were they mafia?
Baltimore’s Little Italy did not have The Mafia. It did know how to protect itself.
Re the Pelosi family. Don’t know specifically that they were Mob or mob connected because the Baltimore Mafia was very low-keyed in its criminal activities - mainly prostitution on the Block, possibly loan-sharking and very likely gambling, esp. with Pimlico Racetrack not far away.
However, an honest labor union leader (Laborers International Union of North America - LIUNA) in Baltimore was assassinated, two bullets in the back or back of his head and stuffed in a car trunk, just as Mob-Vegas leader Alan Dorfman was in Chicago - he was skimming gambling proceeds from the casinos (I worked on a federal Organized Crime (RICO) Task Force in which both of these incidents were mentioned).
There is a good chance that I went swimming with the “mob” bosses daughter back in the 60’s (my friend whispered that to me when we met her - she was very nice). However, my family business had a local Baltimore Italian gentleman working for us and he said that everyone knew who the Mob people were but didn’t talk much about it. I would say that is was generally true, esp. for the older generation.
In my parent’s general political district, everyone knew who the open Democrat machine leader was (don’t know if he was crooked or just a damned good organizer) but I once saw him at his weekly softball game in Druid Hill Park (later the dumping ground for drug dealers, not far from the once great Baltimore Zoo).
There was at least one black political and reputed crime organization led by Little Willy Adams (owned a liquor store on the westside that got firebombed every one in a while. I was at the Un. of Md. Dental School for an appointment and was watching TV along with an elderly black woman, and when something was mentioned about crime in Baltimore, I just said something to the effect that it sounded like Little Willy’s territory. She laughed out loud and gave me a big grin. She knew!
However, Baltimore avoided the bloody crime family wars of NY City, Philadelphia, Rhode Island, Chicago, St. Louis, etc. and the apparently protected Little Italy from “trouble” and “trouble” feared them big time.