About Us, Welcome to the Honored Society
Welcome to the Honored Society
We are what we claim to be, a society of men of honor. We come from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and we have set out to reclaim our place in society from the 1% who have taken it from us and our famiglia. We have organized a movement across the Kingdom which is set out to extract the fortunes of the landowners and businessmen of those who oppress us.
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We will infiltrate the community leaders such as Mayors, Police, Priests, and Princes to endorse our activities. Those who do not which to participate can be easily persuaded through other means. We have their addresses, we can take their horses and they can't conduct business, we can make them and their family afraid to leave home. We will use their influence to avoid repercussions for our actions throughout the Kingdom without drawing attention from the King himself.
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We have networks across the Kingdom, and even abroad, which sympathize with our cause and our hero Garibaldi. The resistance to the Kingdom is strong from Naples to Salerno, Avellino to Calabria, from Palermo to Agrigento & from Trapani to Messina.
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We have developed teams who will control the roads to and from the towns and we will tax distributors, or else we will seize their shipments. We will control the docks and no ship will make a delivery until we get our tax. No imports or exports will be made without us receiving our proper cut. You will not profit off of our suffering through your extortion, you will not sit on your throne in Rome while the people of Sicily & Naples starve.
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Those who refuse to comply will be kidnapped and held for ransom or worse. We might find someone else more sympathetic to our cause to take their place, then there is no need for them anymore. There will be no place safe to hide. We control the trains, the churches, the vineyards, the farms, the grocers, the caribinieri, the opera houses, the tobacco, the alcohol, the morphine. We control the docks, you will never leave the island without us. We will see to it that you never leave the island again.
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When we finally achieve our true and rightful control over our homeland, we will fund the extension of our dream across the Atlantic Ocean, and we will live the American Dream! We have already set out missionaries to form societies like ours in New York, New Orleans & San Francisco. The revolution is here, and we Men of Honor must fight for our homeland and we must regain the wealth that has been taken from us and kept from us for centuries. We survived the Normans, the Moors, the Saracens, the Greeks, the Carthaginians, and more. Its in our destiny to lead our fellow Sicilians & Italians to our destiny, and the island of Sicily cannot contain all that we are destined to acquire. We will strive in the land of liberty and freedom and the home of opportunity, and our future generations will be Americans, and they will become some of the most succesful families on this planet.
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THE HONORED SOCIETY
La Cosa Nostra
This Thing Of Ours
Amici Nostri
Friends Of Ours
Men Of Honor
Societa Onorata
The Honored Society
Unione Siciliano
Sicilian Union
Mafia
Fratellanza
Fratuzzi
Brotherhood
Stopagglieri
Camorra
N'drangheta
Nero Mano
The Black Hand
Mala Vita
Under World
The Honored Society Website
We explain how the formation of the Italian Resistance movement in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1860 led to Italian bandit gangs immigrating to the US & Canada. Over the next 100 years, these Italian bandit gangs would greatly influence the history of the United States including deciding our Presidents, aiding our country in both World Wars, creating the Lottery, opening casinos, as well as infamous occurrences like police shootouts, driveby assassinations, residential bombings and even the dreaded machine gun. They were infamous for smuggling alcohol during prohibition and heroin later on.
Specifically, we deal with the history of the Italian Gangs in the US, Canada & Italy from the late 1800's up until the 1970's. Most of our subjects were born in Sicily or Southern Italy or were born in America to parents from Sicily or Southern Italy. We focus on the period prior to the 1930's and the forming of the Commission. Almost all of our subjects were born prior to 1910, and thus they were active or present during the famed Castellemmarese War that lasted from 1927-1932. We do follow some of our subjects into later periods like the 40's, 50's, 60's even the 70's, but only those who were the originators. For example, events like the Havana Conference, Apalachin, Gallo War, Bananas War & Galante Hit deal with Men of the Honored Society.
Primarily we focus on the underreported period between 1890 and 1930 including the Morello & Lupo Gangs, the Mafia-Camorra War, the Good Killers, D'Aquila, Masseria, Maranzano, Gentile, Frankie Yale, Pollaccia, etc. as well as mob wars in Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, NJ, Pittsburgh, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, etc.
INTRO
Italian Bandits from Naples, Calabria and Sicily emigrated to the United States as early as 1848. By the time of Garibaldi in 1860, there were already established "Mafia" gangs in New Orleans, San Francisco & New York. By the 1890's, New Orleans was the hub of the Italian bandits in the US. "Mafia" or "Camorra" activity was reported in NYC, NO, San Francisco, St. Louis, Chicago, Boston, Buffalo and more.
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The early Italian gangs were involved in banditry like robbery, extortion, kidnapping, political fixing, counterfeiting, waterfront piracy and even assassinations. They were mostly unknown until the Black Hand appeared in the 1900-WW1 period. They received alot of attention targeting prominent businessman, celebrity entertainers, bankers, even policemen. They began bombing buildings, robbing banks, kidnapping children for ransom and all types of other "terroristic" activities. In 1902, '03 & '07 there were several grizzly tortured victims left in public after brutal deaths. These were referred to as the Barrel Murders. The most prominent occurred in 1903 and saw over a dozen arrests but no one was convicted, and a majority of those involved were later killed.
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All of this publicity drew police attention including new Italian Squads like NYPD's Joseph Petrosino,, who would be assassinated in Italy in 1909 while chasing down leads on the supreme ruler of the Sicilian Mafia. The Secret Service had also been tracing counterfeiting gangs as far back as 1869 including major arrests in NY in 1880, 1887, 1892, 1899, 1902 & many in 1908-11.
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The 1909 arrests in NY/NJ/PA lead to over 50 arrests and the leaders of the 3 leading Italian gangs in NY were sent to the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta for 25 years, most were not paroled until 1920. The Secret Service traced the counterfeiting operation to Italian communities named above as well as Cleveland, Baltimore, Kansas City, West Virginia, Scranton, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia & NJ.
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By 1912, the NY gangs were fighting over leadership in the Mafia Split War which led to many more deaths of gang leaders from Harlem to Brooklyn. A 5-year war followed which included the Camorra appearing in Harlem, Little Italy, Brooklyn Navy Yard & Coney Island. They also fought for control of the rackets and any more were killed and by 1917 the NY Camorra had been decimated through arrests and murders, and the NY Mafia fell back under one leader, the Boss of Bosses, who would rule all the Sicilian gangs Nationwide, with support from the original leaders in Sicily.
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By 1920 there were additional Italian gangs in Los Angeles, San Jose, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, Texas, Florida & Rhode Island. They mostly fell in line with the Boss of Bosses, or else he would interfere with their gang and install his own leaders. They had learned by now that counterfeiting, kidnappings, bombings, and assassinations were bad for business and would get them sent away for a long time. The gangs moved into other activities like gambling, produce rackets, real estate, longshoring, narcotics trafficking, etc.
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In 1920, Prohibition came into effect and the Italians began organizing smuggling gangs, distilleries, speakeasies, truck deliveries, etc. which became highly profitable but very dangerous and so many murders and hijackings were bringing national attention. Also in 1920, the original 3 leaders of NYC that were sent to Atlanta Penitentiary in 1909 were released and attempted to regain their roles. The Boss of Boss condemned at least 10 Men of their clan sentenced to death, and half of them would be killed over the next 3 years. Some men from the other half would wait another 5 years and assassinate him in 1928. They claimed the throne of National leaders and started another 5-year war that would see over 100 murders in CA, CO, MO, IL, WI, MI, OH, NY, NJ, MA, PA & FL.
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By the end of the 5-year war a nationwide leadership panel had been formed, named the Commission, and there were Five Families in NYC, as well as a Chicago & Cleveland family that made up a dispute resolution board for at least 26 different Mafia cities. The Cleveland family immediately abused their power by planning the murder of a leader in Pittsburgh and they were removed from the Commission.
By this time in the early 30's, most of the leading gangs had been born in the US, or had lived there for a decade or 2. They had worked hand in hand with other gangs from Ireland, Poland & Russia, as well as Jewish & Black gangsters. They were no longer Italian bandits, they were now legitimate American businessman and needed to act as such. They fell back from the murders, and after Prohibition ended, they had to fall back from the alcohol rackets. They infiltrated labor unions and controlled shipping and receiving, they ran card games for millionaires, they arranged prostitution rings, they opened casinos, and rubbed shoulders with future presidents. They had lived out the American Dream that their fathers had set out for them to achieve.
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Click through the menus or the blog to learn more or start with the Corleone Cosca, the NY Counterfeiting Rings, the New Orleans Mob, the Barrel Murder, the Morello Family, the Lupo Gang, the Good Killers, or the Mafia-Split War, and you can work your way up to D'Aquila, Frankie Yale, Al Capone, Masseria, Maranzano & Luciano, or even Bonanno, Profaci, Anastasia, Gambino & Lucchese.