I missed my transport and I have to wait for another hour, and so I thought about writing this....
Im speaking about the US and so back in the days and even today, many researchers and ordinary posters believe that the Italian Mafia was the FIRST OC group which took corruption, labor racketeering, gambling, extortion, prostitution, loan sharking etc. on completely another level, especially in the U.S.
Well, I personally dont think that was the case at all because of various reasons.
First of all, the original Irish mob which was "born" after the Civil War, was probably the first crime group with national connections all over the country. The huge number of saloons, brothels and hotels which they owned all around the country from the late 19th century until the late 1910s, simply cannot be compared to the smaller number of joints which the Italian Mafia controlled from the 1920s until the 1980s.
Believe it or not, by 1903, only in Chicago, the Irish Mob controlled between 800 and 900 joints in which gambling and prostitution was an everyday thing. So if we include all of the other Irish operators from all around the country at the time, you do the math and witness the biggest OC group during those days. Besides the rackets, they also controlled all politics, labor unions and also many legitime enterprises.
At the end of 19th century the local Mafiosi from the southern part of Italy, including Sicily, didnt have much to do except for extortion, counterfeit and local corruption, while the criminal immigrants who reached the U.S. had much to learn from the already established Irish criminal underworld. For example, the Irish Mob was probably the first OC group which created some type of underworld commission, just to assure everyone was in good business relations and also to respect their own areas.
So.....same as the Italian Mafia which later ruled America's underworld, PREVIOUSLY the Irish Mob also had the same type of alliances with other ethnic crime groups such as the Jews, Germans, Italians and African-Americans, but with the Irish at the top.
Later I think even their "cousins" back in Sicily learned from their Americanized relatives regarding the forming of a national commission.
Many Italian, Jewish and German crime leaders depended on the Irish mob and their connections in the political world, including their rackets. Many known Italian and Jewish crime leaders started as precinct captains or aldermen and ward representatives for the Irish political crime bosses, or as union officials and enforcers, again for the old Irish mob. Some Italian criminals even changed their names to sound more Irish, obviously because the Irish society was on a higher level at the time then the Italians.
The gambling racket which was already a huge income for the Irish mob for over 30 years, it was taken seriously by the whole Italian criminal element much later or sometime around the late 1910s or during the 1920s. Again many Italian criminals learned the racket either from the old Irish operators or their Jewish accomplices. In fact, both Irish and Jewish criminals also probably introduced the US Italian Mafia to the prostitution racket, an illegal operation which was allegedly forbidden by the old Italian Mafiosi.
And as for the narcotics trade...both prostitution and the narcotics trade usually goes together and many saloons and brothels from that time period also provided that pleasure in the form of opium. So by the 1920s many Italian criminals also learned the dope trade from their Irish mentors. In fact, the African-American criminal element was also involved in the dope trade before the Italians.
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In the end, my point is that the Italian Mafia in the U.S. learned most of the lucrative rackets from other ethnic criminal organizations such as the former Irish Mob. Even though by Prohibition most of the old Irish racketeers were gone, some still remained as associates of the Italian Mafia who played vital roles in many criminal adventures. So in plane words, the Italian criminal element simply switched places with their Irish "predecessors".
In plane words, the Irish started first but the Italians lasted longer. But regarding the question on what happened to the old Irish Mob...well I believe most of them simply went up in the levels of society, while the Italians took over the whole underworld and lasted longer mainly because of their criminal traditions and with the "rebirth" of their membership and hierarchy, although whether its good or bad to stay longer in the criminal underworld, its still for you to decide.
Whats your opinion?
Cheers
