Free Animal by Casey Sherman

Susquehanna River. Croswell decided to set up a roadblock and called for three local deputiesfor backup. When word traveled to Joseph Barbara’s home, the gathered Mafiosi scrambled to escape, fleeing through the woods or in their cars. Edgar Croswell and his men were able to identify sixty-three men with ties to organized crime, including heavy hitters like Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino, and Joseph Profaci. Despite hard evidence of the existence of organized crime, it would take J. Edgar Hoover another four years to face this major problem head on.
    In a memo sent out to all special agents in charge of field offices around the country on March 1, 1961, the FBI dictated that,
through well-placed informants we must infiltrate organized crime groups to the same degree that we have been able to penetrate the Communist Party and other subversive organizations. Today the press, television and radio along with the express interests of the Administration keep this phase of criminal activity in a position of prominence in the public eye. Certainly we cannot relax even momentarily our efforts in combating the criminal underworld including the prosecution of Top Hoodlums. The foundation from which we forge our attack must be kept strong and fresh with a full flow of information from well placed informants. All agents in conducting investigations of criminal matters should be constantly alert for the development of new informants and new potential informants who may be in a position to assist us. 15
    J. Edgar Hoover supplied words, but what Bobby Kennedy wanted was action. A month after the memo was issued, the attorney general called a meeting in his office with his deputies, along with his friend and longtime mob investigator Walter Sheridan, and Edward Silberling, head of the Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section. Kennedy paced back and forth across the room angrily demanding that more needed to be done to put mob leaders like Raymond Patriarca and others behind bars. Kennedy’s deputy attorney general, Byron White, a future justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, pleaded with his boss for a more methodical approach and warned against acting too quickly without enough information. Upon hearing this Kennedy hit the roof. He blasted his team and demanded that they be more aggressive on organized crime. The attorney general threatened his staffers that they hadone month to produce results or else he would take other action to get the job done.
    Bobby Kennedy’s staff no doubt leaned heavily on the FBI , which finally inaugurated its Top Echelon Criminal Informant Program on June 21, 1961. The Federal Bureau of Investigation outlined the program as follows: “Criminal Informants—Criminal Intelligence Program: It is now urgently necessary to develop particularly qualified, live sources within the upper echelon of the organized Hoodlum element who will be capable of furnishing the quality information required.”
    FBI director J. Edgar Hoover also pointed out that the “most significant information developed to date indicates organization among the nation’s hoodlum leaders.” Hoover claimed that this information had been obtained from highly confidential sources in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Newark, New Jersey. The intelligence also suggested that a nine-or twelve-member commission controlled all major criminal activities in the United States. The memo listed several alleged Mafia bosses, including Vito Genovese, Thomas Luchese, Carlo Gambino, Joseph Bonnano, Joseph Profaci, and Sam Giancana. In addition, the memo named Raymond Patriarca as “Top Boston Hoodlum,” and identified Joseph Zerilli, John LaRocca, Steve Magaddino, Joseph Ida, and Angelo Bruno as the bosses of Detroit, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Newark, and Philadelphia, respectively. The feds had also determined (according to a New York source) that Carlo Gambino was the current head of the commission, a position he occupied while Vito Genovese