The Western Pennsylvania mob is one of 24 traditional Mafia families in the United States, and its rise and decline has mirrored that of families in other cities. The mob grew from the bootlegging years of the 1920s as immigrants seized economic opportunity. It became entrenched by alternately intimidating and protecting urban communities. It flourished for five decades despite internal power struggles. And in the end, it was crippled by a combination of its own greed and relentless law enforcement.
Origins Organized crime, in Pittsburgh and elsewhere, is largely a story of immigrants and alcohol.
In the early part of the century, groups of criminals were already active. In Pittsburgh Police homicide logbooks, murders were often chalked up to the Black Hand, a secretive free-lance gang that preyed mostly on Italian immigrants. But the outlawing of alcohol in 1920 created the first large-scale criminal organizations as Irish, Jewish and Italian immigrants took control of the bootlegging industry. All three groups had flocked to the industrial cities, Pittsburgh among them, for jobs. All three found themselves at the bottom of the economic food chain, their prospects hindered by poverty and discrimination.