Post by Admin on Jul 16, 2011 22:08:22 GMT
The Mafia The existence of organized crime syndicates was well known in the United States, but anyone claiming that some of America's most powerful politicians, judges, journalists and business executives were in thrall to the Cosa Nostra was ridiculed until Mafia informer Joe Valachi testified in Congress in 1963 to the full, insidious extent of its illegal activities.