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Genovese La Cosa Nostra Family

In 1962, Joseph Valachi became the first made member of the La Cosa Nostra (LCN) to cooperate with law enforcement. Valachi testified that he was a soldier in what he referred to as the "Genovese Family" named after Vito Genovese who was boss of the family at the time.

The Genovese LCN family emerged from Italian criminal groups in New York controlled by Joseph Masseria in the 1920s. However, in Masseria's attempt to control organized crime across the country, he became a casualty of the war that resulted. This war, known as the Castellammarese War, raged from 1928 to 1931. When it ended, Salvatore Maranzano emerged as the most powerful Mafia boss in America after conspiring with Charles "Lucky" Luciano, one of Masseria's Capos, to have Masseria murdered in early 1931. Arguably, the two most powerful LCN families, known today as the Genovese and Gambino families, emerged from the groups controlled by Masseria when Maranzano set up five separate criminal groups in New York and named himself "Boss of Bosses." Maranzano named Luciano the first boss of what would later become known as the Genovese family and Luciano "showed his appreciation" less than five months later by sending five men dressed as police officers to Maranzano's office to murder him. Luciano now became the most powerful Mafia boss in America and used his position to run the LCN like a major corporation. Luciano set up the LCN Commission, or ruling body of the LCN, composed of seven bosses, and divided the different rackets among the families.

In 1936, Luciano was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison after being prosecuted by Thomas Dewey. Ten years later, he was released from prison and deported to Italy, never to return to the US. When Luciano was convicted, Capo Frank Costello became acting boss, due to the fact that underboss Vito Genovese had fled to Italy to avoid a murder charge. A key witness in the case against Genovese was later poisoned and the charges were dropped. Costello led the family for approximately 20 years until May of 1957 when Genovese took control by sending soldier Vincent "the Chin" Gigante to murder Costello. Costello survived the attack but relinquished control of the family to Genovese. Attempted murder charges against Gigante were dismissed when Costello refused to identify him as the shooter. Ultimately in 1959, Vito Genovese was convicted of conspiracy to violate narcotics laws and received a 15-year sentence. However, he continued to run the family through his underlings from his prison cell in Atlanta, Georgia.

After his own conviction on narcotics charges, Valachi was sent to the same prison. While there, he was labeled an informer and three attempts were made on his life. In 1962, Valachi killed a man inside the prison that he mistook for an LCN enforcer sent by Vito Genovese to kill him. After receiving a life sentence for this murder and remembering the three attempts on his own life, Valachi decided to fully cooperate and on September 27, 1963, Joseph Valachi appeared before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He testified to the fact that a secret criminal society known as La Cosa Nostra did in fact exist in America and he was a member.

In 1969, several years after Valachi began cooperating with the FBI, Vito Genovese died of a heart ailment in his prison cell in Atlanta. By this time, the Genovese family was under the control of Philip "Benny Squint" Lombardo. Unlike the bosses before him, Lombardo preferred to rule behind his underboss, Thomas Eboli. In 1972, Eboli was murdered, but Lombardo continued to run the Genovese family utilizing Frank "Funzi" Tieri and later, Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, allowing Tieri and Salerno to carry the title of Genovese family boss.

Throughout the 1980s, the Genovese family hierarchy went through several changes. Tieri, recognized on the street as the Genovese family boss in the late 1970s, was convicted for operating a criminal organization through a pattern of racketeering which included murder and extortion. Salerno then fronted as boss for Lombardo until Salerno's stroke in 1981. Also, in 1985, Salerno, along with the bosses of the other four New York families, was convicted for operating a criminal enterprise known as the LCN Commission. After the convictions of Tieri and Salerno, Lombardo was in failing health and handed full control of the Genovese family over to Gigante.

In 1986, the Genovese family suffered its second member to turn against the family when Vincent "Fish" Cafaro, a soldier and right-hand-man to Anthony Salerno, decided to cooperate with the FBI and testify against the family. According to Cafaro's sworn statement, Gigante also ran the family from behind the scenes while pretending to be mentally ill. Cafaro stated that this behavior helped to further insulate Gigante from authorities while he ran the Genovese family's criminal activities. Gigante's odd mannerisms and practice of mumbling while walking around the East Village of New York City in a bathrobe earned him the nickname "the Odd Father." As a result of an FBI investigation, Gigante was convicted of racketeering and murder conspiracy in December 1997. Another FBI investigation led to his indictment on January 17, 2002, accusing him of continuing to run the Genovese LCN family from prison.

Since the conviction and life sentence of Gambino LCN family boss John "Dapper Don" Gotti, the Genovese family, with its large membership, has been considered the most powerful LCN family in New York and in the United States. Genovese family members and their numerous associates are engaged in drug trafficking, murder, assault, gambling, extortion, loansharking, labor racketeering, money laundering, arson, gasoline bootlegging, and infiltration of legitimate businesses. Genovese family members are also involved in stock market manipulation and other illegal frauds and schemes as evidenced by the recent FBI investigation code named, "Mobstocks."

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation

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