But it's funny to remember back and realize how closely he must have been watching me, because right after they sent him up (Joe Bell showed me his picture in the paper. Blackhand. Mafia. All that mumbo jumbo: but they gave him five years) along came this telegram from a lawyer. It...
It was quite surprising that the word “mafia” was not coined but introduced into the public mind by the journalists of Louisiana. The media’s influence of on society and culture certainly has not been lessened throughout the years. I also was not aware that so many Italians, specifically...
With thanks toThe Underboss: The Rise and Fall of a Mafia FamilybyDick Lehr and Gerard O’NeillandThe Knave of Bostonby Francis Russell for American Heritage August 1976. This story last updated in 2023. The Working Man’s Friend Who Busted the Hartford Newsies Strike The New York-based ne...
Ken Wlaschin, a historian with the American Film Institute, said almost all ethnic groups could complain about stereotypes. The popularity of Italian gangsters has more to do with the fame of real-life Mafia figures, he said. “The Irish have the same thing, the Chinese have the same thing...
He then started working as a Mafia enforcer for what was then the Luciano crime family, forerunner of the Genovese family. Gigante was one of five brothers; three of them, Mario, Pasquale, and Ralph, followed him into the Mafia. Only one brother, Louis, stayed out of the crime family, ...
Italian police say their unusual reaction is entirely justified - because the La Torres are no ordinary family. In fact they are a notorious Camorra crime clan in the Neapolitan version of the Mafia, responsible for a brutal, blood-soaked reign of terror that has spanned decades. Their name...
For fans of Caravaggio, two of his paintings can be found in Messina and Siracusa, while a third, found in the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo, exists now merely as a replica, but with a fascinating backstory involving a Mafia robbery. Following an earthquake in 1693 that devastated much...