Mafiosi and the Mob: Part 2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Black Hand

They were known as The Black Hand, because when they sent extortion letters to businesses they would put a black hand on the paper. These Gangs terrorised shops and businesses in the Italian sectors of cities.

Answer: 1929

The St Valentine's Day massacre was the culmination of a bitter gang war that had ravaged Chicago for years. It was between Al Capone's gang and an Irish gang under Bugs Moran. The massacre itself occurred when four of Capone's men, two of whom were disguised as police officers, burst into one of Moran's warehouses and killed seven of Moran's men on February 14, 1929.

Answer: 1936

This sentence was the largest imposed at that time, it was the crowning achievement for special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey and his crusade against organised crime. Ironically it was Dewey who, as District Attorney, released Luciano in 1946, after a deal with the government in which Luciano protected the New York docks from sabotage and got the Sicilian mafia to help in the invasion of Sicily during WW2. Luciano was deported back to Italy upon being released.

Answer: The Flamingo

Benjamin "Bugsy" Seigel was an old friend of Meyer Lansky and "Lucky" Luciano from the street gang days. He built the Flamingo in 1945, with a mob loan; however due to mismanagement it soon went over budget. Unable to get their money back the top gangsters including Luciano and Lansky agreed to have him killed. On June 20, 1947, "Bugsy" Seigel was killed in his Los Angeles house.

Answer: Vincent Gigante

Vincent Gigante, a soldier under Vito Genovese, shot at Frank Costello on orders from Genovese who dreamed of becoming boss rather than just under-boss under Costello. The hit failed when the bullet just skimmed past Costello's head. Luckily for Gigante, Costello stepped down as head of his family after this and made Genovese boss. Vincent Gigante became famous by pretending to be insane to avoid going to prison.

He was sentenced on racketeering charges in 1997.

Answer: Genovese

Joe Valachi became a government witness in 1963, after he killed a man in prison whom he wrongly believed was trying to kill him. To avoid being sentenced to death he exposed the inner workings of the mafia in the famous "McClellan committee."

Answer: True

Incredibly Tony Accardo managed this. He grew up as a bodyguard of Al Capone and after Capone was sent to prison for tax evasion Accardo quickly rose through the ranks to become boss. In my opinion Accardo is the greatest boss in the history of the mafia as it was under him that the "Chicago outfit" took control of Las Vegas, Hollywood, and Washington. Accardo died on May 27, 1992 at the ripe old age of 86. To learn more about the Chicago outfit I highly recommend "The Outfit" by Gus Russo.

Answer: Pizza connection

This operation ran for about a decade before the FBI uncovered it in the 1980's. It is estimated to have generated about a billion dollars in profit for the mafia on both sides of the Atlantic. The name "pizza connection" derives from the fact that the heroin was sold through pizza parlours in the United States.

Answer: The maxi trials

The verdict of the first of four maxi-trials was announced on 16 December 1987. Of the 474 accused 114 were acquitted and 2,665 years of jail time was shared out amongst the guilty. To emphasize the clear and present danger of the Sicilian mafia the trial was held in a bomb-proof bunker with bullet-proof glass used in the court, as well as this the court was protected by a helicopter, 3000 soldiers and a tank.

Answer: 1992

Giovanni Falcone, who had masterminded the maxi-trials, was brutally murdered along with his wife and three of his escorts when 400 kilos of explosives blew them up while they were driving from Palermo airport to the small town of Capaci. Borsellino was killed a few months later along with five bodyguards by a massive car bomb outside his mothers house.

These two attacks caused a massive increase in anti-mafia feeling and for the first time ever there were marches protesting the mafia in Sicily.