Dallas crime family: Difference between revisions
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{{Short description|American Mafia crime family}} |
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{{more citations needed|date=September 2019}} |
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| name = Dallas crime family |
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| image = <!-- filename only --> |
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| founded = 1921 |
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| founding location = [[Dallas, Texas]] |
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| founded = {{circa}} {{start date and age|1910}} |
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| founder = Carlo Piranio |
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| named_after = |
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| territory = Various neighborhoods in Dallas, Houston,and Austin |
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| founding_location = [[Dallas]], Texas, United States |
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| ethnicity = [[Made men]] (full members are Italians or [[Italian-American]]s. Criminals of other ethnicities are employed as "associates.") |
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| years_active = {{circa|1910{{ndash}}1970s}} |
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| membership est = Unknown |
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| territory = Primarily the [[Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex|Dallas metropolitan area]], with additional territory throughout [[Texas]], [[Oklahoma]] and [[Arkansas]] |
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| ethnicity = [[Italians]] as "[[Made man|made men]]" and other ethnicities as associates |
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| membership_est = |
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|rivals = Various gangs in Austin, Houston, and Dallas |
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| allies = {{plainlist| |
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* [[Chicago Outfit]] |
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* [[Genovese crime family]] |
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* [[Kansas City crime family]] |
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* [[New Orleans crime family]] |
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* [[Trafficante crime family]] |
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}} |
}} |
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| notable_members = |
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}} |
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==History== |
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===Carlo Piranio=== |
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| ⚫ | Carlo Piranio, a native of Sicily, immigrated to the U.S. circa 1901 with his brother Joseph. They first settled in [[Shreveport, Louisiana]]. Carlo began the Dallas faction of the American Mafia in 1921 with Joseph as his underboss. Carlo, later described as the "original head of the Mafia in Texas," was born about 1876 in [[Corleone, Sicily]], the same hometown as early New York Mafia boss [[Giuseppe Morello]]. Piranio's marriage to an eighteen-year-old woman, recently arrived from Italy, occurred in 1903. In 1904, a son, Angelo, was born to Carlo and Clementia Piranio. The Piranio relocation to Dallas, Texas, occurred sometime between the marriage and the Shreveport birth of Angelo in 1904. The April 1910 U.S. Census says the family lived temporarily at 774 Main Street in Dallas. The household included Carlo and Clementia, young Angelo, and Joseph Piranio and his new bride Lena. Carlo ran a real estate business from his home. Joseph worked as a grocery salesman. Joseph was not entirely settled in Texas. He moved back to Louisiana for a few years. He, his wife and two young daughters returned to Dallas by 1914. Carlo died of natural causes in 1930. Joseph took over the family after Carlo's death. He owned a number of bars, controlled numerous gambling operations, and ran some minor labor rackets through his construction business.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Machi |first1=Mario |title=Dallas, Texas |url=http://www.americanmafia.com/Cities/Dallas.html |website=American Mafia. Com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100302000612/http://www.americanmafia.com/Cities/Dallas.html |archive-date=2010-03-02 }}</ref> |
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==Early history== |
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==Joseph Civello== |
===Joseph Civello=== |
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Civello was born |
[[Joseph Civello]] was born in 1902, in rural West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. He was the second child born to Philip and Catherine Civello. His father, a farm laborer, had been in the United States since 1900. The Civello family grew to include seven children. The family remained in West Baton Rouge until 1923, when Philip relocated the clan to Dallas and opened a grocery store. |
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Civello married in November |
Civello married in November 1929. He and his wife Mary moved into Philip Civello's home at 1902 Moser Avenue. Joseph worked as a salesman for his father's grocery store.<ref>Dallas Morning News, Jan 19, 1970</ref> |
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===Death of Joe DeCarlo=== |
===Death of Joe DeCarlo=== |
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[[Joseph Civello]] assumed control in 1956, when Joseph Piranio died at age 78. Civello attended the infamous [[Apalachin Meeting]] of Mafia leaders in 1957, a time when he controlled narcotics, gambling, prostitution and night clubs in most of Texas. After the Apalachin Meeting, the FBI began keeping closer tabs on Civello. On January 13, 1960, Civello was indicted for conspiracy and perjury offenses. Judge [[Irving R. Kaufman]] sentenced him and nineteen other mob leaders that were at Apalachin to five years in prison. Ten months later, a U.S. Appeals Court overturned the convictions of the twenty men. Prosecutors had proven conspiracy, the court decided, but had not proven that the conspiracy was designed to accomplish some unlawful act. |
[[Joseph Civello]] assumed control in 1956, when Joseph Piranio died at age 78. Civello attended the infamous [[Apalachin Meeting]] of Mafia leaders in 1957, a time when he controlled narcotics, gambling, prostitution and night clubs in most of Texas. After the Apalachin Meeting, the FBI began keeping closer tabs on Civello. On January 13, 1960, Civello was indicted for conspiracy and perjury offenses. Judge [[Irving R. Kaufman]] sentenced him and nineteen other mob leaders that were at Apalachin to five years in prison. Ten months later, a U.S. Appeals Court overturned the convictions of the twenty men. Prosecutors had proven conspiracy, the court decided, but had not proven that the conspiracy was designed to accomplish some unlawful act. |
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===Post-Civello=== |
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After Civello's death in 1970, some law enforcement intelligence officers surmised that local restaurant owner Joseph Ianni, a long-time friend of Civello, became head of the organization. Ianni's only legal trouble was a 1946 liquor law violation and he was reported only to have nothing more than a "vague association" with Marcello. According to ''[[D Magazine]]'', he "had fewer direct ties to New Orleans than Civello, only what some intelligence officers call 'friend of a friend of a friend' relationships".<ref>{{cite news |last=Atkinson |first=Jim |date=December 1, 1977 |title=Who's Behind the Mafia in Dallas? |url=https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1977/december/whos-behind-the-mafia-in-dallas/ |work=D Magazine |location=Dallas |access-date=February 12, 2023}}</ref> |
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In November 1963, President [[John F. Kennedy]] visited Dallas. Many{{who|date=October 2015}} suspected the involvement of the local underworld when the President was assassinated on November 22.{{citation needed|date=October 2015}} Suspicions increased two days later when accused Kennedy assassin [[Lee Harvey Oswald]], then in the custody of the Dallas Police, was shot and mortally wounded in front of TV cameras by local nightclub owner [[Jack Ruby]]. |
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==Historical leadership== |
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Informant Bobby Gene Moore told the FBI what he knew about Ruby's many visits with Joseph Civello.{{citation needed|date=October 2015}} During the [[Warren Commission]] probe into the Kennedy Assassination, further evidence surfaced of contacts between Ruby and Tampa Mob figures in Havana, Cuba. Ruby visited gambler Lewis J. McWillie in Havana in 1959, and one account suggested he and McWillie visited Tampa crime boss [[Santo Trafficante Jr.]], then held by [[Fidel Castro]] at Trescornia detention camp.{{citation needed|date=October 2015}} The FBI called in Joseph Civello for a brief interview and noted that the Dallas crime boss admitted knowing Ruby for about ten years and seeing him four or five times. Civello told agents that he last recalled seeing Ruby in 1957. |
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===Boss=== |
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*1910–1930 – Carlo Piranio – died |
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Civello died in January 1970. |
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*1930–1956 – Joseph Piranio – died |
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*1956–1970 – [[Joseph Civello]] – died |
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*1970–1973 – Joseph Ianni – died |
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== See also == |
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{{Portal|Law}} |
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After Civello's death in 1970, the FBI listed the Dallas Family as inactive. It is more likely, however, that longtime Dallas ''capo'' Joseph Ianni assumed leadership after Civello's death.<ref>{{cite book|last=North|first=Mark|title=Betrayal in Dallas|year=2011|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing|location=New York|isbn=1-61608-236-4|pages=289–290}}</ref> |
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'''General:''' |
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==See also== |
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* [[Crime in Texas]] |
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{{Portal|Dallas-Fort Worth|Criminal justice}} |
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* [[List of Italian Mafia crime families]] |
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==References== |
==References== |
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{{American Mafia}} |
{{American Mafia}} |
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{{Organized crime groups in the United States}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dallas Crime Family}} |
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dallas Crime Family}} |
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[[Category:1910 establishments in Texas]] |
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[[Category:1970s disestablishments in Texas]] |
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[[Category:Defunct organizations based in Texas]] |
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[[Category:Gangs in Texas]] |
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[[Category:History of Dallas]] |
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[[Category:Italian-American culture in Texas]] |
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[[Category:Italian-American crime families]] |
[[Category:Italian-American crime families]] |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:Organizations based in Dallas]] |
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[[Category:Organizations disestablished in the 1970s]] |
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[[Category:Organizations established in 1910]] |
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Latest revision as of 15:30, 25 July 2024
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2019) |
| Founded | c. 1910 |
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| Founder | Carlo Piranio |
| Founding location | Dallas, Texas, United States |
| Years active | c. 1910–1970s |
| Territory | Primarily the Dallas metropolitan area, with additional territory throughout Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas |
| Ethnicity | Italians as "made men" and other ethnicities as associates |
| Activities | Racketeering, conspiracy, loansharking, money laundering, murder, drug trafficking, extortion, pornography, labor racketeering fraud, gambling, skimming, bookmaking, corruption, and prostitution |
| Allies | |
| Rivals | Various gangs in the Dallas area |
The Dallas crime family, also known as the Civello crime family or the Dallas Mafia, was an Italian-American Mafia crime family based in Dallas, Texas.
History
[edit]Carlo Piranio
[edit]Carlo Piranio, a native of Sicily, immigrated to the U.S. circa 1901 with his brother Joseph. They first settled in Shreveport, Louisiana. Carlo began the Dallas faction of the American Mafia in 1921 with Joseph as his underboss. Carlo, later described as the "original head of the Mafia in Texas," was born about 1876 in Corleone, Sicily, the same hometown as early New York Mafia boss Giuseppe Morello. Piranio's marriage to an eighteen-year-old woman, recently arrived from Italy, occurred in 1903. In 1904, a son, Angelo, was born to Carlo and Clementia Piranio. The Piranio relocation to Dallas, Texas, occurred sometime between the marriage and the Shreveport birth of Angelo in 1904. The April 1910 U.S. Census says the family lived temporarily at 774 Main Street in Dallas. The household included Carlo and Clementia, young Angelo, and Joseph Piranio and his new bride Lena. Carlo ran a real estate business from his home. Joseph worked as a grocery salesman. Joseph was not entirely settled in Texas. He moved back to Louisiana for a few years. He, his wife and two young daughters returned to Dallas by 1914. Carlo died of natural causes in 1930. Joseph took over the family after Carlo's death. He owned a number of bars, controlled numerous gambling operations, and ran some minor labor rackets through his construction business.[1]
Joseph Civello
[edit]Joseph Civello was born in 1902, in rural West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. He was the second child born to Philip and Catherine Civello. His father, a farm laborer, had been in the United States since 1900. The Civello family grew to include seven children. The family remained in West Baton Rouge until 1923, when Philip relocated the clan to Dallas and opened a grocery store.
Civello married in November 1929. He and his wife Mary moved into Philip Civello's home at 1902 Moser Avenue. Joseph worked as a salesman for his father's grocery store.[2]
Death of Joe DeCarlo
[edit]Law enforcement officers quickly became aware of Joseph Civello. He was convicted of Prohibition violations in 1926 and served forty days in jail. On July 12, 1928, Civello was again arrested on liquor charges. His arrest was part of a series of raids that nabbed a total of twenty-two suspected bootleggers around the city. Civello was arrested on St. Paul Street with two other men, Ernest Calchano and Joe DeCarlo. DeCarlo was an important bootlegger in the Dallas area and had recently begun refusing to send tribute payments to Carlo Piranio. Civello was selected to administer Mafia discipline.
Just two days after their arrest together, Civello and DeCarlo met inside the St. Paul Drugstore at the intersection of St. Paul and Bryan Streets. Civello happened to be carrying a loaded shotgun at the time. As the men stood close to each other, the shotgun went off. DeCarlo was shot in the stomach. Rather than flee, Civello remained with the mortally wounded DeCarlo, protesting that his weapon had fired by accident. DeCarlo, with his dying breath, confirmed Civello's story.
Civello was arrested and charged with murder. He continued to insist that the killing was accidental. A Dallas grand jury gave considerable weight to DeCarlo's dying statement. Within two days, Civello was released on his own recognizance. The grand jury continued its investigation into DeCarlo's death and decided on July 27 not to indict Civello.
Apalachin Meeting
[edit]Joseph Civello assumed control in 1956, when Joseph Piranio died at age 78. Civello attended the infamous Apalachin Meeting of Mafia leaders in 1957, a time when he controlled narcotics, gambling, prostitution and night clubs in most of Texas. After the Apalachin Meeting, the FBI began keeping closer tabs on Civello. On January 13, 1960, Civello was indicted for conspiracy and perjury offenses. Judge Irving R. Kaufman sentenced him and nineteen other mob leaders that were at Apalachin to five years in prison. Ten months later, a U.S. Appeals Court overturned the convictions of the twenty men. Prosecutors had proven conspiracy, the court decided, but had not proven that the conspiracy was designed to accomplish some unlawful act.
Post-Civello
[edit]After Civello's death in 1970, some law enforcement intelligence officers surmised that local restaurant owner Joseph Ianni, a long-time friend of Civello, became head of the organization. Ianni's only legal trouble was a 1946 liquor law violation and he was reported only to have nothing more than a "vague association" with Marcello. According to D Magazine, he "had fewer direct ties to New Orleans than Civello, only what some intelligence officers call 'friend of a friend of a friend' relationships".[3]
Historical leadership
[edit]Boss
[edit]- 1910–1930 – Carlo Piranio – died
- 1930–1956 – Joseph Piranio – died
- 1956–1970 – Joseph Civello – died
- 1970–1973 – Joseph Ianni – died
See also
[edit]
General:
References
[edit]- ^ Machi, Mario. "Dallas, Texas". American Mafia. Com. Archived from the original on 2010-03-02.
- ^ Dallas Morning News, Jan 19, 1970
- ^ Atkinson, Jim (December 1, 1977). "Who's Behind the Mafia in Dallas?". D Magazine. Dallas. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
