How important was truck hijacking to the mob?

During the years they fucked around with it, just how important and pervasive was the truck-hijacking racket to Cosa Nostra? And how much of this activity did the mafia actually control?

Name em

It was a pretty big racket for them in the 60’s and 70’s. Obviously we know the Bergin Crew we’re known as hijackers. Also Jimmy Burke was a big Hijacker for the Lucchese’s

Money for old rope. 99% give ups. And what can the company do? The teamsters ran the show. Sack the guy that will be backed by the same men that are running the union and getting a taste?
Pay 50k a year so they hit the other companies and accept the occasional hit on your own.
I would be interested to know where and what sort of places would be used to unload the truck, how it was distributed, and how the truck was got rid of

Gina jet?

The guys that didn’t have a good head on there shoulders would do lots of hijacking and same guys were used as mussel or hitters .

The truck would be taken to a warehouse most likely a friend of the family unless the soldier had his own but nobody wanted to be tied to it and if you were a soldier and owned a warehouse the police would probably know…. So as a rule it was a friend of the family and if police found it the owner would say i had it rented out to so-so .

Sure there were guys that only had access to a warehouse for a very short time and had to get the contents out of the truck to another location and the truck dumped
quickly close by …. Not all solders had hook ups to a empty warehouse…. Sure some did it in ally’s into another truck and drove away.

For most part it was done buy crews that didn’t have big rackets they were thieves and mussel for most part …. Guys with good business heads were racket
guys.

For the most part I agree with you. Hijacking was not a 'finesse' racket like gambling, stocks, shylock, business infiltration, etc. It was more of a 'brute' activity like robberies, burglaries, etc.

The sharper, smarter guys had no need to stoop to that sort of 'earn.'

My reaction too, maybe spellcheck got him, or it's a slang phrase.

So they just left the trucks around town afterwards?

Or sold them to scrap yards or what?

The area around JFK is loaded with trucking companies and warehouses, Lefferts Blvd, Farmers Blvd, Guy Brewer Blvd, Rockaway Turnpike. Great places to quickly unload a hijacked truck and dump it in lonely industrial areas nearby.
Here's a great article on the activities of the LCN in Queens.
https://www.qchron.com/editions/cen...4a71b60-0565-11ea-bb80-eb336ba37dc1.html

hijackers couldn't care less what happens with the truck. They heist it, unload it, and then dump it wherever they can, any desolate spot as CNote says.

They want the contents.

How about the fences? Where did they factor in here?

Plenty of wiseguys did truck highjackings in the day. 95% of mobsters either were doing it full time or had done it at some point to cut they’re teeth
Fences were usually just that middle men that sold the goods and had the connections to move the high jacked goods. Usually the weren’t cowboy stick up men. And a lot of highjackings especially out of Kennedy and Aqeduct were give ups where the driver was in on it

. It was a typo. I was writing it on my phone

Jone Jett? lol

I somewhat disagree that hijacking was strictly for the lower rungs of organized crime or the less sophisticated mobsters, as many a mob boss cut their teeth as hijackers, burglars, and robbers. No matter how you view it, hijacking was a much needed racket for the mob that brought in a lot of money, many envelopes flowed into mob coffers from these so-called unsophisticated street rackets.

Hijacking was extremely important to mob families. Many bosses were deeply engaged in the racket in the sense that they had key men in their borgatas, associates, soldiers, and capos also, who ran hijack crews. But most of the top bosses were never hijackers themselves.

Carlo Gambino, Joe N. Gallo, , Tommy Lucchese, Joe Profaci, Joe Magliocco, and later Joe Colombo, Joe Bonanno, Vito Genovese, Frank Tieri, Sam DeCavalcante, etc., never did that sort of thing....They earned off it.

Even most of the top capos were not hijackers per se. John Ormento, Joe Laratro, Joe Lucchese, Joe Rosato, Paul Castellano, Mike Adamo, Paul Sciacca, etc.., may have run hijack crews. A few may have even gone on hijackings themselves a few times as young guys, but by and large they only earned off it through crew members drawn to that sort of thing.

There are exceptions to every rule, but most went they way I just described.

I don't know how important it was, no where as important as gambling in my opinion, or bootlegging in the very old days. I do know that a lot of hijackings were supposedly set ups, where a driver be in on it, letting them know where truck would be at certain time and either leaving it to take, or saying he was robbed. I agree with those saying it was a the lower end guys, probably associates who were in on it.

I would assume all of the guys you mentioned were personally involved in highjackings when they were cutting they’re teeth, they were mobsters not businessman. Most of what they did in there early years isn’t known because they’re wasn’t the fbi breathing down they’re necks and rats weren’t as prevalent. Paul Castellano was arrested for armed robbery at 19 for stealing 60 bucks....
Colombo was a well known Heist and bust out guy...
Joe Palisades was a street guy doing street things...
This isn’t the movies...
Gambino and Profaci probably not because they were privileged gangsters...
Sam the plumber was also privileged becuase of his father but he was doing things as well when he was young and was almost made into Philadelphia because of it..
In prohibition most of the guys that later became top guys cut they’re teeth highjacking liquor trucks...

I'll put it to you this way, if there's money to be made in hijacking, the mob is going to be involved, period! There's no crime too big or too small for the Mafia. They could care less if you think it's sophisticated or not.

Exactly. It’s an organisation of thieves first and foremost. No score is too small, just that as you climb the ladder it’s those at the lower rungs that do them and then kick up.
I was interested to read in Wiseguy that the Vario crew found razor blades the most lucrative hijacking. Gotta give it to these guys - if there is a way to make an easy buck they’ll find it

Bootlegging, and later gambling and shylocking, were each on a different level. They were the 3 most commonly run and widely utilized rackets across the entire country. So with that I agree there. They were in a category by themselves.

But for those who dabbled in hijacking (and many crews had guys who did), it was an important and extremely lucrative racket where they could earn big money quickly.

You gotta remember too that most of the names I mentioned, and their capo and soldier contemporaries, came up during that early era. So any hijackings they did related to grabbing the liquor trucks belonging to rivals, which I'd consider more an extension of 'bootlegging' rather than hijacking per se.

Hijacking didn't become big until after WWII, and by that time the fellas I mentioned were already in the 'drivers seats' as bosses and top guys. many had made their fortunes already as well. So these fellas were NOT hijackers per se. Although guys around them may have been.

In certain mob circles, to call a guy a 'truck hijacker' could actually be considered an insult of sorts. NOT everybody looked favorably upon the racket. There were plenty of guys who viewed it as a gruff, 'cafone' activity.

I have researched and written an extensive "Truck Hijacking Racket" expose that better explains how the racket came about, who dabbled in it, and who did not. The monies made, what got grabbed, by whom, and when.

I think those of you who read this thread who obviously have interest in this aspect of mob life will enjoy it.

Absolutely if you had a guy that would or could put together to streamline ( and there were ) to get more trucks & more drivers on board of course they would.

But as a rule just about anyone in that life could put together a hijack and pull it off … if not the guys above or around you best not find out …. Like many of said thats how many cut there teeth .

Do you just copy what I say and use it as your own. Before I put in my 2 sense you were making moronic comments about how only low level guys were involved in highjackings..stop stealing from everyone else and calling your lame shit your own and go apologize to Frankie fiordillino, he has some laundry for you to do...

Joe Profaci had to help hijack his groceries back in Chicago. Joe Bonanno, Natale Evola, Salvatore Profaci (Joe Profaci brother), Pietro Bonventre, and a Magaddino had to help Stefano Magaddino underling get back a truck of alchohol that was hijacked before up on the Canadian border. I am sure there are other examples of other bosses doing this before becoming capos and administration members. Carlo I don't see doing this, but Lucchese I am sure had a nice value give up every once in awhile for his men.