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.
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.
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.
Roy kept lending money to friends, and started to hang around with some questionable characters. Mobsters s2e1: Roy DeMeo
DeMeo went on to assemble one of the deadliest teams of professional killers in the history of organised crime. ibid.
Castellano didn’t trust DeMeo, so he issued an order: DeMeo had to go. ibid.
New York City. The 28th June 1971 ... A celebration of ethnic pride ... It was led by Mafia don Joe Colombo ... As Colombo approached the podium to speak shots rang out. Colombo collapsed to the ground. Mobsters s2e2: Joey Gallo
It was in his teens that Joey took his first steps towards a life of crime. He and his brother Larry became numbers runners and enforcers for the Profaci family. ibid.
When he first met the Kennedys, Joey put on a show. At the hearings broadcast live the public got its first glimpse into the dark underworld of the Gallo brothers. ibid.
November 6th 1990: the two detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, men sworn to protect and serve, were in fact hired guns for the Mafia. And possibly the most corrupt cops in NYPD history. Mobsters s3e1: Mafia Cops
Gambling was a key racket for the Eppolitos. ibid.
Stephen Caracappa – a tight-lipped cop with a killer instinct. ibid.
As partners in Brooklyn’s robbery squad Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were a winning combination. Together they were also dangerous. ibid.
Using their badges to lure a man into a Mafia hit – performing this service for mobster Bert Kaplan. ibid.
Eppolito and Caracappa funnelled secret police intelligence to their bosses back in the Mob. ibid.
Guilty on all counts. ibid.
Anastasia got away with the murder [Arnold Schuster] just as he had for decades. Mobsters s3e3: Albert Anastasia
[Joe] Masseria was alone: enter Albert Anastasia and three others. ibid.
Anastasia’s muscle would also be valuable to a group of Mafia leaders called the Commission … Murder Incorporated. ibid.
Anastasia had risen through the Mob ranks. ibid.
The tax trial of Albert Anastasia … Anastasia walked out of prison and right into a power grab. ibid.
June 1990 Staten Island, New York ... The woods were home to a mobster’s dumping ground. After three days of digging they found what they were looking for. Buried in shallow graves, dismembered and stuffed inside suitcases were the remains of those unfortunate to have crossed mobster Tommy Pitera. Mobsters s3e4: Tommy Karate Pitera
All the victims were neatly cut up into six pieces. ibid.
In the late ’70s heroin and cocaine were the Family’s big money makers. ibid.
One of his closest allies Frank Gangi had turned. bid.
‘Anthony Casso was the single most treacherous organised crime figure in New York.’ Mobsters s3e5: Anthony Gaspipe Casso
Exclusive audio tapes and his only television interview take us deep inside the twisted world of a viscous Mob boss and career killer. ibid.
Casso decided to go with … the Lucchesi family. ibid.
The hit propelled Casso to the next level in his crime family. ibid.
In the mid-1970s Anthony Gaspipe Casso was raking in millions from his burglary ring known as the Bypass Gang. ibid.
In the spring of 1990 the heat came down on the kings of the Lucchese crime family. ibid.
May 5th 1981: a quiet night on the streets of south Brooklyn, New York. Inside a vacant social club a Bonanno crime family captain watched and waited. He’d invited three couples for a meeting. Word on the street was the three were planning a revolt. They wanted to overthrow the family’s new boss Phil Rastelli. Massino had told the three: come to the club ... Four men jumped out of a supply cupboard with guns blazing. Mobsters s3e6: Big Joey Massino
As his numbers and loan-sharking operations flourished, he expanded into a new mob racket: lorry hijackings. ibid.
He would take on a new job – murder for hire. ibid.
That July Sonny found out that one of his closest Mob associates Donnie Brasco was actually an undercover FBI agent named Joe Pistone. ibid.
Joe Massino was determined to restore the family name. Ibid
Joe Massino not only won the battle of the bug, he was defeating the FBI at its own game. ibid.
In 1992 after six years behind bars Massino was released. He returned home to a Bonanno family in total disarray. Massino got to work rebuilding the organisation. ibid.
By the mid-90s Joe Massino was something of a rarity in New York; all the other major Dons ... were behind bars. Big Joey Massino was the last boss standing. ibid.
Facing murder charges Vitale turned on his brother-in-law Big Joey and agreed to cooperate. It was nothing short of devastating. ibid.
Facing a possible execution Massino became the thing he always said he despised the most: he became a rat. ibid.
The act of betrayal against his former ally [Gallo] earned Persico his nickname: the Snake. Mobsters s4e6: Carmine the Snake Persico: Snake Eyes
The street gangs of Brooklyn battled for neighbourhood turf. ibid.
One by one the rebels snatched five top Profaci lieutenants, including underboss Joe Magliocco and Capo Joseph Colombo. ibid.
By March 1963 nine Gallo soldiers had been killed. ibid.
Once again the Colombo family was set on a war path and Carmine Persico would be the last man standing. ibid.
Created in 1970, RICO gave authorities a short cut. ibid.
The so-called Commission Trial began in September 1986. ibid.
Greg Scarpa was born in Brooklyn on May 8th 1928. Mobsters s4e7: Grim Reaper: Greg Scarpa
In the early 1950s Greg Scarpa was making a name for himself on the hard streets of Brooklyn as an earner and enforcer for the Profaci family. ibid.