1960s Timeline

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Oct 9, 2023

Valachi Airs More of Mob’s Dirty Laundry

Oct. 9, 1963 - Underworld songbird Joseph Valachi today told Senate racket probers how he recruited three killers and then fingered...

Oct 3, 2023

Some Italian-Americans Resent Spotlight on Valachi

Oct. 3, 1963 - Italian-Americans in New York expressed resentment today over the national spotlight that is being given the story of...

Oct 2, 2023

Valachi Continues to Sing

Oct. 2, 1963 - The Cosa Nostra stopped accepting new members in 1958, Joseph Valachi (pictured right today speaking to counsel) told...

Oct 1, 2023

Cosa Nostra Songbird Valachi Exposes Mob Secrets

Oct. 1, 1963 - Joseph Valachi calmly recited today the bloody history of a war for control of the Cosa Nostra crime syndicate. From this...

Sep 25, 2023

RFK Commends LAPD in Fight Against Organized Crime

Sept. 25, 1963 - Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy today commended the Los Angeles Police Department for its fight against organized...

Sep 25, 2023

Former Major League Infielder Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison

Sept. 25, 1963 - Hank Thompson (right with Monte Irvin and Willie Mays in 1951), former infielder for the New York Giants, was sentenced...

Sep 25, 2023

RFK Testifies before Senate Committee on Organized Crime

Sept. 25, 1963 - Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (pictured with Senator Edmund Muskie) said today that organized crime had become a...

Sep 13, 2023

Paris T.V. Figures Gets U.S. Prison Term for Heroin Smuggling

Sept. 13, 1963 - A Paris television figure was sentenced in Brooklyn today to 3 to 6 years in prison for smuggling into this country 24...

Sep 12, 2023

Two Ex-Convicts Sentenced to Death in Los Angeles

Sept. 12, 1963 - A Los Angeles Superior Court jury of nine men and three women voted the death penalty today for the two ex-convicts...

Sep 11, 2023

Nevada Gaming Commission Hits Sinatra-Giancana Connection

Sept. 11, 1963 - The Nevada Gaming Control Board issued a complaint today against Frank Sinatra (picured with his son, Frank Jr.),...

Sep 4, 2023

Cincinnati’s Vada Pinson Arrested on Assault Charge

Sept. 4, 1963 - Dennis Bennett, a left-handed pitcher for the Phillies, singled to drive in the tie-breaking run in the fifth inning...

Sep 4, 2023

Two Ex-Convicts Found Guilty of Murdering L.A. Policeman

Sept. 4, 1963 - Two ex-convicts accused of killing a Los Angeles policeman in a remote Kern County onion field were found guilty of...

Sep 3, 2023

Instructive Coloring Book for NYC Schoolchildren

Sept. 3, 1963 - A coloring exercise that carries a serious safety measure will be distributed starting tomorrow to elementary school...

Aug 31, 2023

Sinatra’s Vegas Club Under Investigation for Mob Ties

Aug. 31, 1963 - Frank Sinatra’s Cal-Neva Lodge on the north shore of Lake Tahoe is threatened with closure pending investigation of...

Aug 24, 2023

Man Incarcerated in 1899 Still Behind Bars

Aug. 24, 1963 - Richard Honeck, 84 years old, has been in prison longer than many men expect to live. Honeck (left in 1899 and right this...

Aug 19, 2023

Thomas (Three-Finger Brown) Lucchese Visits Nassau D.A.

Aug. 19, 1963 - Thomas (Three-Finger Brown) Lucchese (pictured appearing before the Senate Labor Rackets committee in 1958), reportedly...

Aug 16, 2023

Execution at Sing Sing

Aug. 16, 1963 - Eddie Lee Mays, 34, was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing last night for the 1961 Harlem holdup murder of a bar...

Aug 14, 2023

Retired NYPD Detective Chief: Gallos Losing War with Profaci Gang

Aug. 14, 1963 - Raymond V. Martin, retired chief of detectives in Brooklyn South, the heart of that borough’s Cosa Nostra crime...

Aug 13, 2023

Valachi Closely Guarded in New Jersey

Aug. 13, 1963 - The United States Army is guarding Mafia canary Joe Valachi behind barbed wire at Fort Monmouth, N.J. The mobster who...

Aug 9, 2023

Gallo-Profaci War Continues in Brooklyn

Aug. 9, 1963 - The five-year underworld war between the Gallo and Profaci gangs of Brooklyn reached a new peak of violence today with the...