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Italian American Culture_SP18

Lucky

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Racial diversity among the Mafia
Mafia is defined as “a hierarchically structured secret organization allegedly engaged in smuggling, racketeering, trafficking in narcotics, and other criminal activities in the U.S., Italy, and elsewhere” often times referred to as Cosa Nostra. These secret organizations, originating in many parts of Sicily and southern Italy, are often seen to be predominantly comprised of Italian Americans and immigrants. My topic is to shed light on racial diversity among the mafia at the beginning of the 20th century. We start to see a connection among criminals from different racial backgrounds. I chose to look at two films that touch on race in relation to organized crime, Mobsters and Goodfellas. In the movie Mobsters, it talks about four young men from New York, Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky, and Benny “Bugsy” Segal they began their careers with petty crimes to eventually working their way to becoming top guys in the crime business. What makes this a unique collection of characters is that two men were not of Italian descent; Segal and Lansky were of Jewish ancestry. These four men among others developed the National Crime Syndicate in the states; this became a partnership for gangsters of both Italian and Jewish descent to bootleg. This became a quite progressive idea for criminals and extinguished the concept of only Italian mafia associates. New York in the 1920's was a hotspot for criminal activity; around this time the five crime families of New York were making a profit in bootlegging and racketeering.
Castellammarese War

Although most Americans might not recognize, the name they definitely understand the image the gang war portrays. In the late 1920s, a bloody power struggle for territory in the prohibition racket known as the Castellammarese War broke out between New York City’s two biggest Italian-American criminal gangs: Masseria and Maranzano. A rising Mobster Lucky Luciano helped Sicilian-born crime boss Salvatore Maranzano won, he crowned himself boss of all bosses, in New York. Maranzano soon after believed that his ally Luciano had too much power and too many men to be left alive, so he secretly planned to have him killed. Unlucky for him “Lucky” Luciano found out about it and had him murdered almost immediately.

Luciano then founded the formation of a central organization called the Commission to serve as a sort of national board of directors for the American Mafia which at that time consisted of around twenty crime families across the country. New York was divided into five main Mafia families while every other city was only allowed one family at a time. The families for the most part were all Italian with the exception of a few individuals, who had earned their place at the table. The Commission’s main purpose was to mediate disagreements and set policies among the families. This system would be the base for the Italian American Mafia operations that still go on to this day.
Mobsters In the movie Mobsters, it talks about four young men from New York, Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky, and Benny “Bugsy” Segal they began their careers with petty crimes to eventually working their way to becoming top guys in the crime business. What makes this a unique collection of characters is that two men were not of Italian descent; Segal and Lansky were of Jewish ancestry. These four men among others developed the National Crime Syndicate in the states; this became a partnership for gangsters of both Italian and Jewish descent to bootleg. This became a quite progressive idea for criminals and extinguished the concept of only Italian mafia associates. New York in the 1920's was a hotspot for criminal activity; around this time the five crime families of New York were making a profit in bootlegging and racketeering.