The Mob and the City by C. Alexander Hortis Page B

you often hear some variation of the following: “I happen to think that the Mafia did some good,” or “at least they had a code,” or “they were honorable when they first started out.”
    This book is skeptical that there was ever a golden era of gangsters. The Mafia that emerges from the primary sources is an opportunistic crime syndicate that rose up within the historical context of New York City. The wiseguys broke every one of their “rules,” trafficked drugs almost from the beginning, became government informers, betrayed each other, lied, and cheated. In other words, they were not much different than the younger mafiosi who followed.
    To be sure, the Mafia families were extraordinary crime syndicates. The CosaNostra was unquestionably the strongest criminal organization in New York. The Mafia families were in control of major union locals in Gotham and were linked to national unions like the Teamsters; they were the dominant narcotics wholesalers throughout the eastern half of the United States; they effectively managed professional boxing, reaped the Harlem numbers lottery, neutralized the local police, and were feared and respected by other criminals.
    But the truth is that the Mafia was very much propelled by the forces of New York history. Simply put, the Italian-American gangsters had terrific luck. They were on the verge of extinction in the 1910s, only to see their fortunes reversed by the passage of Prohibition. They were then poised demographically to take over New York's unions just as the labor movement was surging in the 1930s. Gotham was an embarrassment of riches for sophisticated racketeers. They could extract payoffs from the huge waterfront, skim profits from bustling industries, cater to the Manhattan nightlife, and feed the appetites of thousands of heroin addicts.
    It is time to put the Mafia back into the history of New York City. The mafiosi did not emerge out of thin air and take over by sheer force of will. This was very much New York's Mafia.

Archival Sources
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA
Joseph Valachi Papers, 1964
Records of Robert F. Kennedy, 1957–1963
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Lloyd Sealy Library, New York, NY
Trial Transcripts of the County of New York, Court of General Sessions, 1883–1927
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Ithaca, New York
Records of International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, Transcript in People against Macri
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD
Records of the Department of State, Files of Suspected Narcotics Traffickers, 1923–1954
Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1896–1996
Records of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 1915–1946
Records of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Case Files of Notorious Offenders, 1919–1975
Records of the United States Secret Service, Daily Reports of Agents, 1875–1936
National Archives and Records Administration, New York, NY
Records of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Records of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC
Records of the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce
Records of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
New York Municipal Archives, New York, NY
Kings County District Attorney, Murder, Inc., Case Files, 1940–1945
Lucky Luciano Closed Case File, 1936
New York Police Department Files on Albert Anastasia Case, 1954–1963
New York County District Attorney Records, Closed Case Files, 1895–1966

Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Death Records, 1918–1946
Records of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Subject Files, 1934–1945
New York State Archives, Albany, NY
Master Files of the New York State Temporary Commission of Investigation on Apalachin
Records of the Department of Correctional Services
Stanford University, Department of Special