MAFIA HISTORY
The Mafia was started in Sicily during medieval times to protect the estates when the landlords were not there. By the 1800's the Mafia had become criminal and used violence throughout Sicily. The members were sworn by a strict ethical code called omerta. It was a group of rules where if you broke one you died. The Mafia became so strong that they became politicians and were able to influence police forces and gain access to weapons. The Italian government under Benito Mussolini tried to control the Mafia but it came out strong after World War II. Mussolini was so strict that members of the Mafia moved to the United States where they led many criminal activities. By the 1930's it moved into other illegal activities including extortion, bootlegging, prostitution, gambling, kidnapping, and murder.
The Mafia has continued to grow and infest our society. It continues to exploit and destroy the honest citizens of our country. Now, these criminal organizations not only control the adults of our communities but have begun, through the sale and distribution of narcotics, to control our children.
The Italian-American Mafia is a group of criminals organized into "families," and operating primarily in North America. Also known as La Cosa Nostra, at one time there were 26 families in the United States - roughly one for each major city. The Mafia "commission," composed of bosses of numerous families, mostly New York, was the overseeing authority for all of the other La Cosa Nostra families. The Mafia still has its roots in Sicily, where the larger and more powerful Sicilian Mafia operates from.
New York City is the place of origin for organized crime in the United States. Currently, there are five families in the New York City outfit of La Cosa Nostra. The five families are Gambino, Genovese, Colombo, Bonanno, and Luchese. These names come from Joe Valachi, a low ranking soldier who was the first man to break the omerta, or code of silence. The family names come from him because he testified as to who the bosses were of the five families at the time of his arrest in 1959. The only difference is the Colombo family. It was under the control of Joe Profaci in 1959, but Joe Colombo became famous in the 1960's and therefore, his name has been used to identify the family since then.