I’m tired of getting shot at. I’m tired of this miserable fucking business. Midnight Run 1988 starring Robert De Niro & Charles Grodin & Yaphet Kotto & John Ashton & Dennis Farina & Joe Pantoliano & Richard Foronjy & Robert Miranda & Jack Kenoe & Wendy Phillips et al, Jack Walsh to bail bond guy
Sam Giancana was the most extravagant gangster of all. Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e1: Sam Giancana
Sam Giancana had learnt his gangsta trade from Al Capone’s top enforcers. ibid.
Boss of the Chicago outfit. ibid.
He was well connected to the Kennedys ... Before voters went to the polls Giancana sent one of his men to spread $50,000. ibid.
Giancana called them G Men ... Kennedy was changing the game. ibid.
It wasn’t just the Mob who wanted Castro gone. ibid.
When a US government agency secretly commissions murder from gangsters, they should have seen trouble coming. ibid.
An injunction against lockstep surveillance was granted. ibid.
‘With Kennedy, a guy should take a knife and stab and kill that fucker.’ ibid. Sam Giancana, FBI tape
It hadn’t gone unnoticed that Giancana had asked Ruby for help from time to time. ibid.
Sam Giancana was at home ... He was cooking in his basement kitchen ... But the Mafia hadn’t finished with Sam Giancana. The way he was killed showed the Mob no longer trusted him to keep quiet. ibid.
Charles Lucky Luciano: the Number One gangster of all time. Intelligent, ruthless, and a visionary. Luciano transformed the Mafia from warring street gangs into a highly sophisticated empire. Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e2: Charles Lucky Luciano, Yesterday 2012
Why was nobody able to stop him? ibid.
Luciano had begun his career as a top hitman for New York Mafia Don, Giuseppe Joe the Boss Masseria. ibid
In 1925 another boss arrived in town ... The streets of New York turned red. The underworld called it the Castellammarese War. ibid.
With Masseria’s murder, Luciano signalled to the underworld that the Castellammarese War was over. ibid.
The gangs of New York would be organised into five families to control the boroughs. ibid.
Luciano then contacted his childhood friend Meyer Lansky to arrange the hit. ibid.
Lansky was able to do complex calculations in his head. ibid.
Arnold Rothstein ... a fabulously rich New York businessman. ibid.
Luciano, Lansky and Rothstein proved to be quick learners, and soon they became very rich indeed. ibid.
Luciano was able to expand his vision and develop new ways for the Mafia to grow. ibid.
There would be no boss of bosses. Instead, Luciano introduced a more democratic form of leadership. ibid.
Luciano was also a bachelor and party animal. ibid.
In the 1930s Luciano was the face of organised crime. And Dewey was after him. ibid.
The trial began on May 12th 1935. Dewey reigned forth in his opening statement. ibid.
Frank Costello ... took over the day to day running of his empire. ibid.
Dewey, the man who had put him away for 30-50 years, granted Luciano executive clemency in 1946. ibid.
In 1962 Luciano was targeted for arrest as an alleged member of a ring that smuggled $150,000,000’s worth of heroin into the United States. ibid.
Charles Lucky Luciano’s reign had been a remarkable one. ibid.
Brooklyn 1962: this was Mafia country. The hunting ground of Joseph Colombo. The 40-year-old mobster lived and worked these streets. He was Capo. Or Captain. Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e3: Joe Colombo: The Maverick Mobster
The target this time was none other than Carlo Gambino. From a young hoodlum he had become New York’s biggest Mafia godfather. He was unquestionable the most fearsome mobster in town. Gambino had built his family in New York’s toughest clan. ibid.
Colombo decided to tip him off ... He went straight to the man he’d been told to kill. The move worked well. ibid.
The Profaci family became the Colombo family in 1964. ibid.
Colombo also made money from hijacking trucks and cargos. ibid.
Loan-sharking, trucks & fencing, extortion, protection rackets, and infamous Mafia-run union scams. Unions controlled everything from construction to garbage. So the Mafia took over the unions. They plundered the pension plans. ibid.
He realised what attracted the FBI and police to him was his wealth without any visible source of income. ibid.
What a lifestyle it was. The money flooded in from his numerous rackets. ibid.
Colombo would stand up for rights of ordinary Italian Americans ... picketing the very heart of law enforcement in New York. The crowds grew, and media attention followed. Columbo revelled in it ... It was in marked contrast to his silence at the Grand Jury years before. ibid.
In 1970 Colombo shifted his protest movement up a gear – he created the Italian American Civil Rights League. ibid.
Producers of The Godfather movie started to have trouble filming in New York. Production was threatened by walkouts, obstructions and delays. The League came to the rescue. Offering to smooth the process if the producers agreed to remove all references to the Mafia or Cosa Nostra from the script. ibid.
In December 1970 he was arrested ... Colombo was immediately called before a Grand Jury to explain himself. ibid.
Colombo headed to the podium to speak ... The newsman moved forward. [shoots Colombo] Then something even more remarkable happened – the man who hit him was dead before he hit the floor. Colombo was immediately rushed to hospital. ibid.
It began to tear itself apart in the decades that followed. ibid.
He died a maverick godfather. ibid.
John Gotti was the most famous gangsta since Al Capone. He brutally murdered his way to become head of the most powerful crime family in America. Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e4: John Gotti
The assassination of Paul Castellano was one of the most dramatic hits in Mafia history. ibid.
In 1973 Gotti was given the opportunity to join the most powerful of the five Mafia crime families in New York: the Gambinos. ibid.
Gotti began to nurture a growing hatred for Paul Castellano. ibid.
Gotti attracted attention in a way no other boss had done. ibid.
Gotti was a street mobster and couldn’t shake free from his past. ibid.
Gotti had made a mockery of the court again ... Gotti walked free from court a third time ... The media bestowed on him a new title: the Teflon Don. ibid.
Gravano now broke Mafia law and approached the FBI without his boss’s permission demanding to hear the tapes. ibid.
A home-loving husband, dedicated father, Tony Spilotro was in fact suspected by the FBI of over twenty murders. As Las Vegas enforcer for the Chicago Mafia, Spilotro hit whoever his bosses wanted taking care of. Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e5: Tony the Ant Spilotro
The Chicago Mafia controlled some of the biggest hotel-casinos in the city. ibid.
1973: Spilotro found himself back in Chicago under investigation for murder. ibid.
Frank Cullotta decided to accept the protection of the FBI. ibid.
The bodies were found just eight days later on a farm in the neighbouring state of Indiana. ibid.
Tony Spilotro’s death marked the end of an era in Sin City. ibid.
As Costello entered the lobby a large man [Vincent Gigante] stepped out of the shadows, raised his arm and said, ‘This is for you, Frank.’ Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e6: Vito Genovese
The most dangerous gangsta in America – Vito Genovese. ibid.
Genovese was a hitman for the greatest Mafia boss of them all – Charles Lucky Luciano. ibid.
Mussolini gave him [Genovese] an Italian knighthood. ibid.
Frank Costello: the Salvation Army even made him their Vice-Chairman. ibid.
Before a judge could be appointed, it had to be cleared by Frank Costello. ibid.
Costello became known as the Prime Minister. ibid.