The 1980s witnessed the most impressive and sustained "war on organized crime" in the history of American law enforcement. Thousands of racketeers, including many of the most prominent leaders of long-established crime syndicates, were successfully prosecuted. This accomplishment is striking. But for historians and sociologists there should be a caution raised, for far too many presume these cases have also nailed down the issues of the history and sociology of organized crime. No matter how detailed they are, along with the material derived from them presented to congressional committees and other law enforcement-oriented, fact-finding bodies, they are often misleading guides for historical and sociological workers.
For instance, in the civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (AcT) (RICO) suit pressed by the U.S. attorney in New York's southern district against the Teamsters' Union in an attempt to break "La Cosa Nostra's control over one of the largest labor unions in the nation," assistant U.S. attorney Randy M. Mastro stated, "The Government has established the existence of La Cosa Nostra, a/k/a the ' Mafia' or 'Our Thing'" partially "through the testimony of Angelo Lonardo, former Underboss of the Cleveland Organized Crime Family." Mastro remarked that Lonardo established these items concerning La Cosa Nostra: (1) it operates throughout the United States; (2) it has a commission made up of the bosses of New York's five La Cosa Nostra families and "at various times, representatives of other La Cosa Nostra Families throughout the United States"; (3) the commission is a "national ruling council" of Mafia groups; and (4) the commission's function includes regulating, facilitating, and controlling relationships among Mafia groups.
The historian's interest in these items concerns whether a fair reading of Lonardo's statements supports the contentions. If not, they suffer in this instance from what historian David Hackett Fischer called "the fallacy of the pseudo proof."............
