Fabrizio Corona, known as the "king of the paparazzi" who runs a celebrity photo agency, claims that the Camorra or Neapolitan Mafia has "compromising photos of Silvio Berlusconi at wild 'bunga bunga' sex parties" as reported by Nick Squires for The Telegraph. Berlusconi has been accused of paying for sex with underage girls, and prosecutors are expected to announce as early as today whether to charge him.
Corona's claim certainly would be consistent with Mafia modus operandi, and is reminiscent of long-standing rumors in the United States that Ed "the Skull" Murphy, a now-deceased Genovese associate involved in the crime family's gay bar and boy prostitution rackets, had compromising photos of J. Edgar Hoover engaged in homosexual activities which forced the FBI Director to turn a blind eye to the mob for decades until Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered him to get with the program.
In Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked The Gay Revolution, David Carter writes:
John Paul Ranieri, a former prostitute interviewed for this history, provided critical testimony for corroborating and better understanding the larger implications of Murphy's criminal enterprises for gay history. Ranieri said that as a youth from Westchester County he had been forced by blackmail and Mafia-supplied drugs into a prostitution ring in which he remained active for three years before he escaped the mob's control. He claimed that a number of youths in the ring had disappeared after they got careless with talk, for while most of the customers were more or less average homosexual men with money, the regular clientele, according to Ranieri, also included famous men such as Malcolm Forbes, Cardinal Spellman, Liberace, U.S. Senators, a vice president of the United States, one of the most famous rock musicians, and J. Edgar Hoover. The mob's order, according to Ranieri, was strictly "Keep your zipper open and your mouth shut."
Ranieri said that he met J. Edgar Hoover at private parties at the Plaza Hotel and that Hoover's name was never mentioned. Hoover was always in drag, and Ranieri said he could tell that the FBI director was sure that no one recognized him. Ranieri said that he had ensured his own survival by having in his possession a photograph of himself with Hoover, given to him by the photographer.
How does the preceding information link Ed Murphy with J. Edgar Hoover? The connection is made evident in a news story written shortly after Hoover's homosexuality and transvestism became public. When [Anthony] Summer's book [Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover], was published [in 1993], a newspaper story about the 1960s national homosexual blackmail ring suddenly appeared after a quarter of a century of silence on the subject. Without mentioning Murphy's name, it quoted law enforcement sources who had worked on the case as saying that their investigation into the nationwide blackmail ring had turned up a photograph of Hoover "posing amiably" with the racket's ringleader and had uncovered information that Clyde Tolson, Hoover's lover, had himself "fallen victim to the extortion ring." After federal agents joined the investigation, both the photograph of Hoover and the documents about Tolson disappeared. * * * Very suggestive in this context is that Murphy would publicly say in 1978—before it became public information, as it did in the 1990s, that the Mafia had photographs of Hoover involved in sex acts—that he knew that J. Edgar Hoover "was one of my sisters."
Murphy died of AIDS in 1989.
POLL: Do you think that organized crime continues to control at least some gay bars in some American cities?
Further Reading That May Be Of Interest:
Gay Bar Insiders: The Mafia Still In Some Joints
Owner: Continental Baths Had Colombo Protection
Was The Mineshaft A Mafia Joint?
The FBI Files: Early Gay Groups Not Mob Fans
The FBI Files: Tony Bender Loved The Nightlife
The FBI Files: John Wojtowicz & Sal Naturale Starred In Real Life Mob Story Behind Dog Day Afternoon Movie
The FBI Files: David Petillo Did It In Drag
Jennie Tobin Flexed Girl Power In Gay Bar Empire
The FBI Might Find Whitey Bulger At A Gay Bar
Stonewall Riots: A Gay Protest Against Mafia Bars
Camelot Lost: A Memoir About New York City's Famous Gay "Cruising Bar" Rounds
Sopranos Actor Shook Down Gay Club Owner
Mafia Exploitation Of Kids: Really A New Low?
Man Convicted In Murder Of Gay Bar Manager May Soon Be Released From Prison
Gambino Allegedly Had Interest In Stonewall
The Real Mob At Stonewall
Matty Ianniello Released From Prison
The Mafia Just Loved The Gays
