Timeline Mafia
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1282 Mar 30,
Furious inhabitants of Palermo attacked French occupation force in
the "Sicilian Vespers." The Mafia appeared in Sicily to revolt
against French rule after a drunken soldier attacked a young woman
on her wedding day.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(MC, 3/30/02)
1891 Mar 14, A mob in New
Orleans broke open a jail after a court dismissed charges against 19
Italian men indicted for the murder of police chief David C.
Hemmessey. 11 of 19 defendants were hanged. The book "Vendetta" by
Richard Gambino, and the movie of the same name, covered the event.
(SSFC, 2/1/04, p.M3)
1902 Jul 4, Meyer Lansky
(d.1983), mobster (Started numbers), was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_Lansky)
1905 Jan 18, Joseph Bonanno
(d.2002), later NYC mafia boss, was born in Castellmmare del Golfo,
Sicily.
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.A23)
1921 Mar 21, "Big Jim"
Colisimo, US gangster, was murdered by Al Capone.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1925-1933 Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, was used by Al
Capone-led mobsters to store liquor for smuggling to the US on the
Soo Line. Underground tunnels, built for steam heating the city,
were converted mob quarters. In 2000 “The Tunnels of Moose Jaw”
opened as a tourist attraction.
(WSJ, 8/19/02, p.B1)
1928 Nov 4, Arnold Rothstein
(46), US mobster, was shot to death at the Grand Hotel in NYC. In
2005 Nick Tosches authored “King of the Jews,” a biography of
Rothstein.
(SSFC, 6/12/05, p.B6)
1929 Apr 6, "Crazy" Joe Gallo,
mobster, was born.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1929 May 7, Albert Anselmi,
John Scalise and Joseph "Top Toad" Giunta, US gangsters, were
murdered by Al Capone.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1930 Mar 17, Mob boss Al Capone
was released from jail.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1931 Oct 17, Mobster Al Capone
was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in
prison. He was released in 1939.
(AP, 10/17/97)
1932 Feb 2, Al Capone was sent
to prison at Atlanta, Georgia, for "tax evasion."
(MC, 2/2/02)
1932 Feb 8, Vincent "Mad Dog"
Coll, mobster, was killed by Dutch Schultz gang.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1932 Apr 7, Erv A. Kelley, US
policeman, was shot to death by Pretty Boy Floyd.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1932 May 4,
Mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, entered the
federal penitentiary in Atlanta.
(AP, 5/4/97)
1932 May 18, Luigi Malvese,
bootleg gangster, was ambushed and shot to death in front of the Del
Monte Barbershop at 720 Columbus Ave, SF, Ca. A police dragnet
rounded up some 1,000 “usual suspect” in an attempt to pressure the
underworld to rein in its wild men. Louis Dinato, Al Capone’s
tailor, was among those rounded up.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.D3)
1933 Jun 17, In the Kansas City
Massacre 1 FBI agent, 4 cops and 1 gangster were killed by the mob.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1933 Jul 10, 1st police radio
system began operations at Eastchester Township, NY.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1934 Mar, In SF Michael R.
Catalano, underworld figure, was murdered.
(SSFC, 3/15/09, DB p.50)
1935 Feb 2, A lie detector was
1st used in court at Portage, Wisc.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1935 Oct 23, Abe Landau, US
gangster, was murdered.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1935 Oct 23, Dutch Schultz
(33), born as Arthur Flegenheimer, was shot in the men’s room of the
Palace Chop House and Tavern in Newark, New Jersey. He lingered for
nearly a day before dying after being the target of a mob hit.
Schultz wanted to have Thomas E. Dewey murdered because the special
prosecutor had set his sights on the numbers racket operated by
Schultz. A syndicate of New York’s top mobsters decided to murder
Schultz because it feared the wrath of the authorities and decided
against the assassination.
(MC, 10/23/01)(HNQ, 9/27/02)
1942 Mar 12, Salvatore "the
Bull" Gravano, mobster (testified against John Gotti), was born.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1944 Mar 4, Louis Buchalter,
aka Lepke, was executed at Sing Sing along with Mendy Weiss. Lepke
and fellow gangsters had dispatched Weiss in 1935 to kill Dutch
Schultz, who had planned to kill NYC prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey.
(AH, 12/02, p.4)
1947 Jan 25, American gangster
Al Capone died of syphilis in Miami Beach, Fla., at age 48.
(AP, 1/25/98)(MC, 1/25/02)
1947 May 7, Nick DeJohn, former
capodecina in the Chicago Family, was strangled and his body stuffed
into the trunk of a car parked on a San Francisco street. DeJohn had
reportedly fled Chicago after murdering several other gang members
and was living in Santa Rosa, California, under an alias at the time
of his death.
(SFC, 2/8/06, p.B5)(http://tinyurl.com/8fjm7)
1950 Jul 5, Salvatore Giuliano
(b.1922), Sicilian bandit, was shot by police in Castelvetrano.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvatore_Giuliano)
1957 Oct 25, Mob boss Albert
Anastasia, the "Lord High Executioner" of "Murder Inc.," was shot to
death in a barber shop inside the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York.
(AP, 10/25/07)
1957 Carlo Gambino (d.1976)
became head of the Gambino crime family and was later the model for
Don Corleone in the film “The Godfather.”
(SSFC, 8/11/02, Par p.4)
1959 Jan 1, Fidel Castro led
Cuban revolutionaries to victory over Fulgencio Batista, who fled to
the Dominican Republic. American mafia scrambled to secure their
cash and close casinos ahead of crowds that took to the streets and
trashed their businesses. In 2008 T.J. English Morrow authored
“Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba …and Then Lost It to the
Revolution.”
(SFC,10/15/97, p.C2)(AP, 1/1/98)(SFC, 1/28/00,
p.A14)(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.A9)
1962 Jan 26, Charles "Lucky"
Luciano (65), NYC Mafia gangster, died.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1962 May, A memo from the CIA
briefing for Attorney Gen’l. Robert Kennedy revealed that $150,000
was offered to the US mob for the assassination of Fidel Castro. The
mob insisted on doing the job at no charge.
(SFC, 7/2/97, p.A5)
1964 Joseph Valachi was the
first La Cosa Nostra member to publicly confirm that organized crime
existed. He talked under a new Witness Security Program before a
congressional committee. “The Valachi Papers” by Peter Maas was
written in 1972.
(SFC, 6/9/96, p.A-10)(SFEC, 4/20/97, Par p.7)
1964-1987 FBI agents in Boston used hit men and
mob leaders as informants and shielded them from prosecution in
exchange for information on the Mafia. This allowed the Winter Hill
Gang to rise in power as the prosecutors brought down the Patriarcha
crime family.
(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.A5)
1965 Mar 12, Edward “Teddy”
Deegan was found dead in an alley in Chelsea, Mass. A week later an
FBI memo named 6 men, including Vincent J. Flemmi and Joseph “The
Animal” Barboza, as the killers. Barboza became a star witness and
provided false testimony to convict 4 innocent men. The New England
Mafia shotgunned Barboza in SF in 1976.
(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.A5)
1966 Fred J. Cook (1911-2003)
authored "The Secret Rulers," a look at organized crime
(SFC, 5/5/03, p.B4)
1970 Mar 23, Mafia "Boss" Carlo
Gambino was arrested for plotting to steal $3 million.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1971 Apr 3, Joseph Valachi
(b.1903), US gangster, died at La Tuna Federal Correctional
Institution in Texas. A biography heavily influenced by Valachi’s
memoirs and by interviews with Valachi was written by journalist
Peter Maas and published in 1968 as The Valachi Papers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Valachi)
1972 Apr 7, "Crazy" Joe Gallo,
flamboyant mobster, was gunned down at his 43rd birthday party in
Manhattan’s Umberto's Clam House.
(SFC, 12/30/04, p.A2)
1973 Feb 18, Frank Costello
(b.1891), Italian-born US gangster, died in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Costello)
1975 Jun 19, Sam Giancana
(b.1908), Italian-American mob boss, was murdered at his home in Oak
Park, Ill. He had a romance with Phillis McGuire, of the McGuire
Sisters vocal group, and was credited with assisting John F. Kennedy
in efforts to win the presidential election. A movie was made in
1995 that depicts the Giancana-McGuire romance.
(WSJ, 11/16/95,
p.A-18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Giancana)
1975 Jul 30, Former Teamsters
union president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from the parking lot of the
Machus Red fox Restaurant in suburban Detroit. Although presumed
dead, his remains have never been found. He was scheduled to meet
with Mafia captain Tony Jack Giacalone (d.2001 at 82) and New Jersey
Teamster boss Anthony Provenzano. In 2004 Charles Brandt authored “I
Heard You Paint Houses,” in which he says Teamster official Frank
Sheeran (d.2003) claimed to have shot Hoffa. Hoffa was declared
legally dead in 1982.
(HFA, '96, p.34)(AP, 7/30/97)(SFC, 2/26/01,
p.A24)(SFC, 5/29/04, p.A2)
1976 Oct 15, Carlo Gambino
(b.1902), US gangster, died at his summer home in Long Island.
(www.gambino.com/bio/carlogambino.htm)
1976 Joseph “The Animal”
Barboza was shotgunned in SF by the New England Mafia.
(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.A5)
1976-1981 Joe Pistone, FBI agent, infiltrated the
Bonanno family. His testimony later helped jail more than 120
mobsters.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A4)
1977 Dec 6, SF FBI agents
arrested James “Jimmy the Weasel” Fratianno (64), a reportedly
leading West Coast Mafia figure.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.E16)
1979 In Italy the Mafia killed
a journalist. In 1996 Premier Giulio Andreotti went on trial for
allegedly turning to the Mafia to kill a troublesome
journalist. Andreotti was acquitted by a jury in 1999. 5
others were also acquitted.
(SFC, 4/12/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 9/25/99, p.A14)
1980 Mar 18, John Favara struck
a killed Frank Gotti (12), the son of mobster John Gotti, as the boy
darted in front of his car on a minibike in Brooklyn. Favara
disappeared on July 28. In 2009 it was reported that mobster Charles
Carneglia (62) had killed Favara and dissolved his body in acid.
(SFC, 1/9/09, p.A2)
1981 There was a bloody war for
control of the Bonanno family.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A4)
1982 Jun 18, In Italy Roberto
Calvi, director of Banco Ambrosiano, hanged himself following the
fraudulent bankruptcy of the bank. In 1992 the chairman of Olivetti
SpA Carlo De Benedetti was convicted for contributing to the
bankruptcy. In 1996 the courts upheld his conviction and that of 30
others. In 2003 RAI state television said prosecutors believed the
Mafia killed Roberto Calvi because he lost their money and knew too
much about their operations.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A10)(MC, 6/18/02)(AP, 7/24/03)
1982 Jul 31, Jai Alai executive
John B. Callahan (45) was fatally shot in Miami by mob hit man John
Martorano. Callahan’s body was found Aug 2 in the trunk of his
Cadillac. In 2008 former FBI agent John Connolly was convicted of
2nd degree murder for leaking information to mobsters that led to
the shooting death of Callahan. In Jan, 2009, Connolly was sentenced
to 40 years in prison.
(SFC, 11/6/08,
p.A9)(http://mafiatoday.com/?p=442)(SFC, 1/16/09, p.A2)
1982 Tony Mirra, mobster friend
of Donnie Brasco (aka FBI agent Joe Pistone), was shot to death.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A4)
1983 Jan 15, Meyer Lansky (born
Majer Suchowlinski, July 4, 1902), American gangster, died. He and
Charles "Lucky" Luciano were instrumental in the development of the
so-called "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States. He was
the intellectual impetus behind the Commission and the so-called
"Mogul of the Mob." In 2004 Enrique Cirules authored "The Secret
Life of Meyer Lansky in Havana." The book was only available in Cuba
in Spanish.
(AP,
5/28/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_Lansky)
1985 Dec 16, Reputed
organized-crime chief Paul Castellano was shot to death outside a
New York City restaurant on orders from John Gotti (d.2002). Gotti
seized power in the Mafia after he had Paul Castellano killed.
(AP 12/16/97)(SFC, 6/11/02, p.A2)(SSFC, 8/11/02,
Par p.5)
1985-1991 In Italy a mafia war during this period
claimed the lives of almost 600 people. Giovanni Tegano, a senior
gangster in Reggio Calabria, was a key participant.
(Econ, 5/8/10, p.54)
1986 Feb 10, The largest Mafia
trial in history, with 474 defendants, opened in Palermo, Italy.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1986 Dec 17, Richard Kuklinsky,
a Mafia hitman known as the Iceman, was arrested in New Jersey. He
was found guilty of all charges May 25, 1988. Anthony Bruno later
authored “The Iceman.”
(www.crimelibrary.com)
1986 The bodies of Tony (48)
and Michael (41) Spilotro were found buried in an Indiana cornfield.
Tony “The Ant” Spilotro was a top mob figure in Las Vegas. In 2005
prosecutors indicted 11 Chicago mob figures for at least 18 murders,
including the Spilotros.
(SFC, 4/26/05, p.A5)
1987 Mar 13, John Gotti was
acquitted of racketeering.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1989 Oct 29, Angelo Mercurio
(1936-2006), an FBI informant, attended a Mafia induction ceremony
at a suburban Boston home. His evidence helped bring down the crime
family led by Raymond “Junior” Patriarca.
(SFC, 2/13/07, p.B4)(http://tinyurl.com/36ccng)
1990 Feb 9, John Gotti
(1940-2002) was acquitted of charges that he commissioned the
Westies gang to shoot a union official in Manhattan’s Hell’s
Kitchen. This earned him the nickname “The Teflon Don.”
(SFC, 6/11/02, p.A2)
1991 Joe Massino took over as
head of the Bonanno family in NYC. In 2004 he faced trial on
racketeering charges and 7 murders.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A4)
1991 Tano Grasso was placed
under police protection after he founded Italy’s first anti-racket
association. In 2011 Grasso and Lirio Abate held the Trame literary
festival in Lamezia Terme focusing on books about the Mafia.
(Econ, 7/9/11, p.84)
1992 Apr 2, John Gotti
(d.2002), Mafia boss, was convicted in New York City of 5 murders
and racketeering. Underboss Sammy “the Bull” Gravano provided
testimony. The murders included the 1985 hit on Paul Castellano,
head of the Gambino family. He was sentenced to life in prison on
June 23.
(AP, 4/2/98)(USAT, 9/24/98, p.11A)(SFC, 6/11/02,
p.A2)(SSFC, 8/11/02, Par p.4)
1992 May 23, In Sicily
anti-Mafia investigator Giovannii Falcone was murdered on a highway
outside Palermo. Falcone’s wife and 3 bodyguards were also killed.
Sicilian politician Salvo Lima was also murdered. Anti-Mafia
investigator Paolo Borsellino was killed in another blast some
months later. In 1997 Pietro Aglieri, aka "U Signurinu" (The Little
Gentleman), was arrested for involvement in all three murders. 24
mobsters were convicted in the murder in 1997, including Leoluca
Bagarella.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A12)(SFEC, 6/7/98,
p.A23)(http://giovanni-falcone.foosquare.com/)
1992 May 27, Tony "Big Tuna"
Accardo (86), mobster (heir to the late Al Capone), died.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1992 Jun 23, John Gotti
(d.2002), Mafia boss nicknamed the "Teflon Don" after escaping
unscathed from several trials during the 1980s, was convicted on 14
accounts of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering and
sentenced in New York to life in prison. His son John Gotti Jr.
succeeded him as head of the Gambino crime family and was arrested
in 1998.
{Mafia, USA, New York}
(AP, 6/23/97)(SFC, 1/22/98, p.A8)
1992 Jul 19, Paolo Borsellino,
Italian anti-mafia judge, was murdered by mafia.
(MC, 7/19/02)
1992 The Italian Mafia demanded
that sentences passed against some 400 Mafiosi at a mass trial in
1987 be softened and that a law that imposed a harsh prison regime
for Mafiosi be repealed. A list of 12 demands was written by written
by the son of Salvatore "The Beast" Riina on a scrap of paper while
his father was still at large during alleged secret negotiations
between the state and the Mafia. The note was only made public in
2009.
(Reuters, 10/19/09)
1993 Jan 8, Sicilian journalist
Beppe Alfano (b.1945) was killed by the Mafia.
(SSFC, 12/19/10,
p.D3)(http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beppe_Alfano)
1993 May 18, Italian police
arrested Mafia boss Benedetto "Nitto" Santapaola.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1993 May 20, Giovanni Brusca
was believed to have led teams that damaged the Uffizi museum in
Florence with car bombs. He is believed by many to be the leader of
the Italian Mafia teams. In 1996 he was arrested in Sicily and
charged with masterminding the murder of Giovanni Falcone, his wife
and three bodyguards in 1992. In 1998 Mafia boss Lelluca Bagarella
and 13 others were sentenced to life in prison for the May and July
bombings.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-11)(SFC, 8/24/96, p.A12)(SFEC,
6/7/98, p.A23)
1994 Mar 19, Giuseppe Diana,
Italian anti-mafia priest, was murdered.
(http://tinyurl.com/7plc8)
1994 Jun 4, Gregory Scarpa,
nicknamed The Grim Reaper, died in a Minnesota prison. He was a
soldier for the Colombo crime family and an informant for the FBI.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Scarpa_Sr.)
1994 Roberto Pannunzi, Italian
mobster, was arrested in Colombia. He had forged links with
Colombian cartels for transatlantic trade in cocaine. He was
extradited to Italy and released when his detention expired. He was
rearrested in 2004 but disappeared in 2009 when sent to a private
clinic near Rome following a heart attack.
(Econ, 5/8/10, p.54)
1996 Apr 13, James "Jimmy the
Gent" Burke (64), criminal, died.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1997 The Mike Newell film
Donnie Brasco with Al Pucino and Johnny Depp opened. It was based on
a true story of an FBI agent, Joseph D. Pistone, who infiltrated the
mob in 1976 and wrote Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia
in 1988.
(SFC, 1/24/97, p.D4)(SFC, 2/24/97, p.E2)(SFEC,
3/2/97, DB p.48)
1998 Mar 19, In Italy suspected
mafia member Giuseppe Magaddino was shot and killed. Sicilian Mafia
member Claudio Adriano Giusto was later charged with killing
Magaddino using a 7.65 mm firearm and then taking his wallet. Giusto
was arrested in Spain in 2011 after 13 years on the run.
(AFP, 4/20/11)(http://tinyurl.com/3za9prm)
1999 Chris Paciello was
indicted for the home-invasion murder of a Staten Island housewife.
He confessed to Mafia financing for his nightclubs and vanished into
the witness Protection Program.
(SSFC, 8/11/02, Par p.5)
1999 John A. Gotti Jr. pleaded
guilty to racketeering and extortion and accepted a 6-year prison
sentence.
(SSFC, 8/11/02, Par p.5)
2000 Jan 14, In Boston
investigators found the bodies of 2 men and a woman believed to be
the victims of mobsters Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi and James
"Whitey" Bulger. One of the bodies was said to be Arthur "Bucky"
Barrett, one of 6 men who stole $1.5 million in a 1980 bank robbery.
(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A8)
2000 Feb 24, In Arizona
Salvatore Gravano, "Sammy the Bull," was arrested for financing a
drug ring led by Michael Papa, the founding member of a white
supremacist gang.
(SFC, 2/25/00, p.A2)
2001 Feb 23, Anthony Giacalone,
Detroit mobster, died at age 82.
(SFC, 5/3/01, p.B7)
2001 Aug 23, Peter Maas,
novelist and non-fiction writer, died at age 72. His work included
“The Valachi Papers” (1969), “Serpico,” “The King of Gypsies,” and
“Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano’s Story of Life in the Mafia.”
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.D7)
2002 May 11, Joseph Bonanno
(97), former Mafia boss, died in Tucson. His autobiography was
titled “A Man of Honor.”
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.A23)
2002 Sep 6, Salvatore Gravano,
mob turncoat aka Sammy the Bull, was sentenced to 20 years in
prison. In 1998 Gravano, took over his son’s failing Arizona
drug-dealing operation, an ecstasy drug ring. Gravano pleaded guilty
in 2001.
(SFC, 5/26/01, p.A6)(SFC, 9/7/02, p.A4)
2002 In Italy Francesco Sbano
co-produced a new malavita (mafia folk music) CD: “La Musica della
Mafia.”
(NW, 8/26/02, p.54)
2003 Mar 6, Italian
police raided a house in Palermo and captured Salvatore
Rinella (49), a top Mafia boss.
(AP, 3/7/03)
2003 Nov 23, Adolfo “Big Al”
Bruno (57), a regional Mafia boss, was killed in Springfield, Mass.
In 2008 Frankie Roche (35), a low level Mafia member, admitted to
the murder.
(SFC, 4/18/08, p.A4)
2004 May 27, Vito Bigione (52),
one of Italy's most-wanted Mafia suspects, was captured in
Venezuela. He was accused of a key role in international drug
trafficking and flown back to Italy. Bigione had spent years living
in Namibia and only recently moved to Venezuela.
(AP, 5/29/04)
2004 Jul 30, In NYC Joseph
Massino, a Bonanno crime boss, was convicted of orchestrating
murder, racketeering, arson and extortion over the last 25 years.
(SFC, 7/31/04, p.A2)
2004 Dec 17, Italy's interior
ministry said 181 people had been arrested in the past three months
in a crackdown on the Camorra in Naples whose turf warfare now
overshadows that of the Sicilian mafia.
(AP, 12/18/04)
2004 Dec 18, Naples police said
they have broken up a mob protection racket focused on local
bakeries and flour makers.
(AP, 12/18/04)
2005 Jan 22, In Italy a war
within the Camorra, the regional mafia of Naples, was reported to
have claimed 35 lives over the last 4 months.
(Econ, 1/22/05, p.46)
2005 Mar 9, The acting boss of
the NYC Gambino family and at least 30 other mob figures were
arrested following an undercover FBI operation.
(SFC, 3/10/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 9, In Las Vegas 2
retired NYC police detectives, Louis Eppolito (56) and Stephen
Caracappa (63), were arrested on federal charges of taking part in 8
murders on behalf of the Mafia. In 2009 both men were sentenced to
life in prison.
(SFC, 3/11/05, p.A3)(SFC, 3/7/09, p.A5)
2005 Apr 25, In Chicago 11
reputed mob figures were indicted on charges of plotting at least 18
murders including the 1986 hit on Tony Spilotro.
(SFC, 4/26/05, p.A5)
2005 Jun 23, Joseph Massino,
who went from the New York Mafia's last old-school don to its
highest-ranking turncoat in a betrayal that rocked organized crime,
was sentenced to life in prison after admitting his involvement in
eight mob murders.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jul 11, A judge ordered
the arrest and isolation of 3 senior officers of the Banco di
Credito Cooperativo Sofige Gela, a small bank on Sicily’s southern
coast. The had been under investigation for aiding and abetting the
Mafia.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.72)
2007 Aug 15, In Germany 6
Italian men were fatally shot in the head in the western city of
Duisburg, an execution-style killing that Italy's interior minister
said appeared to be a feud between two Italian organized crime
clans. On March 12, 2009, Dutch police arrested Giovanni Strangio
(30), an Italian man wanted for the killings in Duisburg.
(AP, 8/15/07)(AP, 3/13/09)
2007 Oct 22, An Italian lobby
group for small businesses said revenue from organized crime amounts
to an estimated $127 billion annually, making it the largest segment
of the economy.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 23,
Police broke up an Italian-Canadian mafia clan that ran drug
trafficking and money laundering operations, arresting 12 people and
seizing millions of dollars in assets. The clan was led from Canada
by Nick and Vito Rizzuto, a father and son, who were jailed for
previous crimes respectively in 2006 and 2005.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Dec 3, Daniele Emmanuello
(43), the Mafia godfather of Gela, Sicily, was killed while trying
to escape police. He was considered one of Italy's 30 most dangerous
Mafia fugitives.
(AP, 12/3/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.62)
2007 Dec 4, In Italy Vincenzo
Santapaola, a suspected Mafia boss, and scores of alleged mobsters
were arrested during raids in Catania, Sicily. Police also seized
weapons and drugs, and found a book that listed extortion fees and
salaries of the people working for the family.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 15, Italian
authorities said they have captured, Edoardo Contini (52), a
fugitive Naples crime boss who built one of the most dangerous
cartels.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Joseph Dominick Pistone
(b.1939), alias Donnie Brasco, authored “Donnie Brasco: Unfinished
Business.” Pistone, a former FBI agent, worked undercover for six
years (1976-1981) infiltrating the Bonanno family and to a lesser
extent the Colombo Family, branches of the Mafia in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_Brasco)
2007 Roberto Saviano authored
“Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire
of Naples’ Organized Crime System.”
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.76)
2008 Jan 16, Italian police
arrested scores of suspected mobsters in Palermo in the latest raid
on suspected Sicilian Mafia hideouts.
(AP, 1/16/08)
2008 Jan 18, A court in Palermo
convicted Sicily's Gov. Salvatore Cuffaro of helping a Mafia boss
and sentenced him to five years in prison.
(AP, 1/18/08)
2008 Feb 7, Authorities in
Italy and the US conducted raids targeting dozens of alleged members
of Mafia clans who controlled drug trafficking between the two sides
of the Atlantic. A 169-page indictment in the US went back 3 decades
and included at least 7 murders. The main targets in NY included 3
of the “five families” controlling organized crime in America: the
Genovese, Bonanno and Gambino families.
(AP, 2/7/08)(Econ, 2/16/08, p.41)
2008 Feb 13, In Italy police
raided sites in Calabria and issued arrest warrants for 57 people,
including politicians, bankers and businessmen, in the latest mafia
sweep targeting drug trafficking and extortion rackets.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 18, Italian police
captured Pasquale Condello (57), the top boss of a powerful
organized crime syndicate. The Condello crime clan was one of the
most ferocious 'ndrangheta families and Condello had received
several life prison terms for four murders and other crimes.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Mar 4, Italian police said
they have seized 150 million euros of property and goods from
feuding Calabrian mafia clans who are under investigation for the
murder of six Italians outside a pizzeria in Germany last year.
(Reuters, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 15, Thousands of
Italians marched in an anti-mafia protest and called on all citizens
to take a public stand against Italy's powerful crime syndicates.
(Reuters, 3/15/08)
2008 Apr 7, Italian police
arrested 38 suspects in a sweep against a clan of the 'ndrangheta
organized crime syndicate accused of murder, extortion and arms and
drug trafficking.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Jul 30, Nicholas Corozzo
(68), New York City mob captain, pleaded guilty to racketeering and
2 murders in 1996. In 2009 he was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
(http://tinyurl.com/cz7tj8)(SSFC, 4/19/09, p.A10)
2008 Jul, In Italy Carmelo
“Nuzzo” Novella (58), a suspected mobster, was shot dead in a bar in
San Vittore Olona after airing the view that the “Ndrangheta in
northern Italy should be autonomous.
(Econ, 7/17/10, p.58)
2008 Aug 5, John A. "Junior"
Gotti (44) was arrested at his Long Island home on charges linking
him to three New York murders. In 1999 Junior Gotti pleaded guilty
to racketeering crimes including bribery, extortion, gambling and
fraud. He was sentenced to 77 months in prison and was released in
2005.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Sep 30, Italian police
arrested scores of suspected mobsters, including three top fugitives
believed linked to the gangland-style slaying of six African
immigrants near Naples.
(AP, 9/30/08)
2008 Oct 11, Italian security
forces including army paratroops arrested seven members of the
Camorra mafia believed linked to the killing of African immigrants
near Naples last month.
(AFP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 13, Italian police
arrested five people in the Calabria region, including the mayor of
Rosarno, for suspected ties to the local mob.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 16, Italian police
arrested Antonio Pelle (46), an alleged fugitive mobster, believed
to be the head of an organized crime clan involved in the slaying of
six people in Germany last year. His family was involved in a feud
that led to the Aug. 15, 2007 killing of six Italians outside a
restaurant in Duisburg, Germany.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Nov 4, Italian police
arrested 47 people including the wife of a jailed mafia boss in
raids on a Naples-based organized crime syndicate. They also seized
bank accounts and assets worth about 80 million euros ($102 million)
in the raids.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 6, In Italy Domenico
Magnoli (27), an alleged mobster, woke up in a private Italian
clinic following liposuction surgery, and was arrested for
trafficking in cocaine. Police alleged that Magnoli, born in Cannes,
France, has links to the Piromalli crime clan in the 'ndrangheta
syndicate.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 17, A car carrying one
of Israel's top mafia kingpins exploded as it traveled in central
Tel Aviv, killing him and threatening to unleash an all-out war in
Israel's increasingly violent underworld.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 18, Italian
authorities in Sicily seized assets worth euro700 million ($885
million) from Giuseppe Grigoli, a supermarket chain owner, suspected
of letting the Mafia use his businesses to launder money.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Dec 16, Italian police
backed by helicopters arrested almost 90 suspected mobsters and
thwarted a plan by the hobbled Sicilian Mafia to reconstitute itself
and form a new ruling commission to set strategy. Gaetano Lo Presti
(52), the alleged Mafia boss of a Palermo neighborhood, hanged
himself in jail, hours after he was arrested in a blitz against Cosa
Nostra.
(AP, 12/16/08)(AP, 12/17/08)
2009 Jan 14, Italian police
arrested Giovanni Setola, a top Mafia fugitive, who had eluded
capture earlier this week by climbing through a trap door and into a
sewer below his hideout.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Mar 6, Former NYC police
detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were sentenced to
life in prison for their conviction in 8 gangland murders. They had
moonlighted as hit men for the Luchese crime family while on the
police force during the 1980s.
(SFC, 3/7/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 21, Tens of thousand
of people marched in Naples to commemorate the victims of the mafia
and demand an end to the stranglehold of organized crime on southern
Italy.
(AP, 3/21/09)
2009 May 15, In Spain police
arrested of Raffaele Amato, an alleged Camorra boss who
investigators say was one of Italy's top cocaine importers.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 19, Italian police
arrested Franco Letizia (31), one of the country's "most-dangerous"
fugitives, in raids that netted at least 70 suspected members of the
Naples-based Camorra crime syndicate. The search for dozens more was
still under way.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 Jun 16, Italian police
said they had arrested 13 people suspected of helping a top Mafia
fugitive hide, communicate with other mobsters and conduct his
business. Investigators said they are closing in on Matteo Messina
Denaro, a fugitive who is among a handful of mobsters vying to take
over the Sicilian Mafia. Most of the arrests were carried out in
Trapani, a city in Western Sicily that is the power base of Messina
Denaro.
(AP, 6/16/09)
2009 Jun 20, In Venezuela
authorities arrested Salvatore Miceli, suspected of being a key
intermediary in the drug trafficking trade and one of Italy's most
dangerous Mafia fugitives, as he left his apartment in Caracas.
Police also picked up two other Italian suspects.
(AP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jul 22, Italian
authorities seized some euro200 million ($284 million) in assets and
businesses owned by the 'ndrangheta crime syndicate, including the
Cafe de Paris of "La Dolce Vita" movie fame. 12 other restaurants,
apartments and luxury cars were also impounded in the operation.
(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Oct 31, Italian police
arrested one of the country's most wanted mafia fugitives after
tearing down a wall in a dawn raid at a chicken farm near Naples
where he had built a hideout. Salvatore Russo (51), the head of a
Camorra clan carrying his name, had been sentenced to life in prison
for homicide and links to organized crime and was on the run since
1995.
(AFP, 10/31/09)
2009 Nov 15, Italian police
captured convicted mobster Domenico Raccuglia, one of Sicily’s top
mafia fugitives, in an apartment near Trapani.
(SFC, 11/16/09, p.A2)
2009 Dec 1, Italian officials
said police have broken up a major mafia clan, issuing 83 arrest
warrants and seizing businesses, land, race horses and a
London-based online betting company. Local politicians and
businessmen in the southern city of Bari were among those implicated
as part of a 3-year operation, called "Domino," for collaborating
with the Parisi clan.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 4, A jailed Mafia
hitman linked Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi to the Cosa Nostra,
telling a court that a godfather convicted for a 1993 bombing
campaign had boasted of his links to the media mogul.
(Reuters, 12/4/09)
2009 Dec 5, Italian police
found convicted Mafioso Gianni Nicchi (28), alleged to be Cosa
Nostra's No. 2 leader, hiding in an apartment in Palermo. Nicchi, a
fugitive since 2006, was convicted last year of extortion and
sentenced to 18 years in prison. Authorities in Milan arrested
Gaetano Fidanzati (74) as he strolled down a street. Fidanzati is a
reputed longtime Cosa Nostra boss of a Palermo crime clan and has
been a fugitive for two years.
(AP, 12/5/09)
2009 Mike Dash authored “The
First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of
the American Mafia.”
(SFC, 9/1/09, p.E5)
2010 Feb 2, The key witness in
a Mafia trial in Sicily told a court that a close ally of PM Silvio
Berlusconi had direct links with the former "Boss of Bosses" of the
Cosa Nostra.
(Reuters, 2/2/10)
2010 Mar 10, National police in
Rome say 20 warrants have been issued so far in Palermo and six
arrests have been made in the United States. Police say the
crackdown targeted a Palermo-based Mafia crime family, and those
named in the warrants are suspected of being mobsters and running
extortion, money laundering and drug trafficking operations.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 15, Italian police
arrested the "postmen" of the Mafia's top boss, 19 close aides who
delivered the notes Matteo Messina Denaro writes to impart orders
from his hideout.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Apr 26, Italian police
arrested Giovanni Tegano (70), a veteran mobster who was on the run
for 17 years, in a house in Reggio Calabria. He was among the most
wanted men of the 'ndrangheta organized crime group.
(AP, 4/27/10)
2010 May 10, Italian anti-mafia
police said they have broken up an unusual alliance of Italy's three
main crime syndicates controlling wholesale produce markets,
including price fixing.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 14, In New Jersey 34
alleged members and associates of the Lucchese crime family were
indicted in connection with an illegal gambling operation.
(SFC, 5/15/10, p.A4)
2010 Jun 15, Italian police
arrested Nicola Schiavone, a powerful mobster of the Camorra crime
syndicate, in his villa in Casal di Principe, a small town north of
Naples. He is the son of imprisoned mobster Francesco Schiavone,
reputedly the longtime top boss of the clan. Another of the
elder Schiavone's sons was arrested last month.
(AP, 6/15/10)
2010 Jun 25, In southern France
Giuseppe Falsone, an Italian mobster and one of the country's top 30
most wanted fugitives, was arrested in Marseille.
(AP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 27, It was reported
that Vienna residents have become victims of burglary in recent
weeks. The Austrian interior ministry suspected that many of the
burglers were from the Republic of Georgia and were supported by the
Georgian Mafia. The alleged local head, a restaurant owner in
Vienna, has been arrested. Police suspected the burglaries were part
of plan to finance a coup against Geeorgian Pres. Saakashvili.
(SSFC, 6/27/10, p.A4)
2010 Jul 13, Italian police
launched one of their biggest operations ever against the powerful
'ndrangheta crime syndicate, arresting 300 people including top
bosses and seizing millions worth of property in pre-dawn raids.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 22, In Italy police
carried out six arrests and charged that members of the Camorra
mafia won contracts to rebuild the quake-hit city of L'Aquila with
the help of four bank employees.
(AFP, 7/22/10)
2010 Aug 14, In Italy police in
Sicily said they've hit at the heart of the financial empire of a
convicted Mafia associate, seizing euro800 million (more than $1
billion) in property and businesses, including a clinic for cancer
patients and a local soccer team. Local health mogul Michele Aiello
(53) was convicted of Mafia association, corruption and fraud and
sentenced to 15 1/2 years in prison.
(AP, 8/14/10)
2010 Sep 23, In Italy
Carabinieri investigators in southern Calabria said that an euro8
million winning ticket in the national Superenalotto numbers game
was sold in a smokeshop owned by the father-in-law of a suspect
jailed in a drug probe. The winner avoided taxes on interest due had
the windfall been deposited in a bank. The mobsters got an excuse to
open a mega-account. Italian law requires those making big deposits
to prove the funds aren't illegal. Police seized millions of euros
worth of assets from the jailed mob suspect.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Oct 20, Italian police
arrested Antonio Cortese. He is suspected of planting an unloaded
bazooka and carrying out a bomb attack earlier this year that
damaged the entrance of the Reggio Calabria courthouse in southern
Italy. Turncoat Antonino Lo Giudice, a former top 'ndrangheta boss,
accused Cortese of planting the explosives in an attempt to
intimidate prosecutors.
(AP, 10/20/10)
2010 Oct 23, In Italy mafia
fugitive Gerlandino Messina (38) was nabbed by Carabinieri in
Favara, near Agrigento, his power base in Sicily. He had been on the
run for 11 years before being caught.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Nov 10, In Canada alleged
Mafia patriarch Nicolo Rizzuto (b.1924) was gunned down at his home
in Montreal.
(SFC, 11/12/10,
p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolo_Rizzuto)
2010 Nov 17, Italian police
captured Antonio Iovine (46), one of the country’s most wanted
mobsters. He was considered the financial brains behind the Camorra
crime syndicate clans.
(SFC, 11/18/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 23, Authorities in
southern Italy arrested two women in an operation against suspected
mobsters, a development that reflects the increasing role of women
in running the mob's affairs. Those arrested included Carmelina
Capria, wife of imprisoned clan boss Antonio Pesce, and Maria Grazia
Pesce, wife of fugitive boss Roberto Matalone.
(AP, 11/23/10)
2011 Jan 19, Luigi Manocchio,
the reputed head of New England's Patriarca crime family, was
arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
(AP, 1/20/11)
2011 Jan 20, US FBI agents
dealt another major blow to New York's five Mafia crime families by
arresting some 127 suspected mobsters throughout the Northeast on
charges including murder, extortion and narcotics trafficking.
(AP, 1/20/11)(Econ, 1/29/11, p.29)
2011 Feb 9, Enrico Ponzo, aka
Jay Shaw, appeared in a Boise courtroom to face charges from a 1997
indictment for racketeering and attempted murder. The New England
mobster vanished in 1994 after trying to kill his boss, Frank
Salemme, former head of the Patriarca Family of La Cosa Nostra.
(SFC, 2/10/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 8, Italian police
picked up 31 suspects in a major crackdown on the 'ndrangheta crime
syndicate. 6 suspects, all Italian citizens, were apprehended in
Germany on an Italian-issued European arrest warrant. 3 suspects in
Canada and one in Australia were still being sought. Among those
picked up in Italy was Francesco Maisano, a boss who tried to hide
in an underground bunker when police raided his home.
(AP, 3/8/11)
2011 Apr 18, Spanish police
arrested Sicilian mafia fugitive Claudio Adriano Giusto (43) after
13 years on the run for murder and robbery. Giusto was accused of
shooting and killing Giuseppe Magaddino with a 7.65 mm firearm and
then taking his wallet in Italy in March 1998.
(AFP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 23, Italian police
arrested Francesco Campana (38), the alleged No. 1 boss of the
organized crime syndicate based in Puglia, the region that makes up
Italy’s boot-shaped heel.
(AP, 4/23/11)
2011 May 3, Italian anti-mafia
prosecutors said that 80 Mafiosi from two prominent crime syndicates
have been arrested in separate operations. 40 were arrested for
association with the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate in Calabria.
Another 40 people in Naples were accused of trafficking drugs
between Italy and Spain.
(AP, 5/3/11)
2011 May 23, Reputed
Philadelphia mob boss Joseph Ligambi and 12 others were indicted
with charges of racketeering and gambling.
(SFC, 5/24/11, p.A4)
2011 Jun 22, Mob boss James
"Whitey" Bulger (81) was captured near Los Angeles, along with
longtime girlfriend Catherine Greig, after 16 years on the run that
embarrassed the FBI and exposed the bureau's corrupt relationship
with its underworld informants.
(AP, 6/23/11)
2011 Sep 23, Federal agents in
Rhode Island said they have put a major dent in the ranks of the New
England mafia with the arrests of Edward Lato (64), Alfred Scivola
(70), Raymond Jenkins (47) and Albino Folcarelli (53).
(SFC, 9/24/11, p.A4)
2011 Nov 24, The body of
alleged Mafia boss Salvatore Montagna, who US authorities said once
led New York's notorious Bonanno crime family, was fished out from a
river north of Montreal.
(AP, 11/25/11)
2011 Federico Varese authored
“Mafias on the Move: How Organized Crime Conquers New Territories.”
(Econ, 6/11/11, p.9)
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End of file