Mafia & WWII

[K.Kocjancic]

How was Mafia involved in WWII?

IIRC, the mafia in Italy was very anti-Mussolini. Did they use their subversive experiances and help with the figth against Axis?

How about Mafia in USA? Did they use their connections with "Old country" in fight against Axis (gettering the info,...)?

Regards,
Kocjo

[Lawrence Tandy]

From what I recall U.S mobsters were anti-fascist.
I even read somewhere that a famous mobster (Capone?) had plans to go to Italy and assassinate Mussolini, though it sounds rather far-fetched to me.

[Panzer willy]

I seem to dimly recall something about the mobster 'Lucky' Luciano having some sort of involvement in the Allied invasion of Sicily ... I could be wrong, but I think it had something to do with him using his connections with the Sicilian Mafia. I'm sure someone more knowledgable can add to this (or tell me I'm out to lunch )

[ChristopherPerrien]

Luciano was granted a pardon of sorts because his Mafia contacts in Sicily provided intelligence to the Allied forces for the invasion of Sicily.

I believe he was extradited at the end of the war but managed to slip back to America afterwards, Italy did not want him either. He may have ended up more in South America and Cuba before his death. Truely a remarkable individual even for a cold-blooded killer.

Would like to say more but all my books and info on organized crime are boxed at the moment.

His intelligence information may not have amount to anything , he might have gotten the "pardon" more for of the fixing of horse races for J Edgar Hoover and perhaps some "blackmail". I seriously doubt we will ever know the real story due to the Byzantine nature of the FBI while Hoover was running it, and the associated mental block of all things Mafia
back then.