American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian-American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian-American criminal society and organized crime group.
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35 Facts About American Mafia
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2.
The organization's name is derived from the original Mafia or Cosa nostra, the Sicilian Mafia, with "American Mafia" originally referring simply to Mafia groups from Sicily operating in the United States, as the organization initially emerged as an offshoot of the Sicilian Mafia formed by Italian immigrants in the United States.
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Today, the American Mafia cooperates in various criminal activities with Italian organized crime groups, such as the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra of Campania and the 'Ndrangheta of Calabria.
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The most important unit of the American Mafia is that of a "family, " as the various criminal organizations that make up the Mafia are known.
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American Mafia is currently most active in the Northeastern United States, with the heaviest activity in New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and New England, in areas such as Boston, Providence and Hartford.
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Outside of these areas, the American Mafia is very active in Florida, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.
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American Mafia families have previously existed to a greater extent and continue to exist to a lesser extent in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Dallas, Denver, New Orleans, Rochester, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Tampa.
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The Italian-American Mafia has long dominated organized crime in the United States.
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American Mafia was arrested in New Orleans in 1881 and extradited to Italy.
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10.
Sicilian American Mafia members fled to the United States, as Mussolini cracked down on American Mafia activities in Italy.
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American Mafia took advantage of prohibition and began selling illegal alcohol.
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12.
Maranzano, the first leader of the American Mafia, established the code of conduct for the organization, set up the "family" divisions and structure, and established procedures for resolving disputes.
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The American Mafia thrived by following a strict set of rules that originated in Sicily that called for an organized hierarchical structure and a code of silence that forbade its members from cooperating with the police.
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Meyer Lansky made inroads into the casino industry in Cuba during the 1930s while the American Mafia was already involved in exporting Cuban sugar and rum.
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When his friend Fulgencio Batista became president of Cuba in 1952, several American Mafia bosses were able to make legitimate investments in legalized casinos.
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16.
Several American Mafia members associated with the Lucchese crime family participated in a point shaving scandal involving the Boston College basketball team.
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Many members of the American Mafia were enlisted in unions and even became union executives.
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The American Mafia has controlled unions all over the US to extort money and resources out of big business, with recent indictments of corruption involving the New Jersey Waterfront Union, the Concrete Workers Union, and the teamster union.
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Many credit the American Mafia with being a big part of the city's development in the mid-20th century, as millions of dollars in capital flowing into new casino resorts laid the foundation for further economic growth.
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American Mafia now faced 11 RICO counts for seven murders, arson, extortion, loansharking, illegal gambling, and money laundering.
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21.
American Mafia did so in hopes of sparing his life; he was facing the death penalty if found guilty of Sciascia's murder.
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22.
American Mafia created the Five Families, each of which would have a boss, underboss, capos, soldiers—all only full-blooded Italian Americans—while associates could come from any background.
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Between August 1960 and April 1961, the CIA, with the help of the American Mafia, pursued a series of plots to poison or shoot Castro.
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American Mafia said that she had been with Scarpa in Mississippi at the time and had witnessed him being given a gun, and later a cash payment, by FBI agents.
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American Mafia testified that Scarpa had threatened a Klansman by placing a gun in the Klansman's mouth, forcing the Klansman to reveal the location of the bodies.
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In several American Mafia families, killing a state authority is forbidden due to the possibility of extreme police retaliation.
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However, the American Mafia has carried out hits on law enforcement, especially in its earlier history.
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Apalachin meeting was a historic summit of the American Mafia held at the home of mobster Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara, at 625 McFall Road in Apalachin, New York, on November 14,1957.
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29.
In October 1963, Valachi testified before Arkansas Senator John L McClellan's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the US Senate Committee on Government Operations, known as the Valachi hearings, stating that the Italian-American Mafia actually existed, the first time a member had acknowledged its existence in public.
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American Mafia was the first member of the Italian-American Mafia to acknowledge its existence publicly, and is credited with popularization of the term cosa nostra.
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The trial exposed American Mafia organized crime to the world through Valachi's televised testimony.
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32.
On July 1,1985, the original nine men, with the addition of two more New York American Mafia leaders, pleaded not guilty to a second set of racketeering charges as part of the trial.
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33.
On January 20,2011, the United States Justice Department issued 16 indictments against Northeast American Mafia families resulting in 127 charged defendants and more than 110 arrests.
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34.
In 1968, Paramount Pictures released the film The Brotherhood starring Kirk Douglas as a American Mafia don, which was a financial flop.
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35.
American Mafia has been the subject of multiple crime-related video games.
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