September 25, 1963: Joseph Valachi testifies before before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate Committee on Government Operations, chaired by Senator John McClellan of Arkansas. In so doing, he provides the clearest picture yet of organized crime in America.
Valachi was no hero. Born in 1904 in East Harlem, then an Italian neighborhood, in Upper Manhattan, he was already arrested on grand larceny charges at the age of 17. By the time he was 22, he had already served 9 months at the famed Sing Sing Correctional Facility, on the Hudson River in Ossining, Westchester County, New York. (The prison is the source of the expression for being incarcerated: "Sent up the river.")
In 1930, at the height of the Castellammarese War, which led to the formation of New York organized crime's "Five Families," he became a "made man" in what's now known the Lucchese family. He became a bodyguard to the man who emerged as "the boss of all bosses," Salvatore Maranzano. But Maranzano was assassinated in 1931, and his group was taken over by Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Already showing that his loyalty was a bit fluid, Valachi pledged himself to Luciano. (Given that Valachi had failed to protect Maranzano, I'm surprised Luciano took him on.)
In 1959, Valachi was convicted on drug charges, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 1962, he killed a fellow prisoner, whom he believed to have been sent to kill him by the boss and namesake of another of the Five Families, Vito Genovese, who had taken over the Luciano family's operations and name in 1957 after a failed assassination attempt scared Luciano's successor, Frank Costello, into retiring and leaving the country. (Costello had taken over Luciano's operations after Luciano was deported to Italy in 1946.) Now sure that he was a dead man if he stayed in prison, Valachi cut a deal with the federal government to tell what he knew.
For the 1st time, Americans not privy to the Mob's secrets heard certain terms:
* The Five Families: Bonanno, Profaci (which became Colombo), Genovese, Lucchese and Gambino (which would eventually be ruled by John Gotti).
* Cosa Nostra: Meaning "Our Thing," this is what the Mob tended to call themselves. (Later Mobsters tended to use "This Thing of Ours" and "The Life.")
* Men of Honor: What the officers in the Mob called themselves.
* Made Man: What an ordinary soldier in the Mob was called. A man could not be "made" unless he was a full-blooded Italian (preferably Sicilian, but not required), and accomplished certain other things, including at least one contracted murder. This is why Henry Hill and Jimmy Burke, who were portrayed by Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro (as "Jimmy Conway"), respectively, in the movie Goodfellas could never be made men: Hill was half-Italian, but also half-Irish, and Burke was full Irish. They could work with the Mob, and the Mob would certainly be happy to accept whatever money those "wiseguys" or "goodfellas" made for them, but they could not be "inducted" or "made."
* Omertà: A code of silence, where you don't tell what you know, so you protect your own people. Previous Mob figures had been called to testify before Congress, but had refused to break the code, most notably Costello in 1950.
Valachi broke the code. What he did not do was lead directly to the prosecution of any Mob leaders, and put himself at bigger risk than ever of being killed. Hit. Assassinated. Whacked. Rubbed out. Taken care of. Eliminated. Given cement overshoes. Sent to sleep with the fishes. As it turned out, he died peacefully in prison, of a heart attack, in 1971.
Before his death, he collaborated with author Peter Maas on a book, published in 1968 as The Valachi Papers, which was turned into a film starring Charles Bronson in 1972. Maas would later work with corruption-busting New York cop Frank Serpico and Gambino/Gotti underboss Sammy "the Bull" Gravano on their memoirs. In the 1974 film The Godfather Part II, the character of Frank Pentangeli (played by Michael Gazzo), who plans to testify but gets intimidated into not doing so, is based on Valachi.
*
September 25, 1963 was a Wednesday. Actor Tate Donovan was born.
The NBA and the NHL were in their off-seasons, and the NFL and the AFL were in the middle of their weeks. But there were Major League Baseball games played that day:
* The New York Yankees beat the Los Angeles Angels, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. Jim Bouton won his 21st game of the season, and was supported by 3 hits from the man who would be named the American League's Most Valuable Player, Elston Howard. Mickey Mantle went 0-for-2 with a walk.
* The New York Mets lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 1-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Sandy Koufax won his 25th game of the season. Both the Yankees and Dodgers had already clinched their respective Leagues' Pennants. The Dodgers would win the World Series in a 4-game sweep.
* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-6 at Fenway Park in Boston.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 10-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.
* The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Doug Clemens (no relation to Roger) hit a home run for the Cards. In one of his last games, Stan Musial went 0-for-2 before being removed. Ernie Banks did not play for the Cubs. Ken Hubbs, a 22-year-old shortstop, and the previous season's NL Rookie of the Year, did play, and hit the 8th home run of his career. It would be his last, as he was killed the following February in Utah. Hubbs made the same mistake that Thurman Munson would make 15 years later: He piloted his own plane.
* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-5 at Milwaukee County Stadium. All 3 of the Braves' future Hall-of-Famers hit home runs: Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, and Warren Spahn, who was a good hitter for a pitcher.
* The Houston Colt .45s beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1 at Colt Stadium in Houston. The Colts became the Astros in 1965.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-4 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie Mays went 4-for-4, but had no RBIs. Orlando Cepeda went 1-for-4, but that 1 hit was a 3-run homer.
* And the Cleveland Indians were supposed to play the Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, but the game was rained out. It was never rescheduled.
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