Crime Incorporated. William Balsamo

Editor George Carpozi Jr., the co-author as the text for this book was shaped day by day over the lengthy period of its production.

      To all these invaluable sources, Will Balsamo and George Carpozi Jr. extend heartfelt gratitude.

      The authors also very specially wish to extend, together, an immense note of thanks to New York’s CBS-TV’s newscaster Chris Borgen for teaming them up in 1976 which resulted in their joint effort for a book entitled Always Kill A Brother. As a result of that first association, Balsamo and Carpozi collaborated more extensively on this volume.

      And the authors wish to thank Sergeant Thomas Krant for his always-total cooperation, along with the NYPD’s Academy Museum which provided invaluable information about organized crime in the realm of guns and photos.

      The authors wish to express their thanks to Ronald Deliso and Frank Cascella for their help in translating certain words from English to Italian.

      Then, too, one very final salute must go to Kenneth Cobb and the staff of the City of New York Department of Records and Information Services lodged in the Municipal Archives, for their tremendous resourcefulness in providing the authors with editorial and photographic information that helped put this book all together.

      Contents

Acknowledgments

       Dedication

Introduction

I Amorte…He Deserved It

II Those Dirty Black Hand Ginzos

III Buona Sera, Signore

IV Ambush at Sagaman’s Hall

V The Godfather Is Thinking of Retirement—But Not Just Yet

VI Shootout at Stauch’s Dance Hall

VII Charleston Eddie’s Last Sunday Matinee Flick

       VIII Furman Street Finale

       IX A Botched Job

       X Robbing Hood a Robin Hood

       XI Always Kill a Brother for Revenge

       XII Mistaken Identity

       XIII One for My Father

       XIV Two More for Papa

       XV Wild Bill Lovett, R.I.P.

       XVI The Price War

       XVII The Year of Vesuvius

       XVIII New Heights of Power

       XVIX The Adonis Club Christmas Massacre

       XX “We’ll See Them, Kid…”

       XXI Scarface Al Capone: King of the Underworld

       XXII The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

       XXIII The Last Days of Scarface Al

       XXIV The Castellammarese War

       XXV The Rise, The Reign, and Fall of Charles “Lucky” Luciano

       XXVI From Luciano to Genovese to Costello—and an Intimate Glimpse into Yet Another Underworld Hit

       XXVII Thomas E. Dewey: A Racket-Buster without Flair or Flamboyance…But with Lots of Clout

       XXVIII The Half Moon Hop: A Very Last Word on How Abe Reles Really Died

       XXIX The Untold Story; Why and How Tom Dewey Gave Lucky Luciano a Walk

       XXX Vito Genovese Is Back and Wants Frank Costello’s Scalp

       XXXI Now Genovese Aims for Albert Anastasia’s Scalp

       XXXII The Gallo-Profaci War

       XXXIII The Banana War: Joe Invents the Unique Bunk-Bed Coffin—The Ultimate Wrinkle in Getting Rid of Bodies

       XXXIV The Colombo-Gallo War

       XXXV The Nixon Administration and the Mafia

       XXXVI The Mafia’s Hold on the United States

       XXXVII The Pizza Connection; Hold the Pepperoni, Heavy on the Heroin, and Thick on the Dough

       XXXVIII The Giuliani Offensive

       Afterword

       Index

       To my children, Connie, Ann, and Joseph, and Helen and to my brothers, John, Eugene, Joseph, and Dominick Balsamo

      Will Balsamo

       To my grandchildren, Elizabeth and Meghan McGrath and Wiley Griffin III who I hope will live in a Mafia-free world in the next century.

      George Carpozi Jr.

       Introduction

      An invisible government under the whip of the Mafia—the government of syndicated crime—has enveloped much of the Western world like a cancerous growth, stubbornly defying the prognosis and treatment of law enforcement agencies.

      It is a government so insidious that is has subjugated millions of innocent persons to servility.

      The plunder cascading into the coffers of this empire amounts to as much as ten percent of the national income.

      Millions of Americans—knowingly and unknowingly—are compelled to contribute a part of their hard-earned wages or income to the big business of international crime.

      The public pays its tribute to the sprawling, voracious monster of syndicated crime in many ways: in the clothes it wears, in the food it eats, in the union dues it pays, in the music it listens and dances to, in the cigarettes it smokes, in the gasoline that fuels its cars, in the shipments of its merchandise and parcels, in the buildings and bridges it erects. In innumerable other ways the public is made a helpless sucker by the common denominator of greed and avarice upon which this invisible government gorges itself.

      Organized gangs operate largely unmolested in interstate commerce and industry.

      The criminals behind this vast conspiracy are descendents of the underworld wars of the Prohibition Era; they are people of varying talents, qualities, and responsibilities banded together in a surreptitious conspiracy which, for the most part, is run like many large, diversified industries or businesses.

      Unlike the old, bloody roaring twenties days when bootlegging was one of the chief sources of income for the Mob and gunfire tattooed the syndicate’s enforcement aims, today’s organized criminals shy away from violence and murder as much as they can.

      Rather than engage in blatant and belligerent lawbreaking, today’s underworld take refuge in the self-respecting guise of legitimate entrepreneurs; they have ably organized themselves in much the same manner as giant corporations.

      In the great complexity that is organized crime, one ruling body stands Brmly entrenched at the top of the enormous roster of mobsters. It imposes onerous rules and regulations; it exercises tremendous pressure to maintain control.

      This