In The New Ethnic Mobs: The Changing Face of Organized Crime in America, William Kleinknecht discusses organized crime and the impact of Asian, Russian, Hispanic and African American gangs on what has traditionally been seen as a solely Italian underworld. He brings to light the fact that other ethnicities have been a part of organized crime for many years. These groups have weakened the power of the Italian mafia and radically changed organized crime in America. While many people think that organized crime is dominated solely by Italian Americans, the truth is that many other ethnicities have become very powerful in organized crime. Kleinknecht uses his book to enlighten today’s society about the true nature of the underworld. In chapter three, Klienknecht highlights African American organized crime and in chapter four, he discusses the new waves of immigrants that have changed the face of organized crime in America.
In chapter three, “Mr. Untouchable,” Kleinknecht discusses the rise of African American organized crime. By the 1960’s blacks and Hispanics were working for the Italian bosses. Like a colonial power, the Mafia used the indigenous crooks to help administer its criminal empire and to keep the lid on any potential insurgencies.”¹ During the 20’s and 20’s mob activity was looked at as entertainment but as heroin infiltrated black communities after World War II, that image changed. As the Italians began to allow African Americans to sell drugs in their own communities, new drug kingpins like Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson, Leroy Barnes and Frank Matthews erupted into the spotlight. Johnson was considered to be the first black gangster while Barnes and Matthews were big time heroin kingpins. Matthews ran his heroin trade out of his headquarters in Brooklyn. “Fortified with steel and concrete and protected by guards with automatic weapons, the Ponderosa became the nerve center of a drug operation that eventually covered much of the East Coast.”² The title of the chapter refers to Leroy Barnes, the heroin kingpin who earned the moniker “Mr. Untouchable” by evading conviction for twenty-seven years. In the chapter, Kleinknecht also mentions the Black Mafia (and its involvement with the black Muslim world) which reigned in Philadelphia for nearly ten years.
In chapter four, entitled “The Rainbow,” Kleinknecht discusses the new waves of immigrants that swept into America in the 1990’s and their involvement in organized crime. The ‘huddled masses’ of the 1990’s are Chinese, Cambodians, Salvadorians, Filipinos, Hmong, Asian Indians, Jamaicans, Brazilians, Mexicans, Nigerians, Russian Jews and others.”³ Kleinknecht reports that over twenty five percent of New York City’s population is foreign born; this statistic does not include the 950,000 Puerto Ricans that inhabit the city. The new waves of immigrants have basically pushed Italians out of even their own “Little Italy.” These immigrants have also taken over many other cities in the United States including Miami, Los Angeles and Texas cities such as Corpus Christi and San Antonio. The new immigrants have changed organized crime in America by making it a multi-cultural organization. It is no longer solely run by Italians. In fact, Italians are being pushed out of organized crime and moving up in legitimate positions in the working world. Kleinknecht concludes the chapter with a segue into the next chapter, “but it is unfolding most dramatically in a teeming New York City neighborhood known as Chinatown.”4
There are many differences between chapter three “Mr. Untouchable” and chapter four “The Rainbow.” Chapter three focuses solely on the rise of African American organized crime in the United States during the 1970’s. Kleinknecht uses the entire chapter to explain the role of blacks in organized crime and how it has changed the role of the Italians in the underworld. He also spotlights specific infamous and high ranking members of organized crime such as Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson, Leroy Barnes and Frank Matthews. However, chapter four concentrates on several different ethnicities, including Chinese, Russians, Hispanics and Mexicans. Kleinknecht discusses the influx of these new immigrants into the country and how they have established themselves solidly in nine of ten of the biggest cities in the country. They have pushed Italians out of the cities and into the suburbs. He does not however, mention specific people of these new ethnicities that are involved in organized crime. The chapters are different in that the depth of the focus is different. Chapter three is in depth, whereas chapter four is more of a vague introduction than a chapter.
Another glaring difference between chapter three and chapter four is that the specific practices of these new organized crime groups are very different. The African American underworld deals mostly with narcotics such as cocaine and heroin. They even involved the African American Muslim group for a period of time in the 1970’s. The drug rings of African American gangsters in New York City reach down the East Coast to Florida. The blacks were so effective in taking over the drug trade in cities because drugs traditionally prevailed in the ghettos where many African Americans live. According to Klienknecht “Italian gangsters had no choice but to rely on black people to help them penetrate the ghetto.”5 The blacks quickly took control of these areas of the city. However, Kleinknecht does not write in depth about any specific criminal practices that which the members of the new ethnicities participate. He merely mentions that Colombians are typically involved in cocaine trafficking, the Chinese are known for their dealings in gambling and the Cubans are known for their numbers games. While these new groups of immigrants are involved in drug trade, it is not the primary activity of this group of organized crime, but it is for the blacks.
What makes these chapters similar however is their most fundamental theme. Chapter three and chapter four share a common theme, a theme that had the same meaning to Italian mobsters across America. Both the African Americans and the new waves of immigrants pushed Italians out of both cities and the underworld. According to Kleinknecht, “Black criminals wanted greater control of the underworld, and they began by pushing for control of the numbers.”6 The blacks started with numbers and rapidly moved into narcotics, virtually pushing Italians completely out of the city. The new immigrants had the same effect on Italians. They swept in while Italian Americans have “watched the slow ebbing of a world they had known their entire lives, a world where the great urban melting pot was an amalgam of Jews, Irish, Italians, Poles, blacks, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, groups that may never have coexisted comfortably.”7 The new wave of immigrants brought the change of an era. Western Europeans were being phased out of cities to make room for the new generation, a generation of South Americans, Asians and Russians.
Although chapter three and chapter four of William Klienknecht’s The New Ethnic Mobs: The Changing Face of Organized Crime in America are essentially different, they possess one important similarity. In the book that describes how the underworld of organized crime has evolved in America, chapter three focuses on blacks and chapter four focuses on the immigrants from the new generation of emigrant nations. They are different in the areas of chapter focus and types of crime. The chapter about African Americans in organized crime is very detailed, whereas the chapter introducing the new immigrants is very vague, acting more as an introduction than a chapter. Also, the blacks in the underworld specialize in drugs like heroin and cocaine, while the gangsters of the new nations prefer to deal in gambling, numbers and extortion. Their only similarity and most important point is in the theme that both blacks and the new wave of immigrants in the 1990 have worked hand in hand to push Italians out of the underworld and of America’s largest cities.
End Notes
1. Kleinknecht, William. 1996. The New Ethnic Mobs: The Changing Face of Organized Crime in America. New York: Free Press, 57.
2. Ibid., 62.
3. Ibid., 77.
4. Ibid., 88.
5. Ibid., 60.
6. Ibid., 61.
7. Ibid., 76.
