On 5 May 2023, I'm presenting the life of Pasqualina Albano, a Prohibition bootlegger from Springfield, Massachusetts.
Presenting Pasqualina Albano, Springfield’s Bootleg Queen
The bosses of the Boston Mafia
From Gaspare Di Cola to Carmen DiNunzio, the Mafia bosses who have reigned over the Mafia in Boston.
Angelo Marino: Kidnapped for ransom
On the fifth of August, a Saturday, young Angelo was lured away by members of the Nicolosi family. They were his neighbors, people he knew well. It may have taken him some time to realize that he could not go home.
The social networks of Joseph Profaci
Joe Profaci owed his success to a network of so-called “cousins” from the old country.
Tommy Lucchese
Tommy Lucchese spent his formative years in a neighborhood dominated by the Morello-Terranova gang of Corleone. At the height of his power, some of the men closest to him were Corleonesi, people who’d worked with Giuseppe Morello, and who Tommy had known and worked with since his teens.
Apalachin, NY: 14 November 1957
On 14 November 1957, state police descended upon Joseph Barbara’s woodland retreat, arresting some sixty men: all of them professional criminals with connections to powerful Mafia Families.
Garbage hauling cartels: the dark matter of organized crime
The waste hauling cartel in New York City is a corruption as old as the industry in which it is embedded.
The valor of the don
Admiration of the mafioso as the epitome of masculinity, Sicilianità, and entrepreneurship valorizes the Mafia’s brand.
The first Mafia gang in Sicily
Many consider Luca Patti the first instance of a Sicilian mafioso in recorded history, but his ring appears to have had a predecessor, or possibly competition, in Corleone.
What happened to Frank Borgia?
By most accounts, Mafia associate and vineyardist Frank Borgia was last seen early in December 1951.
Mafia Genealogy 