La Cosa Nostra
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
La Cosa Nostra is the name by which members of the Mafia in the United States refer to the organization. The term is believed to have been coined by Salvatore Maranzano in the spring of 1931 when he named himself Capo di tutti capi, or "boss of all bosses" of Italian-American organized crime, after his victory over mobsters loyal to Joe Masseria in the Castellammarese War.
The precise translation of the phrase has been the subject of some lively debate; the basic rendering would be "our thing," but according to Joe Valachi, most members themselves preferred to use "this thing of ours" instead when referring to it in English.
The abbreviation LCN is sometimes used by law-enforcement officials, especially those employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (in 1970, United States Attorney General John Mitchell ordered that official documents emanating from the Justice Department no longer use the word "Mafia," after the Italian-American Civil Rights League voiced objections to the word's use).
National Crime Syndicate
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The National Crime Syndicate was the name given to an organized crime syndicate, set up in the 1930's, by Charles "Lucky" Luciano and based out of New York City.
After the Castellamarese war and the death of Salvatore Maranzano, Luciano found himself to be a dominant figure in the shady world of the Cosa Nostra. Rather than make himself a prominent public figure like Al Capone, or an underworld emperor like Maranzano sought to do, Luciano would instead seek to get the bosses of America's five biggest organized crime families together. This governing body, which was dubbed, "The Commission," was set up to rule all La Cosa Nostra activities in the United States.
While the era of Prohibition was coming to a close, there were still many lucrative illegal activities for the five families to divide up, including prostitution, racketeering, and gambling. Rather than risk turf wars over these, Luciano decided to establish a territory system. Under the territory system Luciano created, the activities the various crime families were responsible for were spelled out, as well as where they could pursue them.
The heads of the various crime families, of different ethnic backgrounds, would meet to decide who had the rights to the various territories. This meant that, rather than the families starting wars against each other, they could concentrate on business. When a new business came along, or if another family wanted a particular territory, the families would meet to negotiate a deal.
By spelling out who had the rights to which territory, if one family grew ambitious and over-stepped their authority, they would not just declare war on one, but rather all the other families—a very dangerous proposition. Similarly, an outsider encroaching on the turf of one of the families would be declaring war on the entire syndicate.
Luciano's National Crime Syndicate saw the American mob get further entrenched in the post-prohibition era.
|