Do people realize how influential the mafia was in the 1920s and 1930s?

[Julie4]

[beefcakebradybatson]

Yes. For example, Detroit reporter Gerald "Jerry" Buckley,39, was gunned down in the elevator of a Detroit hotel, July 23,1930 (exactly 37 years prior to the outset of the five-day July 23-27,1967 Detroit riot) for exposing Mob influence in Detroit politics, getting the Mayor recalled, convicted of bribery and sent to the Big House.(No, not Michigan Stadium, the University of Michigan Wolverines' football home, called "the Big House" because of its 100,000+ seating capacity).

[DrPepper12]

Most people don't even realize the ethnic breakdowns that it wasn't just an Italian thing! The Jewish, Irish & Black organized crime organizations we're absolutely ruthless here in NYC!!

[Julie4]

Is that still the case today? Do you live in New York?

[beefcakebradybatson]

And Al Capone bought reporters and politicians while he ran Chicago. The black New York Mob (Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson and friends ) terrorized Harlemites during the 1920's and 1930's. Incidentally, my cousin, Eric "Ricky" Martin,21, was stabbed to death in a Chicago bar in Oct.1976.

[DrPepper12]

@julie4. The Russians, Turks, Dominicans, Salvadorans, Jamaicans, Chinese, Philippino and others largely run the show now but the Italians are first among equals. The Irish no longer exist and it's questionable if the Jews are still a force or a legend.

[Staximus]

The Irish mob still have some juice in Boston

[beefcakebradybatson]

The Jewish Purple Gang, whose members my father knew, were active in the Detroit/Windsor area in the 1920's and 1930's, and when I was a lad had a store in my Downtown Windsor neighbourhood.(Incidentally, bank robber Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd was slain by the FBI in Ohio, Oct.22,1934, four days before my maternal uncle Ronald Turner was born).

[DrPepper12]

@Staximus BOSTON is a whole different planet when it comes to all things Irish!

[purplepoppy]

I wonder why it was only an American thing. Italians came in large numbers to other countries but you didn't get a mafia.

[Staximus]

Yeah you did, you just don't know about it

[RavVid]

There was and is to some degree in Australia after WW2. We all have an image of Al Capone but when I think about it I don't know much. It is bikies that control the drug industry here and maybe they are meaner and nastier than the mafia. Same with sly cig shops, a large number of which are catching on fire at the mo. I more associate mafia with fruit and veg - at least was what they were into at a time.

[Iron_Man]

don’t they have the Welch mafia

[purplepoppy]

Llewelyn Morris Humphreys, who worked for Al capone, he was the one who masterminded the valentine day massacre. His parents were welsh farmers.

[Iron_Man]

Yikes 😳

[mandyfire98]

Yeah, my dad's side of hhe family is new york Italian and there are jokes that family members were in the mob.

[Julie4]

Was he one of the five New York families?

[mandyfire98]

No my dad wasn't but my friends would always joke that he was and the reason why he moved to Kentucky was he was in the witness protection program lol

[Julie4]

Oh i see lol

[DrPepper12]

Italian NYer here too and it's a common enough question. I've interacted with connected guys and they still run the airports and sanitation

[Zack-Bann]

Pretty sure its still the case day but now we live in the digital information age and it’s easier to camouflage illegal operations

[Nonamez]

In those times was mafia , nowadays is corporations around the world who works together with governments hand in hand profiting from contracts and deals we don't know 🤔

[DrPepper12]

FACTS

[Anonymous]

Yes. Al Copone basically owned an etite city and ran crime in the entire us.

They are still influential but are mostly legit engaged in "legal" crimes.

[ProbablyClueless]

Very much so. Anyone who knows anything at all about the mob and JFK knows exactly how influential the mob was.

[NathanDavis]

and that's the main reason why we know about them in the first place... yes, lol

[Snakeyes7]

Groups that have no qualms with scamming people of their money and killing them tend to be very powerful, especially if they have a lot of money.

[Dargil]

And in the the 1940s and 1950s and into the 1960s

[msc545]

I have ancestors that I think were involved with the mafia and it's a really scary thing. Nothing glamorous about it. Just ugly and criminal.

[Kelly6]

Italian mafia was just a small governmental organization or system

[monorprise]

Very true, the Italian mob really was imported from southern Italy where they served in a similar governmental role.

[DrPepper12]

Agreed. Communal, social, economic and political organization like mutual aid societies.

[EnjoytheDay777]

Yes, they controlled politicians and judges among others.

[DrPepper12]

NYer here. The present tense "control" is still partially applicable.

[PeterLegg91]

Oh yes they was , especially Al capone and lucky Luciano etc

[Iron_Man]

The French Mafia

[Julie4]

The French mafia is nothing compared to the American mafia

[Iron_Man]

I know lol 😂

[Staximus]

They controlled everything

[Bklynbadboy12]

No i don't wasn't born then

[Agape93]

Yeap

[eagle1951]

yeah some of us do