Cosa Nostra

"In virtually every American city of more than middling size there is a criminal underworld, a community outside the law and ordinarily immune to the penalties which fall upon accidental and free lance criminals. It has survived and grown powerful because it is useful to large and influential bodies of citizens, in politics, in business, and in the providing of forbidden pleasures. It is a community in which brute force and money talk the language, and secrecy is the dominant law.
The underworld is well organized. Its strong men rise to dictatorial proportions. They are well entrenched in politics, in business, and are substantial factors in the lives of their localities..."
"Lucky Luciano: The Man Who Organized Crime in America" Hickman Powell.