Test yourself
Know Your Wiseguy
Eight questions dealt at random from a larger file. Reload the page, or deal again at the end, for a different set.
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What was unusual about Frank Costello's televised appearance before the Kefauver committee in 1951?
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Only his hands were shown
He agreed to appear on condition that his face was not shown, so the cameras settled on his hands. The footage made him briefly the most recognisable criminal in the country.
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For roughly how long did the FBI microphone sit in Sam DeCavalcante's office?
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Four years
From 1961 to 1965. The transcripts ran to some two thousand pages and were made public in June 1969.
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What did federal prosecutors charge the entire Colombo administration with in 2021?
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Taking over a labour union and its health fund
The boss, underboss and consigliere were named in one indictment over a twenty-year effort to control a Queens union. All of them pleaded guilty.
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How many people were convicted of the 1978 Lufthansa robbery?
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One
Louis Werner, the cargo agent who supplied the tip. A Bonanno capo was charged in 2014 and acquitted in 2015.
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How long did Tony Accardo spend in prison across fifty years at the top of the Chicago Outfit?
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None that survived appeal
He was convicted once, on tax charges in 1960. The conviction was overturned and he was acquitted at the retrial in 1962.
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What happened to the men who arranged Angelo Bruno's murder?
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They were dead within weeks
Antonio Caponigro believed New York had approved it. His body was found in the Bronx the following month with money stuffed into his mouth.
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What name did Joseph Valachi give the organisation in 1963?
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Cosa Nostra
He was the first member to describe the organisation in public, and he gave it the name its members actually used.
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Who did the most damage to Nicodemo Scarfo in court?
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His underboss, who was also his nephew
Philip Leonetti was raised by Scarfo and made underboss before he was thirty-five. He testified for four years and left custody in 1992.