1. Joseph Michael Valachi was an American mobster in the Genovese crime family who was the first member of the Italian-American Mafia to acknowledge its existence publicly in 1963.
27 Facts About Joseph Valachi
1. 2.
Joseph Valachi is credited with the popularization of the term cosa nostra.
3.
Joseph Valachi subsequently became an informant and government witness, and the next year testified before a US Senate committee in what became known as the Joseph Valachi hearings.
4.
Joseph Valachi disclosed previously unknown information about the Italian-American Mafia, including its structure, operations, rituals, and membership.
5.
Joseph Valachi's testimony was the first major violation of omerta, the Mafia's code of silence, and the first concrete evidence that the Italian-American Mafia existed to federal authorities and the general public.
6.
Joseph Valachi was born on September 22,1904 in the East Harlem area of New York City, United States, to Domenico Villacci and Maria Michela Casale.
7.
Joseph Valachi's parents were impoverished Italian immigrants from Cervinara, in the region of Campania.
8.
Joseph Valachi's father was a violent alcoholic, and Valachi later blamed his background for his having turned to organized crime.
9.
Joseph Valachi was the driver for the gang, and his ability to make a quick getaway earned him a reputation as a rising star in the New York City criminal underworld.
10.
In 1921, Joseph Valachi was arrested on grand larceny charges, and in 1923, he was arrested in the aftermath of a botched robbery.
11.
Joseph Valachi pleaded guilty to attempted burglary and was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment at Sing Sing but was released after he had served only nine months.
12.
Joseph Valachi returned to discover he had been replaced with a new driver by the Minutemen and so he formed a new burglary gang.
13.
In 1930, Joseph Valachi was inducted as a made man into the American Mafia.
14.
Joseph Valachi soon became a soldato in the Reina family, now known as the Lucchese family, led by Gaetano Reina.
15.
Joseph Valachi joined during the height of the Castellammarese War, a violent power struggle within Italian organized crime between the factions of Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano over control of operations in the United States.
16.
Joseph Valachi fought as part of the Reina family on the side of Maranzano, which eventually emerged victorious after Masseria's assassination on April 15,1931.
17.
Maranzano proclaimed himself capo di tutti i capi in the Italian-American Mafia, and Joseph Valachi became one of his bodyguards.
18.
Joseph Valachi then became a soldier in the family headed by Luciano, eventually known as the Genovese family, in the crew headed by Anthony "Tony Bender" Strollo.
19.
In July 1932, Joseph Valachi married Carmela Reina, the eldest daughter of Gaetano Reina.
20.
Outraged over Anna's potential love affairs and her lawsuit against him, Genovese ordered Joseph Valachi to set up Franse's murder.
21.
On June 18,1953, Joseph Valachi lured Franse to his restaurant in the Bronx, where Franse was strangled to death by Pasquale Pagano and Fiore Siano.
22.
Joseph Valachi was convicted of narcotics violations in 1959 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
23.
My days with Joseph Valachi convinced me that the Cosa Nostra was the most overrated thing since the Communist Party.
24.
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.
25.
Joseph Valachi's testimony was the first major violation of omerta, breaking his blood oath.
26.
Joseph Valachi was the first member of the Italian-American Mafia to acknowledge its existence publicly, and is credited with the popularization of the term cosa nostra.
27.
Joseph Valachi was introduced to Jackson by a mutual friend, and it is rumored that she was his mistress.