Mafia History Essay, Research Paper

Mafia

I will try to give an unbiased look at this countries Mafia. On one hand I feel that the Mafia is an important part of Americas business. On the other hand I feel that the brutal force that is used today is without cause.

The Mafia was started in the ninth century in Sicily where it was used as a form of defense for the people of the city. Now things are different and the Mafia is used to make money and to protect the members. Things have also become very corrupt and it has lost the purpose to protect the people. Many people believe that the Mafia is nothing more then a bunch of old Italian men sitting around and having a good time but in fact they are

nothing more then heartless killers.

When the Mafia came to America it became different from the European Mafia which values trustworthiness and the code of silence. The American Mafia is nothing more then glorified thieves, pickpockets and murders. The members of the American use extortion, bootlegging, prostitution, gambling, kidnapping and murder to get what they want.

Since the late 1800 s organized crime has been part of the United States. During the late 1800 s New Orleans was the biggest Mafia city in the United States. This was in part because Don Vito fled to New Orleans from Sicily to escape arrest and formed the group known as the Black Hand. It s members were criminals currently fugitives from Sicily. Don Vito is now known as the father of the American Mafia. In 1924, Mussolini tried to rid Italy of the mob and many members fled to the United States to escape persecution from others which increased the numbers in the rising mob.

Alphonse Scarface Capone was another early organizer of the Mafia. He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1899. His involvement in the Mafia began when he was eleven years old. As he became older he became involved with the Five Point Gang. When Johnny Torrio, the original leader of the gang moved to Chicago, he invited Capone to be his sidekick. Big Jim the crime boss of Chicago was Torrio s uncle. Trouble began between the two and Capone was hired to kill Big Jim. When he was killed the business was left to Torrio. In 1925 Torrio was shot and killed leaving the 55 million dollar a year business to Capone. Capone was hated by the other gangsters and attempts were made on his life. He later to revenge and many of the gangsters were killed in the St. Valentines Day massacre. Capone was finally arrested for tax evasion and spent most of his sentence in Alcatraz. He was released in 1939 and shortly after died from advanced stages of syphilis in 1947.

The Mafia has continued to grow since the late 1800 s. It continues to destroy the lives of adults and children by the sale of narcotics. I believe that organized crime will be around forever because it has become harder to capture them because they have many government and law enforcement agencies paid to look the other way. I think if we are going to do something about it should be now.