The Mafia wrought havoc in New York City. But the government vowed to bring them down. Undercover agents put their lives on the line. The evidence mounted. And they discovered the secret inner circle of Mafia bosses who controlled nearly all underworld activity. Mob on Trial
New York City 1980 ... Five powerful crime families rule the city, and the bosses of these families call the shots ... Each boss sits at the top of a highly organised hierarchy of under-bosses, captains, and low-level soldiers and associates. ibid.
This isn’t the first time the authorities have heard this term: they still wonder – what is The Commission? ibid.
Now the investigators know the Mob operates as one organisation run by a commission of bosses, they can do something they never thought possible: use RICO to prosecute all the families together. ibid.
Q) Why is Bonanno’s book [A Man of Honour: An Autobiography] important for investigators? A) Because Bonanno includes an entire chapter explaining The Commission. ibid.
Agents now have bugs planted in every major crime family in New York. But they are still looking for proof the Commission members gather to discuss the rackets. May 15th 1984: FBI agents act on a hot tip that could be the key to their case: a meeting of The Commission at a house on Staten Island. ibid.
In the Final Report the Commission case sets a precedent for law enforcement to use RICO across the country. ibid.
On September 11th 2001 the World Trade Centre attack turns into a Mafia money-pit; mobsters are linked to companies that rake in $63,000,000 for debris clean-up. ibid.
The Gambinos: In the shadowy world of organised crime the Gambino family stood out. One of five crime families in New York in the 1930s it ranked at the top with the Genovese family in size and wealth. The Gambinos, 1997
Like Capone, John Gotti was a gangster straight from central casting right down to the way he talked ... It was brutality that got John Gotti to the top of the Gambino crime syndicate in 1985. ibid.
Carlo Gambino put the family on the map during his reign from 1957 to 1976. ibid.
As soon as Castellano stepped from his Limousine Gotti’s men gunned him down. ibid.
Gambino family’ finances were already on the decline as a result of the crackdown on Mob activities in the mid-80s. Gotti’s lack of business sense only made matters worse. Whatever success the Family had was largely due to Gotti’s senior adviser Salvatore Sammy the Bull Gravano. ibid.
When Gotti and Gravano heard the tapes they knew they were in trouble. Gravano realised he could be implicated in nineteen mob hits. That’s when he did the unthinkable: he ratted on his boss. ibid.
The Gambino family was very strong on the docks. They were strong in the construction industry, the trucking industry. They had interests in just about everything. Ronald Goldstock, New York State Organised Crime Task Force
It was a game in the beginning. Then it went to become a nightmare. And you become a monster. Mad Dog Sullivan
I felt like I was becoming the Grim Reaper. Mad Dog Sullivan
It begins with a rash of high stakes burglaries throughout New York. It ends more than two decades later in a massive police department scandal. A dagger to the heart of the city. Taking Down the Mob, National Geographic (US) 2011
This story proves the Mafia still has clout. ibid.
Wire-taps reveal members of several New York organised crime families took part in the Bulova heist. ibid.
The detectives have stumbled on to a notorious band of burglars. Nicknamed by police the Bypass Gang. ibid.
The Bypass Gang is robbing the city blind. The heists throughout the New York area continue unabated. ibid.
Dominick [Costa] is so good he can open the toughest safes on the planet. ibid.
Each time detectives put enough muscle on a mobster to get him to agree to cooperate, somehow words gets out. ibid.
Information on dozens of mob cases continued to leak out. But how? ibid.
They bring Dominick in for questioning … The detectives give Dominick a generous cooperation deal. ibid.
Without warning the gunmen fire point-bank striking Dominick five times. ibid.
Fourteen members of the Bypass Gang are taking into custody. ibid.
Casso goes into hiding … He is arrested on January 19th 1993. ibid.
Two high-ranking detectives in the New York police department … Hunting two of their own who possibly betrayed the entire force … Casso gives up the names of the crooked cops on his payroll: Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa. ibid.
The Italian Mafia: the originals, the inspiration for them all, with a reputation that is timeless. A family bound by trust and secrecy. Destroyed by one of its own members. Outlaw Empires: Italian Mafia
Just a few miles away in Long Island the Colombo crime family was the setting for the childhood of Michael Franzese. ibid.
Gambino was planning to take the crown from his boss Anastasia. ibid.
After Don Carlo’s death, the family fractured. ibid.
When you take the oath of Omerta part of that process is sharing blood. ibid.
It was money and violence that cemented the empire. ibid.
The Gambinos became the target of government prosecutors. ibid.
Twenty years ago Martin Scorsese made a movie about my life … Drugs was my downfall … I’m Henry Hill, the real Goodfella. The Real Goodfella, National Geographic 2017
I started hanging our with mobsters when I was ten, eleven years old. ibid.
I started dealing weight in marijuana and I started dabbling in cocaine too. ibid.
If Pauli had found out, no-one could have saved us … In a matter of weeks I became addicted to it [heroin]. ibid.
Wiseguys don’t talk like that with those corny lines, only cops do. ibid.
In 1988 a judge removed Henry from prison for his own safety. He served the remainder of his sentence in rehab. ibid.
I have returned to the world of the Mafia this time to meet the wives and daughters and girlfriends of some of the most notorious gangstas. Mafia Women with Trevor McDonald I, ITV
I was a little aggressive. ibid. Anthony, former Brooklyn gangsta
He [Anthony] decided to cooperate with the authorities. ibid.
Life in the Mafia takes precedence over wives and children. ibid.
‘We’re not good husbands; we’re halfway good fathers.’ Mafia Women with Trevor McDonald II
What they fear is that one day the Mafia will get them for daring to talk. ibid.
On May 25th 1988 Richard Kuklinski was convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to life imprisonment. This ended 30 years of cold-blooded killing by a master criminal police called The Iceman. The Iceman: Confessions of a Mafia Hitman
‘He murdered by guns, he murdered by strangulation, he murdered by putting poison on victims’ food, he did all of this at the same time while exhibiting a normal placid family existence.’ ibid. rozzer
‘An approximate guess … more than a hundred.’ ibid. Richard
‘It doesn’t bother me at all.’ ibid.
‘Nothing haunts me.’ ibid.
He and Barbara had three children. But just with an eighth grade education to only get low-paying jobs. ibid.
Kuklinski was the perfect enforcer. He was brutal and he knew how to intimidate. ibid.
Kuklinski kept his criminal lift secret from his family and neighbours. ibid.
Richard Kuklinski became the head of his own crime ring. He developed new ways to profit from murder. ibid.
By the 1980s Kuklinski was involved in narcotics, pornography, arms dealing, money laundering, hijacking and contract killing on a world-wide basis. He was also pressing 50 and getting tired. He started to make mistakes. ibid.
Hurting my family – the only thing I feel sorry for. I’m not looking for forgiveness and I’m not repenting. I know I’m wrong. ibid.
A contract killer for the Gambino crime family. ibid.
They called him The Iceman because to confuse the time of death he would take his victims and put them in a freezer for a long period of time. ibid.
‘I wouldn’t kill a child. I most likely wouldn’t kill a woman. ibid.
The files on The Iceman will never be closed. ibid.
They were two very different godfathers separated by 4,000 miles of ocean. John Gotti was the Teflon don, a New York mobster who adored public attention and defied lawmen to get him. Toto Riina was a peasant from rural Sicily, a boss who operated in the shadows. In the late ’80s and early ‘’90s it required two very different approaches to bring them to justice. Inside the Mafia: The Godfathers, National Geographic 2005
Gotti would have to eliminate Costellano to become boss. But Gotti was not the only one who wanted him out of the way. ibid.
Gotti: Each time the Gambino boss got off. Bribery and intimidation of witnesses saw to that. The nickname the Teflon Don was born. ibid.
Gravano would be the final nail in Gotti’s coffin. ibid.