By 1983 some were crossing lines that couldn’t be uncrossed: A mysterious trader had convinced the market he was a magician when in reality he was just a cheater [Boesky]; a poor girl from Brooklyn had become the queen of hospitality [Helmsley] but her fairytale would soon take a very dark turn; a real estate showman had won his nasty battle with the city and was preparing to make his biggest gamble yet (so what if his numbers didn’t add up); and as the new sheriff in town [Giuliani] plotted the move that would launch him to stardom, a ruthless young Capo [Gotti] made a move of his own, one that would shake the Mafia to its core. Empires of New York s1e2: Nothing in Their Way
As long as this building stands there will probably be some who refer to Trump Tower as the House that Tax Abatements built. ibid. television report
The ’80s would become known as the Golden Age of Hip Hop. From its birthplace in the Bronx this new genre would rewrite the rules of music for decades to come. ibid.
By the mid-80s they’d figured out that to get what they wanted they just had to go to the media, and the media was more than happy to oblige. A Wall Street magician was basking in the spotlight even as his crimes were more and more brazen; a real estate mogul was waist-deep in red ink even as he convinced the world it was just the opposite; a hotel queen was winning over the public but behind her castle walls she was nothing but wicked; and as a publicity-hungry prosecutor plotted his new heroic act in the papers a newly christened mob boss mocked him in those same pages. Empires of New York s1e3: Image is Everything
Trump: ‘He had lost a staggering amount of money – a billion dollars in ten years, more than any other individual in the United States.’ ibid. observer
Gotti: He was the Capo who wanted to be Don. And he decided he wouldn’t wait for his due, he’d seize it … ‘Now he had got to power, Gotti now wanted to be the peacock. Because he’d spent so long being under-appreciated within the Gambino family, when he gets to the top of it he almost wants to make up for lost time.’ ibid. Sean Deveney, author Greed & Glory
In 1986 we started to learn the very dark secrets behind their success: a striver from Detroit had transformed himself into a titan of Wall Street, but his house of lies was about to collapse; a real-estate star had seemingly perfected the art of the deal but couldn’t hide out on his debts for long; the queen of the palace had turned meanness into a winning brand but her subjects were about to revolt; and as Gotham’s new hero went after his biggest villains yet, the dapper don looked danger in the face and laughed. Empires of New York s1e4: Secrets & Lies
As the ’80s wore on, a rot was setting in across New York: and perhaps no place was as compromised as Wall Street. A stunning arrest had left traders with dark secrets of their own scrabbling to keep up appearances. But one financial wizard knew the game was almost up: Ivan Boesky. ibid.
In 1987 the boom times came to a halt and with the party over, the backlash began. A Wall-Street cheat found his reputation in ruins; he decided he wouldn’t go down alone … For months a drumbeat of revelations had cast a shadow over Wall Street. Empires of New York s1e5: Party’s Over
‘By the late 1980s Donald Trump was building seemingly everywhere and buying seemingly everything.’ ibid. Charles Bagli, former reporter The New York Times
By 1988 a striver from Queens had become a national celebrity. And his thirst for attention was leading him to make one bold move after another. But there were some things he wasn’t sharing with the press. And it was those that would threaten to undo him. ibid.
Financed entirely through debt, the Taj Mahal would need to earn over $1 million a day to stay afloat. An amount no casino had ever raked in. ibid.
A hotshot developer was dodging questions about soaring debt and scandalous behaviour, but the tabloids that helped make him were about to take him down. Empires of New York s1e6: Legacy of the 80s: Greed is Still Good
He was the man with the Midas touch, builder of golden towers, high-rolling casino operator, best-selling author, myth-maker of epic proportions. He was also sitting on a mountain of debt and an explosive personal secret … until it really did seem his potential was limitless. ibid.
Hundreds of thousands of voters from Brooklyn went missing from the voter rolls. Stacey Herbert, The Keiser Report August 2020, interviewing Greg Palast
Among the giants of organised crime in the 1930 Lepke Buchalter quietly built a fortune on the backs of an army of workers, and created the marriage between corruption and labour unions in America. Then the Mob double-crosssed him. Mobsters s1e3: Louis Lepke, Bio 2007
He stepped out of Sing Sing just as Americans were getting used to a new word in their vocabulary – Prohibition. ibid.
The future was not breaking heads on the picket line but in dominating the unions themselves. ibid.
His men simply came into their union headquarters with guns drawn and opened fire. When the shooting was over, a dozen were dead, and Lepke had another union under his belt. ibid.
He planned nothing less than a murder spree to kill every witness that might testify against him. ibid.
Lepke and his associates were found guilty of murder. ibid.
Sammy the Bull Gravano was the Mob’s perfect killer. No questions. No mistakes. No guilt. He built a construction empire in New York City and became underboss to John Gotti, the infamous dapper don. When the Feds closed in, Gravano made a decision that would put his boss behind bars for life and decimate New York’s most important crime family. Mobsters 1e4: Sammy the Bull Gravano
Gravano was 25 when Shorty ordered him to kill another crew member. ibid.
Sammy was just making his mark in a racket … construction. ibid.
He helped arrange the murder of boss big Paul Castellano in December 1985. ibid.
‘I began to cooperate with the government in 1991.’ ibid. testifying
‘Genovese was violent; he liked to have bodies in the street.’ Mobsters s1e7: Genovese: Portrait of a Crime Family
The Genovese family is down but not out. It continues to make millions every year through rackets ranging from labour corruption to extortion to drug trafficking. ibid.
He had finally had enough of the Mob and stepped down as boss. ibid.
It didn’t take long for the drug racket to get Vito into trouble. ibid.
Vito Genovese died in prison of heart failure at the age of 72. ibid.
He would wander the streets for hours yearning to escape the family’s poverty. Mobsters s1e8: Frank Costello
By the late 1920s bootlegging had made Frank Costello rich. ibid.
He made his debut as a Mafia diplomat at a major gathering of gangsters in Atlantic City in 1929. ibid.
His business deals becoming more and more legitimate. ibid.
‘All I know I stole.’ ibid. Costello
He went to a psychiatrist. ibid.
He worked for years as a foot soldier in the New York Mafia. Then he revealed its secrets to the nation. Mobsters s1e9: Joseph the Rat Valachi
His performance was mesmerising. ibid.
‘What do I get out of it? Nothing but misery.’ ibid. Valachi
Between 1919 and 1923 the gang burglarized hundreds of New York businesses. ibid.
‘He would walk the streets in a bathrobe; he would urinate in public.’ Mobsters s1e12: Vinnie the Chin Gigante
Gigante might be very sane and very dangerous. ibid.
Vito Genovese took Vinnie under his wing. ibid.
In 1959 prosecutors convicted the 30-year-old Gigante and his mentor 62-year-old Vito Genovese of heroin trafficking. ibid.
For 30 years Joe Bonanno’s authority in the underworld went unchallenged … He witnessed the rise and fall of the Mob and lived to tell the tale. Mobsters s1e13: Joe Bonanno
Bonanno arrived in New York in 1924. ibid.
By the time he was 25 years old Joe Bonanno was a successful bootlegger and a rising leader in the New York underworld. ibid.
At the age of 26 is a Mafia boss. ibid.
The most respected man in the Mafia. ibid.
Joe agreed to be exiled from New York. ibid.
‘Carlos Gambino was running the largest, most extensive crime empire in the United States at the time.’ Mobsters s1e14: The Gambinos: First Family of Crime
The Gambino crime family stood out: one of the five crime families created in New York in the 1930s. ibid.
Like Capone, John Gotti was a gangsta sent straight from central casting. ibid.