In the days before Valachi...

I read that, before Valachi testified, the US government did not know *anything* about the way the Mafia was structured. Is this true? So they didn't know anything about the Families, or the Caporegimes, or anything!

I would have thought that some rumour would have reached the top by 1963. Was the Mob's structre really so secret before that?

I suppose that is why The Godfather was written in 1969. It wouldn't have been possible to write anything about the Mob before then...or would it?

Prior to Valachi, the FBI didn't even acknowledge the existance of the Mafia. Some people say it was because director J. Edgar Hoover got gambling tips from the Mob (he was a big horse-player); others say it was because he was gay, and the Mob was blackmailing him. A more logical explanation is that Hoover was obsessed with Communism, and directed most of the FBI's investigative talent in that direction. When Bobby Kennedy became Attorney General (and thus, Hoover's boss), he pressed him to work on the Mob. Then Valachi fell into his lap.
But other Federal agencies did know about the Mob and its structure--most notably the Treasury Department (prosecuting mobsters for tax evasion)and the Food and Drug Administration and US Customs (drug violations). Ralph Salerno, a top investigator for the predecessor of today's DEA, was America's top Mafia expert for a long time.

Roy Cohn was an attorney who served as an aide to Senator McCarthy who became infamous for his accusations of Communist infiltration in show biz,the State Department and other high government posts and then "under every bed".

Cohn was very important to the anti-communist movement that ruined many innocent lives unnecessarily.

Cohn was introduced to McCarthy by none other than J. Edgar himself.

Cohn later defended quite a few mob clients and was considered a mob lawyer.

If you think about the mob, they're a perfect example of pure capitalism with no government involvement, so Communism was a big threat to their way of lie i.e. Cuba.
Roy Cohn died of AIDS IN 1986.


To study American History, one must study organized crime.