← Back to the front page

Fascinating Facts About the Birth of the Italian-American Mafia

Khalid Elhassan February 13, 2025 17 min

Mafia - Lucky Luciano, who midwifed the birth of the modern Italian-American Mafia — Lucky Luciano, who midwifed the birth of the modern Italian-American Mafia. The Mob Museum

16. Massacring the Mafiosi

new orleans residents gather on march 14, 1891 — New Orleans residents gather on March 14, 1891. WWNO.

The following day, March 14^th, 1891, a mob of thousands, including prominent New Orleans citizens, broke into the prison housing the defendants. They lynched eleven – the biggest single mass lynching in US history. That had a salutary effect on the Italian-American Mafia. Unlike Sicily and southern Italy, where criminals could brazenly defy the authorities and society, with little to fear from either, America was different, with limits to what criminals could get away. From then on, the Mob adopted strict rules against targeting law enforcement, even preemptively killing colleagues seeking to go after cops or prosecutors.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.