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This is a graphic depiction of the hierarchy of a typical organized crime family.
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Following are common terms and phrases with explanations, A to Z.
Amico Nostro: English translation, Our Friend, Friend of Ours.
Associate: One who earns money for the family in concert with other associates or made members. Not all associates become made members.
Atlantic City Conference: of 1929 is considered the earliest organized crime summit held in the United States and held a major impact on the future direction of the underworld. It represented the first concrete move toward a "National Crime Syndicate." With the lack of a substantial Irish delegation, one might conclude that this could have been the beginning of underworld domination by the Italian and Jewish leaders. The Irish still possessed an influential presence in America's criminal and political worlds and had a number of dominant crime leaders in New York, Boston and Philadelphia that were not invited and eliminated soon afterward, leading some to believe it was decided the Irish were to be left on the fringes of the underworld. The leaders or Bosses at the conference allegedly discussed, among other issues, the violent bootleg wars in New York and Chicago, the systematic elimination of various Irish-American gangsters presently dominating underworld activities and influencing politics in the largest cities across the United States, diversification and investment into legal liquor ventures, the expansion of illegal operations to offset profit loss from the probable repeal of Prohibition, but most importantly the crime leaders came together for the reorganization and consolidation of the underworld into a "National Crime Syndicate".
Big Seven: The Seven Group, also known as the Combine or Big Seven, was a criminal organization headed by many organized crime figures on the east coast during Prohibition serving as the predecessor to the alleged National Crime Syndicate of the 1930s.Its original members included Luciano and Frank Costello of Manhattan, Joe Adonis of Brooklyn, Abner "Longy" Zwillman of New Jersey and Long Island, Waxey Gordon and Harry "Nig" Rosen from Philadelphia, Nucky Johnson from Atlantic City, Moe Dalitz of Cleveland, Charles "King" Solomon of Boston and Danny Walsh of Providence with 22 gangs by the end of 1928. Other members included the Bug and Meyer Mob as "enforcers" and the semi-retired Johnny Torrio who remained in an advisory capacity regarding organizational advice. The Seven Group was successful in establishing its authority and served as the basis for the Atlantic City Conference in 1929.
Black Hand: or "A Manu Neura" in Sicilian, was a type of extortion racket. It was a method of extortion, not a criminal organization as such, though gangsters of Camorra and the Mafia practiced it. It came to be incorrectly known as a "Criminal Organization" in and of itself. Typical Black Hand tactics involved sending a letter to a victim threatening bodily harm, kidnapping, arson, or murder. The letter demanded a specified amount of money to be delivered to a specific place. It was decorated with threatening symbols like a smoking gun or hangman's noose and signed with a hand imprinted in black ink; hence the Sicilian name 'A Manu Neura (The Black Hand) which was readily adopted by the American press as "The Black Hand Society".
Bookie: One who illegally takes bets on sports, dog and horse racing, "the numbers" etc and lays off the bets to the families central office. The advantage of betting with a bookie is he will extend credit and will not report winnings to the IRS and can usually be found in one's neighborhood.
Bust out: One of the many rackets used by the family where a person of means is indebted to a bookie or shylock to the point of not being able to continue to make payments. Family members then become "partners" in the persons business and begin to order goods from his suppliers maxing out his credit. The goods are sold on the street for a percentage of their worth and the creditors are never paid leaving the owner with debt from which he will never recover. A person is often referred to as a "bust out" when they have hit bottom, has no resource or money and is unlikely to recover. As in "he's a bust out."
Capo: A Captain in the family who directs soldiers under him. These are the everyday "street earners."
Capo di tutti capi: The boss of all bosses. Originally this referred to the boss of the national family or the boss of the "whole thing." This "position" no longer exists thanks to Luciano and Lansky who in the 1930's created the "commission." This phrase will sometimes be used by regional family members when referring to the family head.
Capo mandamento: Within Cosa Nostra a mandamento is a district of generally three geographically contiguous Mafia families in Sicily. A capo mandamento representing the mandamento is usually entitled to be part of the provincial Mafia Commission.
Clip: To eliminate someone, also "whack","the big sleep","make disappear" etc.
Comare: "Goumada", "goom" slang. Best girl, number one, a term for a woman that may be dated outside of a marriage. A mistress.
Camorra: The origins of the Camorra are not entirely clear. It may date back to the 16th century as a direct descendant of a Spanish secret society, the Garduna, founded in 1417. Officials of the Spanish Kingdom of Naples may have introduced the organization to the area, or it may have grown gradually out of small criminal gangs operating among the poor in Neapolitan society near the end of the 18th century.The first official use of the word dates from 1735, when a royal decree authorised the establishment of eight gaming-houses in Naples. The word is almost certainly a blend of "capo" (boss) and a Neapolitan street game, the "morra". (In this game, two persons wave their hands simultaneously, while a crowd of surrounding gamblers guess, in chorus, at the total number of fingers exposed by the principal players.) This activity was prohibited by the local government and some people started making the players pay for being “protected” against the passing police. The Camorra first emerged during the chaotic power vacuum in the years between 1799-1815, when a Neapolitan Republic was proclaimed on the wave of the French Revolution and the restoration of Bourbon dynasty. The first official mention of the Camorra as an organization dates from 1820, when police records detail a disciplinary meeting of the Camorra. That year a first written statute was also discovered, indicating a stable organizational structure in the underworld. Another statute was discovered in 1842 including initiation rites and funds set aside for the families of those imprisoned.
Unlike the Mafia which has a distinct organizational structure the Camorra was never a coherent whole, a centralized organization. Instead it has always been a loose confederation of different, independent groups or families. Each group was bound around kinship ties and controlled economic activities which took place in its particular territory. Each family clan took care of its own business, protected its territory, and sometimes tried to expand at another group’s expense. Although not centralized, there was some minimal coordination, to avoid mutual interference. The families competed to maintain a system of checks and balances between equal powers. One of the Camorra’s strategies to gain social prestige is political patronage, something the Mafia as a group has practiced in this country since its beginning.
Ciaculli massacre: On 30 June 1963 a car bomb that exploded in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo, killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call was the cause of the so called Ciaculli massacre. The bomb was intended for Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco, head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission and the boss of the Ciaculli Mafia family. Mafia boss Pietro Torretta was considered to be the man behind the bomb attack.
The Ciaculli massacre is the culmination point of a bloody Mafia war between rival clans in Palermo in the early 1960s – now known as the First Mafia War, a second started in the early 1980s – for the control of the profitable opportunities brought about by rapid urban growth and the illicit heroin trade to North America. The struggle reaped 68 victims from 1961 to 1963.
Compare: Best man, very close friend. Literally "Godfather" in Italian.
Consigliere: The counsellor to the boss, usually an older family member who is respected by family members.
Contract: Murder assignment.
The Corleonesi: is the name given to a faction within the Sicilian Mafia that dominated Cosa Nostra in the 1980s and the 1990s. It was called the Corleonesi because its most important leaders came from the town of Corleone, first Luciano Leggio and later Totò Riina, Bernardo Provenzano and Leoluca Bagarella, Riina’s brother-in-law.
Cosa Nostra: Italian for "this thing is ours" not a phrase generally used by family members. The label La Costa Nostra was created by members of the FBI when the existence of Italian Organized Crime could no longer be denied.
Earner: A term that can be applied to a made member or associate. One who has the ability to make large amounts of money on the street.
Enforcer: A made member of the family who enforces rules, collects money etc. This is done by intimidation, threats, violence and murder if necessary.
Fanook: A derogatory term for homosexual.
Fazool: Italian slang translated as "bean" as "He has fazools in his head." Empty headed, dumb. Also at one time used as "one hundred". "You owe me two fazools." (You owe me two hundred dollars.)
First Mafia War: See Ciaculli massacre
Friend of mine: Introduction of a third party to made members. The one making the introduction is saying "he's not made but he is trustworthy."
Friend of ours: Introduction of one made member to another.
Garduna: was a secret criminal society in Spain in the late Middle Ages. It was essentially a prison gang that grew into a more organized entity over time, involved with robbery, kidnapping, arson, and murder-for-hire. Some have claimed to have found documentation listing clients, services, and fees charged by the Garduna.Some authoritative sources claim that the Garduna was a precursor to the Neapolitan Camorra, a crime syndicate active to this day in southern Italy, and was transplanted when Spain controlled Naples and much of its criminal element was transported (or deported) there. A Calabrian folk song suggests a much larger legacy. It tells the story of three Garduna "brothers" who are shipwrecked on Sardinia. One makes his way to Naples and founds the Camorra. One makes his way to Calabria and founds the 'Ndrangheta. The third makes his way to Sicily and founds the Mafia. Additionally, the circumstances surrounding the original shipwreck seem to suggest their main occupations as pirates, and alludes to a connection with pirates throughout the Spanish Empire, including the Americas.
Hit: A contract to eliminate someone.
Juice: The excessive interest paid on money borrowed from a shylock or loan shark.
Large: A grand, one thousand. "He owes me twenty large!" means $20,000.00.
Make your bones: Perform a murder to further the families interest or the interest of the Don. This is done to gain entrance to the family as a "made man."
Made man: To be a member of the crime family. Entrance is gained by "making your bones" and usually accomplished by performing a "hit" to further the interests of the family.
'Ndrangheta
The 'Ndrangheta is a criminal organization in Italy, centered in Calabria. Considered more rural compared to the Neapolitan Camorra and the Apulian Sacra Corona Unita, the 'Ndrangheta managed to become the most powerful crime syndicate of Italy in the late 1990s and early 2000s. While commonly lumped together with the Sicilian Mafia, the 'Ndrangheta operates independently from the Sicilians, though there is contact between the two due to the geographical closeness of Calabria and Sicily.
'Ndrangheta is derived from the Greek word andragathía for heroism and virtue, pronounced nDRAN-geh-ta.
The numbers: This game dates back to 1530. Bettors attempt to pick three winning numbers which over the course of history were drawn from different sources at different times. The source was finally decided to be the mutual number which was the last dollar digit of Win, Place and Show amounts bet on a specific race at a specific race track. In the northeast it was called "Niggar Pool" due to it's enormous presence in poor African American communities. It was also known as "Bolita" in Latin communities and was very popular in poor Italian communities and generally known as "Policy." It drew much popularity because for as much as one cent a bettor could win $5.00. The payout was 500 to 1 but the odds of winning were 1000:1. This game brought millions of dollars into organized crime pockets.
Oobatz: Crazy.
Omertá: The code of silence you must swear when you join a Family. The original code dictated that a "Man" would through "vendetta" take care of any misdeed done to him or his family. Reporting the misdeed to any governmental police agency or official was strictly prohibited.
Past Posting: Another racket where a bettor would know results before the person taking the bet. Usually done by having a spotter in another state viewing the event and immediately relaying the info to the bettor in an attempt to place a bet before "Official" results are posted. This very old racket was attempted as late as 2006.
Picciotto (plural picciotti): An Italian term used to refer to lower level mafioso soldiers. However, picciotto usually indicates a younger, more inexperienced mafioso, one who has not necessarily been made. Picciotti usually perform grittier tasks or simple tasks such as beatings and robbery.
Piece: A firearm or gun.
Pinch: To be arrested or to "take a pinch" for another.
Race Wire Service: Organized crime controlled much of the race wire service which reported results on races around the country to local "offices" which would get the information out to their bookies. The advantage to this was the race results were obtained almost immediately and in a lot of cases the bookie would know the race result before the bettors so he could accept or decline bets to his advantage.
The Second Mafia War: which is sometimes referred to as The Great Mafia War or the Mattanza (Italian for, The Killing), involved the entire Mafia and radically altered the power balance within the organization. The War involved a staggering amount of violence, with upwards of a thousand homicides. The dates of the war are sometimes given as 1981 to 1983, but while the majority of the violence did occur during these years, the first shots had been fired in 1978, and the instigators and eventual victors had been preparing their strategy some years before. Similarly, the victors dragged the killing out until the end of the 1980s as they disposed of their allies.
In addition to the violence within the Mafia itself, there was violence against the state, including a campaign of deliberate assassinations of authority figures, such as judges, prosecutors and politicians. In turn, the war resulted in a major crackdown against the Mafia, helped by the pentiti, Mafiosi who collaborated with the authorities after losing so many friends and relatives in the Second Mafia War. In effect, the conflict helped blow the lid of secrecy on the Mafia.
Shylock: A person who lends money at an highly inflated rate of interest.
Skim: Money taken 'off the top" before it's reported to the IRS.
Skipper: A Captain or Capo.
Vendetta: A series of retaliatory, vengeful or hostile acts or exchange of such acts waged by a person or group for a perceived misdeed, slight or crime.
Vig: Interest paid to a loan shark for a loan. Again the rate is usually due weekly at a highly inflated rate.
Whack: To murder someone.
Zips: Street slang for the faction that includes about 25 Sicilian-born Bonanno mobsters, their relatives, and crew members, some of whom are American born. Zips began as a derogative term. Some say it derives from the difficulty American mobsters have grasping the chatter of fast-speaking immigrants as it “zips” by; others say it’s a slang plural of zeros.
Popularity: 64% [?]
