Giuliani Pioneered RICO Prosecutions. Now He’s Charged in One

On February 25, 1985, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents fanned out across New York to arrest the heads of the city’s five Mafia families on charges brought by an ambitious young federal prosecutor.

“This is a bad day, probably the worst ever, for the Mafia,” then-Manhattan US Attorney Rudy Giuliani said at the press conference announcing the sweep.

Rudolph Giuliani, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (right) and FBI director William Webster (left) with a crime family chart during a press conference on mob arrests on February 26, 1985, at Federal Plaza in Manhattan.

Photographer: Alan Raiai/Newsday RM/Getty Images

The so-called “Commission” case, which eventually resulted in the conviction of three bosses and five other high-ranking mobsters, introduced much of the world to a relatively new and powerful federal law — the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO. ...