The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Decade
In 1950, a senator from Tennessee named Estes Kefauver called a series of hearings to investigate the scale of organized crime in the United States.
Although the existence of various criminal gangs was obvious, the public was particularly interested in whether or not the mysterious rumored Mafia behind them all actually existed, which the FBI vehemently denied.
Held in 14 cities around the country, the senators called more than 600 witnesses, including some of the most well-known figures in the criminal underworld. That included Frank Costello.
Wikimedia CommonsFrank Costello, apparently annoyed by a question, at the Kefauver Hearings.
Apparently anxious to come off as a well-spoken professional, Costello consulted with a psychologist on how to command respect from his audience. However, he had not anticipated the kinds of questions he would have to answer. The impact of his testimony did not help the Mafia.
This exchange with Rudolph Halley, the Committee Chief Counsel, is particularly illuminating:
Halley: “You were in the liquor business?”
Costello: “No, I wasn’t.”
Halley: “At no time?”
Costello: “Not until 1937.”
Halley: “Until 1937?”
Costello: “1927.”
Halley: “1927. Well, you know that is just not so.”
Costello: “Why isn’t it so?”
Halley: “You were indicted in 1925.”
Costello: “But I wasn’t convicted.”
Halley: “You weren’t convicted.”
Costello: “That means I didn’t sell no liquor.”
Halley: “Does it, Mr. Costello?”
The impact of the hearings and Costello’s participation added to the public’s awareness of and outrage with organized crime. It also increased the efforts of prosecutors to nab mobsters.
When Costello left the hearings early, he was sentenced to jail for 18 months for contempt of the Senate. This was later followed by larger charges in 1954 and 1956 for tax issues.
In 1957, when Costello was newly out of prison and returning to his apartment building, a protege of Vito Genovese approached him and shouted: “This is for you, Frank!”
Costello was shot in the face before making it to the elevator in his building. The mob boss somehow managed to escape with just a scalp wound.
When, that same year, Albert Anastasia of Murder Inc. was also killed by gang members working for Genovese, it was clear he’d harbored some ill will for having been passed over.
Costello was unwilling to take the dangerous steps to confront his former ally, so instead, he ceded control of the Morello family to Vito Genovese. The family has been referred to as the Genovese family ever since.
Then in November 1957, Genovese decided to make his triumph official and called a meeting of the Five Families and other gang leaders at a mansion in Apalachin, New York. This proved to be a terrible idea.
With over 100 Mafia members from as far as Cuba, Las Vegas, and California present, Genovese’s main concern was to declare himself the leader before all of his colleagues. What he had not anticipated, however, was a raid.
Wikimedia CommonsMafia members convene for the Apalachin Meeting. 1957.
Sixty-two of the most important Mafia members in the United States were arrested at the meeting. Humiliated and now hated by many of the other mafiosos, Genovese became a primary target for federal prosecution.
In 1959, Vito Genovese was sentenced to 15 years for his involvement in narcotics trafficking. He died in prison in 1969, but not before being accused of organizing more crimes from jail.
Luciano died of a heart attack in Naples in 1962 while on his way to meet a filmmaker about selling the rights to his life’s story.
Violent Delights And Ends
What Luciano had predicted when he established The Commission was not just that the families would work better when they worked together, but that this unification would give them the best chance of survival.
His structure provided a framework for collaboration, succession, and was built upon a century of traditions. In short, Luciano knew that to ignore a system designed to protect you was to do so at your own risk.
Although nearly all of the major mafiosos of the previous decades had either died or been neutralized by this point, New York’s gang activity obviously did not cease.
In fact, the city saw a rise in new gangs. The Harlem drug empire of the ’60s and ’70s bubbled under the leadership of Frank Lucas, a black gangster who was said to have smuggled drugs from Vietnam in the coffins of fallen soldiers.
That time period also saw the arrival of the Latin Kings in New York City. The Hispanic street gang had popped up in Illinois in the ’50s and their influence spread eastward. All these groups effectively threatened the influence of the Mafia in the city’s underworld.
The last “hurrah” of the Genovese Family was felt under Thomas Ryan Eboli, who took control from Vito Genovese in 1957. Between his own ill health, Vito Genovese’s efforts to interfere from prison, and the waning influence of their faction, Eboli was unable to maintain his territory without loans.
Mostly, Eboli was forced to borrow from other members of the syndicate’s commission, particularly, Carlo Gambino, the wily leader of the Gambino family. Gambino had come to power in 1957 when he collaborated in the murder of the family’s then-leader, Albert Anastasia, who had become increasingly violent and loose-lipped over the years.
In 1972, when Ebloi either could not or would not repay his loan of more than $4 million, he was murdered under mysterious circumstances. Gambino was left to find a replacement for the new head of the Genovese crime family.
On one hand, Carlo Gambino had claimed the primary place of power in the syndicate. But on the other hand, the role came with pressure.
In May of 1972, his nephew was murdered by rivals in a failed extortion plot. Shortly thereafter, Gambino’s home in Massapequa, Long Island came under constant federal surveillance. He remained under surveillance until his death by natural causes in 1976, having outlived most of the Young Turks.
He was succeeded by Paul Castellano, an established mafioso with a decades-long career though without much of a reputation as a tough guy.
Perhaps this is why, when one of the most colorful Mafia crimes ever took place a few years later, the Gambinos had nothing to do with it apart from allowing it.
