Description: Includes on-this-date historical items, brief introduction to Mafia history, links to featured articles on organized crime - Discover the truth about the Mob.
On this date, " + tihbox[0] + "... " + tihbox[2] + " " + tihbox[3] + " "); --> Introduction: The Sicilian adjective " mafiusu " (Italian " mafioso ," possibly derived from Arabic) has traditionally been used to describe men who exhibit bold independence, gallantry and swagger. The term evolved over time, becoming a noun and referring to a member of a secret network of men who eagerly took the law into their own hands. By the second half of the 19th century, official law enforcement in Sicily recognized "
In this period, some Mafia organizations established colonies in the continents of the Western Hemisphere, bringing Old World policies, allegiances and rivalries with them. Branch offices sprang up in American cities, such as New Orleans, San Francisco and New York. For a time, these maintained close relationships with their home-office Sicilian cities, and members of the Sicilian fraternity were recognized as "mafiusi" by U.S. groups.
As Sicilian immigrants moved into various U.S. locations in search of opportunity, the underworld agents of their Old Country hometowns followed. In many cases, mafiosi provided new Sicilian-Americans with employment, housing, banking, grocery and transportation services, but established costly and coercive monopolies over those needed services. In addition, mafiosi monopolized vice enterprises, and some engaged in the "Black Hand" racket of obtaining payments through threatened violence and/or acts of kidn