1942 in organized crime

Events

• Following his release from prison, Salvatore "Sam," "Mooney" Giancana becomes a high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit and a personal advisor and primary for Antonino "Tony," "Joe Batters" Accardo.
• Moey Wolinsky, a lieutenant of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, is murdered. Many suspect that Wollinsky mislead Buchalter about a deal to reduce Buchalter's prison sentence during his 1939 trial.
• Eugenio "Gene" Giannini, a soldier for the Lucchese crime family, is apprehended by federal agents on heroin conspiracy charges. While serving fifteen months imprisonment, Giannini agrees to become a government informant for the Bureau of Narcotics and later the FBI.
• February 19 - Murder, Inc. members Harry Maione and Frank Abbandando are executed by the state of New York following their murder trial the previous year.
• May 12 - New York mobster Charles Luciano is transferred from Clinton State Prison in Dannemora, New York, to Great Meadow State Prison in Fort Ann, New York. Luciano meets with US military intelligence in prison to negotiate his early parole. Intelligence wants him to contact Sicilian mafiosi to aid the Sicily Invasion and to prevent sabotage on the waterfronts of the East Coast of the United States by Nazi sympathizers.
• December 5 - Vincenzo Capizzi, former leader of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania crime syndicate, is arrested by FBI agents for conspiracy to violate the National Bankruptcy Act.

  Births

• January 25 - Kenichi Shinoda, the founding head of the Kodo-kai and the sixth head of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest known yakuza syndicate in Japan
• August 6 - George Jung, Medellín Cartel drug trafficker
• September 7 - Roy DeMeo, Gambino crime family hitman and Capo
• September 16 - Tadamasa Goto, the founding head of the Goto-gumi, a secondary Yamaguchi-gumi affiliate
• Francesco Bonura, Sicilian mafia member
• Stephen Caracappa, NYPD officer and mob hitman
• Richard V. Gotti, member of the Gambino crime family
• Gennaro Langella, member of the Colombo crime family

  Deaths

• Moses Annenberg "Moe", newspaper publisher and Al Capone associate
• Moey Wolinsky, a lieutenant of Louis Buchalter
• February 19 - Harry Maione "Happy", Murder, Inc. hitman
• February 19 - Frank Abbandando "The Dasher", Murder, Inc. hitman