Where these guys a necessary evil in the days of mom-and-pop

>>1596881
no. they were corrupt as fuck and largely undercut markets and ruined many perfectly legal businesses with corruption

no. just assholes pretty much.

>>1596881
They were a necessary evil in WW2 and WW2 only. The FBI hired the mafia to look for German spies attempting to get onto the docks or even infiltrate any field of work that may put them near the docks.

Nazis had no idea how corrupt NYC unions were, they thought they were dealing with government agents trying to find them, not some mob boss who would take a bat to your knees on mere suspicion because he got 10k per "spy" caught in 1940 USD.

>>1596881
It depends on how you look at it.
The police were less efficient than they are now, so with mob control came an extralegal judicial system. Basically a more direct way of paying for law enforcement, albeit one with serious drawbacks.

The Italian mafia was originally created by the Freemasons in Italy during a time of political strife in order to attack and pressure the establishment. It was exported to the US during prohibition to protect its more established partners in bootlegging operations. Then it grew up until the establishment decided to curb them because they had exceeded their usefulness.