organized crime
...st active organized crime cities. Cities like San Jose, Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Rockford, Ill., rank within the top ten. (Trimble 30) Some major crimes committed in the smaller cities are credit-card fraud, hijacking, prostitution, and drugs. (30) Some illegal business fronts include Nightclubs, Fast-food outlets, trucking, and garbage collection. (30) In the international Melting Pot of organized crime, has many different cultures. Such groups as the Chinese Triads, the Japanese Yakuza, and the Vietnamese Gangs, whom all base their sect along the same lines of the New York Mafia families. (Worsnop 270) The Chinese Triads are secret societies which were formed to overthrow the Ching Dynasty (Chinese government) in the early 1900's. (270) It was soon reintroduced again in the 1990's. Some of the crimes related to the Chinese include extortion, gambling, and smuggling of narcotics and aliens. (270) The Japanese Yakuza was formed after WWII as a rebellion to going to war. (270) It soon blossomed into a huge cult which is out of control today. Some of its major crimes include extortion, murder, racketeering, and prostitution. (270) The Vietnamese Gangs are known as little packs of street thugs. Most participating in these groups are non-threatening adults with no more power than the average wise-guy. (271) Over the last few years some outstanding names have been convicted. The most popular, probably John Gotti. John Gotti was not a very flashy man, he acted as a regular business man. (Capeci 3A) John Gotti chose to turn himself in for the life of his brother. John was taken in for a life sentence of racketeering. When he chose to give his eleven year reign as the godfather he left Little Nick Corazzo in charge. (3A) Although John Gotti was kept in Marion Federal Penitentiary in Indiana he was still able to run the family underground. (4A) Organized Crime has been around for over a century. Law enforcement agents, police, and investigators still cannot get a complete grip on the situation. Although the Mafia is still a problem today, professionals are convinced that the criminal activitiy has decreased and continues to decrease as time goes by. (Cook 279) With the knowledge the police have gathered, and the recurring pattern of crime, organized crime will soon become a thing of the past. Bibliography Annotated Bibliography Thesis: Organized Crime and its families, particularly the Italian Mafia, have increased their illegal activities (extortion, gambling, murder, racketeering) significantly over recent times. Capeci, Jerry, John Gotti agrees to give up Gambino crime family, sources say. New York Daily News 23 Nov 1996, CD News from Newsbank, Inc. Jerry Capeci is a columnist for the New York Daily News. Capeci has written over twenty five articles dealing with the Gambino crime family and the Mafia over his past eight years with the newspaper. (Daily News web page) Within this article Capeci arrows in particularly on John Gotti. He explains how Gotti was a regular guy and could not be separated from any other typical New Yorker. He classifies him (John Gotti) as a businessman rather than the leader of what is left of the Mafia. Gotti took over the Gambino crime family in 1985. In 1992 Gotti was arrested for accounts of murder, attempted murder, and homicide in a New York City restaurant. Cook, James. New York City businesses squirm under the heel of the mob. , 8 Jan. 1997. . Ed. Eleanor Goldstein. Boca Raton, FL: Social Issues Resources Ser., 1997. Crime vol. 1 art. 99. Cook is a reporter for a newspaper of a city located about thirty miles from New York City. He has been with the chronicle for six years and writes for them on a consistent basis. (General newspaper web page) Cook displays the true accounts of the brutal and meteoric rise of John Johnny-Boy Gotti from a Brooklyn bone breaker to lord of the Gambino Family. Cook tells that many of the murder attempts are unsuccessful of postponed due to the police force. He also gives us a synopsis of how Gotti's ways of laundering money through legitimate NYC businesses caused him to become very suspicious in all illegal activity cases. Inman, William H. The Mob in the Sun Belt. , 26 Jan, 1993: E1+ . Ed. Eleanor Goldstein. Boca Raton, Fl: Social Issues Resources Ser.,1997 Crime vol., 3 art. 66. William Inman is a retired Detroit policeman with twenty six years of law enforcement experience. He did an eighteen month study on the sun-belt region mobsters.(Florida, Texas, California) Inman states that the Colombo families main activities include loan sharking, gambling, smuggling, and narcotics. This family guides much of its attention to the states of Florida and Texas due to its easily accessibility to the southern borders. Between the Bannanno and Luchesse families the main focus of criminal activity is pornography and counterfeiting. This spreads mostly throughout the southwestern portion of the U.S.(Texas, Arizona, New Mexico.) Nash, Robert. Organized Crime the Whole Story, New York: Da Capo, 1992. Jay Robert Nash is a three time winner of the American Library Association's Best reference work award, he also won the Edgar Allen Poe award for one of his encyclopedia publishing. He currently resides in Chicago. Nash relates most of the Mafia today back to the famous Al Capone. Born Alphonse Capone he was the head gangster of the Prohibition stage. In the 1920's he took over a NY organization dealing in illegal liquor, gambling, and prostitution. Convicted on income tax evasion in 1931 he was sentenced to eleven years in prison. He was soon released eight years later in 1939, and currently reside in Miami Beach, Florida. ---. World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime, New York: Da Capo, 1990. Same author as above. In this award winning text Nash reveals all of the background information on over 2,500 organized crime criminals. Joe Bannano illegally entered the U.S. in 1924 from Havana, Cuba. Soon Joe went to NY to help deals with Al Capone. After nearly being captured for racketeering he fled to Sicily in 1938. Soon he returned back to the U.S. to be arrested in 1941 for attempted murder and counterfeiting. Thomas Lucchese was born in Palermo Sicily in 1900. He was also popular in the 1920's for his work with the famous Lucky Luciano. Soon he was arrested for extortion, theft, and murder. While in jail a brain tumor was discovered on the left side of his brain and he died in 1967. Ragle, Larry. Crime Scene, New York: Avon Books, 1995. One of the nation's top criminalist, Larry ragle has investigated countless high-profile homicides during his 35- year career as a forensic scientist. In the Crime Scene, Ragle displays the tactics used to trace back to the killers of Lucky Luciano, Vito Genovese, and George Nelson. Luck Luciano ...