FBI Files: The Gangster Era through Modern Day Criminals

The following list of documents pertain to famous gangsters and the men who caught them.

Declassified Files on Gangsters & Criminals

Anastasia, Albert – [185 Pages, 11.93MB] – Albert Anastasia (pronounced ah-nah-STAH-zee-ah) (born Umberto Anastasio, September 26, 1902 – October 25, 1957) was one of the most ruthless and feared Cosa Nostra mobsters in U. S. history. A founder of the American Mafia, Anastasia ran Murder, Inc. during the prewar era and was boss of the modern Gambino crime family during most of the 1950s.
Barnes, George “Machine Gun Kelly” – [ 8,782 Pages Total, Multiple PDF files ] – George “Machine Gun Kelly” Barnes (1895 –1954) was a notorious criminal during the gangster era. This release covers the investigation of the Charles Urschel kidnapping and the resulting court case. This release covers the years 1933-1959.

Bonnie & Clyde – [ File #1 42.39MB | File #2 6.58MB | File #3 35.85MB | File #4 212.61MB | File #5 0.3MB | File #6 11.68MB | File #7 20.85MB ] – [ 948 Total Pages ] Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (1910-1934) and Clyde Champion Barrow (1909-1934) were violent criminals who were active in the Mid- and Southwest between 1932 and 1934. The FBI began to investigate “Bonnie and Clyde” and their fellow gang members after Barrow stole an automobile in December 1932. The couple died in an ambush by local and state police officers from Louisiana and Texas on May 23, 1934. This release consists of the FBI Dallas Field Office’s file, which ranges from 1933 to 1934.
Broady, John G. – FBI Release #1 – [943 Pages, 54MB]
Broady, John G. – FBI Release #2 – [97 Pages, 5.8MB] – John G. Broady was a private investigator and attorney who pleaded guilty to “three charges of eleven-count of indictment charged with conspiracy and making false representations in order to obtain information from telephone companies”. Judge Mitchell D. Schweitzer sentenced Broady to a six-month suspended sentence on Feb 25th.

 Capone, Al – – [2,447 Pages, 167MB]

Individual Files (The same as large file, just not searchable, but broken down): [ File #1 18.46MB | File #2 23.06MB | File #3 23.36MB | File #4 25.96MB | File #5 19.69MB | File #6 6.60MB | File #7 11.01MB | File #8 10.11MB | File #9 14.51MB | File #10 11.93MB | File #11 12.39MB ] – [ 2,447 Total Pages ]

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Alphonse Gabriel “Al” Capone (1899-1947) rose to infamy as a gangster in Chicago during the 1920s and early 1930s. The Bureau of Investigation (the FBI’s predecessor) joined the Bureau of Prohibition and other agencies in investigating Capone. In 1931, Capone was sentenced to prison for tax evasion. Suffering from a case of syphilis that left him too mentally ill to resume his previous criminal activities, he was paroled in 1939 and settled in Florida, where he lived until his death in 1947.  Note: Despite the above release, there appears to have been additional records that were destroyed, along with additional files that have been lost. This is according to a March 26, 2019, letter from the FBI.

Castro, Ariel – [107 Pages, 8.98MB] – The Ariel Castro kidnappings took place between 2002 and 2004 when Ariel Castro kidnapped Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina “Gina” DeJesus and held them captive in his home in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. They were imprisoned until May 6, 2013, when Berry escaped with her six-year-old daughter, to whom she had given birth while imprisoned, and contacted the police.  Police rescued Knight and DeJesus and arrested Castro within hours. On May 8, 2013, Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.  He pleaded guilty to 937 criminal counts of rape, kidnapping, and aggravated murder, as part of a plea bargain. He was sentenced to life plus 1,000 years in prison without the possibility of parole.  One month into his sentence, he committed suicide by hanging himself with bed sheets in his prison cell.
Cooper, D.B. – [161 Pages, 27.7 MB] – D. B. Cooper is a media epithet popularly used to refer to an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the airspace between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, on November 24, 1971, extorted $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,160,000 in 2015), and parachuted to an uncertain fate. Despite an extensive manhunt and an ongoing FBI investigation, the perpetrator has never been located or positively identified. The case remains the only unsolved air piracy in American aviation history!
Dillinger, John – [107 Pages, 8.98MB] – Alphonse Gabriel “Al” Capone (1899-1947) rose to infamy as a gangster in Chicago during the 1920s and early 1930s. The Bureau of Investigation (the FBI’s predecessor) joined the Bureau of Prohibition and other agencies in investigating Capone. In 1931, Capone was sentenced to prison for tax evasion. Suffering from a case of syphilis that left him too mentally ill to resume his previous criminal activities, he was paroled in 1939 and settled in Florida, where he lived until his death in 1947.
Dillinger Gang aka The Terror Gang – [ 107 Pages, 8.98MB ] – The Terror Gang consisted of John Herbert Dillinger, Jr., who was the leader, Baby-Face George Nelson, Russell “Boobie” Clark, Harry Pierpont, Pretty Boy Floyd, Homer Van Meter, Oklahoma Jack Clark, John “Red” Hamilton, Machine Gun Kelly, Charles Makley, Walter Dietrich, Harry Copeland, and Edward W. Shouse. They all met in jail. Nelson and Van Meter met John Dillinger after the First Dillinger Gang was made in Michigan City Prison; all remained there until Dillinger had gotten out on parole and broken his friends out. They were captured by police soon afterward. The other two[who?] met Dillinger inside Crown Point Jail, from which they all escaped in 1933.
Estes, Billie Sol – [34 Pages, 4.44 MB] – Billie Sol Estes (January 10, 1925 – May 14, 2013) was an American businessman; a former financier best known for a business scandal that sent him to jail for fraud multiple times and complicated by his ties to friend and future U.S. President Lyndon Johnson. Estes was living in Granbury, Texas at the time of his death. His body was discovered on May 14, 2013 at his home in DeCordova, Texas. Please note: This was a limited release on his full file, which is estimated to be 77,000 pages in length.  I amended my request after some electronic communication with the FBI by stating, “I understand the Estes made some (unfounded) claims about the death of John F. Kennedy towards the end of his life, connecting the murder to LBJ. That’s a small nutshell, but in essence, what I am looking for is anything related to JFK’s assassination and LBJ.”
Hunt, Everette – [169 Pages, 9.3MB] – Everette Howard Hunt, Jr. (1918-2007), commonly known as E. Howard Hunt, is most known for his role in engineering the 1972 Watergate break-ins. This release consists of a 1981-1982 file concerning Hunt’s request for a presidential pardon and a special inquiry file that contains background investigations of Hunt between 1948 and 1971.
Kott, Irving J., FBI Release #1 [1,396 Pages, 528.6 MB]
Kott, Irving J., FBI Release #2 [250 Pages, 10.6 MB] (Bookmarks stipulate different FBI files)
A Canadian financier and stock promoter with long history of civil and criminal violations. Kott pleaded guilty in 2004 to two felony charges related to his undisclosed ownership interest in J. B. Oxford Holdings Inc., a brokerage based in Beverly Hills, Calif. J.B. Oxford, whose employees pushed several stocks linked to Kott and his associates, had contended that he was merely a consultant. There are more than 5,000 more pages available, for a fee of $160.
Lansky, Meyer – [ 3,523 Pages Total, Multiple PDF files ] – Meyer Lansky (1902-1983) was involved in a wide-range of organized criminal activity and was associated with many other well known criminal figures from the 1920s to the 1970s. Lansky was especially active in gambling ventures, including the rise of Las Vegas and efforts to build casinos in Cuba before the communist revolution there. In 1972, he was indicted on charges that he and others had skimmed millions of dollars from a Vegas casino that they owned; the indictment on Lansky was later dismissed since he was considered too ill to face trial. The files in this release range from 1950 to 1978.
Manson, Charles – [156 Pages, 27.9MB] – Charles Milles Manson (November 12, 1934 – November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and cult leader. In mid-1967, he began forming what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune based in California. Manson’s followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations in July and August 1969. In 1971, he was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people, all of which members of the group carried out at his instruction. Manson was also convicted of first-degree murder for two other deaths.
Moriarty, Joseph Vincent – [862 Pages, 39.06MB] – Joseph Vincent Moriarty (1911 – February 26, 1979), also known as Newsboy Moriarty, was an Irish American mobster in Hudson County, New Jersey who controlled the numbers game.
Murphy, Jack Roland – [544 Pages, 39.06MB] – Jack Roland Murphy, known as “Murph the Surf,” was a complex figure whose life story reads like a mix of crime thriller and redemption narrative. Born on May 26, 1937, and passing away on September 12, 2020, Murphy gained notoriety for his involvement in the biggest jewel heist in American history — the 1964 burglary of the jewel collection at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. In addition to his criminal exploits, Murphy was a champion surfer, a musician, an author, and an artist. His life took a dramatic turn when he was convicted of murder in 1969. However, after his release from prison in 1986, he underwent a remarkable transformation, dedicating his later years to serving as an ordained minister and working with inmates in prison ministry​​.
Rich. MarcFBI Releases #1-2 – [886 Pages, 125.2MB]
Rich. MarcFBI Releases #3-6 – [1,779 Pages, 179.3MB]
Rich. MarcFBI Releases #7-9 – [936 Pages, 55.6MB]
Rich. MarcFBI Releases #10 – [319 Pages, 49.10MB]
Rich. MarcFBI Releases #11-12 – [484 Pages, 30MB]
Rich. MarcFBI Releases #13-21 – [2,021 Pages, 44MB]
Rich. MarcFBI Releases #22-24 – [597 Pages, 20MB] – Marc Rich (born Marcell David Reich; December 18, 1934 – June 26, 2013) was an international commodities trader, hedge fund manager, financier and businessman. He was best known for founding the commodities company Glencore and for being indicted in the United States on federal charges of tax evasion and making controversial oil deals with Iran during the Iran hostage crisis. He was in Switzerland at the time of the indictment and never returned to the United States. He received a controversial presidential pardon from U.S. President Bill Clinton on January 20, 2001, Clinton’s last day in office. Note: The above records were received electronically through The Black Vault’s FBI FOIA Case 1361219-000.
Serial Killers in the United States – 1960 to Present – [ File #1 | File #2 ] – Information on serial killers provided by the FBI’s Training Division and Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico, Virginia.

 Stroud, Robert (Birdman of Alcatraz) – [ 111 Pages, 70.1MB ] – Robert Franklin Stroud (January 28, 1890 – November 21, 1963), known as the “Birdman of Alcatraz”, was a federal American prisoner who has been cited as one of the United States’ most notorious criminals. During his time at Leavenworth Penitentiary he reared and sold birds and became a respected ornithologist, but despite his nickname, he was not permitted to keep his birds at Alcatraz, where he was incarcerated from 1942.

Sturgis, Frank (Watergate Burgler) – [112 Pages, 57.4MB]
Sturgis, Frank (Watergate Burgler) Release #2, October 2015 – [ 62 Pages, 17.5MB ] – Frank Anthony Sturgis (December 9, 1924 – December 4, 1993), born Frank Angelo Fiorini, was one of the five Watergate burglars whose capture led to the end of the Presidency of Richard Nixon. He served in several branches of the United States military, aided Fidel Castro in the Cuban revolution of 1958, and worked as an undercover operative.
Wilson, Frank – [24 Pages, 11.5MB ] – Frank J. Wilson (May 19, 1886 – June 22, 1970) was the Chief of the United States Secret Service and a former agent of the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Internal Revenue, later known as the Internal Revenue Service, most notably in the 1931 prosecution of Chicago mobster Al Capone and federal representative in the Lindbergh kidnapping case.
Uniformity of Write-ups of White Slave Cases (80-HQ-8) – [ File #1 ] – [23 Pages, 12.21MB ] – Due to the lack of uniformity  in regard to writeups of White Slave cases, both in Weekly-Report and  Interesting Case Forms, it is suggested that the following rules be adopted relative to writing up this particular class of cases…
Volpe, Paul – FBI Release #1 – [672 Pages, 70.1MB]
Volpe, Paul – FBI Release #2 – [157 Pages, 10.2MB] – Paul “The Waiter” Volpe was a notorious Canadian mobster and a reputed high-ranking member of the ‘Ndrangheta, an Italian organized crime syndicate, operating in Toronto, Ontario. Born in Italy in 1927 and emigrating to Canada in the 1950s, Volpe quickly rose through the ranks of the criminal underworld, becoming a key figure in the Canadian Mafia. His moniker, “The Waiter,” was derived from his early days of working in restaurants before he moved into the more lucrative and dangerous ventures of loan sharking, gambling, and narcotics. Volpe’s influence extended beyond illicit activities; he was known to have connections within the political realm, which he leveraged to protect his operations. His criminal career came to an abrupt end in 1983 when he was found dead in the trunk of his car, a victim of the very underworld he had once helped to command. His murder was believed to be part of an internal power struggle within the ‘Ndrangheta’s ranks, signaling a violent shift in the dynamics of organized crime in Canada.

 

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This post was published on December 12, 2023 4:20 am

John Greenewald

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