1997 in organized crime
Events
- January 7 – "Fat" Herbie Blitzstein was shot to death inside his Las Vegas townhouse.
- June 6 – Arrest of Pietro Aglieri, boss of the Santa Maria di Gesù Mafia family in Palermo, in a disused lemon warehouse in the dilapidated industrial area Bagheria together with his "right hand" men, Natale Gambino and Giuseppe La Mattina. It took the authorities almost a year to locate him following the arrest of his right-hand man Carlo Greco. Apparently, Giovanni Brusca, a Riina loyalist arrested in May 1996, helped police identify Aglieri. He had been on the run since 1989.
- August – Masaru Takumi, the founding head of the Takumi-gumi, a large branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi, was assassinated by the Nakano-kai.
Arts and literature
- 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag starring Joe Pesci and David Spade.
- Bella Mafia
- Diaro una siciliana ribelle
- Donnie Brasco starring Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Michael Madsen and Bruno Kirby.
- Hoodlum starring Laurence Fishburne, Tim Roth and Andy García.
- Jackie Brown starring Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton and Robert De Niro.
- Suicide Kings
- The Last Don starring Danny Aiello, Joe Mantegna, and Burt Young.
- The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
- by Peter Maas.
- Brother
- Face''
Births
Deaths
