Related Research Articles
Goodfellas is a 1990 American biographical crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler. It is a film adaptation of the 1985 nonfiction book Wiseguy by Pileggi. Starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino, the film narrates the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill and his friends and family from 1955 to 1980.
Prizzi's Honor is a 1985 American black comedy crime film directed by John Huston, starring Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner as two highly-skilled mob assassins who, after falling in love, are hired to kill each other. The screenplay co-written by Richard Condon is based on his 1982 novel of the same name. The film's supporting cast includes Anjelica Huston, Robert Loggia, John Randolph, CCH Pounder, Lawrence Tierney, and William Hickey. Stanley Tucci appears in a minor role in his film debut. It was the last of John Huston's films to be released during his lifetime.
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster. Gangs provide a level of organization and resources that support much larger and more complex criminal transactions than an individual criminal could achieve. Gangsters have been active for many years in countries around the world. Gangsters are the subject of many novels, films, television series and video games.
William Edward Hickey was an American actor. He is best known for his Academy Award-nominated role as Don Corrado Prizzi in the John Huston film Prizzi's Honor (1985), as well as Uncle Lewis in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) and the voice of Dr. Finklestein in Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).
A crime boss, also known as a crime lord, Don, gang lord, gang boss, mob boss, kingpin, godfather,crime mentor or criminal mastermind, is a person in charge of a criminal organization.
Henry Hill Jr. was an American mobster who was associated with the Lucchese crime family of New York City from 1955 until 1980, when he was arrested on narcotics charges and became an FBI informant. Hill testified against his former Mafia associates, resulting in 50 convictions, including those of caporegime (captain) Paul Vario and fellow associate James Burke on multiple charges. He subsequently entered the Witness Protection Program, but was removed from the program in 1987.
The Irish Mob is a family based ethnic collective of organized crime syndicates composed of primarily ethnic Irish members which operate primarily in Ireland, the United States, The United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and have been in existence since the early 19th century. Originating in Irish-American street gangs – famously first depicted in Herbert Asbury's 1927 book, The Gangs of New York – the Irish Mob has appeared in most major U.S. and Canadian cities, especially in the Northeast and the urban industrial, including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Chicago.
Kkangpae is a romanization of the Korean for a 'gangster', 'thug', 'punk' or 'hoodlum', usually referring to members of unorganized street gangs. This is as opposed to mafiosos or members of organized crime gangs, which are known as geondal, or jopok.
A crime family is a unit of an organized crime syndicate, particularly in Italian organized crime and especially in the Sicilian Mafia and Italian American Mafia, often operating within a specific geographic territory or a specific set of activities. In its strictest sense, a family is a criminal gang, operating either on a unitary basis or as an organized collection of smaller gangs. In turn, a family can be a sole "enterprise" or part of a larger syndicate or cartel. Despite the name, most crime families are generally not based on or formed around actual familial connections, although they do tend to be ethnically-based, and many members may in fact be related to one another.
Jewish-American organized crime initially emerged within the American Jewish community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has been referred to variously in media and popular culture as the Jewish Mob, Jewish Mafia, Kosher Mob, Kosher Mafia, 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.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, African-American organized crime emerged following the first and second large-scale migration of African-Americans from the South to major cities of the Northeast, Midwest, and later the West Coast. In many of these newly established communities and neighborhoods, criminal activities such as illegal gambling, speakeasies and bootlegging were seen in the post-World War I and Prohibition eras. Although the majority of these businesses in African-American neighborhoods were operated by African Americans, it is often unclear the extent to which these operations were run independently of the larger criminal organizations of the time.
The East Harlem Purple Gang was a gang or organized crime group consisting of Italian-American hit-men and heroin dealers who were semi-independent from the Italian-American Mafia and, according to federal prosecutors, dominated heroin distribution in East Harlem, Italian Harlem, and the Bronx during the 1970s and early 1980s in New York City. Though mostly independent of the Italian-American Mafia and not an official Mafia crew, the gang was originally affiliated with and worked with the Lucchese crime family and later with the Bonanno crime family and Genovese crime family. It developed its "closest ties" with the Genovese family, and its remnants or former members are now part of the Genovese family's 116th Street Crew.
Mafia films—a version of gangster films—are a subgenre of crime films dealing with organized crime, often specifically with Mafia organizations. Especially in early mob films, there is considerable overlap with film noir. Popular regional variations of the genre include Italian Poliziotteschi, Chinese Triad films, Japanese Yakuza films, and Indian Mumbai underworld films.
The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian American criminal society and organized crime group. The organization is often referred to by its members as Cosa Nostra and by the American government as La Cosa Nostra (LCN). The organization's name is derived from the original Mafia or Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia, with "American Mafia" originally referring simply to Mafia groups from Sicily operating in the United States, as the organization initially emerged as an offshoot of the Sicilian Mafia formed by Italian immigrants in the United States. However, the organization gradually evolved into a separate entity partially independent of the original Mafia in Sicily, and it eventually encompassed or absorbed other Italian immigrant and Italian American gangsters and Italian American crime groups active in the United States and Canada that were not of Sicilian origin. In North America, it is often colloquially referred to as the Italian Mafia or Italian Mob, though these terms may also apply to the separate yet related Sicilian Mafia or other organized crime groups in Italy or ethnic Italian crime groups in other countries.
This is a glossary of words related to the Mafia, primarily the Italian American Mafia and Sicilian Mafia.
- administration: the top-level "management" of an organized crime family -- the boss, underboss and consigliere.
- associate: one who works with mobsters, but hasn't been asked to take the vow of Omertà; an almost confirmed, or made guy.
- bagman: a person or paymaster designated to collect or distribute illicitly gained money.
- barone: a baron or landlord.
- books, the: a phrase indicating membership in the family. If there is a possibility for promotion, then the books are open. If not, the books are closed.
- boss: the head of the family who runs the show. He decides who gets made and who gets whacked. The boss also gets points from all family business; also see don, chairman.
- bridge: threat of death; e.g. "our former friend is walking across the bridge".
- button or becoming a button man: a mafia hit man; or someone who has become a made man.
- capo: the family member who leads a crew; short for caporegime or capodecina.
- capo dei capi: "boss of all [the] bosses" is a phrase used mainly by the media, public and the law enforcement community to indicate a supremely powerful crime boss in the Sicilian or American Mafia who holds great influence over the whole organization.
- captain: a capo.
- cement shoes: a method of murder or body disposal, usually associated with criminals such as the Mafia or gangs. It involves weighting down the victim, who may be dead or alive, with concrete and throwing them into water in the hope the body will never be found.
- clip: to murder; also to whack, hit, pop, burn, ice, put a contract out on.
- code of silence: not ratting on one's colleagues once one has been pinched -- no longer a strong virtue in organized crime families. Also, see omertà.
- comare: literally "godmother" in Southern Italian slang, usually pronounced "goomah" or "goomar" in American English: a Mafia mistress.
- confirm: to be made; see made guy.
- connected guy: an associate
- consigliere: the family adviser, who is always consulted before decisions are made.
- Cosa Nostra (Our thing): mob term for the family or Mafia
- crank: speed; in particular, crystal meth.
- crew: the group of soldiers under the capo's command.
- cugine: a young soldier striving to be made.
- don: the head of the family; see boss.
- earner: a member who brings in much money for the family.
- eat alone: to keep for oneself; to be greedy.
- family: an organized crime clan.
- forget about it (often pronounced "fuggedaboutit"): An exclamation; as the title character explains in Donnie Brasco:
"Forget about it" is, like, if you agree with someone, you know, like "Raquel Welch is one great piece of ass. Forget about it!" But then, if you disagree, like "A Lincoln is better than a Cadillac? Forget about it!" You know? But then, it's also like if something's the greatest thing in the world, like, "Minchia! Those peppers! Forget about it!" But it's also like saying "Go to hell!" too. Like, you know, like "Hey Paulie, you got a one-inch pecker?" and Paulie says "Forget about it!" Sometimes it just means "Forget about it."
- G: a grand; a thousand dollars; also see large.
- garbage business: euphemism for organized crime.
- Golden Age: The days before RICO.
- Goodfella: A member of the Mafia.
- goomar or goomah: Americanized form of comare, a Mafia mistress.
- goombah: an associate, especially a senior member of a criminal gang.
- heavy: packed, carrying a weapon.
- hit: to murder; also see whack.
- initiation or induction: becoming a made man.
- juice: the interest paid to a loan shark for the loan; also see vig.
- kick up: give a part of the income to the next up in the command chain.
- lam: To lay down, go into hiding.
- large: a thousand, a grand, a G.
- LCN : abbreviation for La Cosa Nostra.
- lupara bianca: a journalistic term to indicate a Mafia slaying done in such a way that the victim's body is never found.
- made man: an inducted member of the family.
- make one's bones: gain credibility by killing someone.
- mock execution: to whip someone into shape by frightening them.
- mattresses, going to, taking it to, or hitting the: going to war with a rival clan or family.
- message job: placing the bullet in someone's body such that a specific message is sent to that person's crew or family; see through the eye and through the mouth.
- mob, the: a single organized crime family; or all organized crime families together.
- mobbed up: connected to the mob.
- mobster: one who is in the mob.
- oath: becoming inducted as a made man.
- Omertà: to take a vow of silence in the Mafia, punishable by death if not upheld.
- one-way ride or taking someone for a ride: underworld for an execution method
- outfit: a clan, or family within the Mafia.
- pass: A reprieve from being whacked.
- paying tribute: giving the boss a cut of the deal.
- pinched: to get caught by the cops or federal agents.
- points: percent of income; cut.
- program, the: The Witness Protection Program.
- rat: someone who turns informant, snitches or squeals after having been pinched.
- RICO: Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Passed in 1970 to aid the American government in clamping down on organized crime activities, its scope has since been broadened to prosecute insider traders.
- shakedown: to blackmail or try to get money from someone; also to give someone a scare.
- shy: the interest charged on loans by loan sharks.
- shylock business: the business of loansharking.
- sitdown: a meeting, esp. with another family.
- soldier: the bottom-level member of an organized crime family who is made.
- spring cleaning: cleaning up, hiding or getting rid of evidence.
- tax: to take a percentage of someone's earnings.
- The Commission and the Sicilian Mafia Commission: two bodies, Italian-American and the Sicilian respectively, of leading Mafia members to decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Mafia.
- This Thing of Ours (Cosa Nostra): a mob family, or the entire mob.
- through the eye: a message job through the eye to say "We're watching you!"
- through the mouth: a message job through the mouth to indicate that someone WAS a rat.
- underboss: the second in command to the boss.
- vig: Vigorish abbr. the house's or bookie's take in gambling or the interest paid to a loan shark for the loan; also see juice.
- waste management business: euphemism for organized crime.
- whack: to murder; also clip, hit, pop, burn, put a contract out.
- wiseguy: a made man.
- zips: is a slang term often used as a derogatory slur by Italian American and Sicilian American mobsters in reference to newer immigrant Sicilian and Italian mafiosi.
The Greek mafia is the colloquial term used to refer to various organized crime elements originating from Greece. Indigenous organized criminal groups are well-entrenched in the largest Greek urban centers, particularly in Athens.
The Ukrainian mafia is a type of criminal organization with origins in Ukraine. Such organizations are regarded as one of the most influential types of organized crime coming out of the former USSR, including also the Russian mafia, the Georgian mafia, the Chechen mafia, the Armenian mafia and the Azerbaijani mafia. Ukrainian criminal organizations are involved in a significant number of illegal activities. Although Ukrainian criminal organizations are for the most part independently operating enterprises, they are sometimes connected with Russian mafia organizations, such as the case with Semyon Mogilevich.
The Russian mafia has frequently been a subject of works in popular culture.
A gangster film or gangster movie is a film belonging to a genre that focuses on gangs and organized crime. It is a subgenre of crime film, that may involve large criminal organizations, or small gangs formed to perform a certain illegal act. The genre is differentiated from Westerns and the gangs of that genre.
References
- ↑ Prizzi's Honor - Chicago Reader
- ↑ My Blue Heaven & The 9 Other Best Mob Comedies, Ranked According To IMDb - Screen Rant
- ↑ My World of Flops Pisco-No-Go Case File #155 Wise Guys - Nathan Rabin's Happy Place
- ↑ The Legendary Dean Stockwell, Quantum Leap’s Al, Dies at 85 – The Mary Sue
- ↑ The 50 Best Gangster Movies of All Time|Time Out