Mr.
Schiff: Hi, welcome to "FBI 100, A Closer
Look." I'm Neal Schiff of the Bureau's Office
of Public Affairs along with FBI Historian Dr.
John Fox. John, La Cosa Nostra. More commonly
known by the public as the mafia or mob. The La
Cosa Nostra was around a long time but a major
event took place on November 14th, 1957?
Dr.
Fox: "Neal, that day there was a major meeting
of organized crime figures at a house in Appalachia,
New York, owned by Joseph Barbera who was one
of the major mafiosa of the time. A New York State
Trooper named Edgar Croswell had identified several
of the attendees at the meeting and ended up taking
down license plate numbers and names of many of
these major crime figures. And it really blasted
it open to the public that the mob was a significant
national force because you had mobsters from all
over the country getting together."
Mr.
Schiff: So this was a significant time to
find these people up at this resort in the Catskills?
Who was there? What were they talking about?
Dr.
Fox: "Well Neal there's been some debate
about that. But it looks like they were discussing
family organization in a sense. Collusion among
each other and kind of the balance of power among
the different mob operations around the country.
It was a very loose confederation. But it did
signal to the FBI that this was a national web
and needed to be dealt with at a national level."
Mr.
Schiff: Thanks John. From the FBI's Public
Affairs office, along with Bureau Historian Dr.
John Fox, I'm Neal Schiff with "FBI 100,
A Closer Look."
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