The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act was written into law in 1970 as a part of the Omnibus Crime Control Act. The RICO act was designed to be a tool against the growing and very powerful Mafia enterprise. When the act was originally passed, however, it took law enforcement agencies nearly 10 years to investigate allegations of criminal wrong doings under the act. This was in large part due to various law enforcement turf wars which were going on between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
To understand the purpose of the act, it is important to understand the very name of the act. Criminal organizations are just that, organizations which make money from illegal activity (i.e., the Mafia). Racketeering activity is defined by U.S. Code as “…any act or threat involving murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, dealing in obscene matter, or dealing in a controlled substance or listed chemical (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act), which is chargeable under State law and punishable by imprisonment for more than one year.” This means that as long as the Mafia is making money, it is most likely violating the RICO act. The beauty of the law is that it also allows prosecutors to go after Mafia bosses. Prior to the RICO act, Mafia bosses generally could not be charged for controlling a Mafia organization because they never (or hardly ever) did the dirty work themselves. Law makers understood when they passed this law that the most effective tactic to bringing down the Mafia was cutting off the head of the snake, so to speak. A Mafia boss who never personally committed a crime themselves could still be tried and found guilty of crimes under the RICO act because they knowingly headed an organization which took part in such crimes. Prior to the RICO act, prosecutors generally attempted to lock up Mafia bosses and leaders for tax evasion crimes a la Al Capone. These crimes were often difficult to prosecute because of clever money hiding scams and complex accounting systems.
The first Mafia boss to be convicted under the RICO act was Frank “Funzi” Tieri of the Genovese Crime Family. Tieri ruled the Genovese family between 1972 and 1981. Tieri’s defense at trial rested on the fact that he never committed a crime himself, but this defense failed, and in January of 1981, Tieri was found guilty under the RICO act for his Mafia related crimes. Tieri’s conviction sent a very strong message to other Mafia bosses around the country. At his sentencing hearing, Tieri entered the court room in a wheel chair and displayed a rather large scar from an operation while claiming to be a very sick man. He asked for leniency in sentencing from the court and was was given a 10 year prison sentence. Tieri never got to serve his prison term because he died two months after his trial in a hospital while on bail.
Sources:
RICO in a Nutshell. RicoAct.Com LLC.
U.S. Code Collection, SS 1961 Definitions. Cornell University Law School.
Mark Gordon. Ideas Shoot Bullets: How the RICO Act Became a Potent Weapon in the War Against Organized Crime. Villanova University Department of Criminal Justice.
Anthony Bruno. The Genovese Family. TruTV Crime Library.
