The Ultimate Mafia Quiz

Estimated Completion Time
1 min
The Ultimate Mafia Quiz
Image: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images

About This Quiz

Think you know everything about the mafia and organized crime? Test your knowledge of the mafia with our mafia quiz.
Roughly translated to English, la cosa nostra means:
keep your nose clean
our thing
I took care of that problem. It's in the trunk.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The FBI misunderstood what recently immigrated mobsters meant when they refered to their lifestyle, or "their thing." Instead, the term came to refer to the Italian-American mob.

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Which big-time mafioso was nicknamed the "Dapper Don"?
John Gotti
Joey Bonnano
Bugs Moran
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Well-dressed and always ready to toy with the Feds, John Gotti was also called the "Teflon Don" due to his reputation for beating the rap.

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Where did the mafia originate?
Italy
Greece
Sicily
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The mafia was born in Sicily in the 19th century from the emergence of capos, wealthy landowners who extracted tribute from locals by the threat of force.

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Which mafia was the first to set up shop in Las Vegas?
Jewish
Italian
Russian
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Jewish gangsters like Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky acted as loan sharks for casino developers. This made the mob acting partners in the money machine that is Sin City.

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What does a consigliere do?
books flights and hotel rooms for other members of the family when they travel
carries out hits
advises the boss
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Consiglieres act as impartial advisers to the head of a mafia family, or the don. This vital position usually lies outside of the family hierarchy.

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The Commission of mafia families slowed rampant recruiting of mobsters in the 1920s and '30s by:
requiring a list of all new recruits be circulated among the families
requiring all new recruits have at least a high school diploma
adding a controversial recruit tax, which was a large sum of money paid by families when a new member was added
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

By requiring the names of all prospective recruits be added to a list and circulated among the families, the chance any mafioso could be murdered by someone they didn't recognize was reduced.

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FBI agent Joe Pistone infiltrated the mafia with the undercover name:
Robert Loggia
Donnie Brasco
Tom Hagen
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Agent Joe Pistone spent six years in the dangerous position of living undercover as a mobster in the Bonnano and Columbo crime familes in the 1970s. Pistone's work netted dozens of arrests and a biopic about him called "Donnie Brasco."

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Which event brought the mafia's existence undeniably to light?
Apalachin Raid
Senate Hearings on Organized Crime
Ace Rothstein's Vegas TV show
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In 1957, a New York state trooper led the Apalachin Raid, the raid of a secret summit among 58 mafia bosses and high-ranking family members. The idea that the mafia didn't exist could no longer be entertained, as the public had up to that point.

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What is RICO an acronym for?
Raid on Illegal Crime Office
Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations
Regulations on Intimidation and Conspiracy of Officials
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (the RICO Act), a blow to the mafia passed in 1970, allowed prosecutors to go after entire illegal organizations instead of one member at a time.

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What city was host to the first mafia incident in the United States?
New Orleans
New York
New Haven
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In 1890, a mafia family retaliated against local pressures, murdering the sherrif and killing 16 members of a lynch mob that gathered outside the New Orleans jailhouse where the gangsters were jailed.

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You Got:
/10
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