The Mob and the City (51 page)

99
.
New York Sun
, March 27, 1895 (thanks to Tom Hunt for this citation); Joseph Valachi, “The Real Thing” (unpublished manuscript), pp. 14–15, in Joseph Valachi Papers, Box 1, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA.

100
.
Queens Daily Star
, March 12, 1929.

101
.
Improper Activities
, 6966–67 (testimony of Bernard Adelstein), 6691 (testimony of Robert Greene);
Brooklyn Eagle
, April 29, 1941;
United States v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters
, 998 F.2d 120 (2d Cir. 1993).

102
. James B. Jacobs and Alex Hortis, “New York City as Organized Crime Fighter,”
New York Law School Law Review
42, nos. 3–4 (1998): 1069–92;
New York Times
, March 15, 1947, quoted in Jacobs,
Gotham Unbound
, pp. 80–95.

103
.
Improper Activities
, 6746–47 (testimony of John Montesano).

104
. Ibid.

105
. Ibid., 6689 (testimony of Everett Doyle).

106
.
Daily Argus
, July 17, 1941;
New York Times
, September 3, 1952, September 4, 1952;
Journal News
, August 25, 2002.

107
.
Improper Activities
, 6693–94 (testimony of James Kelly), 6696–6701 (testimony of Everett Doyle), and 6714–15 (affidavit of Katherine Embree).

108
.
Improper Activities
, 6700–6702 (testimony of Doyle).

109
. Ibid.

110
. Ibid.

111
. Yonkers Police File on Homicide of John Acropolis, in Freedom of Information Law File on John Acropolis (copy in possession of author).

112
.
Report from Chairman Maurice Hinchey to the New York State Assembly Environmental Committee on Organized Crime's Involvement in the Waste Hauling Industry
(Albany, NY: n.p., 1986), p. 17.

CHAPTER 5: THE MAFIA AND THE DRUG TRADE

1
. Testimony of Charles Luciano in
People against Luciano
(N.Y. Ct. Spec. Sess. 1936), in Box 56, “Lucky” Luciano Closed Case Files, New York Municipal Archives, New York, NY (hereafter “NYMA”); Boylan Act, 1914 N.Y. Laws 1120 (1914); Harrison Narcotics Tax Act, 38 Stat. 785 (1914);
New York Times
, April 15, 1915, December 7, 1916.

2
.
New York Times
, May 24, 1936, May 26, 1936.

3
.
Time Magazine
, December 7, 1998. For example, an author writes: “Lucky was uninfluenced by any code of conduct, and certainly not by the so-called Sicilian Tradition. A trafficker in drugs and women, Luciano exploited cash sources that were frowned upon by his more uptight Sicilian conspirators.” Mike La Sorte, “The Mafia Tradition, Camorra, Lucky Luciano” (October 2006), available at
http://www.americanmafia.com/FeatureArticles364.html
(accessed on July 9, 2013).

4
. There has been little research on the American Mafia's role in the drug trade. As James Jacobs has observed, “Organized crime's involvement in drug dealing merits extensive study.” James B. Jacobs with Christopher Panarella and Jay Worthington,
Busting the Mob: United States v. Cosa Nostra
(New York: New York University Press, 1994), p. 143. I am indebted to Philip Jenkins for highlighting the role of myth. Philip Jenkins, “Narcotics Trafficking and the American Mafia: The Myth of Internal Prohibition,”
Crime, Law and Social Change
18, no. 3 (1992): 303–18.

5
.
The Godfather
(Paramount 1972) was based on the bestselling novel by Mario Puzo,
The Godfather
(New York: Penguin Books, 1969), pp. 303–309.

6
. Peter Maas,
Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia
(New York: HarperCollins, 1997), p. 72.

7
. Joseph Bonanno with Sergio Lalli,
A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), pp. 149, 209.

8
.
New York Times
, December 21, 1946, June 11, 1952.

9
. Joseph Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, p. 209; Bill Bonanno,
Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), p. 56.

10
.
Hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Affairs: Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi
, Senate, 100th Cong., 2d. Sess. (1988), 92–93, 548 (testimony of Angelo Lonardo).

11
. Martin A. Gosch and Richard Hammer,
The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1974), pp. 358–59.

12
. Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, pp. 209–10.

13
. Leroy Street,
I Was a Drug Addict
(New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1953), pp. 13, 30.

14
. David F. Musto,
The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1973), pp. 3, 102–106.

15
. Malcolm Delevinge, “Some International Aspects of the Problem of Drug Addiction,”
British Journal of Inebriety
32 (1935): 149, quoted in Richard Davenport-Hines,
The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics, 1500–2000
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2001), pp. 252–53.

16
. Musto,
American Disease
, pp. 59–62, 151–63.

17
. Legge 18 Febbraio 1923, N. 396 9 (GU N. 053 DEL 05/03/1923). Measures for the Suppression of the Abusive Trade of Poisonous Substances Having Stupefying Action. Published in the
Official Gazette of the Italian Republic
, no. 53 (March 5, 1923). I thank Professor Liliana Leone of Rome, Italy, for this reference.

18
.
New York Times
, December 19, 1928, April 25, 1931, October 20, 1951; Elias Eliopoulos, New York Major Violator No. 63, in Box 175, Subject Files of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, 1916–1970, Record Group 170, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (hereafter “NARA College Park”).

19
. Carolyn Rothstein,
Now I'll Tell
(New York: Vintage Press, 1934), p. 172.

20
.
New York Times
, December 11, 1928, December 22, 1928, March 6, 1929; Report on Joseph A. Doto, July 11, 1945, in FBI Freedom of Information Act File (hereafter “FOIA”) of Joseph A. Doto (a.k.a. Joe Adonis) (copy in possession of author).

21
. Alan A. Block, “The Snowman Cometh: Coke in Progressive New York,”
Criminology
17, no. 1 (1979): 75–99. This is not to suggest that all these Italian traffickers were affiliated with a Mafia family. However, the level of organization, and the presence of traffickers like Waxey Gordon, who worked with
mafiosi
, suggests some were connected. See pp. 90–91. Additionally, as we have seen previously, the movement of Italian criminals into a field portended the Mafia's movement into it.

22
. Trial transcripts in
People against Ciro Terranova
, Case No. 2472 (N.Y. Ct. Gen. Sess. 1918) and
People against Alessandro Vollero
, Case No. 226 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1918), cited in David Critchley,
The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891–1931
(New York: Routledge Press, 2009), pp. 121, 277 nn. 150–55.

23
.
New York Times
, January 25, 1917; oral history of Leroy Street (1980), quoted in David Courtwright, Herman Joseph, and Don Des Jarlais,
Addicts Who Survived: An Oral History of Narcotic Use in America before 1965
(Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2012), p. 290. Cassette tapes of the oral histories by Courtwright, Joseph, and Des Jarlais are stored at the Columbia Oral History Center, New York, NY (hereafter “COHC”).

24
. Oral history of Charlie (1980), p. 186; Jack (1980), p. 110; Eddie (1980), p. 142; Curtis (1980), p. 192; Mel (1980), p. 88, all quoted in Courtwright, Joseph, and Des Jarlais,
Addicts Who Survived
.

25
. Name Files of Suspected Narcotics Traffickers, 1923–1954, RG 59 (NARA College Park).

26
. File of Vincenzo Di Stefano in Box 4, RG 59 (NARA College Park); FBN entries on Joseph Marino and Giuseppe Failla, in Wash. Confidential List, June 1, 1936, in Box 175, RG 170 (NARA College Park); Passport, Confidential Note, April 13, 1933, and Letter of U.S. Embassy in France, November 18, 1937, in File of Mariana Marsalisi, in Box 13, RG 59 (NARA College Park); FBN entries for Luigi Alabiso, Frank Caruso, and Mariano Marsalisi in “Washington Confidential List, March 15, 1932, July 1, 1933, & June 1, 1936,” in Box 175, RG 170 (NARA College Park).

27
. For examples of his East Harlem investigations, see FBN agent Max Roder's journal entries for January 28, February 1, 4–5, and 9, August 16 and 19, November 10, 21–22, and 29, 1938, in Journals of FBN Agent Max Roder, 1931–1959, Special Collections, Hesburgh Library, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN (hereafter “Roder Journals”). For examples of Little Italy investigations, see Roder journal entries for January 2–4 and 26, February 5–6 and 9–10, April 10, 16–17, and 23–26, 1940, Roder Journals; New York State Crime Commission,
Public Hearing (no. 4)
(November 1952), 216–17 (testimony of George White). For entries on Tramaglino and Marone, see Roder journal entries for October 26, 1940, November 2, and November 18, 1940, Roder Journals.

28
. Report of Ernest Gentry to Major Garland Williams, January 2, 1941, in Box 1, George White Papers, Department of Special Collections, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

29
. FBN Binder for District No. 2, New York, NY, February 15, 1940, in Box 175, RG 170 (NARA).

30
. FBI Airtel on Armone, July 2, 1959, in FBI FOIA File on Stephen Armone (copy in possession of author).

31
. FBI Report on Ormento, December 26, 1957, in FBI FOIA File on John Ormento (copy in possession of author); FBN entry for Ormento, in International List of Persons Known to be or Suspected of Being Engaged in the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs, September 25, 1953, in Box 175, RG 170 (NARA College Park); Statement of Thomas Pennochio, February 3, 1936, in Box 34, “Lucky” Luciano Closed Case Files (NYMA);
New York Times
, October 7, 1938, June 13, 1939;
Public Hearing (no.4)
, 216–17 (testimony of White); FBI Record No. 269 969, April 1, 1987, in FBI FOIA File on Anthony Corallo (copy in possession of author);
New York Times
, August 16, 1957.

32
.
New York Times
, January 25, 29, 30, 1934, February 2, 1934, October 19, 1937. For Rao's background, see FBN entry on Joseph Rao, in International List of Persons Known to be or Suspected of Being Engaged in the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs, February 15, 1940, in Box 175, RG 170 (NARA College Park).

33
. Nicolo Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
(Rome: Editori Riuniti, 1963), pp. 37, 42–45, 112–13; Momenta Sera (Rome), September 5, 1951, in Charles Luciano File in Box 12, RG 59 (NARA College Park).

34
. Entry for Charles La Gaipa, No. 117, FBN, New York Major Violator, February 15, 1940, in Box 175, RG 170 (NARA College Park); entry for Calogero La Gaipa, in FBN's Washington Confidential List, June 1, 1936, in Box 175, RG 170 (NARA College Park); Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, pp. 150–53;
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, October 7 and 10, 1937, May 17, 1939; Critchley,
Origin of Organized Crime
, pp. 168, 294.