LIFE Sof. U. No. 9 September I, f967 First of a two-part series. The audacious empire of organized crime. Its alarming power. Its structure and horror tactics. its infiltration into the marrow of our society THE m Call it the Mob. The name fits, although any of a half-dozen others—the Outfit, the Syndicate, La Cosa Nostra, the Mafia—. serves about as well. Whatever it's called, it exists, and the fact of its existence is a national disgrace. In this issue and the next, LIFE reveals the structure, tactics, ruthlessness and alarming strength of this brazen empire. The Mob is a fraternity of thugs, but it holds such power, wealth and influence that in one way or another it poisons us all. It ries elections and in so doing destroys the democratic process. More and more it is muscling into legitimate business—local, national and international—to the extent that nearly every Amer- ican is paying into its treasury in countless unsuspected ways. The 5,000 members of Cosa Nostra are all of Italian back- ground, and most of them are Sicilians. Abetting them is a larger army of nonmembers—of many creeds and origins—who wittingly or unwittingly do the Mob's bidding. The scale and sophistication of its operations challenge the imagination: the President's Crime Commission estimates the Mob's annual profit from illegal gambling alone at S6 to 37 billion. "Loan shark- ing." narcotics, labor racketeering, "skimming" and all the va- rieties of extortion in which it deals bring in enormous additional sums wrenched out of the poor and those least able to resist the exploiters. Through the mechanism of the fix," it can, and too often does, control congressmen, state officials and law enforce- ment men. The Mob is in fact a government of its own, with its own laws, enforced with torture and murder. It is organized with ruthless efficiency to achieve its ends and protect its members from prosecution. At the top is a ruling body which settles in- ternal disputes and preserves discipline. Beneath this supreme council are the officers and troops, the men who do the corrupt- ing, bribing, extorting, terrorizing, robbing and killing. The crime syndicate of today came into being with Prohibition and has continued to thrive and grow despite sporadic bursts of public concern. One of the principal reasons for this is that existing legal machinery is simply unable to cope with it. Crimi- nal laws deal with individual crimes, not an international associa- tion. The Mob's multitiered hierarchy insulates its leaders from direct participation in the crimes they order. To the continuing despair of police agencies, it has also benefited vastly from re- cent court decisions limiting the admissibility of evidence. Most of all, the Mob has fattened itself on the public's appetite for its services—dope, sex and gambling—and apathy toward its evil. A 1111111.10 of mobster Ruggiero Boar- d°, surrounded by bums of his fam- ily. adorns his Cai! in Livingston. iSI.J Men marked for murder entered Macabre Home of a iCapo,' the pies below anti never rams out From the gateposts topped by menacing bronze swans with wings angrily outspread. the driveway leads up about two blocks to the great stone mansion near Living- ston. N.J. The drive is overhung by trees and flanked with flowers in gargoyle-shaped pots. The style might be called Transylvania tra- ditional, with overtones of the owner's native Sicily. At a jog In the road is a cluster of painted family statues dominated by one of the squire himself, Ruggiero Boiardo. astride a horse. It is a chilling place even in the warmth and sun of nn August morning. A lot of Mr. Bolardo's follow gangsters are mortally afraid of going up that driveway alone. Some who did never returned. As mobsters go, Ruggiero Bniar- do—or Riebie the Boot. as he iv called—in not a very big shot. Nonetheless. he is a significant fig- ure in organized U.S. crime and his estate, literally, is one of its monuments. Boiardo is a rap, [captain] in the Kfl-member Cosa Nostra Family of Vito Gelio‘e..c. antes baronial mansion !abort.), On a Jersey fans, wad as a Mob ,erne- there hoods feared to go alone. nas 'cry,. FRI found one victim in the pit used as meeting place by crime chiefs. below. another under a chicken coop. Monument to Mob Murder Now a stoop-shouldered man of the number of victims incinerated unabashed savagery. Boiardo gets 76, he putters in his flower beds at Boiardo's estate exceeds the paid 54,000 a month out of the and mutters imprecations against number buried on the much-pub- Mob'sLas Vegas "skimming-prof- the world in general: "They call licized chicken farm near Lake- its. He also runs a legitimate wreck- Boiardo a thief, a killer," he com- wood, N.1 ( picture or righa ing business (much of the nonfarn- plained to one recent caller. "They where remains of two bodies and ily statuary on his estate was sal- call him Cosa Nostra. Trouble." traces of a third were found last vaged from buildings he wrecked; Two other New Jersey gangsters, March. But no corpses have ever his house is built of stones from the Angelo "The Gyp" DeCarlo and come to light at Boiardo's; people old Newark post office). He pres- Anthony Russo. once babbled like thought to have died there are list- ently is awaiting trial on a gam- schoolboys about the foul deeds ed officially as Missing Persons. bling charge and simultaneously is that have been committed beyond Even the big shots of Cosa Nos. dueling with Internal Revenue. these colorful gates. As an inform- tra approach Boiardo's notorious Russo, 4B, is the gambling and ant was to relate, the conversation estate with respect. In November rackets boss of Monmouth Coun- went like this: 1957. when she high council met ty, N.J. and also has interests in "Stay away from there!" said there to whack up the territory of Florida. Gyp DeCarlo, 65, an Russo. "So many guys have been the late Albert Anastasia,• they obese character who detests his hit there:There's this furnace 'way came and left all in a group—thus nickname, like Boiardo is a repo in up in back. That's where they avoiding the path described by the Genovese Family. He grows fat burned 'em." Russo. " 'way up in back." off gambling and loan-shark rack- DeCarlo, fascinated. asked for Richie Boiardo—and the two ets in Union County. N.J. and details. Russo cheerily ticked off fellow mobsters who discussed the operates crap games that float victims bytheir first names; "Oliver crematorium as casually as two from borough to borough in New Willie ... Little Harold . men might compare golf scores— York City. Tony. ." He himself, Russo are alive and free men at this writ- Like countless others in the rack- bragged. had carried Little Harold ing. They conduct various legal ets, Boiardo, Russo and DeCarlo to the furnace by a chain tied to and illegal enterprises in New Jer- are virtually laws unto themselves. the dead man's throat. sey and are notably prosperous. answerable only to the invisible Authorities are convinced Rus- Deep in the rackets since Prohi- government to which they owe so was not esaagernting. Certainly, bition days, with a reputation for their sole allegiance—Cosa Nostra. How Joe Bonanno Schemed To Kill and Lost If Cosa Nostra has a failing at as much or a headbreaker. Yet the co and Bonanno were summoned all from the standpoint of efficien- thing to remember is that they got to face charges. Magliocco ap- cy, it Is the fact that it is composed where they are—and have managed peared in a panic. made a full con- at all levels of total scoundrels. to stay there—by killing people. fession, was banished from Cosa Loyalty, as most men understand The troublemaker in the execu- Nostra, fined 550,CCO and sent it, simply does not exist. Though tive club was Joe Bonanno, a fact home. Shortly thereafter he died elaborate oaths are required fur that stemmed from his aggressive of a heart attack. Meanwhile, his membership in most cities, the and Inventive nature. A lot of his Family and his Commission seat members hang together mainly for innovations worked out very well were given to the stool pigeon the enormous profit this makes —for instance. the "split-level cof- Colombo. possible, and also out of fear of fin." As the Boiardo incinerator Joe Bonanno never showed up the consequences if they do other- disclosure ipreredeng page) points for trial. He hid out on the West wise. Consider, for example, the out, disposal of the bodies of vic- Coast, using the name "J. San- case of Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bo- tims has always been a problem tone." Then. in 1964. he went to nanno (far right), the New York taxing the mobsters' ingenuity. Canada to poach once more on mobster whose greed almost broke Bonanno solved it in Brooklyn by Magaddino's grounds. Magaddi- up the Syndicate. acquiring a funeral home. To get no went into a frenzy. calling a The Mob's ruling council was rid of unwanted corpses he had Commission meeting for Sept. I B, organized in 1931 by Lucky Luci- them stuffed into the lower com- 1964, in the Englewood Cliffs, ano and Al Capone. and Bonanno, partment of a specially built cas- N.J. home of gangster Thomas then a mean, ambitious 36-year- ket of his own design.