The Man With the Ribbon to Tie it All Together

The question as to the true existence of an organized crime organization in America had begun to arise near the turn of the century. While the recognition of an organization called the Mafia was acceptable to most authorities around the country, each of the Families were viewed as separate organizations that might associate on activities from time to time. The extent of the connections between Families was never recognized in relation to cooperation and specific rules of conduct accepted by members in general. To some degree the non-acceptance of an organized crime governing body was true until the late 1920's and early 1930's. While rumors related to an organized governing body surfaced from members and those close to organized crime, no real connections of cooperation between Families and other crime organizations were given recognition. Testimony provided during the late 1940's and early 1950's in court and before Senate Hearings suggested cooperation but not organized planning or the creation of a governing body. The existence of a Commission was given further support after the police broke up a Commission meeting at Apalachin, in upstate New York. If the existence could be proven as was attempted in the 1950's Senate Hearings, it could be possible to create laws that viewed connected crime activities as conspiracy motivated allowing for increased use of police powers. What was needed was some sort of ribbon that would bind all the pieces of an organized crime organization together. By the late 1950's and early 1960's the time was right to recognize the existence of such a governing body. Acceptance was present but the ribbon to bind things together still needed to be found. Although police departments and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics operatives had long realized that many underworld figures where often seen together, they had not comprehended that these were formal relationships ranked through a system governed by rules and regulations. Valachi and his The testimony of one Joseph Valachi would change all that forever. He would provide the ribbon to tie all the pieces into a package that made sense. Connections were made based on his observations that provided a picture of the structure of a nation-wide organized crime ring. He made it possible for organized crime investigators to at last realize the dimensions of syndicated crime and to stop seeing it as a series of unconnected incidents. The information he provided would lead to a realization that only by attacking organized crime as a conspiratorial organization and a threat to the foundations of the nation. The knowledge gained here pro0vided the basis for the creation of the RICO Act. And without the utilization of this Act it would have been much more difficult to impact on organized crime. What Valachi did was beyond measure. Before he came along, there was no concrete evidence that anything like this existed...But Valachi named names. He revealed what the structure was and how it operates. He provided a face for the enemy.

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