The Buffalo Mafia’s ill-advised art thefts
“Art Collection Is Looted; Loss Put at $1.3 million,” read a headline in the August 22, 1968, edition of the New York Times. In the middle of the night, burglars broke into the home of art collector T. Edward Hanley and walked off with 14 paintings and two statues while Hanley slept in his bed. Associates of the Buffalo Mafia orchestrated the theft under the oversight of crime boss Stefano Magaddino, whose reign was nearing its end. The theft gave the FBI the perfect opportunity to take down the Mafia in Buffalo, New York. Magaddino found his empire in danger from ...
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DEA marks 50th anniversary of fighting drug traffickers at home and abroad
On June 17, 1971, President Richard Nixon explained a special message sent to Congress asking for an extra $155 million for a new program to combat drug abuse. He labeled drug abuse “a national emergency” and said the money would be used to “tighten the noose around the necks of drug peddlers and thereby loosen the noose around the necks of drug users.” Nixon’s efforts eventually led to creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1973. At left is Egil Krogh, deputy director of the Domestic Council. At right is Dr. Jerome Jaffe, recruited by Nixon to lead a new drug strategy. AP Photo/Harvey Georges
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Tentacles of organized crime once had firm grip on Japanese politics
The yakuza, Japan’s premier organized crime group, is becoming more visible in modern pop culture. From HBO’s Tokyo Vice to…
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Mob movie classic ‘The Friends Of Eddie Coyle’ turns 50
The Boston-based movie The Friends of Eddie Coyle was released 50 years ago, in June 1973, introducing viewers to a…
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The Kansas City Massacre prompted legal reforms that bolstered federal law enforcement
On June 17, 1933, an ambush at Kansas City’s Union Station railroad depot left five men dead and two wounded….
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The airport shootout and El Chapo’s big arrest
Joaquin Guzman Loera, aka “El Chapo,” is presented to the news media at Altiplano prison in Villa de Almoloya de Juarez on June 10, 1993. Courtesy of Cipollini Collection
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Body farms unravel mysteries of human decomposition
The University of Tennessee’s Forensic Anthropology Center is one of seven taphonomic research facilities, or body farms, in the United States. Remains are laid out for researchers to observe the natural decomposition process. Getty Images
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‘When Spilotro got greedy, the end was written’
Since 1980, award-winning reporter Chuck Goudie has covered the Mob and much more for ABC7 News in Chicago. He’s been…
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