La Cosa Nostra Organized Crime Essay

Organized crime is defined as any group having a formalized structure whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activity. In 1931, Charles Luciano formally created “La Cosa Nostra,” and began the most powerful organized crime group in the United States for the next 50 years. La Cosa Nostra, or the Italian Mob, achieved rapid success and sustained that success, despite the often brutal measures taken by the mob to extend their power. During Al Capone’s peak in Chicago, he said, “You can get further with a kind word and a gun, than with just a kind word.” In the years since that quote, the mob became a national phenomenon and a talking point, with discussions frequently centered on the mob’s ability to remain powerful. Despite …show more content…
The mob’s history and structure set the groundwork that made the mob incredibly loyal and effective as they rose to power. The mob’s history reflects their foundation of secrecy and national unity as one family, which allowed them to remain unopposed by law enforcement throughout the early 20th century. The mob, known to its members as “La Cosa Nostra,” which translates literally to “this thing of ours,” began to first pop up independently in a number of cities at the turn of the 20th century, although there was no overarching unity among the cities (“Italian Organized Crime”). In New York, a number of “families,” or groups, began to grapple for power, which sparked the “Castellammarese War” between the city’s two most powerful mobsters, Joseph Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano (“Italian Organized Crime”). Maranzano eventually won and set up “five separate criminal groups,” or five families, in New York City (“Italian Organized Crime”). Following Maranzano’s death, Charles Luciano became the new leader of the Italian Mob, and set up the code of conduct and established procedures for resolving disputes between families (“Italian Organized Crime”). He also set up the “Commission,” in which each mafia family from