01x02 - 1983-85: Nothing in Their Way

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] new york city.

[woman] happy new year!

At the dawn of the 80s it
was exploding with opportunity.

[newsreader] boom times. That's
what the numbers signal today,

An economy that's
on a roll in this country.

A place to seek money,
power, fame.

Amid the glitz and greed,
five titans seized their moment...

And by 1983, some were crossings
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.

[man 2] boesky was blatantly
violating the law with insider trading.

A poor girl from brooklyn had
become the queen of hospitality

But her fairy tale would
soon take a very dark turn.

[woman 2] she has
become fortuitously cruel.

Leona helmsley forgot
the most important lesson,

Which is you should keep your friends
close and you keep your enemies closer.

A real estate showman had
won his nasty battle with the city

And was preparing to
make his biggest gamble yet.

[donald trump] yes!

[newsreader] donald trump
has also ventured into gambling.

[charles bagli] wall street
was willing to give him

Whatever he wanted.

And as the new sheriff in town plotted the
move that would launch him to stardom...

Giuliani cast himself as the
law and order man of new york.

[rudolph giuliani] this is a
great day for law enforcement

But this is a bad day,
probably the worst, for the mafia.

A ruthless young capo
made a move of his own.

One that would shake
the mafia to its core.

[woman] her son, who was fresh in the
ground when she said "I will destroy you."

[barbara res] he couldn't get out of his
own way when it came to being cheap.

[woman] one more
complaint... I close you up.

[woman] she was definitely a b*tch and
I don't mean that in a pejorative sense.

These five titans would reshape
the city and the world we live in today.

And in 1983,
nothing could stand in their way.

[newsreader] what a
year it's been for music.

Top of the charts this week is
"every breath you take" by the police.

[newsreader] boom times. That's
what the numbers signaled today,

An economy that's
on a roll in this country.

With the recent building boom,
new york city skyline is ever changing,

And today a topping out
ceremony was held at trump tower.

By 1983, the country's
economic fortunes had rebounded

And for many the despair of the late 70s
was starting to feel like a distant memory.

It seemed that maybe reagan
had made america great again

And new york city
was greatest of all.

[andrew ross sorkin] you had
people like ivan boesky all of a sudden

Making millions of dollars,
going to lunch for thousands of dollars.

[leona helmsley] look
at the shape of his head.

You ever seen a head shaped
that way in your whole life?

[sorkin] parties with
helicopters landing on boats.

And this was new money.
This wasn't old money any more.

America's next generation of leaders,
the "yuppies,"

What some people call the "y" word now,
they're young urban professionals...

[newsreader] for yuppies. It's all
about business. Capitalism is in.

The yuppie likes to go home,
slap on his swatch,

Put on his reeboks,
turn his socks inside out.

Then you put on a little bit fancy
denim jean because you know,

You don't want to go out with
your basic levis. How are you doing?

[bryan burrough] you were young, you were making
money and were utterly unashamed about it.

We're going for the 80s.

We're going for the six
figure. That's all we want.

[man] new york had transformed
into a playground built on money.

It was a playground all right, and
not just for well dressed wall streeters.

In the shadows, another enormous
industry was humming along.

Sucking in cash from
almost every corner of the city.

[newsreader] when you do something
as simple as this, the mob collects.

They've got a cut of the
vending machine business.

Construction, the life blood of new
york. It also gives transfusions of money

And power to organized
crime and it goes on and on.

The garment industry, jewelry, automobile
dealerships, that drink before dinner,

The dinner at a mob-controlled
restaurant or just a pizza after the movie.

[michael chertoff] back in the 80s,
if you were a new yorker you understood

That the mob was a very, very powerful
force in the life of new york city.

Essentially, it was almost as if the mafia
was a separate government that could tax

The citizens of new york for
almost everything they bought.

[newsreader] builders,
far from trying to oust the mob,

Depend on it to cut
costly delays and red tape.

And what does super developer,
donald trump believe?

I really don't know
anything about it.

[george gabriel] the mobs
are making good money.

They're getting rich with the building
boom, but then you have the normal rackets.

The mob, it's a multi-billion
dollar a year enterprise.

Gambling, loan sharking,
racketeering.

All tools of the trade for the
five organized crime families.

It was about making money
but it was also about power.

[ed mcdonald] new york city
had five organized crime families.

The bosses of the five families comprised
what they called the new york commission.

With a group of the five
leaders of the five families.

The bosses of the gambino, genovese, bonanno,
colombo, and lucchese crime families.

[randy mastro] those five family heads
would literally meet on a regular basis

And plot out their empire

.As if they were businessmen, only
their business was a criminal enterprise.

They divided up the city and
divided up the different industries.

They were operating
as a company.

Yet city officials and prosecutors seemed
to be doing little or nothing about it

The city was crying out for
someone to take a leadership role.

[newsreader] ruldoph giuliani
is a man of many dimensions.

He loves listening to classical
music and he loves listening to opera.

[giuliani] probably it's
genetic. I think if you're italian

There has to be an interest in
opera just as in your chromosomes.

Rudy giuliani was a remarkable
crusading us attorney.

With an organized crime
epidemic sweeping the city,


bold prosecutor to re-enter new york

And orchestrate his meteoric
ascent sent to the top.

He did it by enforcing the rules
although he didn't always play by them.

[jonathan mahler] rudy giuliani
came into office as us attorney

For the southern
district in manhattan.

He was ruthlessly ambitious

And had higher office on
his mind from an early age.

When he came here he had a lot
of support in washington behind him.

He'd been a third ranking
person in the justice department.

The number three job in washington,
you're serving someone else.

The number one job in new
york is much more high profile.

[sean deveney] if you're coming
into new york city in the early 80s,

You've got to be a little bit bold in terms
of what you think you can do to help the city.

But you have to be even bolder if you're looking
at it and say, "wait, what can this do for me?"

A question you hear increasingly now is, "who
is rudolph giuliani? And what does he want?"

[laughs] well, I'm the us attorney
and what I want is to be as effective

As I can be as the
united state's attorney.

Rudy, really presented himself as the answer
to all of the villains of new york city

In the 1980s or you know,
name your mobster.

Hopefully with an organization like
the mafia, we will wear them down.

According to rudy, his father's hate for the
mafia was why rudy became such a mafia fighter.

Growing up,
rudy's father had made it clear to him

That the opportunities
for italian americans

Had been limited in this
country because of their image.

Italian americans had gotten a bad rap and
that this was in large part because of the mob

These are extremely
dangerous individuals.

They are people who destroyed
the lives of other human beings.

[kurt andersen] rudy giuliani was this
seemingly incorruptible straight arrow,

Boy scout, eagle scout. He was
trying be one of the untouchables.

He was a little bit of a nerd.

[andrew kirtzman] he saw
himself as the enforcer of morality.

That came from the upbringing and a
catholic household and catholic schools.

And at one point he
wanted to be a priest.

And it wasn't until he was a sophomore in
college that he gave up on that, decided,

"maybe the celibacy
thing isn't for me."

But he never really lost
that sense of moral crusade.

I think he liked the
mafia in some ways.

It was a great target 'cause
what can you say positive

About the mafia? And he was
gonna save the country from the mafia.

Rudy giuliani explained to me
his vision of putting together a case

Against the entire mafia
commission as an enterprise.

There was something on the books called
the rico statute. Under the rico umbrella,

You could convict a
whole family infrastructure

Of conspiring together as
an organized crime family.

And so rudy's idea was,

"why don't we do that against the
commission as if it is a distinct enterprise

And conspiracy that we can
prosecute under the racketeering law.

It seemed like an audacious, very interesting
plan. I was excited to work on it.

The eastern district in new york and brooklyn and
rudy giuliani were supposed to share this case

But rudy went to
washington and he said,

"I'm the guy who's really equipped
to do this. I should be put in charge."

His mentor in washington,
the attorney general, made it happen.

Rudy's agenda was rudy

And what was driving him was what
rudy was doing and his relentless climb.

Rudy didn't care whose toes he's stepping on,
he wanted to be at the top and he wanted fame.

He would stop at nothing
to get what he wanted.

The stage was set for an epic new york show
down. Having eliminated his competition,

The young prosecutor
prepared to take on the mob.

He knew that the headlines
would be sensational.

And that if he succeeded... He
wouldn't have to share them with anyone.

[newsreader] it took four years
and 300 million to build and toda

Can celebrate with the
opening of trump tower.

[nikki haskell] as part
of the nikki haskell show,

I filmed the opening
of the trump tower.

It was an amazing place. It was so opulent,
so chic...

...It was more than anybody
had seen in the city before.

Everyone knows steve rebel,
a man that created night life in new york.

- [steve rebel] how are you?
- Hi honey.

- Good. How are you?
- Welcome to the trump towers.

Yeah. It's beautiful isn't it?

[david cay johnson] you walk into
it. It has this huge marble atrium.

And it has this giant waterfall,
and it makes you sort of feel in awe,

The way cathedrals do in europe.

And it's this monument
to glittering wealth.

I think we're in for a hot time if
this is any indication of the 80s.

Trump tower was the epitome
right at that moment in time

Of what it meant to be
wealthy in the united states.

[bagli] donald trump was able to capture
this moment where he defined luxury.

The trump tower
got so much publicity.

[newsreader] trump tower
is a major draw for tourists,

With apartments selling
for up to $10 million.

And in the middle of
it was donald trump.

Rewarded for his vision
and praised for his ambition,

The new titan of real estate had
arrived and image trumped all.

The more he flaunted his wealth and status,
the more the city revered him.

[newsreader] as long
as this building stands,

There will probably be some
who will refer to trump tower

As the house that
tax abatements built.

But that's kind of a ground
floor look at this building.

If you look a little bit higher,
you'll see another story.

A story of entrepreneurial vision,
huge capital investment and sheer guts.

He made his reputation on this. Helping
donald create a mythology around himself.

I always like going first class. Trump
tower is the ultimate in first class

And that's why it's
been successful.

Everything was classy, this was very high class
and this one has class and that one has class

And you know,
this looks like class.

It was a big deal to him.
He had class on the brain.

But the finishes in
the apartments were...

Really crap,
excuse the expression.

He couldn't get out of his own
way when it came to being cheap.

[bagli] donald trump created the
aura that he was a premier developer,

The best deal maker,

The best builder,
the best at anything that he touched.

[trump] people come up to me and they say,
"oh, donald, you're so lucky.

"everything just falls
into place for you."

And it's not that way at all.
You have to make it fall in place.

The world now
saw him as a tycoon

And that image would become
his biggest bargaining chip

As he embarked on
his next great venture.

[newsreader] in a flash the glamorous
world of casinos have lined the boardwalk.

It's las vegas east.

[newsreader] the man who,
at the age of 39, is not content

With being new york city's
latest real estate billionaire.

Donald trump has also
ventured into gambling.

[jack o'donnell] money. I mean
money is what appealed to donald trump

When it came to
the casino industry.

I think he saw an opportunity for
vast amounts of cash to be generated.

Profits were just unbelievable and donald trump
took a look at that and said, "I want in."

[o'donnell] trump plaza became really the
most successful property in atlantic city.

[don king] here we are, trump.

[bagli] donald was going
down there on his helicopter.

He would offer
rides to big spenders

And then he turns around
and buys another casino.

Donald trump got his second casino,
trump castle, for $320,000,000.

Donald trump did not set foot in
the castle before he purchased it.

It was a very quick transaction.

The trump castle opened with great
fanfare because it was donald trump.

But everything that donald trump did at
these casinos he financed through debt

And all the debts added up
eventually at the castle and at the plaza.

However, the banks, you know, had
bought in, but at that point, to trump...

Despite the growing level of debt, wall street
was willing to give him whatever he wanted.

He would spend money
without consequence.

[michael kruse] when banks kept lending
him money there was nothing in his way.

He was going to do exactly what he wanted
for as long as he could get away with it.

Yeah!! All right!

Pretty soon donald trump goes
on this incredible spending spree.

He bought the new
jersey generals.

Way to go fellas.

He buys mar-a-lago in florida. He
also bought a huge development site:

The rail yards on the west side.

This will be one of the
great jobs of all time.

As he's developing this empire
he's borrowing more and more money

At higher and
higher interest rates.

You're talking about
a huge amount of debt.

[johnson] aiding him in this is this whole
cultural change where we started judging people

By the content of their wallet, or in donald's
case, the claimed content of their wallet.

In many respects, donald trump
was the poster boy for the 1980s.

A lot of people just didn't
look below the surface.

He was able to live on that
image for a very long time.

The minute something
starts to go wrong,

The entire house of cards
was going to start to fall down.

[newsreader] nbc news
now is able to project

The re-election of
ronald wilson reagan.

[gil troy] ronald reagan in 1984 wins, and
not just wins but he wins in a landslide.

[bethany mclean] the champagne is flowing, the
good times feel like they can only continue.

By 1984 the message was clear:

America was back and for that
we could thank the almighty dollar.

[man] the president of the us, accompanied
by john j fallon and donald t reagan.

[cheering]

[ronald reagan] the last time I visited
the new york stock exchange was in 1980

And the mood sure
was different then.

But in the last five years

We've moved from malaise to hope,
confidence, and opportunity.

New york becomes a
symbol of the great success,

Of america's return politically,
culturally,

But at the end of the day it's america,
economical.

[bell ringing and cheering]

Reagan felt that people should be given the
opportunity to get as rich as they can get.

[ken auletta] ronald
reagan's message was

That giving tax breaks
to the wealthy is fine

Because it trickles down. We need
to get regulations out of the way.

And donald trump and leona
helmsley and ivan boesky

And wall street and a lot of very
wealthy people were beneficiaries.

[bagli] but the rich get richer
and the poor even poorer.

[newsreader] trump has gotten
rich by building for the wealthy.

His critics say,
at the expense of the poor.

[troy] people feel exiled. They've not only
lost their homes and their neighborhoods,

They've lost their voice
and they've lost their power.

As the public sector was starved,
private profit was prioritized

And so for every dollar

That was going to donald trump
to build something like trump tower,

That was a dollar that was
not going to the south bronx.

[darryl mcdaniels] they were
leaving us and not caring about us.

It was very
desperate in the 80s.

People was trying to figure
a way to make it out of here.

From a community of people
that nobody cared about,

That nobody thought
there was any hope for,

That nobody had any expectations of,
they found their way out.

They found their way
out through the arts.

[rapping] broken glass everywhere!
People pissing on the station.

No, it just don't care. I can't take
the smell, I can't take the noise.

Got no money to move
out so I got no choice.

[rapping] rats in the front room,
roaches in the back,

Junkies in the alley
with the baseball bat

I tried to get away
but I couldn't get far

'cause a man with a tow
truck repossessed my car.

When the message came
out about grandmaster flash,

Those words was
the vibe of everybody.

That was the truth
of new york city was

And it came from the young
black people from the bronx!

Through the block parties and the park
parties on the streets of new york city,

We was able to tell our stories
and our feelings and our emotions.

That's when all the resources
would have to come our way.

[michael holman] artists living on the lower
east side, hanging out in the east village.

We were hearing about this
movement that was going on uptown.

Hip-hop was djs and mcs and
d-boys and graffiti and break dancers

And it was profound

And we had to do
something about it.

We put to together a party
called the canal zone party.

If you're lost you can find yourself,
right here, right now in the canal zone.

Which was really the first time that
uptown hip-hop culture would rub shoulders

With the downtown
fine arts scene.

[newsreader] dj jazzy-jay has been
heavily involved in introducing hip-hop

And rap culture to downtown
manhattan and the rest of the world.

Very quickly it was recognized that
we've got something special here.

And it was just, like,
off to the races after that.

The sugar hill g*ng came
out with "rapper's delight."

And no. 1 records like blondie's
rapture and films made about hip-hop

Allowed hip-hop to have a
national and international stage.

By the mid 80s, everywhere you look
everybody was writing about kurtis blow,

Grandmaster flash, dj hollywood,
whodini, jimmy spicer.

I'm jam master jay.

Dj run.

And my name is dmc.

Say h*!

[crowd] h*!

Say, h*, h*, h*, h*, h*...

We did a "b" side of a
record called sucker mcs.

[rapping] ...And you
sucker mcs is who I please.

So take that and move
back catch a heart attack.

With the same attitude
that people rhyming

About selling drugs
and doing stick-ups,

I'm rhyming about
going to school.

[rapping] I'm dmc, in the place
to be I go to st. John's university

And since kindergarten
I acquired the knowledge

And after 12th grade I
went straight to college.

My whole thing was, even in all of this
stress and strife, there's some good there.

People started gravitating to
the hope that was in our records.

Run-dmc became the definitive
representation of 80's new york.

Fashion, sound, style,
look, and attitude.

The leather pants,
the godfather hats,

That's how jay went
to school in 9th grade.

Jay was run-dmc in 9th grade before we even
called him to dj for us. Jay wore that hat.

That's how those boys
and girls were dressing.

And when everybody outside of
new york started seeing run-dmc,

Everybody else wanted
to dress like new york.

Hip-hop had become so big,
by 1984

The new york city breakers
are invited to perform

At the kennedy center honors, televised
on cbs, in front of ronald reagan.

That golden age of hip-hop

Showed that we can be part of
that affluent commercialized world.

We changed everything.

We created a tidal wave of
people wanting to come to new york

To experience the
clubs and the lifestyle.

It was the most creative, artistic period
in the history of the world down there.

Run-dmc, keith herron,
grandmaster flash, madonna.

Wow! Everyone
wanted to be in new york.

The 80s would become known
as the golden age of hip hop.

From its birth
place in the bronx,

This new genre would re-write the
rules of music for decades to come.

[tv presenter] from downtown manhattan,
tv new york.

Has yet been willing to
submit an affidavit saying that,

"you have tied up all of my assets,
therefore I can't afford an attorney."

'cause I think that's
a real phony issue.

While the ambitious young prosecutor was
putting together the final pieces of his case

Against the mafia, another star was
rising on the opposite side of the law.

Inside the crime world's
most powerful family.

The gambino family was the most powerful, was
the wealthiest. Paul castellano was the boss.

[newsreader] paul castellano,
the boss of the gambino family,

Identified as the man who
presides over commission meetings.

The boss of all bosses.

He had one rule, no drugs,
the penalty was death.

You had to say paul
castellano was a business man.

He was not a showy,
flashy guy with a pinky ring.

Kept a low profile and it was
really about maximizing his control

Over legitimate businesses.

[newsreader] next in line were 20 capos,
or captains,

The skippers who ran
the crews of soldiers.

[bruce mouw] when we first started
investigations into the gambino family

We identified all the players.

We also identified a rising star

A then-captain named john gotti.

He may have been just a
street kid from the bronx,

But he had wild
ambition from the start.

He would stop at nothing to get what he
wanted and what he wanted was power,

Even if that meant breaking the cardinal
rule of his own clan. He didn't care.

John gotti inspired a lot
of loyalty from his crew

And because of that
he felt comfortable

Getting involved in something that was happening
underneath the noses of the big bosses.

[george gabriel] gotti's crews were
getting very active in the drug business.

These guys were earning
tremendous money with it

And they had to cover
up john at the time.

[newsman] the man climbing out of the buick is
angelo ruggiaro, he was on john gotti's crew

Along with john gotti's own brother,
jean gotti.

[jerry capeci] one of the
rules that mob has, in theory,

Is you're not supposed
to deal with drugs.

But the real rule is don't
get caught dealing drugs.

The idea is if you get caught dealing drugs,
we can k*ll you for violating the rules.

[deveney] especially the gambino
family with paul castellano as the boss

He did not look kindly
on dealing drugs.

He was somebody who wanted the
mafia to get more into legitimate business.

[chertoff] so john gotti
had violated the rules

And if paul castellano ever found out,
gotti would be k*lled.

[george gabriel] I think john was born to be
a "wise guy." it was as if it was in his blood

[capeci] in the east new york
section of brooklyn he joined a g*ng

And decided that that was
a way to make his mark.

[ed mcdonald] he started out
stealing money from grocery stores

And it advanced to the stage
where they were hijacking trucks.

[bruce mouw] they always called him "good
looking john" or the "good looking guy."

John loved all the compliments.
He just loved having his butt kissed.

So that's when
we get close to him.

"hey, john, you look good today.
You working out? Your arms look good."

You know, "nice hair john."
he loved all the compliments.

Some people felt that, you know, he had enough
charm and charisma that if had an education

He could have been
the chairman of ibm.

But there were other people who
just thought he was an ignorant thug.

[newsreader] he has been called
everything from terrifying to charismatic.

Gotti had a good life.

He ran hijacking at kennedy airport,
gambling and loan sharking in queens.

In order to become a capo of the
mafia you have to prove your worth.

You had to be feared, you had to be
respected. Gotti was a blood-thirsty,

Ruthless, violent criminal,
but he was gonna get what he wanted.

Part of your badge of honor
is to do time and do it well

And not complain about
it and then come home

And start committing
crimes again.

These guys are psychopaths.
They're not like normal people.

They have the ability to go out and k*ll
somebody, in cold blood like put a g*n to the head

And blow their brains out;

Go home, eat dinner with the
wife and kids and go to sleep.

[mcdonald] people recognized him as a future
power within the gambino crime family.

But I don't think there was any doubt
that that was what his ambition was.

Gotti wanted to move up into the
leadership position of the family.

[newsreader] he became a made
member of the family by murdering a man

Who had kidnapped and
k*lled gambino's nephew.

John gotti made his
bones by taking part

In the k*lling of jimmy
mcbratney in staten island

In the mid 1970s. Mcbratney was
an irish gangster who had taken part

In the kidnapping of
carlo gambino's nephew.

When he got out of prison,
gotti pledges allegiance

To the mob, agrees that he will
do whatever the boss tells him to,

Whenever he tells him to.

But that was not john gotti.

In new york where the drug
problem is especially severe,

Authorities have
made a major bust...

[newsreader] one that involved organized
crime, a member of the gambino family.

Ruggiero was heard on a
wire-tap talking about heroin deals

With gotti's brother and
other crew members.

In a six month period they
trafficked 50 kilos of heroin,

Which is a lot of dope back in those
days and they run like $150,000 a kilo.

[capeci] john gotti's crew
ended up being indicted...

[newsreader] angelo
ruggiero and jean gotti

Had both been indicted for
selling large amounts of heroin,

Breaking the rules
of the gambino family,

Which could result in
a mob death sentence.

When paul castellano,
the boss of the crime family

Heard that john gotti and his crew
were dealing drugs, he was livid.

[mouw] gotti was terrified of castellano
because he knew how ruthless he could be.

Castellano was against narcotics and if you got
caught dealing drugs, the penalty was death.

He had a lot of good hit men around
him and he would have him k*lled.

[mcdonald] paul wanted to make
an example of john gotti's guys.

Since he was the capo,
gotti himself would be ex*cuted.

It became a "k*ll or be k*lled"
situation for john gotti and his crew.

And the reason that we're here is because
all the top celebrities are staying here.

Ever desirable elizabeth taylor.
It's john forsythe, star of dynasty...

[taylor-gordon] in the 80s there was no
hotel that compared to the helmsley palace.

...It's the fonz, henry winkler.

You went there to be seen and mrs.
Helmsley was having breakfast there too.

Leona helmsley was the
queen but not of a country.

She was the queen of a
hotel. Of a real estate empire.

She never felt that she was one of the
people she considered the little people.

That was where she came from
and it was very important for her

To be at the top of the game.

The daughter of a hat maker had married her
king and now he made her the ruler of his domain

So she set about putting her personal
stamp on every aspect of every property,

No matter the cost
or the consequences.

[tovah feldshuh] leona
was a brilliant balabusta,

And that's the yiddish word
for the executive of a house.

She made sure that her 27 hotels operated
at top drawer. She worked on those hotels,

As she said, 25 hours a day,
eight days a week.

The palace was the jewel in her
crown. It was her "hope diamond."

To decorate her helmsley palace,
she ran $2 million over budget

But there were phones in the bathroom
and there were no more skimpy towels.

[bill dowling] she had
very expensive tastes,

Not necessarily good taste,
sort of a garish taste actually.

She wanted everything to be gold.
Who does that sound like? [laughs]

But she was never
constrained by budgets.

Leona was probably over budget on
every single project that she handled.

I remember once I went into
harry's office with a report that said

That leona had run up
over $1 million cost overruns

On a particular thing
she was involved with.

He said, "thank you. Let's
just keep this between us.

"it's only $1 million
and I can afford it

"and she makes me happy."

The thing he did not say was that
the limited partners were paying

A lot of these expenses and they
later sued him for those cost overruns.

It was the first serious blow to harry's
reputation throughout his long career.

Harry helmsley's oldest
associates were quite concerned

About the impact
that leona was having

On harry and on their
relationship with harry.

Leona wanted to control
harry one hundred percent.

I remember once leona tried to get
harry to make a decision on something

And when he wouldn't do it

She told hims he was gonna stop
having sex with him, and guess who won?

She definitely controlled him,
absolutely.

But then, leona wanted to
control everyone in her life.

[feldshuh] she married very early,
leo panzirer, a lawyer.

They had a son,
jay and then they divorced.

Leona helmsley's son and leona
had a very complicated relationship.

She tried to keep him hidden so that
no one would figure out how old she was.

[elaine silverstein] leona treated him like
a pet: Stand up, sit down, walk around.

She clearly
managed his life a lot.

[glenn plaskin] she brought him into
the business and she put him to work

And I think she was a tough taskmaster
and she may have been very strict with him.

[dowling] probably
the worst thing for him

Was that he had formed
a partnership with her

Because then she was on him just
about every day about something.

I think the pressure of all that just got
to him, and I think the stress got to him.

[silverstein] jay had a
heart attack at age 42.

[leona helmsley] if you've
ever experienced losing a child...

...It leaves a hole forever.

[silverstein] leona was
very sad when jay died.

[feldshuh] jay panzirer's wife was mimi
doyle. When jay died an untimely death,

Leona turned on mimi and
blamed mimi for the death of her son.

There were some accusations or
things that were printed in the tabloids

And also in the new york papers that
after your son died that you became...

...Very ruthless to his wife...

What wife? She was married
to him for one year. What is this?

[silverstein] leona's answer
to any stress was anger.

Leona needed to have
someone to blame.

She certainly wasn't
gonna blame herself.

It had to be someone fault,
so it was mimi's fault.

Wasn't jay's fault, he was dead.

You think she k*lled your son?

Do I think so? Yes.

I'm not god but she didn't
contribute to his welfare, let me say.

At the funeral, jay was fresh in the
ground when she turned to mimi and said,

"I will destroy you."

She tried to repossess the
delorean she had given her.

She charged mimi for the
transport of the casket from florida.

She sued for the possession of a
topaz ring with 135 diamonds around it.

She evicted mimi from her home.
She had become gratuitously cruel.

Leona helmsley definitely deserves
the moniker the "queen of mean"

Because she became
vicious with people.

She was mean as a rattle snake, especially to
a number of people who had worked with her.

She enjoyed the
reputation of being mean.

Only she wouldn't have said it was mean,
she would have said it was tough.

I asked for something. I did
not get it from you, I want it.

She didn't care about you. She
cared about herself and getting ahead.

She was a narcissist.

The turnover of staff was high.

I don't know how many of 'em
quit and how many of 'em were fired.

You know, we would hear "another one bites
the dust" but we wouldn't know exactly why

I was in her office one day
when she called in an engineer

And she said that
someone's toilet was broken

And they called the front desk
twice and you didn't... You know.

"mrs. Helmsley,
I was off duty that day."

"I'm sorry, you're still fired."
"what do you mean I'm still fired?"

"I never go back on my
decisions. You're fired."

The waiter would come up with this big tray
with stuff on it and it would be rattling.

And she would turn to him and say,
"do I scare you?" "no, mrs. Helmsley."

She was definitely a b*tch, ok? And I
don't mean that in a pejorative sense.

She was hard-nosed.

She was outspoken.
She was feisty.

She believed that as long
as they're talking about you

It doesn't matter what they say. So if she
could get away with it why shouldn't she?

She was powerful. No one
stood up to leona helmsley.

[feldshuh] but leona helmsley
forgot the most important lesson

Which is you keep your friends close
and you keep your enemies closer.

New york, 1985.

The capo v. The don wasn't the
only street fight about to go down.

At that very moment a young
prosecutor was taking aim

At the entire new york mafia.

A move that would rock the
criminal underworld to its very core.

The commission
case was underway.

You're listening to tapes
and reading transcripts

From all the various electronic
surveillances we had going.

We start learning that they're having meetings
in staten island chaired by paul castellano.

We decide,
let's put a wire tap on castellano's house

'cause that's where
the conversations are.

Sure enough, they start talking about
construction and labor racketeering.

[news] authorities say the tape includes talk
of approving new members of the five families

Divvying up control of various
industries and splitting the profits.

[chertoff] there were photographs, there
was physical evidence and, ultimately,

There were witnesses that we talked
to. It was a cl*max of an awful lot of work

The godfathers of the new
york mafia are in big trouble.

They're about to be indicted
on a wide variety of charges.

[newsreader] led by the
reputed boss of all bosses,

Paul castellano,
head of the gambino family,

Four of new york's five
godfathers appeared in federal court

To face a wide range
of racketeering charges.

This case charges more mafia bosses
in one indictment than any ever before.

[kirtzman] giuliani indicted the heads of
all the crime families in one fell swoop.

No one had ever tried anything like that.
There was no limit to giuliani's audacity.

This was not someone who was in favor of
incrementalism. Giuliani went for the top.

[michael winerip] rudy giuliani should
get his credit because the commission case

Was the first big shifting point
where the mafia was in serious retreat.

I was at the press conference where
they announced the commission indictments.

You know,
rudy was front and center.

[mcdonald] there must have been 20 people up
there and he organized how we would be placed

And it was set up so that I was
[laughs] behind a curtain. [laughs]

This is a great day
for law enforcement;

But this is a bad day,
probably the worst, for the mafia.

After he had some success and after
he realized he could exploit that success,

He would sharp elbow people out of the
way so he would get the credit by himself.

[kirtzman] there was no question when
giuliani was boss who called the shots

And everyone else was just kind of a
supporting character in the giuliani movie.

Mission accomplished.
Fame and glory achieved.

It was a major victory
for the kid from brooklyn.

But not even he could have known the
unintended consequences of his actions.

[gabriel] when paul castellano's indicted
it's putting the gambino family in flux.

Probably weakens paul a little bit,
makes 'em vulnerable.

Little bit of internal power
discussions going on.

[newsreader] after
posting $2 million in bail,

Paul castellano was ushered out of
a federal courthouse in manhattan.

[chertoff] when the commission case
was going on, the mob was distracted.

That helped john gotti
consolidate his power.

With the gambino family reeling, the
opportunity to seize supreme power emerged

And this brazen capo would pounce.
The path was clear. The time was now.

[chertoff] on December 16th,


John gotti's crew were waiting outside
sparks steak house in manhattan.

[gabriel] they wear trench coats and
they wear those russian babushka hats.

[chertoff] john gotti and
sammy "bull" gravano

Were parked diagonally
across the street

Waiting for paul
castellano to arrive.

[gabriel] they look over to the right
and they see paul and tommy drive by.

Sammy realized that
the teams were here.

[chertoff] when paul castellano and tommy
bilotti stepped out, gotti's crew acted quickly.

[suspenseful music playing]

Seconds later, john gotti drove
past the scene of the crime.

Sammy sammy "bull" gravano looked
out the window, said, "they're done."

Paul castellano,
the man authorities say

Was the most powerful
mafia boss in the nation

Was shot and k*lled in front of a
new york city restaurant tonight.

Riddled with b*ll*ts on a public street by
rival gangsters, who cursed him as he fell.

A final insult, a b*llet in the
forehead as he lay dead or dying.

[giuliani] what happened in the last day
or two kinda brings you back to reality.

But they're really at the core all about
essentially, barbarians and murders.

[winerip] the k*lling of paul
castellano established john gotti

As the celebrity gangster,
the boss of the gambino crime family.

[newsreader] gotti, then unknown to all
but mob experts, attained overnight fame

As the man said to
be the new godfather.

[gotti] come on, you know I don't know
what the hell you were talking about.

Gotti's a megalomaniac, he'd loved himself,
he thought he was the greatest thing ever

And he wanted
the world to know it.

It helped fuel his notoriety
and he became a folk hero,

Even among the media
that was covering it.

[chertoff] the 1980s is
really this perfect storm

That makes super
heroes out of super villains.

We've become culturally more addicted to
the stories of these larger-than-life people

Whether it's john gotti leona helmsley,
donald trump, ivan boesky,

Or rudy giuliani, one thing that unites
all of these people is a kind of vanity.

They want the public to see

How successful they are,
how rich they are, how powerful they are,

Or how important they are.

But they were all reaching too far, they
were all flying far too close to the sun.

There's no way that that can
continue. You're asking for it.

[dramatic music playing]