Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an agreement which includes some form of compensation, monetary or otherwise. It is an illegal agreement. Either party may be a person, group, or organization. Contract killing has been associated with organized crime, government conspiracies, dictatorships, and vendettas. For example, in the United States, the Italian- and Jewish-American organized crime gang Murder, Inc. committed hundreds of murders on behalf of the National Crime Syndicate during the 1930s and '40s.
Black Hand was a type of Italian extortion racket. Originally developed in the eighteenth century, Black Hand extortion was exported to the United States in the later nineteenth century with Italian immigrants.
Francesco Ioele, known as Frankie Yale or Frankie Uale, was an American gangster based in Brooklyn and the second employer of Al Capone.
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.
The Genna crime family, was a crime family that operated in Prohibition-era Chicago. From 1921 to 1925, the family was headed by the six Genna brothers, known as the Terrible Gennas. The brothers were Sicilians from the town of Marsala and operated from Chicago's Little Italy and maintained control over the Unione Siciliana. They were allies with fellow Italian gang the Chicago Outfit. After a bloody war led to their demise in the 1920s, the gang was eventually absorbed by the Chicago Outfit.
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 Cleveland crime family, also known as the Scalish crime family or the Cleveland Mafia, is an Italian American Mafia crime family based in Cleveland, Ohio and throughout the Greater Cleveland area. The organization formed during the 1900s, as leadership turned over frequently due to a series of power grabs and assassinations. In 1930, Frank Milano became boss and was able to bring some stability to the family. Under the control of the family's longest-serving boss, John T. Scalish, who led the organization from 1945 until 1976, the Cleveland Mafia exerted influence over the Teamsters union, profiting from labor racketeering and the the skimming of revenue from Las Vegas casinos.
Buster from Chicago was a pseudonym used for a mobster and freelance hitman of the 1930s. He is alleged to have played a key role in the Castellammarese War (1929–1931) as the assassin of Giuseppe Morello and others. Some claim that Buster was gangster Sebastiano Domingo (1910–1933), notably Bill Bonanno, the son of Bonanno crime family leader Joseph Bonanno, who participated in the War. Others charge that Buster is a character created by Joe Valachi to evade his responsibility for various killings.
Antonio "Tony the Scourge" Lombardo was an Italian-born American mobster. He was consigliere to Al Capone, and later the President of the Unione Siciliana.
The White Hand Gang was a collection of various Irish American gangs on the New York City, Brooklyn, and Red Hook waterfronts from the early 1900s to 1925 who organized against the growing influence of Italian gangsters. Their name was chosen in response to the Sicilian Black Hand gangs and carried the implication that the Irish gang was the "white" counter to the growing presence of what they considered "non-white" Italian gangsters and Italian immigrants. They were known to be virulently anti-Italian and particularly violent, with members killing each other, contributing to the unstable leadership which led to the gang's demise.
The Italian-American National Union was a Sicilian-American organization, which controlled much of the Italian vote within the United States during the early twentieth century. It was based in Chicago, Illinois. It was a major source of conflict during Prohibition, as underworld figures fought to control the highly influential organization through a series of puppet presidents largely controlled by the Chicago Outfit. During the 1970s, the organization was probably merged into the Italian Sons and Daughters of America. However, similar groups still exist and have much influence in Italian American communities throughout the United States.
Egan's Rats was an American organized crime gang that exercised considerable power in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1890 to 1924. Its 35 years of criminal activity included bootlegging, labor slugging, voter intimidation, armed robbery, and murder. Although predominantly Irish-American, Egan's Rats did include a few Italian-Americans and some Jewish immigrants, most notably Max "Big Maxie" Greenberg.
Richard Cain, also known as Richard Scalzitti, was a notoriously corrupt Chicago police officer and a close associate of Mafia boss Sam Giancana.
Salvatore Mooney Giancana was an American mobster who was boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957 to 1966.
Anthony D'Andrea was an Italian-born Mafia boss of Chicago in the late 1910s to early 1920s. He was also a Democrat and a political leader who was a president of the Unione Siciliana and was involved in a heated battle for alderman. D'Andrea was killed by an assassin's bullet in 1921.
Rosario Dispenza was an Italian-born American mobster. He was head of the Sicilian mafia in the Near North Side neighborhood of Chicago from 1909 to 1914.
Black Hand extortion was a criminal tactic used by gangsters based in major cities in the United States. In Chicago, Black Hand extortion began around 1900 and had all but faded away by 1970, replaced by the Mafia. The Mafia was initially organized by Johnny Torrio and further organized by Al Capone into the extant Chicago Outfit sometime later. Black Handers in Chicago were mostly Italian men from Calabria and Sicily who would send anonymous extortion notes to their victims emblazoned with a feared old country symbol: the "Black Hand". The Black Hand was a precursor of organized crime, although it is still a tactic practiced by the Mafia and used in organized crime to this day. The Black Hand gangsters of this time period differed from the Mafia by lacking formally structured hierarchies and codes of conduct, and many were essentially one-man operations. Black Hand blackmail was also common in New York, Boston, and New Orleans. Victims would be threatened with being beaten, shot, or have their place of business bombed if they did not pay. Starting around 1909, Black Hand activity was causing difficulties for mob boss Big Jim Colosimo, a former Black Hand gangster and owner of brothels throughout Chicago. Colosimo's life was being threatened with demands for cash to ensure his physical safety. In an effort to fix the problem, he recruited Johnny Torrio, who was a member of New York's Five Points Gang at the time, to come to Chicago. Torrio would later become the famous successor to Big Jim Colosimo and mentor Al Capone as the organized crime ruler of Chicago.
Theodore L. "Teddy" Roe was an African-American organized crime figure who led an illegal gambling empire in South Side, Chicago during the 1940s and early 1950s. Roe earned the nickname "Robin Hood" because of his philanthropy among the neighborhood poor. After refusing to pay "street tax" or hand over his illegal gambling empire to the Chicago Outfit, Roe fatally shot a made man who had been ordered to assassinate him.
Giosuè Gallucci, also known as Luccariello, was a crime boss of Italian Harlem in New York City affiliated with the Camorra. He dominated the area from 1910–1915 and was also known as the undisputed "King of Little Italy" or "The Boss", due to his power in the criminal underworld and political connections. He held strict control over the policy game, employing Neapolitan and Sicilian street gangs as his enforcers.
This is a list of organized crime in the 1910s, arranged chronologically.
