Joseph Valachi | Biography

In the early 1900s, in New York, the Italian Black Hand extortion rings preyed on their own people. Joseph Valachi was born in Harlem in 1904 of a poor family. He became a member of the Minute Men gang in the 1920s, specializing in burglary. He went to prison (Sing Sing) more than once. He met Vincent "The Gap" Petrilli who promised to get him into the mob. From 1930 to 1931, the Castellammarese War, begun by Joe "The Boss" Masseria, waged like a feudal war and Valachi learned who killed whom and why. Charles "Lucky" Luciano engineered many of these murders and set up cooperative ventures between the families.

During this time, Valachi was initiated into the Cosa Nostra. Joe "Bananas" Bonanno became his gombah, or Godfather. Luciano kept consolidating his power, especially after the murders of Salvatore Maranzano and Arthur "Dutch Schultz" Flegenheimer. Luciano remained the head of the Genovese family until the 1940s when he was deported. Frank Costello took over and eased differences, earning the nickname "The Prime Minister." At the end of World War II, Genovese was extradited from Italy by Orange C. Dickey but federal agents had no case against him since their main witness, Peter LaTempa, was poisoned.

Valachi worked within the Mafia (also known as La Cosa Nostra or LCN) and was sworn to silence (also called omerta). In 1959, when he was caught by the police and indicted on a narcotics charge, he was sent to prison in Atlanta, Georgia, and shared a cell with his former boss, Vito Genovese. In 1962 while in prison, believing he was targeted for assassination (for the fourth time), Valachi killed a man he assumed to be his assassin with a two-foot length of pipe. Having killed the man and facing the death sentence, in exchange for leniency, he offered to reveal the inner workings of the Mafia, the mob, or La Cosa Nostra.

Valachi was transferred to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, in 1963, under maximum security. He spoke to many agents, among them James P. Flynn of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). He outlined the Mafia was divided into more than ten families. The ruler of the family is the capo (boss), with a subcapo (underboss), caporegime (lieutenants), and soldiers. Valachi was under the Genovese family.

Valachi became the first man to break the silence. He was transferred to a prison in Milan, Michigan, still under the tightest security. In 1963, he appeared before a Senate subcommittee, mchaired by Senator John McLennan from Arkansas. While in prison, Peter Maas interviewed him and wrote the book, The Valachi Papers, which the FBI tried to suppress. Valachi died in prison in 1971, a few months after Genovese.