The Mob and the City (52 page)

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Authors: C. Alexander Hortis

Tags: #True Crime, #Organized Crime, #History, #United States, #State & Local, #Middle Atlantic (DC; DE; MD; NJ; NY; PA), #20th Century

BOOK: The Mob and the City
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35
. Oral history of Jack (1980), quoted in Courtwright, Joseph, and Des Jarlais,
Addicts Who Survived
, p. 111; United State Treasury Department,
Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs for the Year Ended December 31, 1940
(Washington, DC: GPO, 1941), pp. 19–20.

36
. Brief of Case Report Identified as SE-199-NY:S:4997-Helmuth Hartmann, et. al., in Box 1, George White Papers, Department of Special Collections, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

37
.
New York Times
, March 27, 1945, December 20, 1946, April 11, 1947.

38
.
New York Times
, August 18, 1950, November 26, 1957.

39
. Oral history of Arthur (October 31, 1980), quoted in Courtwright, Joseph, and Des Jarlais,
Addicts Who Survived
, p. 156.

40
. FBI Report on Vincent Papa, March 23, 1978, in FBI FOIA File on Vincent Papa (copy in possession of author); State Commission of Investigation,
Narcotics Law Enforcement in New York City
(1972), p. 28; Report on Percent of Purity of Heroin Seized in Various Areas, 1949, in Box 46, RG 170 (NARA College Park).

41
. Oral history of Abe D. (May 9, 1980) (COHC); oral history of Mel (July 3, 1980), p. 88, and Al (1980), quoted in Courtwright, Joseph, and Des Jarlais,
Addicts Who Survived
, p. 98.

42
.
Hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations: Organized Crime and the Illicit Traffic in Narcotics
, Senate, 88th Cong., 1st Sess. (1963), 873 (testimony of Martin Pera).

43
. FBN entry on Marseille Traffickers, No. 294, in Washington Confidential List, December 1, 1934, in Box 175, RG 170 (NARA College Park).

44
. Oral history of Ralph Salerno (December 10, 1982), quoted in Courtwright, Joseph, and Des Jarlais,
Addicts Who Survived
, p. 201;
Hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations: Organized Crime and the Illicit Traffic in Narcotics
, 872–75 (testimony of Martin Pera).

45
. See generally Name Files of Suspected Narcotics Traffickers, RG 59 (NARA College Park).

46
. Oral history of Ralph Salerno (December 10, 1982), quoted in Courtwright, Joseph, and Des Jarlais,
Addicts Who Survived
, pp. 201–202.

47
. Frank Lucas with Aliya S. King,
Original Gangster: The Real Life Story of One of America's Most Notorious Drug Lords
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 2010), pp. 133–53.

48
. New York State Commission of Investigation,
Narcotics Law Enforcement
, p. 29.

49
. Maurice Helbrant,
Narcotic Agent
(New York: Arno Press, 1953), p. 93.

50
. Charles Siragusa,
The Trail of the Poppy: Behind the Mask of the Mafia
(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1966), pp. 65–66, 79–80; Mayor's Committee on City Planning,
East Harlem Community Study
(New York: n.p., 1937), pp. 16–17.

51
. FBN Case Report Identified as SE-199-NY:S:4997-Helmuth Hartmann, et. al., in Box 1, George White Papers, Department of Special Collections, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

52
.
New York Times
, December 20, 1946, April 9, 1947, April 11, 1947. In the late 1960s, police dubbed traffickers from the Genovese Family the “Pleasant Avenue Crew.” David Durk and Ira Silverman,
The Pleasant Avenue Connection
(New York: Harper & Row, 1976).

53
. Roder journal entries for March 27 and 29, April 10, 1946, and March 2, 4–5, 8–10, and 17, 1948, Roder Journals; FBN entries for John Ormento and Salvatore Santoro, International List of Persons Known to Be or Suspected of Being Engaged in the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs, June 26, 1964, in Box 48, Subject Files of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, RG 170 (NARA College Park).

54
. Testimony of John T. Cusack in
Joint Legislative Committee on Government Operations Regarding a Meeting at Apalachin, New York, November 14, 1957
, in FBI FOIA File on the Apalachin Meeting (copy in possession of author); FBI Report on Ormento, December 26, 1957, in FBI FOIA File on John Ormento (copy in possession of author).

55
. Eric C. Schneider,
Smack: Heroin and the American City
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), p. 1; New York State Commission of Investigation,
Narcotics Law Enforcement
, p. 30;
Hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations: Organized Crime and the Illicit Traffic in Narcotics
, 877(testimony of Martin Pera), 911–916 and Exhibit 3 (joint testimonies of Daniel Casey, George Belk, and Charles Ward).

56
. FBN entries of James Roberts, Harold Jones, and Robert Frierson, in FBN's Suspected Negro Narcotic Traffickers, in Box 175, RG 170 (NARA College Park); William J. Spillard,
Needle in a Haystack: The Exciting Adventures of a Federal Narcotic Agent
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1945), pp. 104–105, 122–26; Letter, Re: Vincent Gigante, March 8, 1960, in Federal Bureau of Prisons FOIA File on Vincent Gigante (copy in possession of author).

57
. Oral history of Curtis (1980), quoted in Courtwright, Joseph, and Des Jarlais,
Addicts Who Survived
, p. 192.

58
. Mayme Johnson and Karen E. Quinones Miller,
Harlem Godfather: The Rap on My Husband Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson
(Philadelphia: Oshun, 2008), p. 180.

59
. Oral history of Ralph Salerno (December 10, 1982), quoted in Courtwright, Joseph, and Des Jarlais,
Addicts Who Survived
, pp. 201–202.

60
. Durk and Silverman,
Pleasant Avenue Connection
, p. 49.

61
. Entries for George Anderson and Herbert Drumgold in FBN's National List of Persons Known to Be or Suspected of Being Engaged in the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs, September 23, 1953, in Box 175, RG 170 (NARA College Park); Johnson,
Harlem Godfather
, p. 180.

62
. Lucas,
Original Gangster
, p. 67.

63
. FBI FOIA File on Ellsworth Johnson (copy in possession of author); Johnson,
Harlem Godfather
, pp. 22–23; John Johnson,
Fact Not Fiction in Harlem
(Glen Cove, NY: n.p., 1980), pp. 101–106;
New York Times
, July 12, 1968.

64
. Claude Brown,
Manchild in the Promised Land
(New York: Signet Books, 1965), pp. 179–80; Welfare Council of New York City,
The Menace of Narcotics to the Children of New York: A Plan to Eradicate the Evil, Interim Report
(New York: n.p., August 1951), pp. 8–13.

65
. Oral history of Low (1981), quoted in Courtwright, Joseph, and Des Jarlais,
Addicts Who Survived
, p. 226.

66
. Piri Thomas,
Down These Mean Streets
(New York: Vintage Books, 1997), pp. 115–16, 200–201.

67
. Oral History of Ralph Salerno (December 10, 1982), quoted in Courtwright, Joseph, and Des Jarlais,
Addicts Who Survived
, p. 203.

68
. Salvatore Mondello,
A Sicilian in East Harlem
(Youngstown, NY: Cambria Press, 2005), pp. 63–64.

69
. Oral history of Dom Ambruzzi, quoted in Jeremy Larner, ed.,
Addict in the Street
(New York: Penguin, 1966), pp. 42–44, 50–53.

70
. Oral history of Eddie (1980), quoted in Courtwright, Joseph, and Des Jarlais,
Addicts Who Survived
, p. 142; Orsi,
Madonna of 115th Street
, p. 186; Eric C. Schneider,
Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings: Youth Gangs in Postwar New York
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), pp. 179–80, 230.

71
.
Hearings before the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce: Investigation of Organized Crime: Part 14
, Senate, 82nd Cong., 1st Sess. (1951), 356 (testimony of Charles Siragusa).

72
. Kathryn Meyer and Terry Parssinen,
Webs of Smoke: Smugglers, Warlords, Spies, and the History of the International Drug Trade
(New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002), pp. 284–85; Papers of Harry Anslinger, Special Collections, Pennsylvania State University, College Station, PA.

73
. Louis J. Freeh,
My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005), pp. 128–29.

74
. Claire Sterling,
Octopus: How the Long Reach of the Sicilian Mafia Controls the Global Narcotics Trade
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990) (emphasis added), p. 85.

75
. Gil Reavill,
Mafia Summit: J. Edgar Hoover, the Kennedy Brothers, and the Meeting That Unmasked the Mob
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 2013), pp. 82–83, 265.

76
. Tim Shawcross and Martin Young,
Men of Honour: The Confessions of Tomasso Buscetta
(New York: HarperCollins, 1987); Pino Arlacchi,
Addio Cosa nostra: La vita di Tommaso Buscetta
(Milan, IT: Rizzoli, 1994). The so-called Pizza Connection from Sicily was not established until the mid-1970s. Jacobs,
Busting the Mob
, pp. 129–66. Recognizing this time lag after the
Hotel et des Palmes
1957 gathering, Freeh offers an unconvincing explanation: “Other, equally infamous, meetings in Sicily and New York would be needed to nail things down. Still, this was the meeting that began to lay the framework for what would finally become known as the Pizza Connection.” Freeh,
My FBI
, p. 129.

77
.
Hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations: Organized Crime and the Illicit Traffic in Narcotics
, Exhibit 3 (joint testimonies of Daniel Casey, George Belk, and Charles Ward).

78
. Government brief in
United States v. Reina
, Case No. 24321 (2d Cir. 1957), p. 24, in RG 276, United States Courts of Appeal, National Archives and Records Administration, New York, NY (hereafter “NARA New York”).

79
. This chart is based on:
United States v. Bentvena
, 319 F.2d 916 (2d Cir. 1963);
United States v. Reina
, 242 F.2d 302 (2d Cir. 1957); Appellate Briefs in
United States v. Agueci
, Case No. 27466 (2d Cir. 1962) and
United States v. Reina
, Case No. 24321 (2d Cir. 1957), in RG 276 (NARA New York); Maas,
Valachi Papers
, pp. 239–42; Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, pp. 151–52;
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, May 4, 1938.

80
. Valachi detailed this scheme, for which he was never caught, in Maas,
Valachi Papers
, pp. 239–42.

81
. Robin Moore,
The French Connection: The World's Most Crucial Narcotics Investigation
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1969);
The French Connection
(Twentieth Century Fox 1971).

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