Cosa Nostra's Pheonix

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the successful infiltration, by undercover FBI Agent Joseph D. Pistone, into into a New York Mafia crew. The paper provides an overview of the infiltration and its results and relates that FBI Agent Joseph D.Pistone had been undercover for so long he was able to amass a huge amount of intelligence about not only the New York Mafia Bonanno family but also other families including the Balisteri family based in Milwaukee. The paper also illustrates the activities of various crime families, but notes that, despite the FBI's efforts, the Bonanno family, although smaller in numbers, was able to rise from the ashes of its former disjointed self, more efficient, more innovative and as a result, much more deadly.

From the Paper:

"Already seen as somewhat of a 'maverick' organisation (in part due to the prolific drug trafficking that the Bonanno family had been involved in since the 1950's), by the rest of the New York Mafia, the Commission (New York's governing Mafia body) decided that, in light of the FBI's successful infiltration of the Bonanno crime family, it could not be trusted. As a result, Rastelli's seat on the Commission was suspended, and the family's involvement in multi-family rackets was prohibited."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Pistone J. & Woodley R., My life in the Mafia (1987).
• Raab, Selwyn, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires, Thomas Dunne Books (2005).
• Carlo, Philip, Gaspipe: Confessions Of A Mafia Boss, William Morrow & Company (2008).

More papers on Cosa Nostra's Pheonix:

• Research Paper # 9599 : "The Effects of Narcotics on La Cosa Nostra"
• Research Paper # 9598 : "The Effects of Narcotics on La Cosa Nostra"

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