Joe Valachi

Infobox Person
name=Joe Valachi


image_size=150px
caption=
birth_date=birth date|1903|9|22|mf=y
birth_place=Bacova, Timis, Romania
death_date=death date and age|1971|4|3|1903|9|22|mf=y
death_place=El Paso, Texas, U.S.

Joseph 'Joe Cago' Valachi (September 22, 1903 – April 3, 1971) (aka Charles Chanbano and Anthony Sorge) was the first Mafia member to publicly acknowledge the existence of the Mafia. He is also the person who made Cosa Nostra (meaning "our thing") a household name. [ [http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,894561,00.html Their Thing] , Time, August 16, 1963]

In October 1963, Valachi (a "soldier" in New York City's powerful Genovese crime family, whose primary "job" within the family was that of a driver) had testified before Arkansas Senator John L. McClellan's congressional committee on organized crime that the Mafia did exist. [ [http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,875227,00.html Killers in Prison] , Time, October 4, 1963] [ [http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873080,00.html "The Smell of It"] , Time, October 11, 1963] Although the low-ranking Valachi's disclosures never led directly to the prosecution of many Mafia leaders, he was able to provide many details of its history, operations and rituals, aiding in the solution of several uncleared murders, as well as naming many members and the major crime families. His testimony, which was broadcast on radio and television and published in newspapers, was devastating for the mob, still reeling from the November 14, 1957, Apalachin Meeting where state police had accidentally discovered several Mafia bosses from all over the United States meeting at the Apalachin, New York, home of mobster Joseph Barbara. After the Apalachin exposures and Valachi's testimony, the mob was no longer invisible to the public. He was the son-in-law of Gaetano Reina after he married Reina's oldest daughter Mildred, over the objections of her mother, brother, and uncles.

Valachi's motivations for becoming an informer have been the subject of some debate. Insanity ran in his family, with four of his brothers and sisters winding up in mental institutions, and two committing suicide.Fact|date=December 2007 Valachi claimed to be testifying as a public service and a way to expose a powerful criminal organization that he blamed for ruining his life, but it is also possible he was simply hoping for US government protection to avoid the death penalty for a murder he committed on June 22 1962. This murder, done with a pipe from a nearby construction site, was of a man in prison whom Valachi had mistaken for a Mafia member by the name of Joseph DiPalermo intending to kill him (Valachi and Genovese were both serving a sentence for heroin trafficking). [Jerry Capeci. (2002) "The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia", Alpha Books. p. 200. ISBN 0028642252] Genovese had apparently ordered Valachi killed (offering $100,000 to anyone who did so) because the powerful mob boss believed Valachi had betrayed him to the authorities in exchange for a lighter prison sentence, thus violating the strict Mafia oath of Omertà (silence) which traditionally was punishable by death.

After the U.S. Department of Justice first encouraged and then blocked publication of Valachi's memoirs, a biography heavily influenced by those memoirs and by interviews with Valachi was written by journalist Peter Maas and published in 1968 as "The Valachi Papers", [ [http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,838901,00.html His Life and Crimes] , Time, January 17, 1969] forming the basis for a later movie of the same title starring Charles Bronson as Valachi. Valachi also reportedly inspired the characters of Willi Cicci and Frank Pentangeli in the hit film "The Godfather Part II" (1974).

In 1966, Valachi attempted to hang himself in his prison cell, using an electrical extension cord. He died of a heart attack in 1971 at La Tuna Federal Correctional Institution in Texas, having outlived his nemesis Vito Genovese by two years. The $100,000 bounty placed on Valachi's head by Genovese went uncollected.

Timeline of Valachi

*09/22/1903 Joseph Valachi born
*03/10/1921 Joseph Valachi, Bronx, Burglary, 46th Precent-discharged by Magistrate McGee 3/12/1921
*11/10/1921 alias Anthony Sorge, Jersey City, NJ. revolver-Probation 10/19/1922
*06/22/1962 Valachi kills man in prison
*04/3/1971 Valachi dies in prison.

References

ee also

* Buster From Chicago
* Vincent Palermo
* Sammy Gravano
* Tommaso Buscetta
* Joseph Massino
* Phil Leonetti
* The Valachi Papers (1972 film)

External links

* [http://www.carpenoctem.tv/mafia/valachi.html Seize The Night: Joseph Valachi]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Valachi&GSfn=Joseph+&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=17075812& Joseph Valachi] at Find A Grave