THE 'G-MEN' HOODS - THE MAKING OF THE MAFIA CONNECTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300510087-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 87
• Publication Date: June 28, 1975
• Content Type: NSPR

THE CHICAGO T?:t': (mT' `-) . t l
t~ j yJ ~ 1
Approgv For Releas. 2005/0 1 ~ C D ~~01315R00030051 d08'7-1
p,- 116 pe i d)/ 1 5
B , Harry Kelly
.ant sipoin; Soup. He is wirey and non.; A
?=_;,r:pt in a dark suit and white wash- :~O it' V...\ only r, nr:c c;,5pecs, fut LUCI,1NO HAD been sentenced to :s3'
and-wear shirt. He could be a Bible c gamer f.- :. nn ol.1, if 11a.gelY to S4 years, in prison on vice charges in
~alesrnan or the principal of a small fished haoc, when it was pertc?-l t:te i`)3 But his influence in the rackets
tow t high school. Once he was a spy CL:\ r, agile contact with a pair of Mafia remained.
.h?n spying was heroic. t'tt;-c in an ai''cged plot, to assns: irate During the war, the Nagy became
Once he belonged to the kind of inteI (u^an pr-":ier Fidel Castro and that worried about possibility of sabotage
h ace scuads that break into homes Inc FPf o rght to turn the Mafia and spying on New York City's water-
or embassies, that read other people's: against American Comrnun,ts in "Op- front. Reportedly, they went to the
mail, that use wiretaps and dirty tricks, eration fir,^d,rink." ixrss, Luciano, still in prison. There
and "do an; thing else you could think, On July I. in the momentous year of were reports 'he helped c tear the ;vay
of to get the job done," and he's proud: D43, a lone American fighter plane--at for counterinteitigcnce. operations along
cE it. first nothing more than fan ominous the (locks, including the placement of
Did he ever hear of the .govern. cent speck against the pale Sicilian sky- electronic listening devices on fislzin
using the 1lafia? flew in to !tver? the town of Viiialha. boats Some say he did nothing. But her:
"I think," he says carefully and slow A few ri tcs away an Italian colonel was moved to a'more comfortable prix
'r, "I heard of them using gangsters. by the name of Salami ccmmar.ded a on and in 1945 New York Gov. Thomas
for one thing or another. I think that brigade dc:c;;cling a mountain pats in Dewey granted him a parole for his:
was during the war. . You should the way of Gen. Geore Pattton's on-
11 contribution to the war effort, and he
t nderstand these operations are a form rushing Seventh army, according to a was deported.
of war-fare. You.do what you have to detailed account of the episode in hor-
do with what you have. People have to rran Lewis' 1-,oo'c on the Mafia in Sid- COPELAND, THE FORME% oSS
u .cerstard tat." ly, "Tnc 1T_onoured Society." agent and author of "Without Cloa.t or'
The American lot circled and flier Dag ''
pilot Dagger)" says the CIA used the Mafia
SO IT began. It was the summer of dropper] a packet near the home of to keep Communists from gaining con
4.3, a nostalgic time for grizzled cloak Calogere Vizzini, the town's leading cit- trol of Italian labor unions after the
and-dagger veterans warming their old i7en. A servant who recovered'
ecov
,red the tear.
lade beo s and memories by the fire. packet later told a newspaperman it "It was not until the OSS became the
Scies were heroic then-at least ours
sere-h,_,nc ed over secret radio trans-
mitters under the noses of the murder- Harry Keiiy is a member of The ~COnttnved
ous SS or parachuting behind German .Tribune's :'?'ashinglon bureau.
Howard Hunt had not given spy- contained a yellow silk handkerchief
com a bad name., The Central IntetU- bearing the black initial "L."
rence Agency had not been created.: FIVE DAYS later three American
The Federal Bureau of Investigation ? tanks clanked into the town square, Me
;as '?r of good guys in snap-brim hats flying a yellow banner with a black
a_.d starched collars, and Hollywood "L" and commanded by an. officer who
used its most super he-men, like Jim- spoke the region's Sicilian dialect.
Cagney and Gary Cooper, to nor- The Americans were met by leading-
a,- She s?w,eaty-palmed, secret agents citizen Vizr.ini, better known as Ben
v:a_a ng into Gestapo headquarters. Cale, a legendary Mafia chief. Len
No prin. had thought of turning the Calo, in shirtsleeves and suspenders,
Godfather into a James Bond. No one showed the American officers the yel-
in Hollywood had thought it, that is. low handkerchief dropped by the plane.
Too fantastic. But sly U. S. intelligence He was invited to enter one of the
ry"cials, t ose Brooks Brothers rough- tanks. Then they all moved off, roaring
necks. had fl-ought of it. and clanking on their tracks.
--It was the OSS's [Office of Strategic The next morning, according
Servicesl ' 1ild Bill' Donovan who con- according
is' it was found that two-thirds of Sa-
the idea of betting 'Lucky' lend- to Le:v-
cei:ed ,
-:7o and other Mafia criminals out of Iomi s rile" had deserted, reportedly
:ail. to use them not only to save Italy induced by the Mafia to take to their
`rpm the Fascists but to supply a corps heels. t
ski"ed safecrackers, housebreakers The.blacn "L" on the yellow field,
a_- d assassins who might be put to con- according to Lewis, apparently stood
sung ssa purpuwes in wartime," recalls for Luciano, Lucky Luciano, the im-
`.tiles Co eland, a former OSS and pr isoncd American Mafia Don who had
been born near Villalba.
CIA agent. Approved For Release 2005/01/11 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000300510087-1