Gangland Wire

RICO and The Comission As you wiretappers know last week Netflix released Fear City which is a 3 part series on how the FBI and the US Attorney convicted the bosses of the Five New York Families; the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese families. These bosses formed The Commission, and on a national basis, you can add the Chicago family boss to the Commission. The Commission settles d...

Fear City Recently Netflix released a 3-part series title Fear City. This documentary tells the story of how the New York office of the FBI made a RICO case on the heads of the 5-Families otherwise called The Commission. Charlotte Lang In this episode, I interview retired FBI agent Charlotte Lang who was recently a key figure in the Netflix documentary Fear City. The FBI first assigned Ms. Lang to...

Joey Doves Aiuppa and the Muskie Mobsters and fishermen are notorious liars. Something about the nature of both lives lends itself to exaggeration. This is an example of where the two worlds meet. In 1949 angler Louis Spray reportedly caught the largest Muskie ever at the Chippewa Flowage in Wisconsin. The fish was 69 lbs, 11 oz, and there is a picture of Louis in a red flannel, corduroy field hat...

Lefty “Two Guns” Ruggerio Lefty Ruggerio was a lifetime career made man in the Bonanno Crime Family of New York City. He was a key figure in the undercover assignment of FBI agent Joe Pistone who adopted the name of Donnie Brasco when he infiltrated the Bonanno crew under Sonny Black Napolitano. Al Pachino played lefty in the well-known movie titled Donnie Brosco. Johnnie Depp portrayed agent Pist...

Great Bookie Robbery; Melbourne, April 21, 1976   “Ray Chuck” Bennett “Ray Chuck” Bennett was a career criminal (“crim”) in Australia—also known as “The General,” for his ability to plan jobs. He was a well-known bank-robber and smuggler. In the early 1970s, he left Australia and joined the “Kangaroo Crew” in England, pulling heists around the UK when he was arrested. While in prison, he worked cl...

George Freeman, Lenny McPherson, Stan Smith: Sydney Australian Crime Lords  George Freeman was born in 1935. First arrest was 1947 for theft. Born in 1935, he left school around 1946 and began work as a stable hand, continued petty crime, ended up in Boy’s Home, which is kind of like a Juvenile Detention Center. These places were terrible for young boys. Older boys brutalized them in a lot of ways...

Another case of wrongful conviction True crime author Nate Hendley tells about a horrid case of wrongful conviction in 1950’s Toronto Canada. In a change of pace from organized crime stories, Gary Jenkins interviews Mr. Hendley about his latest book, The Boy on a Bicycle: A Forgotten Case of Wrongful Conviction in Toronto Canada .  On September 15, 1056, a passerby found the body of seven-year-old...

FBI Agent Elaine Smith and Ken Eto Ken Eto was a Japanese-American who became the highest known Asian-American in any Organized Crime family in the United States. He was called Joe the Jap or Toyko Joe by his peers in the Chicago Outfit. In this podcast, I interview retired FBI agent Elaine Smith about Eto because she worked up a gambling case on him and after it became known the government was se...

How Paul Derry ended working with the Hell’s Angel’s Paul Derry started in Halifax Nova Scotia as a teenage informant earning $20.00 for revealing where a drug stash was kept and then warning the dealer that the cops were on their way to sieze his marijuana. By the end of his colorful career as a professional criminal and informant, he goes deep undercover into the Nova Scotia Hell’s Angels gang....

Nate Hendley on Joe Pistone In this episode noted Mob author and historian, Nate Hendley and Gary discuss the boring life of a mobster. Nate points out that Joe Pistone wrote in his book, Donnie Brasco, about how the Bonanno crew sat around a social club or bar all day exchanging small talk, gossip, other mob stories, and possible scores. He was allowed into this crew by a made guy named Anthony M...

The Shark Gary was able to land this interview with Joe the Shark Lopez, well known Chicago criminal attorney. He has represented Outfit guys like Frank Calabrese Sr. in the Family secrets trial and many Columbian and Mexican drug kingpins. We learn that Joe Lopez started out to be a divorce attorney until he was given a federal case where a woman was charged with possession of a single kilo. At i...

Al Capone Myths Exposed Cam Robinson and Gary Jenkins interview Mario Gomes, Al Capone historian and blogger on www.myalcaponemuseum.com .   Mario has made it his mission to expose the various myths that have been perpetrated about Al Capone and his life. Was Al Capone a cocaine fiend? For example, after the modern Al Pacino film, Scarface became a massively popular film about a cocaine-addicted C...

Anthony “Tony” Stollo: the early days First of all, I must tell you that I am stopping the extra episode every week until we get another “Shutdown.” Things are opening up here in KC and I want to play a little golf. This week Cam and I take a look at an early Lupara Blanca or “White Shotgun” murder. We learned during our Pizza Connection research that this means a mafia murder where the body is ne...

How did Richard Cain become a Chicago cop Gary interviews Chicago Outfit historian and Administrator of the Chicago Outfit – Old and Current News and Articles Mike Byrne. Richard Cain was born to an Irish-American father and Italian-American mother.  He would sometimes go by Richard Scalzitti. Richard Cain started as a private Investigator learning about wiretapping and conducting surveillance. by...

Lucky Luciano and the Night of the Sicilian Vespers Gary interviews well known true crime author Nate Hendley about Charles “Lucky” Luciano and how he recruited other young gangsters to kill the old Mustache Petes and created the modern National Crime Syndicate. Francis Ford Coppola used this scenario in his fictional recounting of these events in The Godfather.  Many people have mythologized thes...

Danny Greene – The Celtic Warrior Gary and Cam interview Rick Porrello, the author of Kill the Irishman: The War that Crippled the Mafia, The Rise and Fall of the Cleveland Mafia, Superthief, Bombs, Bullet s, and Bribes. Danny Greene and the Cleveland Mafia Danny Greene was an up and coming young hoodlum who started working the docks as a stevedore. He used his popularity and machismo to become th...

History of the ‘Ndrangheta In this episode, Gary and Cam examine the history of organized crime in Australia as a big shout out to Sydney fan Dan Bashford. They examine how the ‘Ndrangheta became the largest and most powerful criminal organization in Australia. The ‘Ndrangheta organization originated from the state of Calabria in Italy. After WW II, many criminal members took part in the large imm...

What is the biggest Mob Blunder ever? In this episode, Cam Robinson and Gary Jenkins discuss blunders by various organized crime families. We believe the largest and most devastating was the murder of Jimmy Hoffa on 6/30/1975. After his release from prison, Hoffa began campaigning to reclaim the leadership of the teamsters. The mafia enjoyed greater control under Frank Fitzsimmons and did not want...

Sidney Heard and the Kuggerrand Fraud In this episode, I interview Synova Cantrell about her book, Unorganized Crime: You Don’t Have to be Italian To Be a Wiseguy.  Synova formed a friendship with a professional criminal named Sidney Heard and chronicled his flamboyant life in Unorganized Crime. Synova Cantrel is a prolific author who has written seven true crime books (click here to see them) and...

Frank Costello goes South In this episode, Casey McBride, Frank Costello historian, discusses how a well known New York mobster formed a relationship with the flamboyant Huey P. Long, Louisiana’s governor, and then-Senator during the 1920-1930s. Frank Costello and Phil “Dandy Phil” Kastel set up the slot machine business in New York City. They disguised them as candy machine and the slots would di...

How Ori Spado became a friend to many mobsters We interview Ori Spado, the Accidental Gangster this week.  Mr. Spado started out as an insurance man who pioneered the extended warranty business for new car dealerships. This part of his life has nothing to do with organized crime but we learn that Spado started in New York where he made connections with some of the early gangsters like John “Sonny”...

Michael McCollum has a rough start McCollum started early in a life of crime after his father, a motorcycle gang member, was the victim of a murder attempt where a dynamite bomb was detonated at their family home. Former law enforcement officer Gary Jenkins interviews former Hells Angel and Chicago Outfit Associate Michael McCollum. After having a dramatic enlightening, Michael turned his life aro...

Interview with Mob Museum The Mob in Popular Culture blogger Larry Henry. Gary and Larry Henry discuss the film Casino and the work of Nichols Pileggi.

In this podcast, our guest Lieutenant (Ret) Michale Callahan tells how the Illinois State Police assigned him to review a murder investigation after they learned that the television show Dateline was doing a show that will allege the defendants were wrongfully prosecuted. Lt. Calahan’s assignment will lead to the court overturning two murder convictions and free one of these men from Death Row. He...

The Bonanno Family and drug smuggling In 1972, the Bonanno War is over, Joe and Bill Bonanno are out in Arizona. The Commission appoints Phil “Rusty”Rastelli the new boss of the Bonano crime family. Carmine Galante, the old  Bonanno Consigliore completes a long prison sentence and returns to New York. Carmine Galante was at the original 1957 meeting in Sicily with Joe Bonanno, Lucky Luciano and me...