La Cosa Nostra

La Cosa Nostra, literally translated into English, means "this thing of ours." It is a nationwide alliance of criminals, linked through both familial and conspiratorial ties that is dedicated to pursuing crime and protecting its members. The La Cosa Nostra, or LCN as it is known by FBI agents, consists of different "families" or groups that are generally arranged geographically and engaged in significant and organized racketeering activity. It is also known as the Mafia, however this term is also used to describe other organized crime groups.

The La Cosa Nostra is most active in the New York metropolitan area, Philadelphia, New England, Detroit, and Chicago but has members in many other major cities around the country and also participates in international criminal activities.

History of the La Cosa Nostra

Although the La Cosa Nostra has its roots in Italian Organized Crime (IOC), it has been a separate organization for many years. Today, the La Cosa Nostra cooperates in various criminal activities with the different IOC groups which are headquartered in Italy. However, the La Cosa Nostra alone is the foremost organized criminal threat to American society.

Giuseppe Esposito was the first known Sicilian Mafia member to emigrate to the United States. He and six other Sicilians fled to New York after murdering eleven wealthy landowners, the chancellor, and a vice chancellor of a Sicilian province. He was arrested in New Orleans in 1881 and extradited to Italy. New Orleans was also the site of the first Mafia incident in the United States which received both national and international attention. On October 15, 1890, New Orleans Police Superintendent David Hennessey was murdered execution-style. Hundreds of Sicilians were arrested, and nineteen were eventually indicted for the murder. An acquittal followed and with it rumors of bribed and intimidated witnesses. The outraged citizens of New Orleans organized a lynch mob and proceeded to kill eleven of the nineteen defendants. Two were hanged, nine were shot, and the remaining eight escaped.

The American Mafia has undergone many changes. From the Black Hand gangs around 1900 and the Five Points Gang in the 1910s and 1920s in New York City, to Al Capone's Syndicate in 1920s Chicago. By the end of the 1920s, two factions of organized crime had emerged causing the Castellamarese war for control of organized crime in New York City. With the murder of Joseph Masseria, the leader of one of the factions, the war ended uniting the two sides back into one organization now dubbed La Cosa Nostra. Salvatore Maranzano, the first leader of the La Cosa Nostra, was himself murdered within six months and Charles "Lucky" Luciano became the new leader. Maranzano had established the La Cosa Nostra code of conduct, set up the "family" divisions and structure, and established procedures for resolving disputes. Luciano set up the "Commission" to rule all La Cosa Nostra activities. The Commission included bosses from six or seven families.

In 1951, a U.S. Senate Committee, led by Democratic Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver, determined that a "sinister criminal organization" also known as the Mafia operated around the United States.

In 1957, the New York State Police uncovered a meeting of major La Cosa Nostra figures from around the country in the small upstate New York town of Apalachin. This gathering has become known as the Apalachin conference. Many of the attendees were arrested and this event was the catalyst that changed the way law enforcement battles organized crime. This war continues today.

In 1963, Joseph Valachi became the first La Cosa Nostra member to provide a detailed looked at the inside of the organization. Having been recruited by FBI Special Agents, and testifying before the US Senate McClellan Committee, Valachi exposed the name, structure, power bases, codes, swearing-in ceremony, and members of this organization. All of this had been secret up to this point.

Today the La Cosa Nostra is involved in a broad spectrum of illegal activities. These include murder, extortion, drug trafficking, corruption of public officials, gambling, infiltration of legitimate businesses, labor racketeering, loan sharking, prostitution, pornography, tax fraud schemes, and most notably today, stock manipulation schemes.