Mafia crumbles as the Last Don is first to sing

[emad]

Mob bosses are fleeing as a Godfather squeals

Paul Harris in New York
Sunday February 13, 2005
The Observer

The American mafia has been dealt one of the biggest blows in its history with a revelation that a Godfather has turned informant.

Joseph 'Big Joey' Massino, boss of the Bonanno family, is is the first official boss of a mafia family ever to violate the bloody code of omerta, the vow of silence that has lain behind the success of the brotherhood's huge criminal empire.

It has emerged that he has been co-operating with the FBI since last September while awaiting sentencing for ordering seven murders.

Fellow gangsters are stunned that the first boss to 'rat' on his colleagues is such a man as Massino. Known as the Last Don, he was long hailed as an old school leader. Unlike such flamboyant figures as John Gotti, known as the Dapper Don, Massino avoided the limelight, living simply in a New York suburb as he ruled his empire with a rod of iron.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1411811,00.html

[w4rma]

1. No need for the old fashoned illegal mafia now that mafias are legal.

Our government is *run* by what is essentially the mafia.

[cascadiance]

2. yup, they just moved into the White House and onto Capitol Hill

As Mike Malloy would say, the Bush Crime family has taken over now. That guy certainly wasn't the "last" Don by any means!

[derby378]

3. They made a Mafia Godfather an offer he couldn't refuse

With the rise of Russian and Mexican crime syndicates in New York and Texas, this very well could be the end of an era.

On a side note, it's interesting to read the history and origins of the three Italian syndicates - the 'Ndrangheta, the Camorra, and the Mafia (which we call the Sicilian Mafia).

[smirkymonkey]

4. What do you mean? The BFEE is alive and well

and growing more evil every day.

They make the "real" Mafia look like a bunch of Cub Scouts.

[LiberallyInclined]

5. I wonder if they'll use the 'death of the mafia...'

as part of the story-line in the last set of The Sopranos...?

[derby378]

6. Something to consider, though

According to that Observer report, the Italian syndicates in the US simply lost ground to the newer Mexican and Russian syndicates. In the 1980s, US street gangs and Columbian drug cartels tried (and failed) to displace the Dons. The newer upstarts just seem to have better luck than their predecessors did.

And, in any case, all three Italian syndicates still have thriving business activities within Italy and Sicily as well as in Canada, Latin America, Australia, and western Europe.