It's possible that Vito Genovese never suspected Joe Valachi of being an informant and never ordered Valachi killed. Valachi was convinced that the hit was coming, and thought that Joseph DiPalermo had the assignment. When he saw DiPalermo coming for him he grabbed a pipe and beat him to death, only it was Joseph Saupp - who looked a lot like DiPalermo but had no connection to organized crime at all. Resentful of Genovese's suspicions, Valachi agreed to sing. At a time when J. Edgar Hoover denied that any such thing as the Mafia existed, Valachi drew an organization chart. The barely literate, low-ranking member of organized crime gained celebrity status in televised senate hearings for breaking omerta, the code of silence. He didn't know a lot, and a lot of what he knew turned out to be wrong, but the revelations helped Bobby Kennedy's career as Attorney General, severely weakened organized crime, and led to the creation of the federal Witness Security program. One odd change that Valachi made was in the names of the families - each family had always been named after its own capo, with one exception the families are now called by the names of their capi in 1963, the names Valachi used in front of the television cameras.
The last witches of Salem Village were hung on this day, Nathan Hale said his famous line and was hanged as a spy, a president who was later assassinated issued a proclamation that was basically an invitation to individual Confederate states to return to the Union and be allowed to keep their slaves, and a later president survived his second assassination attempt in less than a month.
I don't think we need to have a countdown, but this is day 266 in the last year of the second millenium, only 100 days to go! I was nine, an impressionable age, when the Century 21 Exposition was held in 1962. Maybe kids in other parts of the country didn't get the same instruction Washingtonians did about what a century was, when one started, and when it ended, but we sure did. I hope they have good fireworks in a hundred days, now that the millennium is really going to end.
1692 - The last eight women convicted of witchcraft at Salem Village, Massachusetts, Martha Cory, Margaret Scott, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Willmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker were hanged. Five weeks later the court that tried them is dissolved. By the following May all remaining charges were dismissed, all prisoners were released, and general amnesty had been granted. Sixty years later the town changed its name, 265 years later Massachusetts apologized.
1776 - Nathan Hale, aged 21, was hanged by the English as a spy. The young captain who never saw action was caught behind English lines on Long Island posing as a Dutch schoolteacher. An eyewitness later recalled Hale's final words as, "I only regret I have but one life to lose for my country."
1792 - The First French Republic, established the previous day at the first meeting of the National Convention, becomes the government of France. The event retroactively becomes the first day of the year in the Revolutionary Calendar created on 24 November 1793.
1827 - According to the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Joseph Smith, Jr of Palmyra, New York retrieved the golden tablets from a hiding place near his home, the angel Moroni had first told him of the tablets in a vision four years before. From the "reformed Egyptian" characters debossed in the gold pages Smith would produce the Book of Mormon during the next three years.
1862 - President Abraham Lincoln read and discussed his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation with his cabinet, which would take effect on 1 January 1863. The document basically reiterates previous acts of Congress, stating that slaves in the Union remain the property of their owners, that fugitive slaves from states then in rebellion will no longer be returned, and that the Union will no longer recognize the slave status of anyone in the Confederacy.
1975 - Radical activist and erstwhile FBI informant Sara Jane Moore, waiting in a crowd across the street from a San Francisco hotel when US President Gerald Ford walked out to a waiting limousine, raised her pistol to shoot. A civilian grabbed at the gun and deflected the shot, a bystander sustained a minor injury from the bullet.
Hobbit Day, Middle Earth - On this date in the year 3001 of the Third Age, Shire Reckoning, Bilbo and Frodo Baggins celebrated their shared birthday. Bilbo was eleventy-one (111) and Frodo was thirty-three.
September Equinox, At 17:27 Universal Time (5:27 pm) the geometric center of the Sun's disk crosses the equator, and this point is above the horizon for 12 hours everywhere on the Earth. The day is, approximately, equal in length to the night although the edge of the sun peeking over the horizon ahead of the geometric center at sunrise and trailing at sunset means this event actually took place a few days ago in the Southern Hemisphere. The first day of Spring in the southern hemisphere, the first day of Autumn in the northern.
1904
- Joseph Michael Valachi, US gangster - Born one of 17 children
to Neapolitan immigrants in East Harlem, New York. Father's alcoholism
limited him to menial jobs, family to poverty. Assaulted fellow students,
spent some time in reform school, at age 15 Joseph quit school altogether
and worked with father at city dump, at 18 was full-time burglar. Stole
$10,000 worth of silk from Bronx warehouse, went to prison first time
for 18 months in 1923. He was only out for a few months before being caught
and sent up for three years. When released he was introduced into the
mob, "made his bones" by killing on instruction, and in late November
1930 was inducted with blood and fire into the organization of Salvatore
Maranzano, and assigned to Joseph Bonanno's crew. Married his supervisor's
daughter, Mildred Reina, in 1932. When Maranzano became the boss of bosses
Valachi attached himself to the capo's personal guard. In 1940 Valachi
had loan sharking and numbers businesses, ran a clothing factory, moved
into black market specializing in gasoline ration stamps as the war started.
Bureau of Narcotics kept tabs on him, he claimed to have never been involved
in heroin. He was arrested in 1956 on drug charges which led to short
prison stay, similar charges in 1959 stuck - sending him to federal prison
in Atlanta, Georgia for 15 years. Was convinced that Vito Genovese, another
mob boss serving time there who believed Valachi was working undercover
for the Bureau of Narcotics, had ordered a hit on him. When approached
by three men at about 7:30 am on 22 June 1962, Valachi grabbed a length
of pipe and attacked one who looked like his expected assailant, killing
the wrong man. Genovese's suspicions angered Valachi and apparently he
was remorseful over the unwarranted death - he agreed to provide information
in exchange for comfortable treatment and protection. Provided information
to the FBI, Bureau of Narcotics, and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee
on Investigations. First to reveal "Cosa Nostra" name, evidence did not
convict any family members but provided feds with first clear understanding
of organization. Died of a heart attack in La Tuna federal prison camp
at Anthony, Texas on 3 April 1971.
Obviously crime pays, or there'd be no crime.
- G. Gordon Liddy
Organized crime constitutes nothing less than a guerilla war against
society.
- Lyndon Baines Johnson
Organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars a year
and spends very little on office supplies.
- Woody Allen
As a rule, said Holmes, the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious
it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are
really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock
Holmes
Twisted History is sent daily, absolutely free, to our subscribers who understand that the events of the past centuries have shaped our lives today - and are probably less depressing than the events on today's TV news. Both an HTML version (which looks just like this) and a text version that is compatible with all mail clients are available.
Manage your subscription
Tell a friend
about Twisted History
Leave
Feedback
Copyright 2000 G. Armour Van Horn, all rights reserved. This document may be distributed freely. Please forward the complete message including this copyright notice.