Abstract
With varying degrees of enthusiasm, federal, state, and local governments had been investigating and prosecuting gangsters since the late nineteenth century. Despite this relatively long history, the primary interpretation of the Apalachin arrests lay in the belief that the New York State Police had uncovered proof of the existence of organized crime. This essay investigates the reasons why there seemed to be an ongoing need to prove its existence, concluding that organized crime came to be defined within the cultural and political agendas of Cold War America. Drawing on media accounts, government documents, archival sources, and popular non-fiction, this essay argues that rather than the conclusive proof of the mafia, Apalachin is best viewed as an exhibit in an ongoing argument about the existence and meaning of organized crime.
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Notes
Dollar estimates vary. According the New York Times article that immediately followed the round-up, the smallest amount found was $450 and the largest was $10,000. (65 Hoodlums 1957, p. A1).
The New York Commissioner of Investigation was investigating Lanza and the New York Board of Parole at the time of the Apalachin meeting. The Board of Parole came under close scrutiny after paroling Lanza who had controlled the Fulton Fish Market for the United Seafood Workers. He had been convicted of conspiracy and extortion in January, 1943. (New York State 1958).
Joseph Bonanno later claimed that Gaspar DiGregorio (not named in the police reports) carried Bonanno’s driver’s license and so was misidentified. He claimed that he was in Endicott, New York arguing with his cousin, Stefano Magaddino (head of the Buffalo, NY Magaddino crime organization) during the raid. (Bonanno 1983, p. 216). His eldest son, Bill Bonanno, later told author Gay Talese that his father was at the Apalachin meeting (Talese 1971).
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