| Founded by | Wilford Pulawa |
|---|---|
| Founding location | Hawaii |
| Years active | 1970s-Present |
| Territory | Hawaii |
| Ethnicity | Primarily Native Hawaiian |
| Membership (est.) | 100 |
| Criminal activities | Racketeering, bookmaking, illegal gambling, drug trafficking, murder, extortion, prostitution, weapons trafficking, loan-sharking, money laundering and corruption |
The Company, also called the Hawaiian Syndicate, is the name given to an organized crime syndicate based in Hawaii that controlled criminal activities in the state from the late 1960s to the mid 1990s.
History[edit]
Through the 1960s organized crime in Hawaii was controlled primarily by local Asian criminal organizations, mainly Chinese Triads, Japanese Yakuza, Korean Kkangpae and Samoan criminal outfits. The first change came when a local Korean named George Chung formed his own criminal organization in 1962 , recruiting among local Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Samoans, and Native Hawaiians. The smaller ethnic gangs all vied for control of organized crime, leading to disorganized clashes, so over time Chung was able to create an environment where every gang could do business. In July 1967 Chung was shot to death in a Honolulu gambling den.[1][2]
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Chung's death led to a power vacuum of organized criminal activity in the islands, with crime bosses rivaling over control. A primarily Samoan mob under the leadership of Alema Leota briefly took over. In 1969 Wilford Pulawa, a Native Hawaiian and lieutenant of Leota, decided to recruit primarily among other local criminals of Native Hawaiian heritage and form the statewide crime syndicate that would become known as The Company.[2]
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Wilford 'Nappy' Pulawa[edit]
Under Pulawa's leadership The Company extended a firm hold over the criminal rackets on the island, resorting to extreme violence when necessary. The organization became involved primarily in illegal gambling, prostitution in the islands' resort hotels, racketeering of local labor unions, the extortion of local both legal and illegal businesses and in the wide-scale illegal trade in Chinese white heroin. Under Pulawa the organization extorted a tribute from anyone wanting to do business in Hawaii, such as mainland mafia members, bookmakers and gambling operators. The Company was able to exert some of its criminal control into Hawaiian communities on the mainland, mainly in Nevada and California. The syndicate made connections with figures in the American mafia, but in some other cases also had a rivalry with some of them. Rumor has it that when once two Chicago mobsters active in Las Vegas were sent to Hawaii to teach a local Hawaiian gang leader a lesson for muscling in on illegal gambling rackets in Nevada, The Company killed the two mob thugs and returned their chopped-up bodies to the mainland in the back of a trunk with a note attached: 'Delicious, send more.' [3]
Pulawa's reign ended in 1973 when he was starting to heavily invest criminal money in the real estate business. When law enforcement got wind of Pulawa's plans to buy several resort facilities in California, they were able to arrest him on tax evasion. He was jailed in 1975 and he was sentenced to serve 24 years in federal prison, much of which he served at McNeil Island in Washington. He was paroled in 1984 and returned to the island to become involved in labor issues, but meanwhile other heavyweights within The Company had started to fight over control of the vast criminal organization which had inserted itself in many aspects of the Hawaiian life, such as the entertainment field, the fishing industry, organized labor, as well as Hawaiian cultural and rights groups.[1][2]
Post-Pulawa years[edit]
When Pulawa's leadership ended, The Company became more prone to infighting because several lieutenants and criminal families were competing for leadership. Names in the Hawaiian underworld such as the Joseph family, Ronald Kainalu Ching and Henry Huihui all became increasingly well known in criminal activities and murder cases.
Charles Marsland, a Honolulu city prosecutor whose 19-year-old son's murder was supposedly tied to organized crime, was out to deal a heavy blow to the underworld. In 1984, Marsland's organized crime strike force, in cooperation with federal investigators, were able to arrest Huihui and Ching. Both gangsters decided to cooperate and Huihui turned an informant for the federal government. Both were brought into connection with countless criminal activities and murders, and brought others down with them. Huihui was indicted in April 1984 on federal racketeering charges of gambling and extortion, as well as state charges of murder and Ching was sentenced to four life terms for four murders in August 1985.[4]
The Joseph family and their main man Charlie Stevens, who controlled organized crime along the Waianae Coast, stayed active until the beginning of the 1990s. In 1991, Stevens was arrested on charges of criminal activities such as illegal gambling, extortion, kidnapping, drug trafficking and murder. In May 1993, Stevens was sentenced to 20 years without parole.[4]
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The indictments of several powerful members of The Company ended the organization's reign over statewide organized crime in the island. Remnants of the syndicate and connected, younger Native Hawaiian criminals are still active and hold a degree of power over the island's underworld, but the pervasive total power over the entire state is a thing of the past. Currently, organized crime in Hawaii is closer to what it was in the 1960s with different ethnic organized crime groups such as Triads, Yakuza, Kkangpae, Samoan criminal organizations and Native Hawaiian crime syndicates, including remnants of The Company, all operating their own criminal businesses in the state.
Further reading[edit]
- J.Ryan, Hell-Bent: One Man's Crusade to Crush the Hawaiian Mob, Lyons Press, 2014. 304 pgs.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
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- ^ ab'Organized Crime Syndicates'. geocities.ws. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
- ^ abc'Land and Power in Hawaii'. google.be. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
- ^'The Milwaukee Journal - Google News Archive Search'. google.com. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
- ^ abApgar, Sally (February 9, 2004). 'Alleged shooter has roots in old isle underworld'. starbulletin.com. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
Gambling is a vital business for the Mafia. They’ve earned lots of money from playing card games and betting on virtually every sport. The Mafia ran numerous illicit and deluxe gambling joints all over the United States. The Mafia Bosses had police officers and other law enforcers on their payroll and thus their gambling maneuvers went down without interruption by state agencies. However, the 1931 legalization of gambling in the state of Nevada transformed the casino and gambling industry in the country. After the legalization of gambling in the state, there was little activity as only a few people cared, including military men from adjacent camps and some local cowboys.
The humble beginnings of a desert town
Positioned in the interior of the expansive Mojave Desert in Nevada, Las Vegas was a dusty town that seemed ages away from its now revered nightlife, casinos that operate round the clock as well as numerous other modern entertainment options. During the early 1940s, the town was essentially made up of a small number of filling stations, some slot machine shops and a few outlets dishing out junk food. Living or working in Las Vegas was not pleasant. The Mafia only caught onto the humongous money mining capability of the town after the end of World War II.
Mafiosi Bugsy Siegel
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How the Fidel Castro Revolution impacted on Las Vegas
The famed American crime boss Alphonse Gabriel Al Capone, aka Scarface, aka Big Boy, aka Public Enemy No. 1, had a great interest in Las Vegas, although he wasn’t able to accomplish his agenda of transforming the town into a casino harbor for holidaymakers and gambling enthusiasts. As such, Las Vegas stayed without the Mafia until its potential was realized by
. The timing of the coming of these Mafiosi couldn’t be any better. Prior to the development of Las Vegas by these Mafiosi, American holidaymakers searching for a splendid gaming time had to travel to Cuba. The crooked Batista administration warmly received gangsters in Cuba; there were countless casinos and the earnings were great. About ten years passed after the first Las Vegas casino was opened and Cuba was swept with the Fidel Castro Revolution. Consequently, there was no choice for legitimate gambling other than heading to Las Vegas.
The Flamingo and other resorts
The moneyed Mafia launched The Flamingo, the first gaming resort in Las Vegas on Boxing Day of 1946, courtesy of Siegel’s superb organizational skills and creativity. The opening of several other resorts backed by Mafia followed suit. Gaming in Las Vegas became an exceedingly lucrative and lawful commercial activity for the Mafia. The previously dull dusty desert town was duly transformed into the ritzy Las Vegas Strip.
Before the mid-20th century, the New York City Mafia Families and Al Capone’s Chicago Outfit had launched businesses in Las Vegas. The Outfit operated three main casinos, specifically the Riviera, the Stardust and the Desert Inn. The Outfit opened other casinos in the 1960s including the Golden Nugget, the Fremont, and the Hacienda. Travelers from across the country and the rest of the world flocked Las Vegas to at least have a taste of the city’s unrivaled gaming, vibrant nightlife and world’s best entertainment.
Sharing the spoils
Many Mafia Families were coming up with gambling resorts as the existing businesses started being concerned about the shrinking of profits occasioned by increased competition. The different Mafia families from across the country struck a deal ensuring that each one would receive an intertwined profit share from the other’s resort. It was almost impossible to identify which resort was owned by who. Every Mafia Family received a share of the spoils; mind you it was a colossal share.
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The fall of the Mafia
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Enter the antisocial and self-centered magnate Howard Hughes in the 1960s, and businesses of Las Vegas Mafia started falling. Hughes rooted for and achieved the legislation of a Nevada law that banned conglomerates from having interests in casinos and resorts. Hughes went forth to purchase over fifteen gambling resorts, expelling Mafia from them. By the end of the 1970s, Hughes suffered huge losses instead of the huge profits he had craved for and thus left the casino business.
The Mafia made a comeback to the Las Vegas casinos, albeit for a short time. In the 1980s, the FBI instigated far-reaching assaults on the Las Vegas welfares owned by the Mafia. Casinos and resorts controlled by Mafia were taken by the FBI and vented to legitimate proprietors. The new landlords transformed the city’s appearance into a family-friendly vacation destination. The majority of the members of the Mafia were arrested and charged, mostly for tax evasion, and faced the prospect of spending the rest of their lives in jail.
Online casino gaming
Las Vegas still carries on with its gambling legacy as it’s the hub of some of the world’s best online casinos that can be played from any corner of the world. Gaming enthusiasts do not need to travel all the way to Las Vegas for gambling; rather, one can gamble and play slot games online and enjoy free spins and other casino bonuses upon registering. It’s only a matter of time before online casino becomes fully legal in all states in the US.