1. OTHERNESS AND THE ITALIAN IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE
Week 4

2. Honored societies
Once upon a time, three Spanish knights landed on the island of Favignana, just off the westernmost tip of Sicily. They were called Osso, Mastrosso, and Carcagnosso and they were fugitives. One of their sisters had been raped by an arrogant nobleman and the three knights had fled from Spain after washing the crime in blood. Somewhere among Favignana’s many caves and grottoes, Osso, Mastrosso, and Carcagnosso found sanctuary. But they also found a place where they could channel their sense of injustice into creating a new code of conduct, a new form of brotherhood. Over the next twenty-nine years, they dreamed up and refined the rules of the Honored Society. Then, at last, they took their mission out into the world. Osso dedicated himself to Saint George, and crossed into nearby Sicily where he founded the branch of the Honored Society that would become known as the mafia. Mastrosso chose the Madonna as his sponsor, and sailed to Naples where he founded another branch: the camorra. Carcagnosso became a devotee of the Archangel Michael, and crossed the straits between Sicily and the Italian mainland to reach Calabria. There, he founded the ‘ndrangheta.

3. The Italian mafias Ritual (blood oath) – baptism into new identity
Structure (discipline)
Omertà (Umiltà)
Humility
Code of silence (misleading – close relationship with police)
Honor
Camorra – Naples (1912, turning point)
The system
Mafia (“Cosa Nostra”) – Sicily
Family
‘Ndrangheta – Calabria
Loose fellowship of local gangs
‘ndrina (family) units
(Sacra corona unita – Puglia)

4. The american mob Loosely based on Sicilian Mafia (Lucky Luciano)
Began in impoverished Italian neighborhoods of NY – East Harlem, LES, Brooklyn
Active in NY, NJ, NE > Boston, Providence
NY home to 5 main families: Gambino, Lucchese, Genovese, Bonanno, Colombo
Each family operates individually although The Commission oversees national coordination

5. 1869 – earliest accounts of organized Italian crime (New Orleans newspaper article)
The Black Hand – extortion gangs at turn of 20th Century that pervaded Italian neighborhoods.
1881 – Giuseppe Morello (with others) flees Sicily after murders and is arretsed and extradited from New Orleans back to Italy.
March 14, 1891 – New Orleans lynchings after David Hennessey murder trial and acquittal (11 of 19 killed)

6. Lucky luciano Salvatore lucania Father of american organized crime
Convicted in 1936 of compulsory prostitution and sentenced to 30 years, but struck deal and was permitted to live freely outside US during WWII
1907 – family emigrates to LES
Member of 5 points gang (irish american gang, but founded by an italian)
Career criminal, more than 25 arrests for an array of crimes
Friendly with Vito Genovese (B of Bs 57-59), Joe Masseria (GF CB)

7. Castellamarese Clan > bonanno family
Mustache Pete’s (masseria and maranzano – both killed in castellamarese war)
Castellamarese Clan > bonanno family
Luciano befriends Joe Bonanno, Tommy Lucchese among many others
1931 – “eliminates” Masseria and Maranzano divides Italian-American gangs into the 5 families we know today
New heads are Lucky Luciano (Masseria Gang), Maranzano, Profaci, Gagliano, Mangano
Says all families will be equal and free to make money. Then declares himself capo dei capi
1931 – “eliminates” maranzano with help of jewish gangsters (paranoid, but correct)
Luciano becomes most powerful organized criminal in America

8. Additional resources
Netflix: Inside The American Mob (National Geographic Channel: of-the-american-mob-a-chronology/at/ /)
John Dickie: Mafia Brotherhoods (Blood Brotherhoods), Mafia Republic, Mafia’s Secret Bunkers (‘Ndrangheta):
YouTube: Mafia in Sicily: