Valachi hearings
The Valachi Hearings ( Valachi Hearings ) also known as the McClellan Hearings , investigated organized crime across America and investigated leading Mafiosi. Arkansas Senator John L. McClellan opened the 1963 hearings, which were named after lead witness Joe Valachi .
Hearings
In October 1963 Joseph Michael "Joe" Valachi testified before Senator John L. McClellan's Congressional Committee on Organized Crime. He gave the American public first hand activities of the American Cosa Nostra . According to the judicial authorities, it was said: "Valachi showed us the face of the enemy".
Valachi was a mafioso of the New York Genovese family and the first member of the La Cosa Nostra who, as Pentito, admitted the existence of organized crime in the USA and thus violated one of the main rules - silence (" omertà "). This was the first time that the term “ Cosa Nostra ” was used in public. Before Valachi, federal authorities had no hard evidence that the American mafia even existed. Although his statements never resulted in a direct burden for the mafiosi, they published their history, activities and rituals and helped to solve many unsolved murders and the naming of many members and the most important families. He practically revealed details that the FBI already knew, but could not pinpoint until then. He also detailed his daily routine as a soldier , including his induction ceremony at La Cosa Nostra.
Originally Valachi only wanted to make statements about drug trafficking, but Justice Minister Robert F. Kennedy had Valachi questioned about the "organization of the criminal Sicilians". Instead of going to court, Kennedy then cited Valachi to the United States Congress. What was special about the hearing was that Kennedy also allowed film and television cameras to reach a wide audience. The televised hearings brought the brutal violence and routine intimidation of the Mafia straight to the home of the average American.
Revelations
Valachi revealed that the original Mafia is named among the members of the organization, Cosa Nostra, or "our cause". This designation received great popularity and almost replaced the term "Mafia". The FBI itself added the article "La" before "Cosa Nostra", which did not apply to the original Mafia from Sicily and is still so today. Since then, the American members have also been saying "this our cause".
Valachi also revealed the organizational structure of the Mafia: Soldati (simple members) are commanded by a capo or capo regime , which in turn is subject to the authority of his boss (Don) or his underboss or consigliere (advisor) - that every boss is a family with a territory represents and mostly has a seat on the commission , which is the "umbrella organization" of La Cosa Nostra and the "chair" of the National Crime Syndicate .
According to Valachi, Salvatore invited Maranzano to a secret meeting of all New York mafia giants in 1931, proclaimed himself “ Capo di tutti i capi ” (boss of the bosses) and reformed the five families. According to Valachi's statements, the bosses of the Five Families were from then on: Charles “Lucky” Luciano for the later Genovese family , Gaetano “Tommy” Gagliano for the later named Lucchese family , Giuseppe “Joe” Profaci for the later named Colombo- Family , Giuseppe "Joe" Bonanno for the Bonanno family and Vincent Mangano for the later named Gambino family . Vito Genovese served as underboss for Lucky Luciano and Albert Anastasia as underboss for Vincent Mangano. Valachi also mentioned the names of the current bosses: Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino , Joseph "Joe Malayak" Magliocco , Giuseppe "Joe" Bonanno and Gaetano "Tommy" Gagliano and also named the names of around 130 members of the Genovese family, plus other names other families.
Effects
With Valachi's help, 317 members of the Cosa Nostra were identified and exposed; In the three years from 1963 to 1966 alone, more convictions were pronounced as a result of his statements than in the previous 30 years.
"... a significant addition to the broad picture ... gives meaning to much that we already know and brings the picture into sharper focus."
"... a considerable addition to the big picture ... gives meaning to a lot of what we already know and sharpens our view of the overall context."
Valachi was guarded by up to 200 US marshals while he testified before Congress. In 1966 he attempted suicide in prison, but it failed.
The RICO Act of 1970 also made it possible for federal prosecutors to bring action if a person is suspected of belonging to a criminal organization. This can be the case if the accused has committed two of a total of 35 defined crimes with the same goal or result within ten years. Initially only a little, the regulation was then increasingly applied in the 1980s.
With the increased use of undercover agents, the new regulations helped the FBI build cases in the late 1970s of detaining the heads of various families in the 1980s.
Valachi Papers
In 1964, the US Department of Justice asked Valachi to write his personal story of his underworld career. He was only expected to fill in the gaps in his interrogation, which resulted in a 1180-page manuscript entitled " The Real Thing ". Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach authorized the publication of Valachis Manuscript. The author Peter Maas was given the task of editing the manuscript and was allowed to interview Valachi in his prison cell.
The so-called "American Italian Anti-Defamation League" started a national campaign against the book on the grounds that it could reinforce negative opinions regarding ethnic stereotypes. Should the publication of the book not be stopped, they would also contact the "White House" directly. Katzenberger changed his mind about the publication after meeting President Lyndon B. Johnson . An act that greatly embarrassed the Justice Department. In May 1966, Katzenbach asked a district court to stop publishing Maas books. - The first time a US attorney general tried to ban a book. While Maas was never allowed to publish his edition of Valachis' memoir, he was allowed to publish a third-person account of the self-conducted interviews. This formed the basis of the book "The Valachi Papers", which was published in 1986 and was also the basis for the film of the same name, which was published in 1972 and in which Valachi was embodied by Charles Bronson .
Films and documentaries
- 2012: In the Mafia Network - The FBI's secret files : The key witness: Joe Valachi; British docu-drama
- 1972: The Valachi Papers ; Film about the history of the New York Mafia from the 1930s to the arrest of Joseph Valachi in the 1950s and his testimony before the US Congress
literature
- Carl Sifakis: The Mafia Encyclopedia ; 2005; ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
- Charles Brandt: I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran and the inside story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, and the last ride of Jimmy Hoffa ; 2004; ISBN 1-58642-077-1
- Carl Sifakis: The Encyclopedia of American Crime ; 2001; ISBN 0-8160-4040-0
- Robert J. Kelly: Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States ; 2000; ISBN 0-313-30653-2
- Dan E. Moldea: The Hoffa Wars ; 1978; ISBN 0-441-34010-5
- Peter Maas: The Valachi Papers ; 1968; ISBN 978-0-06-050742-8
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Killers in Prison , Time, October 4, 1963
- ^ A b "The Smell of It" , Time, October 11, 1963
- ↑ a b Books: His Life and Crimes , Time, January 17, 1969
- ↑ Maas, The Valachi Papers , p. 18th
- ^ International Drug Trafficking: Law Enforcement Challenges for the Next Century by Thomas A. Constantine; Administrator, United States Drug Enforcement Administration
- ^ A b Their Thing , Time, August 16, 1963
- ↑ Maas, The Valachi Papers, p. 32
- ^ Maas, The Valachi Papers
- ↑ Seize the Night: Joe Valachi ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on www.carpenoctem.tv (English)
- ^ History of the FBI . Archived from the original on May 17, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
- ↑ a b c d The Valachi Papers , Censorship (accessed March 6, 2011)
- ↑ a b c d Peter Maas , Encyclopedia of World Biography (accessed March 6, 2011)
