‘November 1963’ puts Chicago Outfit at center of JFK assassination
A new feature film about the Kennedy assassination puts the Chicago Outfit at the center of a plot to kill the nation’s 35th president. Directed by Roland Joffé, November 1963 stars John Travolta as mobster Johnny Rosselli, Jefferson White as accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, and Mandy Patinkin as Outfit boss Tony Accardo. It also features Robert Carlyle as Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner with suspected Mob ties who fatally shot Oswald on live TV two days after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The movie, filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is set to debut in theaters on December 4. The official details of ...
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Classic Mob movie ‘Mean Streets’ celebrates 50th anniversary
Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, released in October 1973, is regarded as a classic crime drama, depicting a New York City…
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Defiance of Kefauver Committee put Frank Costello behind bars for 14 months
When New York underworld boss Frank Costello famously walked out while being questioned by the Kefauver Committee in 1951, he…
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Tod Goldberg’s Mob trilogy concludes with ‘Gangsters Don’t Die’
The third novel in a Mob trilogy by author Tod Goldberg was released in September, completing the tale of a…
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The fall of Salvatore Maranzano, and the rise of the new Mafia
The autocratic reign of self-proclaimed boss of all bosses Salvatore Maranzano came to a bloody end 92 years ago this…
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Ten years ago this month, Whitey Bulger was found guilty on 31 counts, including 11 murders
Whitey Bulger is depicted at the defense table during his 2013 trial in this courtroom sketch by Jane Flavell Collins. The Mob Museum Collection
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Joseph Valachi’s autobiography reveals Mafia’s inner workings
New York mobster Joseph Valachi sits at the witness table, bottom right, facing members of a U.S. Senate investigation subcommittee in Washington, D.C., on October 8, 1963. In the background are four charts of New York crime families with names and pictures of mobsters identified by Valachi. AP Photo
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DEA marks 50th anniversary of fighting drug traffickers at home and abroad
On June 17, 1971, President Richard Nixon explained a special message sent to Congress asking for an extra $155 million for a new program to combat drug abuse. He labeled drug abuse “a national emergency” and said the money would be used to “tighten the noose around the necks of drug peddlers and thereby loosen the noose around the necks of drug users.” Nixon’s efforts eventually led to creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1973. At left is Egil Krogh, deputy director of the Domestic Council. At right is Dr. Jerome Jaffe, recruited by Nixon to lead a new drug strategy. AP Photo/Harvey Georges
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