Sons of Hades: How a Gang War Contributed to the Downfall of the Roman Republic

“I AM A SON OF HADES!” Cries Lucius Vorenus(Kevin McKidd) after destroying a statue of Concordia, Roman goddess of harmony. But this was no random act of iconoclasm. Vorenus has been charged by First Counsel Mark Antony(James Purefoy) to stop a violent street war that has been brewing between the various gangs of Rome for control of the Aventine. After frightening the other gang bosses into submission by the destruction of Concodia, Vorenus is able to establish himself in the Roman underworld and quell the hostilities between the gangs; at least for the moment.

Though the following is a fictional scene from HBO’s Rome, Ancient Rome did have organized street gangs. The best account of these gangs can be found in Andrew William Lintott’s Violence in Republican Rome. In his book, Lintott describes what could be considered the first gang war in recorded history between Titus Annius Milo and Publius Clodius Pulcher. To the readers who are unfamiliar with Roman history, it should be noted that neither Milo nor Clodius made their living as street thugs; these men were not archaic Tony Sopranos. Both Clodius and Milo held political positions in the Roman Republic. The late Republic of Rome gives us a perfect example of how gangsters of the state and armed thugs can form a symbiotic relationship.

Clodius was a populist and wanted to hold the office of tribune of the plebeians, who were the free, land owning, non-aristocratic citizens of Rome. The problem was that Clodius was a patrician from the house of Claudius. Due to his noble birth, Clodius legally wasn’t allowed to become tribune of the plebs. Thankfully, for Clodius, this was all fixed by proconsul and Pontifex Maximus Gaius Julius Caesar. Before Caesar departed to his new command in the Gallic Wars of 58 B.C., he passed a law allowing Clodius to be adopted by a pleb named Fonteius, who was fifteen years younger than Clodius(1). In giving Clodius the opportunity to become Tribune of the Plebs, Caesar was unleashing a political gangster upon a political foe of a close ally; the infamous Marcus Tullius Cicero.
  
Cicero had made an enemy of both Marcus Licinius Crassus(who was apart of the First Triumvirate along with Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Caesar) and Clodius. Cicero was responsible for unraveling a conspiracy aimed at overthrowing the Republic, lead by Crassus’s protégé Catiline(2). Cicero also successfully struck down a land bill proposed by Publius Servilius Rullus, which would have given Crassus a political edge over Pompey(3). Cicero had crossed Clodius when he ousted him in the Bona Dea scandal. The Roman festival of Bona Dea(the good goddess) could only be attended by women. Clodius, either in jest or to continue an alleged affair with Caesar’s current wife, dressed up as a woman and attended the festival. After he was discovered at the festival, a mob of angry women attacked him; Cloidus barley escaped. Clodius’s stunt was considered such a sacrilege that he was brought to trial. His defense was that there was no way that he could have been at the festival, because he had been at an exhibition fifty miles away from Rome on the day in question. Cicero destroyed Clodius’s alibi by claiming that he had visited him the same day of the festival. There was no way that Clodius could have been fifty miles away from Rome and would have been able to visit Cicero in Rome on the same day. Even though Clodius was acquitted of all charges, he never forgave Cicero(4).

Elected as Tribune of the Plebs in 59 B.C., Clodius proposed a series of bills that would help him establish his gang. The first bill would reinstate and would allow the new organization of collegia, which functioned as associations for craftsmen, guilds, and religious cults. The majority of  collegia were dismantled in 64 B.C. by the senate, after several of them were involved in the before mentioned failed Catiline conspiracy. Clodius eventually would use members of the collegia as enforcers of his own political will. The second bill that Clodius proposed would give free grain to all citizens of Rome, making him ever more popular with the plebs. Clodius was able to supply free grain to the people of Rome by adding the kingdom of Cyprus into the Roman Empire, which would increase the supply of the dole(5). To pass these bills, Clodius would count on Cicero for his support. While Cicero wholeheartedly agreed not to veto any of Clodius’s bills, once they were passed, he strongly supported a resolution to review Caesar’s acts as consul. With plebs pouring in to join Clodius’s new political organizations, he was building up and arming gangs that would try to silence both Cicero and Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, who were the two biggest threats to Caesar’s growing power. His criminal organization became so large that he had to appoint faithful lieutenants to take charge of a specific gang. The names of these ancient capos(6) are given to us by Cicero, but besides their names, nothing is really known about them(7).  Soon after proposing that Cypress was absorbed into the expanding Roman Empire, Clodius also proposed a law that would force exile upon any Roman citizen that executed another Roman citizen without a proper trial. The proposal and eventual passing of this law was no random act. Four years before, in 64 B.C., Cicero condemned four members of the botched Catiline conspiracy to death without a proper trial. It was obvious that the passing of this law was in order to neutralize Cicero(8).

Realizing that political aid was not coming, Cicero fled to Greece in 58 B.C. Now with Caesar gone, Clodius began turning his armed gangs on those who helped him get elected. Pompey, who supported the public’s cry for Cicero’s return, was besieged by Clodius’s gang of armed thugs. Clodius threatened to kill Pompey and burn his house down if he continued to ask for the return of Cicero. After being roughed up in the street by Clodius’s thugs, Pompey would not leave his house. Since Roman armies could not legally enter the city, there was no armed force to stop Clodius‘s street gangs. In an effort to destabilize Clodius’s new powerful grip over the streets of Rome, Pompey supported Titus Annius Milo(9). Milo, a tribune himself, organized his own street gang to fight Clodius. But there was a big difference between the gangs of Clodius and Milo. Clodius’s gangs were mostly made up of loyal supporters of the collegia; either of craftsmen or slaves. Milo hired gladiators or mercenaries from outside of Rome to be apart of his gang. The two gangs clashed in the streets of Rome. Milo’s small band of mercenary gladiators easily defeated Clodius’s large force of dedicated volunteers(10).

As the violence between the two gangs continued, legally, it was ignored. In his book, Violence in Republican Rome, Linott states that as long as the gangs could prove that the other gang struck first, self defense was totally legal(11). But with the streets of Rome running red with blood, the plebs began to abandon the violent tactics of Clodius. In 57 B.C., when consideration of letting Cicero return to Rome was discussed, Clodius and his gang attacked the assembly, killing several in the Fourm. Cicero’s brother, Quintus Cicero, was only able to escape by hiding under a slain corpse(12). This type of violence was commonplace every time the return of Cicero was considered, even in the Senate. Clodius would strike, and Milo would respond with blood. Eventually, the vote to allow Cicero to return to Rome was passed, and he returned to cheering crowds in 57 B.C.

Cicero returned to a Rome on the brink of chaos. His return did not end the gang war between Clodius and Milo, and Cicero allied himself with Milo in an attempt to defeat Clodius. Beside the streets of Rome in shambles, the Senate was equally in poor shape. Without Cicero’s skeptical voice in the senate, glorified tales of Caesar’s victories in Gaul strengthened his political support immensely. Soon even Crassus(part of the First Triumvirate) departed Rome for war against the Parthians, where eventually his army would be decimated; leaving Caesar as the new great general of Rome.

The animosity between the two gangs continued. Clodius harassed Cicero with violence. Armed men chased off workers building Cicero’s new house, and Clodius, accompanied with an armed entourage, would stalk Cicero through the city; waiting for their time to strike(13). The gang violence lasted until 52 B.C., when Clodius was finally struck down in a gang battle on the Appian Way. In his book Pompey: The Republican Prince, Peter Greenhalgh describes Clodius’s demise:

“On 18 January the crisis was precipitated by a fatal encounter between Clodius and Milo on the Appian Way, the former riding back to Rome from a visit to Aricia, the latter driving out to Lanuvium. As they passed each other, one of the gladiators in Milo’s armed entourage picked a quarrel with one of Clodius’ slaves, and when Clodius looked round to see what was happening, he was spitted by a javelin. The Clodians carried their wounded leader into a wayside inn, but Milo had him hauled out and finished off in the middle of the road.”

After Clodius’s murder, Sextus Clodius, a relative of Clodius, took over his gangs and exacted revenge on the city. Clodius’s naked body was carried through the city, deposited in the Senate House, and then it was set on fire, acting as a funeral pyre. Milo’s house was attacked by Clodius’s men, only to be fended off by archers. Anyone walking the streets was harassed or even murdered(14).

Out of desperation to end the violence, the Senate decided to make Pompey sole consul(Crassus died in 53 and Caesar was in Gaul, leaving Pompey the sole power in the city), giving him dictatorship powers. The Senate was so desperate, that even the strict constitionalist Cato agreed to the decree. Pompey now had the power to raise troops to restore order to the city. As Consul,  Pompey passed a series of laws that exasperated the relationship between he and Caesar and isolated Caesar’s allies, which helped lead to the oncoming civil war(15). Milo was blamed for Clodius’s death and was brought to trial. Cicero came to his defense, but the unrelenting plebs would often interrupt his speaking, despite Pompey’s soldiers standing by. Milo would eventually be condemned for Clodius’s death, and faced exile in modern day Marseille. Three years after Pompey was made lead consul to end the violence sparked by this gang war, Caesar and his army crossed the Rubicon. Caesar taking his legions pass this river was one of the most vile acts of treason a Roman could commit, and it would be the beginning of the civil war between Pompey and Caesar, signaling the end of the Republic.

Would have Caesar allowed Clodius to become Tribune of the Plebs if he would have known what violence he would have unleashed upon Rome? It’s hard to say. For a brief period of time, Clodius could have been considered the most powerful man in Rome, surpassing even Pompey and Caesar. Illegally taking his legions across the Rubicon upon his return to Rome, it would be hard to say if Caesar, if he wasn’t away in Gaul, would have waited for the Senate to give him legal power to deal with the violence caused by these organized gangs. According to Cicero in his Pro Milone, his speech defending Milo, he claimed that Mark Antony tried to assassinate Clodius earlier in 53 B.C. Antony, who was a former member of Clodius’s gang, at this time was openly Caesar’s man. It could be that Caesar, resenting Clodius for seizing street power in Rome, could have put his loyal friend up to assassinating Clodius in the forum . Rather Caesar ordered the death of Clodius or not, the assassination attempt failed. Clodius was able to avoid death this time, just to meet it on the Appian way months later. It should be mentioned that although most historians regard Cicero’s claim about this attempt to be true, there are skeptics. Notably among them is Dean Anthony Alexander of the University of Otago, whose paper, Marc Anthony’s Assault of Publius Clodius: Fact or Ciceronian Fiction?, which is available online, suggests that either Cicero invented the assassination attempt against Clodius, or he radically misinterpreted it to the public.

It would be grossly inaccurate to claim that the Roman Republic collapsed simply because of organized gang warfare in Rome, but it being one of the principal factors certainly deserves more discussion. Because of Clodius and Milo’s gang war, Pompey was given dictatorship powers over Rome, which exasperated the tension between Pompey and Caesar, leading to civil war and the death of the Republic.


Endnotes
(1) In his book, The Education of Julius Caesar, Arthur D. Kahn references the adoption ceremony that Caesar performed for Clodius.


(2) W.K. Lacey, in his book Cicero, goes into detail about Cicero’s speeches against Catiline.

(3) Peter Greenhalgh references the proposed land bills proposed by Rullus, and how Pompey benefited from them being struck down by Cicero, in Pompey: The Republican Prince.

(4) The entire Bona Dea scandal, and Clodius’s alleged affair with Caesar’s wife, can be found in Kahn’s The Education of Julius Caesar.

(5) A majority of Clodius’s acts as Tribune of the Plebs can be found in F.R. Cowell’s Cicero and the Roman Republic.

(6) A Capo or Caporegime is a ranking term used in the hierarchy of the Mafia. A Capo is a captain of a crew of soldiers.

(7) Cicero gives the names of Clodius’s lieutenants in de Domo sua, his speech against Clodius. It can also be found in Andrew Linott's Violence in Republican Rome.

(8) Clodius passing this law, and its effects on Cicero can be found in Cowell’s Cicero and the Roman Republic.


(9) Clodius’s harassment of Pompey can be found in Greenhalgh’s Pompey: The Republican Prince.

(10) Descriptions of the two gangs can be found in Linott's Violence in Republican Rome.

(11) Again, see Linott’s Violence in Republican Rome.

(12) Clodius’s exploits can be found in any of the sources listen thus far, but Cowell’s Cicero and the Roman Republic is recommended.


(13) Clodius’s harrasment of Cicero can be found in Cowell’s Cicero and the Roman Republic.

(14) The details of the aftermath of Clodius’s death can be found in Cowell’s Cicero and the Roman Republic and in Kahn’s The Education of Julius Caesar.

(15) Discussed in Kahn’s The Education of Julius Caesar.

Why Valentine's Day is the Best Day of the Year!

I know what most of you are thinking at this exact moment: “100% of women would rather be operated on by an abortionist with Parkinson’s disease before spending a minute in the same room with Dexter, why would he enjoy celebrating Valentine's Day?”

Well, it’s not to increase abortion rates (well OK, maybe it is).

Here's why, and to appreciate it, a brief history of the Chicago underworld is necessary.

In the early 1900’s James "Big Jim" Colosimo, former Precinct Captain of Chicago's First Ward, established himself as “boss” of Chicago. Colosimo and his wife ran a chain of brothels that earned more than $600,000 a year. This made Colosimo the perfect target for the infamous Black Hand extortionist that plagued Italian immigrants during the early years of the twentieth century. 

You also must keep in mind that this was a time when the Mafia wasn't like the Mafia we are familiar with. It wasn't until 1931 that the Mafia was reorganized and took the shape of the national crime syndicate that we all recognize today. Before prohibition, the Mafia wasn't even the dominate criminal force in the American Underworld. Several other Italian gangs (like the ‘Ndrangheta from Calabria, and the Comorra from Naples) rivaled the Sicilian Mafia for underworld dominance in America. Not to mention the hordes of native and Irish gangs that also stood in their way.

Anyway, by 1909, the threats of the Black Hand extortionist had become so dire, Colosimo’s wife asked her nephew Johnny “The Fox” Torrio to travel from New York to Chicago to help them solve their problem. Johnny Torrio had been a member of the Five Points Gang and the James Street Gang, alongside with future Mafia bigwig Charlie “Lucky” Lucaino.

The solution to Torrio was simple. He just hired two New York thugs to murder the extortionist when they showed up to collect their money. Colosimo was so grateful he made Torrio number two in his criminal empire, which mainly consisted of prostitution and gambling.

Things had been going so well for Torrio that by 1919 he brought over a young, violent hoodlum by the name of Al Capone to help him in his business ventures.

The 18th Amendment was passed on January 16, 1919. This made the production and consumption of alcohol in the United States illegal, causing organized crime groups like the Mafia to profit greatly from both political and religious fanaticism.

As many other leaders of various organized crime groups, Torrio saw this as a perfect business venture to save his organization from extinction. Colosimo didn’t agree. Colosimo forbade Torrio to bootleg any illicit liquor to the various speakeasies that were sprouting up all over Chicago.

Torrio knew that if he wasn't going to dominate the new bootlegging business in Chicago, somebody else would. That’s why Torrio allegedly had Colosimo assassinated on May 11, 1920. This betrayal would be a prelude to the violence generated by organized crime for dominance over the bootlegging racket in Chicago.

With Colosimo out of the way, Torrio took control of his new empire with Capone second in command. With Torrio at the helm, and Capone making sure that speakeasy operators were purchasing their beer, the Torrio/Capone organization took control of most of the South Side of Chicago.

Trying to avoid the bloody turf battles that were about to be unleashed on Chicago, Torrio met with various leaders of bootlegging organizations and carved out territories for them to operate in. Torrio would take the South Side. Dion O’ Banion, leader of the predominantly Irish North Side Gang, took the North Side, and the Sicilian Genna Brothers would take Chicago’s downtown region.

Clashes soon started happening between the Genna’s and O’ Banion. The Genna brothers wanted to have O’ Bannion assassinated, but since they were Sicilians, they would have to get the permission of the governing Mafia body in Chicago before they could make the hit.

The governing Sicilian Mafia body at the time was known as the Unione Siciliana, an organization originally set up to help Sicilian immigrants get settled, but now had become corrupted by Sicilian gangsters and was a front for what was then the American Mafia. Again, at this time, before reorganization in 1931, you must have been a full blooded Sicilian in order to be a member of the Mafia; other Italians could not be a part of the organization. Capone was denied membership because his background was Neapolitan, not Sicilian.

The man in charge of the Unione Siciliana at the time was Mike Merlo. Merlo abhorred violence and denied the fearsome Genna brothers permission to have O’ Banion assassinated. While being alive and in control of the governing Mafia body in Chicago, Merlo was able to keep the peace between the various criminal organizations.

Mike Merlo died of cancer on November 8, 1924. Two days later the gangs of Chicago broke into open warfare.

The assassination of Dion O’ Banion on November 10, 1924, by both the Genna brothers and Torrio’s South Side gang, triggered a series of events that would eventually crescendo into the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

The death of Mike Merlo meant that someone else would have to take leadership of the governing body of the Mafia.

Angelo Genna, the youngest and most volatile of the six Genna brothers would take Merlo's position as president. Capone, desperate to dominate the organization, had a close ally, Antonio Lombardo, that he would have liked to have seen as head of the Unione.

This plan made by the Neapolitan Capone didn't sit well with the Sicilian Gennas, who, as members of the hierarchy of the Unione, saw the position of president as one of prestige and honor among their Sicilian brethren. The brothers quickly rallied and pressed hard to put Angelo in as the next president. Capone, unhappy at the turn of events, bided his time under the patient leadership of Torrio.

O’Bannon’s death would soon be avenged. In January 1925, a retaliation from the North Side gang ended up with the attempted assassination of Johnny Torrio. While Torrio survived the ambush right outside of his apartment, he retired from the soon to be bloody streets of Chicago, and left his underworld empire to Capone and moved to Italy. Torrio would later return to the United States and would be a key player in the reorganization of the American Mafia in 1931.

His rule lasting a little over five months, in May, 1925, Hymie Weiss , now leader of the Irish North Side Gang, dispatched assassins that chased down Angelo Genna in a high speed car chase and then shot him to death. Angelo's death and the loss of leadership of the Unione Siciliana were the least of the remaining brothers' worries. Soon after Angelo’s murder, two of the six brothers: Mike and Antonio Genna were also murdered. In a period of 44 days, three of the Genna brothers were killed. The remaining Genna brothers: Peter, Sam, and Vincenzo fled to Sicily, leaving Capone in control of his new empire to take over their rackets.

With Angelo Genna being dispatched so quickly, the Unione Siciliana needed yet another leader. Capone still pushed for his faithful ally, Antonio Lombardo, to become president of the Unione, but lost again to a man by the name of Samuel Samuzzo Amatuna. Unfortunately for Amatuna, his reign would just last a week shorter than Genna’s, thanks to assassins quickly dispatched by Capone.

With the death of Amatuna in November, 1925, Al Capone was finally able to place his own man, Lombardo, into the leadership of the Unione Siciliana. It was not an easy task. Opposing the Capone interests was Giuseppe Aiello, one of the nine members active in the Unione. Aiello also desired the seat of power for himself.

While trying to dominate the local Mafia, Capone’s relationship with the North Side Gang continued to sour. On September 20, 1926, Capone was having lunch with bodyguard Frank Rio at the Hawthorne Hotel when a caravan of cars cruised past the building and riddled it with hundreds of submachine gun bullets. Hymie Weiss, then leader of the North Side Gang, and a bodyguard were later assassinated on October 11, 1926, in a hail of gunfire while crossing the street, leaving George “Bugs” Moran to take control of the North Side Gang.

Desperate to defeat both Capone and Lombardo, and secure his influence over the Unione Siciliana, Giuseppe Aiello turned to Bugs Moran and the North Side Gang for assistance. After several months of “peace”, assassins of Moran and brothers, Frank and Peter Gusenberg, gunned down Lombardo in a busy Chicago street on September 7th , 1928.

With the assassination of Lombardo, the Unione needed yet ANOTHER leader. Aiello was yet again denied leadership and another Capone ally, Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo, took the position. Shortly after, on January 8, 1929, "Patsy" Lolordo was shot to death in his house by an unknown gunman…..but you could probably guess who he worked for by now. And guess who still didn't get to be President of the Unione? That’s right! Joseph ''Hop Toad'' Guinta took over leadership of the Unione Siciliana.

It didn't take long for Capone to figure out that the demise of both Lolordo and Lomardo were carefully orchestrated by Giuseppe Aiello. Capone was planning, along with one of his top triggerman, "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, a damaging retaliatory response that would be remembered throughout history as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

The plan was fairly simple. While Capone was away on vacation at his Florida estate(in order to have a solid alibi), assassins disguised as cops would be waiting outside one of Moran’s garages. When Moran would enter, the “police” would barge in on them, stage a raid, and then shoot Moran and his men.

At around 10:30 a.m. on February, 14, 1929, the Moran gang had already arrived at the warehouse. However, Moran himself was not inside. One account states that Moran was supposedly approaching the warehouse, spotted the police car, and fled the scene to a nearby coffee shop. Another account was that Moran was simply late getting there.

The lookouts that Capone had placed across the street to insure that Moran himself was inside the garage mistook one of Moran’s men for Moran himself. Thinking that Moran was inside the garage, Capone’s lookouts signaled for the assassins to enter.

Witnesses outside the garage saw a Cadillac sedan pull to a stop in front of the garage. Four men, two dressed in police uniform, emerged and walked inside. The two phony police, carrying shotguns, entered the rear portion of the garage and found members of Moran's gang. The killers told the seven men to line up facing the back wall. There was apparently not any resistance, as the Moran men thought their captors were the real authorities. Then the two "police officers" signaled the pair in civilian clothes. Two of the killers started shooting with Thompson sub-machine guns. All seven men were killed in a volley of seventy machine-gun bullets and two shotgun blasts, according to the coroner's report. To show bystanders that everything was under control, the men in street clothes came out with their hands up, prodded by the two uniformed cops.

The seven men that were killed that day were: James Clark, Frank and Pete Gusenberg(brothers), Adam Heyer, Johnny May, Dr. Reinhardt Schwimmer, and Al Weinshank. All of these men had a position in Moran's criminal operations, from button men to front men.

When Moran heard about the massacre, he checked himself into a hospital. The press eventually found him and when asked who could have done such a thing. Moran responded with: “Only Capone kills like that.”

While Moran himself wasn't killed in the incident, his gang was annihilated.

The North Side Gang eventually lost control over its rackets to the Capone organization, leaving Al Capone completely in control over Chicago. The rest of Moran’s criminal career amounted to nothing more than petty thievery. Moran was arrested in 1946 for robbing $10,000 from a bank messenger. He was convicted and sentenced to prison. Moran later died of cancer on February 25, 1957. He was given a pauper's burial outside of prison.

With virtually every other obstacle out of his way, Capone was in complete control of Chicago. But his plan eventually backfired. The public had grown tired of the gruesome violence in Chicago generated by prohibition. While the St. Valentine's Day Massacre was successful in removing any business opposition from the Capone interest, it had also made national headlines. Finally answering the cries of an outraged public, the Federal Government planed to put Capone behind bars.

Even though Capone was successful in defeating Bugs Moran and the North Side Gang, he still had the treacherous Giuseppe Aiello organizing assassination attempts against him. Capone’s uncanny ability not to get shot, even though several dozen assassination attempts were put in motion against him, forced Aiello to turn to two of Capone’s own assassins to help murder him. Albert Anselmi, John Scalise, as well as the new head of the Unione, Joseph "Hop Toad" Giunta, met with Aiello, who proposed that if Capone was assassinated they could take control of his empire for themselves.

In April 1929, after getting wind of the plot, Capone beat them to the punch and had the three men killed, dispatched with a beating from a baseball bat, followed by a gunshot to the face to finish the job (the scene famed by a number of movies in which Capone murders associates with a baseball bat at a banquet is based on these killings). All three of their bodies were found in an abandoned automobile several days later.

With the death of Joseph "Hop Toad" Giunta, Giuseppe Aiello was finally able to take control of the Unione Siciliana. While Aiello was coming into power, Capone was going to jail. Capone served a one year sentence in prison for carrying a concealed weapon.

While in jail, Capone learned of plans that Aiello again was trying to assassinate him. Capone, finally deciding to assassinate Aiello, bided his time in prison.

On October 23, 1930, with several of his lieutenants being murdered in the previous year, Aiello was making plans to permanently leave Chicago. Upon leaving a local building, a gunman in a second-floor window across the street started firing at him with a submachine gun. Aiello toppled off the building steps and moved around the corner, out of the line of fire. Unfortunately for him, he stumbled into the range of a second submachine gun nest on the third floor of another apartment block. Aiello was taken to Garfield Park Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. The coroner eventually removed 59 bullets from his body.

While Capone was yet again victorious in getting rid of another underworld nemesis, it would be law enforcement that would be his downfall. Elliot Ness(who gets far too much credit for putting away Capone) and his team of “Untouchables” impacted Capone's operations, but it was income tax evasion that was the key weapon. In a number of federal grand jury cases in 1931, Capone was charged with 22 counts of tax evasion and also 5,000 violations of the Volstead Act. On October 17, 1931, Capone was sentenced to eleven years, and following a failed appeal, he began his sentence in 1932.

With prohibition ending, along with a major Mafia revolution and reorganization underway, Capone found himself behind bars.

He would be eventually transferred to Alcatraz prison, where the isolation from the outside world didn't help the syphilis that was slowly eating away at his brain.

After his release, Capone’s mental health had greatly diminished. He often raved on about communists, foreigners, and George Moran, who he was convinced was still plotting to kill him from his Ohio prison cell. On January 21, 1947, Capone suffered a stroke. He regained consciousness and started to improve but contracted pneumonia two days later. Capone then suffered a fatal cardiac arrest the next day at his Florida estate.

Sources:

-The Gangs of Chicago-Herbert Asbury

-The Outfit-Gus Russo

-Capone: The Man and the Era-Laurence Bergreen

-The History of Organized Crime : The True story and Secrets of Global Gangland-David Southwell.

-Organized Crime : An Inside Guide to the World's Most Successful Industry-Paul Lunde.

Colonial Gangster

When one thinks of organized crime in New York, the Mafia or the Irish “Westies” usually comes to mind. But more than a century before the birth of gangsterism, a loose confederacy of poor Irish, African slaves, and Spanish negros formed a primitive organized crime syndicate that dominated the underworld in colonial New York.

In 1741, an alleged conspiracy to burn down New York and murder the white elite was uncovered. The alleged ringleader of this plot was John Hughson, an illiterate, Irish tavern owner who illegally served African slaves. Hughson’s own wife and daughter, and several slaves that frequented his tavern, were also accused of being members in this conspiracy. Daniel Horsmanden, one of the judges who tried these supposed conspirators, collected an assortment of court documents pertaining to the trial and put them into one book, A History of the Negro Plot. While certainly biased towards the existence of this conspiracy, and the lack of innocence of all of those tried, Horsmanden’s documents give us a glimpse of a primitive crime syndicate that operated in colonial New York. But besides Horsmanden’s own biases, the book is filled with testimony of informants who have “flipped” to “rat” on behalf of the government, or slaves, who on the verge of brutal execution, decided to reveal their participation in this “dark confederacy.” So to the historian, the condition under which these witnesses gave their testimony must also be considered.  While this paper deals with the organized gangs that were uncovered during this trial, it will also cover the alleged planning of the conspiracy, which could be argued was an act of organized crime in itself.

New York City always seemed to be a haven for criminals. Fifty percent of all crime that took place in the colonies, occurred in New York. Four times as much theft was reported in the city than the outlaying country side. Surprisingly, slaves were tried for crimes in far fewer numbers then their percentage of population.  To give an example, over ninety percent of all crimes committed in New York were by men. 7.5 percent of those men were committed by blacks. Between the winters of 1740-41, the burglary rate in New York was on the rise. Even though the majority of men tried for crimes against persons and crimes against public order were white, those tried for crimes against property were slaves.  This statistic suggest that while mostly white men were arrested and tried for getting drunk in public and fighting in the streets, slaves were on average were to participate in burglary. In most cases, the victim of these crimes would be the slave masters themselves, who commonly did not report the crimes because of fear they would have to explain to the court why they could not control their slaves. Since slaves, on average, were more likely to commit burglary, why did slaves steal? It could be to fight the institution of slavery itself, or it could be simply out of necessity, for survival. The most likely reason for slaves committing burglary is the same reason that anyone commits burglary, for financial gain.

If slaves stole goods from their masters, then what would they do with it after that? It would be a similar answer to what modern burglars would do, take it to a fence. Defined by Webster dictionary, a “fence” is either a place where stolen goods are purchased or an actual receiver of stolen goods. Both John Hughson and his tavern perfectly fit both of those definitions. As stated earlier, the illiterate Hughson moved to New York from the country to open a tavern. Hughson owned one of the few taverns in New York that catered to slaves, which was illegal. Not only did he allow slaves into his establishment, but he also tolerated the company of slaves personally. Hughson allowing slaves to enter and drink in his establishment would be a trait he would share with gangsters that owned bars in the 20th Century. Several dance halls that operated in the 20s and 30s were owned by Jewish and Italian gangsters. Money, not skin color, being the ultimate admission ticket, race mixing in these clubs became so prevalent that the Klu Klux Klan devoted a considerable amount of resources to destroying them. Also, in the early years of the 20th Century, Mafia owned clubs in  New Orleans housed a new kind of music called “jazz” which was shunned by many of the white, mainstream establishments. Both being the ultra-capitalist, Hughson and his gangster descendants, despite what society would dictate, wouldn't let skin color get in the way of making money.

One of the most frequent group of patrons at Hughson’s tavern was a gang called the Geneva Club. Named after a shipment of Dutch gin that the group stole years earlier from the docks of New York, the Geneva Club was an organized criminal gang of slaves that were responsible for a fair amount of burglary that occurred along the New York waterfront. Lead by slave Caesar Varick, and his friends, Prince Auboyneau and Cuffee Philipse, the Geneva Club was one of the leading criminal groups of New York. The way these gangs would operate is that they would steal goods, and then deliver them to Hughson’s tavern. Hughson, the fence, who would sell the stolen goods would either in return give the gang members money or, most commonly, would pay them in alcohol. But the Geneva Club wasn't the only organized criminal slave gang that operated in the New York underworld. The Smiths Fly Boys, the Long Bridge Boys, and the Free Masons were all slave gangs that burglarized New York City . Even though it is only documented that the Geneva Club used Hughson’s tavern as a fence, it is not out of the question that all the rest of these gangs used Hughson as a source to fence their stolen goods.

The only reason that the conspiracy came to light in the first place was through an act of crime. Christopher Wilson, a cabin boy for an English man of war, was planning to rob the shop of Robert Hogg. The Hoggs, who sold linen, noticed that Wilson was particularly eyeing the Spanish mill coins that Mrs. Hoggs kept in the drawer in the shop. Soon after, on February 28th , the coins disappeared. It is not clear if Wilson stole the coins himself, or if he told members of the Geneva Club about it, or if members of the Geneva Club caught wind of the potential score and decided to muscle in on the burglary for themselves. What is known that the coins were gone. Remembering his fascination with the coins, Mrs. Hoggs told the Sheriff that Wilson had committed the crime. When the Sheriff asked Wilson about it, he claimed that a soldier named John Quinn had shown him the coins at Hughson’s tavern. Days after, the sheriff could not find anybody by the name of Quinn. He questioned Wilson again about the burglary. It is not stated in Horsmanden’s History of the Negro Plot what the Sheriff did to make Wilson confess, but he did. Wilson now told the Sheriff that slaves and Geneva Club members Caesar Varick and Prince Auboyneau committed the crime. But why did Wilson lie to the authorities? And who is this mysterious John Quinn? It was later uncovered that Wilson wasn't exactly lying to the authorities, but he wasn't telling the truth either. One of Caesar’s most popular aliases was John Quinn. In his book The Great New York Conspiracy, Peter Charles Hoffer claims that even Caesar wasn't aware of his alias. Hoffer explains that aliases weren't nicknames like criminals use today, but when criminals would scheme and talk about committing crimes, they would make up names for each other to limit their exposure and conceal their identities.

Both Caesar and Prince were immediately arrested, and since they both had prior convictions for theft, the case seemed to be solved. Probably in an attempt to distance himself from the two gang members, Hughson flipped and admitted to the authorities that both Caesar and Prince were both in his tavern with the stolen coins. The case should have ended here. Both Caesar and Prince were accused by two white men(Wilson and Hughson), and would probably be executed for the crime. But, the spark that would eventually ignite a flair of conspiracy would come from Hughson’s sixteen year old indentured servant, Mary Burton. While out buying candles for Hughson, she admitted to the shop owners, the Kannadys, that she had a greater knowledge of the recent burglary than anyone else. The Kannadys quickly ran to the police and told them that Mary Burton had knowledge of the Hogg’s burglary. When the authorities questioned Burton, she first claimed that she had no such knowledge of the robbery. But as authorities started to put more pressure on her, she broke down in tears. She claimed to the police that if she gave the authorities information that she would be murdered by either Hughson or members of the Geneva Club. Eventually, she would give in to the authorities and became a government witness. Her first revelation was that the Irish prostitute that lived in Hughson’s tavern, Irish Peg, had been intimate with Caesar, and bore his child a year earlier. When this was eventually proven to be true, in Horsmanden’s mind anyway, Burton became a credible witness. Then Burton said that Hughson had stolen goods hidden in his basement. Hughson gave up the goods to the authorities, but claimed he didn't know how they got there.

Over a week after Hughson gave up his goods to the authorities, on March 18th,  a fire broke out at the Fort George. The fire didn't only engulf the Fort, but also the Govenor’s mansion, the armory, and the chapel. Six more fires would break out between March 18th and May 6th. May 6th is also the same day that John Hughson and his wife, Sarah, were both arrested for possession of stolen goods. Who was setting these fires? And why did the fires stop the day that John Hughson was arrested? It was not unusual for criminals to set fire to a residence or a shop to steal people’s goods while the home or business owners were busy trying to put out the flames. Even though it takes place over a century later, this popular criminal act can be seen recreated in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002). Several people whose houses were engulfed in flames complained to local magistrates that they suffered great material losses not by the fire, but rather by people stealing it from them.  Even though the identities or the reason that these fires were started, whispers of conspiracy traveled through New York. Witnesses near the fires claim they saw negroes starting them.

Amid this hotbed of paranoia, a conspiracy began to take shape. While giving testimony about the Hoggs robbery, Burton accidently slipped that she may have known something more about the fires that had been said. When asked, she said she would not divulge the information she had. Horsmaden tried everything, from promising her protection from the people she was about to accuse to telling her that she would see jail time is she stayed silent. It was only the threat of answering to God in the afterlife that shook up Mary Burton enough to talk. She was the first domino to fall. Burton told the grand jury that the same slaves that brought the stolen coins to Hughson’s, Caesar and Prince, along with slave Cuffee Phillips, often met with Hughson to talk about burning down the city, killing all of the white elites, and stealing their goods. After the “revolution”, Hughson would proclaim himself “king” of New York and Caesar would be governor. Hughson went as far as to even purchase eight guns and several swords to arm the criminal insurrection.Barton would admit that over thirty slaves would be apart of this alleged plot and that she witnessed a strange induction ceremony. Backed up by slaves that would eventually give testimony to the government, Hughson would gather the slaves, take out a bible, and swear each of them to an oath to establish code of silence about the plot. Caesar, acting as an enforcer, even put a pistol up to a slave’s chest to force him into the conspiracy.

Not soon after this information came out, both Caesar and Prince were executed, not for their part in this conspiracy, but rather for burglary. The next day, May 12th, John and Sarah Hughson were indicted for their part in the alleged conspiracy. Adding to the charges of “felonious receiving stolen goods”, which they were already charged for on May, 6th. Eventually, a slave named Quaco Roosevelt would be connected to the fires and was arrested. He admitted that he was angry that the Lt. Governor for banning him from seeing his girlfriend, a cook at Fort George. Quaco admits that Hughson put him up to starting the fire at the fort. Another slave, Bastian, testified that Hughson said that he intended to burn down the fort first, so he could disarm the colony. After that, Bastian  claimed that one of the slaves that was accompanying Hughson had something black in his hand, which he planned to use to burn down the fort with. Quaco would eventually be sentence to death for arson. Before his execution, Quaco was asked why did Hughson collude with slaves to burn the city down. Quaco simply replied: “To make himself rich.” Quaco wanted to confess more to the judges, but the mob that was there to see his execution demanded that the stalling stopped and the execution start. Quaco, along with Geneva Club member Cuffee, were both executed at the stake.

By the end of the trial, arraignments were made for 109 slaves. Of those thrown in jail, 72 slaves confessed their part in this “dark confederacy.” Out of all the slaves examined, 13 were burned at the stake and 18 were hung. John Hughson, along with his wife, were both hung, with the Irish prostitute Peg, on June 12th. Up to his death, Hughson claimed that he was never part of or had any knowledge of any conspiracy to set fire to the city and slaughter the white elite. Hughson’s Judas, Mary Burton, received a reward for being the first person to come forward with information about the conspiracy. As an indentured servant, she used her reward money to buy her freedom.

While Horsmanden was certain that most of  those accused were guilty, not all historians agree. So who was guilty of what? Both members of the Geneva Club and John Hughson were definitely both guilty of operating in the criminal underworld of New York. New crimes were even uncovered during the trial. Apparently, members of the Geneva Club heisted a crate of butter and sold it for profit. If any of the testimony in Horsmanden’s book is to be believed, then both Hughson and the Geneva Club decided to take their criminal enterprise to new levels. After taking over the city, Hughson would literally be “boss”, while Caesar would be his lieutenant. But could an illiterate tavern owner be capable of forming such a conspiracy? If so, Hughson didn't seem like he would take over the city for anything other than financial gain. Though being in charge of a gang of slaves, Hughson was never an outspoken abolitionist. He talked about financial equality, but never about equal rights. Hughson’s role and status in the New York underworld, his downfall being a turncoat that testified against him in court, and his sole motivation to “make himself richer”, could make him America’s first colonial gangster.

Sources
-A History of the Negro Plot-John Horsmanden
-The Great New York Conspiracy of 1741-Peter Charles Hoffer
-A History of Negro Slavery in New York-Edgar J. McManus
-The Gangs of New York-Herbert Asbury
-A Renegade History of the United States-Thaddeus Russell
-The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic-Peter Linebauh and Marcus Rediker

My Top Ten Movies of 2012

10.) Cloud Atlas

I know America, shit sucks. Kids are getting shot in school, the American Empire is on the verge of collapse, and your disgusting Twinkies are now extinct(or rather, repackaged and renamed). All that being said, I will never forgive your ass for what you did to this movie. Cloud Atlas is six different movies in one, and you didn't see it. No movie has ever made me feel that life was both meaningful and insignificant at the same time. Yes, Cloud Atlas has its problems, but in the end they are all overcome by the film's technical ambition. 

9.) Seven Psychopaths

Another movie that had a dismal run at the box office? Look at this picture. How do you not want to see this?!?! No, I didn't like this as much as In Bruges, but Seven Psychopaths was hilarious. To put it simply, it's a movie that is completely self-aware that it's a movie. It is the Skynet of movies in 2012, but instead of blowing up the world, all this movie wants to do is make you laugh. Not that any of you deserve better. 

8.) Prometheus

Yes, we were all disappointed. Get over it. But in reality, nothing could meet your expectations for Ridley Scott's return to science fiction. Yes, Prometheus was super silly, but shit, I still liked it. 

7.) Argo

Out of all the movies that I have on my list, Argo is the only one that I think could seriously win any major awards at the Oscars this year, and I hope it does. Ignored for his fine directorial work on both Gone, Baby Gone and The Town, Argo may be the film that Affleck finally gets awarded for. 

6.) Lawless

If you know me in person, then you won't be surprised that Lawless made my top ten list. Prohibition, suits, tommy guns, trench coats, and fedoras. 

5.) Skyfall

Thank God for Skyfall. After Quantum of Solace, which is arguably one of the worst Bond movies to date, I thought Daniel Craig's Bond movies would be a repeat of Pierce Brosnan's career, where each film would get worse as they came along. Thankfully, Skyfall broke this curse for Craig. I hope. 

4.) Django Unchained

Django was great, but I think the film fell a little short. Even though I saw it seven days ago, I still don't know where I stand with Django. I loved it, but not as much as I thought I would. Christoph Waltz, Leonardo Dicaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson were all great, I was just left expecting more from the movie. As you can see I'm having a tough time with this, check back later. 

3.) Cabin in the Woods

If you're reading this without having seen Cabin in the Woods, stop, and go watch Cabin in the Woods. I've said too much already. 

2.) Looper

I'm not going to lie. When I first walked out of Looper, I was a tad disappointed. Besides Cowboy Bebop and The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Looper is one of the few films that portrays organized crime in the future. I was expecting Goodfellas set in both 2044 and 2074. It wasn't, and the movie had an actual story line that focused little on how organized criminal syndicates operated in the future. But that's great, and I still loved Looper, it just wasn't what I was expecting. Looper is an amazing time travel movie from Rian Johnson(Brick, The Brothers Bloom), one of my favorite new directors. 


1.) Killing Them Softly

Seriously, fuck you. Yes you. You had one job, and it wasn't hard. All you had to do was see this movie, and you didn't. Good job. If you think I was pissed about Cloud Atlas, I cannot express myself in words how disappointed I am with the entire world. It's like I'm in an episode of The Twilight Zone where I am the only one who actually went see this movie, let alone loved it. I'm not going to talk too much more about Killing Them Softly, because you can read my full review of it here: http://omerta907.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-economy-of-crime-review-of-killing.html



Ehhhhh, almost......
(Films that didn't make my top ten, but are, in no particular order, worth mentioning) 

-The Master

-V/H/S

-Moonrise Kingdom

-The Invisible War

-Lincoln

The Economy of Crime: A Review of "Killing Them Softly."

WARNING: SPOILERS! 
If you haven't seen Killing Them Softly, I suggest you avoid the following review.

America's not a country. It's a business. Now fucking pay me.-Jackie Cogan

Based off the novel by George V. Higgins, Killing Them Softly stars Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan, a mob hitman who is tasked with tracking down the three men that conspired to rob a mob protected poker game. Directed by Andrew Dominik(The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)), Killing Them Softly takes place in the most dismal of locations in a post-recession city.

One issue I take, not with the film, but rather with several of its reviews that have come out saying that this story is set in New Orleans. Being filmed in New Orleans, of course, there are several locations that look very familiar to a current resident, like myself. But to somebody who has never visited New Orleans before, these locations could be the slums set in any city. While some locals and reviewers may fault Dominik for not capturing the particular essence that New Orleans has to offer, I argue that Dominik kept the locations as non specific as possible.

 For example, Roger Ebert says:

"Killing Them Softly” begins with a George V. Higgins novel set in Boston in 1974 and moves its story to post-Katrina New Orleans in 2008..."

"Killing Them Softly” continues as a dismal, dreary series of cruel and painful murders, mostly by men who know one another, in a barren city where it's usually night, often rainy and is never identifiable as New Orleans — not even by the restaurants."

 Ebert's full review can be found here: http://www.rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121128/REVIEWS/121129985

Unlike Ebert, not only do I not think that Killing Them Softly takes place in New Orleans, I don't think it takes place in any specific city. The location remains undisclosed, so that the viewer could think that this story could possibly happen anywhere. But there is one factor that I don't think Ebert took into consideration in assuming that the movie takes place in New Orleans: legalized gambling. Gambling is legal in New Orleans, making mob run poker games obsolete. Even if one would argue that underground poker games still existed in New Orleans, which there is no evidence of, why would anyone run the risk of going to an underground poker game, when they could just gamble at a legal establishment? Harrah's casino in New Orleans is so large, it would take a legion of armed gunman to rob it.

Another point in the story that makes it impossible for it to take place in New Orleans, is that it seems that the entire underworld economy focuses on these card games. Even when underground gambling existed in New Orleans, under the reign of mob boss Carlos Marcello, and while illegal gambling played a very large part of his organization's income, it wasn't his organization’s  only income. His entire organization wouldn't collapse if one of his gambling houses was raided. Again, since gambling is legal in New Orleans, it would be impossible for a criminal organization to exists solely on the profits of underground card games.

The movie starts with low level thieves Frankie(Scoot McNairy) and Australian junkie Russell(the underrated Ben Mendelsohn) being hired by an equally low level underworld figure, Johnny Amato(Vince Curatola, who is a pleasure to be seen on screen again in a post-Sopranos gangster role), to rob an illegal poker game that is run by Mark Trattman(Ray Liotta). The only reason that Amato is attempting the robbery in the first place is because Trattman's game has been robbed before. Trattman was in on the robbery, and drunkenly confessed it to his underworld colleagues one night.  One offset of the card game being robbed is the complete collapse of the underworld economy. Since one of them were robbed, all of the card games in the city were shut down and nobody was making any money. While one may think that Trattman would be killed because of this, he is so liked by everyone, he gets a pass. Amato figures that if the card game is robbed again, the underworld would immediately suspect Trattman and he would be disposed of, ending the investigation there.

The robbery goes off without a hitch. Jackie Cogan is then contacted by a man just referred to as "The Driver"(Richard Jenkins),who is a spokesperson of the leaders of the underworld, to investigate who robbed the poker game. It's explained in the film that Cogan's superior, Dillon(Sam Shepard) received a life threatening stab wound, and is unable to work, so Cogan took his place. Cogan immediately suspects that Trattman is innocent, but he must be killed anyway to keep up appearances. Another problem with Ebert's review(I'm not trying to pick on him, I swear) is that Ebert can't understand why Trattman had to be killed.

Ebert says:

"Here is where the Catch-22 comes in: Now that Markie has claimed credit for knocking off his own game, another one of his games is stuck up. Does it now seem inevitable that he, too, becomes a marked man? Not to me. Who with any common sense would think he was that dumb? There's some of the Higgins brand of humor in a conversation about how badly he should be beaten up."

The reasoning why Trattman must be killed, even though he is innocent, is because everyone else in the underworld would just assume that he ripped off his own card game again. If Trattman gets another pass, then what would stop anyone from robbing mob protected card games if there are no repercussions? After being beaten up to get a confession out of him, in which he pleads his innocence, in a beautifully shot scene, Trattman is killed by Cogan in a passing car.

It is then revealed that the junkie Russell has bragged to a friend about the robbery that he and Frankie took part in. That is when Frankie, Russell, and Amato become marked men.

Cogan then asks "The Driver" to spring for a second man, Mickey(James Gandolfini), because Amato knows Cogan, and would be aware of his fate if the two would cross paths. Times and resources being tight because of the underworld recession, "The Driver" is reluctant to bring in a second man. When he does agree, he issues one ultimatum for Cogan: "Fly Coach." Another problem, although it being a very small one, with Ebert's review is his "classification" of Mickey in the underworld.

Ebert says:

"A high-level mob boss named Mickey (James Gandolfini) arrives in town, hauling his in-flight luggage through the airport like a traveling businessman."

This may seem like splitting hairs, but Mickey is not a "mob boss." The whole point of being the boss of a criminal organization is to insulate yourself from as much exposure as possible. The very notion that a mob boss would be flown in to commit a murder is ludicrous. Mickey is just another hitman, like Cogan. The two have a history of working together, and that's why Cogan wants to recruit him.

Even though Cogan had a professionally high regard for Mickey, he is not the man he used to be. Mickey is now caught in a downward spiral of alcohol and hookers. Cogan being disgusted by the man he has become, he actually sets up Mickey to be arrested at a hotel after he gets in a fight with a hooker. Mickey is on parole and is not supposed to be out of New York, so his arrest and departure would get him out of the picture.

Now that he can't count on Mickey, Cogan decides to take care of the murders himself.  Russell is arrested by police on drug possession, so he is now out of Cogan's reach. Cogan confronts Frankie in a bar, where he forces him into driving to the location where Amato is going to be that night. Frankie reluctantly agrees, knowing that if he doesn't cooperate, he will be killed. Later that night, Amato is then violently gunned down by Cogan. When Cogan and Frankie return to drop off the car they stole to kill Amato in, Cogan shoots Frankie.

The hits being complete, Cogan meets "The Driver" in a bar to collect his cash. Cogan is upset because he is only paid $10,000 a hit. "The Driver" says that is the "recession price" that his boss, Dillion, accepted from the mob bosses. Cogan then reveals that Dillion died that morning, and that now he is working for the organization , and it's going to be expensive. That is when Cogan says to "The Driver" America's not a country. It's a business. Now fucking pay me.

Gangster movies often mirror the business climate. Gangster films set during the “Roaring Twenties” portray gangsters as the ultimate capitalist, as businessmen whose illicit business is on the rise. Classic gangster films like The Public Enemy(1931), Scarface(1932), and The Roaring Twenties(1939), gangsters are flashy and flaunt their wealth to the world. The economic climate being in the gutter that it is today, Killing Them Softly takes a more cynical view of life in America. Throughout the movie, speeches by President George W. Bush and Senator Obama can be heard in the background. News broadcast about the economic crash can be heard in car radios, and a billboard advertising both Obama and McCain’s campaign is shown in the opening scene. The ending scene in the movie shows Obama’s election as President and part of his victory speech. The speeches given by these politicians, who are suggesting things will get better, are juxtaposed to the rotting infrastructure of the inner city. On the eve of Obama’s victory, Cogan can be seen walking past people setting off fireworks, celebrating his election. When Cogan walks past the celebration, he is the only character in focus, as if he is the only one that realizes that things will not get better.

The gangsters in this movie aren’t flashy. They don’t live in big houses or drive expensive cars. Most of the scenes in the film are shot in concrete wastelands or urban slums. Mirroring the economic crash of the economy of the United States, the underworld economy is also in crisis. It seems that the desperate criminal syndicate operating in this city only has one source of income left: gambling. No other crimes that generate income are shown. There is no extortion, no drug trade, no other rackets shown that support this criminal organization.

But maybe the reason no other rackets could be shown is because the film just focuses on the lower levels of the underworld. The highest ranking person in the film shown is “The Driver”, who is a spokesperson that acts as a buffer between the lower criminal element and the boss(es). “The Driver” is the most well dressed person in the film. He drives the nicest car. Could it be that the higher level gangsters are keeping more of the profits for themselves? Maybe not. “The Driver” hesitates granting any money at all to Cogan to get the job done. When Cogan asks him to pay for Mickey to come in from New York, “The Driver”  tries to assure Cogan that the boss(es) will not spend more money on another man. Trattman, though well dressed, lives in a small, run down house in the middle of an urban slum. In a flashback, he is shown living in a small trailer. Amota could represent the struggling small business owner. Suggesting that he spent some time in prison, Amota is trying to start up his criminal business again. His office is not in a bar or a club, but rather a run down, shabby looking dry cleaning shop. Not much is known about Cogan’s personal life, except that he thinks that $30,000 for three hits is well below the regular market price. Frankie and especially Russell live in poverty and squalor. In the beginning of the film, they can be seen traversing gutted neighborhoods, where most of the houses are either abandoned or demolished.

Overall, Killing Them Softly is beautiful. The eroding infrastructure that only post-Katrina New Orleans can offer sets the perfect tone for the movie. What Dominik did for the western with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, he does for the gangster movie with Killing Them Softly. He is able to make an art film without it feeling pretentious. The dialogue is darkly humorous.  The acting is fantastic all around. Seeing Gandolfini and Curatola in criminal roles again after The Sopranos is satisfying. While the soundtrack compliments the film immensely, with Johnny Cash’s The Man Comes Around playing with the introduction of Pitt’s character and Petula Clark's rendition of  Windmills of Your Mind playing when Frankie discovers that his identity as one of the robbers is known by the underworld, the film lacks in its score. After being unjustly ignored for his score in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, I was hoping that Nick Cave would do another score that was as haunting as Jesse James was. Cave not returning for Dominik’s second major feature, results in a score that is easily forgettable.

With all that being said, Killing Them Softly is my favorite film of the year, so far. Its only competition being Tarantino’s Django Unchained, which doesn’t come out until Christmas. But Dominik emerging as one of my favorite new directors in Hollywood and my unshakable bias towards gangster movies, I’m confident that 2012 will end with Killing Them Softly being at the top of my list.

Underworld Colonialism

Since the 16th Century, the various countries of Europe at one time or another have tried to colonize other parts of the world, namely Africa, Asia, and Latin America. While there are obvious examples in modern cinema that portray European colonialism (Ronald Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite)  being a “White Hunter” in Stephen Spielberg’s The Lost World(1998) and various Indian stereotypes reinforced in Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom(1984), there is one genre that gets overlooked: the gangster movie.

In the period between 1881 and the eve of World War I, several expansionist European countries occupied, colonized, and annexed various territories in Africa.  Historically referred to as “The Scramble for Africa”, African natives played a secondary role to their European masters.  Six years after World War I, the United States passed the 18th Amendment, outlawing the sale and production of alcohol. Mirroring the actions of the European nations, various underworld organizations scrambled to carve up territories to plow a now highly profitable and illegal product. But instead of Africa, these gangs and organizations, mostly of European descent, would claim territories in the most populated cities in the United States. While this underworld scramble occurred in the U.S., instead of Africa, African American criminals would still play a secondary role to their European underworld masters. 

There is no shortage of gangster movies that takes place during prohibition. But, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club (1984) is a fantastic example of how the memory of European colonial imperialism is portrayed through the gangster film.  Taking place in New York during 1928, The Cotton Club follows the career of trumpet player Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere), who, through a chance encounter with Bronx kingpin Dutch Schultz (James Remar), becomes a trumpet player at the infamous “playground of the mob.” The Cotton Club itself, which is owned by Irish gangster Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins), is located in Harlem, which is predominately an African American neighborhood. The fact that an Irish gangster, who is of European descent, owns a club in a predominantly African American part of New York is a direct reflection to the expansionist history of the European powers. But the Cotton Club wasn't only a hangout for just Irish gangsters, but gangsters of various European descent. German-Jewish gangster Dutch Schultz and eventually Sicilian Mafia boss Charlie “Lucky” Luciano (Joe Dallesandro) are both respected guests at the club. The only gangsters that aren't seen there are the African American gangsters, which as stated earlier, play a subservient role to their European gangster overlords. Bumpy Rhodes (Laurence Fishburne), who is based off the real life New York gangster Bumpy Johnson, is the leader of an African American gang, who isn't allowed into the Cotton Club. For the majority of the film, Bumpy and his men conduct business in exile from this oasis in the middle of Harlem. Not only are Bumpy and his men not allowed in the club, but they aren't even the masters of their own neighborhood, for they must answer to Dutch Schultz. Another element of the club that can be seen as a throwback to colonialism is that the only African Americans who are allowed into it are performers. While rich white people eat, drink, or conduct business, the African Americans in the club are only there to entertain or to serve the white guests. 

A direct illusion to the colonial powers fighting over the territory in Africa can be compared to a scene early in the film where Dutch Schultz and rival gangster Joe Flynn (John P. Ryan, playing a fictitious gangster) have been fighting over territory in Harlem. A “sit down” is called by Madden to keep the peace between the two gangsters, who represent two European powers. Madden forces the two rivals to shake hands and says: 

“There is plenty of money in Harlem for everybody. It’s hot and it’s getting hotter. 
You start this war business up there and you got a brand new enemy, me. You are here because you both agreed to this truce. And it is a truce. Now shake hands. Shake fucking hands! Now, in the next room gentleman is the best food, drink, and pussy available at any price in New York. I suggest you take a sample of these things and try to remember that is this why we work so hard, to live the way that kings and princes lives in this world, eh?” 

The meeting suggests that Madden helped carve up Harlem and is trying to keep the truce between the two gangsters, to avoid a costly gang war. The same can be said the way Africa was divided up for the European nations, to eliminate the threat of a European-wide war over the territories of Africa. But like the Berlin Conference of 1874, which failed to end the hostilities between European nations, Madden’s conference between the two gangsters ends in bloodshed after Schultz stabs his rival to death after a racist comment. The meeting, along with the grandiose speech that Madden gives, clearly shows that these gangsters think of themselves as “kings” or “princes” of New York City, rather than as criminals peddling booze. 

The notion that The Cotton Club mirrors European expansionism is only further proven by the way that the African American community sees this intrusion of white gangsters into their neighborhood. After one of her bars is shot up for refusing to pay protection money to Schultz, independent numbers operator Stephanie St. Claire(Novella Nelson) calls a war council on how to deal with the “white invaders.” Most of them agree that war is the only answer, but St. Claire decides not to take on the gangster establishment. Bumpy, also hesitant to go to war, later tells musician Sandman Williams (Gregory Hines):

“Sandman, I can kill him. But you can dance on his grave. No, listen to me Sandman. I’m not a dancer, ok? I’m a pimp, I’m a thief, I’m a gambler. That’s what I do. I’ve got no talent for dancing for where I want to get to in this world. I can’t even get my foot in the door of the Cotton Club, where my own people, black people, are the stars. Why? Because I’m black. There’s only two things in this world I have to do, Sandman. One is stay black, the other is die. The white man ain’t left me nothin out here but the underworld and that is where I dance.” 

In Bumpy’s speech, the audience can hear in his voice not only the frustration that he is discriminated against by the law because he is black, but the only haven he has left, crime; he is also discriminated against because the color of his skin. After her refusal to go to war, a montage of shootings, bombings, and African American men being beat up plays, it ending with a newspaper on screen with the headline “HARLEM RACKETS INVADED!” and “NUMBERS WAR RAGING IN HARLEM!” This war council formation and its quick defeat by Schultz can be compared to the several African revolutionary groups that were formed to resist European aggression. Because of the technology possessed by the Europeans, and the sheer force of their army, the majority of these resistance groups were quickly defeated. A parallel can be constructed between European dominance and the montage mentioned above. Because of the industrial revolution, most of the European powers had machine guns in their arsenal. In the montage, only white gangsters are shown firing “tommy guns” at African American gangsters. This suggests that like the African resistance movements, the lack of technology in arms is the main reason for their defeat. 

As with the tensions between European powers that erupted into World War I, in The Cotton Club, gang war does not happen, but the assassination of Dutch Schultz and the division of his rackets in Harlem are split by an alliance formed by Owney Madden and Charlie Luciano, who headed the newly reorganized Mafia. This assassination could be compared to the outbreak of World War I and the division of territory between the European nations after the war.  

Another gangster movie that portrays the imperialistic past of Europe is another Coppola film, The Godfather: Part II (1974). Continuing from the story of the first Godfather film, Godfather: Part II shows Michael Corleone‘s (Al Pacino) imperialistic dealings with Cuba on the verge of revolution. In a pivotal scene in the film, Michael is at a hotel in Havana with Jewish crime czar, Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg) and other various leaders of the American underworld. Being Roth’s 67th birthday, a cake in the shape of Cuba is presented to him. He then starts to explain how Cuba is going to be split up between the Mafia families to avoid bloodshed. Roth cuts the cake and hands it to the Mafia boss that gets his portion of Havana. Roth explains:

“You all know Michael Corleone – and we all remember his father. At the time of my retirement, or death, I turn over all my interests in the Havana operation to his control. But, all of you will share. The National will go to the Lakeville Road boys. The Capri to the Corleone Family. The Sevilla Biltmore, also, but Eddie Levine of Newport will bring in the Pennino Brothers, Dino and Eddie, for a piece, and also to handle the actual casino operation. And we've saved a piece for some friends in Nevada, to make sure things go smooth back home. I want all of you to enjoy your cake – so, enjoy.” 

And later, Roth admits to Michael that: 

“If only I could live to see it, to be there with you. Uh, what I wouldn't give for – twenty more years. Here we are protected, free to make our profits without key follow with the goddamn Justice Department and the FBI. Ninety miles away, partnership with a friendly government ninety miles. It’s nothing. Just one small step, looking for a man that wants to be President of the United States and having the cash to make it possible. Michael, we’re bigger than U.S. Steel.”

The way Coppola portrays it, Roth is giving away an empire rather than a criminal enterprise. Since colonies were usually oceans away from their colonizer, a common European tactic to keep the colonized population settled is that you construct a new native elite class in society, and let them govern the natives. In The Godfather: Part II, there is a scene where Michael, Roth, and several other men representing legitimate U.S. businesses are at a table with the President of Cuba (Tito Alba). While his name is never spoken in the film, it is obvious that he is supposed to be Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. Much like the historical Batista, he is supported by both U.S. business interest/Government and the American Mafia. Again, both in the film and in reality, the United States and the Mafia colonized Cuba, not literally, but economically. Batista allowed the Mafia to operate casinos and houses of prostitution in return for a chunk of the profits. In the film; he is even given a golden telephone, a symbol of his submission, by one of his colonialist overlords. Batista is the American Mafia’s elite in Cuba, who rules in the interest of the colonizer rather than the colonized. 

In the scene mentioned above, Batista says to the men at the table:

“I’d like to thank this distinguished group of American Industrialists, for continuing to work with Cuba, for the greatest period of prosperity in her entire history. Mr. William Proxmiro, representing the General Fruit Company. Messrs. Corngold and Dant, of the United Telephone and Telegraph Company; Mr. Petty, regional Vice-President of the Pan American Mining Corporation; and, of course, our friend Mr. Robert Allen, of South American Sugar.  Mr. Nash of the American State Department. Mr. Michael Corleone of Nevada representing our Associates in Tourism and Leisure Activities. And my old friend and associate from Florida, Mr. Hyman Roth. ”

And when asked what he is doing to quash the Cuban rebellion that is gaining popular support, he responds with: 

“I can assure you this! We’ll tolerate no guerrillas in the casinos or swimming pools!”

It is obvious that the average Cuban citizen could care less about the swimming pools in hotels. Batista is not worried about the safety of the Cuban people in this revolution because he is looking after the interest of the colonizers, who have invested money in Cuba.


Even though the age of European colonization has long since ended, the echoes of empire are embedded in film. Francis Ford Coppola’s, The Cotton Club, portrays modern colonization, not over the third world, but rather over the underworld, where European gangsters rule over their subjects. In Coppola’s The Godfather: Part II, the Mafia practices economic colonialism, where they rule over their gambling empire through corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista.