Word: mafia
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...gambling indictments was obtained through wiretaps authorized under Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. Justice Department officials were quick to cite that fact. The officials regard the New Jersey crackdown as the first skirmish in a full-scale war on the Mafia. Said Will Wilson, chief of the department's Criminal Division: "Our overall goal is to demolish the rackets. The first step in curing inner-city problems is to free local government from the control of the rackets...
THIS outraged statement notwithstanding, Newark's business leaders had little reason to be shocked by last week's indictments. Crime and corruption have long been blatantly evident in what may well be the Mafia capital of the U.S. After the city's bloody 1967 race riot, for example, a special Governor's commission laid much of the blame to "a widespread belief that Newark's government is corrupt...
...those who are active in local affairs, many are only too willing to coexist with La Cosa Nostra. Mafiosi who can assure peace with labor unions are often respected members of the community. Many otherwise solid citizens seek them out as friends; they either refuse to believe that the Mafia exists or find it exciting to associate with racketeers...
That attitude infuriates Mafia Expert Ralph Salerno. "The Silent Majority consented to all this for 30 years," he fumes. "The bad guys worked at taking over the state while the good guys sat on their asses and watched television." Unfortunately, that failing may be characteristic of good guys elsewhere. Federal strike forces are at work in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York and Florida. If they are anywhere near as successful as they have been in New Jersey, 1970 may prove a boom year for grand juries...
...eight years, Robert M. Morgenthau has enforced federal laws in New York's Southern District with scrupulous impartiality. He has uncovered graft in Democratic as well as Republican city machines, convicted Wall Streeters for illegal Swiss bank dealings, and waged war against New York City's powerful Mafia. But Democrat Morgenthau is a political appointee. According to tradition, when the Republicans took office in Washington, Morgenthau was expected to join the country's 92 other U.S. Attorneys in offering his resignation. He did not, maintaining that he needed time "to complete major cases and investigations."* Last week...