Featured article:
America's First Mafia War
New Orleans, Louisiana, 1868-1872
by Thomas Hunt and Martha Macheca Sheldon 2008
The first recorded Sicilian underworld feud in the New World occurred in the birthplace of the American Mafia, New Orleans. The Crescent City conflict occurred just after the U.S. Civil War. Raffaele Agnello, a Mafia boss with roots in Palermo, was opposed at first by a gang of Messinian immigrants. The opposition later expanded to include a Monreale-based Mafia splinter group known as the Stuppagghieri and a home-grown Louisiana militia led by native New Orleanian Joseph P. Macheca.
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Jackson Square, the heart of the French Quarter
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