In Theft of a Nation (1969),Cressey argues for the reakity of such a conspiracy theory of the Mafia syndicate, and its essentially family focused institutional structure.
Alan Block (1978), in a detailed analysis of the origins of cressey’s thesis,identifies as the source of its structural representation of the US Mafia the somewhat hazy recollections of Joseph Valachi.
By the time Valachi elaborated on his limited local experiences as a New York mobster, the populist media, and even serious writers, were ready to universalise his experience to national proportions. The organisational dimensions of the Mafia, and the all-pervasive social threat which it posed, were fast becoming ‘fact in the mythology of organised crime.
‘Thus the myth of the “Godfather” was born, striking all as real because it conformed so perfectly to everyone’s fantasy