1997 in organized crime
Encyclopedia
See also:
1996 in organized crime
,
other events of 1997,
1998 in organized crime
and the
list of 'years in Organized Crime'
.
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1996 in organized crime
1996 in organized crime
See also:1995 in organized crime,other events of 1996,1997 in organized crime and thelist of 'years in Organized Crime'.-----Events:*December 7 - Philadelphia crime family captain Joseph Sodano, based out of Newark, New Jersey, was shot to death for hiding money from the administration.-Arts and...
,
other events of 1997,
1998 in organized crime
1998 in organized crime
See also:1997 in organized crime,other events of 1998,1999 in organized crime and thelist of 'years in Organized Crime'.-----Events:*January 22 - Gambino crime family acting boss John Gotti, Jr., and 22 other associates were indicted on federal racketeering charges...
and the
list of 'years in Organized Crime'
Timeline of organized crime
This is a timeline of the history of organized crime.Note: Sources included are Carl Sifakis's The Mafia Encyclopedia, Herbert Asbury's The Gangs of New York and others. Online references also include Thomas P...
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Events
- January 7 – "Fat" Herbie Blitzstein was shot to death inside his Las Vegas townhouse.
- June 6 – Arrest of Pietro AglieriPietro AglieriPietro Aglieri was a powerful mafioso from the Guadagna neighbourhood in Palermo. He is known as "'U Signurinu" for his relatively sophisticated education and refined manners. He had a classical education and studied Greek, Latin, philosophy, history and literature to a level that guaranteed him...
, boss of the Santa Maria di Gesù Mafia family in PalermoPalermoPalermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, in a disused lemon warehouse in the dilapidated industrial area BagheriaBagheriaBagheria is a town and comune in the Province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy.-Etymology:According to some sources, the name Bagheria originates from the Phoenician term Bayharia meaning "land that descends toward the sea." Other sources claim that it derives from the Arabic Bāb al-Gerib, or "windy...
together with his "right hand" men, Natale Gambino and Giuseppe La Mattina. It took the authorities almost a year to locate him following the arrest of his right-hand man Carlo Greco. Apparently, Giovanni BruscaGiovanni BruscaGiovanni Brusca is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia. He murdered the anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone in 1992 and once stated that he had committed between 100 and 200 murders but was unable to remember the exact number...
, a Riina loyalist arrested in May 1996, helped police identify Aglieri. He had been on the run since 1989. - August – Masaru TakumiMasaru TakumiMasaru Takumi was a powerful Japanese organized crime figure assassinated in 1997. Until his death, he was the second-in-command and financial overseer of Japan's largest yakuza gang, the Yamaguchi-gumi...
, the founding head of the Takumi-gumiTakumi-gumiThe Second Takumi-gumi is a Japanese yakuza gang affiliated with the powerful Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate.The Kansai-based gang was founded in 1967 by Masaru Takumi, the longtime second-in-command and financial overseer of the Yamaguchi-gumi....
, a large branch of the Yamaguchi-gumiYamaguchi-gumiis Japan's largest and most infamous yakuza organization. It is named after its founder Harukichi Yamaguchi. Its origins can be traced back to a loose labor union for dockworkers in Kobe pre-WWII....
, was assasinated by the Nakano-kaiNakano-kaiThe Nakano-kai was a notorious Osaka-based yakuza gang, founded by Taro Nakano in the years after World War 2. The Nakano-kai was known for its fierce bellicosity and thus sometimes dubbed the "Dojin-kai in the Yamaguchi-gumi".Before 1997, the Nakano-kai had been an affiliate of the Kobe-based...
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Arts and literature
- 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag8 Heads in a Duffel Bag8 Heads in a Duffel Bag is a 1997 black comedy film starring Joe Pesci and David Spade. It was the directorial debut of screenwriter Tom Schulman...
(film) starring Joe PesciJoe PesciJoseph Frank "Joe" Pesci is an American actor, comedian, and musician.He is known for playing a variety of different roles, from violent mobsters to comedic leads to quirky sidekicks...
and David SpadeDavid SpadeDavid Wayne Spade is an American actor, comedian and television personality who first became famous in the 1990s as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, and from 1997 until 2003 when he starred as Dennis Finch on Just Shoot Me!. He also starred as C.J...
. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118541/ - Bella MafiaBella MafiaBella Mafia is a 1997 American television film starring Vanessa Redgrave and Dennis Farina. Redgrave was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film....
(film) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120602/ - Diaro una siciliana ribelle (film) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162975/
- Donnie BrascoDonnie Brasco (film)Donnie Brasco is a 1997 crime drama film directed by Mike Newell, starring Al Pacino, Johnny Depp and Michael Madsen. It is loosely based on the real-life events of Joseph D. Pistone, an FBI agent who infiltrated the Bonanno crime family, one of the Mafia's Five Families based in New York City...
(film) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119008/ starring Al PacinoAl PacinoAlfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...
, Johnny DeppJohnny DeppJohn Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
, Michael MadsenMichael MadsenMichael Søren Madsen is an American actor, poet, and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, most of them small independent films, though he has starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin...
and Bruno KirbyBruno KirbyBruno Kirby was an American film and television actor. He was perhaps best known for his roles in the Hollywood films City Slickers, When Harry Met Sally..., Good Morning, Vietnam, The Godfather Part II and Donnie Brasco.-Early life:Kirby was born Bruno Giovanni Quidaciolu, Jr. in New York City,...
. - Hoodlum (film) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119311/ starring Laurence FishburneLaurence FishburneLaurence John Fishburne III is an American film and stage actor, playwright, director, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Morpheus in the Matrix science fiction film trilogy, as Cowboy Curtis on the 1980's television show Pee-wee's Playhouse, and as singer-musician Ike Turner...
, Tim RothTim RothSimon Timothy "Tim" Roth is an English film actor and director best known for his roles in the American films,Legend of 1900, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms, Skellig, Planet of the Apes, The Incredible Hulk and Rob Roy, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for...
and Andy GarcíaAndy GarcíaAndrés Arturo García Menéndez , professionally known as Andy García, is a Cuban American actor. He became known in the late 1980s and 1990s, having appeared in several successful Hollywood films, including The Godfather: Part III, The Untouchables, Internal Affairs and When a Man Loves a Woman...
. - Jackie BrownJackie Brown (film)Jackie Brown is a 1997 American crime drama film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is an adaptation of the novel Rum Punch by American novelist Elmore Leonard and pays homage to 1970s blaxploitation films....
(film) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119396/ starring Samuel L. JacksonSamuel L. JacksonSamuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
, Michael KeatonMichael KeatonMichael John Douglas , better known by the stage name Michael Keaton, is an American actor known for his early comedic roles, most notably his performance as the title character of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice . Keaton is also famous for his dramatic portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Tim Burton's...
and Robert De NiroRobert De NiroRobert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
. - Suicide KingsSuicide KingsSuicide Kings is a 1997 American neo-noir/comedy-drama film, starring Christopher Walken, Denis Leary, Sean Patrick Flanery, Johnny Galecki, Jay Mohr, Jeremy Sisto, and Henry Thomas...
(film) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120241/ - The Last DonThe Last DonThe Last Don is a novel by Mario Puzo, best known as the author of The Godfather.The story alternates between the movie industry and the Las Vegas casinos, showing how the Mafia is linked to them both.-Plot:...
(television miniseries) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118381/ starring Danny AielloDanny AielloDaniel Louis "Danny" Aiello, Jr. is an American actor who has appeared in numerous motion pictures, including Once Upon a Time in America, Ruby, The Godfather: Part II, Hudson Hawk, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Moonstruck, Léon, Two Days in the Valley, and Dinner Rush...
, Joe MantegnaJoe MantegnaJoseph Anthony "Joe" Mantegna, Jr. is an American actor, producer, writer,director, and voice actor. He is best known for his roles in box office hits such as Three Amigos , The Godfather Part III , Forget Paris , and Up Close & Personal...
, and Burt YoungBurt YoungBurt Young is an American actor, painter and author. He is best known for his Academy Award-nominated role as Sylvester Stallone's brother-in-law and friend Paulie in the Rocky film series.-Personal life:...
. - The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (documentary) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390511/
- Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia (non-fiction book) by Peter MaasPeter MaasPeter Maas was an American journalist and author. He was born in New York City and attended Duke University. Maas had Dutch and Irish heritage....
. - Brother (film)
- FaceFaceThe face is a central sense organ complex, for those animals that have one, normally on the ventral surface of the head, and can, depending on the definition in the human case, include the hair, forehead, eyebrow, eyelashes, eyes, nose, ears, cheeks, mouth, lips, philtrum, temple, teeth, skin, and...
(film)
Deaths
- Matthew "Mike" Trupiano Jr., St. LouisSt. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
mafia boss - January - Victor SpilotroVictor SpilotroVictor P. Spilotro was the older brother of Chicago Outfit mobster Tony Spilotro and Outfit wannabe brother, Michael. It was not until the 1980s that Victor started to get public attention.-Biography:...
, Chicago mobster and brother of Anthony SpilotroAnthony SpilotroAnthony "The Ant" Spilotro was an Italian-American mobster and enforcer for the Chicago Outfit in Las Vegas during the 1970s and 1980s. His job was to protect and oversee the Outfit's illegal casino profits...
and Michael SpilotroMichael SpilotroMichael Peter "Micky" Spilotro was the brother of Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro and was an associate of the Chicago La Cosa Nostra organized crime organization referred to as "The Outfit".-Family background:... - January 2 - Sam CarlisiSam CarlisiSamuel A. Carlisi also known as "Black Sam" and "Sam Wings" , was a Chicago gangster who was in the Chicago Outfit criminal organization. Sam Carlisi's brother Roy was a caporegime in the Buffalo crime family, otherwise known as the Magaddino crime family...
"Wings", Chicago OutfitChicago OutfitThe Chicago Outfit, also known as the Chicago Syndicate or Chicago Mob and sometimes shortened to simply the Outfit, is a crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois, USA...
boss - June 7 - Sam DeCavalcanteSam DeCavalcanteSimone Rizzo "Sam" DeCavalcante , known as "Sam the Plumber", was a member of the New Jersey Mafia. Claiming descent from the Italian royal family, DeCavalcante was nicknamed "The Count"...
"The Plumber", boss of the New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
mafia family - August 28 - Masaru TakumiMasaru TakumiMasaru Takumi was a powerful Japanese organized crime figure assassinated in 1997. Until his death, he was the second-in-command and financial overseer of Japan's largest yakuza gang, the Yamaguchi-gumi...
, founding head of the Takumi-gumiTakumi-gumiThe Second Takumi-gumi is a Japanese yakuza gang affiliated with the powerful Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate.The Kansai-based gang was founded in 1967 by Masaru Takumi, the longtime second-in-command and financial overseer of the Yamaguchi-gumi....