The FBI arrested him in 1961 on a charge of narcotics trafficking ... He got twenty years in prison. ibid.
He wanted to take on the biggest family in New York – the Gambinos. ibid.
In the ghettos of New York heroin was now the drug of choice. ibid.
As Gambino’s restaurants burned, new pizza parlours open by Galante were opened up in their place. ibid.
The Mafia’s interest in drugs has waned ... The French Connection has been replaced by new smuggling routes. ibid.
August 14th 1981 New York City: Dominick Sonny Black Napolitano, a captain in the Bonanno crime family, walks into the Motion Lounge bar in Brooklyn. He hands the barman his keys to his apartment, a large bundle of cash and diamond-encrusted rings from his fingers. He tells the barman he is going to a meeting and doesn’t know if he’s coming back. Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e8: Donnie Brasco: Undercover in the Mob
He had brought a spy, Donnie Brasco, into the inner sanctum of the Mafia. He was really Special Agent Joe Pistone. Thanks to Pistone’s six years undercover over 200 mobsters would be convicted. And one of the biggest Mafia families brought down. ibid.
In 1976 New York was facing a wave of truck hijackings. ibid.
Jewel Thief: in 1976 he left FBI headquarters with a new ID – Donnie Brasco. ibid.
Zips were enormous drug importers; they used a series of pizza restaurants to distribute the drugs. ibid.
The Bonanno family was right in the middle of a civil war. ibid.
Sonny Black had taken part in the murder of the boss of his own family Carmine Galante. ibid.
Sonny’s body was found dumped in a New York river. ibid.
Agent Joe Pistone lives under a pseudonym. ibid.
Joe Valachi: hit-man for the Mob. The first man to break omerta – the Mafia’s code of silence. Valachi was the first to give the world the phrase ‘La Cosa Nostra’. Valachi was the first to reveal the names of the bosses and their soldiers; he explained the Mafia’s structure, their rituals and secrets. Valachi was the first to expose their bloody history of killings and executions and knew where the bodies were. Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e10: Joe Valachi
Kennedy had huge concerns about Valachi’s credibility. ibid.
According to the Justice Department he had at least 33 murders under his belt. And was also now singing for his life. How could anyone be sure Valachi was telling the truth? ibid.
One of the Mafia’s most bloody murderers: Roy DeMeo. Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e11: Roy DeMeo
Gaggi was a Mafia captain in the infamous Gambino crime family of New York. ibid.
DeMeo expanded his loan-shark book. ibid.
The DeMeo Crew: each member had their own area of expertise. ibid.
Paul Castellano came calling for his hitmen services. ibid.
Murder For Hire – what became known as the Murder Machine. ibid.
Despite killing nearly a hundred people Roy DeMeo could do bigger and bigger deals. ibid.
What started as a large-scale car crime case was turning into something even bigger. ibid.
As the trial date approached, Roy DeMeo went missing ... Found dead in the trunk of his Cadillac. ibid.
Paul Castellano was the man with the motive. ibid.
He [Castellano] was cut down by unknown gunmen. ibid.
The law enforcement machine must take its share of the blame. ibid.
Los Angeles 20th June 1947: The murder of Bugsy Siegel was never solved. But the one name always associated with Siegel’s death is the one name he would have least expected, that of his best friend Meyer Lansky. Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e12: Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky was one of the most mysterious of all Mob figures ... Mob mastermind or victim of his own legend? ibid.
With Lansky at his side, Luciano was soon shooting his way to the top of the New York underworld. ibid.
Lansky was soon running casinos. ibid.
The Mob’s war-time collaboration was hushed up. ibid.
Cuba in the 1950s was Las Vegas by the sea. ibid.
Lansky helped turn Havana into America’s playground. ibid.
The Riviera: the largest single investment Lansky ever made. ibid.
Lansky now moved permanently to Miami: he was almost sixty and in poor health. ibid.
Lansky was facing charges of tax evasion. ibid.
Lansky died in his bed of cancer. ibid.
Mayer Lansky never was the all-powerful godfather some believed. ibid.
In New York five Mafia families dominated great swathes of economic activity – from construction to the waterfront to the garment industry, as well as raking in vast profits from more traditional criminal activities. Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e13: Downfall
The garbage industry was run by the Lucchese Family, an outfit originally set up in the 1930s and headed by an old-style Mafia Don – called Tony Corallo. ibid.
Anthony Salerno – head of the powerful Genovese family. ibid.
For the first time on tape agents began to hear references to what Mafioso called the Commission. ibid.
RICO made membership of the Mafia a crime in itself. ibid.
On December 16th 1985 Paul Castellano, head of the Gambino family, arrived at a stake house in mid-Manhattan ... The hit was ordered by a rival within the same family. ibid.
The Mafia is now a shadow of its former self. ibid.
19,138. He [Luciano] created a new texture, a whole new way of how criminals could operate in America. Selwyn Raab, author Five Families
Luciano created the Commission. Selwyn Raab
Turned out he [Luciano] had once been a rat to save his skin. Selwyn Raab
The Bonanno family was a weak ineffective group who had fewer than a hundred members. Selwyn Raab, re pre-Massino era
The elite always looked upon gambling as an evil. Only when they used it as a pleasure or for the purposes of personal gains was it legitimate and not sinful. Meyer Lansky, notebook
Dutch Schultz: King of the New York underworld. According to the legend the Dutchman buried a strong-box that night. It contained cash, bonds, diamonds, and gold coins. Today it would be worth more than $50 million. Unsolved Mysteries
The real problem is to remove the influence of the racketeer from politics. Local authorities in New York and in almost every city in the country hold office by grace of politicians who are in partnership with criminals. Thomas Dewey, televised interview
The list of suspects in Bugsy’s murder reads like a classic whodunnit ... His real name was Benjamin Siegel. And he was the Mob’s most feared hit-man. But beneath the smile the handsome New Yorker was a cold-blooded killer. Siegel began a partnership with Meyer Lansky in New York. They formed an organised crime syndicate with its hands in gambling, prostitution and murder. Unexplained Mysteries
Very experienced in thuggery. They [The Syndicate] shook down local push-cart vendors. They worked on behalf of the unions ... They worked on behalf of management to intimidate the unions. Mark Gribben, crime historian
Throughout the 1980s Vincent ‘the Chin’ Gigante could be seen shuffling along Sullivan Street in New York’s Greenwich Village. He wore bedroom slippers and a tattered bathrobe. His hair was uncombed and he supported a day’s growth of grey whiskers. The average New Yorker assumed he was crazy. Vinnie ‘The Chin’ Gigante
The FBI hoped to link Chin to at least six Mafia hits and the attempted murder of mob boss John Gotti. Investigators also believed Gigante controlled the Genovese family’s vast criminal enterprises, including extortion and drug running. But they needed to take the veil off his crazy act. So the FBI began to follow his every move. ibid.
He was twenty-nine when he earned the assignment that would make his career: to kill a mob boss, a Godfather named Frank Costello. ibid.
But it wasn’t until mobster Vito Genovese took Gigante under his wing that his criminal career began to take shape. ibid.
On July 25th 1997 Vincent Gigante was found guilty and sentenced to twelve years in prison. ibid.