cities all over the US the Mafia flourished. Al Capone in Chicago and Charles Luciano in
New York (among others) amassed millions of dollars by selling alcohol and women and
controlling every other aspect of crime imaginable. 
Towards the end of this decade the first national crime syndicate came into existence
under the guidance of Luciano. Supported by strong arm, Murder, Inc., the syndicate
succeeded in bringing all the individual cities under one command. Of course, if a
particular boss declined to pay his tribute to the Syndicate, he could be certain to be
convinced in very unpleasant ways. Of all the bosses that served as Directors of the
Board of the Syndicate, only Meyer Lansky would remain in criminal life in the US after
World War II. All the others had either been successfully prosecuted and locked up, or
murdered by rivals. 
By this time the Mafia's control spanned across almost all areas of business, and perhaps
life, in America. Not only did the bosses control the criminal rackets, they also
ventured out into legitimate businesses, partially to make more money, but mostly to
launder the illegal millions coming in from their rackets. Benny Siegel had been the
first to build a super-casino in Las Vegas, but was murdered before it became profitable.
Within ten years of his death, however, Las Vegas had become the prime spot for gangster
investments, with enormous amounts of cash flowing in from skimming the casinos. 
The Mafia has since long had vast influence in the field of labor unions. This serves a
number of purposes: it extends their control over legitimate businesses, it provides the
opportunity to obtain and invest large amounts of money 'legally', and it increases the
influence the Mafia boss has in political life. Jimmy Hoffa, former Teamsters union
president, was probably the most famous corrupt union leader until he mysteriously
disappeared in 1975. 
The Mafia in the 90s is an undercover organization that continues to grow in undercover
power since its big drop in the late 80s. Luciano and his "associates" remain firmly in
control over the larger part of organized crime in the United States. Other parts of the
world have experienced an increase in organized criminal activity. The most publicized is
due to the Colombian drug cartels in the 70's.