Zips (also ''Siggies'' or ''Geeps'') is a slang term in the United States that was especially in use in the early 20th century. It was often used as a derogatory slur by

Italian American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...

and Sicilian American mobsters in reference to newer immigrant Sicilian and Italian mafiosi. The mobsters in the US were said to have difficulty understanding the Sicilian dialects of the new immigrants, in which words appeared to "zip" by. Other theories include pejorative uses, such as Sicilians' preference for homemade zip guns. According to another theory, the term is a contraction of a Sicilian slang term for "hicks" or "primitives". The older Sicilian mafiosi of the pre-

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

era, known as " Mustache Petes", were also referred to as "zips". They were deposed by American-born mobsters during the

Castellammarese War The Castellammarese War () was a bloody power struggle for control of the Italian-American Mafia that took place in New York City, New York, from February 1930 until April 15, 1931, between partisans of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and those of Salv ...

Arrival in the United States

With increasing violence and government presence in Italy,

Sicilians Sicilians or the Sicilian people are a Romance speaking people who are indigenous to the island of Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the largest and most populous of the autonomous regions of Italy. Origin and i ...

and Neapolitans alike found positions in the growing drug trafficking market of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

's Five Families in the early 20th century. The Pizza Connection, a heroin-trafficking operation involving Salvatore Catalano, a capo of the Bonanno crime family, and Gaetano Badalamenti, a Sicilian mafioso, was largely organized by Zips. The Zips were effective because they were unknown in the United States and had no

police record A criminal record, police record, or colloquially RAP sheet (Record of Arrests and Prosecutions) is a record of a person's criminal history. The information included in a criminal record and the existence of a criminal record varies between coun ...

s. They generally congregated in the Knickerbocker Avenue area. The younger Sicilian mafiosi became known for their reckless and undisciplined behavior, which gained unwanted attention for New York's crime families. The Zips had no qualms about murdering people who had been considered off-limits by the American Mafia, such as police officers, judges, and women and children. They were also known for using bombs to kill their targets. Although bombings were commonly used by the Sicilian Mafia, American mafiosi have usually shied away from bombs out of concern that they could put innocent people at risk.Capeci, Mustain (1996), pp. 139–140 Zips were also known to have killed victims who were terminally ill. In the Sicilian Mafia, when someone is marked for death, that person cannot be allowed to die of natural causes. The group was tolerated because they earned millions for the families, specifically the Bonanno and Gambino families. Both

Carmine Galante Carmine Galante (; February 21, 1910 – July 12, 1979) was an American mobster. Galante was rarely seen without a cigar hanging from is mouth, leading to the nickname "The Cigar" and "Lilo" (a Sicilian term for cigar). Galante had a long career ...

and

Carlo Gambino Carlo Gambino (; August 24, 1902 – October 15, 1976) was an Italian-American crime boss of the Gambino crime family. After the Apalachin Meeting in 1957, and the imprisonment of Vito Genovese in 1959, Gambino took over the Commission o ...

used zips for running narcotics and conducting murders. Galante's two personal bodyguards

Cesare Bonventre Cesare "The Tall Guy" Bonventre (January 1, 1951 – April 16, 1984) was a Sicily, Sicilian mobster and caporegime for the New York City Bonanno crime family. Biography Early life Born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Bonventre was a member ...

and Baldo Amato, were Zips. Many Italian-American mobsters distrusted the Zips. Bonanno soldier

Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero Lefty Ruggiero (born Benjamin Ruggiero; April 19, 1926 – November 24, 1994) was an American mobster in the Bonanno crime family. He is well known for his friendship and mentorship of FBI undercover agent Joseph D. Pistone. When Pistone's ope ...

explained in a conversation to undercover FBI agent

Joseph "Donnie Brasco" Pistone Joseph Dominick Pistone (born September 17, 1939), is an American former FBI agent who worked undercover as Donnie Brasco between September 1976 and July 1981, as part of an infiltration primarily into the Bonanno crime family, and to a lesser ...

"Lots of people hate him alante.. There's only a few people he's close to. And that's mainly the Zips... Those guys are always with him. He brought them over from Sicily, and he uses them for different pieces of work and for dealing all that junk rugs They're as mean as he is. You can't trust those bastard Zips. Nobody can. Except the Old Man." On another occasion, Ruggiero told Pistone, "They hate the American people. They hate the American wiseguys." Bonanno soldier
Anthony Mirra Anthony "Tony" Mirra (July 18, 1927 – February 18, 1982) was an American mobster, soldier and later caporegime for the Bonanno crime family. He is well known for being the individual who introduced FBI Special Agent Joseph "Donnie Brasco" Pist ...
told Pistone, "The Zips are
clannish A clan is a group of people united by Consanguinity, actual or Fictive kinship, perceived kinship and Ancestry, descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous ...
and secretive. They are the meanest killers in the business".

References

*Kelly, Robert J. ''Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. *Sifakis, Carl. ''The Mafia Encyclopedia''. New York: Facts On File Inc., 2005. *Pistone, Joseph D.; & Brandt, Charles (2007). ''Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business'', Running Press. . *Pistone, Joseph D.; & Woodley, Richard (1999) '' Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia'', Hodder & Stoughton. . *Raab, Selwyn. ''The Five Families: The Rise, Decline & Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empire''. New York: St. Martins Press, 2005. *Crittle, Simon, ''The Last Godfather: The Rise and Fall of Joey Massino'' Berkley (March 7, 2006) *DeStefano, Anthony. ''The Last Godfather: Joey Massino & the Fall of the Bonanno Crime Family''. California: Citadel, 2006.

Arrival in the United States

See also

References

Further reading