AHC: Mafia takes over the US

Wallet

Banned
For a period of time, the mafia controlled the island of Sicily. At the height of their power, the controlled most of the organized crime in the US and most of the alcohol production.

In the movie "The Godfather" they discussed having 2nd generation Italians become elected governor or senator. Could this have created city machines and took over entire states?

Your goal, is to have the Mafia take over the US, or be in a position where they can commit crime freely nationwide.

Or have something like in Italy or Russia
 
Seems impossible, I don't think people keen on criminals, dago catholic ones at that, taking over the direct reigns of power. Considering the Mafia was ethnocentric well unless you have active Italian-American communities somehow migrate everywhere.
 
Maybe a small state somewhere with a plurality of Italian-Americans, amid a period of economic hardship and general weakness of state institutions?
 
Even if they end up controlling a lot of big-city machines, all that would likely mean is more machines being run by Italians rather than by Irish etc.

Sure, they'd probably be corrupt, but it's hard to see how we can get from that to the mafia having nationwide impunity to commit crimes. Once they get into power, they and especially their offspring will have less interest in outright criminality(since that would put their machines on the FBI radar PDQ), and probably just confine themselves to the kind of stuff that the OTL machines did(eg. cronyism, stuffing ballots, fixing parking-tickets etc). They'd probably still be raking in a few payoffs from people still in the underworld, but that happened already in OTL.
 
Actually, I believe there was a sci-fi novel back in the 60s on this subject with the title "Syndic". The U.S. was divided between the Mob, west of the Mississippi and the Syndicate east of the Mississippi. A degenerate, crypto-fascist government in exile was based in Iceland. A generation earlier there had been a revolt against an increasingly autocratic and repressive federal government with the crime bosses acting as the efficient and popular providers of both necessaries and luxuries during the revolt.
 
In the Richard Cordon novel Prizzi's Glory the mafia essentially takes control of the executive branch of the federal government.
 
Actually, I believe there was a sci-fi novel back in the 60s on this subject with the title "Syndic". The U.S. was divided between the Mob, west of the Mississippi and the Syndicate east of the Mississippi. A degenerate, crypto-fascist government in exile was based in Iceland. A generation earlier there had been a revolt against an increasingly autocratic and repressive federal government with the crime bosses acting as the efficient and popular providers of both necessaries and luxuries during the revolt.

Have not read that one in 30+ years or so. By a old favourite authour C.M. Kornbluth, pulled out of the collection to reread. Titled "The $yndic"
 
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