title: Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

text: On 17 July 2022, Mohamed visited France to meet President Emmanuel Macron. It was his first foreign travel since becoming the UAE president. However, a group of human rights organizations, including International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) and the Ligue des droits de l’Homme, wrote an open letter to President Macron, highlighting the human rights situation in the UAE. Drawing attention to the repressive dictatorship practiced in the Emirates, they urged Macron to raise the issue of severe human rights violations in the UAE with Mohamed during the meeting. The letter also asked Macron to end the arms supply to the UAE, in wake of the Yemen war.


title: Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

text: Mohamed has gifted 55 million AED to the UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking, committed to raise $100 million for the Reaching the Last Mile Fund, pledged $50 million for children vaccine efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and contributed $30 million to the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. The University of Texas chair for scientific and medical knowledge in cancer research is named after Mohamed as a result of a funding grant to MD Anderson Cancer Center. He organizes the Zayed Charity Marathon in New York City since its inauguration in 2005. The race raises awareness about kidney disease, and the proceeds go to the US's National Kidney Foundation.


title: Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

text: Mohamed bin Zayed has been involved in setting up art museums, such as Louvre Abu Dhabi in 2017 and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi in 2012, as well as cultural heritage sites such as Qasr Al Hosn.


title: Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

text: Mohamed has been involved in efforts to protect wild falcons, bustards, and the Arabian oryx. He donated $1 million to an initiative aimed at preventing the power line-related deaths of wild birds, as part of launching of the 20-million-dollar Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Raptor Conservation Foundation. He heads the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund.


title: Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

text: A species of woodlizard — "Enyalioides binzayedi" — was named after Mohamed as the creator of the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund that provided financial support to the expeditions leading to the discovery of the species in the Cordillera Azul National Park in Peru. In 2017, "Acer binzayedii", a rare species of maple tree found in the mountainous cloud forest of Jalisco in Western Mexico, was named after him.


title: Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

text: Mohamed is married to Sheikha Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan. They married in 1981. They have nine children together, four sons and five daughters. They have two adopted daughters, and together they have 16 grandchildren.


title: Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

text: A lifelong fan of falconry, Mohamed established the Mohamed bin Zayed Falconry and Desert Physiognomy School with the goal of promoting and sustaining the ancient tradition by teaching it to new generations of Emiratis. He himself learned the practice from his father.


title: Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

text: Mohamed has not chosen a Crown Prince. According to Al Jazeera, likely choices are his brothers Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan or Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan or his son Khaled bin Mohamed Al Nahyan.


title: Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

text: In April 2021, the Jakarta–Cikampek Elevated Toll Road in Indonesia was renamed as Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Skyway ("Jalan Layang Mohamed bin Zayed"), at the behest of the Indonesian President's secretary.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle ("Haliaeetus albicilla"), which occupies the same niche as the bald eagle in the Palearctic. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico. It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle is an opportunistic feeder which subsists mainly on fish, which it swoops down upon and snatches from the water with its talons. It builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any animal species, up to deep, wide, and in weight. Sexual maturity is attained at the age of four to five years.


title: Bald eagle

text: Bald eagles are not actually bald; the name derives from an older meaning of the word, "white headed". The adult is mainly brown with a white head and tail. The sexes are identical in plumage, but females are about 25 percent larger than males. The yellow beak is large and hooked. The plumage of the immature is brown.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States of America and appears on its seal. In the late 20th century it was on the brink of extirpation in the contiguous United States. Populations have since recovered, and the species was removed from the U.S. government's list of endangered species on July 12, 1995, and transferred to the list of threatened species. It was removed from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in the contiguous states on June 28, 2007.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle is placed in the genus "Haliaeetus" (sea eagles), and gets both its common and specific scientific names from the distinctive appearance of the adult's head. "Bald" in the English name is from an older usage meaning "having white on the face or head" rather than "hairless", referring to the white head feathers contrasting with the darker body. The genus name is New Latin: "Haliaeetus" (from the ), and the specific name, "leucocephalus", is Latinized () and ().


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work "Systema Naturae", under the name "Falco leucocephalus".


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle of Eurasia. This species pair consists of a white-headed and a tan-headed species of roughly equal size; the white-tailed eagle also has overall somewhat paler brown body plumage. The two species fill the same ecological niche in their respective ranges. The pair diverged from other sea eagles at the beginning of the Early Miocene (c. 10 Ma BP) at the latest, but possibly as early as the Early/Middle Oligocene, 28 Ma BP, if the most ancient fossil record is correctly assigned to this genus.


title: Bald eagle

text: The plumage of an adult bald eagle is evenly dark brown with a white head and tail. The tail is moderately long and slightly wedge-shaped. Males and females are identical in plumage coloration, but sexual dimorphism is evident in the species, in that females are 25% larger than males. The beak, feet and irises are bright yellow. The legs are feather-free, and the toes are short and powerful with large talons. The highly developed talon of the hind toe is used to pierce the vital areas of prey while it is held immobile by the front toes. The beak is large and hooked, with a yellow cere. The adult bald eagle is unmistakable in its native range. The closely related African fish eagle ("Haliaeetus vocifer") (from far outside the bald eagle's range) also has a brown body (albeit of somewhat more rufous hue), white head and tail, but differs from the bald eagle in having a white chest and black tip to the bill.


title: Bald eagle

text: The plumage of the immature is a dark brown overlaid with messy white streaking until the fifth (rarely fourth, very rarely third) year, when it reaches sexual maturity. Immature bald eagles are distinguishable from the golden eagle ("Aquila chrysaetos"), the only other very large, non-vulturine raptorial bird in North America, in that the former has a larger, more protruding head with a larger beak, straighter edged wings which are held flat (not slightly raised) and with a stiffer wing beat and feathers which do not completely cover the legs. When seen well, the golden eagle is distinctive in plumage with a more solid warm brown color than an immature bald eagle, with a reddish-golden patch to its nape and (in immature birds) a highly contrasting set of white squares on the wing.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle has sometimes been considered the largest true raptor (accipitrid) in North America. The only larger species of raptor-like bird is the California condor ("Gymnogyps californianus"), a New World vulture which today is not generally considered a taxonomic ally of true accipitrids. However, the golden eagle, averaging and in wing chord length in its American race ("Aquila chrysaetos canadensis"), is merely lighter in mean body mass and exceeds the bald eagle in mean wing chord length by around . Additionally, the bald eagle's close cousins, the relatively longer-winged but shorter-tailed white-tailed eagle and the overall larger Steller's sea eagle ("Haliaeetus pelagicus"), may, rarely, wander to coastal Alaska from Asia.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle has a body length of . Typical wingspan is between and mass is normally between . Females are about 25% larger than males, averaging as much as , and against the males' average weight of .


title: Bald eagle

text: The size of the bird varies by location and generally corresponds with Bergmann's rule: the species increases in size further away from the equator and the tropics. For example, eagles from South Carolina average in mass and in wingspan, smaller than their northern counterparts. One field guide in Florida listed similarly small sizes for bald eagles there, at about . Of intermediate size, 117 migrant bald eagles in Glacier National Park were found to average but this was mostly (possibly post-dispersal) juvenile eagles, with 6 adults here averaging . Wintering eagles in Arizona (winter weights are usually the highest of the year since, like many raptors, they spend the highest percentage of time foraging during winter) were found to average .


title: Bald eagle

text: The largest eagles are from Alaska, where large females may weigh more than and span across the wings. A survey of adult weights in Alaska showed that females there weighed on average , respectively, and males weighed against immatures which averaged and in the two sexes. An Alaskan adult female eagle that was considered outsized weighed some . R.S. Palmer listed a record from 1876 in Wyoming County, New York of an enormous adult bald eagle that was shot and reportedly scaled . Among standard linear measurements, the wing chord is , the tail is long, and the tarsus is . The culmen reportedly ranges from , while the measurement from the gape to the tip of the bill is . The bill size is unusually variable: Alaskan eagles can have up to twice the bill length of birds from the southern United States (Georgia, Louisiana, Florida), with means including both sexes of and in culmen length, respectively, from these two areas.


title: Bald eagle

text: The call consists of weak staccato, chirping whistles, "kleek kik ik ik ik", somewhat similar in cadence to a gull's call. The calls of young birds tend to be more harsh and shrill than those of adults.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle's natural range covers most of North America, including most of Canada, all of the continental United States, and northern Mexico. It is the only sea eagle endemic to North America. Occupying varied habitats from the bayous of Louisiana to the Sonoran Desert and the eastern deciduous forests of Quebec and New England, northern birds are migratory, while southern birds are resident, remaining on their breeding territory all year. At minimum population, in the 1950s, it was largely restricted to Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, northern and eastern Canada, and Florida. From 1966 to 2015 bald eagle numbers increased substantially throughout its winter and breeding ranges, and as of 2018 the species nests in every continental state and province in the United States and Canada.


title: Bald eagle

text: The majority of bald eagles in Canada are found along the British Columbia coast while large populations are found in the forests of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. Bald eagles also congregate in certain locations in winter. From November until February, one to two thousand birds winter in Squamish, British Columbia, about halfway between Vancouver and Whistler. The birds primarily gather along the Squamish and Cheakamus Rivers, attracted by the salmon spawning in the area. Similar congregations of wintering bald eagles at open lakes and rivers, wherein fish are readily available for hunting or scavenging, are observed in the northern United States.


title: Bald eagle

text: It has occurred as a vagrant twice in Ireland; a juvenile was shot illegally in Fermanagh on January 11, 1973 (misidentified at first as a white-tailed eagle), and an exhausted juvenile was captured in Kerry on November 15, 1987.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle occurs during its breeding season in virtually any kind of American wetland habitat such as seacoasts, rivers, large lakes or marshes or other large bodies of open water with an abundance of fish. Studies have shown a preference for bodies of water with a circumference greater than , and lakes with an area greater than are optimal for breeding bald eagles.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle typically requires old-growth and mature stands of coniferous or hardwood trees for perching, roosting, and nesting. Tree species reportedly is less important to the eagle pair than the tree's height, composition and location. Perhaps of paramount importance for this species is an abundance of comparatively large trees surrounding the body of water. Selected trees must have good visibility, be over tall, an open structure, and proximity to prey. If nesting trees are in standing water such as in a mangrove swamp, the nest can be located fairly low, at as low above the ground. In a more typical tree standing on dry ground, nests may be located from in height. In Chesapeake Bay, nesting trees averaged in diameter and in total height, while in Florida, the average nesting tree stands high and is in diameter. Trees used for nesting in the Greater Yellowstone area average high. Trees or forest used for nesting should have a canopy cover of no more than 60%, and no less than 20%, and be in close proximity to water. Most nests have been found within of open water. The greatest distance from open water recorded for a bald eagle nest was over , in Florida.


title: Bald eagle

text: Bald eagle nests are often very large in order to compensate for size of the birds. The largest recorded nest was found in Florida in 1963, and was measured at nearly 10 feet wide and 20 feet deep.


title: Bald eagle

text: In Florida, nesting habitats often consist of Mangrove swamps, the shorelines of lakes and rivers, pinelands, seasonally flooded flatwoods, hardwood swamps, and open prairies and pastureland with scattered tall trees. Favored nesting trees in Florida are slash pines ("Pinus elliottii"), longleaf pines ("P. palustris"), loblolly pines ("P. taeda") and cypress trees, but for the southern coastal areas where mangroves are usually used. In Wyoming, groves of mature cottonwoods or tall pines found along streams and rivers are typical bald eagle nesting habitats. Wyoming eagles may inhabit habitat types ranging from large, old-growth stands of ponderosa pines ("Pinus ponderosa") to narrow strips of riparian trees surrounded by rangeland. In Southeast Alaska, Sitka spruce ("Picea sitchensis") provided 78% of the nesting trees used by eagles, followed by hemlocks ("Tsuga") at 20%. Increasingly, eagles nest in man-made reservoirs stocked with fish.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle is usually quite sensitive to human activity while nesting, and is found most commonly in areas with minimal human disturbance. It chooses sites more than from low-density human disturbance and more than from medium- to high-density human disturbance. However, bald eagles will occasionally nest in large estuaries or secluded groves within major cities, such as Hardtack Island on the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon or John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which are surrounded by a great quantity of human activity. Even more contrary to the usual sensitivity to disturbance, a family of bald eagles moved to the Harlem neighborhood in New York City in 2010.


title: Bald eagle

text: While wintering, bald eagles tend to be less habitat and disturbance sensitive. They will commonly congregate at spots with plentiful perches and waters with plentiful prey and (in northern climes) partially unfrozen waters. Alternately, non-breeding or wintering bald eagles, particularly in areas with a lack of human disturbance, spend their time in various upland, terrestrial habitats sometimes quite far away from waterways. In the northern half of North America (especially the interior portion), this terrestrial inhabitance by bald eagles tends to be especially prevalent because unfrozen water may not be accessible. Upland wintering habitats often consist of open habitats with concentrations of medium-sized mammals, such as prairies, meadows or tundra, or open forests with regular carrion access.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle is a powerful flier, and soars on thermal convection currents. It reaches speeds of when gliding and flapping, and about while carrying fish. Its dive speed is between , though it seldom dives vertically. Regarding their flying abilities, despite being morphologically less well adapted to faster flight than golden eagles (especially during dives), the bald eagle is considered surprisingly maneuverable in flight. Bald eagles have also been recorded catching up to and then swooping under geese in flight, turning over and thrusting their talons into the other bird's breast. It is partially migratory, depending on location. If its territory has access to open water, it remains there year-round, but if the body of water freezes during the winter, making it impossible to obtain food, it migrates to the south or to the coast. A number of populations are subject to post-breeding dispersal, mainly in juveniles; Florida eagles, for example, will disperse northwards in the summer. The bald eagle selects migration routes which take advantage of thermals, updrafts, and food resources. During migration, it may ascend in a thermal and then glide down, or may ascend in updrafts created by the wind against a cliff or other terrain. Migration generally takes place during the daytime, usually between the local hours of 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., when thermals are produced by the sun.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle is an opportunistic carnivore with the capacity to consume a great variety of prey. Fish often comprise most of the eagle's diet throughout their range. In 20 food habit studies across the species' range, fish comprised 56% of the diet of nesting eagles, birds 28%, mammals 14% and other prey 2%. More than 400 species are known to be included in the bald eagle's prey spectrum, far more than its ecological equivalent in the Old World, the white-tailed eagle, is known to take. Despite its considerably lower population, the bald eagle may come in second amongst all North American accipitrids, slightly behind only the red-tailed hawk, in number of prey species recorded.


title: Bald eagle

text: To hunt fish, the eagle swoops down over the water and snatches the fish out of the water with its talons. They eat by holding the fish in one claw and tearing the flesh with the other. Eagles have structures on their toes called spicules that allow them to grasp fish. Osprey also have this adaptation. Bird prey may occasionally be attacked in flight, with prey up to the size of Canada geese attacked and killed in mid-air. It has been estimated that the gripping power (pounds by square inch) of the bald eagle is ten times greater than that of a human. Bald eagles can fly with fish at least equal to their own weight, but if the fish is too heavy to lift, the eagle may be dragged into the water. It may swim to safety, in some cases pulling the catch along to the shore as it swims, but some eagles drown or succumb to hypothermia. Many sources claim that bald eagles, like all large eagles, cannot normally take flight carrying prey more than half of their own weight unless aided by favorable wind conditions. On numerous occasions, when large prey such as large fish including mature salmon or geese are attacked, eagles have been seen to make contact and then drag the prey in a strenuously labored, low flight over the water to a bank, where they then finish off and dismember the prey. When food is abundant, an eagle can gorge itself by storing up to of food in a pouch in the throat called a crop. Gorging allows the bird to fast for several days if food becomes unavailable. Occasionally, bald eagles may hunt cooperatively when confronting prey, especially relatively large prey such as jackrabbits or herons, with one bird distracting potential prey, while the other comes behind it in order to ambush it. While hunting waterfowl, bald eagles repeatedly fly at a target and cause it to dive repeatedly, hoping to exhaust the victim so it can be caught (white-tailed eagles have been recorded hunting waterfowl in the same way). When hunting concentrated prey, a successful catch often results in the hunting eagle being pursued by other eagles and needing to find an isolated perch for consumption if it is able to carry it away successfully.


title: Bald eagle

text: They obtain much of their food as carrion or via a practice known as kleptoparasitism, by which they steal prey away from other predators. Due to their dietary habits, bald eagles are frequently viewed in a negative light by humans. Thanks to their superior foraging ability and experience, adults are generally more likely to hunt live prey than immature eagles, which often obtain their food from scavenging. They are not very selective about the condition or origin, whether provided by humans, other animals, auto accidents or natural causes, of a carcass's presence, but will avoid eating carrion where disturbances from humans are a regular occurrence. They will scavenge carcasses up to the size of whales, though carcasses of ungulates and large fish are seemingly preferred. Congregated wintering waterfowl are frequently exploited for carcasses to scavenge by immature eagles in harsh winter weather. Bald eagles also may sometimes feed on material scavenged or stolen from campsites and picnics, as well as garbage dumps (dump usage is habitual mainly in Alaska) and fish-processing plants.


title: Bald eagle

text: In Southeast Alaska, fish comprise approximately 66% of the year-round diet of bald eagles and 78% of the prey brought to the nest by the parents. Eagles living in the Columbia River Estuary in Oregon were found to rely on fish for 90% of their dietary intake. At least 100 species of fish have been recorded in the bald eagle's diet. From observation in the Columbia River, 58% of the fish were caught alive by the eagle, 24% were scavenged as carcasses and 18% were pirated away from other animals.


title: Bald eagle

text: In the Pacific Northwest, spawning trout and salmon provide most of the bald eagles' diet from late summer throughout fall. Though bald eagles occasionally catch live salmon, they usually scavenge spawned salmon carcass. Southeast Alaskan eagles largely prey on pink salmon ("Oncorhynchus gorbuscha"), coho salmon ("O. kisutch") and, more locally, sockeye salmon ("O. nerka"), with Chinook salmon ("O. tshawytscha"). Due to the Chinook salmon's large size ( average adult size) probably being taken only as carrion and a single carcass can attract several eagles. Also important in the estuaries and shallow coastlines of southern Alaska are Pacific herring ("Clupea pallasii"), Pacific sand lance ("Ammodytes hexapterus") and eulachon ("Thaleichthys pacificus"). In Oregon's Columbia River Estuary, the most significant prey species were largescale suckers ("Catostomus macrocheilus") (17.3% of the prey selected there), American shad ("Alosa sapidissima"; 13%) and common carp ("Cyprinus carpio"; 10.8%). Eagles living in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland were found to subsist largely on American gizzard shad ("Dorosoma cepedianum"), threadfin shad ("Dorosoma petenense") and white bass ("Morone chrysops"). Floridian eagles have been reported to prey on catfish, most prevalently the brown bullhead ("Ameiurus nebulosus") and any species in the genus "Ictalurus" as well as mullet, trout, needlefish, and eels. Chain pickerels ("Esox niger") and white suckers ("Catostomus commersonii") are frequently taken in interior Maine. Wintering eagles on the Platte River in Nebraska preyed mainly on American gizzard shads and common carp. Bald eagles are also known to eat the following fish species: rainbow trout ("Oncorhynchus mykiss"), white catfish ("Ameiurus catus"), rock greenling ("Hexagrammos lagocephalus"), Pacific cod ("Gadus macrocephalus"), Atka mackerel ("Pleurogrammus monopterygius"), largemouth bass ("Micropterus salmoides"), northern pike ("Esox lucius"), striped bass ("Morone saxatilis"), dogfish shark ("Squalidae.sp") and Blue walleye ("Sander vitreus").


title: Bald eagle

text: Fish taken by bald eagles varies in size, but bald eagles take larger fish than other piscivorous birds in North America, typically range from and prefer fish. When experimenters offered fish of different sizes in the breeding season around Lake Britton in California, fish measuring were taken 71.8% of the time by parent eagles while fish measuring were chosen only 25% of the time. At nests around Lake Superior, the remains of fish (mostly suckers) were found to average in total length. In the Columbia River estuary, most preyed on by eagles were estimated to measure less than , but larger fish between or even exceeding in length also taken especially during the non-breeding seasons. In Neagle Lake, eagles frequently take Northern pike, up to long. They can take fish up to at least twice their own weight, such as large salmons, carps, or muskellunge ("Esox masquinongy"), though they are unable to fly away with it. Much larger marine fish such as Pacific halibut ("Hippoglossus stenolepis") and lemon sharks ("Negaprion brevirostris") have been recorded among bald eagle prey though probably are only taken as young, as small, newly mature fish, or as carrion.


title: Bald eagle

text: Benthic fishes such as catfish are usually consumed after they die and float to the surface, though while temporarily swimming in the open may be more vulnerable to predation than most fish since their eyes focus downwards. Bald eagles also regularly exploit water turbines which produce battered, stunned or dead fish easily consumed. Predators who leave behind scraps of dead fish that they kill, such as brown bears ("Ursus arctos"), gray wolves ("Canis lupus") and red foxes ("Vulpes vulpes"), may be habitually followed in order to scavenge the kills secondarily. Once North Pacific salmon die off after spawning, usually local bald eagles eat salmon carcasses almost exclusively. Eagles in Washington need to consume of fish each day for survival, with adults generally consuming more than juveniles and thus reducing potential energy deficiency and increasing survival during winter.


title: Bald eagle

text: Behind fish, the next most significant prey base for bald eagles are other waterbirds. The contribution of such birds to the eagle's diet is variable, depending on the quantity and availability of fish near the water's surface. Waterbirds can seasonally comprise from 7% to 80% of the prey selection for eagles in certain localities. Overall, birds are the most diverse group in the bald eagle's prey spectrum, with 200 prey species recorded.


title: Bald eagle

text: Bird species most preferred as prey by eagles tend to be medium-sized, such as western grebes ("Aechmophorus occidentalis"), mallards ("Anas platyrhynchos"), and American coots ("Fulica americana") as such prey is relatively easy for the much larger eagles to catch and fly with. American herring gull ("Larus smithsonianus") are the favored avian prey species for eagles living around Lake Superior. Black ducks ("Anas rubripes"), common eiders ("Somateria mollissima"), and double-crested cormorants ("Phalacrocorax auritus") are also frequently taken in coastal Maine and velvet scoter ("Melanitta fusca") was dominant prey in San Miguel Island.


title: Bald eagle

text: Due to easy accessibility and lack of formidable nest defense by such species, bald eagles are capable of preying on such seabirds at all ages, from eggs to mature adults, and they can effectively cull large portions of a colony. Along some portions of the North Pacific coastline, bald eagles which had historically preyed mainly kelp-dwelling fish and supplementally sea otter ("Enhydra lutris") pups are now preying mainly on seabird colonies since both the fish (possibly due to overfishing) and otters (cause unknown) have had precipitous population declines, causing concern for seabird conservation. Because of this more extensive predation, some biologist has expressed concern that murres are heading for a "conservation collision" due to heavy eagle predation. Eagles have been confirmed to attack nocturnally active, burrow-nesting seabird species such as storm petrels and shearwaters by digging out their burrows and feeding on all animals they find inside. If a bald eagle flies close by, waterbirds will often fly away en masse, though in other cases they may seemingly ignore a perched eagle. when the birds fly away from a colony, this exposed their unprotected eggs and nestlings to scavengers such as gulls.


title: Bald eagle

text: Larger waterbirds are occasionally prey as well, with wintering emperor geese ("Chen canagica") and snow geese ("C. caerulescens"), which gather in large groups, sometimes becoming regular prey. Other large waterbirds hunted at least occasionally by bald eagles have included adults of common murres ("Uria aalge"), common loons ("Gavis immer"), great black-backed gulls ("Larus marinus"), sandhill cranes ("Grus canadensis"), great blue herons ("Ardea herodias"), Ross's geese ("Anser rossii"), Some waterbird prey can exceed the eagle's own weight. Canada geese ("Branta canadensis") are occasionally taken, and predation on the largest subspecies ("Branta canadensis maxima") has been reported. Adult birds larger than eagle themselves such as tundra swans ("Cygnus columbianus") and brown pelicans ("Pelecanus occidentalis") are known to killed. Additionally, chicks or fledgling of American white pelicans ("Pelecanus erythrorhynchos"), trumpeter swans ("Cygnus buccinator") and whooping cranes ("Grus americana") can be taken by bald eagles, and unsuccessful attacks on adults have been reported.


title: Bald eagle

text: Bald eagles have been recorded as killing other raptors on occasion. In some cases, these may be attacks of competition or kleptoparasitism on rival species but ended with the consumption of the victim. Nine species each of other accipitrids and owls are known to have been preyed upon by bald eagles. Owl prey species have ranged in size from western screech-owls ("Megascops kennicotti") to snowy owls ("Bubo scandiacus"). Larger diurnal raptors known to have fallen victim to bald eagles have included red-tailed hawks ("Buteo jamaicensis"), peregrine falcons ("Falco peregrinus"), northern goshawks ("Accipiter gentilis"), ospreys ("Pandion haliaetus") and black ("Coragyps atratus") and turkey vultures ("Cathartes aura").


title: Bald eagle

text: Mammalian preys are generally less frequently taken than fish or avian prey. However, in some regions, such as landlocked areas of North America, wintering bald eagles may become habitual predators of medium-sized mammals that occur in colonies or local concentrations, such as prairie dogs ("Cynomys" sp.) and jackrabbits ("Lepus" sp.). Bald eagles in Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge often hunt in pair to catch rabbits and prairie dogs. They can attack and prey on rabbits and hares of nearly any size, from marsh rabbits ("Sylvilagus palustris") to black and white-tailed jackrabbits ("Lepus californicus" & "L. townsendii"), and Arctic hares ("Lepus arcticus"). In San Luis Valley, white-tailed jackrabbits can be important prey. Additionally, rodents such as montane voles ("Microtus montanus"), brown rats ("Rattus norvegicus"), muskrats ("Ondatra zibethicus"), nutrias ("Myocastor coypus"), and various squirrels are taken as supplementary prey. Even American porcupines ("Erethizon dorsatum") are reportedly attacked and killed.


title: Bald eagle

text: Where available, seal colonies can provide a lot of food. On Protection Island, Washington, they commonly feed on harbor seal ("Phoca vitulina") afterbirths, still-borns and sickly seal pups. Similarly, bald eagles in Alaska readily prey on sea otter ("Enhydra lutris") pups. Small mammalian carnivores can be taken infrequently, such as American martens ("Martes pennanti"), American minks ("Neogale vison"), and Island foxes (" Urocyon littoralis "). Larger carnivoran prey include grey foxes ("Urocyon cinereoargenteus"), Arctic foxes ("Vulpes lagopus"), striped skunks ("Mephitis mephitis"), domestic cats ("Felis catus") and reportedly red foxes ("Vulpes vulpus"). Predation on more formidable species such as adult North American river otters ("Lontra canadensis") and male fisher cats ("Pekania pennanti"), and possibly common raccoons ("Procyon lotor") have been reported. Even bobcat ("Lynx rufus") has been recorded amongst their prey, but it is not known whether they were killed or scavenged. Other wild mammalian prey include fawns of deer such as white-tailed deer ("Odocoileus virginianus") and Sitka deer ("Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis"), which weigh around can be taken alive by bald eagles. In one instance, a bald eagle was observed carrying mule deer ("Odocoileus hemionus") fawn. Additionally, Virginia opossums ("Didelphis virginiana") can be preyed upon but most of them are mainly taken as roadkills due to their nocturnal habits.


title: Bald eagle

text: Together with the golden eagle, bald eagles are occasionally accused of preying on livestock, especially sheep ("Ovis aries"). There are a handful of proven cases of lamb predation, some specimens weighing up to , by bald eagles. Still, they are much less likely to attack a healthy lamb than a golden eagle. Both species prefer native, wild prey and are unlikely to cause any extensive detriment to human livelihoods. There is one case of a bald eagle killing and feeding on an adult, pregnant ewe (then joined in eating the kill by at least 3 other eagles), which, weighing on average over , is much larger than any other known prey taken by this species.


title: Bald eagle

text: Supplemental prey is readily taken given the opportunity. In some areas, reptiles may become regular prey, especially in warm areas such as Florida where reptile diversity is high. Turtles are perhaps the most regularly hunted type of reptile. In coastal New Jersey, 14 of 20 studied eagle nests included remains of turtles. The main species found were common musk turtles ("Sternotherus odoratus"), diamondback terrapin ("Malaclemys terrapin") and juvenile common snapping turtles ("Chelydra serpentina"). In these New Jersey nests, mainly subadult and small adults were taken, ranging in carapace length from . Similarly, many turtles were recorded in the diet in the Chesapeake Bay. In Texas, softshell turtles are the most frequently taken prey, and a large number of Barbour's map turtles are taken in Torreya State Park. Other reptilian and amphibian prey includes southern alligator lizards ("Elgaria multicarinata"), snakes such as garter snakes and rattlesnakes, and Greater siren ("Siren lacertina").


title: Bald eagle

text: Invertebrates are occasionally taken. In Alaska, eagles feed on sea urchins ("Strongylocentrotus sp."), chitons, mussels, and crabs. Other various mollusks such as land snails, abalones, bivalves, periwinkles, blue mussels, squids, and starfishes are taken as well.


title: Bald eagle

text: When competing for food, eagles will usually dominate other fish-eaters and scavengers, aggressively displacing mammals such as coyotes ("Canis latrans") and foxes, and birds such as corvids, gulls, vultures and other raptors. Occasionally, coyotes, bobcats ("Lynx rufus") and domestic dogs ("Canis familiaris") can displace eagles from carrion, usually less confident immature birds, as has been recorded in Maine. Bald eagles are less active, bold predators than golden eagles and get relatively more of their food as carrion and from kleptoparasitism (although it is now generally thought that golden eagles eat more carrion than was previously assumed). However, the two species are roughly equal in size, aggressiveness and physical strength and so competitions can go either way. Neither species is known to be dominant, and the outcome depends on the size and disposition of the individual eagles involved. Wintering bald and golden eagles in Utah both sometimes won conflicts, though in one recorded instance a single bald eagle successfully displaced two consecutive golden eagles from a kill.


title: Bald eagle

text: Though bald eagles face few natural threats, an unusual attacker comes in the form of the common loon ("G. immer"), which is also taken by eagles as prey. While common loons normally avoid conflict, they are highly territorial and will attack predators and competitors by stabbing at them with their knife-like bill; as the range of the bald eagle has increased following conservation efforts, these interactions have been observed on several occasions, including a fatality of a bald eagle in Maine that is presumed to have come about as a result of it attacking a nest, then having a fatal puncture wound inflicted by one or both loon parents.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle is thought to be much more numerous in North America than the golden eagle, with the bald species estimated to number at least 150,000 individuals, about twice as many golden eagles there are estimated to live in North America. Due to this, bald eagles often outnumber golden eagles at attractive food sources. Despite the potential for contention between these animals, in New Jersey during winter, a golden eagle and numerous bald eagles were observed to hunt snow geese alongside each other without conflict. Similarly, both eagle species have been recorded, via video-monitoring, to feed on gut piles and carcasses of white-tailed deer ("Odocoileus virginianus") in remote forest clearings in the eastern Appalachian Mountains without apparent conflict. Bald eagles as frequently mobbed by smaller raptors, due to their infrequent but unpredictable tendency to hunt other birds of prey. Many bald eagles are habitual kleptoparasites, especially in winters when fish are harder to come by. They have been recorded stealing fish from other predators such as ospreys, herons and even otters. They have also been recorded opportunistically pirating birds from peregrine falcons ("Falco peregrinus"), prairie dogs from ferruginous hawks ("Buteo regalis") and even jackrabbits from golden eagles. When they approach scavengers such as dogs, gulls or vultures at carrion sites, they often attack them in an attempt to force them to disgorge their food. Healthy adult bald eagles are not preyed upon in the wild and are thus considered apex predators.


title: Bald eagle

text: Bald eagles are sexually mature at four or five years of age. When they are old enough to breed, they often return to the area where they were born. It is thought that bald eagles mate for life. However, if one member of a pair dies or disappears, the survivor will choose a new mate. A pair which has repeatedly failed in breeding attempts may split and look for new mates. Bald eagle courtship involves elaborate, spectacular calls and flight displays by the males. The flight includes swoops, chases, and cartwheels, in which they fly high, lock talons, and free-fall, separating just before hitting the ground. Usually, a territory defended by a mature pair will be of waterside habitat.


title: Bald eagle

text: Compared to most other raptors, which mostly nest in April or May, bald eagles are early breeders: nest building or reinforcing is often by mid-February, egg laying is often late February (sometimes during deep snow in the North), and incubation is usually mid-March and early May. Eggs hatch from mid April to early May, and the young fledge late June to early July. The nest is the largest of any bird in North America; it is used repeatedly over many years and with new material added each year may eventually be as large as deep, across and weigh . One nest in Florida was found to be deep, across, and to weigh . This nest is on record as the largest tree nest ever recorded for any animal. Usually nests are used for under five years, as they either collapse in storms or break the branches supporting them by their sheer weight. However, one nest in the Midwest was occupied continuously for at least 34 years. The nest is built of branches, usually in large trees found near water. When breeding where there are no trees, the bald eagle will nest on the ground, as has been recorded largely in areas largely isolated from terrestrial predators, such as Amchitka Island in Alaska.


title: Bald eagle

text: In Sonora, Mexico, eagles have been observed nesting on top of hecho catcuses ("Pachycereus pectin-aboriginum"). Nests located on cliffs and rock pinnacles have been reported historically in California, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, but currently are only verified to occur only in Alaska and Arizona. The eggs average about long, ranging from , and have a breadth of , ranging from . Eggs in Alaska averaged in mass, while in Saskatchewan they averaged . As with their ultimate body size, egg size tends to increase with distance from the equator. Eagles produce between one and three eggs per year, two being typical. Rarely, four eggs have been found in nests, but these may be exceptional cases of polygyny. Eagles in captivity have been capable of producing up to seven eggs. It is rare for all three chicks to successfully reach the fledgling stage. The oldest chick often bears the advantage of larger size and louder voice, which tends to draw the parents' attention towards it. Occasionally, as is recorded in many large raptorial birds, the oldest sibling sometimes attacks and kills its younger sibling(s), especially early in the nesting period when their sizes are most different. However, nearly half of known bald eagles produce two fledglings (more rarely three), unlike in some other "eagle" species such as some in the genus "Aquila", in which a second fledgling is typically observed in less than 20% of nests, despite two eggs typically being laid. Both the male and female take turns incubating the eggs, but the female does most of the sitting. The parent not incubating will hunt for food or look for nesting material during this stage. For the first two to three weeks of the nestling period, at least one adult is at the nest almost 100% of the time. After five to six weeks, the attendance of parents usually drops off considerably (with the parents often perching in trees nearby).


title: Bald eagle

text: A young eaglet can gain up to a day, the fastest growth rate of any North American bird. The young eaglets pick up and manipulate sticks, play tug of war with each other, practice holding things in their talons, and stretch and flap their wings. By eight weeks, the eaglets are strong enough to flap their wings, lift their feet off the nest platform, and rise up in the air. The young fledge at anywhere from 8 to 14 weeks of age, though will remain close to the nest and attended to by their parents for a further 6 weeks. Juvenile eagles first start dispersing away from their parents about 8 weeks after they fledge. Variability in departure date related to effects of sex and hatching order on growth and development. For the next four years, immature eagles wander widely in search of food until they attain adult plumage and are eligible to reproduce.


title: Bald eagle

text: On rare occasions, bald eagles have been recorded to adopt other raptor fledglings into their nests, as seen in 2017 by a pair of eagles in Shoal Harbor Migratory Bird Sanctuary near Sidney, British Columbia. The pair of eagles in question are believed to have carried a juvenile red-tailed hawk back to their nest, presumably as prey, whereupon the chick was accepted into the family by both the parents and the eagles' three nestlings. The hawk, nicknamed "Spunky" by biologists monitoring the nest, fledged successfully.


title: Bald eagle

text: The average lifespan of bald eagles in the wild is around 20 years, with the oldest confirmed one having been 38 years of age. In captivity, they often live somewhat longer. In one instance, a captive individual in New York lived for nearly 50 years. As with size, the average lifespan of an eagle population appears to be influenced by its location and access to prey. As they are no longer heavily persecuted, adult mortality is quite low. In one study of Florida eagles, adult bald eagles reportedly had 100% annual survival rate. In Prince William Sound in Alaska, adults had an annual survival rate of 88% even after the Exxon Valdez oil spill adversely affected eagles in the area. Of 1,428 individuals from across the range necropsied by National Wildlife Health Center from 1963 to 1984, 329 (23%) eagles died from trauma, primarily impact with wires and vehicles; 309 (22%) died from gunshot; 158 (11%) died from poisoning; 130 (9%) died from electrocution; 68 (5%) died from trapping; 110 (8%) from emaciation; and 31 (2%) from disease; cause of death was undetermined in 293 (20%) of cases. In this study, 68% of mortality was human-caused. Today, eagle-shooting is believed to be considerably reduced due to the species' protected status. In one case, an adult eagle investigating a peregrine falcon nest for prey items sustained a concussion from a swooping parent peregrine, and ultimately died days later from it. An early natural history video depicting a cougar ("Puma concolor") ambushing and killing an immature bald eagle feeding at a rabbit carcass is viewable online, although this film may have been staged.


title: Bald eagle

text: Most non-human-related mortality involves nestlings or eggs. Around 50% of eagles survive their first year. However, in the Chesapeake Bay area, 100% of 39 radio-tagged nestlings survived to their first year. Nestling or egg fatalities may be due to nest collapses, starvation, sibling aggression or inclement weather. Another significant cause of egg and nestling mortality is predation. Nest predators include large gulls, corvids (including ravens, crows and magpies), wolverines ("Gulo gulo"), fishers ("Pekania pennanti"), red-tailed hawks, owls, other eagles, bobcats, American black bears ("Ursus americanus") and raccoons. If food access is low, parental attendance at the nest may be lower because both parents may have to forage, thus resulting in less protection. Nestlings are usually exempt from predation by terrestrial carnivores that are poor tree-climbers, but Arctic foxes ("Vulpes lagopus") occasionally snatched nestlings from ground nests on Amchitka Island in Alaska before they were extirpated from the island. The bald eagle will defend its nest fiercely from all comers and has even repelled attacks from bears, having been recorded knocking a black bear out of a tree when the latter tried to climb a tree holding nestlings.


title: Bald eagle

text: Once a common sight in much of the continent, the bald eagle was severely affected in the mid-20th century by a variety of factors, among them the thinning of egg shells attributed to use of the pesticide DDT. Bald eagles, like many birds of prey, were especially affected by DDT due to biomagnification. DDT itself was not lethal to the adult bird, but it interfered with their calcium metabolism, making them either sterile or unable to lay healthy eggs; many of their eggs were too brittle to withstand the weight of a brooding adult, making it nearly impossible for them to hatch. It is estimated that in the early 18th century the bald eagle population was 300,000–500,000, but by the 1950s there were only 412 nesting pairs in the 48 contiguous states of the US.


title: Bald eagle

text: Other factors in bald eagle population reductions were a widespread loss of suitable habitat, as well as both legal and illegal shooting. In 1930 a New York City ornithologist wrote that in the territory of Alaska in the previous 12 years approximately 70,000 bald eagles had been shot. Many of the hunters killed the bald eagles under the long-held beliefs that bald eagles grabbed young lambs and even children with their talons, yet the birds were innocent of most of these alleged acts of predation (lamb predation is rare, human predation is thought to be non-existent). Illegal shooting was described as "the leading cause of direct mortality in both adult and immature bald eagles" by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1978. Leading causes of death in bald eagles include lead pollution, poisoning, collision with motor vehicles, and power-line electrocution.


title: Bald eagle

text: The species was first protected in the U.S. and Canada by the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty, later extended to all of North America. The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, approved by the U.S. Congress in 1940, protected the bald eagle and the golden eagle, prohibiting commercial trapping and killing of the birds. The bald eagle was declared an endangered species in the U.S. in 1967, and amendments to the 1940 act between 1962 and 1972 further restricted commercial uses and increased penalties for violators. Perhaps most significant in the species' recovery, in 1972, DDT was banned from usage in the United States due to the fact that it inhibited the reproduction of many birds. DDT was completely banned in Canada in 1989, though its use had been highly restricted since the late 1970s.


title: Bald eagle

text: With regulations in place and DDT banned, the eagle population rebounded. The bald eagle can be found in growing concentrations throughout the United States and Canada, particularly near large bodies of water. In the early 1980s, the estimated total population was 100,000 individuals, with 110,000–115,000 by 1992; the U.S. state with the largest resident population is Alaska, with about 40,000–50,000, with the next highest population the Canadian province of British Columbia with 20,000–30,000 in 1992. Obtaining a precise count of the bald eagle population is extremely difficult. The most recent data submitted by individual states was in 2006, when 9789 breeding pairs were reported. For some time, the stronghold breeding population of bald eagles in the lower 48 states was in Florida, where over a thousand pairs have held on while populations in other states were significantly reduced by DDT use. Today, the contiguous state with the largest number of breeding pairs of eagles is Minnesota with an estimated 1,312 pairs, surpassing Florida's most recent count of 1,166 pairs. 23, or nearly half, of the 48 contiguous states now have at least 100 breeding pairs of bald eagles. In Washington State, there were only 105 occupied nests in 1980. That number increased by about 30 per year, so that by 2005 there were 840 occupied nests. 2005 was the last year that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife counted occupied nests. Further population increases in Washington may be limited by the availability of late winter food, particularly salmon.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle was officially removed from the U.S. federal government's list of endangered species on July 12, 1995, by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, when it was reclassified from "endangered" to "threatened." On July 6, 1999, a proposal was initiated "To Remove the Bald Eagle in the Lower 48 States From the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife." It was de-listed on June 28, 2007. It has also been assigned a risk level of least concern category on the IUCN Red List. In the "Exxon Valdez" oil spill of 1989 an estimated 247 were killed in Prince William Sound, though the local population returned to its pre-spill level by 1995. In some areas, the increase in eagles has led to decreases in other bird populations and the eagles may be considered a pest.


title: Bald eagle

text: In December 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed quadrupling the number of bald eagles that can be killed by the wind electric generation industry without paying a penalty to 4,200 per year. If issued, the permits would last 30 years, six times the current 5-year permits.


title: Bald eagle

text: Permits are required to keep bald eagles in captivity in the United States. Permits are primarily issued to public educational institutions, and the eagles which they show are permanently injured individuals that cannot be released to the wild. The facilities where eagles are kept must be equipped with adequate caging and facilities, as well as workers experienced in the handling and care of eagles. The bald eagle can be long-lived in captivity if well cared for, but does not breed well even under the best conditions.


title: Bald eagle

text: In Canada and in England a license is required to keep bald eagles for falconry. Bald eagles cannot legally be kept for falconry in the United States, but a license may be issued in some jurisdictions to allow use of such eagles in birds-of-prey flight shows.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle is important in various Native American cultures and, as the national bird of the United States, is prominent in seals and logos, coinage, postage stamps, and other items relating to the U.S. federal government.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle is a sacred bird in some North American cultures, and its feathers, like those of the golden eagle, are central to many religious and spiritual customs among Native Americans. Eagles are considered spiritual messengers between gods and humans by some cultures. Many pow wow dancers use the eagle claw as part of their regalia as well. Eagle feathers are often used in traditional ceremonies, particularly in the construction of regalia worn and as a part of fans, bustles and head dresses. In the Navajo tradition an eagle feather is represented to be a protector, along with the feather Navajo medicine men use the leg and wing bones for ceremonial whistles. The Lakota, for instance, give an eagle feather as a symbol of honor to person who achieves a task. In modern times, it may be given on an event such as a graduation from college. The Pawnee considered eagles as symbols of fertility because their nests are built high off the ground and because they fiercely protect their young. The Choctaw considered the bald eagle, who has direct contact with the upper world of the sun, as a symbol of peace.


title: Bald eagle

text: During the Sun Dance, which is practiced by many Plains Indian tribes, the eagle is represented in several ways. The eagle nest is represented by the fork of the lodge where the dance is held. A whistle made from the wing bone of an eagle is used during the course of the dance. Also during the dance, a medicine man may direct his fan, which is made of eagle feathers, to people who seek to be healed. The medicine man touches the fan to the center pole and then to the patient, in order to transmit power from the pole to the patient. The fan is then held up toward the sky, so that the eagle may carry the prayers for the sick to the Creator.


title: Bald eagle

text: Current eagle feather law stipulates that only individuals of certifiable Native American ancestry enrolled in a federally recognized tribe are legally authorized to obtain or possess bald or golden eagle feathers for religious or spiritual use. The constitutionality of these laws has been questioned by Native American groups on the basis that it violates the First Amendment by affecting ability to practice their religion freely.


title: Bald eagle

text: The National Eagle Repository, a division of the FWS, exists as a means to receive, process, and store bald and golden eagles which are found dead and to distribute the eagles, their parts and feathers to federally recognized Native American tribes for use in religious ceremonies.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States of America. The founders of the United States were fond of comparing their new republic with the Roman Republic, in which eagle imagery (usually involving the golden eagle) was prominent. On June 20, 1782, the Continental Congress adopted the design for the Great Seal of the United States, depicting a bald eagle grasping 13 arrows and an olive branch with thirteen leaves with its talons.


title: Bald eagle

text: The bald eagle appears on most official seals of the U.S. government, including the presidential seal, the presidential flag, and in the logos of many U.S. federal agencies. Between 1916 and 1945, the presidential flag (but not the seal) showed an eagle facing to its left (the viewer's right), which gave rise to the urban legend that the flag is changed to have the eagle face towards the olive branch in peace, and towards the arrows in wartime.


title: Bald eagle

text: Contrary to popular legend, there is no evidence that Benjamin Franklin ever publicly supported the wild turkey ("Meleagris gallopavo"), rather than the bald eagle, as a symbol of the United States. However, in a letter written to his daughter in 1784 from Paris, criticizing the Society of the Cincinnati, he stated his personal distaste for the bald eagle's behavior. In the letter Franklin states:


title: Bald eagle

text: Franklin opposed the creation of the Society because he viewed it, with its hereditary membership, as a noble order unwelcome in the newly independent Republic, contrary to the ideals of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, for whom the Society was named. His reference to the two kinds of birds is interpreted as a satirical comparison between the Society of the Cincinnati and Cincinnatus.


title: Bald eagle

text: Largely because of its role as a symbol of the United States, but also because of its being a large predator, the bald eagle has many representations in popular culture. In film and television depictions the call of the red-tailed hawk, which is much louder and more powerful, is often substituted for bald eagles.


title: Genovese crime family

text: The Genovese crime family, () also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American Mafia. They have generally maintained a varying degree of influence over many of the smaller mob families outside New York, including ties with the Philadelphia, Patriarca, and Buffalo crime families.


title: Genovese crime family

text: The current "family" was founded by Charles "Lucky" Luciano and was known as the Luciano crime family from 1931 to 1957, when it was renamed after boss Vito Genovese. Originally in control of the waterfront on the West Side of Manhattan as well as the docks and the Fulton Fish Market on the East River waterfront, the family was run for years by "The Oddfather", Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, who feigned insanity by shuffling unshaven through New York's Greenwich Village wearing a tattered bath robe and muttering to himself incoherently to avoid prosecution.


title: Genovese crime family

text: The Genovese family is the oldest and the largest of the "Five Families". Finding new ways to make money in the 21st century, the family took advantage of lax due diligence by banks during the housing bubble with a wave of mortgage frauds. Prosecutors say loan shark victims obtained home equity loans to pay off debts to their mob bankers. The family found ways to use new technology to improve on illegal gambling, with customers placing bets through offshore sites via the Internet.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Although the leadership of the Genovese family seemed to have been in limbo after the death of Gigante in 2005, they appear to be the most organized and powerful family in the U.S., with sources believing that Liborio "Barney" Bellomo is the current boss of the organization. Unique in today's Mafia, the family has benefited greatly from members following omertà, a code of conduct emphasizing secrecy and non-cooperation with law enforcement and the justice system. While many mobsters from across the country have testified against their crime families since the 1980s, the Genovese family has had only eleven members and associates turn state's evidence in its history.


title: Genovese crime family

text: The Genovese crime family originated from the Morello gang of East Harlem, the first Mafia family in New York City. In 1892, Giuseppe Morello arrived in New York from the village of Corleone, Sicily, Italy. Morello's half brothers Nicholas, Vincenzo, Ciro, and the rest of his family joined him in New York the following year. The Morello brothers formed the 107th Street Mob and began dominating the Italian neighborhood of East Harlem, parts of Manhattan, and the Bronx.


title: Genovese crime family

text: One of Giuseppe Morello's strongest allies was Ignazio "the Wolf" Lupo, a mobster who controlled Manhattan's Little Italy. In 1903, Lupo married Morello's half-sister, uniting both organizations. The Morello-Lupo alliance continued to prosper in 1903, when the group began a major counterfeiting ring with powerful Sicilian "mafioso" Vito Cascioferro, printing $5 bills in Sicily and smuggling them into the US.


title: Genovese crime family

text: New York police detective Joseph Petrosino, later assassinated while in Sicily seeking evidence to permit the deportation of Morello and other mafiosi, began investigating the Morello family's counterfeiting operation, the barrel murders, and the black hand extortion letters. On November 15, 1909, Morello, Lupo, and others were arrested on counterfeiting charges. In February 1910, Morello and Lupo were sentenced to twenty-five and thirty years in prison, respectively.


title: Genovese crime family

text: In 1910 the Lomonte Brothers, cousins of Morello, ran East Harlem until 1915. Fortunato Lomonte was shot and killed in 1914 on East 108th st. Tomasso Lomonte and cousin Rose Lomonte were both shot and killed in 1915 on East 116th st.


title: Genovese crime family

text: As the Morello family increased in power and influence, bloody territorial conflicts arose with other Italian gangs in New York. The Morellos had an alliance with Giosue Gallucci, a prominent East Harlem businessman and "Camorrista" with local political connections. On May 17, 1915, Gallucci was murdered in a power struggle between the Morellos and the Neapolitan Camorra organization, which consisted of two Brooklyn gangs run by Pellegrino Morano and Alessandro Vollero. The fight over Gallucci's rackets became known as the Mafia-Camorra War.


title: Genovese crime family

text: After months of fighting, Morano offered a truce. A meeting was arranged at a Navy Street cafe owned by Vollero. On September 7, 1916, Nicholas Morello and his bodyguard Charles Ubriaco were ambushed and killed upon arrival by five members of the Camorra gang. In 1917, Morano was charged with Morello's murder after "Camorrista" Ralph Daniello implicated him in the murder. By 1918, law enforcement had sent many Camorra members to prison, decimating the Camorra in New York and ending the war. Many of the remaining Camorra members joined the Morello family.


title: Genovese crime family

text: The Morellos now faced stronger rivals than the Camorra. With the passage of Prohibition in 1920 and the ban of alcohol sales, the family regrouped and built a lucrative bootlegging operation in Manhattan. In 1920, both Morello and Lupo were released from prison and Brooklyn Mafia boss Salvatore D'Aquila ordered their murders. This is when Giuseppe "Joe" Masseria and Rocco Valenti, a former Brooklyn Camorra, began to fight for control of the Morello family.


title: Genovese crime family

text: On December 29, 1920, Masseria's men murdered Valenti's ally, Salvatore Mauro. Then, on May 8, 1922, the Valenti gang murdered Vincenzo Terranova. Masseria's gang retaliated killing Morello member Silva Tagliagamba. On August 11, 1922, Masseria's men murdered Valenti, ending the conflict, as Masseria took over the Morello family.


title: Genovese crime family

text: During the mid-1920s, Masseria continued to expand his bootlegging, extortion, loansharking, and illegal gambling rackets throughout New York. To operate and protect these rackets, he recruited many ambitious young mobsters, including future heavyweights Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Frank Costello, Joseph "Joey A" Adonis, Vito Genovese, and Albert Anastasia. Luciano soon became a top aide in Masseria's organization.


title: Genovese crime family

text: By the late 1920s, Masseria's main rival was boss Salvatore Maranzano, who had come from Sicily to run the Castellammarese clan. Their rivalry eventually escalated into the bloody Castellammarese War. As the war turned against Masseria, Luciano, seeing an opportunity to switch allegiance, decided to eliminate him in 1931. In a secret deal with Maranzano, Luciano agreed to engineer Masseria's death in return for taking over his rackets and becoming Maranzano's second-in-command.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Adonis had joined the Masseria faction, and when Masseria heard about Luciano's betrayal, he approached Adonis about killing Luciano. However, Adonis instead warned Luciano about the murder plot.


title: Genovese crime family

text: On April 15, 1931, Masseria was killed at Nuova Villa Tammaro, a Coney Island restaurant, while playing cards with Luciano, who allegedly excused himself to the bathroom, when four gunmen (Anastasia, Genovese, Adonis, and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel) shot Masseria to death then escaping in a car driven by Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova. It was reported that Terranova was too nervous to drive, so Siegel took the driver's seat and drove the car out of the crime scene.


title: Genovese crime family

text: With Maranzano's blessing, Luciano became his lieutenant and took over Masseria's gang, ending the Castellammarese War. Between August 1 and 3, 1931, Maranzano called a meeting where crime bosses met at Nuova Villa Tammaro in Coney Island for a bacchanalian banquet to celebrate the death of Masseria right on the spot where he was murdered and another one on Washington Avenue at a hall in the Bronx. Maranzano called another meeting of crime bosses in Wappingers Falls, New York, where he declared himself "capo di tutti capi" ("boss of all bosses"). Under Maranzano rule the Italian-American gangs in New York City were reorganized into Five Families headed by Luciano, Joe Profaci, Tommy Gagliano, Vincent Mangano, and himself. Maranzano also whittled down the rival families' rackets in favor of his own. Luciano appeared to accept these changes, but was merely biding his time before removing Maranzano. Although Maranzano was slightly more forward-thinking than Masseria, Luciano had come to believe that Maranzano was even more greedy, power-hungry and hidebound than Masseria had been.


title: Genovese crime family

text: By September 1931, Maranzano realized Luciano was a threat, and hired Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, an Irish gangster, to kill him. However, Tommy Lucchese alerted Luciano that he was marked for death. On September 10, Maranzano ordered Luciano, Genovese, and Costello to come to his office at the 230 Park Avenue in Manhattan. Convinced that Maranzano planned to murder them, Luciano decided to take pre-emptive action. He sent to Maranzano's office four Jewish gangsters, secured with the aid of Siegel and Meyer Lansky, whose faces were unknown to Maranzano's people. Disguised as government agents, two of the gangsters disarmed Maranzano's bodyguards. The other two, aided by Lucchese, stabbed Maranzano multiple times before shooting him.


title: Genovese crime family

text: After Maranzano's murder, Luciano called a meeting in Chicago with various bosses, where he proposed a Commission to serve as the governing body for organized crime. Designed to settle all disputes and decide which families controlled which territories, the Commission has been called Luciano's greatest innovation. Luciano's goals with the Commission were to quietly maintain his own power over all the families, and to prevent future gang wars; the bosses approved the idea of the Commission.


title: Genovese crime family

text: The Commission's first test came in 1935, when they ordered Dutch Schultz to drop his plans to murder Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey. Luciano argued that an assassination of Dewey would precipitate a massive law enforcement crackdown. An enraged Schultz vowed to kill Dewey anyway and walked out of the meeting.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Anastasia, now the leader of Murder, Inc., approached Luciano with information that Schultz had asked him to stake out Dewey's apartment building on Fifth Avenue. Upon hearing the news, the Commission held a discreet meeting to discuss the matter. After six hours of deliberations, the Commission ordered Lepke Buchalter to eliminate Schultz. On October 23, 1935, before he could kill Dewey, Schultz was shot in a tavern in Newark, New Jersey, and succumbed to his injuries the following day.


title: Genovese crime family

text: On May 13, 1936, Luciano's pandering trial began. Dewey prosecuted the case that Eunice Carter had built against Luciano, accusing him of being part of a massive prostitution ring known as "the Combination". During the trial, Dewey exposed Luciano for lying on the witness stand through direct quizzing and records of telephone calls; Luciano also had no explanation for why his federal income tax records claimed he made only $22,000 a year, while he was obviously a wealthy man.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Dewey's case against Luciano on the prostitution charges actually leveled in the indictment, on the other hand, rested on much shakier ground: first on the testimony of Joe Bendix, who was discredited by his own testimony as well as that of others, and then later on the testimony of three prostitutes, whom Dewey rewarded by either paying for a trip to Europe after the trial or arranging for lucrative film and magazine deals. All three witnesses subsequently recanted their testimony.


title: Genovese crime family

text: On June 7, 1936, Luciano was convicted on 62 counts of compulsory prostitution. On June 18, he was sentenced to thirty to fifty years in state prison, along with David Betillo and others.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Luciano continued to run his crime family from prison, relaying his orders through Genovese, his acting boss. However, in 1937, Genovese fled to Naples to avoid an impending indictment for murder in New York. Luciano appointed Costello, his "consigliere", as the new acting boss and overseer of Luciano's interests.


title: Genovese crime family

text: During World War II, federal agents came to Luciano for help in preventing enemy sabotage on the New York waterfront and other activities. Luciano agreed to help, in return for a pardon from the State of New York, made contingent on Luciano's deportation to Italy. In reality Luciano provided insignificant assistance to the Allied cause.


title: Genovese crime family

text: After the end of the war, the arrangement with Luciano became public knowledge. To prevent further embarrassment, the government followed through on its plans to deport Luciano on condition that he never return to the U.S. In 1946, Luciano was taken from prison and deported to Italy, where he died in 1962.


title: Genovese crime family

text: From May 1950 to May 1951, the U.S. Senate conducted a large-scale investigation of organized crime, commonly known as the Kefauver Hearings, chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. Costello was convicted of contempt of the Senate and sentenced to eighteen months in prison. Kefauver concluded that New York politician Carmine DeSapio was assisting the activities of Costello, and that Costello had become influential in decisions made by the Tammany Hall political machine. DeSapio admitted to having met Costello several times, but insisted that "politics was never discussed".


title: Genovese crime family

text: In 1952, the federal government began proceedings to strip Costello of his U.S. citizenship and he was indicted for evasion of $73,417 in income taxes between 1946 and 1949. He was sentenced to five years in prison and fined $20,000. In 1954, Costello appealed the conviction and was released on $50,000 bail; from 1952 to 1961, he was in and out of half a dozen federal and local prisons and jails, his confinement interrupted by periods when he was out on bail pending determination of appeals.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Costello ruled for twenty peaceful years, but his quiet reign ended when Genovese was extradited from Italy to New York. During his absence, Costello demoted Genovese from underboss to "caporegime", leaving Genovese determined to take control of the family. Soon after his arrival in the U.S., Genovese was acquitted of the 1936 murder charge that had driven him into exile. Free of legal entanglements, he started plotting against Costello with the assistance of Mangano family underboss Carlo Gambino.


title: Genovese crime family

text: On May 2, 1957, Luciano mobster Vincent "the Chin" Gigante shot Costello in the side of the head as Costello returned to his apartment. Gigante's aim proved errant, however, and Costello survived the attack with no more than a flesh wound. Costello claimed he could not identify his attacker; Gigante was later acquitted when prosecuted for the shooting.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Months later, Anastasia, the boss of the Mangano family and a powerful ally of Costello's, was murdered by Gambino's gunmen at the Park Central Hotel in Manhattan. With Anastasia's death, Carlo Gambino seized control of the Mangano family. Fearing for his life and isolated after the shootings, Costello quietly retired and surrendered control of the Luciano family to Genovese.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Having taken control of what was renamed the Genovese crime family in 1957, Genovese decided to organize a Mafia conference to legitimize his new position. Held at mobster Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara's estate in Apalachin, New York, the Apalachin meeting attracted over 100 mobsters from around the nation. However, local law enforcement stumbled upon the meeting and quickly surrounded the estate. As the meeting broke up, the police stopped a car driven by Russell Bufalino, whose passengers included Genovese and three other men, at a roadblock as they left the estate. Mafia leaders were chagrined by the public exposure and bad publicity from the Apalachin meeting, and generally blamed Genovese for the fiasco. All those apprehended were fined, up to $10,000 each, and given prison sentences ranging from three to five years, but all the convictions were overturned on appeal in 1960.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Wary of Genovese gaining more power in the Commission, Gambino used the Apalachin meeting as an excuse to move against his former ally. Gambino, Luciano, Costello, and Lucchese allegedly lured Genovese into a drug-dealing scheme that ultimately resulted in his conspiracy indictment and conviction. In 1959, Genovese was sentenced to fifteen years in prison on narcotics charges. Genovese, who was the most powerful boss in New York, had been effectively eliminated as a rival by Gambino.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Genovese soldier Joe Valachi was convicted of narcotics violations in 1959 and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Valachi's motivations for becoming a government informant had been the subject of some debate; Valachi claimed to be testifying as a public service and to expose a powerful criminal organization that he had blamed for ruining his life, but it is possible he was hoping for government protection as part of a plea bargain in which he was sentenced to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty for a 1962 murder.


title: Genovese crime family

text: While serving his sentence for heroin trafficking, Valachi came to fear that Genovese, also serving a sentence on the same charge, had ordered his murder. On June 22, 1962, using a pipe left near some construction work, Valachi bludgeoned an inmate to death whom he had mistaken for Joseph DiPalermo, a Mafia member he believed had been contracted to kill him. After time with FBI handlers, Valachi came forward with a story of Genovese giving him a kiss on the cheek, which he took as a "kiss of death". A $100,000 bounty for Valachi's death had been placed by Genovese.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Soon after, Valachi decided to cooperate with the US Justice Department. In October 1963, he testified before Arkansas Senator John L. McClellan's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the US Senate Committee on Government Operations, known as the Valachi hearings, stating that the Italian-American Mafia actually existed, the first time a member had acknowledged its existence in public. Valachi's testimony was the first major violation of omertà, breaking his blood oath. He is credited with popularization of the term "cosa nostra".


title: Genovese crime family

text: Although Valachi's disclosures never led directly to the prosecution of any Mafia leaders, he provided many details of history of the Mafia, operations, and rituals; aided in the solution of several unsolved murders; and named many members and the major crime families. The trial exposed American organized crime to the world through Valachi's televised testimony.


title: Genovese crime family

text: After Genovese was sent to prison in 1959, the family leadership secretly established a "Ruling Panel" to run the family in his absence. This first panel included acting boss Thomas "Tommy Ryan" Eboli, underboss Gerardo "Jerry" Catena, and Catena's protégé Philip "Benny Squint" Lombardo. After Genovese died in 1969, Lombardo was named his successor.


title: Genovese crime family

text: However, the family appointed a series of "front bosses" to masquerade as the official family boss. The aim of these deceptions was to protect Lombardo by confusing law enforcement as to who was the true leader of the family.


title: Genovese crime family

text: In the late 1960s, Gambino lent $4 million to Eboli for a drug scheme in an attempt to gain control of the Genovese family. When Eboli failed to pay back his debt, Gambino, with Commission approval, had him murdered in 1972.


title: Genovese crime family

text: After Eboli's death, Genovese "capo" and Gambino ally Frank "Funzi" Tieri was appointed as the new front boss. In reality, the Genovese family created a new ruling panel to run the organization. This second panel consisted of Catena, Lombardo, and Michele "Big Mike" Miranda. In 1981, Tieri became the first Mafia boss to be convicted under the new RICO Act and died in prison later that year.


title: Genovese crime family

text: After Tieri's imprisonment, the family reshuffled its leadership. The "capo" of the Manhattan faction, Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, became the new front boss. Lombardo, the "de facto" boss of the family, soon retired and Gigante, the triggerman on the failed Costello hit, took actual control of the family.


title: Genovese crime family

text: In 1985, New York State Attorney General Rudolph Giuliani set his sights on taking down the Mafia Commission through wiretaps, cooperating witnesses, and surveillance cameras. In 1985, Salerno was convicted in the Mafia Commission Trial and sentenced to 100 years in federal prison. In 1986, shortly after Salerno's conviction, his longtime right-hand man, Vincent "The Fish" Cafaro, turned informant and told the FBI that Salerno had been the front boss for Gigante. Cafaro also revealed that the Genovese family had been keeping up this ruse since 1969.


title: Genovese crime family

text: After the 1980 murder of Philadelphia boss Angelo "Gentle Don" Bruno, Gigante and Lombardo began manipulating the rival factions in the war-torn Philadelphia family. They finally gave their support to Philadelphia mobster Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, who in return gave the Genovese mobsters permission to operate in Atlantic City in 1982.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Gigante built a vast network of bookmaking and loansharking rings, and from extortion of garbage, shipping, trucking, and construction companies seeking labor peace or contracts from carpenters', Teamsters, and laborers' unions, including those at the Javits Center, as well as protection payoffs from merchants at the Fulton Fish Market. Gigante also had influence in the Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy, running illegal gambling operations, extorting payoffs from vendors, and pocketing thousands of dollars donated to a neighborhood church—until a crackdown in 1995 by New York City officials. During Gigante's tenure as boss of the Genovese family, after the imprisonment of John Gotti in 1992, Gigante came to be known as the figurehead "capo di tutti capi", the "Boss of All Bosses", despite the position being abolished since 1931 with the murder of Salvatore Maranzano.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Gigante was reclusive, and almost impossible to capture on wiretaps, speaking softly, eschewing the phone, and even at times whistling into the receiver. He almost never left his home unoccupied because he knew FBI agents would sneak in and plant a bug. Genovese members were not allowed to mention Gigante's name in conversations or phone calls; when they had to mention him, members would point to their chins or make the letter "C" with their fingers.


title: Genovese crime family

text: On May 30, 1990, Gigante was indicted along with other members of four of the Five Families for conspiring to rig bids and extort payoffs from contractors on multimillion-dollar contracts with the New York City Housing Authority to install windows. Gigante attended his arraignment in pajamas and bathrobe, and due to his defense stating that he was mentally and physically impaired, legal battles ensued for seven years over his competence to stand trial. In June 1993, Gigante was indicted again, charged with sanctioning the murders of six mobsters and conspiring to kill three others, including Gotti.


title: Genovese crime family

text: At sanity hearings in March 1996, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, former underboss of the Gambino family, who became a cooperating witness in 1991, and Alphonse "Little Al" D'Arco, former acting boss of the Lucchese family, testified that Gigante was lucid at top-level Mafia meetings and that he had told other gangsters that his eccentric behavior was a pretense. Gigante's lawyers presented testimony and reports from psychiatrists stating that, from 1969 to 1995, Gigante had been confined twenty-eight times in hospitals for treatment of hallucinations and that he suffered from "dementia rooted in organic brain damage".


title: Genovese crime family

text: In August 1996, Judge Eugene Nickerson of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled that Gigante was mentally competent to stand trial; he pleaded not guilty and had been free for years on $1 million bail. Gigante had a cardiac operation in December 1996. On June 25, 1997, Gigante's trial started, which he attended in a wheelchair.


title: Genovese crime family

text: On July 25, after almost three days of deliberations, the jury convicted Gigante of conspiring in plots to kill other mobsters and of running rackets as head of the Genovese family but acquitted him of seven counts of murder. Prosecutors stated that the verdict finally established that Gigante was not mentally ill as his lawyers and relatives had long maintained. On December 18, 1997, Gigante was sentenced to twelve years in prison and fined $1.25 million by Judge Jack B. Weinstein, a lenient sentence due to Gigante's "age and frailty", who declared that Gigante had been "finally brought to bay in his declining years after decades of vicious criminal tyranny".


title: Genovese crime family

text: While in prison, Gigante maintained his role as boss of the Genovese family while other mobsters were entrusted to run its day-to-day activities. Gigante relayed orders to the family through his son, Andrew, who visited him in prison.


title: Genovese crime family

text: On January 23, 2002, Gigante was indicted with several other mobsters, including Andrew, on obstruction of justice charges due to his causing a seven-year delay in his previous trial by feigning insanity. Several days later, Andrew was released on $2.5 million bail. On April 7, 2003, the day the trial began, Prosecutor Roslynn R. Mauskopf had planned to play tapes showing Gigante "fully coherent, careful, and intelligent", running criminal operations from prison, but when Gigante pled guilty to obstruction of justice, Judge I. Leo Glasser sentenced him to an additional three years in prison. Mauskopf stated, "The jig is up ... Vincent Gigante was a cunning faker, and those of us in law enforcement always knew that this was an act ... The act ran for decades, but today it's over." On July 25, 2003, Andrew Gigante was sentenced to two years in prison and fined $2.5 million for racketeering and extortion.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Gigante died on December 19, 2005, at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. His funeral and burial were held four days later, on December 23, at Saint Anthony of Padua Church in Greenwich Village, largely in anonymity.


title: Genovese crime family

text: After Gigante's death, the leadership of the Genovese family went to "capo" Daniel "Danny the Lion" Leo, who was apparently running the day-to-day activities of the family by 2006. That same year, Cirillo was reportedly promoted to "consigliere" behind bars and Mangano was released from prison. By 2008, the family administration was believed to be whole again.


title: Genovese crime family

text: In March of that year, Leo was sentenced to five years in prison for loansharking and extortion. Former acting "consigliere" Lawrence "Little Larry" Dentico was leading the New Jersey faction of the family until convicted of racketeering in 2006; he was released from prison in 2009. In December 2008, Liborio Bellomo was paroled after serving twelve years; what role he plays in the Genovese hierarchy is open to speculation, but he likely has had a major say in the running of the family since his tight parole restrictions expired.


title: Genovese crime family

text: A March 2009 article in the "New York Post" claimed Leo was still acting boss despite his incarceration. It also estimated that the Genovese family consists of about 270 "made" members.


title: Genovese crime family

text: The family maintains power and influence in New York, New Jersey, Atlantic City and Florida. It is recognized as the most powerful Mafia family in the U.S., a distinction brought about by their continued devotion to secrecy. According to the FBI, many Genovese family associates do not know the names of family leaders or even other associates, making it difficult for investigators to gather intelligence about the family's current status.


title: Genovese crime family

text: In 2016, Eugene "Rooster" Onofrio, who is believed to be a "capo" largely active in Little Italy and Connecticut, was accused of operating a large multimillion-dollar enterprise that ran bookmaking offices, scammed medical businesses, and smuggled cigarettes and guns. He was also alleged to have run a loanshark operation from Florida to Massachusetts. Other members of his reputed crew pleaded guilty to extortion and other crimes. Gerald Daniele, an associate, was sentenced to two years in prison in March 2018. On April 10, 2018, Ralph Santaniello, suspected of being a Genovese "acting capo", was sentenced to five years in prison for extorting $20,000 from Craig Morel, the owner of one of the biggest towing and scrap-metal companies in Massachusetts, including threatening his life and assaulting him. Morel managed to negotiate the extortion price from $100,000 to $20,000. Associate Giovanni "Johnny" Calabrese was sentenced to 3 years in prison.


title: Genovese crime family

text: In October 2017, thirteen Genovese and Gambino associates and soldiers were sentenced after being indicted following an NYPD operation in December 2016. Dubbed "Shark Bait", the investigation focused on a large-scale illegal gambling and loansharking ring. Prosecutors claimed 76-year-old Genovese soldier Salvatore DeMeo was in charge of the operation and had generated several million dollars from the enterprise. Soldier Alex Conigliaro was sentenced to four months in jail and four months house arrest in late October 2017, with a fine of $5,000, after admitting that he supervised and financed a $14,000-per-week illegal bookmaking and sports betting operation between 2011 and 2014. Genovese associates Gennaro Geritano and Mario Leonardi were allegedly partners in selling untaxed cigarettes in New York, alleged to have sold over 30,000 packs.


title: Genovese crime family

text: According to the FBI, the Genovese family had not had an official boss since Gigante's death and the leadership was in a state on limbo for sometime. Law enforcement considers Leo to be the acting boss, Mangano the underboss, and Cirillo the "consigliere". The family is known for placing top "capos" in leadership positions to help the administration run day-to-day activities. At present, "capos" Bellomo, Muscarella, Cirillo, and Dentico hold the greatest influence within the family and play major roles in its administration. The Manhattan and Bronx factions, the traditional powers in the family, still exercise that control today. By 2016 however the FBI considers Liborio Bellomo to most likely be the official boss of the Genovese family.


title: Genovese crime family

text: On January 10, 2018, five members and associates, including Gigante's son Vincent Esposito, were arrested and charged with racketeering, conspiracy, and several counts of related offenses by the NYPD and FBI. The charges include extortion, labor racketeering conspiracy, fraud and bribery. Genovese associate and Brooklyn-based United Food and Commercial Workers officer Frank Cognetta was also charged. Union official and associate Vincent D'Acunto Jr. was also involved and allegedly acted on behalf of Esposito to pass along threat messages and to also collect extortion money from the union, in particular from Vincent Fyfe, the president of a wine liquor and distillery union in Brooklyn. Fyfe was forced to pay $10,000 per year to keep his $300,000-a-year union job, which he obtained through the influence of the Genovese family. The labor union infiltration was alleged to have taken place for at least sixteen years. Esposito allegedly extorted several other union officials and an insurance agent. At his home during a warranted search, authorities recovered an unregistered handgun, $3.8 million in cash, brass knuckledusters, and a handwritten list of American Mafia members.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Esposito was granted bail for almost $10 million in April 2018, and pled not guilty. In April 2019, Esposito pled guilty to conspiring to commit racketeering offenses with members and associates of the Genovese family. He was sentenced in July 2019 to two years in prison.


title: Genovese crime family

text: On August 13, 2020, an indictment charged soldier Christopher Chierchio along with Colombo family associate Frangesco "Frankie" Russo (the grandson of Colombo family boss Andrew Russo), attorney Jason "Jay" Kurland and securities broker Frank Smookler with conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. The indictment accused the "lottery attorney" Kurland along with Russo, Chierchio and Smookler with swindling $80 million dollars from jackpot winners in an illegal scheme of siphoning money from the jackpot winners' investments.


title: Genovese crime family

text: On April 26, 2022, an indictment was served charging capos Nicholas Calisi and Ralph Balsamo, soldiers Michael Messina and John Campanella, and associates Michael Poli and Thomas Poli, with racketeering conspiracy involving illegal gambling and extortion. Balsamo was previously arrested on April 12, and Calisi was detained in Boca Raton, Florida and presented before a U.S. magistrate judge in the Southern District of Florida. According to the indictment, the defendants operated a criminal racketeering enterprise since at least 2011.


title: Genovese crime family

text: On May 3, 2022, exactly a week after the Calisi and Balsamo indictments, another indictment was served that charged capo Anthony "Rom" Romanello, soldier Joseph Celso, and small-time actor and family associate Juan Bexheti with extortion and obstruction of justice. Romanello, who authorities state controls the family's Queens crew, oversaw the extortion and intimidation of a Brooklyn restaurant owner, which was carried out by Celso and Bexheti. All three pleaded not guilty and were released on bond.


title: Genovese crime family

text: On August 16, 2022, acting capo Carmelo "Carmine" Polito along with family soldier Joseph Macario, Genovese family associates Salvatore Rubino and Joseph Rutigliano, Bonnano family capo Anthony Pipitone, Bonanno soldier Vito Pipitone, Bonanno associate Agostino Gabriele and Nassau County Police Detective Hector Rosario were indicted and charged with racketeering, money laundering, illegal gambling, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. The Genovese family and the Bonanno family jointly operated several illegal gambling operations while using front businesses in Queens and Long Island to launder illegal profits. The indictment revealed that beginning in May 2012, the Genovese and Bonanno families jointly operated a lucrative illegal gambling operation in Lynbrook, New York called the Gran Caffe. The Genovese family members Carmelo Polito, Joseph Macario and associates Salvatore Rutigliano and Joseph Rubino were charged with operating illegal gambling parlors at establishments called Sal’s Shoe Repair, the Centro Calcio Italiano Club and an running an illegal online gambling scheme.


title: Genovese crime family

text: On November 30, 2022, Genovese family soldiers Elio Albanese and Carmine Russo were charged for their involvement in a scheme that involved getting oxycodone pills from a Midtown Manhattan doctor and having their associates sell the oxycodone on Staten Island.


title: Genovese crime family

text: The position of "front boss" was created by boss Philip Lombardo in efforts to divert law enforcement attention from himself. The family maintained this "front boss" deception for the next 20 years. Even after government witness Vincent Cafaro exposed this scam in 1988, the Genovese family still found this way of dividing authority useful. In 1992, the family revived the front boss post under the title of "street boss". This person served as day-to-day head of the family's operations under Gigante's remote direction.


title: Genovese crime family

text: Messaggero – The messaggero (messenger) functions as liaison between crime families. The messenger can reduce the need for sit-downs, or meetings, of the mob hierarchy, and thus limit the public exposure of the bosses.


title: Genovese crime family

text: If the official boss dies, goes to prison, or is incapacitated, the family may assemble a ruling committee of capos to help the acting boss, street boss, underboss, and consigliere run the family, and to divert attention from law enforcement.


title: Genovese crime family

text: The Genovese family operates primarily in the New York City area; their main rackets are illegal gambling and labor racketeering.


title: Genovese crime family

text: The Genovese crime family has a long history of portrayal in Hollywood as the subject of film and television.


title: Oldboy (2013 film)

text: Oldboy is a 2013 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Spike Lee and written by Mark Protosevich. It is a remake—or as labeled by Lee, a "reinterpretation"—of Park Chan-wook's 2003 South Korean film of the same name (which in turn is based on the Japanese manga "Old Boy"), and follows a man who searches for his captors after being mysteriously imprisoned for twenty years. It stars Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, and Sharlto Copley.


title: Oldboy (2013 film)

text: "Oldboy" was released in the United States on November 27, 2013, by FilmDistrict. It received a mixed reception from critics, with many finding the film inferior to the classic.


title: Oldboy (2013 film)

text: In 1993, alcoholic advertising executive Joe Doucett gets drunk after losing a major account because he insulted his client’s girlfriend. Before he passes out, he sees a woman with a yellow umbrella selling souvenirs on the street. When he wakes up, he finds himself locked in what appears to be a hotel room. His unseen captors provide him food, alcohol, and personal hygiene items, but do not explain why he is held captive. Joe sees a news report saying his ex-wife Donna has been raped and murdered and that he is the prime suspect. He learns their 3-year-old daughter Mia was adopted through the welfare system and is now a cello prodigy.


title: Oldboy (2013 film)

text: Over the next 20 years, Joe quits drinking and gets into shape, intent on escaping and getting revenge. He compiles a list of all those who might want to imprison him, and writes letters to eventually be given to Mia. One day he watches a televised interview of Mia, who says she would forgive her father if she ever saw him.


title: Oldboy (2013 film)

text: Shortly after, Joe is drugged. He wakes up outside in a trunk in a field, with a cell phone and a small amount of money. He spots the woman with the yellow umbrella and runs after her. He loses her but encounters Marie Sebastian, a nurse who offers to help; he refuses the help, but takes her business card. Joe goes to the bar of his friend Chucky and explains what has happened to him, before receiving a call on his cell phone from a man calling himself the "Stranger", who mocks him. After failing to identify the caller, Joe collapses from dehydration, and Chucky calls Marie to help. While he recovers, Marie is moved emotionally by Joe's letters to Mia and offers to help him further. She helps him identify a Chinese restaurant which supplied his food while he was held captive.