NCJ Number
130525
Editor(s)
A A Block
Date Published
1991
Length
301 pages
Annotation
This documentary study of organized crime's penetration and control of several areas of U.S. industrial society is composed of reports by State and Federal investigative bodies and court documents, particularly civil and criminal indictments that are related to the Mafia and La Cosa Nostra.
Abstract
The first section of readings contains two reports generated in the 1960's regarding organized crime's process of moving into extant legitimate businesses. This includes a 1965 New York State Commission of Investigation report that reveals loansharking as a criminal method of taking over a wide range of businesses including restaurants and brokerage firms. The other report presented was released in the spring of 1967 by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. This report documents how a particular New York-based racketeer and several of his associates, under the guise of labor consultants, subverted labor-management disputes to enrich themselves. The report also reveals how union benefit programs were undermined by these same racketeers and their partners. Part 2, which contains five chapters, documents organized crime's involvement in a range of affected industries and workers. These industries include garment manufacturing, commercial transportation, waste disposal, and labor unions. The final part presents two documents that represent the beginning of the Federal Government's most powerful counterattack against organized crime's grip on the U.S. economy. The report of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations focuses on the Federal Government's laxity in tolerating organized crime's domination of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Subject index