With the shift in time to the post war era of the 1950's approaching, I've been considered a few things we'd need to alter about our approach to this life. Things which almost feel built into the DNA of the game. Everything I know about the American 1920's era I've learnt through research for writing material here. Culture, cars, guns, technology, city layouts and history, locations, how people dressed, how people talked... it's almost daunting to start again without the security of that knowledge. 

So, here's a few things I can think of that we may need to change and introduce.

"Fresh off the boat."

A term used to describe a newer player, or a very robust and traditional way to start your story. Immigration to the US was huge in the 20's. Not so much in the 1950's. In fact from what I can tell, there was more focus on keeping people out/getting people out than admitting them. The Korean War kicks off in the 1950's and so subsequently Koreans and Communists were barred from entering the country. That included those fleeing the war by making their way to the States.

In the 1950's, we'll need to consider where our stories start and how we prompt that engagement with newer players if not with the traditional boat trip around the Statue of Liberty. 

Prohibition Ends

No more speakeasy's or underground bar threads. Not that the mob life really stopped us. It could have an impact on those businesses we set up around bootleg booze. What was prominent in the 50's businesses though? Segregation. That's probably a risky RP to explore... 

The Golden Age of Television

TV is here! News Broadcasts, comedies, advertisements! One of the main reasons the 50's is associated with the idea of alcohol consumption is the amount of advertising on TV and radio for alcohol and cigarettes. The introduction of the Television set will be an interesting spin on our  mob life.

Downsizing

In the early 50s a committee led partly by the US Senate attempted to prove that the American mafia was a very real and present threat, with televised hearings in which multiple big name gangsters appeared. The public was given a glimpse into the ties and influence the underworld had on daily life. Then, at the end of the 50's, the FBI began changing the way organised crime was investigated. This was a result of the first soldato to break Omerta, Joe Valachi, who produced evidence against high ranking mobsters and ultimately triggered a crackdown on the entire American Mafia.

So, next time your CA has finished raking in those units for you, maybe let him retire respectfully, rather than put a cap in him. Might well be the downfall of us all...

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Feel free to add snippets of 1950's life to this thread. It'll be good to have somewhere to refer to, to draw inspiration from and spark new ideas of how we'll tell our stories once we step through time.

So one question that I find myself asking is what Mafioso businesses will be operating instead of speakeasy's and the like, and Casinos seem to be a natural step up and evolution in this one area.

From what I can find, Vegas was pretty much the spot for Mafia influenced casinos in the United States, with families from other cities coming together to make it work. The third source breaks down each of the main people involved and how it all started.

Casinos

Meyer Lansky made inroads into the casino industry in Cuba during the 1930s while the Mafia was already involved in exporting Cuban sugar and rum. When his friend Fulgencio Batista became president of Cuba in 1952, several Mafia bosses were able to make legitimate investments in legalized casinos. One estimate of the number of casinos mobsters owned was no less than 19. However, when Batista was overthrown following the Cuban Revolution, his successor Fidel Castro banned U.S. investment in the country, putting an end to the Mafia's presence in Cuba. Las Vegas was seen as an "open city" where any family can work. Once Nevada legalized gambling, mobsters were quick to take advantage and the casino industry became very popular in Las Vegas. Since the 1940s, Mafia families from New York, Cleveland, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Chicago had interests in Las Vegas casinos. They got loans from the Teamsters' pension fund, a union they effectively controlled, and used legitimate front men to build casinos. When money came into the counting room, hired men skimmed cash before it was recorded, then delivered it to their respective bosses. This money went unrecorded, but the amount is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Operating in the shadows, the Mafia faced little opposition from law enforcement. Local law enforcement agencies did not have the resources or knowledge to effectively combat organized crime committed by a secret society they were unaware existed. Many people within police forces and courts were simply bribed, while witness intimidation was also common. In 1951, a U.S. Senate committee called the Kefauver Hearings determined that a "sinister criminal organization" known as the Mafia operated in the nation. Many suspected mobsters were subpoenaed for questioning, but few testified and none gave any meaningful information. In 1957, New York State Police uncovered a meeting and arrested major figures from around the country in Apalachin, New York. The event (dubbed the "Apalachin Meeting") forced the FBI to recognize organized crime as a serious problem in the United States and changed the way law enforcement investigated it. In 1963, Joe Valachi became the first Mafia member to turn state's evidence, and provided detailed information of its inner workings and secrets. More importantly, he revealed Mafia's existence to the law, which enabled the Federal Bureau of Investigations to begin an aggressive assault on the Mafia's National Crime Syndicate. Following Valachi's testimony, the Mafia could no longer operate completely in the shadows. The FBI put a lot more effort and resources into organized crime actives nationwide and created the Organized Crime Strike Force in various cities. However, while all this created more pressure on the Mafia, it did little to curb their criminal activities. Success was made by the beginning of the 1980s, when the FBI was able to rid Las Vegas casinos of Mafia control and made a determined effort to loosen the Mafia's strong hold on labor unions.

 Source: Wiki > American Mafia > History

In 1941 the El Rancho Vegas resort opened on a section of U.S. 91 just outside the city’s jurisdiction. Other hotel-casinos soon followed, and the section of highway became known as “the Strip.” Most were built around the regional or Old West themes that were popular on Fremont Street. In 1946 mobster Bugsy Siegel, backed by East Coast Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky’s Mexican drug money, opened the Flamingo, a swank resort that took its cues from Hollywood, not Deadwood. Top-drawer talent was booked for its lounges and dozens of celebrities attended its Christmas Day opening.

Siegel was murdered in 1947, but his vision for Las Vegas lived on: During the 1950s and 1960s, mobsters helped build the Sahara, the Sands, the New Frontier and the Riviera. Money from organized crime combined with funds from more respectable investors—Wall Street banks, union pension funds, the Mormon Church and the Princeton University endowment. Tourists flocked to the resorts—8 million a year by 1954—drawn by performers such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Elvis Presley, and by rows of slot machines and gaming tables.

 Source: History.com > Las Vegas: The Strip, the Mob and the Age of Glamour

Love ’em or hate ’em, mobsters played a major role in Las Vegas’ rise to becoming a renowned tourist destination, although they took more from the town through casino skimming and money laundering schemes than they gave to the region’s growth and the community’s welfare.

In its heyday from about 1950 to the early 1980s, the mob controlled every Strip resort that was worth controlling, stealing untold millions of dollars in tax revenues that could have paid for schools, roads and other public services.

Mobsters found easy ways to take control of some casinos in Las Vegas. Billy Wilkerson, whose dream of an exotic gambling resort became the Flamingo, needed help from mob bosses Meyer Lansky and Siegel to fund the casino’s construction. Moe Dalitz and the Cleveland Mayfield Road Gang bailed out the original builder and owner of the Desert Inn, Wilbur Clark, after he ran short of construction. Even gambler Tony Cornero had to seek financial help from Dalitz and Lansky to finish building the Stardust.

Those and other mobsters were no heroes, despite claims by some Vegas old-timers that the town was much better when the mob ran it.

Mobsters were often vicious, ruthless men whose skimming operations funded gangster activities such as narcotics sales, prostitution, loan sharking and other nefarious ventures nationwide.

Yet a number of mobsters who came to Las Vegas gave up their evil ways and became model citizens, good businessmen, dedicated family men and civic leaders.

After a ban in 1909, gambling once again became legal in Nevada in 1931. But the mob was slow to see the potential of all forms of gambling in this small state, opting initially to focus on running horse racing parlors via control of the race results wire.

Source: Las Vegas Sun > Mob Ties 

Here's two websites regarding 1950's fashion to deck out your player (and non player) characters. They have way too much info to add here so I'll just leave the links.

Fashion

https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/1950-1959/

https://vintagedancer.com/category/1950s/

Historical Timeline 

1950-1969

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The American Mafia is exposed to the public as a result of the convention at Apalachin and hearings conducted by the Kefauver and McClellan committees of the United States Senate. The FBI, long skeptical of a nationwide criminal conspiracy, wholeheartedly joins the fight against organized crime.

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• 1950 May 11 Washington, DC US Estes Kefauver Kefauver Committee (U.S. Senate committee) hearings into organized crime's influence on interstate commerce begin. Committee will hear 600 witnesses during its first year. Kefauver will take the show on the road, conducting hearings in 14 cities.

• 1950 Dec 13 Washington, DC US Willie Moretti Moretti testifies about organized crime to Senate investigators. Moretti's mind seems to be slipping, and Syndicate Commission is fearful of what he might accidentally reveal.

• 1950 Chicago, IL US Sam Giancana Giancana becomes Chicago Family's gambling expert and serves as Chicago representative for dealings in Las Vegas. Giancana's power, wealth and prestige are greatly enhanced by his new position.

• 1951 Palisades, NJ US Willie Moretti Mob discipline results in the shooting death of Moretti.

• 1951 Los Angeles, CA US Mickey Cohen Jack Dragna Cohen, who had been a thorn in the side of Dragna (and somehow avoided being killed in Dragna's numerous attempts) since 1947, was jailed for income tax evasion.

• 1951 Apr 19 Brooklyn, NY US Philip Mangano, Vincent Mangano, Albert Anastasia The body of Philip Mangano is found in a marsh near Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn. He had been shot three times in the head. Albert Anastasia is believed to be responsible for the assassination of Philip Mangano and the unexplained earlier disappearance of Vincent Mangano. Anastasia, Joe Adonis and Frank Costello are questioned by authorities.

• 1951 May 28 Trenton, NJ US Joe Adonis Adonis begins a two-year jail term in New Jersey State Prison for gambling violations.

• 1951 Sep 08 New York, NY US Meyer Lansky Lansky is indicted for running gambling operations in Saratoga Springs, NY.

• 1952 May Florida Federal agents note a small meeting of Mafiosi in the Florida Keys.

• 1952 Aug 15 New York, NY US Frank Costello Costello is sentenced to 18 months in prison for contempt of the U.S. Senate. Charges resulted from Costello walking out on Kefauver Committee hearings in New York.

• 1953 May 02 New York, NY US Meyer Lansky Lansky serves three months in a New York prison after pleading guilty to five of the 21 gambling charges against him. He is also fined $2,500 and put on three years' probation.

• 1953 Jul 16 Trenton, NJ US Joe Adonis Adonis is released from prison but still faces perjury charges. 

• 1953 Aug 05 Washington, DC US Joe Adonis Upon learning that Adonis lied about his birthplace (it wasn't Passaic, NJ) and is an Italian alien, U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. orders that he be deported. Order is not immediately carried out.

• 1953 Oct 29 New York, NY US Frank Costello Costello is released from prison.

• 1954 March 25 Washington, DC US Joe Adonis Adonis is found guilty of perjury. He faces two-year jail term as well as possible deportation. While appealing verdict, Adonis offers to voluntarily leave the U.S. in exchange for elimination of the jail term.

• 1954 New York, NY US Lacking street soldiers, the Mafia reopens its membership. With just a few exceptions, new members had not been added since 1932.

• 1954 Sicily, Italy Calogero Vizzini Vizzini, 77, dies.

• 1954 Los Angeles, CA US Federal agents report Mafia gathering in Los Angeles suburbs.

• 1954 Jul Chicago Federal agents report Mafia gathering just outside Chicago.

• 1954 Dec 13 Mountainside, NJ US Federal agents report Mafia meeting.

• 1956 Jan 03 Washington, DC US Joe Adonis Federal authorities agree to let Adonis leave the country.

• 1956 Feb 23 Los Angeles, CA US Jack Dragna, Frank DeSimone Dragna dies and is succeeded as boss by DeSimone.

• 1956 Chicago, IL US Tony Accardo, Sam Giancana Accardo decides to retire from day-to-day operations. Giancana becomes boss of the Chicago Outfit. Accardo continues to serve in an advisory capacity, further evidence of the cooperative nature of Chicago leadership since the start of Frank Nitti reign.

• 1956 Apr 05 New York, NY US Johnny Dioguardi, Victor Riesel Johnny Dio is believed to be behind the acid-blinding of crusading journalist Victor Riesel. Key witnesses against Dio disappear or change their stories, and charges are dropped. Riesel continues to use radio and print for attacks on organized crime.

• 1956 May 14 New York, NY US Frank Costello Convicted on tax evasion charges, Costello enters federal prison.

• 1956 May 18 New York, NY US Mafia meeting draws 35 known criminals.

• 1956 New York, NY US Albert Anastasia, Carlo Gambino Anastasia makes Gambino his underboss.

• 1956 Italy Joe Adonis No longer able to convince authorities that he was born in America and facing perjury charges, Adonis agrees to be deported to Italy. Adonis's departure is a severe blow to the Mafia leadership faction headed by Frank Costello, and consisting of Costello, Adonis, Albert Anastasia.

• 1956 Oct 17-18 Binghamton, NY US Federal agents report small Mafia meeting.

• 1957 Mar 11 New York, NY US Frank Costello Costello wins temporary release from federal prison while his appeal is being heard by the Supreme Court.

•1957 Bronx, NY US Frank Scalise Scalise is assassinated in a Bronx produce market. Two possible motives are considered for the hit, which appears to have been officially sanctioned: 1. Scalise had encouraged bosses to participate in a heroin smuggling venture that ended badly and expensively. 2. Scalise had been found selling Mafia memberships for many thousands of dollars apiece, bringing in unreliable individuals.

• 1957 May 02 New York, NY US Frank Costello Costello's head is grazed by a would-be assassin's bullet. He reportedly announces that he's retiring from the rackets, leaving Luciano Family to Genovese.

• 1957 Oct 25 New York, NY US Albert Anastasia, Meyer Lansky, Carlo Gambino, Vito Genovese Anastasia is killed in the Park Sheraton Hotel's barber shop. Gambino moves into leadership position and may have organized the hit. Genovese also had reason to act against the strong supporter of his rival for power, Frank Costello. Lansky is also believed to have had motive, as Anastasia was unhappy with Lansky's administration of the Mafia's offshore gaming houses in Cuba and Bahamas. It appears that Anastasia was negotiating his own deal with Cuba.

• 1957 Nov 10 Livingston, NJ US Mafia meeting held.  

• 1957 Nov 14 Apalachin, NY US Joseph Barbara Sixty Mafiosi from around the country are known to have attended a convention in rural Apalachin, NY, at the home of Joseph Barbara. Their presence was documented by police who collected license plate numbers at the scene and rounded up, identified and searched the conventioneers as they attempted to leave the Barbara property. More may have attended and escaped police notice by exiting through a wooded area. Some accounts say the convention was organized by Vito Genovese in order to mend fences after his takeover of the Costello organization. In the wake of Apalachin, authorities are forced to acknowledge that there is indeed a significant level of cooperation among criminal gangs across the United States.

• 1957 Nov 27 Washington, DC US J. Edgar Hoover The FBI's immediate response to Apalachin revelations is to initiate the Top Hoodlum Program, focusing on interstate racketeers. At this time, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover looks to the Hobbs Act of the early 1940s for federal authority to combat racketeering. Additional legislation authorizing FBI action against mobsters will be passed in subsequent years.

• 1958 Jan 08 New York, NY US Johnny Dioguardi Convicted of labor extortion and conspiracy, Johnny "Dio" is sentenced to serve 15-30 years in prison. During his trial, Dio was described as a good friend of Teamster leader James Hoffa. Dio would spend much of his remaining life behind bars, as he was repeatedly convicted of frauds and tax evasion.

• 1958 Brooklyn, NY US Joe Gallo, Joseph Profaci Gallo rebellion against Profaci crime family begins.

• 1958 Washington, DC US Confronted with the undeniable complicity of Mafiosi at the Apalachin meeting, the FBI redefines its position on the "Mafia" and compiles a report on Mafia history. (The first report is later discarded.) By the early 1960s, the FBI refers to the Sicilian-Italian underworld in the U.S. not as Mafia but as La Cosa Nostra or LCN. The new name appears to stem from informant Joe Valachi's use of the term "cosa nostra" (our thing) when discussing the Sicilian-Italian criminal society.

• 1959 Jan 01 Havana, Cuba Meyer Lansky, Fulgencio Batista The Mafia's casino operations in Havana are lost as Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista is forced into exile. Meyer Lansky returns to Miami after losing a huge investment, sets sights on Bahamas and trans-Atlantic gambling possibilities.

• 1959 Feb 26 Orange, NJ US Abner Zwillman "Longie" Zwillman is found hanging from a plastic clothesline in his home, an apparent suicide. Zwillman's coin-op machine rackets were being shut down by government attention and a tax evasion charge was haunting him.

• 1959 Apr 17 New York, NY US Vito Genovese, Natale Joseph Evola, Vincent Gigante Genovese Family leadership is convicted of narcotics trafficking and sent off to prison. Genovese gets 15 years. Gigante gets seven years. Evola, a lieutenant in the Bonanno organization, is also sentenced to a 10-year jail term.

• 1959 Sep 25 New York, NY US Anthony Carfano Carfano (Little Augie Pisano) and his date, Mrs. Janice Drake, are called away from a dinner at a Lexington Avenue restaurant and later found dead in a new Cadillac in Queens. Both were shot in the back of their heads by a gunmen in the back seat of the car.

• 1959 Dec 18 New York, NY US Paul Castellano Castellano is convicted of working to obstruct a government investigation. A month later, he is sentenced to five years in prison. He serves seven months.

• 1960 Apr 29 New York, NY US Johnny Dioguardi Johnny "Dio" is sentenced to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine for income tax evasion.

• 1960 Nov 28 New York, NY US A U.S. appeals court nullifies earlier conspiracy convictions against 20 men who attended the 1957 meeting at Apalachin, NY.

• 1961 May 04 Kansas City, MO US A grand jury finds evidence that the Kansas City police conspired with the local Mafia to permit criminal activities.

• 1961 Jun 29 New York, NY US Frank Costello Costello is released from prison. 

• 1962 Jan 26 Naples, Italy Charlie Luciano Luciano dies of an apparent heart attack at Capodichino Airport in Naples. At the time, he was suspected of guiding a U.S.-Italian narcotics smuggling operation.

• 1962 Jun 06 Bay Shore, Long Island, NY US Joseph Profaci Profaci dies of cancer at Southside Hospital. He was 64. The Gallo-Profaci War continues. Profaci's brother-in-law Joseph Magliocco appears to take control over the crime family leadership. 

• 1962 Philadelphia, PA US Salvatore Sabella Sabella dies in a Philadelphia hospital.

• 1963 Sep 27 Washington, DC US Joseph Valachi Valachi testimony before the Senate Investigations subcommittee are broadcast on radio and television. Valachi tells of his induction into "Cosa Nostra" and of the Castellamarese War Era.

• 1963 Sep 28 Washington, DC US Joseph Valachi, Vito Genovese Valachi reveals that Genovese is the "Boss of Bosses" of the American Mafia.

• 1963 Dec 28 West Islip, NY US Joseph Magliocco Magliocco, 65, dies of a heart attack at Good Samaritan Hospital. Authorities do not become aware of his death until days later. Magliocco, an attendee of the Apalachin conference and a brother-in-law of Joseph Profaci, reportedly led the Profaci crime family from June of 1962 until his death.

• 1964 Jan 19 Detroit, MI US Santo Perrone A Detroit Mafia leader, Perrone is seriously injured when a bomb explodes in his car. Perrone's right leg is destroyed in the blast.

• 1964 Sicily, Italy A long, bitter and bloody civil war between Sicilian Mafiosi ends. The warfare and public opposition to it triggered numerous violations of the omerta code, and Sicilian authorities benefit in their struggle against the secret society.

• 1964 Mar 18 Buffalo, NY US John C. Montana A leading mafioso in the city, John C. Montana dies at age 70 in Buffalo General Hospital. Montana was among those arrested at the Apalachin meeting in 1957.

• 1964 Oct 21 Manhattan, NY US Joseph Bonanno The media reports that Joe Bonanno was kidnapped early in the morning from the front of a Park Avenue apartment building. Bonanno was scheduled to appear before a federal grand jury later in the day.

• 1965 Jan 13 New York, NY US Vincent Rao Federal prosecutors seek to force 67-year-old Vincent John Rao to testify about Lucchese crime family rackets. Prosecutors grant Rao immunity from prosecution in an effort to circumvent 5th Amendment protection.

• 1965 Jan 15 New York, NY US Joseph Bonanno Authorities believe the Bonanno crime family has fractured and will experience a civil war.

• 1965 Mar 18 New York, NY US Vincent Rao A federal grand jury indicts Rao for perjury.

• 1965 Apr 24 Hot Springs, AR US. Owney Madden Madden dies in a Hot Springs hospital.

• 1965 Nov 23 Chicago, IL US Murray Humphreys Hours after resisting arrest by federal agents, Humphreys dies of a heart attack. He was believed to be a link between Chicago's Outfit and influential politicians.

• 1966 Chicago, IL US Sam Giancana, Tony Accardo Released from prison in 1966, Giancana temporarily flees country to escape further prosecution. Accardo comes out of retirement as Family boss.

• 1966 May New York, US Joe Bonanno, Gaspar DiGregorio Absent for years, Bonanno suddenly resurfaces and announces he is once again in command of his New York crime Family. Gaspar DiGregorio, who at the urging of Bonanno enemies on the Commission has been fighting the leadership of Bonanno's son, loses support of the Commission and the rebellious Bonanno men. The Banana Wars will shortly conclude.

• 1966 May 17 New York, NY US Joseph Bonanno Bonanno, 61, turns himself in at the U.S. Courthouse at Foley Square. Authorities had been looking for him for 19 months. Recent speculation had put Bonanno in Tunis, controlling the flow of narcotics in the Mediterranean.

• 1966 Sep Queens, NY US Carlo Gambino, Tommy Eboli, Joe Colombo, Joey Gallo, Mike Miranda, Aniello Dellacroce Police raid the Lastella Restaurant in Queens to discover a meeting of top Mafia leaders from New York and New Orleans. The meeting is dubbed "Little Apalachin." One purpose of the meeting seems to be the distribution of Tommy Lucchese's rackets. Lucchese has been hospitalized with various ailments for more than a year.

• 1967 Mar New Jersey, US Harold Konigsberg Helped by information supplied by convicted extortionist Harold Konigsberg, federal authorities discovered the location of a Mafia burial ground in New Jersey.

• 1967 May Montreal, Canada Joseph Bonanno Authorities say the Bonanno crime family runs a narcotics trafficking route between Montreal and New York City.

• 1967 Jun Westchester County, NY US Authorities claim that Westchester County, NY, garbage carting is monopolized by members of the Genovese and Gambino crime families.

• 1967 Jul 13 Long Island, NY US Tommy Lucchese After years of illness, Lucchese dies of natural causes at his Lido Beach, Long Island, home at the age of 67. Lucchese entered Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in August 1965 with a brain tumor and a heart condition. After a year, his rackets were divided up at the "Little Apalachin" conference at Lastella Restaurant in Queens. He left the hospital for home on April 11, 1967.

• 1967 Nov 17 New York, NY US Vincent Rao Rao is convicted of perjury and faces up to five years in prison. Media reports indicate that Rao has taken over Lucchese's crime family.

• 1967 Dec 11 New York, NY US Johnny Dioguardi Convicted of bankruptcy fraud, Johnny "Dio" was sentenced to five years and a $10,000 fine.

• 1969 New York, NY US Vito Genovese, Tommy Eboli After Genovese's death in prison, leadership of Genovese Family appears to pass to Eboli. There is reason to believe that Eboli was merely a front man, as the actual boss attempted to remain inconspicuous.  

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*Copied from: http://mafiahistory.us/maf-chr5.htm

**Hunt, Thomas, "Timeline Part 5. 1950-1988," The American Mafia, mafiahistory.us, accessed Jan. 27, 2021. 

Post-War American Mafia

The end of World War II terminated the black market rationing schemes which had greatly profited the ACN, but by this time the American mafia had achieved acceptance into American society and once again adapted their activities to profit from the post-war prosperity of America. After World War II had finished, the American public perceived that the actions and heroism of Italian-American soldiers deserved respect. This post-war respect transformed Italian communities from immigrant outsiders into accepted American citizens who were afforded the full rights of first-class citizens. In addition to this overarching acceptance into American culture and society, ACN activities and profits increased as the economic prosperity of the post-war period gained momentum.

The FBI noted that the post-war American mafia had controlled gambling throughout the United States, especially in cities like Tampa, New York, Detroit, and even Havana, Cuba. Loan-sharking and extortion practices remained prevalent activities for ACN members, and the increase in post-war production and industry greatly benefitted American mafia members involved the industrial rackets.41 Furthermore, narcotics trafficking had increased both domestically and internationally. The FBI even went so far as to state that “there exists a realm of cooperation and coordination between [mafia members] in the United States and the Mafia in Italy in the illicit traffic of drugs.”42 Though the FBI’s connection between the Sicilian mafia and the ACN was based largely on circumstantial evidence, the threat of a larger drug trafficking operation which might have expanded out of Genovese’s activities in World War II Italy certainly seemed plausible. Narcotics trafficking, which had been viewed unfavorably by ACN leaders in the past, gained traction with ACN members who discovered the quick and overwhelming wealth it could bring.43 Joe Valachi mused on the crime of narcotics trafficking stating that with good partners, an American mafia member would be successful in the drug business, but with dishonest partners, the risks would increase greatly and typically profits would fall.44 The opportunities to gain wealth from these post-war activities created competition and envy amongst ACN member, leading to disloyalty within the ACN and violence that captured the attention of US investigatory agencies.

Although the late 1940s and early 1950s existed as a financial “golden era” for the ACN, the American mafia was less concerned about profiting off of the government and more concerned with government investigations, internal violence arising from competition, and assassination attempts on its leaders. 

The Kefauver Hearings of 1950-51, which was a Senate investigation into crime that harmed interstate commerce, troubled leaders of the ACN since it was the first nationally publicized investigation into organized crime.45 Brought on by the numerous newspaper and local government reports detail crime and corruption throughout states in the American Northeast, the Kefauver investigation into the ACN’s interstate activities worried many ACN leaders who hoped that the inquiry would not negatively affect the organization’s widespread activities.

While the investigation captured America’s attention due to its dissemination to the public through television and newspaper, the Senate Committee failed to produce prosecutable evidence against any of the suspected ACN members brought in to testify. This failure led Congress, the FBI, and other law-enforcement agencies to dismiss the threat posed by the ACN for the time and instead focus more on the threat of communism within the United States.47 Although the immediate threat from the US government had passed, power struggles within the American mafia endangered the organization’s profits and activities.

The problems within the ACN’s leadership corps during the 1950s were influenced by three factors: Luciano’s deportation to Italy, Frank Costello’s more subtle leadership style, and the ambition of Vito Genovese. On the evening of May 2, 1957, an unidentified man shot at Frank Costello after shouting, “This one is for you, Frank.”48 The bullet only grazed Frank’s scalp, but its effect sent shockwaves through the American Cosa Nostra. 

After Luciano’s deportation to Italy in 1946, Costello had become the undeclared ruler of the ACN.49 Luciano, upon hearing of the attempt on his friend’s life knew it could only have been the ambitious work of Vito Genovese. Speaking about his reaction to the news of Costello’s shooting, Luciano exclaimed,

“I was so [explicative] pissed that if I could travel on my passport, I’d have been on the next [explicative] plane to the States to straighten out that little bastard Vito...And then I heard that Vito had put a contract on me. So I had to get in his head and think of how he would do it. And it hits me that he knows I love cars and motors and stuff, so I started looking for bombs and making sure I wasn’t being followed.”

Genovese’s bold tactics somewhat paid off in the sense that Costello quietly retired so as to avoid a war.51 But Genovese’s ambitious plan to be “Boss of Bosses” went ahead on October 25, 1957, when Albert Anastasia was murdered in a barber’s chair at the behest of Genovese and his new allies Joe Profaci and Carlo Gambino.52 With this sudden spree of attempts and outright murders, many ACN members feared another war, like the 1930 Castellammarese war, between ACN factions due to Genovese’s bold and unsanctioned violent actions.53 Genovese, sensing the danger his activities had brought, suggested organizing a meeting in the small New York hamlet of Apalachin so that grievances could be aired, ACN business could be handled, and important issues, such as the ACN’s involvement in the narcotics trade, could be settled once and for all.54

The revelation that a national crime syndicate indeed existed infuriated the American public and forced government representatives to begin long-term investigations against the American mafia. On November 14, 1957, in a quaint, upstate New York town of Apalachin, police stumbled upon a gathering of more than 60 well-known gangsters from around the country.55 ACN leaders at this conference included Frank DeSimone from Los Angeles, James Civello from Dallas, James Colletti from Colorado, Louis Trafficante from Florida, Frank Zito from downstate Illinois, Joseph Zerilli from Detroit, James Lanza from San Francisco, Joseph Ida from Philadelphia, John Scalish from Cleveland, Joe Bonanno from Arizona, and the leaders of the New York ACN families.56 The sheer spread of these men and their influence across the United States shocked urban and rural citizens alike. Though the ACN were well-known in urban areas due to their operations in major cities since the late nineteenth century, both urban and rural Americans were astounded and petrified by the scope of the ACN’s power.

The spawning geographic locations of the leaders arrested in Apalachin exposed to both citizens and government officials that a national criminal organization operated within the borders of America and that it was not just urban areas that were affected by its activities. The fear garnered by this revelation fostered increased scrutiny of the men at Apalachin as well as their associates in their home cities.57 In the aftermath of the raid, the government could no longer tacitly support the Mafia’s existence or argue that Italian-American crime gangs operated only on a local level. Federal and state law enforcement agencies took steps to gather information on the American Cosa Nostra. These efforts, combined with the broader American public’s reaction to the existence of an organized crime outfit within the United States instigated the eventual downfall of the American Cosa Nostra.

The ACN’s wartime and post-war activities— their wartime collaboration with government agencies, their involvement in the rationed-goods black market, their expansion into broader criminal ventures after the war, and their struggle against government investigations and internal power struggles— all transformed the organization from the late 1940s through the 1950s. The ACN’s relationship with the Office of Naval Intelligence eschewed the old-world code of omertà so as to benefit leaders of the American mafia. The post-war period of prosperity, especially with the ACN’s expansion into more diverse criminal activities, set the stage for a bountiful future for the organization. However, this same prosperous period possessed elements of the problems which would plague the American mafia in the future— power struggles within the ACN’s leadership, the increase in narcotics trafficking, and the loss of secrecy surrounding the organization.

The exposure of the ACN to the American public at the Apalachin conference initiated federal and state investigations which would eventually led to the downfall of the American mafia. The American mafia’s involvement with narcotics brought additional government scrutiny and lost the ACN public support which it had enjoyed during Prohibition, the Great Depression and even during World War II. Finally, the greed and ambition of rising bosses, especially Vito Genovese, disgusted ACN members who viewed his actions as threatening to the organization as a whole. These factors of greed, narcotics and public distrust, combined with the investigative ability of the FBI, ultimately diminished the role of the American mafia in the US underworld and opened the doors for newer immigrant organized crime groups to fill in the sizeable gap left by the American Cosa Nostra.

The transformation of the American Cosa Nostra from a despised immigrant class of outsiders in the late 19th century to a fully integrated group of consummate insiders with power in social and economic matters could not have occurred without unwitting assistance from the US government. The gathering of immigrant gangs would not have been possible without popular American nativism, US policies regarding immigrants, or the constant discrimination which united these immigrants together in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

The deliberate and conscientious actions by American mafia leaders to navigate the changing American landscape emerged from changes in American law during the 1920s Prohibition era, was bolstered by New Deal legislation which strengthened unions, and was continued into World War II as ACN members actively worked side-by-side with government agents both at home and abroad.

Adaptations by the ACN in response to government decisions were the result of careful efforts by American mafia leaders who Americanized their organization and its activities. This Americanization process required the ACN to break away from old-world traditions and practices, particularly the code of omertà. By breaking with this anti-government code of conduct, the ACN differentiated from its Mala Vita forebears who had exploited the long-term weaknesses of the Italian government. American nativism of the 1890s and 1900s revealed to early ACN leaders that they were in a class of unwanted persons and, to rise out of this group, they would need to provide services to respectable Americans and build up wealth to counter the daily discrimination they faced.

The growth of the American mafia during the Prohibition era allowed this Americanization to begin as the ACN capitalized on the unpopular laws. By supplying alcohol to both wealthy, respectable Americans and average citizens, the American mafia undermined the government’s laws while simultaneously removing themselves from the discriminated immigrant class. As the American mafia transformed from a traditional Italian organized crime clan to an Americanized national crime organization, American-raised mafia leaders like Charlie Luciano, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese deliberately guided the organization to profit off of changes in US governance. Smuggling and bootlegging activities of the American mafia drummed up public support for the organization and helped cultivate corrupt government connections. Instead of simply being part of an unwelcome immigrant class, ACN members broke Prohibition laws so as to move into a higher strata of American culture.

The repeal of Prohibition forced the ACN to broaden their activities and adapt them to fit the lifestyles’ of citizens during the Great Depression. Many of these activities were aided by the political reform measures of the New Deal. Loan sharking schemes assisted suffering citizens who could not receive loans from banks, while the New Deal strengthened unions became tools of extortion for ACN members on the waterfront and in construction areas. 

Furthermore, the increasing size of the US government in response to the Great Depression created a multitude of opportunities for the ACN to accrue more power, influence, and wealth. With a solid structure for the ACN’s national organization, the adaptations by the American mafia in the 1930s were significant because they proved to its members that they could continue to profit after Prohibition’s repeal.

The continuing Americanization of the ACN and their ongoing relationship with the US government during World War II and into the 1950s. By increasing ties to government action, particularly through the areas of intelligence and the black market, the American mafia gained power, respectability, and prestige. Diversifying their activities again after the end of World War II allowed the ACN to profit in the prosperous climate of the 1950s. However, the organization’s entrance into narcotics trafficking augmented crime rates, increased law-enforcement corruption, tore through inner city neighborhoods within the United States, and decreased public support of the American mafia. 

Finally, the Apalachin conference revealed to the entire nation that a shadowy criminal organization existed, and this revelation initiated government investigations into the ACN that would last for decades and eventually diminish the American mafia’s power in the underworld

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*https://egrove.olemiss.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1636&context=etd