New England: The Refined Yankee in Organized Crime

Abstract

Today's organized crime in New England, as it has developed during the last thirty years, with attendant influence on politics and law enforcement, was forecast in a 1933 Massachusetts Special Crime Commission report. Its findings went unheeded. Corruption has increased. The studies by the United States Senate Crime Committees and legislative crime commissions in California, Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts reveal the pattern and extent of organized crime based on illegal gambling as its major but not exclusive activity. Makers and enforcers of law have opposed strength ening of the laws. They have blocked proposals for co- ordinated efforts to deal with this new private government of crime. The participating public has accepted illegal gambling as harmless. The public which is not part of organized crime cannot be labeled as apathetic, as is so easily done, for it is usually unaware of the activity and resultant problems and the costs to individuals and society as a whole. An aroused public has the ability to act more effectively, and consistently, through independent citizens' crime commissions. But the public does not become aroused except through shock from exposure to the facts—something today's criminal leaders and their advisors fear and work to avoid at all costs. The Yankee pattern of organized crime may be said to be different from that found elsewhere: It is more refined. Nevertheless, it exists and requires constant attention from all thoughtful and concerned citizens.