Joseph Valachi, a former member of the Genovese Crime Family, gave authorities insight into organized crime in America after 33 years of working for Cosa Nostra. He had a troubled youth and turned to theft to earn money. After serving time in prison, he became a member of the Mafia and was eventually sent to prison for drug trafficking. While in prison, he learned that the Mafia had taken a hit on him and became paranoid. He attacked and killed an innocent inmate, Joseph DiPalermo, and later cooperated with the federal government to avoid the death penalty. He testified before the Organized Crime Committee and his story was later published in The Valachi Papers.
After 33 years of working for Cosa Nostra, Joseph Valachi, also known as Joe Cargo, Charles Sanbano and Anthony Sorge, has given the authorities the first ever look into the inner workings of organized crime in America. Born on September 22, 1904 to Neapolitan immigrants in Manhattan’s East Harlem, Joseph Valachi was the second eldest of six children. Constantly in trouble with the law during his youth, Valachi ended up in the New York Catholic Protectory after hitting one of his teachers in the eye with a rock. Released at age 14, he went back to school until he got his work papers at 15 and went to work on a junkyard with his father. Frustrated that his father confiscated his hard-earned wages, Valachi turned to theft to earn some money.
When Joseph Valachi was 18, he drove a getaway car for a gang called the Minute Men, who were responsible for hundreds of burglaries between 1919 and 1923. During this time, he was arrested five times and was eventually taken to Jail in Sing Sing to upstate New York in the spring of 1923, where he served nine months, only to return to New York City and return to his old ways. Eventually he was caught again and served three years and eight months in prison.
While at Sing Sing for the second time, Valachi became closely acquainted with one of Brooklyn’s most prominent Italian gangsters named Alessandro Vollero. Vollero told him about the Mafia and suggested he contact Al Capone about a job in Chicago. However, when Valachi was released in June of 1928, he once again started his burglary ring so he would not have to leave his home. After a series of negotiations with men who were part of the Cosa Nostra, Valachi was considered for membership. When he successfully completed two contract killings, he was ordered to wait for a car to pick him up and take him to meet the “family”. This encounter was his initiation into the Genovese Crime Family.
After initiation, Valachi remained an active member until June 1960, when he was sent to a Georgia prison to serve two consecutive fifteen-year sentences for drug trafficking. While in prison, Valachi learned that the Mafia had taken a hit on him because they believed he had broken the Mafia’s code of silence, called omertà, by giving information to the Narcotics Bureau. He suffered three attempts on his life in prison and became paranoid. With his death imminent, Valachi attacked and killed an innocent inmate whom he had mistaken for a mob hitman, Joseph DiPalermo.
By avoiding the death penalty, Joseph Valachi decided to cooperate fully with the federal government and, in return, was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree murder and received a life sentence. After his conviction in 1963, he was transferred to the Westchester County Jail, where Valachi was questioned weekly about the inner workings of the Mafia. Later that year, he testified before Arkansas Senator John McClellan’s Organized Crime Committee, which was televised and highly publicized. His interviews and testimonies were used by journalist Peter Maas to publish his biography, The Valachi Papers. The book was later made into a film in which Valachi was played by Charles Bronson.
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