Picture a government that hands organized crime the greatest business opportunity in human history. Not metaphorically, literally. The United States Congress drafts the legislation. The states ratify it. The president signs it into law. And on the 17th of January 1920, at midnight, the most powerful nation on Earth makes it illegal to manufacture,…
March 21st, 1980, 9:20 p.m. South Philadelphia, 9th Street, and Snyder Avenue. Angelo Bruno, 69 years old, compact and careful, the kind of boss who could end a dispute with a look, is sitting in the passenger seat of a car outside his own home. He smells the cigarette smoke. He hears the idle of…
December 17,9 86 5:30 a.m. A truck stop off the New Jersey Turnpike. Richard Klinsky sat in his car waiting. He thought he was about to close a deal for cyanide and a mob hit. Instead, undercover ATF agents surrounded him, guns drawn. Operation Iceman was over. The suburban family man, the guy who…
November 23, 1962, 2:45 p.m. North Side of Youngstown, Ohio. 12-year-old Charlie Cavalaro Jr. climbs into the back seat of his father’s Cadillac. His younger brother, Tommy, 11 years old, slides in beside him. Their father, Charles Cadillac, Charlie Cavalaro, Senior, 60 years old, silver-haired, dressed in an expensive suit, turns the ignition key. The…
On March 19th, 1943, a man [music] in a fedora and overcoat walked along the railroad tracks in North Riverside, Illinois. He reached into his coat, pulled out a 32 caliber Colt revolver, and fired three shots into [music] his own head. When police identified the body, Chicago, went silent. Frank Niti, the most powerful…
They are the only secret criminal brotherhood, the mafia. Only an Italian can belong. It is the key to their takeover of organized crime. There is a rule in organized crime so fundamental, so baked into the DNA of the American mafia that breaking it is basically a death sentence. You do not, under any…
January 20th, 1983, 9:18 a.m. A parking lot in Lincolnwood, Illinois. Alan Dorfman, 60, insurance consultant to the Teamsters Union, stepped out of the Purple Hotel after breakfast with a colleague. Seven bullets tore through his head and neck. He dropped face first onto the frozen asphalt. Two ski mass shooters jumped into a…
April 7th, 1972. 4:30 a.m. Ombberto’s Clam House, 129 Malberry Street, Little Italy. Joey Gallows at a rear table. His back to the door eating skunk gilly. His wife of 3 weeks, Cena Esserie, laughed at something his sister said. His 10-year-old step-daughter, Lisa, was getting tired. The smell of garlic and seafood filled…
The flashing light appeared in his rear view mirror just past 14th Street. Red and blue strobing against the November dark bouncing off the black paint of a 1990 MercedesBenz doing 60 on the belt parkway. Eddie Lino saw it and did what most people do. He pulled over. The unmarked car slid in behind…
In June of every year, a procession of open topped carriages rolls through the gates of Windsor Great Park and makes its way along the final stretch toward the racecourse at Ascot in Berkshire. The horses are matched bays moving in a collected trot that looks effortless only because of years of training. The crowd…
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