Posted on 12/12/2012 2:35:42 PM PST by Alex Murphy
You seem to have overlooked the Klu Klux Klan. Not too many Catholics or Jews amongst their ranks but they were definitely an organized crime gang.
Peace and Blessings.
Dixie Mafia? Not to mention the black gangs. Most of them aren't Catholic or Jewish. This is playing up Italian (or lesser extent Irish) stereotypes. (Darren McCarty)
Stereotypes are indeed exaggerated truth; but the element of truth is usually imbedded somewhere...and, as I said, exaggerated.
Take the Brooklyn crime family boss, Joseph Profaci (1896-1962). Profaci "has often been described as the most devout Catholic of the Mafia leaders, although there were those in the underworld, among them the Gallos and their followers, who said Profaci embraced religion most fervently after he developed cancer. Profaci attended St. Bernadette's Catholic Church in Brookly and even had a private altar constructed in his basement so that mass could be celebrated at family gatherings by a priest who was a close friend of the Profacis. In 1949 a group of leading Italian Americans, including some priests, petitioned Pope Pius XII to confere a knighthood on Profaci, a 'son of Sicily' who, they said, had become a benefactor to the Italian-American community...These citizens...pointed out that Profaci was a most generous donor to many Catholic charities. Profaci's dream of papal approval was shattered however when the Brooklyn district attorney, Miles McDonald, protested to the Vatican that Profaci was a leading racketeer, extortionist, murderer and Mafia leader." (The Mafia Encyclopedia, Carl Sifakis, pp. 297-298)
There was a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in the Borough of Queens, New York comprised entirely of Irish-American Catholics in the 1980’s, Natural Law.
Thought you might find that an interesting historical fact.
And Irish gangs were more than a mere "stereotype"...for a full century plus...
Besides the NY 19th-century gangs, many of which were Irish-based, by the end of that century, several powerful Irish gangs had combined on the Brooklyn waterfront to form the Irish White Hand Gang.
"Following the pattern of the Irish-American gangsters of the 19th century, the White Handers were a violent lot and could be counted on to kill one of their own if there was a quick profit in so doing." (The Mafia Encyclopedia, p. 382)
From about 1900-1925, the turf gangster war was waged there between Irish and Italians.
"After World War I, the White Handers retained a firm grip on he Brooklyn Bridge-Red Hook sections and collected tribute from barge and wharf owners. Those who declined to pay saw their wharves and vessels looted, burned or wrecked. All longshoremen had to pay a daily commission for the right to work. Some paid willingly because they were Irish and saw their salvation in the vows of the White Handers to keep the docks clear of Italians." (The Mafia Encyclopedia, p. 382)
So what about almost a century later?
"An argument could be made on both sides whether the most kill-crazy mobsters in New York in recent years [book published in 1999] were the btural hit men of the Gambinos under Roy DeMeo, who maintained what can only be called a slaughterhouse flat in Brooklyn, or the Westies, who terrorized Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood and the surrounding West Side...Those aficionados who favored the Westies (many of whom were former choirboys) could cite as an example the fate of one of the gang's own members, Patrick 'Paddy' Dugan."...Dugan murdered one of Westies leader Jimmy Coonan's close buddies and his fate was sealed. Dugan was murdered, and in typical Westies style his body was sliced up into little pieces for disposal. Coonan retained the severed fingers, which he added to a bag full of the fingers of other victims. Coonan showed the bag to others to encourage them to be more cooperative. This hardly meant the Westies were not a sentimental bunch. They decided Dugan still was a reasonably good lad, so they took his severed head to a local ginmill, propped it up on the bar and for several hours Coonan, other Westies and frieds of Dugan sentimentally toasted the deceased's memory. They even lit a cigarette of Dugan's brand and placed it between the dead man's lips. The Westies never comprised more than a couple dozen men, but they were so kill-cracy their foes must have thought they were up against a Roman legion." (The Mafia Encyclopedia, p. 380)
Oh, and in case anyone was wondering where it was located: Far Rockaway, Queens, New York.
It apparently existed in the seventies as well.
Source:
Anyway, she and her siblings used to try to get to sleep in a bit on Sunday by promising to go to Mass at the Italian church later. Her mom used to tell them “Italians aren't real Catholics!”, which she always found hilarious.
The grandfather of the Mafia was the Camorra, who are from the region of Naples. It predates the Sicilian Cosa Nostra by about a hundred years. What also confuses the issue is that some of these groups were at least partially like the secret patriotic revolutionary organizations, such as the Carbonari.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camorra
Sorry, I shouldn’t have said mafia when I meant specifically La Cosa Nostra. Of course I realize there were forerunners in the old country, and frankly I don’t know enough about the institution to say where it started or how it spread. What I do know is that the basis for the family in The Godfather, the group out of which grew the five families, the most significant and powerful organized crime syndicate in US history, began as a Sicilians only club. That’s all I meant to say.
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