Using Intel to Stop the Mob, Part 2: The Turning Point

Friends of ours: Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Joseph Barbara, Joseph Valachi

Capone was history. (Part 1) “Lucky” Luciano’s luck ran out when he was convicted and deported to Italy. And Murder Inc. and its professional hit men were out of business.

The FBI and its partners had scored some major successes against organized crime by the late 1940s, but hoodlums and racketeers were still operating and thriving in certain big cities—New York, Chicago, Detroit, to name a few.

During this time, we’d been using intelligence to paint a picture of criminal activities, mostly locally on a case-by-case basis. In 1946, we launched the General Investigative Intelligence Program—our first national criminal intelligence initiative—to survey the crime landscape and gather details on key players, including mobsters.

By the early 50s, we’d gained (according to one memo) “considerable information concerning the background of operations of hoodlums and racketeers throughout the country,” using informants, discrete inquiries, and public sources. We’d also pulled together intelligence through surveys on the Mafia, on bookmaking and race wire activities, and on other criminal rackets.

In 1953, the New York office—facing rising mobster activity—specifically asked to open intelligence files on 30 top hoodlums in the city to get a general picture of their activities and to keep an eye out for violations of federal law. On August 25 th of that year, we made it an official national “Top Hoodlum Program,” asking all field offices to gather information on mobsters in their territories and to report it regularly to Washington so we’d have a centralized collection of intelligence on racketeers.

It’s important to understand: at the time, most racketeering activities—including gambling and loan sharking—were beyond our jurisdictional reach. Still, we needed to build a bank of information to better understand the threat and to be prepared if federal laws were broken.

Three key developments would help us further expose the length and breadth of organized crime generally and the Mafia specifically in the years to come.

* In 1957, New York State Police Sergeant Edgar Croswell discovered a secret meeting of top Mafioso at the rural estate of mob leader Joseph Barbara in Apalachin, New York. We immediately checked the names taken by Croswell. We had information in our files on 53 of the 60 mobsters; forty had criminal records. Croswell’s discovery led us to intensify our interest in these figures (not begin it, as some have speculated) and to arrest mobsters who violated federal law. In part because of Apalachin, we realized that local and regional crime lords were conspiring and began to adjust our strategy accordingly.
* In 1961, Attorney General Robert Kennedy created an Organized Crime and Racketeering Section in the Department of Justice to coordinate activities by the FBI and other department agencies against the criminal threat.
* In 1963, thanks in part to the FBI, the first major Mafia turncoat—Joseph Valachi—publicly spilled the beans before a Senate subcommittee, naming names and exposing plenty of secrets about organized crime history, operations, and rituals.

As the threat became clearer, Congress began giving us more tools to combat it—including jurisdiction over more mobster related crimes like gambling and, in 1968, the ability to use court-authorized electronic surveillance in cases involving organized crime.

As a result of these intelligence efforts and new tools, our campaign against the mob turned a corner. The next key piece of the puzzle would come in the early ‘70s, with the passage of the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations or “RICO” statute that would enable us to take down entire mob families. More on that later.

Thanks to the FBI

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The Clown's Hideout

Friends of ours: Joey "the Clown" Lombardo
Friends of mine: Dominic Calarco

Dominic Calarco said he went to his social club seven days a week to cook for its members, but that routine was broken by a knock on his door in January 2006.

He thought he knew the bearded man standing in front of him. But he wasn't sure until he heard the man speak, he told jurors Monday at the Family Secrets mob-conspiracy trial. The man asking for shelter at Calarco's Elmwood Park home was Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, an alleged leader of the Chicago Outfit who was on the run from federal authorities.

"He said, 'I got no place to go, can I stay with you for a couple of weeks?'" Calarco said.

Lombardo sat in the back of a row of defense tables at the trial Monday, and he didn't have any noticeable reaction to hearing about his last days of freedom. He tilted his head as he listened to Calarco, looking ahead through his tinted eyeglasses.

The two were once neighbors said Calarco, 85, and they had known each other for more than 70 years. He said he invited Lombardo in, and he said that although the case against Lombardo was "none of my business," he soon began to urge his fugitive friend to turn himself in.

There were nights Lombardo cried because he missed his family, and he appeared to be in poor health, Calarco said. They wouldn't have had far to go to find an officer, he added.

"I said all we've got to do is walk across the street," Calarco said, referring to his home being within a block of the Elmwood Park police headquarters. "He said he had a few more things to do," Calarco said.

Among them was a visit to dentist Patrick Spilotro, the brother of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, for some dental work. The deaths of Anthony and Michael Spilotro are among the 18 mob-related slayings in the case.

Star government witness Nicholas Calabrese has also testified about seeing Spilotro for dental care. Spilotro is expected to testify Tuesday.

Lombardo was arrested in Elmwood Park soon after the visit with Patrick Spilotro, nine months after he was indicted along with the other defendants in the Family Secrets case.

Thanks to Jeff Coen

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Russian Mafia Coming to FX

FX is stepping up its bid to find the successor to "The Shield," teaming with helmer Pete Berg ("The Kingdom") and scribe Sheldon Turner ("X-Men: Magneto") for a dark cop drama with echoes of "Heart of Darkness."

Untitled project revolves around two law-enforcement agents who are undercover in the world of the Russian Mafia. One is a Kurtz-like figure who's gone off the grid; the other is an NYPD officer sent in to find the potentially renegade agent. "They're two freight trains on a collision course," said Justin Levy, VP and head of television for Film 44, the shingle run by Berg and Sarah Aubrey.

Turner, who's finished a first draft of the script, will serve as an exec producer on the project, along with Berg and Aubrey. Berg -- who exec produces NBC's critically beloved "Friday Night Lights" -- may direct the pilot should it be greenlit and if his schedule allows.

Turner said he was attracted to the notion of reinventing the cop genre for FX, a network that did just that with "The Shield."

"You've seen lots of undercover shows and films before, but there's a great opportunity to take the well-worn cliches, undermine them and pull the rug out from underneath them," he said. "This is what the real world of undercover is like."

One twist is that the cop who's gone rogue may end up being more likable than the so-called good cop sent in to find him, Turner added.

Levy credits FX development exec Matt Cherniss with the broad concept for the show. "He came to us with the idea, and we went and got Sheldon," he said, adding that the idea for the show was a good match for all parties involved.

"I've always imagined the Film 44 brand as adrenaline and authenticity, which matches what FX is all about," he said. "And Sheldon is the guy to go to when you want (that kind of writing). He's got it in spades."

Turner has developed material for FX before, writing serial killer pilot "The Gentleman." On the feature front, his credits also include "The Longest Yard" and the upcoming pics "Orbit" at Fox 2000 and "Two Minutes to Midnight" (with Jennifer Klein). He's also writing Warner Bros.' Enron pic, which Leonardo DiCaprio is producing.

Film 44 has a first-look deal with Universal Media Studios, but that studio isn't involved in the FX project; the cabler is developing it inhouse.

Thanks to Josef Adalian

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