Most of us know something about the Italian
Mafia. Its exploits have been made into huge blockbuster
movies such as The Godfather trilogy and Goodfellas, while the TV show The Sopranos is unquestionably
one of the best things ever to light up peopleâs living rooms. What makes the Italian mafia so compelling
to follow is that besides the brutality of the organization at times, there is humor
in the way members talk to each other, their often-strange nicknames are never anything
but hilarious, and you canât help but be fascinated by the rulebook each member has
to adhere to. Despite the mafiaâs many codes of conduct,
time and again, no quarter was given to rival members and outsiders. Today weâll look at some of the worst crimes
the mafia ever committed, in this episode of the Infographics Show, The Most Horrifying
Crimes - Italian Mafia. As youâll likely know, the Italian Mafia
originated in Sicily in southern Italy and was known as the Cosa Nostra. The word mafia, which is âmafiosoâ in
Italian, according to the Italian dictionary, means someone who can be a scoundrel, brave
but perhaps unruly, a tough guy but honorable, sometimes a brute and always a bit of a swaggerer. That seems about right, given what we have
seen on TV and in film. If we look at the late 19th and early 20th
century in Sicily, some writers depict these gangs as thieves working in rural areas, but
given so much inequality and official corruption, some of the writers defend their actions. In the 1940s and 50s, gangs grew in size,
making headway in the construction industry but also getting involved in extortion and
protection. But today we are going to focus on the American
Mafia. The earliest reports of Italian immigrants
belonging to organized crime causing havoc in the United States dates back to the late
19th century. Around that time, the New Orleans Times wrote
that parts of the city had become infested with âwell-known and notorious Sicilian
murderers, counterfeiters and burglars, who, in the last month, have formed a sort of general
co-partnership or stock company for the plunder and disturbance of the city.â Theses gangs would soon spring up in parts
of New York and Chicago, and would later pervade much of the United States. To cut a long story short â this episode
is more about the mafiaâs crimes than its long history â many Italian gangsters flooded
into the USA in the 1920s as fascist leader Benito Mussolini wasnât very keen on them,
to say the least. This was around the time prohibition (or the
alcohol ban) was the law in the U.S. An era rife for crime, and the Mafia, led
by certain families in different parts of the country, expanded quickly and became known
as an enterprise full of cunning, calculating, and cruel connivers. Now to the crimes. Not all terrible crimes were committed by
the mafia, but by people working for the mafia. Many of the associates, tough guys, hitmen,
were not Italian by birth and so were hired for jobs rather than work as part of a family. One such man who you may have seen on YouTube
or on TV or even depicted in a movie, is the hitman Richard Kuklinski. Also known as the âIce Manâ, itâs thought
he carried out around 100 executions or more before he was imprisoned in 1988. He appears on this list not only because of
how prolific he was, but if youâve seen him talk about killing, youâll notice how
cold he seemed about the act. They called him the Ice Man because he would
often freeze the bodies of his victims for a long time, and then later dump them. Doing it this way would make it impossible
for the police to know when the murder had taken place. Now weâll look at two characters who were
known in the mafia as brutal killers and have since been depicted that way in movies. Both characters were played by Joe Pesci. The first was the character Nicky Santaro
in the film âCasinoâ, who was actually based on mafia member Tony Spilotro. Yes, Spilotro was brutally murdered by his
own people as is depicted in the movie, but itâs also said that he was very much a keen
proponent of torturing people he thought were hurting his business. He may have ordered killings and killed himself
on many occasions, but itâs the torture that stands out. Like in the film, he once put a manâs head
in a vise and turned the handle until the manâs eye popped out. Itâs also said he tortured another man for
two days, slicing him all over with knives and razors, burning him with a blow torch,
and then fastening him upside down to a meat hook until the poor fella died. Now, you might not feel sorry for anyone with
such a depraved disposition, but you can hardly feel good about the way Spilotro went. No, it wasnât death by baseball bat near
the Las Vegas desert as depicted in the movie. What really happened is that in 1986 Spilotro
had irked mafia bosses enough and they ordered he be taken care of (that means killed). He and his brother were asked to meet in a
basement where they would essentially be promoted, or so they were told. What happened is that they were set upon by
around 20 men and literally beaten to death with bats, fists, and objects, until their
bodies became unrecognizable. If you so choose, the photos of the aftermath
are online, but we donât advise you look. The next character is Tommy from the film
âGoodfellasâ, who was based on Thomas Anthony DeSimone, aka, Two-Gun Tommy. Associate Henry Hill, who the film is based
on, described him as a âpure psychopathâ and a âhomicidal maniac.â If youâve seen the film, all those grizzly
murders are based on Hillâs testimony. Yes, that includes the horrible slaying of
a young waiter for hardly any reason at all. According to Hill, he enjoyed killing and
had been doing it since he was a teenager. Now we turn to the notorious gangster, Al
Capone. Yet again, the brutal murder we are about
to talk about has been depicted in a movie. This time the movie is âThe Untouchablesâ. If you havenât seen it, there is a scene
in which Capone has invited a bunch of gangsters to a kind of large dinner party. Reminiscent of a Joker scene from Batman,
Capone pulls out a baseball bat and beats one of the attendants to death with it. In real life there were two men, and they
had been henchmen in the gang. But Capone had got wind that they wanted to
overthrow him. He shot them, too, but itâs thought the
men were as good as dead. Sticking with Al Capone, we should mention
something about the utterly cold-blooded St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Yep, you can see this depicted in many films,
too. The story, in short, consists of Caponeâs
gang fighting for power in Chicago in the 1920s with an Irish gang called the North
Side gang. This gang was run by mobster George âBugsâ
Moran. As the story goes, 7 members of the North
Side gang had been lined up against a wall by men that looked like police, only they
were thought to be Caponeâs accomplices. They fired many rounds of ammunition into
these men, tearing them to pieces. Moran was not one of them, and some stories
say he was just fortunate enough to be late to the meeting that day. One man actually survived the next three hours
with 14 bullet wounds, but later died. Capone had been careful, knowing that he would
be blamed. At the time of the shootings, he was in Florida
and making sure he was being seen by many people. No one was ever arrested for this mass execution,
one of the bloodiest events in American mob history. Ok, so the next crime may not be as brutal,
but it shows just how bitter and twisted the mafia could be. This was the murder of Angelo âThe Gentle
Donâ Bruno, who was shot in the back of the head in his car. Bruno had made a killing in the methamphetamine
trade in Philadelphia, but some people thought he was keeping too much mullah for himself. You might guess from his name that Bruno was
known as a gentle type for a gangster who preferred to talk before getting down to violent
deeds, but his enemies were not so even-tempered. Itâs thought mobster Antonio Caponigro wanted
to knock Bruno off the boss-spot and take over the family, so he ordered the hit. This didnât go down well with âThe Commissionâ
â a kind of round table of mafia bosses â and not long after Caponigro was killed
by enforcer Joe âMad Dogâ Sullivan. Whatâs especially brutal was the message
the bosses wanted to send. When the cops found the body, 20-dollar bills
had been stuffed into Caponigroâs mouth and anus. This was to show that he had been a very greedy
man in taking out the good-natured boss. He had been shot and stabbed numerous times. The worst thing is, this kind of execution
wasnât all that uncommon. If you were lucky you got whacked quickly
with a bullet in the head, but if someone wanted you to suffer you would die slowly. In fact, there were so many murders the media
called the enforcers that worked for the mafia all over America âMurder, Inc.â This was a gang of ruthless killers that would
work for bosses all over the states in the 30s and 40s, and itâs thought they made
good on as many as 1,000 contracts. Each murder apparently would cost a boss anywhere
from $1,000 to $5,000. They used guns, bats, and even ice picks. If they were ever caught, the big bosses would
make sure they got the best lawyers. Murder Inc. was started by Jewish-American
gangster Louis âLepkeâ Buchalter, and he has since gone down in history as the only
mob boss in the U.S. to get the death penalty. If there is one thing you learn from watching
gang shows or reading mob-related books, itâs that violence just begets violence and karma
seems to strike anyone involved in the misery. There arenât many happy endings in the history
of the mob. So, what other things would you like to know
about the mafia or other notorious gangs in the world, past or present? Let us know in the comments! Also, be sure to check out our other video
called What If the World was One Country?! Thanks for watching, and, as always, donât
forget to like, share, and subscribe. See you next time!
A clip called "The Italian Mafia." He says "we're going to focus on the American mafia." Riiiight...