Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires (128 page)

Vito Genovese’s background and activities in Italy and New York are based on NYPD reports; his indictment for murder in Brooklyn; extradition requests; U.S. Army Intelligence reports; newspaper accounts of his return to the U.S.; FBI debriefings of Joe Valachi; the FBI’s 1958 monograph; testimony before the Senate Investigations Committee; and interviews with Ralph Salerno. Details on Meyer Lansky and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and the Mob’s emergence in Nevada were obtained from newspaper accounts; the FBI monograph;
Little Man
, a biography of Meyer Lansky by Robert Lacey;
The Black Book and the Mob
, a history of the rise of casino gambling in Nevada, by Ronald A. Farrell and Carole Case; and testimony before the Kefauver Committee hearings in 1950 and 1951. J. Edgar Hoover’s administration and policies are documented by numerous internal reports disclosed after his death, and from interviews with former FBI agents—who asked for anonymity. Harry J. Anslinger’s record at the Narcotics Bureau was obtained from newspaper and magazine accounts of his career. The post-World War II estimates of Mafia strength and activities were based on analyses by Ralph Salerno and Remo Franceschini, NYPD Mafia experts; interviews with newspaper reporters who covered organized crime; personal observations; and
Man of Honor
.

The origins of and controversy over establishing the Kefauver Committee were obtained from newspaper accounts and interviews with organized-crime authorities, including G. Robert Blakey and Ralph Salerno. Details of the hearings in New York are from transcripts and the committee’s report. Albert Anastasia’s emergence as a boss is based on Joe Valachi’s testimony and FBI and NYPD records. Tommy Lucchese’s background was obtained from FBI, NYPD, and Manhattan DA intelligence files, and interviews with Salerno and other former detectives. Frankie Carbo’s history and role in the boxing world was obtained from newspaper and magazine accounts, and from former prosecutors in the Manhattan DA’s office. Lucchese’s social meetings with Santo Trafficante were verified by Trafficante’s lawyer, Frank Ragano, and his wife, Nancy. Information about the political machinations of Costello and Lucchese in the 1950s was obtained from Salerno, newspaper stories, and
Tigers of Tammany
.

NYPD reports, trial testimony, and
New York Times
stories were used in the account of the wounding of Costello. Additional information about Costello’s background and the assault were obtained from Norton Mockridge. New York newspaper stories and interviews with Salerno and other detectives provided details of the trial of Vincent “Chin” Gigante for the attempted murder of Costello. Information concerning the American and Sicilian Mafia’s 1957 meeting in Palermo on the heroin compact came principally from reports in the 1980s by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Italian government. Additional details were obtained from Joseph Bonanno’s version of the meeting in
A Man of Honor
, and from an interview with Claire Sterling, an author and an expert on the Sicilian Mafia. NYPD reports and New York newspaper reports were used for a description of the assassination of Albert Anastasia. Frank Ragano was interviewed on his discussions with Santo Trafficante about meetings with Anastasia and suspicions of Trafficante’s involvement in Anastasia’s murder. The most comprehensive accounts of the Apalachin raid were obtained from a New York State Commission of Investigation confidential report to Governor Averill Harriman in 1958, and a New York State Joint Legislative Committee on Government Operations report on the raid. Additional details are based on FBI transcripts of bugged conversation between Sam Giancana and Stefano Magaddino; interviews with Ralph Salerno, G. Robert Blakey, and other organized-crime experts; NYPD and FBI intelligence reports on the purposes of the meeting; and a U.S. Select Senate Committee report in 1958. The accounts of Vito Genovese’s arrest and conviction for narcotics violations were based on court records and
New York Times
stories.

Frank Ragano and his wife, Nancy Ragano, provided firsthand descriptions of Santo Trafficante’s celebration after President Kennedy’s assassination. Details of Kennedy’s assassination and the aftermath investigations are based largely on the final reports and testimony by the Warren Commission (1964), and the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (1979). G. Robert Blakey and William G. Hundley, a former Justice Department official, were interviewed extensively regarding Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s campaign against the Mafia from 1961 to 1963. Ragano, who was present at social occasions with Mafia leaders, described their reactions and comments about Kennedy before and after his assassination. Background on Carlos Marcello is based on Bureau of Narcotics and FBI reports on his suspected illegal activities. Accounts of Marcello’s deportation and his anger against Robert Kennedy were derived from Marcello’s testimony before the Select Committee on Assassinations (1979) and interviews with Ragano, who frequently met Marcello and gave him legal advice. Joseph Valachi’s Mafia background was obtained from NYPD and FBI records; his testimony before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Committee (1963); and
The Valachi Papers
, by Peter Maas. Details on Valachi’s recruitment and the preparation of his testimony before the Senate Subcommittee in 1963 were given in interviews by Hundley, Blakey, and Ralph Salerno.

Accounts of President Kennedy’s assassination are based on the Warren Commission report (1964); the Select Senate Committee on Intelligence (1978) testimony and its findings regarding recruitment of Mafia leaders in attempts to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro; and the House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (1979) report and testimony on possible Mafia complicity in Kennedy’s assassination. Additional information about the attitudes of Mafia leaders to Kennedy was provided by FBI reports on bugged and wiretapped conversations of important mafiosi before and after Kennedy’s assassination. Frank Ragano was the primary source concerning Trafficante’s hatred of Kennedy, and Trafficante’s deathbed statements about Kennedy’s assassination. Ragano’s conversations with Jimmy Hoffa about the assassination were based on Ragano’s recollection, supported by his contemporary notes, and hotel and airline receipts confirming his presence in cities on the dates he said the conversations took place.

An FBI report on bugged conversations of Meyer Lansky include his statement about the Mob and U.S. Steel. FBI reports on Cointelpro disclosed the surveillance
of political and show business figures. Interviews with Ralph Salerno and Remo Franceschini and personal reporting at the time are the basis for the NYPD’s strategy and investigations of the Mafia in 1960s and 1970s. Henry Hill’s accounts of Mafia life are included in Wise Guy by Nicholas Pileggi. Incidents and theories about the Gallo Wars were obtained from intelligence files compiled by Brooklyn District Attorney Office investigators and NYPD reports. Analysis of Bonanno’s failed plot to become Boss of Bosses is based on NYPD intelligence reports; Bonanno’s version in
Man of Honor
of the internal Mob feud and his disappearance; FBI reports on bugged conversations of mafiosi concerning Bonanno’s absence; and interviews with Salerno, who participated in the NYPD investigation. Salerno also was the source for the NYPD’s main theories on the reasons for Bonanno’s exile from New York. Salerno and Frank Ragano provided details on the arrests and aftermath of the Little Apalachin conference. Both men also offered theories for the reason of the meeting. Queens DA Nat Hentel’s reactions after the raid on the Mafia meeting are based on contemporaneous interviews with him and on New York newspaper stories.

Extensive interviews were conducted with G. Robert Blakey concerning his upbringing, education, roles in the Justice Department, the Katzenbach Commission, and his work as counsel to congressional committees.
New York Times
and
Washington Post stories
and Blakey provided details on Senator John McClellan’s background and activities in Congress. Blakey’s confrontation with Whitney North Seymour on the RICO law was based on interviews with Blakey, Seymour, a former U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, and Edward M. Shea, a former assistant U.S. Attorney in SDNY. David G. Trager’s views concerning the effectiveness of the FBI and the Justice Department in the 1970s are based on published interviews in
The New York Times
and personal reporting.

The accounts of demonstrations against the FBI and the shooting of Joseph Colombo at the 1971 rally are based on personal reporting and stories in
The New York Times
and the
New York Daily News
. An FBI report on a wiretap included a description of comments about Colombo by Sam “The Plumber” DeCavalcante. Details about the backgrounds and careers of Colombo and Joey Gallo, and Carlo Gambino’s opposition to the second Unity Day rally, were obtained from FBI and NYPD intelligence files and an interview with Albert Seedman, former NYPD Chief of Detectives. Unpublished interviews with NYPD Detectives Douglas LeVien and Edward Clark provided further historical information about the Colombo family.

Brooklyn DA and NYPD intelligence reports and arrest records were used to document the origins of the Gallo Wars against Mob godfather Joseph Profaci. Accounts in the
The New York Times
and interviews with Albert Seedman and other detectives are the main sources for Joey Gallons associations with actors and writers. Information about the investigation of Gallo’s murder was provided by Seedman; NYPD Detective Bureau records; Manhattan District Attorney Office reports on Joseph Luparelli’s description of Gallo’s murder and the aftermath; and contemporaneous personal reporting. Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano’s praise of the movie,
The Godfather
, was contained in
Underboss
and told to FBI agents during debriefings. Carlo Gambino’s history is based on FBI intelligence reports; interviews with J. Bruce Mouw, former supervisor of the FBI’s Gambino Squad, Ralph Salerno and Edward Clark, and Paul Meskill, author of a biography of Gambino. Salerno and former NYPD Detectives Joseph Coffey and Remo Franceschini contributed information regarding the backgrounds and activities of Paul Castellano and Aniello Dellacroce. Details on Carmine Galante’s history were derived from FBI and NYPD intelligence reports; arrest records; and reporting in New York newspapers of Galante’s narcotics-trafficking trials. The account of Galante’s attempts to gain control of the Bonanno family is based mainly on testimony by admitted members of the Bonanno family at the 2004 RICO trial of Joseph Massino. The description of Galante’s murder and motives are based on personal contemporaneous reporting; testimony at the 1986 Commission trial; and interviews with Michael Chertoff and J. Gilmore Childres, former federal prosecutors; Mark Feldman, a federal prosecutor; and Pat Marshall, the FBI case agent for the Commission investigation and trial.

Interviews with Neil Welch, former head of the FBI’s New York office, and former agents James Kossler and Jules Bonavolonta were used to describe the RICO seminar at Cornell University and the agents’ reasons for implementing the RICO law. Background and personal information on Welch, Kossler, and Bonavolonta were obtained through interviews with them and with agents and officials who dealt with them. G. Robert Blakey and Ronald Goldstock, who conducted the Cornell seminars, provided information about the techniques and purpose of the project.

Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno’s conversations are contained in FBI transcripts of bugs at the Palma Boys Social Club. Salerno’s background and life style were obtained from police records; from FBI and NYPD intelligence files; from trial transcripts;
and from confidential statements to the FBI by Vincent “Fish” Cafaro, a top aide to Salerno. Former FBI agents Pat Marshall and Brian Taylor provided details of their conversations with Salerno before his arrest. Conditions and policies at the New York State Organized Crime Task Force are based on personal reporting, and contemporaneous interviews with its former director, Ronald Goldstock, and its former chief of investigations, Fred Rayano. Statements by Benjamin “Lefty Guns” Ruggiero, were secretly recorded by Joseph Pistone, an FBI undercover agent, and used as evidence at trials of alleged Mafia members. Details of Rudolph Giuliani’s strategy against the Mafia are based on contemporaneous interviews with him and later interviews with FBI agents, including James Kossler, Thomas Sheer, Pat Marshall, Jules Bonavolonta, William Horan, and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Walter Mack.

The account of installing a bug in Salvatore Avellino’s Jaguar was obtained primarily from interviews with Jack Breheny and Fred Rayano, former investigators with the N.Y. State Organized Crime Task Force, and with its former director, Ronald Goldstock. Background data on Antonio “Ducks” Corallo was found in FBI, NYPD and OCTF intelligence reports and his arrest and trial records. Information on Corallo’s involvement in carting corruption in Long Island came from indictments, court documents, trial testimony, and civil suits brought by the New York State Attorney General’s office and federal prosecutors. The courageous involvement of Robert Kubecka in the OCTF investigation of carting was documented by trial testimony, and interviews with his family’s lawyer, Robert Folks; federal prosecutors; and FBI agents.