The Carlos Marcello Family

One of the endless lists in the world comprise of criminals. There has been continuous emergence of criminals throughout history with some having family background influence. In other words, it has been found that a number of criminals engage in such activities because of family structures and organization. One of the families which have received massive coverage with regard to crime is “The Carlos Marcello Family” (Kurtz, 1983).

This essay explores the family of Carlos Marcello with special focus on its traditional and non-traditional organized crime family structures covering its leaders and legitimacy of its activities and interests. Carlos was born in the year 1910 in a Northern Africa country, Tunisia. However, he was not to be in Tunisia or Africa forever. His Parents moved to the United States in Louisiana where they settled in a plantation. Although there is a lot that happened in the family of Carlos, his involvement in criminal activities was quite outstanding.

This led to him becoming the boss of a criminal family in New Orleans], United States in 1940’s. Carlos resorted to crime mainly in the French Quarter. He was later imprisoned for having organized gangster and leading them to carry out armed robbery in New Orleans. He was compared to several notorious criminals especially in novels. Fortunately for him, Carlos was released after the robbery conviction was overturned.

He was however arrested in the following year for robbery and assault and was sentenced to nine years imprisonment although e was set free after five years. Marcello was involved in almost every form of crime including but not limited to drug trafficking and robbery. The most amazing part of this is the fact that he never completely served prison terms. After he was released in 1938, he got associated with a criminal group in New York City called the Genovese Crime Family. He was although linked to other criminal gangs and families with his name prominently featuring inn organized crime (Davis, 1989).

The acquisition of buildings in Rossier City marked the beginning of organized crime for what was to become the family of Carlos Marcello. This turned out to be his office for the rest of his criminal career. He had two trusted lieutenants, Joe Poretto and Norfio Pecora who were given the responsibility of the entire complex together with his younger brother, Anthony. This became the central meeting point for different groups of people including high profile gamblers, crooked cops, politicians and his men. Frances who was the wife of Pecora always acted as the secretary to Carlos.

Activities of this family which included illegal and legal ones cut across several boundaries namely, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, California and Mexico. There was a wider domain of sourcing income with most of these activities if not all being illegal and against the law (Jones). They included prostitution, casinos, gambling and drug trafficking among others. Since these activities were not legitimate, the family had to find ways of evading the law through massive bribing of prominent individuals like judgees, prosecutors, mayors, police officers together with a member of the Congress. This corruption provided security which was necessary in maintaining the flow of income. Carlos’ criminal family was able to fund several economical activities since it had enough of illegal capital covering an endless list of companies and banks.

Carlos was ranked among wealthiest Mafiosi in the U.S and significantly influential making over $2 billion annually. The family was unbeatable especially by the fact the fact that it had the support of almost every personality from various legal sectors of the nation (Jones). He manipulated several professional despite the fact that he had very shallow education. This was never a hindrance to the realization of Carlos’ dream which he invested in a family.As mentioned before, the family was made up of different members who had unique roles in propagating family agenda.

His eldest brother, Peter was in charge of strip clubs which were mainly in French Quarters. Pascal was the manager of an illegal gambling business while Vincent was to oversee the operations of the Jefferson Music Company. All the brothers had families which met every Sunday for family lunch (The New Orleans Family). Marcello was linked to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy but his name was cleared since the drilling committee was deceived that he was not a prominent person to carry out such organized crime. He died in 1993 but the family still controls real estate business in Southern Louisiana.