Gangland Wire

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins interviews Tony Scarpo about his family and how they fought to establish themselves independently of the Trafficante Mafia Family. Tony’s grandfather migrated from Bari, Italy, to the Pennsylvania coalfields and moved to Tampa, Florida, for an opportunity. His grandfather, Antonio, fought off gangsters in Pennsylvania, and his father, Art Scarpo, found h...

Retired intelligence detective Gary Jenkins explains the Purple Gang of East Harlem in this bonus episode. Subscribe to the Podcast for a new gangster story every week. Support the Podcast. Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee” To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup  click here...

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins interviews an expert on Mob lawyers,  Australian lawyer Tony Taouk, about Roy Cohn. We learn that Mr. Cohn was a flamboyant fixture in New York City and “made his bones” as the advisory lawyer to Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Committee on Un-American activities during the 1950s. One of Roy Cohn’s most famous mob cases was the time he helped Carmi...

Retired Intelligence Unit detective Gary Jenkins interviews Andrew DiDonato, a former mafia associate of the Gambino crew that Nicky Corazzo skippered. Andrew tells how Corazzo took him in and groomed him to be a part of his crew and how he made money for the Gambino family. He learned the hard way that there is no real honor in the mafia, only greed. As he brought in guys from other families and...

Retired Intelligence Unit detective Gary Jenkins talks with former Gambino Crime Family associate Anthony Ruggiano about his life as the son of Gambino member Fat Andy Ruggiano. Anthony Ruggiano was born into Mob life and never had a chance. It was a typical day for him as a young man to meet others at his Father’s Social Club and plan scores like sending people out to the suburbs with stolen cred...

Retired Intelligence Unit detective Gary Jenkins interviewed retired NYPD auto theft detective Vic Ferrari about his experiences with the mob and the horrible auto theft problem in New York City. Vic Ferrari has written extensively about the NYPD culture, the mob, and his time in the Auto Theft Unit. Vic Ferrari’s colorful and unique storytelling style entertains and enlightens simultaneously. He...

Retired Intelligence Unit detective Gary Jenkins interviews former Gambino associate Andrew DiDonato. As he is known on the street, Drew was a premiere car thief for the Nicky Corazzo crew in Brooklyn. He tells the best stories about car chases with cops, stealing a car belonging to Paul Castellano’s son-in-law, and finding a handgun with a book containing handwritten notations about loan shark co...

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins discusses the new book Sin City: The Rise and Decline of the Mob in Las Vegas with author Jeffrey Sussman. As you may know, your host, Gary Jenkins, chased the #mafia around Kansas City while they were secretly skimming millions from Sin City or Las Vegas casinos. Jeffrey Sussman has extensively researched the rise and fall of the Mafia in Las Vegas. Sin...

Retired intelligence detective Gary Jenkins interviews Jim Cosgrove, aka Mr. Stinky Feet, a Kansas City children’s entertainer and author. Mr. Cosgrove reports on a multi-year investigation he conducted and chronicled in his book Ripple: A Long Strange Search for a Killer . This investigation takes him into the Low Country of South Carolina, where he finds the local crime boss and his underlings m...

Retired Intelligence Unit Detective Gary Jenkins tells some stories he got from a childhood friend of the Tony Accardo family. We learn about the time “the boys” gave the daughter a new Triumph sports car. She graduated from high school, and she and a girlfriend headed west without parental approval. They had a few real schoolgirl adventures while Tony and the families worried. This and more. Supp...

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins interviews Matt Black about his new book about how Navy Commander Charles Haffenden recruited Lucky Luciano and Socks Lanza into Operation Underworld. We learn the U.S. Navy was alarmed by the sinking of the world’s largest cruise liner, USS Normandie, while it was cocked at New York Harbor being converted to a cargo and troop ship. The Navy had reports...

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins interviews noted true crime filmmaker and author Rick Porrello . You will remember Mr. Porrello from Kill the Irishman , the story of the Cleveland Celtic Warrior, Danny Greene. Rick has a new Book titled There’s More Bodies Out There: The True Story of a Mafia Associate and a Cop Who emerge as Suspected Serial Killers .   Rick was able to obtain a serie...

Intelligence detective Gary Jenkins interviews a mystery and thriller fiction writer, Jode Millman about her research and writing process. In Ms. Millman’s recent thriller, Hooker Avenue , she was inspired by a true crime involving sex workers in the Hudson Valley of New York. She also had a personal connection to those crimes. During the late 1990s, eight sex workers disappeared from the mean str...

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins and Outfit historians Camillus Robinson and Paul Whitcombe discuss Sam Carlisi, The Chicago Outfit, and the time when the government after Sam Carlisi and his crew. They operated in Western Cook and DuPage Counties throughout the 1980s. Sam Carlisi was called “Wings” and some people believe it was in his youth he was known for his unrivaled ability to el...

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary jenkins tells a couple of stories about the recently deceased Kansas City mobster, Willie Cammisano. Transcript Well hey all you wiretappers out there back here in the studio as you can see. We had our the last man standing in the way the Kansas City mafia and he’s younger than me actually he’s only seventy-three Willie Camposanto Jr. Died today. HIs father was...

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins interviews Michael Vecchione about his book; Homicide Is My Business: Luigi the Zip―A Hitman’s Quest for Honor. A retired New York City criminal prosecutor, Michael Vecchione, tells how he met Luigi Ronsisvalle and gives us an intimate look at the life of a professional killer. Luigi told Mr. Vecchione about his journey from Sicily to his arrival in the...

Retired Mafia Detective Gary Jenkins tells how Mafia gangsters set up and rob jewelry salesmen. You may not know, but every day in the U.S., thousands of honest, hardworking salesmen load up their sales cases and hit the road to show their samples of gold, silver, or platinum jewelry with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, or other precious stones embedded.  Mafia associates gather intelligence constantl...

Intelligence detective Gary Jenkins looks closely at the week after Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky murdered the last of the old-school Mob guys, Salvatore Marazano. For many years, several books by respected authors repeated a story that as many as 60 old-school Black Handers were murdered across the United States. The accepted theory was that Luciano cleared the decks all over the United States t...

Intelligence detective Gary Jenkins interviews Mafia genealogist about the art and science of searching out and documenting the family roots of various mob bosses. Justin Cascio has a great website called Mafia Geneology . Click the link to read some of the many stories Justin has learned and shared on his site. Support the Podcast Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @gangl...

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins and Camullis Robinson deconstruct Joe Valachi. What was his criminal background? What kind of crimes did Joe Valachi commit? Who was he connected to? Why did he think he was targeted for murder? Joe Valachi was born in 1904. He was not the sharpest tool in the toolbox. Joe Valachi was uneducated but possessed great native intelligence and good memory for...

Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins looks closely at the gangs of New Zealand. He finds that most of these organized gangs are formed around motorcyles and other established motorcycle gangs like the Mongols, the Hells Angels, or the Bandidos. As with most organized gangs like this in other parts of the world, they make money from the sale and distribution of narcotics. Support the Podcast Hit me...

In Part 2 of this story, retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins continues looking into the drug investigation and conviction of Sammy Gravano. The listener learns how local drug dealer Michael Papa befriends Gravano’s son, Gerard Gravano. The Phoenix narcotics squad is picking up rumors about a new gang selling ecstasy, muscling other street-level dealers, and claiming to be under the protect...

In this episode, Gary takes a close look at the 1946 mob meeting in Havana, Cuba. In 1946 Charles “Lucky” Luciano was residing in Italy after his deportation by the United States. He obtained an Italian passport issued in his real name, Salvatore Lucania, and obtained visas for travel in Mexico, Cuba, and several South American nations. Once he obtained these travel documents, Luciano journeyed to...

Retired Intelligence Unit Detective Gary Jenkins takes a deep dive into the Sammy the Bull Gravano story that sent him back to prison after he avoided a life sentence due to his work as a member of the Gambino Crime Family. This story starts when the government released Sammy the Bull from his five-year sentence after they allowed him to avoid racketeering, extortion, and murder convictions from h...

Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins looks into the recent conviction of Michael Marcello for scamming Social Security. Michael Marcello is the brother of former Chicago outfit Boss James Marcello. He used to run all the Video Poker business for the Outfit. Michaele Marcello got into his first big trouble during the Family Secrets trial in 2007. He was meeting in a bugged visiting room with his bro...