January 2012 Issue of Informer

January 2012 Contents
Editorial

Numerous questions remain about Joseph Profaci and the Brooklyn-based crime family associated with his name. We are left to guess, for example, how Profaci rose to the leadership of the organization, how the independence of the relatively small Mafia clan was secured and how the organization managed to wield a level of influence that far exceeded its apparent numerical strength. In some Mafia histories, the Profaci Family seems to appear instantaneously in Prohibition Era Bath Beach and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, already with Profaci at the helm and already a major player in underworld events.

While details of the origin of the Profaci Mafia are elusive, in this issue Thomas Hunt strives to provide a foundation for future research by noting Profaci’s kinship and Sicilian hometown ties to underworld figures whose presence in the U.S. predated his own (see preview).

In a collection of biographical essays, Justin Dugard sheds light on a few of the more shadowy figures of the Profaci-Colombo organization (see preview). Dugard also adds a Colombo Crime Family violence timeline (see preview). Bill Feather provides a Colombo Family membership chart (see preview).

Additional Profaci-Colombo coverage includes relevant portions of the House Select Committee on Assassinations report (see preview), an interview with Sandra Harmon, author of Mafia Son (see preview), and a book review of FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio’s book, We’re Going To Win This Thing (see preview).

We also review a new book on James "Whitey" Bulger and other gangsters who have called Boston, Massachusetts, their home, The Boston Mob Guide (see preview).

This issue also marks the beginning of a series of articles by David Critchley on the Gunmen of the Castellammarese War. In the first installment, Critchley examines the enigmatic Maranzano hit man, “Buster from Chicago” (see preview).

Sixty-eight pages. Published January 20, 2012.

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Giuseppe Profaci's Rise

January 2012 Contents
Feature Article
By Thomas Hunt

Giuseppe Profaci steps from obscurity

to leadership of an influential

New York Mafia family

Profaci's Rise

By Thomas Hunt

"Little information exists on the earliest days of the underworld organization known today as the Colombo Crime Family. In some United States Mafia histories, the crime family simply (though somewhat ridiculously) springs to life, already fully grown and with Giuseppe Profaci as its boss, in Prohibition Era Brooklyn. While it is impossible at this time to fill in all of the blanks of the crime family history, it appears that the roots of the Profaci-Colombo organization stretch back to a network of influential families in the region of Villabate, Sicily."

Twelve pages including one and a half pages of notes, a family tree and four images.

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Colombo Family Profiles

January 2012 Contents
Feature Article
By Justin Dugard

Benedetto D'Alessandro,

Simone Andolino,

Vincent Mangano

By Justin Dugard

"...D’Alessandro is believed to have been formally inducted into the Profaci Crime Family by the late 1920s. Like many others in the underworld organization, he had family connections with the Profaci clan going back to Sicily. His first run-in with the law occurred on July 9, 1928, when he was picked up in Baltimore, Maryland, for attempting to fraudulently obtain a motor vehicle title. At the time of his arrest, he gave an alias, Benny Castelli, and claimed residence in Baltimore via a false address. The case ended in acquittal..."

Eight and a half pages including nine photographs.

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Colombo Violence Timeline

January 2012 Contents
Timeline
By Justin Dugard

Colombo Violence Timeline

Summaries are provided for more than forty gangland killings associated with the Profaci-Colombo Crime Family based in Brooklyn, New York.

Four and a half pages.

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Profaci-Colombo Mafia Chart

January 2012 Contents
Membership Chart
By Bill Feather

The January issue includes a Profaci-Colombo crime family membership chart compiled by Bill Feather. The five-page chart lists more than one hundred known and suspected members of the organization from the period of 1950s-1960s, along with birth, death, relationship, rank and other information.

Five pages.

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Congress Examines Profaci-Colombo

January 2012 Contents
Feature Article

Kennedy assassination investigators

turn their attention to Profaci-Colombo

In the late 1970s, as it reexamined the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the House Select Committee on Assassinations explored what it considered to be relevant events in organized crime. Two of those events were the 1971 assassination of crime boss Joseph Colombo and the failed 1962 attempt by Giuseppe Magliocco to eliminate important underworld rivals.

Two pages including one photograph.

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Gunmen of the Castellammarese War- Part 1

January 2012 Contents
Feature Article
First of a Series
By David Critchley

'Buster from Chicago' revealed

to be Sebastiano Domingo

By David Critchley

"Until recently, a prolific Maranzano gunman could be identified only by the mysterious moniker of 'Buster from Chicago.' 'Buster was undoubtedly the number one killer in the Maranzano organization,' Chandler underscored, 'and he drew all the important hits.'"

Nine pages including seven photographs, a family tree and one page of notes.

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Interview: Author Sandra Harmon

January 2012 Contents
Author Interview
By Ryan Artis

'Mafia Son' author

Sandra Harmon

“Greg [Jr.] offered to trade information on [Ramzi] Yousef with the government in exchange for leniency, ultimately providing detailed intelligence on what would eventually result in the September 11 attacks. His warnings were ignored...”

Nine pages

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Review: We're Going To Win This Thing

January 2012 Contents
Book Review
By Thomas Hunt

Peer inside the mind of an

FBI informant-handler

"We’re Going to Win This Thing is billed as 'the riveting front-page news story of an FBI agent falsely accused of ordering four mob hits.' However, what this book mostly is in fact is a disturbing look inside the mind of an FBI informant-handler who spent too much of his career in a legal 'Twilight Zone' and as a consequence may have lost touch with the fundamental principles of right and wrong. The book also provides a window into the shockingly dysfunctional relationships among federal law enforcement and local and federal prosecutors within New York City."

Four pages

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Review: The Boston Mob Guide

January 2012 Contents
Book Review
By Thomas Hunt

A quick-moving tour of

Boston's underworld history

"Inspired by the capture of longtime fugitive racketeer James "Whitey" Bulger, authors Beverly Ford and Stephanie Schorow have assembled a quick-moving 160-page book that puts Bulger into his historic and geographic context. In addition to Bulger and his underworld cronies in the infamous Winter Hill Gang, the authors examine the major players and events in the New England Mafia, as well as various Irish mobs, Jewish crime figures and some other shady characters who have called the Boston region their home."

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Two pages.

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