On this day‬ in 1970 the New York mobster known as The Peacemaker passed away at the age of 78. Alphonse Attardi was known for drug trafficking, and was arrested for it in the early 1950′.

He soon turned government witness and let an undercover agent infiltrate the mob, leading to several arrests and damage to the mobs operations.

Attardi received a $5,000 payout from the government for his help and then he left the country.

On this day, 17th July 1970, Alphonse Attardi — a New York mobster who had earned the colourful nickname "The Peacemaker" — passed away at the age of 78, bringing to a close a life that had taken one of the more unexpected turns in organised crime history. Born at the turn of the twentieth century, Attardi came of age during the golden era of American organised crime, a period when the underworld was being reshaped by titans such as Lucky Luciano and the consolidation of what would eventually become the notorious Five Families of New York. It was within this world that Attardi carved out his criminal career, becoming a known figure in mob circles during the decades that followed Prohibition.

His downfall came in the early 1950s, when Attardi was arrested on drug trafficking charges — a serious matter at a time when narcotics were becoming an increasingly contentious issue within the mob itself. Lucky Luciano and others had long recognised the enormous profits available in the drug trade, though the heat it brought from federal authorities made it a divisive enterprise. For Attardi, the arrest proved to be a turning point that would define the remainder of his life.

Faced with the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence, Attardi made the fateful decision to cooperate with the government. He became an informant and — crucially — allowed an undercover federal agent to infiltrate mob operations, a genuinely significant breach of the secrecy that organised crime depended upon for its survival. The resulting investigation led to multiple arrests and caused measurable disruption to the mob's day-to-day activities. In an era before witness protection programmes were formalised, such cooperation required a certain cold pragmatism, and Attardi displayed it in full.

For his assistance, the government provided Attardi with a payment of five thousand dollars — a modest sum even by the standards of the time, though presumably supplemented by whatever arrangements were made for his personal safety. Shortly afterwards, he left the United States entirely, living out the remainder of his years abroad and away from the vengeance that mob tradition dictated should follow any act of betrayal.

Attardi's story remains a notable example of how federal authorities gradually learned to exploit the vulnerabilities within organised crime's own ranks, a strategy that would be honed over the following decades and ultimately prove far more damaging to the mob than any single arrest ever could.