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The Godfather: A Very Brief History Of The Mafia

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“As far back as I remember I always wanted to be a gangster” “I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook” “I want him dead, I want his family dead, I want his house burned to the ground”. Everyone knows at least one line from a movie about the mafia. Pop culture about the mafia has been around since 1932’s Scarface. Ever since then multiple hits like Goodfellas, The Untouchables, and arguably the best movie of all time The Godfather, have given the general population a view of what it is like to be in the mafia. From the eyes of just an associate, to the Don himself, to the FBI agents trying to stop the mafia, the general populace thinks they know the mafia. In reality, it is much darker, grittier, and real than what the media portrays it as. Instead of always wearing the suits or even tuxedos that the media portrays, in reality, most end up wearing a body bag. So here’s the plan. “I’m gonna to make you an offer you can’t refuse”: The Italian crime syndicate, known as the mafia, has a darker background then the media portrays it. …show more content…

The Mafia has a long history dating back thousands of years, but the Mafia did not start in America, but instead in Southern Italy and Sicily. According to the FBI, the mafia has “evolved over the course of 3,000 years of invasion and exploitation of conquering armies in Italy.” (Federal Bureau of Investigation) Because of this “Sicilians became more clannish and began to rely on familial ties for safety and protection.” (Federal Bureau of Investigation) Eventually what was formed was “an underground secret society formed initially as resistance fighters against the invaders, and to exact frontier vigilante justice against oppression” (Federal Bureau of Investigation). “Sicilians were not concerned if the

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Unlike the New York organized crime scene which consists of the Five Families, the Chicago mob consists of only one family known as the Outfit. The outfit dates to the times of Al Capone and has traditionally stayed away from drug trafficking crimes and focused on loan-sharking and online gambling (The Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2011). The Chicago La Costa Notra: History The Outfit can be traced to the early 1900’s with an increase of Italian immigrants in Chicago.

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At the bottom there were associates and people who did business with the family (Mafia in the United States). Becoming a member meant loyalty, obeying the rules and a lifetime of

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In his book The Origin of Organized Crime in America, David Critchley states that his goal in writing this work is to dispel any popularized myths that the public had surrounding the Mafia. He thinks that, “ the history of the phenomenon of organized crime in American society contains many pitfalls, although none quite so precarious as the presence of a standard historiography” (pg. 239). Critchley believes that the media and historical accounts have created this image of the Mafia as this hierarchy of gangsters and murderers wreaking havoc in New York City and he believes that it is his duty to try and change that. He investigates the lives of many well known gangsters, and even some little known ones, additionally he examines documents from

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Francesca Moschetti Moschetti 1 Mrs. Heinsman English 9 February 12, 2016 Al Capone in the 1930s During the 1930’s organized crime was a major threat to the FBI and was increasingly becoming more popular every day. Members of the Mafia grew, making it a major issue for the government to handle. A Mafia is an organized international body of criminals which originally operated in Sicily, and has a complex and ruthless behavioral code. ("Copy of The Philadelphia Crime Family." Prezi.com.

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During the the Mafia including Torrio and Capone got stupid rich. Once Torrio had crazy money he eventually retired from the mafia in 1925 giving Prostitution, gambling, bootlegging and other illegal activities to the one and only Al Capone aka (scarface). This was the start of organized crime in the

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Roman Colleton Mrs. Manatos English II 21 May 2023 How the Chicago Mafias Impacted the 1900s Culture and Society of America "Mafia is a process, not a thing. Mafia is a form of clan - cooperation to which it's individual members pledge lifelong loyalty.... Friendship, connections, family ties, trust, loyalty, obedience - this was the glue that held us together." ~ Joseph Bonanno, aka (Joe Bananas) , is a notorious mobster known for his hard-headed personality. The mafia is a prestigious organized crime group, that has close ties with political figures and “elites”.

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“Never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut” (Quotes from Goodfellas, n.d.). This quote from the 1990 critically acclaimed film Goodfellas encompasses some of the main foundations the American Mafia is built upon. And although this film was a major motion picture created in Hollywood, it was based on a true story and kept most of the key aspects of the Mafia’s culture. The role that family played in each individual sect across the country was unified in the sense that it was, by far, the most important to every member of the American Mafia. In the Mafia’s prime (approximately 1920-1985), it shared enough values with the dominant American culture, while maintaining a good amount of differences, to be considered a U.S. co-culture.

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W.E.B Dubois, or William Edward Burghardt DuBois is well known as one of the most important social activist and writers of the 1900’s. In 1888 he graduated from Fisk University and in 1895 DuBois became the first African American to receive a PHD from Harvard. In his early life, DuBois attacked Jim Crow laws and practices that inhibited black suffrage, and believed that protests were the only viable tools of change with America’s social problems. He saw very little future in agriculture as the nation rapidly industrialized, and so in 1905 DuBois founded the Niagara Movement, a movement to end all forms of discrimination.

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The American Mafia is a highly organized society of criminals also known as la cosa nostra, “things of ours”, by the government. The society is also known as the Italian-American Mafia, the American Mafia is anything but fabricated. John Gotti is no where near a humbled plumbing supplies salesman, he had a totally different persona, a dangerous mobster. John Gotti wasn't just any mobster he was the boss of the powerful Gambino crime family located in New York City. John Gotti was an entirely different man with secrets unperceivable by the naked eye.

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The amount of people in the government and police force that were being bribed by the mafia was hard to wrap the mind around. The men who did terrible things only got off with little punishments. They also destroyed lots of cities and cost America lots of money (Rucker). They left America financially hurting by all the damages they caused. The mafia scared lots and lots people but certain men from the group like Al Capone were publicized by the media.

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This extensive crime group of the 1920s-1940s was run by many robust and authoritative people that were responsible for great changes. Some of these characters were Al Capone, Mickey Cohen, “Mad Sam” DeStefano, etc. These mafia leaders were known for individual reasons, but ultimately they were all perceived as powerful and determined men that ran the crime industry. For example, Al Capone was known for organized crime. He got his start in the illegal alcohol industry during the prohibition, then later grew his network to gambling, prostitution, bootlegging rackets, and even murder when trying to expand his territories and gunning down rivals.

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Before the Prohibition era came into the picture, the mafia was a much smaller player in American life, but after the sale of alcohol was outlawed, the mafia, already known to act deviously, quickly began making and selling their own drinks, making them wealthier and more powerful in American life. The more power given to these crime syndicates through alcohol sales made them all the more powerful and dangerous, leading to violence in the streets of America’s big cities, one such incident being the infamous Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. Aside from the obvious violence and such, many common people revered these mafia men as heroes for bringing them alcohol and jobs, “…such as the American mobsters and European crime syndicates thrived, most common people looked upon these organizations as heroes.” (Nash. Paragraph 2).

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Organized crime is the formation of a group, that commit crimes, for one purposeful reason: to obtain money. When many people think of organized crime, they immediately think, Mafia, gangsters, and although they are correct, bootlegging also played a huge role, and was the leading establishment for organized crime. During the 1920’s organized crime, became a popular thing, especially for families or people who needed a source of income. For many joining the Mafia, or becoming a Bootlegger, seemed like the perfect way to make cash, except for one problem. It was illegal.

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These are the qualities not always associated with criminals. This subversion denies the norm, and establishes them as normal people living underground lives. Life in the mafia is not grand, rich or very healthy. It is one of the most dangerous profession (?) that one can enter. It is full of cynicism, betrayal and outright lies.

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The way to rise up in the world and achieve power is through the use of violence, and with power, comes money. Despite this, it doesn’t condemn the mafia, but rather we are given the opportunity to make our decision on who is morally just and who

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