The
American Mafia, commonly known as the
Mafia,
Italian Mafia,
Italian Mob, or the
Mob in the
United States, is an
Italian American criminal society that originated and developed from the
Sicilian Mafia. The Italian-American Mafia is a
secret criminal society without a formal name, similar to the
Sicilian Mafia. Its members usually refer to it as
Cosa Nostra , a phrase which
literally translates to "our thing," but can be more accurately
paraphrased as "our work" or "our operation." The
press also coined the name "
National Crime Syndicate" to refer to the entire network of U.S.
organized crime, which included the
Jewish Mafia elements and the Italian-American Mafia. It was described as a confederation of mainly Italian and Jewish-American organized crime groups throughout the U.S., as revealed by the findings of a U.S. Senate
Special Committee in the 1950s chaired by
Estes Kefauver. The creator of the American Mob was long-time criminal
Charles "Lucky" Luciano.