en meant killing someone, but the cops could not prove anything because not one person from the Italian community would testify or say anything. The Mafia would stand up for the community and the community would back them up by not helping the police. Sammy Gravano, who would later be the underboss of the Gambino family, witnessed all of this at a very young age. An inquiry to his father about this matter would be answered with "We don't know anything. We don't ask questions. We don't get involved. We walk on the other side of the street".
             The Mafia started organizing in the United States during the late 1800's but it did not gain power until the Prohibition period of the 1920's. During the Prohibition, alcohol was legally prevented from being manufactured, transported, or sold in the United States. It was during this time that the Mafia gained tremendous influence and financial power through bootlegging. The word bootlegging was used to refer to the practice of sneaking alcohol by hiding it in boot tops. During the Prohibition, it was used to refer to the illegal transportation of alcohol due to legislative constrictions. Bootlegging paved the way for the Mafia's rise to power. With all the money coming from bootlegging, the Mafia was able to extend to other illegal businesses like shy locking (loan sharking), prostitution, labor racketeering, illegal gambling, and extortion.
             The key to the Mafia's bootlegging operation was its highly organized structure. There is no doubt that the Italian community at that time was very closely knit, and many men would not think twice about doing favors for a crime family. Before a man can get involved in a Family, he has to directly know someone who would be his sponsor, and this sponsor must be an 'associate' or a 'made man' in the Family. This man would be at the bottom line of the structure and were called by an 'associ...