execution. Tresca was shot and killed on 11 January 1943. Galante was arrested and held for eight months, but was never indicted, and the FBI failed to connect any Mafiosi with the crime â despite the fact that contributions to Galanteâs defense fund were funneled through Lucchese family member Joseph DiPalermo and the Teamstersâ Union.
Aware that the Mafia was serving new patrons in the wake of the Luciano Project, Pope threw his weight behind the CIA-supported Christian Democrats and became a key player in shaping US foreign policy in Italy. His relations with the espionage Establishment were reportedly cemented when his son, having served briefly in the CIA, purchased the
New York Enquirer
and turned it into the public opinion-shaping, Mafia-friendly tabloid the
National Enquirer.
9
In these ways the Mafia began the post-war era on a firm political, economic, and national security footing. The same, however, could not be said for the understaffed, fragmented FBN.
A PERIOD OF READJUSTMENT
In 1945 the FBN was composed of approximately 150 agents and inspectors. The agents had passed the Treasury exam and spent two weeks at the Law Enforcement School, or as Special Hires they were exempt from the standard Civil Service rules, based on some unique qualification such as the ability to speak a Sicilian dialect. FBN inspectors were licensed pharmacists who worked compliance cases, which involved checking the records of pharmacies and physicians. Some inspectors were agents as well.
Within this small group, a smaller group of case-making agents began to emerge as the organizationâs leaders. Chief among them was GeorgeWhite, whose wartime activities and involvement with the Luciano Project placed him squarely in the middle of the FBNâs alliance with Americaâs security and intelligence apparatus.
In July 1945 White returned to the US and, after conferring with William Donovan, visited Garland Williams (back from the war and serving again as FBN district supervisor in New York) to study the office files and meet with Mafia expert Arthur Giuliani. In early August, White and Anslingerâs trusted enforcement assistant, Malachi Harney, traveled to Kansas City to interview Mafia boss Charles Binaggio, and review the watershed ImpostatoâDeLuca case of 1942. 10
As mentioned briefly in the previous chapter, Kansas City since the mid-1930s had served as the way station in the Mafiaâs national distribution system, under the auspices of Mafia boss Joseph DeLuca. Based in Kansas City, Nick Gentile managed distribution until his arrest in 1937 in FBN Special Endeavor case 131, at which point Nick Impostato took over, traveling the country to make sure that drugs flowed freely from Florida, through Kansas City, to Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles, and other western cities. But the success of the nationwide operation relied on political security in Kansas City, and in that respect Joe DeLuca was the key until his downfall in 1942. As Ed Reid notes in
Mafia
, the FBNâs 1942 case âshook Kansas Cityâs Mafiosi to the bone.â 11 But by 1945 James Balestrere, manager of the Chicago-based racing wire service in Kansas City, and Charlie Binaggio, the Mafiaâs liaison to Kansas Cityâs Pendergast machine, were back in control.
Apart from its central role in the Mafiaâs drug syndicate, two things made Kansas City of special importance to the FBN in August 1945. The first issue was personal: Carl Caramussa â a member of the syndicate and the main witness against Impostato and DeLuca in the 1942 case â had been killed by a shotgun blast to the head two months earlier in Chicago, where he was living under an assumed identity. That was bad enough, but the Mafia assassins had hung a wreath in the local FBN agentâs garage as an unsubtle warning, and Anslinger, Harney, and White were enraged and determined to put the arrogant hoods back in their pre-Luciano Project
Aware that the Mafia was serving new patrons in the wake of the Luciano Project, Pope threw his weight behind the CIA-supported Christian Democrats and became a key player in shaping US foreign policy in Italy. His relations with the espionage Establishment were reportedly cemented when his son, having served briefly in the CIA, purchased the
New York Enquirer
and turned it into the public opinion-shaping, Mafia-friendly tabloid the
National Enquirer.
9
In these ways the Mafia began the post-war era on a firm political, economic, and national security footing. The same, however, could not be said for the understaffed, fragmented FBN.
A PERIOD OF READJUSTMENT
In 1945 the FBN was composed of approximately 150 agents and inspectors. The agents had passed the Treasury exam and spent two weeks at the Law Enforcement School, or as Special Hires they were exempt from the standard Civil Service rules, based on some unique qualification such as the ability to speak a Sicilian dialect. FBN inspectors were licensed pharmacists who worked compliance cases, which involved checking the records of pharmacies and physicians. Some inspectors were agents as well.
Within this small group, a smaller group of case-making agents began to emerge as the organizationâs leaders. Chief among them was GeorgeWhite, whose wartime activities and involvement with the Luciano Project placed him squarely in the middle of the FBNâs alliance with Americaâs security and intelligence apparatus.
In July 1945 White returned to the US and, after conferring with William Donovan, visited Garland Williams (back from the war and serving again as FBN district supervisor in New York) to study the office files and meet with Mafia expert Arthur Giuliani. In early August, White and Anslingerâs trusted enforcement assistant, Malachi Harney, traveled to Kansas City to interview Mafia boss Charles Binaggio, and review the watershed ImpostatoâDeLuca case of 1942. 10
As mentioned briefly in the previous chapter, Kansas City since the mid-1930s had served as the way station in the Mafiaâs national distribution system, under the auspices of Mafia boss Joseph DeLuca. Based in Kansas City, Nick Gentile managed distribution until his arrest in 1937 in FBN Special Endeavor case 131, at which point Nick Impostato took over, traveling the country to make sure that drugs flowed freely from Florida, through Kansas City, to Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles, and other western cities. But the success of the nationwide operation relied on political security in Kansas City, and in that respect Joe DeLuca was the key until his downfall in 1942. As Ed Reid notes in
Mafia
, the FBNâs 1942 case âshook Kansas Cityâs Mafiosi to the bone.â 11 But by 1945 James Balestrere, manager of the Chicago-based racing wire service in Kansas City, and Charlie Binaggio, the Mafiaâs liaison to Kansas Cityâs Pendergast machine, were back in control.
Apart from its central role in the Mafiaâs drug syndicate, two things made Kansas City of special importance to the FBN in August 1945. The first issue was personal: Carl Caramussa â a member of the syndicate and the main witness against Impostato and DeLuca in the 1942 case â had been killed by a shotgun blast to the head two months earlier in Chicago, where he was living under an assumed identity. That was bad enough, but the Mafia assassins had hung a wreath in the local FBN agentâs garage as an unsubtle warning, and Anslinger, Harney, and White were enraged and determined to put the arrogant hoods back in their pre-Luciano Project
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