Inside the Criminal Mind TV - Muhammad Ali TV - Adam Curtis TV - Anthony Burgess - Diego Gambetta - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine TV - Henry V 2012 TV - Jimi Hendrix - Simon Reeve TV - The Godfather Legacy TV - Penn & Teller TV - Stanley Kubrick - Nicholas Pileggi - Geto Boys - Raw: Girls, Gangs and the Hood TV - Mickey Mantle - Steven J Levitt & Stephen J Dubner - Storyville TV - Diamonds, Gold & Guns TV - Ripley’s Game 2003 - Across the Line: The Exodus of Charlie Wright 2010 - The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman 2013 - Killer Elite 2011 - The Night Manager TV - Misha Glenny & McMafia TV - In Search of … Carlos TV - Carlos 2010 - The Sopranos TV - Trafficked TV - Lord of the Flies 1963 - Gold Mafia TV - How to Become a Mob Boss TV -
They are some of the most powerful business executives on the planet, described as part CEO, part terrorist, and part rock star. They control powerful organisations that generate unimaginable wealth but their fortunes aren’t spawned through clever corporate strategy: their businesses are built on gambling, drugs, intimidation, fear and murder. Their tactics are heartless, their methods are cruel, and their psychology is pure evil: Crime Lords. Inside the Criminal Mind s1e4: Crime Lords, Netflix 2017
I didn’t run with a gang. I didn’t have time. Muhammad Ali, interview The Parkinson Show, BBC
Maybe many people didn’t want to change. They were happy living in their own fairytale world of gangs and violence. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head VI Are We a Pigeon? Or Are We Dancer? ***** BBC 2021
It was round by the Municipal Power Plant that we came across Billy and his five droogs. Now in those days, my brothers, the teaming up was mostly by fours and fives, these being like auto-teams, four being a comfy number for an auto, and six being the outside limit for gang-size. Sometimes gangs would gang up so as to make like malenky armies for big night-war, but mostly it was best to roam in these like small numbers. Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange p15
To define the mafia as ‘the industry of violence’ is open to misunderstanding. Violence is a means, not an end; a resource, not the final product. The commodity that is really at stake is protection. It may be argued that ultimately protection rests on the ability to use force, but it does not follow that it coincides with it ... These were people who find it in their individual interest to buy mafia protection. While some may be victims of extortion, many others are willing customers. Professor Diego Gambetta, Oxford University, The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection
You don’t quit the Orion Syndicate unless they say you can. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s5e17: A Simple Investigation, Arissa to Odo
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. The Hollow Crown: Henry V 2012 starring Tim Hiddleston & Geraldine Chaplin & Paul Freeman & Julie Walters & John Hurt & Tom Georgeson & Richard Griffiths & Paterson Joseph & James Laurenson et al, director Thea Sharrock
Every city in the world always has a gang, a street gang, or the so-called outcasts. Jimi Hendrix
There are thought to be 300,000 gang members in Central America. MS-13 is the biggest gang. Caribbean with Simon Reeve III, BBC 2015
‘It’s everybody’s dream – to have the Father – the Godfather ... – who comes and helps you with your issues.’ The Godfather Legacy, Pacino, H2 2015
‘That’s my family, Kay. It’s not me.’ ibid. Michael, film quote
‘In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns.’ ibid. sidekick to Michael
‘Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.’ ibid. Michael
Fuck everybody’s tribe. Penn & Teller, Bullshit! s4e7: Reparations, Showtime 2006
The great nations have always acted like gangsters and the small nations like prostitutes. Stanley Kubrick
As far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangsta. Nicholas Pileggi
Damn, it feels good to be a gangster. Geto Boys
What kind of girl fights, steals, deals and even kills? Raw: Girls, Gangs and the Hood, A&E 2015
Gangs of girls can and do exist outside of male influence. ibid.
Between 11 and 13 is typical for girls to get involved. ibid.
Conflicts at home can sometimes drive a young girl into the arms of a man waiting to take advantage of her. ibid.
A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide. Mickey Mantle
Consider the so-called corporate scandals of the early 2000s. The crimes committed by Enron included hidden partnerships, disguised debt, and the manipulation of energy markets. Henry Blodger of Merrill Lynch and Jack Grubman of Salomon Smith Barney wrote glowing research reports of companies they knew to be junk. Sam Waksal dumped his ImClone stock when he got early word of a damaging report from the Food and Drug Administration; his friend Martha Stewart also dumped her shares, then lied about the reason. WorldCom and Global Crossing fabricated billions of dollars in revenue to pump up their stock prices. One group of mutual fund companies let preferred customers trade at preferred prices, and another group was charged with hidden management fees. Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner, Freakonomics
If you were to hold a McDonald’s organizational chart and a Black Disciples org chart side by side, you could hardly tell the difference. ibid.
Along with the bad pay, the foot soldiers faced terrible job conditions. For starters, they had to stand on a street corner all day and do business with crackheads. ibid.
So if crack dealing is the most dangerous job in America, and if the salary was only $3.30 an hour, why on earth would anyone take such a job? ibid.
The problem with crack dealing is the same as in every other glamour profession: a lot of people competing for a very few prizes. ibid.
Suddenly the urban street gang evolved from a club of wayward teenagers into a true commercial enterprise. ibid.
One of the most dangerous men on the face of the Earth. 2010: Viktor Bout en route to United States. Storyville: The Notorious Mr Bout, BBC 2014
‘This is my first visit to America. On the drive to jail I saw the Brooklyn Bridge. I recognised it from the movies.’ ibid.
1) Evil all-powerful supervillain, merchant of death that got his comeuppance; 2) Stooge and victim of a conspiracy. ibid.
Questions of how the arms industry works. ibid.
The move from communism to capitalism ... 04.22.2012: ‘If you had brain, it wasn’t hard to make money in Moscow doing business. But all business in Moscow was crooked business. You had to have protection and then protection for your protection.’ ibid. Viktor
Bulgaria 1996: ‘The Bulgarians were desperate to sell arms.’ ibid.
Afghanistan 1996: ‘Things took a wrong turn.’ ibid.
‘After the boys came home, my company stronger than ever. By twenty-five I was a millionaire ... I had an empire.’ ibid.
DEA Special Agents ... New York 2011 ... ‘Dealer of death on trial.’ ibid.
D R Congo 2000: ‘Arms Dealer Viktor Bout Wanted in Africa’ ... ‘I had a lot of government contracts in Africa.’ ibid.
‘I wanted to travel. To see world. To make documentary film.’ ibid. Viktor
‘Viktor Bout is indeed the chief sanctions buster at this present time. A real merchant of death.’ ibid. Peter Hain
Douglas Farah & Stephen Braun: Merchant of Death ... The man who makes war possible. ibid. book and TV interview
‘The world’s largest illegal arms dealer.’ ibid. Russian radio
‘I am innocent. I didn’t commit any crime.’ ibid. Bout to judge
The global arms industry remains one of the least regulated. Every year enough bullets are made to kill every person on the planet twice. ibid.
Stolen gold melts through the world’s smuggling corridors. Illicit blood-diamonds spawn rebel brutality making risk-takers rich but at a cost. A notorious black-market arms dealer is stopped by the DEA. These are the shadowy figures and deeds behind the criminal dark trades in the underbelly of diamonds, gold and guns. Diamonds, Gold & Guns, National Geographic 2017
London 1983: the Brinks-Mat warehouse with three and a half tons of gold inside. At the time the gold was worth nearly $40 million. And the Brinks-Mat heist was called the crime of the century. ibid.
The Brinks-Mat thieves needed to merge their stolen bullion into the river of legitimate and illegitimate gold that moves all over the world every day. ibid.
Sierra Leone: From 1991 to 2002 the sale of over a billion dollars in rough diamonds funded a rebel army who committed horrible atrocities against civilians. These rough diamonds became known as blood diamonds. ibid.