William Balsamo - Crime Incorporated: The Inside Story of the Mafia’s First 100 Years

Copyright 1991 by William Balsamo and George Carpozi, Jr.

Originally printed in hardcover as Under the Clock.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, including electronic, mechanical, or any information storage or retrieval, except as may be expressly permitted in the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher.

Requests for permission should be addressed to:

New Horizon Press

P.O. Box 669

Far Hls, NJ 07931

Balsamo, William, and Carpozi, George, Jr.

Under the Clock/Crime Incorporated:

The Inside Story of the Mafias First 100 Years

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 88-62472

ISBN-13 (eBook): 978-0-88282-504-5

New Horizon Press

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The authors wish to acknowledge with profound thanks contributions to this work by individuals, historical, and reference sources, without whose valuable advice, guidance, and assistance the book would not have been possible. Our deepest appreciation goes to:

U.S. Attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani of New Yorks Southern District for insights and observations on the operation of Organized Crime, and to his wife, broadcast journalist Donna Hanover, for details about their life together that shape an intimate portrait of the couple away from the maddening daily swirl and bustle of the prosecutors office and the television newsroom.

U.S. Attorney Raymond Dearie of New Yorks Eastern District and such other able officials in that office, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward McDonald, head of Brooklyns Federal Strike Force Against Organized Crime, his predecessor, Thomas R Puccio, as well as Special Attorney of the Organized Crime Strike Force Douglas Behm. Their help in making available public records on Mafia operations in racketeering and drug trafficking was invaluable.

Ralph F. Salerno, retired member of the New York City Police Department and one of Americas foremost authorities on organized crime. He supervised the investigation into Joe Valachis testimony for the McClellan Permanent Senate Subcommittee, served as the only police officer on President Johnsons Organized Crime Task Force, on a presidential commission looking into campus unrest and campus violence, and as an organized crime consultant to the House Select Committee on Assassinations looking into President Kennedys murder. Mr. Salerno gave co-author Carpozi a thorough indoctrination into the inner workings of organized crime when together they wrote an eight-part serialization for the New York Post entitled The Mobs Deadly Hold On New York.

Queens District Attorney John Santucci for his complete and enthusiastic support in enabling the authors to gather material on the Mafias illicit activities in his borough, but especially for information about the mobs involvement in rackets at Kennedy International Airport.

Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon, not only for insights and interpretations of underworld operations in his jurisdiction, but for his recollections and remembrances of his own battles with the Mafia when he headed Brooklyns Federal Strike Force Against Organized Crime.

Lieutenant Remo Franceschini of the Queens District Attorneys Squad, for his always-generous assistance in providing information not only about underworld activity in his own jurisdiction but far beyond the countys borders to as far-off places as Florida.

Antoinette Giancana, daughter of slain Chicago organized crime kingpin Sam Momo Giancana, who roundly denied the story that Mrs. Judith Exner Campbell had been a go-between for President Kennedy and her father plotting the assassination of Cubas Fidel Castro, and that they were involved in other Mob business (author Kitty Kelley and Mrs. Exner reportedly shared $100,000 from People magazine for this uncorroborated story in the publication).

George Wolf, known as the Mobsters Mouthpiece, who contributed the untold details in this book () of why and how New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey released Americas Number One underworld leader, Charles Lucky Luciano, from prison and arranged for his deportation to Italy. Also counsel to mobsters Frank Costello, Arthur Dutch Schultz Flegenheimer, Albert Anastasia, and Johnny Torrio, Wolf further gives us a humorous but penetrating insight into another client, Vito Genovese, in a surprising divorce proceeding.

Burton Turkus, Assistant District Attorney of Kings County, who virtually single-handedly broke up and prosecuted Americas most infamous gang of killers, Murder Incorporated. Mr. Turkus, wrote the first definitive book on the gang after his retirement, Murder, Inc., published by Manor books in 1951. Mr. Turkus was instrumental in providing co-author Carpozi with many insights into the workings of this infamous mob that slew on order, but he contributed even more extensively to the inside story of how the gangs informer, Abe Reles, met his death in a mysterious plunge from a Coney Island Hotel.

Mickey Cohen, the notorious West Coast Mob chieftain, who made co-author Carpozi privy to heretofore untold tales about gangland operations he headed out of Los Angeles and Hollywood. Mr. Cohen was once the subject of an exclusive three-part series Carpozi wrote about the gangster for Hearsts New York Journal-American.

SenatorEstes Kefauver (D. Tennessee) who conducted the Senate hearings into organized crime in the early 1950s and provided material that enabled the authors to write the Introduction for this book.

And most especially to:

Librarian Christopher Bowen and the Reference Department of the New York Post.

Head Librarian Faigie Rosenthal and the Reference Department of the New York Daily News.

The authors are also indebted for information that helped guide the path this work took to these highly-regarded books and their scriveners:

Organized Crime in America, by Gus Taylor, the University of Michigan Press, 1962.

The Green Felt Jungle, by Ed Reid and Ovid Demaris, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1963.

The Valachi Papers, by Peter Maas, G. P. Putnams Sons, 1968.

The Crime Confederation, by Ralph Salerno and John S. Tompkins, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1969.

The Brotherhood of Evil, The Mafia, by Frederic Sondern Jr., Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc., 1969.

Capone: The Life and World of Al Capone, by John Kobler, G. P. Putnams Sons, 1971.

Honor Thy Father, by Gay Talese, World Publishing Co., 1971.

Recognition also is given to the editors of New York Magazine for the special 1972 edition of their publication entitled The Mafia At War, which excerpted significant passages from several important books on organized crime. That publication featured contributions by such distinguished writers about organized crime as John Kobler, Peter Maas, Nicholas Pileggi, Ralph Salerno, and Gay Talese.

And special thanks to Reed Sparling, books editor of STAR magazine, whose advice and counsel were given to his colleague, News Department Editor George Carpozi Jr., the co-author as the text for this book was shaped day by day over the lengthy period of its production.