Is the Mafia on the Rise or on the Run?

Two themes have emerged from recent media coverage of organized crime. On the one hand, protests like those held in Naples two months ago and sweeping arrests are said to signal the decline of the Mob. On the other, the international financial crisis is said to present new opportunities for mafiosi to take advantage of credit-constrained conditions to seize control of businesses and gain ground against the law.

As to the first point, this sort of give-and-take between the forces of order and disorder has been going on for most of a century. Mussolini near broke them but the US occupation put them back in business. Corruption is ingrained in certain parts of the world; see the municipal scandal in Naples and a medical scam in Sicily. As to the second, cash is king and the mafia has cash.

Stepping back, the larger issue is that organized crime is not a problem, for problems can be solved. It is a condition with which one deals. The last major round of globalization (1870-1914) saw the large local mobs — Sicilian Mafia, Neapolitan Camorra, Chinese Tongs, Corse Unione, etc. — all go worldwide. Today, as in the past, globalization offers new vistas for such groups. Two points:

1. Drugs and people are huge businesses for smugglers and illegal local dealers. The failure of the First World to be serious about either of these things creates quite rich transnational networks. Such networks can be used to move terrorists, weapons, restricted nuclear technologies, etc. The smart ones won’t do it — brings down too much scrutiny from the police — but enough of the players are undereducated thugs with attitude who will deal in anything for a short-term profit. As these crews tend to be linked but mostly independent, rather than the top-down Godfather-type empires, one can always find some wild boy who will do your deal.

2. Cultural “diversity” means demographic replacement in many areas. This, in turn, creates situations of social chaos and lack of cohension which, again, leave openings on the internal security front. Italy and Spain, for example, are both in the process of becoming national states that lack a clearly defined national population as immigrants with little interest in becoming genuine socio-cultural nations, dilute the native population.

Thanks to Bellum

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Nobody Does a Funeral Quite like the Mafia

The local chapter of La Cosa Nostra may be a hapless shell of its former self. But when it comes to staging a funeral, nobody does it quite like the Mafia.

“Three flower cars, wow!” said a pilgrim from Wisconsin who was just about to chomp down on a chocolate cannoli from Mike’s Pastry yesterday morning. The cheesehead was momentarily spellbound by the stately procession of black Cadillacs gliding toward him up Hanover Street, coming to rest at the venerable gates of St. Leonard’s Church. “Wonder who that is?” the tourist said to his wife.

Standing within earshot was a slight gentleman wrapped in a tailored black suit, black tie, black sunglasses and a perfectly coiffed head of white hair that seemed to glow in the sun.

The dapper gent studied the rube for a moment, then made his way across Hanover Street, where he began kissing the family and friends of Donato “Danny” Angiulo, a capo regime in brother Jerry’s mob franchise, who expired Sunday night at the ripe age of 86.

Inside St. Leonard’s, a Franciscan Friar told the congregation that “death comes to all of us. Yes, we think we are going to live forever . . . that death will never touch us . . . it’s not a part of our future . . . but sooner or later . . .”

In a consoling gesture, the priest went on to remind the mourners that fate had actually smiled upon the old capo they called “Smiley.”

“Donato’s death was a peaceful death,” the priest noted, “whereas other deaths can be violent, horrible.” The words just hung in the incensed silence, floating among the statues of the saints and the chorus of angels swirling in vast murals across the domed ceiling.

“Danny was always the muscle in the (Angiulo) family,” recalled one law enforcement source, who studied the kid brother who enforced the Angiulo family will on the street.

“Where Jerry was always the yeller and the screamer, Danny was the guy who carried out the assignments. He was the brother that functioned where the rubber met the road. As result, he was respected on the street.”

There was a strange clash of cultures seeing that long black train of Cadillacs choke traffic in a North End where tourists and yuppie condo-dwellers now exert far more sway than bookies and leg-breakers.

Smiley Angiulo died peacefully surrounded by his family, which, in the end, is all any aging Mafioso could ask given the range of alternatives.

As the flower cars headed north, a certain nostalgia took hold. Could it be the end of an era? Or will there be four . . . maybe five flower cars, for brother Jerry, the tempestuous old don who stayed largely out of sight yesterday.

Thanks to Peter Gelzinis

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Six Indicted in Organized Crime Bust

The statewide Grand Jury has handed up an indictment Thursday naming six local men in connection with an organized crime bust.

Donald St. Germain , of West Warwick, Joseph Montuori, of Cranston, Michael Sherman of West Warwick, Michael Lillie of West Warwick, and Jeremy Lavoie also of West Warwick are charged with one count each of conspiracy and extortion. Police say the five men conspired together to extort money in West Warwick back in January. Officials also say the men threatened to injure someone with the intent of extorting cash.

St. Germain is facing several additional charges, including bookmaking, as well as drug possession and intent to deliver drugs, including Oxycodone and Hydrocodone. All of the incidents were witnessed by an undercover West Warwick Police officer.

Montouri is also named on one count of bookmaking, and involvement in an organized crime business. Sherman is named on four additional drug charges, as well as possessing a pistol while delivering a controlled substance.

Lillie and Richard Crowley are also facing charges involving the delivery of drugs.

All six men will be arraigned in Providence County Superior Court.

Thanks to Amanda Mathias

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On the Spot - The Only Regularly Published Magazine on Early 20th Century Crime and Crime Control Needs You!

Letter from Rick Mattix the force behind the excellent Early 20th Century Crime magazine - On the Spot.

First off, Thanks to all our loyal supporters who've kept this thing going for over two years! Thanks to our readers, Thanks to our advertisers, Thanks to those loyal subscribers who've chosen to stay with us, and another extra-special Thanks to our (unpaid) contributors who've furnished us with so many great historical articles!

Now, for the rest of you, On the Spot is ON THE SPOT! We're printing and mailing this -- THE ONLY REGULARLY PUBLISHED MAGAZINE ON EARLY 20TH CENTURY CRIME AND CRIME CONTROL -- out of our own pockets and, contrary to what some of you may think We Are Not Independently Wealthy! Virtually all money generated from sales of On the Spot Journal is spent printing and mailing it to our subscribers throughout North America, the UK, and Europe.

If you want to keep this thing afloat, or if you have any serious interest whatever in crime history, I urge those who haven't subscribed to do so and those subscribers who haven't renewed to do so. We simply can't keep going otherwise and that would be A REAL CRIME.

Authors and publishers, museums, event planners, etc.: We need advertisers. If you've got a book to sell, or other cops and robbers merchandise, stuff pertaining to Prohibition or Depression era, etc., write us for advertising rates (onthespotnewsletter@yahoo.com). Authors are again invited to donate promo books for new subscribers, which has aided our sales in the past.

Our planned move to MagCloud for future publishing and individual issue sales has been rescheduled to begin with our Fall 2009 issue, if we can keep going until then.

Here are some great articles scheduled for the near future that may never see
publication without your help:

Crime in the Catskills: The Capture of Waxey Gordon
by John Conway

Margaret Collins -- “The Kiss of Death Girl”
by Rose Keefe

Roy Gardner: The Last of the Old West Badmen
by Robert E. Bates

Eastern State Penitentiary: A Bastion of Solitude
by Gregory Peduto

Last Days of the Brady Gang
by Richard Shaw

Whiskey Women, Moonshining Mamas and Bootlegging Babes
by Kate Clabough

Plus book reviews, news of upcoming events, etc.

We need help to keep this thing going.

Yerz,
Rick Mattix
www.onthespotjournal.com/journal.html

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Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer Join Cast of Big Screen Adaption of "To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia"

Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer will play the leads in "The Irishman," a crime story that Jonathan Hensleigh will direct.

Code Entertainment is producing the action movie, which is based on the real story of mobster Danny Greene (Stevenson). Hensleigh and Jeremy Walters ("Dali") wrote the script, inspired by the book "To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia" by Rick Porrello.

Greene was a violent Irish-American gangster who competed with the Italian mob in 1970s Cleveland and ended up provoking a countrywide turf war that crippled the mafia. Walken will play the loan shark and nightclub owner Shondor Birns, and Kilmer is a Cleveland police detective who befriends Greene.

Code's Al Corley, Bart Rosenblatt and Eugene Musso are producing, along with Dundee Entertainment's Tommy Reid and Tara Reid, who brought the property to Code. Jonathan Dana, Peter Miller and Porrello are exec producers, with George Perez serving as co-producer.

The production has also hired cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub, production designer Patrizia von Brandenstein and editor Douglas Crise. Principal photography begins May 19 in Detroit.

Lightning Entertainment will shop the project to international buyers at Cannes, while ICM and Dana handle domestic sales.

The ICM-repped Hensleigh co-wrote and directed "The Punisher." The writer or co-writer of "Die Hard With a Vengeance" and "Jumanji" has the crime story "Nine Lives" in development with Jerry Bruckheimer Films.

Walken and Kilmer are repped by ICM and Affirmative Entertainment. Stevenson is repped by Endeavor.

Code last produced "You Kill Me" and "Spring Breakdown.

thanks to Jay A. Fernandez

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