AMERICAN GANGSTERS

special investigation

gangsters
al capone the joHn gotti

rise &
fall
of the
mafia!

plus

wHo controls
organized
crime today

$5.99 US / Canada goodfellas HloowlivlnyiemtswaHiodfotbfeoHadeir's tHe godfatHer
tHe sopranos
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specials

IN
COLD
BLOOD

FROM AL
“SCARFACE”
CAPONE to the
“Dapper Don” John Gotti,
the American Mob’s
history is written in
blood. Lawmen insist
they’ve finally brought
the Mafia to heel, but this
explosive Special Report
from the editors of
The National ENQUIRER
exposes the shocking
truth – the names have
changed but a new
generation of godfathers
pulling the strings in our
cities and spreading
terror on our streets.
And, what’s worse, is they
are even MORE savage
than the racketeers who
built the Syndicate.

newly promoted Gambino
Family underboss Thomas
Bilotti got fired the hard
way – with six bullets in the
head and chest – and was left
to bleed out in the street in
front of New York’s trendy
Sparks Steak House. The Dec.
16, 1985, execution sent a very
direct message: John Gotti
now owned the town!

contents editor in chief
Tony Frost
3-5 rise & fall 6
6-13 beer barons executive editor
14-15 mustache petes Dan Dolan
16-17 lucky
design director
luciano Martin Elfers
18-19 murder, inc.
20-29 glory days photo director
30-36 mafia hit parade Ray Fairall

37 apalachin senior editors
38 j. edgar David Gardner, Don Gentile

hoover photo editor
39-48 top 20 mob Christine Visoke

movies designer
49 joe valachi Nicole Perron
50-53 john gotti
54-55 downfall contributors
56-57 meyer lansky Susan Baker, Len Feldman,
58-59 mafia’s Christine Reed, Jordan Rodack

new kings chief copy editor
Debbie Ryan
30 60-62 outlaw bikers
63-67 hip-hop killers copy editor
68-69 russian mafia Evan Karlan
70-72 los Zetas
73-75 prison gangs assistant photo editor
76-77 ms-13 Rochelle Wagener
78-80 tv gangsters
research director
Mireya Throop

researchers
Stephanie Keiper
Barbara Koskie

Laurie Miller
Alison Rayman

production director
Matt Skowronski

39

60 Weider Publications LLC, a subsidiary of
American Media, Inc.

Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer
David Pecker

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Kevin Hyson

Executive V.P./Consumer Marketing
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Officer/Treasurer
Chris Polimeni

E.V.P./Chief Digital Officer
Joseph M. Bilman

E.V.P./Digital Media Operations/CIO
David S.Thompson

National Enquirer (ISSN 1056-3482) is
published weekly by American Media, Inc.,
4 NewYork Plaza, 4th Fl, NewYork, NY 10004.

Copyright American Media, Inc. 2013.
All rights reserved. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

KINGDOM
OF SIN

The underworld
‘Code of Honor’
is a romantic
myth masking
murder, greed
& corruption

“You always have to use
your brains in this
thing, and you always
have to use your gun.”
That was ruthless
Philadelphia Mob boss
“Little Nicky” Scarfo’s
advice to his real-life
nephew Phil Leonetti,
who went on to big things in the City of
Brotherly Love’s violent underworld.

“Crazy Phil” learned early that secrets,
savvy, violence and bribery were the keys to
becoming a “man of respect” like his Uncle
Nicky. From the time he was a kid, he saw
racketeers as glamorous figures – Regular
Joes with guns – forced by circumstance
to make hard choices to survive.

And he wasn’t alone in that view.
Prohibition had polished the Mafia’s Robin
Hood image and made the gangsters rich
beyond measure.

Sure they were crooks, but the Syndi-
cate provided goods and services – booze,

3a m e r i C a n / / g a n g s T e r s

uRacketeer Moe “Mr. Las Vegas” Dalitz (left) was very chummy with Elvis
Presley! The gangster, who got his start as a Cleveland bootlegger, visited The
King on the Hollywood set of “G.I. Blues,” co-starring beautiful Juliet Prowse.
Desert Inn casino owner Wilbur Clark and his wife Toni also stopped by.
Clark “sold” his Cuban casino to crime king Meyer Lansky

uChicago’s big boss Sam narcotics, sex and gambling – that federal prosecutor James Walden
were in big demand, but in short sup- calls the Mob “a pack of rats that
Giancana (above) was singer Phyllis ply. Besides, no one got hurt – except eat anything in their path, including
McGuire’s boyfriend. Lana Turner other gangsters. each other.”
(below) was gangster Johnny
Stompanato’s lover So it was easy to look away from Says a veteran New York City
the grim reality: The Mafia actually detective: “The Mafia Code of Honor
fed on murder, corruption, greed is a myth. They kill their brothers,
and betrayal and threatened the cousins and uncles. Betrayal is the
nation’s very core. Cosa Nostra’s stock in trade. The only
real rule is: Look out for Number One.”
UNDER THE MOB’s sPELL
Even celebs like Frank Sinatra, Over the years, lawmen have
Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Lana exploited mobsters’ self-interest to
Turner, Donna Reed and Phyllis bring the Syndicate to its knees. Fac-
McGuire fell under the Mob’s ing execution or life without parole,
spell. Incredibly, Hollywood’s racketeers have been singing like
movie idols have been proud to canaries to save their own skins and
call ruthless killers their pals, or help put away other “goodfellas.”
even lovers!
When Colombo Family boss As a result, the Mafia’s once-iron
Andrew “Andy Mush” Russo was grasp on the nation’s big-money
scooped up by Feds in 2011, actor criminal enterprises has weakened.
James Caan, who played Sonny New tougher, even more bloodthirsty
Corleone in “The Godfather,” gangs have muscled in on the Cosa
offered to post his bail. Nostra’s turf.

Revealing the racketeer was With the rise of the ruthless Rus-
his “Hawaii Five-O” TV star son sian Mafia and Latin drug cartels,
Scott Caan’s real-life godfather, the godfathers’ glory days are gone,
the movie tough guy called Russo and today’s “made men” rule over a
“as good a friend as any person shrinking kingdom of sin.
could ask for.”
As TV hood Tony Soprano told his
But the truth, according to crew: “It’s good to be in something
wise guys and cops, is mobsters from the ground floor. I came too late
don’t really have friends – or for that. But lately, I’m getting the
scruples of any kind. Former feeling that I came in at the end. The
best is over.” v

4a m e r i C a n / / g a n g s T e r s

uReal-life godfather Andy
“Mush” Russo enjoys a

smoke as he strolls through
Manhattan followed by his
good buddy, James Caan, who
played one of Hollywood’s

most famous mobsters,
Sonny Corleone

ear-to-ear,
Frank Sinatra

gets cozy
with Tommy

“Fatso”
Marson,
Don Carlo
Gambino,
a powerful
New York
godfather,
and wise
guy Jimmy
“The Weasel”
Fratianno,
who ended up
ratting them

all out

Beer,

How the Mob conquered AMericA

6A M e r i c A n / / g A n g s t e r s

uBeer – and blood – flowed freely
in Prohibition-era America as rival
gangs fought to slake the nation’s
thirst. These two Los Angeles-based
bootleggers had their last supper
interrupted by a hail of bullets

On Jan. 17, 1920, the 18th uEven President Warren G. Harding the big cities – and even the tiniest town.
Amendment to the U.S. kept a stash of outlawed booze Incredibly, President Warren Harding
Constitution went into
effect. Prohibition had had an illegal liquor stash in the White
arrived. Booze was illegal House! Another hilarious indication
– and America was Prohibition was doomed to fail occurred
changed forever. during a bootlegging case in Los Angeles:
So convinced were The jurors drank the evidence!
legislative do-gooders that
alcohol was at the root of all crime, some SAmPlIng SEIzED StASH
towns actually sold their jails because The 12 thirsty men argued they’d
they thought they wouldn’t be needed. simply been sampling the seized stash
But, in fact, they really should have to determine whether or not it contained
built more! alcohol, which they determined it did.
The case was tossed.
WHISPER A PASSWORD In Chicago, Mafia strongman Al
Racketeers took over during Ameri- Capone and rival Irish mobster Bugs
ca’s “Noble Experiment,” which lasted Moran got the beer and liquor trucks roll-
until 1933, by serving up an ocean ing, adding bootlegging to their gambling,
of booze to a still-thirsty nation. Un- theft and prostitution enterprises.
told millions poured into the coffers of In Detroit, the murderous Purple Gang,
Mafia families, Jewish gangs, the Irish mostly Jewish thugs associated with Ca-
mobs and other outlaws who became the pone, smuggled in whiskey from Canada.
beer barons of the Roaring Twenties. Crime lord Arnold Rothstein oversaw
Some 30,000 speakeasies, so named rum runners that brought in boatloads
because you had to whisper a pass- of liquor for the New York speakeasies.
word to get in, opened for business in His proteges included future Mafia
kingpin Lucky Luciano and Luciano’s Ú

7A M e r i c A n / / g A n g s t e r s

u Barrels of bootleg beer are emptied into
the sewers by cops, who were often hired
by gangsters to intercept – and destroy –
rival racketeers’ shipments

It was saId arnold uGambler Arnold Rothstein was shot and
rothsteIn fIxed the 1919 killed – after refusing to pay a poker debt. His
world serIes, masterminded body was put in a pine box and hauled off for
legendary racehorse Man o’ War’s an autopsy on Nov. 4, 1928
only loss and was the reason Gene
Tunney took the heavyweight Arnold rothstein
boxing title from much-favored Jack rAn out of luck
Dempsey in September 1926.

True or not, Rothstein won nearly
$1 million betting against long odds on
those legendary sporting events – and
word was he never took chances!

fEARED POOl SHARk
The son of a Jewish merchant, Arnold
didn’t ever want to do real work. He
was a feared pool shark by his early
teens, then a protege of New York
City’s biggest gamblers. In 1904, he
opened his own gambling house and
soon emerged as the main money man
behind Broadway’s floating crap games.
By the time the Chicago White Sox
were bribed to lose the championship to

8A M e r i c A n / / g A n g s t e r s

uRum runner
George
Remus was an
attorney by
day – and an
outlaw all the
time!

infamous turned to bootlegging.
There was handsome Johnny

good friend and partner, Meyer uEnoch “Nucky” Johnson ruled In Cincinnati, attorney George
Lansky. America’s favorite Roaring In Tampa, Fla., the city’s numer-
Twenties playground, Atlantic City
In Atlantic City, N. J., defiant –
and very corrupt – political boss
Enoch “Nucky” Johnson openly de-
clared his New Jersey seaside resort
a haven for the thirsty.

DROP-Off POInt
“We have whiskey, wine, women,
song and slot machines. The people
want them,” proclaimed Johnson,
whose city shoreline was a major
drop-off point for illegal liquor
coming from overseas.
Across the country, Mob killers
whose names would become

the Cincinnati Reds, Rothstein was the Aculturedman,hewasknownbymany There would be a brief creditors’
underworld’s leading bail bondsman and
was widely whispered to be the secret names – A. R., The Fixer, The Big Bankroll, conference in the nearby Park Central
bankroll behind many rising criminal gangs.
and The Brain. He was Mr. Broadway Hotel, McManus informed him.
Arnold was never charged in the
World Series’ debacle, though it’s and had his own booth at the famous Rothstein appeared untroubled by
believed that – at the very least
– he knew “a fix” was in. The scandal Lindy’s restaurant. the prospect. He declined
brought Rothstein to public attention,
and during Prohibition, he remained a But gamblers do drop someone’s offer of a
familiar figure at the nation’s racetracks
and along New York’s Great White Way. bundles from time to handgun and strolled

mR. BROADWAY time, and through October away whistling.
But Rothstein was, indeed, a man
who lived in the shadows – like “a big 1928, all Broadway was Forty minutes later, a
gray rat waiting for his cheese,” said
his own criminal defense lawyer abuzz with the story of hotel worker found the
William Fallon, who represented
Arnold in the World Series fiasco. the three-day stud poker 46-year-old Rothstein
Whatever the action was,
bootlegging, drugs, bribery and game that cost Rothstein crumpled at the servant’s
especially gambling, Rothstein’s
fingers were sure to be in it. more than $300,000. uUnderworld entrance, his stomach

He was stalling the payoff, mouthpiece pierced by a single bullet.

and his fellow players were William J. Fallon Through his final, gasping
displeased. On the night branded Rothstein hours, he refused to name
of Nov. 4, Rothstein was a “rat” his killer.

holding court at Lindy’s “You stick to your trade,

when he took a phone call at 10:20 p.m. I’ll stick to mine...Me mudder did it,”

On the line was one George he told cops at his hospital bedside.

McManus, a flamboyant Broadway A headline the next day seemed

character who’d been present at the fitting: “Death – The Only Game He

marathon stud game. Couldn’t Fix.” v

9A M e r i c A n / / g A n g s t e r s

dutch schultz: too sAvAge to survive
he was born arthur
flegenheImer but the world to make sure Arthur “Dutch Schultz” Flegenheimer was really dead
knew him as Dutch Schultz, Public Enemy
No. 1, New York’s top Prohibition walked into a Bronx set his sights on Schultz, who had more
bootlegger and a numbers racket kingpin.
police station and than 100 murder victims to his name.
Dutch was the toughest of the
tough guys, who earned his reputation offered to buy a house The Dutchman made it known he was
settling arguments with a bullet in the
mouth – and, in some cases, he was for any cop who’d kill going to kill Dewey.
even MORE savage.
the Mad Dog. Dutch Luciano wouldn’t stand for such
When New York saloon keeper
Joe Rock refused to eventually found Coll lunacy – it was bad for business. While
buy beer from the
Dutchman, Schultz had on his own and sent him to his maker. using the restroom at a Newark, N.J.,
him kidnapped, beaten
and hung by his thumbs Coll was nearly cut in half by gunfire as restaurant on Oct. 23, 1935, Dutch,
on a meat hook. Then a
gauze bandage, smeared he cowered in a phone booth. 34, was gunned down. He managed
with discharge from a
gonorrhea infection, was By the end of Prohibition in 1933, to collect himself and stagger into
wrapped over Rock’s
eyes. Soon after Joe’s Dutch already had $12 million in bootleg the main room, where the notorious
family paid $35,000 for his
release, the saloon keeper cash! He made millions more in the cheapskate fished a bloody quarter out
went blind.
numbers racket, a three-digit lottery of his pocket and asked the owner for
And Shultz even boasted
he once cut a man’s heart based on the total money bet at a local change – so he could make a five-cent
out. No one doubted this claim – or
dared to challenge it to his face. racetrack. Dutch, phone call!

BARBARIC BRUtAlItY with the help of a Dutch then
Schultz grew up in The Bronx, N.Y.
At 14, he found work with gangsters Mob accountant, collapsed, face
at a local nightclub. Soon, with a pack
of vicious pals, he was robbing illegal figured out a way down, on a table.
gambling dens.
In 1919, the young thug served time for to fix the number He lay there until
burglary, the only instance he ever went
to jail. When he got out, Arthur renamed results by making police arrived,
himself Dutch Schultz, after a deceased
gangster known for violent tactics. last-minute bets. and he was taken
And barbaric brutality became
Dutch’s trademark as he expanded his He also to the hospital,
underworld contacts in the early
1920s by driving trucks for mobster branched out where he died
Arnold Rothstein. By 1928, he owned
The Bronx bootlegging business. And into extortion, uVincent “Mad Dog” Coll (left) two days later. No
when Dutch started taking over rivals’ using his thugs to one, especially his
operations in Manhattan, the streets
ran red with blood. collect tribute was cut down by Schultz, who former underworld
In July 1931, a former Schultz associate, from frightened was hounded by D.A. Thomas E. pals, shed a tear
Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll, warred with his Manhattan Dewey (right) at his passing. But
onetime boss, slaughtering 20 members
of Schultz’s crew. In one round of restaurant owners. his legacy lingers
gunplay, a five-year-old boy was killed.
The incident left Dutch so angry that he But his violent ways caused Schultz to today. People are still hunting for a

lose favor with other crime kings, in $9 million fortune he’s said to have

particular Lucky Luciano. stashed in New York’s Catskills

When Special Prosecutor Thomas Mountains so he couldn’t be prosecuted

Dewey targeted the Mob in the ’30s, he for income tax evasion. v

1 0A M e r i c A n / / gAngsters

Nearly800
gaNgsters

diediN
ChiCagO’s

wars

uOn Feb. 14, 1929, Chicago gangster George “Bugs” Moran (right) got a “Valentine”
from Mafia king Al Capone. Seven Moran henchmen were lined up against a wall
and machine-gunned to death

Even corrupt cops – and there were taken in bootleg-related mayhem
many – got in on the action. A Seattle, among rival gangs. Nearly 800 gang-
Wash., police lieutenant, Roy Olmstead, sters died on the streets of Chicago
became “King of the Puget Sound alone, the most notable violence occur-
Bootleggers” by smuggling liquor from ring on St. Valentine’s Day in 1929.
Canada. He earned more in one week
than he would over 20 years as a cop! Seven men associated with Bugs Mo-
ran’s gang were lined up against a garage
Instead of winning a moral crusade wall and machine-gunned to death by
against booze, Prohibition spawned hit men acting on Capone’s orders.
immorality. Particularly damning was
the lack of enforcement, which led to The brutality so shocked the nation
the rise of the Mob, whose members, that even the gangsters got worried.
like Capone, used bribery, intimidation,
and murder to stay in business and wipe So they had a sit-down in Atlantic City
out the competition. three months after the St. Valentine’s
Day Massacre to find a way to stop
Prohibition saw some 5,000 lives killing one another and continue
making a lot of money. Ú

1 1A M e r i c A n / / gAngsters

hurting business, mobsters from all over America
gathered in Atlantic City in 1929. It was the first
attempt to create a nationwide crime syndicate

They came from all over. Capone illegal liquor traffic. most notorIous
was there, even posing for photos on gangster, died 67 years ago,
the city’s Boardwalk. Meyer Lansky, liquor importation franchises. his syphilis-addled mind diminished
a newlywed, brought his bride Anne The delegates also held discussions to that of a 12-year-old.
and got the Presidential Suite at the
Breakers Hotel. He was the one who about taking a larger interest in illegal But to this day, his legend is
called for the sit-down. His friend gambling activities such as bookmak- untouchable.
Luciano came along, as did Mafia ing, horse racing and casinos.
powerhouses Frank Costello, Vito With his blue pinstripe suit
Genovese and Albert Anastasia. Dutch The glory days were still ahead for and fedora, cigar-chomping Al
Schultz and Bugsy Siegel also joined organized crime and, with coffers was the image of the Roaring
the historic get-together, the first filled by Prohibition profits, gangsters Twenties gangster, his fashion sense
time an attempt was made to form an expanded their empires and touched offsetting the knife marks on his
organized National Crime Syndicate. almost every phase of American life. left cheek, which earned him the
nickname “Scarface.”
Town boss Johnson guaranteed no There was one last decision the
police presence. men at that Atlantic City conference OWnED CHICAgO
made. At some point, the racketeers Through bribery, intimidation
DOWn tO BUSInESS decided America’s two most powerful and murder, Capone owned
For the first three days of the Mafia bosses, Salvatore Maranzano and Chicago during the Prohibition.
underworld gathering, there was a con- Joe Masseria, who BOTH weren’t in- His enforcers carried official
stant round of parties at the hotels as vited to the gathering, would have to go. cards issued by the city that
Johnson supplied plenty of liquor, read: “To the Police Department:
food and girls for entertainment. For They were considered “Mustache you will extend the courtesies of
the guests who brought their wives Petes,” old-timers, unwilling to deal
or girlfriends, Johnson provided the with gangsters who weren’t Italian, and
women with fur capes as gifts. unwilling to change. Their days were
But then it was down to business. coming to a violent, savage end. v
There were several important items
to discuss, including the rival gangs’
constant competition for imported
and bootleg liquor, the desire to end
violence and what to do with the booze
business when Prohibition ended.
The Atlantic City delegates con-
ducted their more serious discussions
and business, in conference rooms
atop the Ritz and Ambassador Hotels.

1 2A M e r i c A n / / gAngsters

uMob kingpin Al Capone was a celebrity – despite a rap sheet that
included an arrest for carrying a concealed weapon (left). During
a 1930 baseball game, Chicago Cubs star Gabby Hartnet eagerly
signed an autograph for the killer’s son, Albert “Sonny” Capone,
who is surrounded by bodyguards. Capone feared kidnapping and
assassination. He had a bullet-proof Cadillac (right) specially-made
to insure he’d survive an ambush

scArfAce cApone: king of chicAgo
this department to the bearer.” suite, wore an 11.4-carat diamond mobsters Dean O’Banion and Bugs
He ran his bootlegging, prostitution
pinky ring and was chauffeured around Moran, a Capone-ordered hit killed
and gambling operations like a
business – a syndicate – a model for in a bullet-proof Cadillac that later an assistant state attorney. Capone
organized crime lords that followed.
became President Franklin Delano was charged, but fixed six grand juries
By 1928, Capone’s syndicate was
grossing an estimated $105 million Roosevelt’s limo. to beat a murder rap.
a year.
POWERfUl BEYOnD BElIEf When seven members of Moran’s
The portly son of a New York
barber, Capone cut his criminal teeth In the end, however, Capone would gang were slain in 1929’s infamous
as muscle for New York’s Five Points
gang. He moved to Chicago and rose be brought to justice – not for murder, St. Valentine’s Day Massacre the Irish
from near obscurity when he took
over the South Side turf of his crime extortion or bootlegging. He wound mobster, who was the intended target,
mentor Johnny Torrio in 1925. Soon
Capone was prince of the entire city – up in Alcatraz, then the said: “Only Capone kills
after having all his rivals rubbed out.
nation’s harshest pen, like that.”
Al loved the role. His urge to be
seen in public was unique among for failing to pay his Al is still part of
racketeers, who usually abhorred
publicity. Capone was a hand- income tax. American culture – the
shaking pal to the working class. He
contributed to charities. He went to Treasury Dept. Agent face of the Mafia. Stars
ballgames, posing with the players.
He enjoyed nights at the opera. Eliot Ness and his team from Rod Steiger to

And he flaunted his riches. He had of untouchables got Robert De Niro have
a mansion in Florida. He operated his
business from a posh Chicago hotel the credit, but Capone uIRS agent Frank Wilson played him in movies.
was really brought (left) and the Treasury He’s currently featured
down by Frank Wilson, Department’s Eliot Ness in the cable TV hit
the Internal Revenue (right) nailed Capone “Boardwalk Empire.” His
agent who went over mansion on Palm Island,

the mobster’s books in Miami Beach – where

with a fine tooth comb. he died in 1947 at age 48 – recently sold

Still, Capone left the streets of for more than $7 million. And his grand-

Chicago littered with bodies, and niece, Deirdre Capone, published a book

got away with that. He was powerful in 2012 about pleasant memories of

beyond belief. dear old “Uncle Al,” who was cut down

During a turf war with Chicago’s Irish by an STD, not a gangland assassin. v

1 3A M e r i c A n / / gAngsters

Wartoenda
TREACHERY AND TERROR
created modern Mafa

It was a war both sides lost – but uAs part of the war for control of New
shrewd gangster Charles “Lucky” York City, gang moll Vivian Gordon, who
Luciano won! The results forever ran a Mafia honey trap, was strangled
changed the face of the Mafia and and dumped in a Big Apple park
organized crime in the U.S.
Known as the Castellammarese And the terrible twosome had some- his mistress’ Bronx apartment, he was
War, after the picturesque Sicilian
fishing village whose main export thing else in common besides mutual greeted with a shotgun blast. Maranzano
was America’s most notorious god-
fathers, the Mob power struggle pitted hatred: unbridled greed and a lust for responded by declaring war – and every-
Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria, the
self-proclaimed “capo di tutti capi” power. Their bootlegging rivalry, which body “went to the mattresses,” holing up
(the boss of all bosses) against Salvatore
Maranzano, who wanted Joe’s job. had triggered bloody skirmishes, became as rival hit squads roamed the city.
MUSTACHE PETES
To the underworld’s Roaring Twenties an all-out war on Feb. 26, 1930, when The 1930 New York homicide rate
hipsters, Masseria and Maranzano were
“Mustache Petes,” old-time New York Masseria literally iced an ice man. soared: 421 slayings, up 18 percent
bosses who didn’t like change and resisted
doing business with anyone who wasn’t His name is Gaetano Reina. from 1929. At least 66 of the
Italian.Younger guys saw profit in doing
business with the Irish and Jewish bad He ran his own Mafia crew murders were gang rubouts,
boys – but Joe and Sal wouldn’t hear of it.
– which served up ice and ice all unsolved.
uCharles
“Lucky” boxes to residents ofThe Bronx By spring 1930, bleary-eyed
Luciano
detectives were fruitlessly

People needed someone to working the slaughters of

provide ice in the days before nightspot baron Frankie

refrigeration and the Mob Marlow, garment boss Jacob

“Little Augie” Orgen and

Reina had pledged loyalty uThe murder lower Manhattan East Side
of Gunsel Mob kingpin Abe Wagner,
Gaetano Reina who was so bold he once had
triggered a war one of his goons slap around
Masseria’s son! Bad move.

He met his maker when

someone kicked in the door of his digs

at Manhattan’s Hatfield Hotel – and

But eventually Joe the Boss fig- opened fire.

Next came a shootout at Club Abbey

allWars!

uIll-fated Joe “The Boss” Masseria (left) lies dead on a restaurant floor – still clutching a playing card
– after being betrayed by his top lieutenant. Salvatore Maranzano took Joe’s place and met a similar fate
(right) five months later

owned by Owney Madden, who also ran When Lucky emerged from the Maranzano was shot and stabbed to death.
Harlem’s famed Cotton Club.There were bathroom, he feigned astonishment, At last, the Mustache Petes were
many witnesses to the incident, but cops insisting he had no knowledge of what
reported nobody saw a thing. Gang moll had happened. It was reported that the gone. The winner was Luciano, who
Vivian Gordon, who ran a Broadway gunmen were Luciano cronies Albert was eager to end the bloodshed, ally
blackmail and sex racket, turned up gar- Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis with America’s other Mafia families,
roted in a park. Finally, the public – and and Bugsy Siegel. Jewish and Irish gangs across the country
the politicians – were starting to notice. and create a National Crime Syndicate.
Maranzano kept his word. He ended
Luciano, a top Masseria lieutenant, the war, announced he’d forgiven his And that’s just what Lucky did. There
had enough too. The war was hurting enemies and crowned himself “boss of would be no single head of the Mafia
business. He made a deal with Maran- all bosses.” anymore, no “boss of all bosses.”
zano. He’d kill Masseria, but the violence
between the gangs would have to end. A MAFIA “COMMISSION” Instead, Luciano created a Mafia
There could be no reprisals. But the title didn’t last long. Luciano, “Commission” to work things out. It
now a Maranzano underling, got wind was made up of the criminal legends
On April 15, 1931, Joe the Boss joined the new king was planning to take him who headed New York’s five families
Luciano for lunch at a Coney Island out – along with other mobsters includ- – Luciano himself, Vincent Mangano,
restaurant. The two enjoyed a hearty ing Al Capone – who might pose a threat Tommy Gagliano, Joseph Bonanno
meal. Masseria didn’t know it, but he’d be to his leadership. and Joe Profaci – plus Chicago boss
having lead for dessert! Crafty Luciano beat him to the Capone and Buffalo Mafia kingpin
punch and arranged for three hit men, Stefano Magaddino. They would super-
The twosome started playing cards. provided by his partner Meyer Lansky, vise and sanction activities of the other
Lucky excused himself to go to the bath- to visit Maranzano’s offices on Sept. families around the U.S.
room as his gunmen entered.Two bullets 10, 1931.
to the head and one through the heart left The killers posed as government tax With their ascension to power, organ-
Masseria dead on the floor – with the accountants demanding to see his books. ized crime in America would become a
ace of spades clutched in his hand! moneymaking machine that was bigger
than U.S. Steel! v

1 5A M E R i C A N / / gANgsTERs

mask of a suave, harles “Lucky” Luciano ran out of luck when he was
sophisticated nailed by ambitious gang-buster Thomas Dewey and sent
businessman, to prison in 1936 – for being a common pimp!
Lucky Luciano
was really a And Dewey added insult to the injury, humiliating
coldblooded America’s top mobster by revealing at his New York trial
killer and flesh that Luciano had caught gonorrhea
peddler. He SEVEN times bedding prostitutes.
tried to con the
public by posing CBut despite his medical issues,
for this 1955 photo Luciano ran the Big Apple’s biggest
cuddling his pet
mini-pin brothels with the same business acumen he

used to rule the national crime commission.

During a meeting with one of his madams,

“Cokey” Flo Brown, the crime czar declared:

“I’m gonna organize the cathouses like the

A&P,” which at the time was one of the first

nationwide grocery store chains. However, uAmbitious
Luciano was still mortified to be publicly branded

a flesh peddler. It hurt his carefully cultivated, Thomas Dewey
suave chairman-of-the-board image. put Lucky away

In fact, the tough guy visibly cringed

as 40 hookers took the stand against him. Said a pal, he was

being brought down by “a bunch of whores,” and it hurt

his ego because there was no one in the nation’s under-

world who could challenge his power.

He’d wiped out the Mustache Pete older Mafia

He controlled everything
– except death

uThe crafty crime kingpin was deported to his Italian homeland in 1946 (left). But the convicted pimp still held an iron grip
on the American Mob while partying with his stylish pals in Rome three years later

bosses, and formed the National Crime Syndicate, which from prison! Then in early 1946, he got a gift from Uncle

was based on moneymaking skills, not ethnic origin. His Sam. He was paroled for contacting his Mafia contacts in

childhood buddy was future Mob superstar Meyer Lansky Sicily who helped the U.S. invade Italy during World War II,

and Jewish underworld kingpin Arnold Rothstein gave him and for having his mob crews protect the New York docks

his first big break. from Nazi sabotage.

Rothstein turned uneducated Luciano into a New York Italian-born Lucky was quickly deported after leaving

dandy with a taste for the finer things. Lucky kept a prison. But just before Christmas 1946, he snuck into Cuba,

permanent room at Manhattan’s posh Waldorf-Astoria, wore shook hands with pal Lansky, and attended the Havana

silk suits and became a well-known figure in Broadway Conference, a historic pow-wow of crime lords, fictionalized

social circles. in the movie, “The Godfather.”

america’s most powerful boss Delegates included Chicago’s Sam Giancana, Vito Geno-

“Arnold taught me how to dress, how to use knives vese and Frank Costello from New York, Santo Trafficante

and forks and things like that at the dinner table,” said from Tampa, Stefano “The Undertaker” Magaddino from

Luciano, who also credited his Mob mentor for telling him Buffalo and Carlos Marcello from New Orleans. Jewish mob-

“about holdin’ a door open for a girl.” But Mr. Lucky was sters from around the country were also present to discuss

mum about what, if anything, Rothstein taught him about La Cosa Nostra, and their gangs’ involvement in narcotics

handling prostitutes. and the Cuban casinos.

At the time of his trial Luciano was the honored

for being a whoremaster, guest. He got a suitcase

Lucky sat atop one of New filled with $2 million, a cut

York’s five Mafia crime of Syndicate funds.

families. He was America’s But weeks after the meet-

most powerful boss, res- ing ended, the feds got wind

pected by Mobsters across that Lucky was in Cuba and

the nation, and pocketing pressured the government to

$10 million a year. chase him back to Italy. He

But that didn’t mean had named Vito Genovese

ditty in court. When the uAt age 64, Luciano died boss of his New York fam-
jury came back, they con- from a heart attack at the ily and was eyed by Italian
victed a low-life pimp, not airport in Naples, Italy cops the rest of his life.
a major crime lord. And
He died in 1962 at age 64,

the judge, well aware that still trying to be a big shot,

Luciano had to be taken suffering a heart attack on

off the streets, slapped the the floor of the airport in Na-

mobster with a minimum ples, where he was to meet a

30-year sentence. filmmaker looking to make

However, Luciano con- a movie about the “Father

tinued to run his empire of Organized Crime.” v

1 7a m e r i c a n / / gangsters

ness, nothing personal uLawmen figured they’d
– even if they always smashed Murder, Inc. when
liked you! hitman Abe “Kid Twist” Reles
agreed to sing. But Reles took
Organized crime a dive from the window of
lords in the 1930s his sixth-floor room in Coney
needed to whack Island’s Half Moon Hotel
people – a witness, a and landed (circle) on a
belligerent loan shark, roofbelow. Thatwastheend
an uncooperative union leader – and, of the case
naturally, get away with it. So mob king-
pin Lucky Luciano created an outfit of
ruthless killers-for-hire that became
known as Murder, Inc.
They were a gang of 30 vicious
toughs – of Irish, Jewish and Italian ex-
traction – from New York’s slums who
were under the thumb of top crime lords.
During a decade of Mob mayhem, they

kept on mob retainer hostile takeover attempt after a botched of resembling the hit team’s target.
hit on July 25, 1939. Irving’s murder was big news. Out-
hand-picked masters – Jewish mobster
Louis “Lepke” Buchalter and Albert That morning, Parisi and Magoon raged citizens demanded justice. And
“The Lord High Executioner” Anasta- were outside a Bronx apartment house, recently elected crimebuster, NewYork
sia, who would become the Gambino set to gun down one of the residents, prosecutor Bill O’Dwyer, started round-
crime family head. Philip Orlovsky, a former garment ing up every punk in sight.
union boss, as he left the building.
Murder, Inc.’s “employees” were kept Orlovsky, however, was already at a Naturally, some started spilling the
on a mob retainer – $1,000-a-month barber shop getting a shave. beans. Other Murder, Inc. boys learned
with bonuses for exemplary killings. It their co-workers were squealing too.
was a staggering amount of money for The killers, instead, whacked another So Magoon joined the chorus telling
the times. They lived better than kings tenant, classical music publisher Irving the cops: “It looks like I’m on my way
as long as they killed willingly. Penn, who had the horrible misfortune out, unless I get into the act.” When
O’Dwyer got “Kid Twist” Reles to turn
The business, however, suffered a canary, top mobsters cringed. He helped

uD.A.
William
O’Dwyer
made
hoods
crack
under
pressure

1 8a m e r i c a n / / gangsters

nc.

Youcouldrun,
butYoucouldn’t
hidefroMthe
Mafia’shitMen

uAs New York detectives Albert Beron and Harry States stand guard, dazed assassins
(from left, above) Harry Strauss, Martin “Buggsy” Goldstein, “Kid Twist” Reles and
Harry Malone check out the ammo and weapons scooped up during their arrests. Tough
guys Louis “Lepke” Buchalter and Albert Anastasia (left) ran the outfit

solve about 85 murders and sent Lepke from a window of Coney Island’s bedsheets he’d flung out of the window.
to the chair. Reles was about to give up Half Moon Hotel just days before he But Luciano claimed his “Lord High
Anastasia when he had an “accident” on was scheduled to finger Anastasia to Executioner” had killed the rat –
Nov. 12, 1941, and got a new nickname: a grand jury. The official story was proving you could run, but NEVER
“The canary who sang but couldn’t fly.” that Reles, who was played by Peter hide, from the Mafia.
Falk in the 1960 movie “Murder,
While in an early version of the Inc.,” died trying to escape. Cops And Anastasia learned that lesson
witness protection program, with cops claimed he was trying to get away by the hard way too. He died in a hail of
supposedly stationed right outside shimmying down a rope made from bullets in 1957 while getting a shave
his door, Kid Twist fell to his death in a barber’s chair at a NewYork hotel. v

1 9a m e r i c a n / / gangsters

How the Mafa bougHt AMericA

he world was their oyster.
They had the money. They
had the muscle.They had the
politicians in their pocket.
And in the heady days after
Lucky Luciano helped win
World War II, the Òmade

TmenÓ finally had the respect
theyÕd always craved.
Charismatic gangsters rubbed
shoulders with movie stars in L.A. as
Hollywood turned a blind eye to narcot-
ics, gambling and prostitution rings. The

Mob had crapped out in uHollywood heavyweight Mickey
Cuba, and Las Vegas was Cohen (left) survived a bomb that
the only legit game in destroyed his home. His underworld
town. Everyday Americans buddy Johnny Roselli (right) , who
flocked to Sin City for a ran the International Alliance of
taste of the action – and Theatrical Stage Employees union,
the chance to rub shoulders moved to Vegas
with real-life gangsters
and celebrities Mafia lit up the Nevada desert with their
Sin City casinos. And, with a feverish
conga beat, the lavish, legal gambling
havens of Cuba were pouring millions
into the SyndicateÕs overflowing coffers.

DASHING BAD BOYS
By spreading enough dough around,
it seemed like the Mob could get away
with anything. Certainly, HollywoodÕs
biggest celebrities were starstruck by
the dashing bad boys Ð psycho Mickey
Cohen, smooth-talking strong-arm
Johnny ÒHandsomeÓ Roselli, who
represented the Chicago OutfitÕs
interests, and charming killer Benjamin
ÒBugsyÓ Siegel.
Siegel had made the MobÕs methods
violently clear after he was sent West
by longtime pal Meyer Lansky. BugsyÕs
job was to help L.A. Mob boss Jack
Dragna run the gambling joints and
get an iron grip on unions, particularly
those associated with making movies.
While he was at it, Bugsy used Mob
money to start up a wire service that
sent West Coast racetrack results to the
countryÕs underground bookie joints. Ú

He opened a drug route from Mexico uThe Fabulous Flamingo hotel Six months later, as Siegel sat reading
to the U.S., using beautiful starlets (above) was built with Mob the “Los Angeles Times” in his actress
and call girls as mules. money. Gang czar Meyer Lansky galpal Virginia Hill’s Beverly Hills
(right) ended up controlling the home, a sniper shot him in the head.
Thanks to Siegel, a major heroin once-swanky gambling playpen
distribution center went right through Meyer took over the Flamingo, and
the American heartland, by way of When neW York racketeer as the 1950s arrived, “The Strip” began
Kansas City, Mo., turf of Mafia boss BugsY siegel appeared to grow, thanks to Mafia money from
Nicholas Civella, who got rich by on the Las Vegas scene in 1946, New York, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas
charging a “toll” on shipments. gambling was legal, but the city was City, Mo., and Chicago. To keep peace,
a dusty backwater catering to cow- each member of the Syndicate gave
It was all an open secret and made pokes. Still, it smelled like money!
for delicious gossip flavored with just
a hint of danger. Siegel was pals with So Bugsy got busy. He strong-armed
the biggest stars: Clark Gable, Gary a takeover of the nearly completed
Cooper, George Raft and Cary Grant, Flamingo hotel from businessman
as well as studio execs Louis B. Mayer William Wilkerson. Then he
and Jack Warner. Actress Jean Harlow convinced Meyer Lansky to get
was a godmother to his daughter Mafia money to turn the place into
Millicent. Boyhood chum Raft even a palace.
arranged for him to get screen tests!
Each bathroom in the 93-room
Bugsy led an extravagant life throwing hotel got its own sewer system
lavish parties at his Beverly Hills home. (cost: $1.1 million). Due to the
He seduced scores of actresses and the plumbing alterations, the boiler
wife of an Italian count. The love affair room had to be enlarged (cost:
$113,000). The kitchen was made
uActress Virginia Hill was said bigger too (cost: $29,000).
to be a Mafia drug mule Ð and was
Bugsy SiegelÕs main squeeze Bugsy was padding the bills Ð and
skimming money off the top.
between Bugsy and actress Virginia Hill,
who was said to be a drug courier, would “WE ONLY KILL EACH OTHER”
eventually wind up on a Hollywood That made his legit construction
screen in the movie “Bugsy,” with their contractor Del Webb nervous. When
parts being played by Warren Beatty and sinister types started showing up
Annette Bening. as the project neared completion,
Bugsy reassured Webb, saying: “Don’t
But the movie business was peanuts worry, we only kill each other.”
to Siegel. He dreamed big, of turning That was all too true. By the time
dumpy little Las Vegas into the world’s the Flamingo opened in December
gambling capital. He used his show- 1946, Bugsy owed his Mafia masters
biz connections to help add stardust to $6 million Ð and they decided he’d
his Las Vegas venture. Ú never make good.
At a historic summit in Havana,
Cuba, over the Christmas holidays,
the National Commission, including
Lansky, put a contract out on his life.

2 2A M e r i c A n / / gAngsters

other members interlocking shares in their uDapper Benjamin
resorts. Everyone got a slice of the pie. And “Bugsy” Siegel was the
Hollywood golden boy Johnny Roselli was MafiaÕs watchdog in
brought in to make sure things ran smoothly. Hollywood. Here, he
relaxes at an L.A. police
With financing from the Roselli- station on Aug. 8, 1940,
controlled Teamsters Union Central while being questioned
States Pension Fund, up went the about the murder of his
Tropicana, the Desert Inn, El Cortez, the boyhood friend Harry
Sands, the Castaways, the Sundance Hotel “Big Greenie” Greenberg,
and Casino, the New Frontier, Westin Las who ran a movie union
Vegas, the Fremont, the Stardust, Binions, racket. Greenberg was
the Dunes, the Aladdin, the Silver Slipper, killed in his own driveway
Circus Circus and Harrah’s. after threatening to talk
about Murder, Inc.
SUNNY LEGAL GETAWAYS
Legitimate gambling was proving to be
as big a moneymaker as Prohibition Era
bootleg booze. With Cuban President
Fulgencio Batista as a partner, the Mafia
had branched out overseas too – setting
up a legal offshore haven just 90 miles
away from Miami.
Cuban gambling palaces like the
Tropicana and the elegant Hotel Nacional
provided sunny legal getaways for
the rich and very rich. Marlon Brando
played congas, Eartha Kitt performed
and then-U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy
enjoyed a three-call-girl orgy at the Hotel
Commodoro, courtesy of notorious

uBack in 1955, skin was in at the naughty Tropicana Mafia kingpin Santo Trafficante!
in Havana, Cuba. Tampa mob boss Santo Trafficante But despite the Cuban hijinks, it
owned the joint, which created the modern “showgirl.”
Cuban rebels bombed the place in 1956, which was the was Vegas that cemented the modern
beginning of the end for Mafia dominance on the island Mob’s grip on American pop culture.
Sin City was a wide-open town where
farmers from Nebraska could be
treated like “swells” while rubbing
shoulders with celebrities and
real-life gangsters.

Best of all, what happened in
Vegas stayed in Vegas. But there were
exceptions: Roselli, the Mob’s eyes
and ears in the Nevada desert, was
found cut into pieces and stuffed in a
55-gallon drum fished out of
the Atlantic Ocean off Miami Beach
in 1976. v

2 3A M e r i c A n / / gAngsters

Was the MoB poWerful hit is not far-fetched.

enough to assassinate The House Select Committee

a president? on Assassinations, convened in the

To this day, many investigators are mid-’70s to probe JFK’s 1961 murder,

convinced John F. Kennedy died in took the Mob links very seriously.

Dallas as the result of orders issued The committee’s reports noted

by two powerful Mafia bosses, Carlos accused Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey

Marcello of New Orleans and Tampa’s Oswald’s New Orleans roots. The

Santo Trafficante. Certainly, both had documents also revealed Jack Ruby,

the motive! the strip club owner who gunned

Trafficante seethed Oswald down, had

after JFK failed to a relationship

provide firepower with Marcello!

to help the CIA- In addition,

backed “Bay of Pigs” government

rebels win back Cuba investigators

from Fidel Castro in detailed meetings

1961. Two years earlier, – arranged by Jimmy

Trafficante had lost uAccused JFK assassin Lee Hoffa – between
lucrative investments Harvey Oswald (left) was the New Orleans
in the Cuban casinos killed by Dallas Mob associate mobster and
when the cigar- Jack Ruby (right) Tampa boss
chomping Communist Trafficante with

took over. the specific goal

Meanwhile, “Little Man” Marcello, of killing Kennedy!

knowing Mob muscle had sent Kennedy Ultimately, the committee

to the White House by rigging the couldn’t rule out that JFK was killed

Illinois presidential vote, felt betrayed by the Mob. Marcello, in particular,

when the Commander-in-Chief’s the committee said, had the “motive,

brother Bobby became Attorney means and opportunity to have

General and declared war on the Mafia. President John F. Kennedy assassinated.”

Marcello fought back. Gambino Family godfather Paul

Talking about the JFK assassination, Castellano once boasted: “...the

Marcello said: “Yeah, I had the son president of the United States, if

of a bitch killed. I’m glad I did. he’s smart and needs help, he’d

I’m sorry I couldn’t have done it come to us. I could do a favor for

myself!” And the notion of a Mob the president.” v

uBlonde Kim
Novak and her
lover Sammy
David Jr. were both
part of Chicago
Godfather Sam
“Momo” Giancana’s
Hollywood stable

2 4A M e r i c A n / / gAngsters

moB put contract on JFK!

uPresident John F. Kennedy won the Oval Office with Mob help.
But once he was in the White House, his FBI director J. Edgar
Hoover and Attorney General brother Bobby went after the
Mafia. Godfathers Santo Trafficante and Carlos Marcello (right)
swore they’d make JFK pay

uLuscious Lana Turner (left) dated Ultimately, superstars including interracial romance didn’t make
Mob gorilla Johnny Stompanato – who Harry James, Milton Berle, the Momo happy. He feared it would
was stabbed to death by her daughter. Marx Brothers, Peggy Lee, Abbott hurt his “investment” by ruining
Meanwhile, Donna Reed, who won an Oscar & Costello, Eartha Kitt, Judy Gar- both their careers if word leaked
for “From Here to Eternity,” was Mafiosi land, Red Skelton, Dean Martin out. Davis was summoned to a sit-
Johnny Roselli’s babe and Frank Sinatra would all head- down with one of Momo’s boys
line Mob-run casinos. and ordered to break things off.
He did as he was told. Giancana
THE MOB OWNED YOU had made it clear losing half of his
Sometimes it was for cash. Some- “property” – one way or the other –
times for favors. And sometimes was better than losing it all!
it was because the Mob owned
you. Chicago boss Sam “Momo” But hanging with the Mafia
Giancana “had a percentage” in wasn’t all Hollywood heartbreak.
a lot of stars, including blonde
beauty Kim Novak and Sinatra “Handsome Johnny” Roselli
Rat-Packer Sammy Davis Jr. But knew how to stick up for his
they were united by something friends. His bedmates included
other than their Mob ties: Kim and Betty Hutton, Lana Turner, and
Sammy were lovers! even the seemingly demure Donna
And their then-scandalous Reed, star of the feel-good movie
“It’s a Wonderful Life.” Ú

2 5A M e r i c A n / / gAngsters

uMafia muscle landed Frank ‘casino’ Boss
Sinatra his Oscar-winning role as a Beat the odds
soldier in ÒFrom Here to EternityÓ the naMe frank “leftY”
rosenthal MaY not uRosenthal signed Vegas
Roselli made it VERY clear studio ring a Bell, but in Mob-run legends Siegfried &
boss Harry Cohn wouldn’t have a won- Las Vegas there were those who Roy to a long-term deal
derful life – or ANY life at all – when bowed to him in honor and others
the movie mogul refused to put Mob too scared to look him in the eye. also a visionary who
paisano Frank Sinatra into the film introduced sports
“From Here to Eternity.” After getting Frank ran four casinos for the betting to Vegas along
word from New York Mafia “Prime Syndicate: the Stardust, Fremont, with female blackjack
Minister” Frank Costello, Roselli Marina and Hacienda. The joints dealers, moves that
sauntered into Cohn’s office and were built with $62 million doubled the Stardust’s
explained that “certain people” looted from the Teamsters Union income in less than a year.
wanted Sinatra in the flick, so he’d by the Kansas City, Mo., Detroit
better change his mind. and Chicago Mafia families. Big acts like Siegfried
& Roy were signed
ÒLABOR UNRESTÓ Lefty, a sports handicapping to long-term deals by
Unlike the movie tycoon in “The genius who operated the Rosenthal. He even had
Godfather,” Cohn didn’t need to find country’s biggest bookie-running his own local TV show,
a horse’s head in his bed to get the operation back in Chicago, where he railed against
message. He immediately cast Ol’ arrived in Sin City in 1968. He the ever-growing rules
Blue Eyes in his Oscar-winning role met Allen Glick, whose dummy of the Nevada Gaming
as Private Maggio. corporation owned the Mob Commission, and
From Hollywood toVegas to Chicago casinos on paper, and announced
to New York, Mob kingpins could he was in charge.
make or break anybody.
The Syndicate had learned “labor “If you interfere with anything
unrest” was a good way to extort I do here, you will never leave
legitimate businesses. Through corrupt this corporation alive,” Rosenthal
locals of the longshoreman’s union, Ú told Glick.

Rosenthal had two sides. He
was a gangster who used Mob
goons to crush cheaters’ hands
with rubber mallets. He was

2 6A M e r i c A n / / gAngsters

uHauled before the U.S. Senate’s
Rackets Subcommittee on Sept.
7, 1961, Mob casino king Frank
“Lefty” Rosenthal refused
to answer questions about an
attempt to fix a college football
game by bribing players

uMilwaukee Mob chit-chatted with guests who
boss Frank “Mad included Liberace, Bob Hope
Bomber” Balistrieri and Wayne Newton.
(above) planted
explosives in Lefty’s As Mafia influence in Vegas
Cadillac. The gambler’s began to fade, Milwaukee capo
brush with death Frank “Mad Bomber” Balistrieri
was dramatically blamed Lefty. He blew up
re-created in the 1995 Rosenthal’s car with him in it.
movie “Casino” (left) Rosenthal survived, retired
to Florida, and died peacefully
in 2008.

The 1995 Martin Scorsese
film “Casino” starring Robert
De Niro is based on Lefty’s life.
In an interview he gave
after quitting, Rosenthal had
advice for gamblers: “No
human being – zero – can
beat a casino. Anyone who
says he can is a liar.” But Lefty
managed to beat the Mob. v

2 7A M e r i c A n / / gAngsters

TheMafia’s
dirTyMoney

wenTTo
LasVegas
Laundries
&caMeback

cLean

uTeamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa (left)
helped the Mafia loot his union’s
pension funds and build Las Vegas.
With Hoffa and the truckers in their
pocket, Mob leaders could extort
legitimate businesses by shutting
down deliveries or calling strikes

2 8A M e r i c A n / / gAngsters

the Mafia controlled America’s docks. bakeries, laundries, breweries, meat part of American life it did not touch
With their partner, Teamsters Union suppliers, soft drink companies, restau- or corrupt.
president Jimmy Hoffa, they controlled rants, hotels, garment centers and the
the nation’s highway shipping. construction industry. But that would change. And like
so many racketeers set up by their
With just a quiet word to the right The Mob collected America’s trash, supposed buddies, the arrogant Mob
labor boss, the godfathers could shut paved the nation’s roads and held all bosses would never see it coming
down food services, commercial the political strings. There was no – until it was too late. v

2 9A M e r i c A n / / gAngsters

greatest THE MOB EATS ITS OWN – and
murder is the easy answer to any
underworld dispute!

As these chilling hits prove, the
Mafia certainly hasn’t suffered a
shortage of bullets for snitches,
turncoats and rival racketeers who
stood in the way of power and profits.

The end can come at any time – in
the driver’s seat, a barber’s chair, or
even at home. With the Mob, how you
are murdered sends a message – and
the more public the execution, the
better the point is made!

Corpses with heads blown to
pieces, restaurant floors running with
blood, and cars riddled with bullets
all helped cement the power of
organized crime bosses.

As Colombo Family “consigliere”
(adviser) Salvatore Profaci told an

1928 Frankie Yale

Brooklyn crime boss Frankie Yale crossed Chicago kingpin Al Capone – and paid the price. Yale supplied
most of his pal Capone’s whiskey during Prohibition – until a Capone spy fingered Yale for highjacking some of
the booze. On July 1, goons ambushed Yale on his way home, and sprayed his brand-new coupe with buckshot
and submachine gun bullets. Yale died at the wheel, and crashed the coupe into a brownstone

1929 st. Valentine’s Day massacre

The bloody booze-fueled gang violence in Chicago hit
new heights with a savage slaughter on Valentine’s Day.

That’s when Al Capone – furious his
nemesis George ÒBugsÓ Moran had
rubbed out two top Italian bootleggers
– sent gunmen dressed as cops to a
garage at 2122 North Clark Street.

The thugs announced a Òraid,Ó
lined seven North Siders
against a wall and cut
them to pieces

1935 Dutch  When Chicago mobster ÒMachine GunÓ Jack McGurn was
schultz
implicated in the notorious St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, his
 Furious at being indicted for gangster pals turned on him. He was mowed down by three

federal tax evasion, bootlegger assassins with machine guns on Feb. 15. Near his body, the killers
Dutch Schultz asked the Mafia tossed a Valentine that read: ÒYou’ve lost your
Commission for permission to jewels and cars and handsome houses, but
kill special prosecutor Thomas things could still be worse you know... At
Dewey. The Commission refused, least you haven’t lost your trousers!Ó
and ordered a hit on Schultz
instead. He was gunned down
in the men’s room of the Palace
Chop House in Newark, N.J.,
on Oct. 23. Refusing to die in
a bathroom, Schultz staggered
to his table. He passed away in
a hospital 22 hours later

Handsome and charismatic, Bugsy Siegel was one of the first
“celebrity” gangsters. But even Bugsy’s charm couldn’t spare him
from getting whacked when he ran afoul of the Mob. Siegel was
assassinated on June 20 with a military-style rifle as he sat on his
and mistress Virginia Hill’s couch in Hollywood reading the “Los
Angeles Times.” His killer fired through the window, striking him
five times. One shot blew his left eye right out of its socket!

 The “two Tonys” – Kansas City mobsters Tony Trombino and Tony Brancato – were arrested 46 times

on charges ranging from robbery and rape to assault. In May 1951, they stole $3,500 from the sports betting

operation at the Mob-controlled Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. L.A. crime boss Jack Dragna ordered a

hit – and on Aug. 6, they were found shot to death in the front seat of a car near Hollywood Boulevard

1951 Willie moretti

 An underboss of

the Genovese crime
family, Willie Moretti
sealed his fate when
he testified before
the U.S. Senate
Select Committee
on Organized
Crime. He was shot
while eating lunch
in Cliffside Park,
N.J., on Oct. 4. “It
was supposedly
a mercy killing
because he was sick,”
government witness
Joe Valachi later
said. “Crime boss Vito
Genovese told me,
‘The Lord have mercy
on his soul, he’s losing
his mind.’ ”

3 3a m e r i c a n / / gangsters

1957 albert
‘the executioner’
anastasia

As the leader of
Murder, Inc., and
boss of the Gambino
crime family for
most of the 1950s
and one of the
members of the National Crime
Syndicate, it’s estimated that
Albert Anastasia was involved in
as many as 200 hits. “The Lord
High Executioner’s” reign came
to an end when two masked
gunman shot him dead as he sat in
a barber’s chair at New York’s Park
Sheraton Hotel on Oct. 25

 Head of the Colombo crime

family, Joe Colombo Sr. was
shot three times on June 28
by a street hustler posing as a
photojournalist at an Italian
Unity Day rally in New York.
Rival mobster “Crazy Joe“
Gallo, a minor Big Apple celeb,
was blamed for the hit. He
got whacked 10 months later.
Colombo remained paralyzed
until his death from cardiac
arrest in 1978

3 4a m e r i c a n / / gangsters

1979 carmine galante

Carmine “Cigar” Galante, acting boss
of the Bonanno crime family, invoked
Cosa Nostra leaders’ wrath by taking
over the narcotics market and refusing
to split the profts with the other crime
families. The hood, who was a clinically
diagnosed psychopath, got killed on
July 12 while eating lunch on the patio
of an Italian eatery in Brooklyn, N.Y.
He died with his trademark cigar still
clenched in his teeth

3 5a m e r i c a n / / gangsters

Angelo “The Gentle Don” Bruno
headed the Philadelphia underworld
for two decades. But he fought New
York’s crime families for control of
the lucrative Atlantic City gambling
industry, and it cost him. On March 21,
Bruno was killed by a shotgun blast to
the back of the head as he sat in his car
outside his home in South Philly. New
York Mobster Antonio “Tony Bananas”
Caponigro reportedly ordered the hit

1985 Paul castellano and tom Bilotti
 The Don of the Gambino family, “Big Paul” Castellano

was assassinated on Dec. 16 on the order of power-hungry
John Gotti. Castellano and his driver, Tom Bilotti (below),
who had just been appointed underboss, were shot to
death by a hit team wearing white trench coats and black
Russian Ushanka hats. Their bodies were left in front of
the Sparks Steak House in midtown Manhattan

 Mob hit men are everywhere! Unlucky Eddie

Lino was gunned down on Nov. 6 by two New York
City Police Department detectives on the Mob’s payroll.
After pulling him over for a bogus traffc violation,
crooked cops Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa
fred nine bullets into Lino as he sat behind the wheel
of his Mercedes. The hit was ordered by another crime
family who wanted to weaken Lino’s pal John Gotti

u Joe “The Barber”
Barbara’s 53-acre ranch in
Apalachin, N.Y., was the
site of a Syndicate summit
that proved the American
Mafia was real. Attendees
included (below, from left to
right) Joseph Barbara, Vito
Genovese, Carlo Gambino,
Santo Trafficante, Sam
Giancana, Paul Castellano,
Joe Profaci and Joe Marcello

Bungled Mafa summit was
Beginning of the end

Until Nov. 14, 1957, most Americans suspected shop was suddenly overwhelmed by his massive order,
there was a National Crime Syndicate running which made local state trooper Edgar Croswell curious.
the big-money rackets, but the FBI insisted it
didnÕt exist! So, on the day of the Mob meet, Croswell and a few other
All that changed when coppers lawmen watched BarbaraÕs place as limo after limo
broke up a Mob summit at Joseph arrived. New York godfather Joe Profaci, 60, was
Joe “The Barber” BarbaraÕs 53- first. He was followed by rising capo Paul Castellano
acre farm in sleepy Apalachin, N.Y. and his boss Gambino. Don Vito Genovese made a
grand entrance as did ChicagoÕs Sam Giancana, Santo

The spectacle of wise guys running Trafficante and Joe Marcello from New Orleans.

through cow dung in $500 Italian shoes turned Suddenly, a housekeeper spotted Croswell

the Mafia into a laughing stock Ð but proved it taking down license plate numbers. She told her

was all too real. uState trooper boss Ð and the mobsters scattered, racing to their

BIG DOINGS Edgar Croswell cars, running across fields in $2,000 silk suits and
The bust happened by accident. Barbara, the caught the Mob dropping hundred dollar bills.

ranking godfather of the Pennsylvania Mafia flat-footed About 60 gangsters were hauled in. They all said

families, wanted a sit-down to discuss new they were visiting a sick friend. They got slapped

federal laws against the lucrative narcotics trade, issues in with minor fines. But the consequences were major.

the garment industry, loan sharking, casino operations and The summit forced FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to

disloyal hoods who needed to “disappear.” acknowledge the existence of a National Crime Syndicate.

It was big doings Ð and Barbara needed a lot of prime meat The feds would now declare total war on the Mafia. It was

to feed his 100 invited guests. The tiny Apalachin butcher the beginning of the end. v

3 7a M e r i c a n / / gangsters

fter his G-men cut down grab big headlines by catching big name
bank robber John Dillinger
in the summer of 1934, crooks. He concentrated on those who

AFBI boss J. Edgar Hoover were easy to snare.

Ma Barker and her sons. While bragging that the capture of

crime in the United States. small-time hoods and bank robbers proved
Until the 1957 Apalachin raid caught
the FBI was the
100 Mafiosi in one place and officially
revealed the existence of a countrywide greatest crime-
organized crime syndicate, Hoover had
repeatedly told Americans there was no busting force in
such thing.
the nation, he

allowed the syndi-

cate to creep into

virtually every

uG-men went after easy targets like U.S. institution!
John Dillinger (top) and (left to right After World War
above) Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd,
II, as the Cold War

George “Baby Face” Nelson and George between Russia

The legendary “Machine Gun Kelly” Barnes instead of and the U.S. heated

leader of the FBI tryingtorootoutthesecretiveSyndicate up, right winger

certainly wasn’t Hoover went after

dumb Ð or blind. He had files on top mob- Communists, civil rights leaders and

sters and their politician pals. Hoover, liberals. The FBI’s bulldog boss believed

a betting man, even rubbed shoulders “subversives” were a bigger threat to the

with the gangsters at various racetracks! country than Mafia chiefs, who were said

tohavesecretfilesoftheirownÐdocument-

So experts say the nation’s top lawmen ing HIS cross-dressing homosexuality!

DELIBERATELY put his head in the But whatever the reason for his silence,

sand Ð and lied to America Ð to avoid when the rats ran away at the Apalachin

a war against organized crime his Mob Summit, Hoover couldn’t lie any

agency didn’t have the manpower or the longer. He had egg on his face as crit-

money to win! ics charged he ignored what every kid

When the FBI was in its infancy who’d ever seen a gangster movie knew

in the ’30s and ’40s, Hoover Ð the Outfit was real.The FBI was finally

had to fight hard for funds to forced to send agents after the Syndicate.

increase the size of his staff. But the war took decades to win Ð thanks

To get the gold, he had to

uThe FBI’s powerful
director, J. Edgar
Hoover – who was
betting on horse
races when this photo
was snapped on
May 22, 1954 – had
secrets of his own.
Word is racketeers
had compromising
photos of the closet
homosexual dressed
in drag!

FBi chief’s lies helped
mafa spread like cancer

3 8a m e r i c a n / / gangsters

Hollywood’s uWith a raspy
voice based
top 20 on the growl
of real-life
gangster movies
New York Mafia
boss Frank ÒThe
Prime MinisterÓ
Costello, Marlon
Brando became
ÒThe GodfatherÓ

in Francis Ford
CoppolaÕs 1972

monster hit

Hollywood is ga-ga over gangsters! business too, by taking over a union that

Bringing the underworld’s savagery, specialized in providing extras for film

greed and gore to the silver screen has crowd scenes.

been big business since former mobster Soon Siegel was hanging with old

Joe Brown became a silent movie pal Raft, who grew up in New York’s

sensation in the early 1920s. But the tough Hell’s Kitchen. Raft’s portrayal

Mob movie really came into of a nickel-flipping thug

its own during the Great in 1932’s ÒScarfaceÓ was so

Depression when Americans realistic, mobsters have

gobbled up tales of fast deliberately imitated him

living and easy money. ever since.

Upcoming actors James But Hollywood’s gangland

Cagney, Edward G. Robinson gold standard is the 1972

and George Raft, a classic ÒThe Godfather.Ó

semi-reformed small-time The blockbuster and its two

hood, became TinselTown’s uMobster Bugsy sequels chronicled the bloody

crime kings playing ruthless Siegel (left) with old history of the Corleones, a

racketeers in black-and- pal, actor George Raft New York-based organized

white dramas like ÒPublic crime family – and paved

Enemy,Ó ÒLittle CaesarÓ and ÒScarface.Ó the way for a blood-soaked parade of

The Mob was also flourishing behind dramas starring drug dealers (1983’s

the scenes. Handsome hatchet man Bugsy ÒScarfaceÓ), crooked cops (ÒThe

Siegel was dispatched from New York DepartedÓ), Mafia wiseguys

to set up an L.A. gambling operation. But (ÒGoodfellasÓ) and urban gangs

he decided to muscle in on the movie (ÒNew Jack CityÓ).

3 9a m e r i c a n / / gangsters

1931 1932

As murderous thug Legendary Chicago gangster Al Capone was nicknamed
Rico Bandello, actor Scarface, and this blood-soaked chronicle of ’20s gang
Edward G. Robinson set warfare was loosely based on his life. Capone liked the
the standard for movie film so much he owned a copy, during an era when having
gangsters. But in real life, a movie of your own was literally unheard of. Paul Muni
Robinson was a cultured stars as Italian immigrant Antonio “Tony” Camonte who,
man passionate about like Capone, battles the city’s Irish gang. In an obvious
fine art. On the silver reference to the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929,
screen, “Little Caesar” several men are gunned down in a garage with two
is gunned down by a cop
after reaching the top
of Chicago’s organized
crime syndicate. His
immortal final words
are: “Mother of mercy,
is this the end of Rico?”
Legend has it that the
anti-Mob Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act – or
RICO – got its acronym
from Robinson’s character.

1931

It’s 1920s Chicago – and small-time bootlegger Tom Powers, played by

The film made Cagney a star, and boasts one of gangster cinema’s most
memorable scenes – as Tom blows up at his girl Kitty (actress Mae
Clarke) and shoves a grapefruit in her face. Cagney later said he based his
performance on a real-life Chicago gangster, Irish-American thug Charles

1959 1947

The movie’s tagline Actor Richard Widmark’s
read: “It was the age of neurotic, high-pitched laugh
speakeasies and jazz... as a psycho hit man inspired
when everybody sinned, one of the 20th century’s
ginned and broke the most brutal real-life Mob
law...while a vicious crime enforcers – “Crazy Joe” Gallo.
lord almost took over the In “Kiss of Death,” Widmark’s
nation!” And actor Rod character Tommy Udo pushes
Steiger delivered a chilling a wheelchair-bound old lady
portrayal of Capone in this down a flight of stairs to her
amazingly accurate biopic. death without ever stopping
It chronicled Capone’s rise his maniacal chuckling. New
through murder, extortion
and political fraud. But mimicking Udo and acting
while the iconic gangster crazy, giving rise to his “Crazy
died of advanced syphilis,
Hollywood’s production gunned down in Little Italy
code forced the film’s in 1972.
narrator to attribute his
death to an “incurable
disease.”

1960

Mobsters stop at nothing to keep
their “business” going during the
Great Depression in this gritty
look at New York’s underworld.
The screenplay was based on
a novel about Murder, Inc., a
Brooklyn gang that operated in
the ’30s. The film launched the
career of actor Peter Falk (right),
who earned an Oscar nomination
playing Murder, Inc.’s top hit
man, Abe Reles. Falk chose his
wardrobe from second-hand
stores, saying he searched for
clothes that gave him the “East

1964

Robin Hood legend, Frank Sinatra plays a gangster who robs from
the rich and gives to the poor in Prohibition Era Chicago. The
Chairman of the Board recruited his Rat Pack pals Sammy Davis Jr.
and Dean Martin for the musical. Sinatra was close to Mob bosses
Carlo Gambino, Sam Giancana and Lucky Luciano. “The Godfather”
character Johnny Fontane, whose career was helped by links to
organized crime, is widely believed to have been based on Sinatra.

4 2a m e r i c a n / / gangsters

1972

“I’m gonna make
him an offer he can’t
refuse.” Screen legend
Marlon Brando uttered
that line as Mafia
boss Don Corleone
Ð and turned “The
Godfather” into an
instant classic. Based
on the novel by Mario
Puzo and directed by
Francis Ford Coppola,
“The Godfather” is
widely recognized
as Hollywood’s top
gangster movie Ð if
not the best movie of
all time. Actor Gianni
Russo later hinted he
landed the role of The
Godfather’s traitorous
son-in-law, Carlo Rizzi,
by tapping his real-life
Mafia connections.

1974

The word “Mafia” was never spoken in
“The Godfather,” but it’s heard three
times in this blockbuster sequel, which
pits the young “Don” Michael Corleone
(Al Pacino, right) against shrewd
old-timer Hyman Roth. Roth is loosely
based on real-life mobster Meyer Lansky.
Lansky, however, didn’t like how he was
portrayed by legendary acting teacher
Lee Strasberg. After the film’s release,
the miffed mobster reportedly phoned
Strasberg from his Miami home and said:
“Why couldn’t you have made me more

4 3a m e r i c a n / / gangsters

1983

Like the gangsters of the original
ÒScarface,Ó Cuban immigrant Tony
Montana rose through the ranks
to achieve his American dream
Ð heading a criminal empire. For Tony,
that meant sitting on top of MiamiÕs
cocaine business. The film inspired
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to name
his international corporation Montana
Management. When a heavily armed
hit squad arrives to kill him, Montana
(Al Pacino) grabs a grenade launcher
and growls the filmÕs most famous line:

1983

Even with a post-modern twist, BrooklynÕs Prizzi crime
clan stayed true to the gangster code Ð and put family
honor above all. The film centers on two professional
killers, Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner, who fall
in love and marry. In the end, the married mobsters are
hired to kill each other. Iconic director John Huston
focused on the filmÕs black comedy, and the late movie
critic Pauline Kael wrote: ÒItÕs like ÔThe GodfatherÕ

acted out by ÔThe Munsters.’ ”

1987

star-studded film tells the story of NessÕ (Kevin Costner) team of federal agents Ð known
as ÒThe UntouchablesÓ for their fearlessness Ð and their efforts to bring Chicago kingpin Al
Capone (Robert De Niro) to justice during Prohibition. A stickler for authenticity, De Niro,
who also starred in ÒThe Godfather: Part IIÓ and ÒGoodfellas,Ó tracked down CaponeÕs
original tailors to make him an authentic movie wardrobe.

1990

Scorsese-directed gangster flick about the rise and fall of Lucchese crime family associate
Henry Hill. During filming, Liotta received two (fake) horse heads in his dressing room to
welcome him to the world of Mob flicks Ð one from De Niro and the other from Frank SinatraÕs
daughter, Nancy. After the filmÕs release, the real Hill was so proud that he bragged that the

4 5a m e r i c a n / / gangsters

1990

Tom Reagan
(Gabriel Byrne) is a man with
divided loyalties. The longtime
confidant and adviser of an
Irish political boss (Albert
Finney) during the Prohibition
era, Tom eventually teams up
with his boss’ Italian rival (John
Turturro). During filming in New
Orleans, crooked local cops
would routinely show up to try
to shake down the production
company. Director Joel Coen
later said the modern bad apples
in blue were “acting precisely
like the cops depicted in his film,
and they don’t even care!”

1991

leader of a New York City gang during the crack cocaine
wars of the late 1980s – and Ice-T is the undercover
detective who infiltrates the gang in order to bring it
down. Snipes, who served nearly three years in jail for
failing to file federal tax returns, came close to facing
drug charges in real life. Cops believed the actor tossed a
package of marijuana from his motorcycle during a now
infamous high-speed chase in 1994. But since there were

4 6a m e r i c a n / / gangsters

1992

Edward James Olmos directs
and stars in the fictional
account of the rise of
the Mexican Mafia in the
California prison system.
Soon after the film’s release,
three of Olmos’ consultants
were killed execution-style,
and it was reported that
Olmos was also on the
gang’s hit list for making
the movie. In a 1996 federal
racketeering case against
the Mexican Mafia, it was
revealed that the group
had extorted money and
property from the actor,
possibly in exchange for his

1995

Niro, Joe Pesci and Sharon
Stone star in this tale of
greed, corruption and
murder in 1970s Las Vegas.
Pesci’s character gets
whacked in the flick. The
actor almost got a taste of
real-life Mob justice in the
early ’80s after skipping
out on a hotel bill. Mobster
Anthony “The Animal” Fiato
was approached by actor

Pesci for stiffing the Miami
hotel, which was owned
by one of Caan’s pals. The
incriminating conversation
was reportedly caught on
FBI tape.

4 7a m e r i c a n / / gangsters

1997 2002

of FBI legend Joe Pistone, who infiltrated the Irish Mob enforcer Michael Sullivan who, along with
New York-based Bonanno crime family as his young son, seeks revenge for the murder of his
ÒDonnie BrascoÓ in the 1970s, stars Al Pacino family. The film also stars Paul Newman, giving the
and Johnny Depp. Although the real Pistone final movie performance of his career as Mob boss
still lives under the radar and refuses to travel
to cities with a high Mob presence because of vicious outlaws. The rain-swept cinematography
a contract on his life, he went to the Big Apple Ð for which Conrad Hill was posthumously awarded
during the filming to coach Pacino and Depp an Oscar Ð and the decision to film on location in
in their roles. the Windy City gave the film an air of ÒCapone-era
ChicagoÓ authenticity that critics loved.

2006

An undercover cop (Leo
DiCaprio) who infiltrates
BostonÕs deadly Irish mob
and a police mole (Matt
Damon) each set out to
uncover the otherÕs
identity before theyÕre
exposed. The Martin
Scorsese film also stars Jack
Nicholson, Martin Sheen,
Alec Baldwin and Vera
Farmiga. Nicholson based
his role as vicious Irish
mobster Frank Costello
on real-life South Boston
gang boss James ÒWhiteyÓ
Bulger, who was sentenced
last year to two life
sentences for racketeering
and masterminding
eleven murders.

4 8a m e r i c a n / / gangsters