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Joseph Francis Civello (February 3, 1902 – January 17, 1970) was an American mobster and the leader of the Dallas crime family from 1956 until his death in 1970. ==Early life== A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Civello had moved to Dallas as early as July 1928 when he was arrested for the murder of Joe DeCarlo at the St. Paul Drug Store in Dallas. Reportedly, DeCarlo's dying words were that the close-range shotgun blast to his abdomen was accidental. Based on this information, a grand jury did not issue an indictment against Civello.〔''Dallas Morning News'', Jul 28, 1928〕 Civello was an expert marksman and regularly participated in skeet shooting competitions as a longtime member of the Dallas Gun and Skeet Club.〔''Dallas Morning News'', Feb 8, 1932〕 By the early 1930s, Civello had organized a crew (dubbed The Civello Gang by the Dallas Morning News)〔''Dallas Morning News'', Apr 3, 1937〕 which included cousins Sam Civello, Louis Civello, Leon Civello, Frank Ianni, and Joe Cascio, among others.〔''Dallas Morning News'', Mar 23, 1937〕 The gang operated as associates of Dallas' Piranio crime family, and was involved primarily with bootlegging and narcotics trafficking. The Civello gang's main rival during this time was a Jewish gang headed by Nathan Biegler. In 1935, when Biegler was sentenced to 10 years in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, another Jewish gangster, Louis "Big Daddy" Ginsberg, came to Dallas from Chicago to reorganize the remnants of Biegler's gang. Both the Civello Gang and the Ginsberg Gang were heavily involved in the sale and distribution of morphine and heroin. The Civellos collaborated almost exclusively with associates of Charles "Lucky" Luciano of New York City, while the Ginsbergs' drugs came from mobsters in Chicago. In January 1937, after a two-year undercover investigation, federal agents seized more than $150,000 of drugs and arrested members of both the Civello and Ginsberg gangs. It was called the biggest narcotics bust in Bureau of Narcotics history. Ginsberg was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison which, at the time, was the longest sentence ever given for a drug crime in the United States.〔''Dallas Morning News'', Mar 7, 1937〕 Civello was sentenced to 15 years in Leavenworth, and five others of the Civello gang were given lesser sentences. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joseph Civello」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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