Carlos Marcello, the reputed boss of the nation’s original and oldest Mafia syndicate, was a distinctly American invention:
A Sicilian emigrant, born in a North African country during French colonial rule, whose earliest memories were of an old city in the New World.
The eldest child of a sprawling Catholic family who spent his boyhood exploring the serpentine swamps of Barataria Bay, where Jean Lafitte had roamed a century before.
A kid who dropped out of school at the age of 14 to work for his father, a vegetable farmer and bootlegger, and discovered his community and a sense of purpose among the Sicilian stevedores and the wise guys of Little Palermo in the French Quarter.
A convicted felon by the age of 20, sent to a prison for a crime he did not commit but was accused of “masterminding,” and then, at 24, a free man with a clean record, given the gift of mercy after a politician named Hand convinced a governor named O.K. to grant him a pardon.
A national celebrity at 40, famous not for anything he said but for not saying anything at all and for what everyone else said about him.
A suspect, always a suspect, a person of interest, recklessly accused by of having the “motive, means, and opportunity” to orchestrate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
A man wrongly accused, harassed, entrapped, and even kidnapped by his own government.
A bayou rambler, a dope dealer, a racketeer, an undesirable, a working class hero, a loving father, an unfaithful husband, and a beneficent Godfather.
A true believer in the American Dream, in bright lights and big cities, in neon and gold and chrome, in the open road, in Hollywood, in beach vacations and alabaster hotels tall enough to see the curvature of the earth, in domed football stadiums built on top of a doomed Gulf Coast, in Frank Sinatra and every single word of the song “My Way.”
King Carlos, Persona Non Grata, Proprietor of the House of the Rising Sun, Champion of the Fifth Amendment and Immigration Law Pioneer, Villain of Camelot, Representado Officiale, Big Daddy of the Big Easy, Deportable, a Man Without a Country.
How Ya’ Like Dat?
About Lamar White, Jr.
For more than 20 years, I’ve written about the people, the politics, and the history of my home state of Louisiana, both as the founder of two popular online publications, CenLamar and the Bayou Brief, and as a contributing writer for the Daily Beast, Salon, and the Independent of Acadiana. My work as an investigative journalist has generated international attention, sparked political scandals, and influenced elections, but during the past three years, I’ve focused nearly all of my attention on researching and writing about the life, times, crimes, trials, tribulations, and triumphs of Carlos Marcello. Marcello was the powerful and elusive boss of the New Orleans Mafia, purportedly the first and oldest syndicate in the United States. … read more
Contact Lamar White, Jr. at lamar@bayoubrief.com or by phone at 318.542.2960.
“People take one little piece of true information, twist it around, add a lot of bullshit, and come up with some charges that don’t even resemble the truth.”
—Carlos Marcello
“I’ve read some of this crap about how the Mafia is supposed to have initiations, making guys blood brothers and all that mumbo-jumbo. Well, maybe that’s how things are done in New York or Chicago, but I’ve never heard of anything like that in Louisiana.”
—Carlos Marcello