The Italian-American Mafia Was Not Born Where Most People Assume
In pop culture depictions, the Italian-American mafia is most often associated with New York City and its vicinity. Many people take it for granted that the mob must have its roots in the Big Apple, home of the Five Great Crime Families, the Godfather, and the melting pot extraordinaire. Indeed, NYC was the first destination of millions of Italian immigrants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who disembarked and were processed into the US at nearby Ellis Island.
However, what would become the American mafia emerged first not in New York, or even the next city most commonly associated with mob lore, Chicago. Instead, that criminal association was born much further south, deep in the heart of Dixie: in New Orleans. In 1869, the New Orleans Times reported that the city’s Second District was overrun with: “well-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.”