John Herbert Gleason, known as Jackie Gleason, was an American actor, comedian, writer, and composer also known as "The Great One". He developed a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, and was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy, exemplified by his city bus driver character Ralph Kramden in the television series The Honeymooners. He also developed The Jackie Gleason Show, which maintained high ratings from the mid-1950s through 1970. The series originated in New York City, but filming moved to Miami Beach, Florida, in 1964 after Gleason took up permanent residence there.
Charles "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian-born gangster who operated mainly in the United States. He started his criminal career in the Five Points Gang and was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate. Luciano is considered the father of the Italian-American Mafia for the establishment of the Commission in 1931, after he abolished the boss of bosses title held by Salvatore Maranzano following the Castellammarese War. He was also the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family.
The Honeymooners is an American television sitcom that originally aired from 1955 to 1956, created by and starring Jackie Gleason, and based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of Gleason's variety show. It follows the lives of New York City bus driver Ralph Kramden (Gleason), his wife Alice, Ralph's best friend Ed Norton and Ed's wife Trixie as they get involved with various schemes in their day-to-day living.
Dutch Schultz was an American mobster based in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. He made his fortune in organized crime-related activities, including bootlegging and the numbers racket. Schultz's rackets were weakened by two tax evasion trials led by United States Attorney Thomas Dewey, and also threatened by fellow mobster Lucky Luciano.
Isidor "Izzy" Einstein (1880–1938) and Moe W. Smith (1887–1960) were United States federal police officers, agents of the U.S. Prohibition Unit, who achieved the most arrests and convictions during the first years of the alcohol prohibition era (1920–1925). They were known nationally for successfully shutting down illegal speakeasies and for using disguises in their work.
The Bureau of Prohibition was the United States federal law enforcement agency with the responsibility of investigating the possession, distribution, consumption, and trafficking of alcohol and alcoholic beverages in the United States of America during the Prohibition era. The enumerated enforcement powers of this organization were vested in the Volstead Act. Federal Prohibition Agents of the Bureau were commonly referred to by members of the public and the press of the day as "Prohis," or "Dry Agents." In the sparsely populated areas of the American west, agents were sometimes called "Prohibition Cowboys." At its peak, the Bureau employed 2,300 dry agents.
The Roaring Twenties is a 1939 American gangster film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart, and Gladys George. The film, spanning the period from 1919 to 1933, was written by Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay and Robert Rossen. The film follows three men and their experiences during major events in the 1920s, such as Prohibition era violence and the 1929 stock market crash.
Chicago, Illinois, has a long history of organized crime and was famously home to the American mafia figure Al Capone. This article contains a list of major events related to organized crime.
Port of New York is a 1949 American film noir/crime film directed by László Benedek with cinematography by George E. Diskant and shot in semidocumentary style. The film is notable for being Yul Brynner's first film appearance. The film, which is very similar to T-Men (1947), was shot on location in New York City.
Jewish-American organized crime initially emerged within the American Jewish community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In media and popular culture, it has variously been referred to as the Jewish Mob, the Jewish Mafia, the Kosher Mob, the Kosher Mafia, the Yiddish Connection, and Kosher Nostra or Undzer Shtik. The last two of these terms are direct references to the Italian Cosa Nostra; the former is a play on the word for kosher, referring to Jewish dietary laws, while the latter is a calque of the Italian phrase 'cosa nostra' into Yiddish, which was at the time the predominant language of the Jewish diaspora in the United States.
The Atlantic City Conference held between 13–16 May 1929 was a historic summit of leaders of organized crime in the United States. It is considered by most crime historians to be the earliest organized crime summit held in the US. The conference had a major impact on the future direction of the criminal underworld and it held more importance and significance than the Havana Conference of 1946 and the Apalachin meeting of 1957. It also represented the first concrete move toward a National Crime Syndicate.
Abraham "Bo" Weinberg was a Jewish New York City mobster who became a hitman and chief lieutenant for the Prohibition-era gang boss Dutch Schultz. As Schultz expanded his bootlegging operations into Manhattan during Prohibition, he recruited Abe Weinberg and his brother George into his gang. Abe Weinberg would become one of Schultz's top gunmen during the Manhattan Bootleg Wars and was a suspect in the later high-profile gangland slayings of Jack "Legs" Diamond, Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, and mob boss Salvatore Maranzano.
The Kansas City crime family, also known as the Civella crime family, the Kansas City Mafia or the Clique, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family based in Kansas City, Missouri.
Tom Wiggin is an American actor, writer, producer and director. He is best known for creating the role of nefarious businessman Kirk Anderson on the long-running soap opera As the World Turns.
Lincoln Clark Andrews was a brigadier general in the United States Army during World War I and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury starting in 1925. As Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, he was in charge of Prohibition enforcement. Time magazine called his forces the Prohibition Army.
Johnny Jack Nounes, also known as the "Beau Brummell of Galveston", was a mob boss in Galveston, Texas, United States, during the 1920s and 1930s. He, with one-armed George Musey, led the Downtown Gang, one of the two gangs which controlled most of the Galveston Crime Syndicate until the early 1930s. They fought for control of the island against the rival Beach Gang led by Ollie Quinn and Dutch Voight, and later their successors, the Maceo Crime Syndicate. As the prohibition era began, his gang came to be one of the dominant forces in the Galveston Crime Syndicate. Galveston became the main port of entry for liquor supply in Texas and many parts of the Midwest. Nounes' flamboyance attracted the attention of federal authorities, leading to his conviction in 1924 and sentencing to Leavenworth Penitentiary. His prison term was short but only two years after being released he was again sentenced to prison after being caught with a shipment of liquor in Seabrook. Frank Nitti, a business partner of Nounes, was the "enforcer" for Al Capone's crime organization in Chicago as well as the future boss of the Chicago Outfit.
Roadhouse Nights is a 1930 American pre-Code gangster film. A number of sources including Sally Cline in her book Dashiell Hammett Man of Mystery claim it is based on the novel Red Harvest written by Dashiell Hammett. However the credits of the film itself say only "An Original Screenplay by Ben Hecht." Hammett receives no mention at all.
The Hogan Gang was a St. Louis–based criminal organization that sold illegal liquor during Prohibition in addition to committing labor slugging, voter intimidation, armed robbery, and murder. Although predominantly Irish-American, the Hogan Gang included several Italian and Jewish mobsters amongst their ranks; most notably, Max "Big Maxie" Greenberg. They fought a notoriously violent gang war with Egan's Rats in the early 1920s.
Nicolo "Cola" Schiro was an early Sicilian-born New York City mobster who, in 1912, became the boss of what later become known as the Bonanno crime family.
Rogue City is a 2020 French crime film directed and written by Olivier Marchal and starring Lannick Gautry, Stanislas Merhar, David Belle and Kaaris. It was released on Netflix on 30 October 2020. Set in Marseille, it is about an anti-gang police unit that is investigating a mass shooting at a nightclub, amidst tension from an internal affairs investigation for their unorthodox methods, friction with the rival narcotics unit, rumors of corruption, and threats from gang leaders.
