He was the New York Mob’s new boss. ibid.
His sentence was a whopping 30 - 50 years. ibid.
A trail of corpses were found coast to coast. Scores of murders but always the same scenario. No suspects, no leads. Eventually the killings were linked to a group of thugs whose reach was much further than the Law could have imagined: a gang of executioners who became known as Murder Incorporated. Mobsters s1e18: Murder Inc, Bio 2008
The Brownsville Boys took their name from the community in which they lived. ibid.
Ade Reles was strong, which may have led to his nickname – Kid Twist. Reles rose to power by wiping out his main gangsta rivals in Brownsville. He aligned himself with an Italian gang from Brooklyn. ibid.
The driving force behind the Syndicate was Sicilian mobster from Manhattan – Lucky Luciano. ibid.
One powerful Jewish mobster left off the Board was Jewish bootlegger and shakedown artist Dutch Schultz. The Board feared that Schultz, known as a hothead and loose cannon, would bring trouble to the Syndicate. ibid.
This enforcement arm became known as the Combination. ibid.
The governor sent in a new crime fighter to clean up – Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey. ibid.
[Louis] Lepke [Buchalter] was making millions in the garment, truck and Labour rackets. ibid.
Lepke issued orders to take out any witnesses, confirmed or suspected. ibid.
Still prosecutors were baffled as to why Reles had come forward ... Reles began to sing. And he sang like no other canary had sung before. He talked about bosses and rackets coast to coast ... He didn’t stop for twelve days in a row. ibid.
Weakened by seven executions and a life sentence Murder Incorporated faded away. But Albert Anastasia – dubbed Murder Incorporated’s High Executioner – successfully evaded all efforts to capture him. ibid.
As a teenager Tommy ran with a band of young criminals – they called themselves the 107th Street Gang. Mobsters s1e19: Tommy Lucchese, H2 2013
He used his brain to develop rackets for his gang. ibid.
Lucchese preyed on the district with so-called knock-down loans. ibid.
He infiltrated the clothes-cutters’ union. ibid.
Roy DeMeo had made a name for himself as the enforcer for Gambino boss Paul Castellano. Mobsters s1e20: Paul Castellano
Gambino had established himself as a business-savvy earner ... When he was promoted to Captain, he brought young Paul Castellano in under his wing. ibid.
On his deathbed Gambino shocked everyone by choosing Paul Castellano as his successor. ibid.
Mob ladies like Virginia Hill, Arlyne Brickman and Karen Hill have no qualms in talking a man down. No-one crosses a mob lady. Mobsters s1e27: Mob Ladies aka Gangstas: Lady Gangstas
Virginia Hill was born into a turbulent home in a small rural town of Lipscomb Alabama in 1916. Her father was a drinker. ibid.
Virginia Hill was shuffling money all over town. ibid.
With Epstein’s guidance, Hill was bringing in thousands of dollars. ibid.
Virginia was running with the New York mob. ibid.
It didn’t take long with Bugsy and Virginia to rekindle their affair. ibid.
Within two weeks Bugsy Siegel was dead. ibid.
Her body was found near a stream. ibid.
She [Arlyne] rang the cops and made them an offer ... Arlyne would have to infiltrate the Gambinos while wearing a wire. ibid.
The Feds used information from the sting to bring down Scarpati, Manzo and nine other top members of the Colombo family. ibid.
Karen Friedman was living a quiet life ... The 18-year-old met and fell in love with Henry Hill, bricklayer by day, mobster by night. ibid.
He would testify against members of the Lucchese crime family. ibid.
December 16th 1985 ... Inside the car Castellano and Bilotti had no time to react. The boss of the Gambino crime family lay dead on the sidewalk. John Gotti had orchestrated his own rise to the head of the Gambino crime family. Mobsters s1e21: John Gotti
The Mob made Gotti an enforcer. ibid.
In his spare time Gotti gambled recklessly. ibid.
By the 1970s the Mafia had opened its books again, and in 1977 John Gotti finally became a member of the Gambino crime family. ibid.
Gotti’s crew faced scrutiny from inside the family. Gambino boss Paul Castellano had a no-tolerance policy to drug dealing ... Gotti ignored the boss. ibid.
A new nickname: the Dapper Don. ibid.
Marcello’s nemesis Robert Kennedy wanted him out of the country … but Marcello had a juror in his pocket. Mobsters s1e22: Carlos Marcello
The cash coming in from the slot machines wasn’t enough for Marcello so he continued his drug trade. ibid.
There was an unprecedented surveillance effort targeting Marcello’s home and his headquarters at the Town and Country Motel. ibid.
In a Florida mob family like father like son. With the Feds hunting them there's no limit to what a family will do to protect its own. Mobsters s1e24: Santo Trafficante
[Jimmy] Hoffa, [Carlos] Marcello and Trafficante all wanted Bobby Kennedy to go away. ibid.
When Mickey wasn’t selling papers and hustling on the streets he was boxing. Mobsters s1e25: Mickey Cohen
Where he had failed as a boxer he hoped to succeed as a gangsta. Mickey Cohen would soon meet another notorious Jewish mobster – Bugsy Siegel. Together they would re-write mob history in Los Angeles. ibid.
Mickey Cohen was ready to take on Hollywood. ibid.
When visionary New York gangsta Meyer Lansky looked west he saw an untapped resource. Lansky wanted to secure some of the rackets for himself ... Siegel was the perfect choice for Lansky. ibid.
Off-track betting was still illegal. It was a high-stakes racket. Bookmakers would pay as much as twelve-hundred dollars a week for access. ibid.
And when Mickey went out he liked attention. ibid.
For the first time in his life Mickey Cohen felt he was on the A-List. ibid.
While Mickey embraced life in LA, Bugsy Siegel was bored with the same old Hollywood scene. In 1945 Bugsy came up with an idea that he pitched to the Mob families – an investment opportunity. The Flamingo hotel. A first-class destination in Las Vegas, Nevada, complete with a 105 rooms, private bungalows, and a casino. Siegel told them all they had to do was put up the money to build the place and watch their wallets grow. ibid.
By the time Mickey arrived in Las Vegas it was too late. The hotel was already $5 million over budget. Bugsy had promised the Mob a sure thing; the Flamingo was anything but ... The Assassin fired into the house hitting Bugsy 3 times in the head, killing him instantly. Bugsy Segal had bet everything on Vegas. And lost. ibid.
With Bugsy dead, Mickey Cohen operated LA’s illegal gambling and wire service himself: Mickey Cohen was now the boss of Hollywood. And when Mickey went out, the locals took notice. ibid.
The underworld attracted the attention of the Senate sub-committee on organised crime ... For hours Mickey answered questions. ibid.
In April 1951 the once lucky gangsta was formally charged with tax evasion. ibid.
Even in prison Mickey was a big player ... After almost four years in prison Mickey was released for good behaviour. Cohen was a free man again. ibid.
Mickey took divorce badly. ibid.
Mickey agreed to an unprecedented interview on The Mike Wallace Show ... ‘I have killed no man that in the first place didn’t deserve killing.’ ibid.
The Feds sent him away again: for tax evasion. This time he was sent to Alcatraz. ibid.
The Mobster was partially paralysed and would have to walk with sticks for the rest of his life. ibid.
Times had changed and many of his associates had died. By the end of 1973 Mickey was a shell of his former self. But still enjoyed watching a fight. ibid.