Gangland Wire

Agent Leon Flosi and Giovanni Falcone In this third episode of the Pizza Connection story, I interviewed retired FBI agent Leon Flosi about Judge Giovanni Falcone and the Sicilian mafia. Agent Flosi was originally assigned to the Kansas City office where I became acquainted with him. He played an important part in the Strawman case in which he and Agent Bill Ouseley started the case that exposed h...

Tommaso Buscetta documentary Welcome Wiretappers to episode 2 of this Pizza Connection series. In this episode, Cam and I take a look at the famous Sicilian mafia boss Tommaso Buscetta. He is the subject of a documentary available on Amazon Prime called Our Godfather and I inserted the trailer for this film below. He is also the subject of a recently released narrative film titled the Traitor and...

Pizza Connection: the biggest case against the mafia Welcome Wiretappers, Cam and I welcome you to the first of a 4-part series on the famous Pizza Connection investigation. Because this case was so intertwined with the Sicilian Mafia and the American Mafia, we start with a little history of the Mafia in Sicily. We know this is by no means comprehensive but it is an overview of that legacy. The Pi...

Your host, Gary Jenkins and Camulius Robinson want you to know that we are well and still making podcasts like crazy. Cam and I are going to release several in the next week to help entertain all the wiretappers during this time of crisis. After a lifetime of running into the breach where the public was in danger, I feel like doing a few extra podcasts and releasing them is the least I can do. Ple...

Michael O’Keefe is a retired 1st Grade Detective from the NYPD. For twenty-four years, he worked in the toughest neighborhoods in New York, specializing in investigating Homicides and other violent crimes. He was born and raised on the mean streets described in his fiction. His characters and settings are drawn from the people he encountered there—on both sides of the law. oOf interest to the podc...

Cam and I discuss a little-known mafia family in upstate New York. From 1970 to 1992, Salvatore and Joseph Falcone led organized crime in Utica, NY. This family went back to the late 1930s. They were a powerful crew of the Buffalo, NY Maggadino Family, also known as The Arm. The New York State troopers arrested both men at the Apalachin Meeting in 1957. This crew was made up of approximately 15-20...

Our Venmo subscribers are responsible for this special bonus episode that I call “Wearing a Wire on Steve St. John.” If you don’t who Steve is, I once helped a new FBI agent on a drug case by doing surveillance on Steve in 1991. The FBI was working on Steve because they had an informant tell them that Steve had a connection to get Dilaudid and was supplying several street dealers. We worked Steve...

In this episode, the host, Gary Jenkins, interviews retired Missouri State Trooper Tom Gray about his months-long undercover investigation of Kansas City Mafia figures who were buying stolen property. The main target was a man named James H. Bradley Jr. or “Junior” as he was known. Because he operated a popular restaurant across the street from City Hall and Police Headquarters, a Kansas City cop...

Sonny Franzese came up the usual path to the life of a career criminal and Cosa Nostra boss. He started as a Brooklyn member of a juvenile gang and slowly graduated through Prohibition to become a member of the Profaci family. He was court-martialed during WW 2 and it was reported he exhibited “homicidal tendencies” In 1965 the FBI labeled him the most prominent loan shark in the Greater New York...

In this second episode Gary and Cam go into the reason why Vito Rizzuto was charged in the famous murder of the three Capos in New York City. This story is a great example of how no good deed goes unpunished. During upheaval in the Bonanno family, a Bonanno Capo named Joe Messino gets approval from the Commission to remove three opposing Capos in his family to clear the way for him to become the n...

After watching the Netflix series Bad Blood, Gary and Camulius Robinson take on the Rizzuto crime family and the Montreal Mafia. We believe because of the lack of prohibition, the Canadian mafia was not as fast-growing and organized as the American crime families. Nevertheless, they are a very interesting crime family that grew and prospered because of the personal drive and charisma of Vito Rizzu...

Host Gary Jenkins interviews fellow mob historian and expert on the life of Frank Costello, the Prime Minister of the Underworld. Casey is also a musician and he had created several original music compositions to be used in the podcast and the recently released mob documentary film, Brothers against Brothers” The Civella Spero War. In this episode, Casey and Gary discuss the use of Frank Costello...

In this first of 2 episodes about Lucky Luciano, Gary tells a story about Lucky Luciano and the Dannemora priest. In 1936, the politically ambitious mob busting special prosecutor Thomas Dewey obtained a guilty verdict against Charles, “Lucky” Luciano for compulsory prostitution or for being a pimp. The state sent him to the Dannemora prison or Little Siberia which is as far away from New York Cit...

After a few shows about John Gotti, this week, Gangland Wire will go to a 1930s story about a Leavenworth prison break that went wrong for both the prisoners and the town of Leavenworth. I interviewed former Leavenworth prison guard and prison historian Kenneth LeMaster. Kenneth tells the story of how prisoners behind the walls were aided by notorious bank robbers Frank “Jelly” Nash and George “Ma...

Gary and his social media marketer, Basel Tarabishi, discuss the mob film Kill the Irishman. We both loved this modestly budgeted film because the screenwriter constructed a tight script with colorful characters without making them into cartoon characters. This film tells the real story of a 1970s mob war involving an old line but little known mob family in Cleveland Ohio. Gary compared this mob d...

Happy New Year Wiretappers! In anticipation of a special Newsmax television special on John Gotti, Gangland Wire researched the most recent information on who might be the new leadership group of the former Gambino/Gotti crime family. Well known former Fox and Friends anchor, Greg Kelly . will interview your Gangland Wire host Gary Jenkins about organized crime on this live show that Newsmax will...

Merry Christmas Wiretappers! In part 2, I interview Steve St. John, a former prison inmate who served time with retired New York Police Detective William Priest who was an informant for John Gotti. I recently reacquainted myself with Steve St. John after a mutual acquaintance told me he had gone straight and was asking questions about some of the officers and agents who worked on his case. I was t...

This case starts with the FBI taping members of Gambino Capo John Gottis’s Bergen Hunt and Fish Club crew.  This included his brother Gene Gotti and his good friend Angelo Ruggerio along with John Carneglia. Ruggerio was the main target and the Bureau uncovered their multi-million dollar a year heroin distribution ring. Additionally, Ruggerio was a big mouth who talked incessantly about everything...

Myself, Cam Robinson, Larry Henry, Bill Ouseley, Casey McBride, Synova Cantrell, and all the staff here at Gangland Wire Crime Stories wish all our friends a very happy Holiday season. I am off for Texas where I hope it is a bit warmer. It makes me wonder, is there any organized crime in Texas? Well, we will have to explore that someday in the future. As my Chrismas gift to the Wiretappers, I have...

Retired police Intelligence Unit detective Gary Jenkins interviews Mob Museum blogger Larry Henry about his special pre-screening of the newest mob film, Mob Town . Larry reports this film has many comedic moments. The film’s director and writers tell the story of how a New York State Trooper, Edgar Croswell, discovered a meeting of mob chieftains from every major American city on Nov. 14, 1957. T...

In this episode, Cam Robinson and I give our thoughts on the recent Scorsese movie about the murder of James Riddle Hoffa, The Irishman . Neither of us believes Frank Sheerhan. We would like to think that he was the Forrest Gump of the 1960s and 1970s mob hits, but Lee Harvey Oswald, Bay of Pigs, Allen Dorfman and Joey Gallo? Too much for us. But listen and decide for yourself.     To go to the st...

Hey all you Wiretappers, As you may know, I recently finished my second documentary film Brothers against Brothers on the Kansas City crime family. In this film, Brothers against Brothers, I examine a mob war that pitted KC Mob boss, Nick Civella and his brother Carl “Cork” Civella against four “young turks” Nick, Mike, Joe, and Carl Spero.  I have it for sale on my Website shop page and I offer i...

Don’t forget to hit me up on Venmo. Recently, I was a guest on the podcast Unfound. The host of this show researches stories about people who went missing and have never been found. He contacted me to ask about mob guys who went missing and were never found. In this episode which is actually the Unfound show produced on my stream, I tell about a couple of Kansas City mobsters who went missing and...

Welcome Wiretappers, don’t forget to hit me up on the venmo app and buy me a cup of coffee. First, I must warn you I had some sound problems, and Cam’s voice sounds like he is on the phone. In the last of this 4 episode series on Mob meetings, Cam Robinson and I look into the “Little Apalachin” meeting in 1966.  In 1966, MYC police arrested thirteen members of organized crime a Queens NY Italian r...

In Part 2, I discuss what happened during and after this famous raid. Don’t forget to buy me a shot and a beer on your Venmo app at ganglandwire.  Edgar Croswell was a detective sergeant in the New York State Police. He had some problems with a resident named Joseph Barbara Sr. Sgt. Croswell had done an extensive background check on Barbara and paid close attention to the Barbara estate. Croswell...