Impact of an unimpeded American Mob?

Historically, the American mafia wielded significant power and influence since at least Prohibition, up to the late 1970s, after Nixon signed the RICO Act. However, a series of (seemingly avoidable) blunders caused the mob to be plainly exposed to the American public, which prompted a previously apathetic J. Edgar Hoover to act aggressively against them, as well as John McLellan and a young Robert F. Kennedy. But, what if the mob hadn't been exposed in the way that it had IOTL? What if they were able to continue their criminal activity, unimpeded by the nation's top cops, with the concept of "organized crime" remaining something of an urban legend?
 
I assume by "mob" you mean the Italian mafia?

I dunno. Maybe heroin would have been a bigger blight on society for a longer period of time, since I seem to recall reading somewhere that that was a mafia thing specifically. But of course that's assuming that the popularity of certain street drugs is determined by which faction of gangsters holds sway at a given time, rather than the public just developing a taste for something and the gangsters pander to it.

Pop-sulture wise, you might see less romanticization of the mafia in movies and on TV, if it's the Italians who are viewed as the ones causing havoc in America's cities. Double that if the mafia somehow gets involved with crack cocaine in the 80s.
 
Why didn't Hoover act against them before? Surely he would have known they existed.

He knew they existed (though he denied it publicly), but as far as the practices of prostitution, gambling, etc. went, he felt they were less important than tackling the issue of potential Communist subversion, and other "anti-American" activities. So long as they weren't going back to their days of robbing banks in broad daylight, they stayed in the back of his mind. Until he was forced to recognize that an organized criminal outfit existed, after the Apalachin Meeting.
 
IIRC, they'd been given a tacit nod during WW2 provided they watched the docks etc for Axis saboteurs & agitators etc. Hey, such were bad for business !!

Then, they seemed to have expanded West, to Vegas. Then, it seems they got greedy, got *noticed*...
 
One more thing...

with the concept of "organized crime" remaining something of an urban legend?

If the mafia is as active as your scenario suggests, then I think it's gonna be pretty hard for them to retain "urban legend" status in the public mind. People are gonna know who they are, and that they are responsible for a lot of the blood and mayhem on America's streets. (Though I suppose you might have just meant that people, while aware of the gangs, don't connect them all together as one centralized entity?)

And with a greater degree of mafia involvement with violent crime, there is almost certainly going to be less public tolerance for this sort of thing. Try to imagine a TV roast where people get up and make affectionate jokes about some beloved celebrity's association with the Medellin Cartel.
 
Surely the POD to go with would be, in 1956 Carmine Galante was stopped leaving Barbera's house from that year's Apalachin meeting by a state trooper. This led to surveillance of the house from that period on. What if Galante never gets stopped?
 
If the mafia is as active as your scenario suggests, then I think it's gonna be pretty hard for them to retain "urban legend" status in the public mind. People are gonna know who they are, and that they are responsible for a lot of the blood and mayhem on America's streets. (Though I suppose you might have just meant that people, while aware of the gangs, don't connect them all together as one centralized entity?)

Yeah, that's essentially what I meant. While the public would obviously see that criminal gangs exist on their streets, the idea is that they wouldn't be seen as a single unit. The idea that some individual at the "top" was organizing them and calling the shots would be seen as ridiculous, and rather it was independent, loosely bound groups, or even lone individuals, involved in crime.
 
Having the Apalachin Meet not turn into a fiasco would be a good start. Having JFK not elected PotUS would help, too; as AG, RFK made a point of going after Mafiosi (partly to make a name for himself). Having Kefauver's hearings not happen would be a big help, too, tho IDK how you avoid that; he was looking for headlines, & calling out Mafiosi was an easy way.
 
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