National Crime Syndicate

The National Crime Syndicate is a proposed alliance of American organized-crime figures spanning ethnic groups and cities, described in accounts of U.S. organized crime.

Prohibition in the United States: A nationwide ban on producing, importing, transporting, and selling alcoholic beverages, enforced from 1920 to 1933. The illegal liquor trade created the profits and cross-city networks often linked to the syndicate.
Charles "Lucky" Luciano: An Italian-American mobster who became a leading figure in New York organized crime. Accounts often cast Luciano as a principal organizer of cooperation among crime groups.
American Mafia: A network of Italian-American criminal groups organized into families, especially prominent in the United States during the twentieth century. The Mafia supplied many of the figures and structures folded into syndicate accounts.
Kefauver Committee: A U.S. Senate committee that investigated interstate organized crime in 1950 and 1951. Its televised hearings popularized the image of a nationwide criminal organization.
Atlantic City Conference: A 1929 meeting of organized-crime figures in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Later accounts identify this gathering as an early effort to coordinate criminal groups across cities.
Meyer Lansky: An American organized-crime figure and financier closely associated with Lucky Luciano. His cross-city business relationships exemplify the networks attributed to the syndicate.
Five Families: Five Mafia families that have historically operated in New York City. They show how local organizations could retain separate identities within wider cooperation.
Apalachin meeting: A 1957 gathering of Mafia figures at the home of Joseph Barbara in Apalachin, New York. The gathering became public evidence of connections among crime leaders, though not proof of one central syndicate.
Murder, Inc.: A network of contract killers associated with New York organized crime in the 1930s and early 1940s. Its alleged role as an enforcement arm helped give the syndicate narrative a concrete institution.
Frank Costello: An Italian-American mobster who became a prominent New York crime boss and political intermediary. His influence illustrates the political connections sometimes included in syndicate accounts.

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