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February 1987 Law Enforcement Bulletin February 1987, Volume 56, Number 2 1 The Sicilian Mafia and Its Impact on the United States By Sean M. McWeeney 11 A Tradition of Excellence: The Southern Police Institute By Norman E. Pomrenke and B. Edward Campbell ~@~[fl)~ @ll W~@w 15 "Men and Women Who Wear the Badge ... That Others May Find Their Way" By Hon. Peter T. Fay ~[i'@®® ~@O@~~ @[fl)® 18 An Automated News Media System By Roger Dickson [1,@@@O [Q)~@@®~ 22 Intrusive Body Searches: A Question of Reasonableness e By Kimberly A. Kingston, J.D. 31 Wanted by the FBI lJSWU Law Enforcement Bulletin United States Department of Justice Published by the Office of The Cover: Federal Bureau of Investigation Congressional and Public Affairs, A media computer network system facilitates William M. Baker, Assistant Director the interaction between a law enforcement agency Washington, DC 20535 and the local media by offering morecomprehen- sive news coverage. See article p. 18. William H. Webster, Director Editor-Thomas J . Deakin Assistant EditorKathryn E. Sulewski Art Director- Kevin J . Mulholland The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin The Attorney General has determined that the Production ManagerMark A. Zettler publication of this periodical is necessary in the (ISSN00145688) is published monthly by the transaction of the public business required by Reprints - Beth Corbin Federal Bureau of Investigation, 10th and Penn· law of the Department of Justice. Use of funds sylvania Ave ., N.W., Washington, DC 20535. for printing this periodical has been approved Secondclass postage paid at Washington , DC . by the Director of the Office of Management Postmaster: Send address changes to Federal and Budget through June 6, 1988. Bureau of Investigation, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Wash ington , DC 20535. ISSN 00145688 USPS 383310 l The Sicilian Mafia and Its Impact on the United States By SEAN M. McWEENEY Inspector in Charge Office of Uaison and International Affairs Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington, DC The Sicilian Mafia has, through Spanish kings ruled Naples and Si• Many say the " father" of the Si• corruption, guile, assassination, extor• cily from 1504 to 1707 and from 1738 to cilian Mafia is Giuseppe Mazzini , a tion, terror, and manipulation, fostered 1860. During the first Spanish reign, the Camorra associate who came into a climate where they have established criminal organization we now know as power in 1860 when groups of Sicilians themselves as the premier criminal the "Camorra" was founded in Naples. he formed overthrew Bourbon invaders group in Italy, with tentacles principally This initial organization was a mix of in• in Palermo. Mazzini, a scholar and ad• in Western Europe and North America vading Spaniards and Neapolitans, and venturer, founded the "Young Italy So• and South America. it was based on rules and codes of an ciety" in 1831, after being released Research for this article was con• earlier Spanish criminal society called from prison where he was sent by the ducted to determine the extent of the the " Garduna."1 During the second French for revolutionary activity.2 The Sicilian Mafia's influence and presence Spanish invasion, the " Sicilian Mafia" articles of organization for the Young in the United States, their criminal ac• was formed from leaders connected to Italy Society were drawn from tenets of tivities with special emphasis on heroin the Camorra, which was the most pow• the Camorra and later became the trafficking, the degree and nature of as• erful criminal organization in Italy for basis of the Sicilian Mafia organization. sociation with the American LCN and most of the 18th and 19th centuries. The word "Mafia" appeared for the first other criminal organizations, partic• The Garduna, Camorra, and Si• time in public print in November 1860, ularly the Italian Camorra and N'Dran• cilian Mafia all had common features, where it was conceded publicly that a gheta groups, and the overall impact Le ., each existed to sell criminal serv• Camorra system had been transplanted they are having in the United States. ices, whether to individuals or busi• to Palermo and the Sicilian countryside. The article traces the Sicilian Mafia's nesses or the lawful government itself. By the 1870's, the original Sicilian Mafia, called the "Palermo Mafia," was development and growth here in the All three had a formal organizational a mixture of idealists, revolutionaries, United States and how American and structure, with each group improving on hill bandits, and groups called " Iati• Italian law enforcement has reacted to the other. The Camorra organized its funda guards" (armed men who pro• it. members into what they called " bri• gades" (brigata), while the Sicilian tected large estates owned by absen• HISTORY OF THE SICILIAN MAFIA Mafia organized its rank and file into tee landlords). From the protection of Early Years - Sicily "families" (famiglias). All three had private property for a fee, the Sicilian The Sicilian Mafia's main influence strict rituals (the kiss on the cheek to a " Mafiosi," by taking advantage of a is in the region of Italy known as the prospective assassination victim; the growing popular fear, extended his "mezzogiorno" (The Southern Region), pricking or lancing of one's finger to "government" (the Sicilian Mafia) to at• an area which is also " home turf" to draw blood to indicate undying loyalty tacking the state itself.3 With this grow• Italy's two other major organized crime to the "family"). And each organization ing power, the Sicilian Mafia rapidly groups - the Camorra and the N'Dran• had a strict code of silence, or as it is spread outward from Palermo into the gheta. known today, "omerta." small towns and villages that dot Sicily. --------------------_______________________________________________________ Februa~1987 / 1 A prestigious Mafiosi , Giuseppe This American-run Mafia, with Si• Esposito, from Palermo was the first cilian imports, stamped its indelible known Sicilian Mafia member to emi• mark on American society on October grate to the United States. In November 15, 1890, when Macheca's New Or• 1878, Esposito and six other Sicilians leans " family" murdered David Hen• arrived by boat in New York City from nessey who, after Esposito's arrest, Palermo via Marseilles, France, after had risen to chief of police for New Or• being forced to flee Sicily for the murder leans. Ten men were charged with of 11 wealthy landowners and the chan• Hennessey's murder, and after a cellor and vice-chancellor of a Sicilian lengthy trial, all were acquitted. The ac• province. 4 quittals created a sensation, and an an• Special Agent McWeeney gry crowd immediately attacked Parish Early Years - America Prison, the New Orleans " Bastille," The New York City that Giuseppe where 19 Sicilians were housed. The Esposito and his six-man crew found New Orleans mob roared through the was hostile to non-English speakers, prison and the eventual carnage re• very cold as the winter season was set• sulted in what has been called the ting in , and politically and criminally largest lynching in American history. dominated by the Irish and Jews. Es• Sixteen were killed, some shot, some posito, seeking a warmer climate and clubbed to death, and others hanged sensing the hostile environment in New from lampposts.5 York, almost immediately moved from Although New Orleans Mafia New York to New Orleans, a city with a origins are well-documented in Ameri• large Sicilian community. can annals and can be traced directly to In New Orleans, Esposito ran the Sicilian Mafia links in Sicily, it was not growing Sicilian Mafia clan there until the only American city that had Sicilian his arrest in 1881 by a famous New Or• Mafia societies in the late 1800's. Si• leans police official, David Hennessey. cilian Mafia families were organized as Hennessey arrested Esposito on an early as 1890 in San Francisco, St. outstanding Italian fugitive warrant and Louis, Chicago, New York, and proba• sent him to New York, where he was bly Boston. eventually extradited to Italy. Esposito was replaced as "boss" 1920's-1930's - Sicily and America by the first recognized American-born After Benito Mussolini took over leader of a Mafia group, Joseph Ma• the Italian Government in the early checa, born in New Orleans of Sicilian 1920's and ushered in the Fascist parents. Macheca and his chief associ• Period, the famous Mori Operation ate, Charles Matranga, reinforced the started. Cesare Mori, a retired, sup• New Orleans organization with nu• posedly incorruptible crime fighter, was merous recruits from Sicily, a recruit• designated Prefect (chief of police) of ment feature we have seen repeated Palermo by Mussolini and ordered to over and over again through the years destroy the Sicilian Mafia. Mori, known by the American LCN. as the " Iron Prefect," arrested thou• sands of suspected Sicilian Mafia mem• bers and their associates, shipped many of the suspected Mafiosi to penal islands, and had numerous others ex• ecuted. Often, Prefect Mori had entire 2 / FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin ___________________ _______________ • ORIGINS of SICILIAN MAFIA GROUPS J.: :,' \ ' : I::: I'::. "I~ ,' : 'l : : ____________________ February1987 / 3 u ••• Italian and American law enforcement investigators estimate that as much as 70 percent of the heroin entering the United States comes by individual Sicilian Mafia members or assocla. tes.... " towns depopulated as he carried out his when Masseria was gunned down in a by French-Corsicans teamed with Si• purge of the Sicilian Mafia.6 Coney Island restaurant, having been cilian Mafia and American La Cosa Although Mussolini announced to lured there by Lucky Luciano and Vito Nostra members and associates. Diplo• the world in 1927 that the Mori Opera• Genovese, who had secretly struck a matic initiatives between the United tion was a success and that the Sicilian deal with Maranzano.