♪
For 30 years, the Five Families,
the heart of the mafia,
had a free run in America.
♪
REPORTER: And on the floor,
riddled with five b*ll*ts,
the body of Al Anastasia.
Loan-sharking, prostitution,
taking over unions.
They had their hands
on politics.
♪
They could do
whatever they wanted.
They got away with everything.
[g*nshots]
REPORTER:
The two gentlemen inside
died as a result of multiple
g*nsh*t and shotgun wounds.
♪
MICHAEL FRANZESE: Did we k*ll
as part of that life? Yeah.
If I violate
the terms of this oath,
then I can
pay for it with my life.
♪
[g*nsh*t]
REPORTER: Paul Castellano,
gunned down yesterday
on a public street.
REPORTER: Police officials say
John Gotti has replaced
the late Paul Castellano
as the new head
of the Gambino Family.
MICHAEL: People think
you're taking an oath
to lie, steal, cheat, k*ll.
That's not the oath.
Omertà means one thing:
Silence.
I respectfully
decline to answer.
I respectfully
decline to answer.
I'm not going to answer
another question here
just 'cause
I'm not under arrest
and I'm going to walk out.
"We do not talk to the law.
We do not talk to outsiders.
All of our business is private."
And that is the absolute
rock bottom code of the mafia.
NARRATOR: For half a century,
the mafia stuck
to this sacred oath
and pillaged New York City
and the greater
American economy.
Omertà was the key
to their success.
Without it, they would drown.
♪
Its first major threat
would come in 1963,
in the form of Joseph Valachi,
a man willing to break
this sacred oath
and reveal the structure
and secrets of the mafia.
Those on the inside would soon
learn the cost of doing
business in America,
where greed, individualism
and celebrity
would continuously test
the strength
of their age-old code.
Omertà.
♪
♪
To understand the mafia
in America,
you need to understand
the mafia in Sicily,
the crown jewel
of the Mediterranean Sea.
It had been fought over
for thousands of years.
The Phoenicians,
the Greeks, the Romans,
the Arabs all planted a flag.
In the mid-IXX century,
it belonged
to the Spanish Bourbon dynasty.
Sicily as an island, it develops
its own unique culture,
so that made Sicilians
feel for a long time
different from Italians,
different from Europeans.
Sicily, up until
the IXX century,
was a feudal society
with large land ownings,
owned by absentee landlords
who governed with the help
of middle managers.
In 1860,
General Giuseppe Garibaldi
invaded the island
and brought it
under Italian control,
leading to the most significant
transfer of power
in the history of Sicily.
Suddenly,
there's like a free for all
and everything is for sale.
And at first,
a lot of Sicilians
support and back the unification
of the country of Italy.
However, as time goes on,
a lot of Sicilians
are faced
with a number of crises,
ranging from agricultural strife
to being heavily taxed.
There are some uprisings
against the government.
Those uprisings are put down.
There's a period of disorder.
There are brigands and bandits
who take advantage
of the vacuum of power
that follows this invasion.
♪
[speaking Italian]
♪
They considered themselves
men of honor,
men of respect, men important
enough to be above the law.
These men would soon venture
to New York City
in search of opportunity.
And with them,
they would bring this attitude
of playing by their own rules.
♪
ED O'DONNELL:
Immigration to the United States
in the late IXX and early XX
century explodes.
Things are going poorly
in many European countries.
Poverty, w*r, oppression.
The United States
has lots of opportunity,
many jobs, land, freedom.
And so there's
this huge migration
from Europe
to the United States.
And of that migration,
something on the order
of four million people
come from Italy.
♪
You had immigrants coming
from southern Italy,
the poorest, most uneducated
rural part of the country.
♪
They came here
to a life that probably
was not really much better.
♪
Now they're thrown
into this cauldron
of New York City, the epicenter
of modern industrialization
and capitalism.
There are dozens and dozens
of ethnic groups,
and it's a really intense,
competitive environment
just to survive.
♪
BILL TONELLI: From the old
country, they brought with them
a certain amount of clanishness.
They relied on family even more
than the Italians did in Italy,
and they didn't expect
anything good from authority.
They didn't expect
any help from outside.
So they came here
with those same attitudes.
The gangsters
and the grandmothers
all had the same worldview.
♪
CHRISTOPHER BONANOS: The most
famous Italian-American
neighborhood in New York City
is obviously the Little Italy
centered on Mulberry and Mott
Streets in Lower Manhattan.
But there were a scattering
of others as well.
ANTHONY DESTEFANO:
Certain neighborhoods were
largely Italian American,
and the criminal element
held sway because they knew
where everybody was,
knew where everybody lived.
♪
It was kind of like a cocoon
where people didn't want
to cooperate necessarily
with police because they knew
the criminals were in the area.
♪
In the early 1900s, crime
in New York City was ubiquitous,
as it was everywhere else,
but it was also
pretty small scale.
There's a bit of what we might
call low level organized crime,
but it's really just local gangs
that control maybe
four or five blocks,
and they are shaking down
and extorting from people
within their own neighborhoods.
ANTHONY DESTEFANO:
In East Harlem, there were
Italian people from all over.
It had a number
of characters who were,
I guess you could call them
padrones, who were important
to the neighborhood as kind
of quasi-crime figures.
♪
And could be
a source of employment,
could be a source of money,
could be a source of trouble.
♪
In the early XX century,
these local criminal groups
ruled across New York City.
♪
Then, in 1919,
they were presented
with a new revenue stream,
and it was bigger
than any racket they ever had.
Prohibition, a nationwide ban
on the sale and transport
of alcohol officially began
in 1920.
The opponents of alcohol, who
bring us Prohibition in 1920,
think they've achieved
a great victory.
But what they don't know
is that Prohibition
is going to turn out
to be an incredible gift
from teetotaler America
to the mob because they are able
to capitalize on this gigantic
national black market.
Americans do not lose
their thirst
for alcohol in Prohibition.
CLAIRE WHITE: It's all
about that supply and demand,
and it really allows
mobsters in the city
to consolidate power
and to build wealth,
becoming millionaires
thanks to Prohibition.
SELWYN RAAB:
Prohibition was an earthquake.
Overnight,
these roving groups had
to get a semblance
of how to operate.
They had to go from being just
street hoods into executives.
♪
SAMI JARROUSH: Bootlegging
was the ill*gal importation
of alcohol from Canada,
the UK, from the Caribbean,
into the United States
of America.
Now, in order
to get the liquor in,
you need to have people that are
going to meet these boats.
♪
And so bootlegging starts
to pick up in places
like New York and Chicago,
for example,
because these are cities
with ports of entry.
Prohibition is going
to turn organized crime
in New York City
from very disorganized,
very competitive
into, like, a corporation.
They need transportation,
they need accountants,
they need lawyers.
And all of this requires
a lot of sophistication
and a lot of organization,
much like the legit businesses
that are thriving in America.
So Prohibition turns the mob
into a corporate
business-like structure.
♪
The change in legislation
gave these criminals
an opportunity to level up,
an opportunity
to make more money,
demand more respect,
and ultimately
redefine themselves.
♪
By the late 1920s, two men,
Joe Masseria
and Salvatore Maranzano,
had emerged as two
of the most powerful bootleggers
in New York City.
Masseria in East Harlem,
Maranzano in Brooklyn.
Each recruited a g*ng
of young Italian immigrants
to help run their operations.
Lines were drawn
between the two factions.
And in 1930,
a violent fight for control
over the bootlegging market
played out in the streets.
Bodies turned up
all over the city,
from office buildings
in East Harlem
to courtyards in the Bronx.
It was bloody,
but blood is bad for business.
Masseria's lieutenants,
Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello
knew that if they wanted
to make real money,
the power struggle
would have to end.
So they made a move.
April 15th, 1931. Coney island.
Lucky Luciano and Joe the Boss
met here at Nuovo Villa Tammaro.
Lobster, mussels,
linguini with clams
and cards.
♪
After lunch...
Big Joe was put on the spot.
[g*n c*ck]
[g*nsh*t]
Less than five months later,
at his office in Midtown...
[g*n c*ck, g*nshots]
...it's Sal Maranzano
who meets his end.
With the old guard
out of the way
and a clean slate
in front of them,
a younger generation
of mafioso,
led by Charles "Lucky" Luciano,
established a new thing.
♪
...with new rules.
SELWYN: So Lucky Luciano was
the Godfather of the Godfathers,
was the main gangster
who created
not only the Five Families,
but some 20 other odd Families
throughout the country.
Luciano realized he needed
some sort of structure
to enforce his new ways
of doing business.
He also wanted to ensure
that there would never
be a w*r between the Families,
so he created the Commission,
a ruling board
consisting of the heads
of each Family.
Luciano's First Commission
had seven voting members:
Chicago, Buffalo
and the New York Five.
The Commission was, in effect,
the Board of Directors,
a ruling body
who wrote the constitution
for the American mafia.
He wanted to make sure
that the Five Families
in New York would be
the kingpins and they became
the only permanent members
of the Commission.
So, in effect,
he made the Five Families
the rulers
of the entire American mafia.
♪
SAMI: The Commission
is bringing together
all of New York's
Five Families,
and you have
the five heads of those Families
that are sort of working
in tandem with one another
to make sure that no one
really steps on anybody's toes.
In 1931, New York's
Five Families were headed
by Lucky Luciano,
Joseph Profaci,
Vincent Mangano,
Tommy Gagliano and Joe Bonanno.
♪
Each Family abided
by the same set of rules.
Rules that would
make them powerful,
rules that would make them rich.
♪
Rules that would make them
one of the most successful
organizations in America,
reputedly second in size only
to the US Government itself.
Members were required
to have Sicilian roots.
Each Family maintained the same
organizational structure,
and were to obey the boss.
They were to live
by a code of honor:
No drugs, respect other members
and their significant others.
It was to be
a lifetime membership
and, most importantly,
Omertà, silence,
honor and absolute loyalty
to the Family.
♪
SAMI:
So omertà becomes probably
the most pivotal rule
in mafioso lifestyle.
Never rat out your friends,
never rat out your Family.
Remain loyal to your Family
and you should be okay.
But if you talk outside
of that code of silence...
you never know
what might happen to you.
♪
They live by these rules,
and the bosses demanded
with a blood oath
that even the lowest levels
of their organizations
do the same.
♪
The blood oath
that a lowly soldier
by the name
of Joseph Valachi took
and would one day betray.
♪
New York's Five Families
found success
in the early XX century
for myriad reasons.
A big one was their agility.
With every political
or economic shift,
be it on a city,
state or national scale,
the Five Families
were there to capitalize.
ED: In the aftermath of
the stock market crash in '29,
the American economy
goes into a free fall.
By the early 1930s,
the unemployment rate
in America is 25%.
So economic suffering
is all across the country.
♪
ALEX HORTIS:
During the Great Depression,
when the country was suffering,
in many ways
the mob was booming.
There's a great line
that there's two things
that are resistant
to economic downturns.
One is certain aspects
of the entertainment industry,
and the other
is this thing of ours,
the mafia, and the reason
that it could survive,
really, and thrive is because
people still were going out.
They wanted to be entertained.
The Five Families
bootlegging operation thrived
despite the economic turmoil
of the early '30s,
but their world
changed dramatically
when Prohibition ended in 1933.
The end of Prohibition
on December 5th, 1933,
is a great day for America.
It's not such a great day
for the mafia
because this black market
that they've made
tens and hundreds of millions
of dollars in is suddenly gone.
Alcohol is now legal.
CLAIRE WHITE:
This is a period when they sort
of have to reevaluate.
We start seeing the beginning
of labor racketeering,
getting into the unions.
ED: The Great Depression
leads to the election
of Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
and he brings to his office
this idea of the New Deal.
The federal government
is going to do things to pull
America out
of the Great Depression.
One of the biggest achievements
of the New Deal
is the Wagner Act,
which is a package
of labor laws
that essentially
establishes workers
have the right to join a union.
And so the American
labor movement
flourishes as never before.
♪
The mafia realizes
that labor unions
present a tremendous opportunity
because labor unions
are big organizations.
They pull in dues.
They actually have
fairly large cash flow,
and they also are attached
to businesses
that make a lot of money.
What made unions
susceptible to infiltration,
they were run, you know,
for the most part,
by people in the neighborhood.
So you could threaten people
that you knew
within the labor union because
they were often their neighbors,
or at least
within the same borough.
Another aspect
that made them vulnerable
is that labor unions
could buy you, quote,
"peace," labor peace,
and so the incentives to cut
deals with labor union leaders
was just very strong
and overwhelming.
A lot of times, these
labor unions also represented,
you know, workers that were
quite individually weak,
they certainly
didn't have the ability
to stand up to corruption.
You know, the classic
is the docks.
♪
These docks service
this enormous market.
All these goods were moving
in and out of it,
but there's very limited space
down on, you know,
the southern end of Manhattan.
And so, as a result,
if you control the docks,
you control literally
the space there.
You control commerce going
in and out of New York.
♪
In this one tight region is
So if you were trying
to skim a little money from some
kind of transaction,
where better to do it than
where all the spending
is taking place?
If you could skim off
a little money from the security
apparatus, a factory inspection,
or the shipping,
you could, of course,
make a fortune.
And people did.
♪
CLAIRE: Every period
of transition in history
sort of creates
these new avenues for the mob,
and that's one of the reasons
that the Italian American mafia
is so successful,
is their ability to be
very nimble
and sort of transition
into new business opportunities
when it arises.
So during World w*r II,
what that really means is
taking advantage
of the ration card system.
MAN: A day which will live
in infamy.
♪
ED: For the United States,
World w*r II begins
on December, 1941, when
the Japanese b*mb Pearl Harbor.
Suddenly the country
does everything it can to put
millions of people into uniform
and into the action
in Europe and in Asia.
The United States
also imposes restrictions
and rationing on all
kinds of vital supplies
so that the military won't be
wanting for these supplies.
All sorts of things
that Americans typically
would have easy access to,
tires and pantyhose
and gasoline.
So the mob turns the crisis
of World w*r II into a fantastic
black market opportunity
and they make millions.
The Five Families had not
only survived, but flourished
through Prohibition,
the Depression and World w*r II.
And by the early '40s, they
were tapped into revenue streams
all over New York City.
They'd extort local businesses,
traffic illicit goods,
run gambling operations
in the neighborhoods
and give loans
to business owners in a pinch.
Their portfolio was diversified
and their lifestyle comfortable.
These were the glory years.
During this time,
each of the Five Families
carved out their different
expertise and territories.
Joe Bonanno could move
anything anywhere.
One of the preeminent
traffickers of illicit goods
in the Northeast.
Tommy Gagliano controlled
garment unions in the Bronx.
Don Mangano
had the Brooklyn docks
and reigned over garbage trucks
all over the city.
His pal Joe Profaci
had a gambling ring
in Brooklyn that brought in
$5 million a week.
That'd be more than $100 million
a week by today's standards.
Outside of gambling, Profaci
was known as the Olive Oil King.
His Mamma Mia Olive Oil Company
was the biggest importer
of olive oil and tomato paste
in the United States.
Lucky Luciano, the guy
who invented the Commission,
was convicted in 1936
for running a prostitution ring.
He was sent to prison
for 30 to 50 years.
That didn't impact business.
Next in the chain of command
was Frank Costello,
and everybody knew Frank.
♪
Costello wasn't his real name.
He adopted an Irish name,
and that was part
of Costello's personality.
That he tried
to represent himself
as a legitimate businessman.
[indistinct chatter]
ED: Costello is different
from a lot of the mobsters
from his era.
And Costello also wants
to be taken seriously,
so he dresses very nicely,
he hobnobs with famous people.
He has great parties
at his penthouse
where judges and politicians
and business people come,
and he really craves
that kind of respect.
ANTHONY: He had a certain
smoothness to himself,
and he knew
how to handle politicians,
how to create that aura.
♪
Frank Costello, for his time,
was the gangster that people
looked up to and wanted
to emulate and were envious of.
ED: Costello liked
the nightlife in New York,
and so he was often seen
out at nightclubs,
including a club that he owned
a share in, the Copacabana.
Frank Costello was known
as the Prime Minister
Of the underworld.
Another name he acquired
was King of Slots.
He had ill*gal casinos
across the United States.
He also invested
in legal casinos
in Las Vegas as well as in Cuba.
ANTHONY: Frank purchased
a country home, so to speak,
out on Long Island
in Sands Point.
Wanted to be part
of the North Shore community,
which had a certain
good reputation.
SELWYN:
He believed he was important,
and he tried to, in effect,
say, "I'm a gambler
and I'm a businessman
but I'm not really a gangster."
♪
[birds chirping]
♪
Costello hid behind
an aura of legitimacy
and professionalism, and
for a while that worked for him,
but when the US Senate
launched an investigation
into gambling in 1950,
Costello was under fire.
SAMI: So we have a first term
senator from the state
of Tennessee
by the name of Estes Kefauver.
Kefauver is someone
that organizes and puts together
a committee that wants
to look at...
what is seen as the lifeblood
of organized crime
at the time,
which was interstate gambling.
CLAIRE: The Kefauver committee
was really looking
at these things
that broke interstate laws,
that broke federal laws
and transporting
of slot machines
and other coin-out machines
is definitely a big thing
that they were looking into,
not just with Costello, but,
you know, a lot of the mobsters
who were called to testify
for Kefauver
were in some way connected
to ill*gal gambling.
♪
Once the public hearings
began in 1951,
an estimated 30 million
Americans tuned
into their televisions to watch.
SAMI: Now, this is
incredibly exciting
for the American public
for a couple of reasons.
First off, it's the 1950s.
And by the 1950s, we're looking
at the burgeoning era
of a new medium
known as television.
MAN: The hearing
will please be in order.
So when Estes Kefauver decides
that these are hearings
that need to be televised,
this is a huge opportunity
for the American public to watch
these hearings and to also
sort of see who are
these nefarious characters
that Kefauver is specifically
trying to target and go after.
[tapping sounds]
ANTHONY: Costello appeared
very evasive, a bit combative,
and he became across
as somebody that was shady.
Costello was so sure
of himself that he could pass
as a legitimate businessman,
that, unlike all
the other bosses, he went
before the committee and thought
he could handle himself.
And it ruined him.
They found holes
in his testimony.
So, in effect,
it led to IRS investigations
and led to his imprisonment.
♪
In 1954, Frank Costello
was sentenced
to five years in prison
for tax evasion.
But by 1957,
he was back out on the street
with much bigger problems
on his hands.
SELWYN: One of Costello's
problems was
that when he inherited
Lucky Luciano's Family,
the real underboss
at the time was Vito Genovese.
He was a very romantic guy,
and he was in pursuit
of a woman.
He k*lled another rival
and he had to flee.
Genovese had to leave
the country in the late 1930s.
But Genovese finally
came back to the States
and he wanted
to take over the Family.
He believed it was his.
And he would stop at nothing.
No rule, no code could keep
Vito Genovese
from going after what he
believed was rightfully his.
♪
In 1957, the Five Families
were nearing
in New York City.
largely because there
had been 30 years
of relative peace
since the murders
of Joe Masseria
and Sal Maranzano.
No bloody turf wars,
no public slayings.
Conflict was dealt with
in the shadows,
and members had,
for the most part,
upheld their oath
and stuck to the rules.
But that was about to change.
♪
Frank Costello had
been boss of his Family
since 1937,
much to the displeasure
of the Family's underboss,
Vito Genovese.
Genovese thought
the seat should be his,
and the tension began to boil.
ANTHONY: Genovese and Costello
were working together.
They probably
respected each other.
I don't think
they liked each other.
SAMI: Frank Costello brings
more of a businessman air
to the role.
Dapper suits, nice looking guy,
well quaffed hair.
Knows how to deal
with people in high places,
knows how to deal
with politicians.
Genovese is a bit
more rough around the edges.
He's a bit more sh**t now,
ask questions later kind of guy.
ANTHONY: Genovese, he tried
his hand at a number
of legitimate businesses
but, unlike Costello,
didn't do very well.
He had a poultry business,
a liquor business,
a gambling boat venture.
They all failed.
But he had control.
He was a vicious guy,
more vicious than Costello,
and people, you know,
gave him the deference.
SAMI: So when Genovese sees
Frank Costello sitting
in the seat of power, he's like,
"Well, that's not fair.
"That's supposed to be my role.
"I was the guy
that was under Lucky Luciano.
How dare you sit in my spot?"
So there was this envy,
I would say hate,
but it was just
maybe good business sense
on Genovese's part
to try to get rid of Costello.
[heart beating]
Frank Costello was
having a dinner and coffee
at some Upper East Side
restaurants,
not far from his home
on Central Park West.
And he had to go back home.
He got into the door
of the apartment building.
And heard the famously,
"Frank, this is for you."
Frank turned his head.
Instead of hitting straight on,
sort of grazed
Frank's turning head.
♪
And the sh**ter fled.
♪
Costello survived
the attempt on his life.
When questioned by police after,
he claimed he never got
a good look at the sh**ter.
But even if he had,
it wouldn't matter.
The Commission rules
still held... Omertà.
The Majestic's doorman, however,
did not live by the same code.
He got a good look,
and when presented
with photos by investigators,
he identified Vincent Gigante.
PAUL W. WILLIAMS: Gigante was,
according to our information,
a protégé of Genovese.
He was the bright boy.
He was the rising star
of the underworld.
My name is Rita Gigante.
I am the daughter
of Vincent Gigante.
Someone came to Vito
and said, you know,
"Look at this kid, he's..."
you know, "He's promising."
♪
He knew he had to do
something to prove himself.
But he liked Frank
and he missed.
I don't think he really,
in a sense, wanted to do that.
ANTHONY: Frank Costello would
later testify that he didn't
have a good view
of who the sh**ter was.
The story I heard
was that as Costello was leaving
the witness box,
Gigante supposedly said,
"Thanks, Frank."
After that,
they actually became friends.
Costello had Gigante over
for dinner
and drinks at his apartment.
The hatchet,
so to speak, was buried.
But this all sort of created
the thought in Costello's mind
that, "Hey, maybe
I should step back
and, if I want to survive,
sort of retire."
♪
Frank Costello would relinquish
control of his Family
to Vito Genovese
and fall into the background.
He would not seek revenge
in the streets
or on the witness stand.
He'd uphold his end
of the deal,
put the Family first
and follow the code,
but Genovese's brazen act
did not go unnoticed
by the other bosses.
Albert Anastasia lobbied
the Commission to approve
a hit on Genovese,
and tension got high.
On the brink
of an all-out w*r, Joe Bonanno,
the secure leader
of his own Family,
mediated a peace agreement
and successfully
settled the ship.
♪
In the aftermath
of the intervention, Bonanno
declared himself
the capo consigliere,
chief counselor
of the Commission.
It was a made up title,
but enough for Bonanno
to believe he was
above the law
and above the rules...
especially when it came
to drugs.
The rule was they didn't deal
in narcotics, but the other rule
was, "We make as much money
as we can, any way we can."
So in the late 1950s,
America has a heroin market,
but it's very small.
Heroin was made ill*gal in 1924.
So there's a black market
opportunity here.
CLAIRE: Joe Bonanno is
definitely looking
to increase his power
and increase his financial
stake in the Commission.
For him,
the 1950s is a good period
for that,
for a couple of reasons.
He does seize this opening
in the heroin trade,
and I think he really
does use this transfer
of power as an opportunity
to elevate himself.
Looking to capitalize
on his improved stature
within the Commission,
Bonanno arranged
a meeting back in Sicily.
ANNA SERGI: So the meeting
was really an occasion
for Joe Bonanno to show off
his so-called leadership.
Joe Bonanno wanted to portray
himself as a spokesperson
for all of the Americans,
the most important boss,
the boss who could change
everyone else's mind.
So we do know that a lot
of Americans were at the meeting
in an attempt
to set up an international
intercontinental business
for drugs.
ED: And the big question
on the table is,
"How can we create
an organization and a system
"by which we can import heroin
from Europe
into the United States?"
ALEX STILLE: And they basically
divide up the world,
so to speak,
and come to an agreement
about division of labor
between Sicilian
and American organized crime.
♪
Bonanno and the bosses
in Sicily
came up with this idea.
The Sicilians
would bring the heroin
into the States, and
the Americans would tell them
where there were good markets.
♪
So this was territory
that the Sicilians
had no knowledge.
They needed guidance.
And they brought it in.
They brought it in.
They packaged it very cheap,
$5 and $10 bags.
And the Americans,
especially Bonanno,
believed this was a good way
of earning a buck
without doing anything.
The mafia got a commission.
They didn't have to do anything.
The Sicilians were happy
'cause they had a big market.
CLAIRE: Meeting in Palermo,
being able to make
these connections
with the Sicilian mafia
and solidify
these transportation routes
to get heroin
into the United States
is what he sees
as his ticket forward.
The drug trade
in the '50s and '60s
is interesting because the mafia
doesn't ever want to admit,
even to themselves, that they're
that involved in the drug trade.
The 1950s, '60s,
is coming
into the United States
through the Italian-American
mafia.
Joe Bonanno
and the Five Families'
investment in the drug trade
over the next several decades
would ultimately become
a tremendous burden.
Members would choose
to overlook the threat
of law enforcement
in favor of increased profits,
a decision that would k*ll
their organization
from inside out,
while devastating cities
throughout the United States.
ED: With this new flow of heroin
onto the streets of America,
Americans are going
to take up heroin in a big way.
SELWYIN: The most grievous sin
that the mafia in America
committed is the damage
that it did to the big cities.
There was no heroin in Harlem.
There was no heroin
in the Lower East Side
or in Brooklyn.
And what it did was
it destroyed the inner cities.
And it's a sin
that's still with us today.
♪
♪
New York City, late 1957.
While Joe Bonanno
and other Family leaders
worked to design
a new drug operation,
Vito Genovese had officially
dethroned Frank Costello and was
now one of the most powerful
gangsters in New York City.
Next in his sights
was Albert Anastasia.
Anastasia became boss
of the Mangano Family in 1951,
and had campaigned to have
Vito Genovese whacked
after Vito orchestrated
the sh**ting of Frank Costello.
Now, Anastasia wasn't someone
to mess around with.
He had come up as a member
of m*rder Inc.,
a band of contract K*llers
from New York's Lower East Side.
He was known
as Lord High Executioner.
That probably says enough.
Guy was a k*ller.
So, sensing a potential threat,
Vito Genovese
decided to act first.
♪
While Albert Anastasia
enjoyed a fresh trim
at Grasso's barbershop
in the Park Sheraton Hotel,
a hit squad from Brooklyn walked
right through the front door.
[c*ck g*n]
REPORTER: Inside the barbershop,
on the floor,
riddled with five b*ll*ts,
the body of Al Anastasia.
REPORTER: They walked up inside,
shot him on the head.
He fell from the chair.
They fired again.
REPORTER: Chief, do you have
any leads at all?
I got a dead body,
haven't I?
REPORTER: Although it seemed
like yesterday,
it was another era,
an era of the flamboyant mobster
and the Hollywood type rub-out.
ANTHONY: Officially, the m*rder
of Albert Anastasia
has not been solved,
which is not unusual
for a lot of mob killings
from that period.
But the perception is
that Genovese saw him
as a threat because he was
an ally of Frank Costello.
No one had pulled off
a gangland style slaying
like this since the killings
of Joe Masseria
and Sal Maranzano in 1931.
It was the work
of an up-and-coming crew
led by Crazy Joe Gallo,
a guy from South Brooklyn
with his own ideas about rules.
With the death
of Albert Anastasia,
Vito Genovese
seized even more power.
And, at the same time,
like Joe Bonanno
and his Sicilian allies,
Vito Genovese
was growing his stake
in the emerging heroin market.
ED: Part of Vito Genovese's plan
in 1957
is to present himself
effectively
as the boss of the bosses,
the top mafia guy in America.
And so they come up with
this plan to hold this summit
in a very remote area
in Apalachin, New York.
♪
November 14, 1957.
Apalachin, New York.
Population: 277.
A local here,
named Joseph Barbara, sold soda,
but he used to be a bootlegger.
And anyone who knew
anything up here knew
that Joe The Barber
was still in the game.
State Police Sergeant
Edgar D. Croswell
was well aware
of Barbara's underworld ties.
So when he got wind
that some visitors were in town
and 20 pounds of veal
were headed to Barbara's house,
he decided to do a drive-by.
Lo and behold, a secret society,
La Cosa Nostra, in plain sight.
SAMI: The problem
with this meeting
is that when you have
numerous vehicles
sitting outside of a home...
It's not in the city.
It's in New York State,
out in the rural areas
of New York.
People might get
a bit suspicious.
SGT. EDGAR D. CROSWELL: These
fellows just did not fit in.
They were all
extremely well dressed.
Most of them
had Italian accents.
Some... Two or three told us
they couldn't speak English
at all.
They were standouts.
Sergeant Croswell quickly
called in reinforcements.
Agents from federal, state,
and county law enforcement
reported for backup.
With roads blocked
and the house surrounded,
the agents captured 58
of approximately
ED: So this secret summit that's
going to elevate Vito Genovese
as this genius new boss turns,
out to be a total disaster.
And so a lot of these people
are arrested, and eventually
all the charges are overturned,
but it's
a massive embarrassment,
black eye for Vito Genovese.
♪
ANTHONY:
Some theorize that Costello
may have set up Genovese,
tipping off on the meeting.
It's been unproven.
Their names became
all over the newspapers.
Their affairs
were being looked into,
their Families
were being looked into.
ALEX HORTIS: To a lot of people,
it clearly established
that there certainly
was a mafia that,
if not rule nationwide,
it had connections
across state lines.
And that, of course,
starts to put pressure
then on federal agencies.
ANTHONY:
If this was a secret society,
you're not living
in a secret society anymore.
You're all over the place, and
everybody was being identified.
And it really lowered the esteem
of Vito Genovese in the mafia.
♪
SELWYN:
So it led to a lot of problems.
It led to problems for Genovese,
for everybody else.
He was blamed for all
this publicity he brought upon
by having the same place
and the desire for a meeting
that nobody else wanted.
JACOB GRUMET: So far,
as our fight on organized crime
is concerned, we're going
to continue our efforts
unabated, and I hope
that someday we'll get a break
and finally determine
just what did happen
at that now notorious meeting
at Apalachin.
[indistinct chatter]
Are you going to have
anything to say, Mr. Genovese?
Are you going to cooperate
with the Commission?
ANTHONY: Organized crime,
certainly after Apalachin,
became a ground zero
for law enforcement,
because a lot of them
were rousted by the police,
and they faced all sorts
of federal problems.
And then you had a lot
of investigations spawned
off of that trouble,
which created
nothing but problems
for the organized crime bosses.
Bonanno bet big
on the drug trade.
Frank was forced
into retirement.
Al Anastasia had his last shave,
and then Apalachin.
The mafia was now
public enemy number one.
The Families had strayed
from the rules
and would pay the price for it.
As chairman of the Committee,
do you want a lawyer present
to represent you
while you testify?
In 1957, Congress formed
a new committee
aimed at investigating
organized crime.
The Senate Select Committee
on Improper Activities
in the Labor
or Management Field
was chaired by Senator
John L. McClellan,
a Democrat from Arkansas.
This new McClellan Committee
would call gangsters
to the stand
into the next decade
and serve as the venue
for the most revelatory look
inside the mob
in the organization's history.
CLAIRE:
The Senate McClellan Hearings
starts out primarily focused
on the Teamsters Union.
But in November,
after the Apalachin bust,
they really start
to shift focus.
♪
In late 1957,
roughly 100 mobsters visited
the home of Joseph Barbara
in the sleepy town
of Apalachin, New York.
Law enforcement's
fortuitous raid of the meeting
resulted in the booking
of 58 mafia chieftains.
Investigators concluded
that 22 of them were
officially employed by unions
or held labor relations jobs.
So later that year,
mafia bosses from New York City
and around the country
were subpoenaed to testify
in front
of the Senate Select Committee
on Improper Activities in
the Labor or Management Field.
It was led by Senator
John L. McClellan
and Robert F. Kennedy.
MAN:
The McClellan Rackets Committee.
In an effort to prove Teamster
ties with the underworld,
the Senators question
many witnesses.
ED: The McClellan
Committee hearings' focus
is on the connection
between unions and the mob,
and they're determined
to figure out,
"What can we do
to root out this problem
of criminality and corruption
in American unions?"
CLAIRE: One of the people
who testifies in front
of the Rackets Committee
was Crazy Joey Gallo.
♪
Joey Gallo and his brothers
Larry and Albert
were from Brooklyn,
up-and-comers
and members
of Joseph Profaci's Family.
Joey Gallo is one
of these old school,
larger than life gangsters.
♪
FRANK DiMATTEO:
Joey was out of his mind,
wanted to k*ll everybody,
beat everybody up,
and didn't trust anybody.
♪
TOM FOLSOM: He's erratic
and he's sort of terrifying.
But he also has these ideas
about the future
of organized crime that are
really going against the grain
of what the traditional
mob culture was at the time.
♪
FRANK DiMATTEO:
Larry was always the boss.
He's the brains of the crew.
My father was Larry's bodyguard
from '61 to the day he died.
♪
TOM: And then we have
Albert "Kid Blast,"
the youngest one.
The Gallos performed
probably the most spectacular
mob k*lling of the XX century,
the Albert Anastasia hit.
♪
Joey Gallo and his brother Larry
were credited as being
the masterminds of that k*lling.
And so it's said
that that's how they became
made men of the Profaci Family.
The k*lling of Albert Anastasia
put the Gallo brothers
on the map.
When they were initiated
into the Profaci Family
shortly after,
or straightened out,
as they'd say, insiders knew
they must have been
the ones behind the hit.
FRANK DiMATTEO:
Albert Anastasia got k*lled.
Right after that, Joey Gallo,
Larry Gallo got made
in the Profaci Family.
In this world, if you know,
there's no other reason for it,
you don't straighten out
somebody unless they earned it.
After the Anastasia k*lling,
the Gallos would forever
be known as g*ns for hire.
But they made their real money
in South Brooklyn,
in Red Hook.
They worked for Local 19,
a Teamsters union
that repaired jukeboxes
and extorted local businesses.
Word got around.
On February 17th, 1959,
Joey and Larry Gallo were called
to testify in front of
Senator McClellan's Committee.
FRANK DiMATTEO:
Everybody gets called.
Joey and Larry get called.
MAN: ...shall be the truth,
the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth,
so help you God.
Joey gets famous on TV for that,
for his glasses,
his Ray-Bans and his smoking.
♪
Joey had no fear. He would plead
the Fifth 150 times.
MAN: Are you also known
as a racketeer and gangster?
I respectfully decline to answer
because I honestly believe
my answer might tend
to incriminate me.
TOM: He's got slick back hair,
the shades,
black suit jacket, no tie,
just chain smoking.
The Senator's getting furious.
Have you a father and mother?
I respectfully decline to answer
because I honestly believe
my answer might tend to--
Are you what's known
as a thug or a hoodlum?
I respectfully decline to answer
because I honestly believe
my answer might
tend to incriminate me.
SEAN McWEENEY:
So he was a personality,
a beacon for publicity.
If he was interviewed,
someone stopped him
on the street, the newspaper,
he would talk to the papers.
Joey, what about these stories
that some of your friends are
unhappy they can't get
out of jail because of you?
When I left them, they were
having a party over there,
and they really... were really
having a good time over there.
Yeah, that civil jail is
more like a hotel than a jail.
It's a big hotel, one big hotel.
- Do you miss the place?
- No, no.
[laughter]
Joey Gallo,
he's got the cameras rolling.
He's on national television.
It just scares the pants off
of mom and pop in Omaha,
you know, watching these things.
ED: And the 1950s is a period
in which almost every
American family,
by the end of the decade,
has acquired a television.
And so they are able
to watch these hearings
and see these characters
and hear the accusations
about misappropriation of funds
and intimidation,
union election fixing,
and it's throwing the light
on these shady dealings between
big time unions and the mob.
♪
ALEX HORTIS:
It was great TV.
It was probably...
its most significant
impression
on the American public.
And it did sort of made
people more afraid,
had more reasons
to not like New York
or some of the other
big cities like,
"Oh, that's where all
the gangsters
and racketeers are."
CLAIRE: The 1950s
and moving into the 1960s
are some big decades for Gallo.
A lot happens for him.
He's in an organization
where the power dynamics
and the power struggles
are challenging for him.
♪
TOM: Where do the Gallo brothers
stand in this trajectory
of Five Families of New York?
♪
They're the first ones
who decided,
"I don't care
about your Sicilian codes,
"and I don't care
about other codes Lucky Luciano
"put in place
when he built the Commission.
"We're going to do it our way,
and you're going
to have to deal with this."
Once you get
the next generation,
especially in the 1950s,
the kids on jukeboxes,
they're not coming back.
The ideas of omertà
are inevitably gonna get lost
in the American
cultural landscape.
♪
♪
Joey and Larry Gallo's testimony
in front
of the McClellan Committee
in February 1959
put them on a national stage
and on the radar of every
mafia member in New York City.
They kept their mouths shut,
honored omertà,
but still made
a mockery of the hearings
and made a name
for themselves in the process.
Having any sort
of public persona
is never a good thing
for those in a secret society,
and back in South Brooklyn,
the Gallos were starting
to get a reputation.
TOM: The Gallo brothers
were folk heroes
of Red Hook, Brooklyn,
the sort of king
of the neighborhood,
king of the streets.
♪
What you have to remember about
the neighborhood of Red Hook
is that it used to be
the Little Italy of Brooklyn.
♪
The highway czar of New York,
Robert Moses,
decides it's a slum.
He decides he's going
to lop off Red Hook
by the Brooklyn waterfront with
the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
It's basically cut off
from the main part of Brooklyn.
And so it loses its status
as The Little Italy.
It starts to become
more decrepit,
starts to become ignored.
And so that fosters a lot
of anti-establishment feeling.
And the Gallo brothers
fit right into that.
They're the heroes
of the neighborhood.
SEAN: They hung out
on President Street.
It was called the Dormitory,
three story building.
They had a social club
at the bottom.
A lot of people used to pass by,
and just to see him
hanging out there.
They allegedly had
a mountain lion in the basement.
♪
FRANK DiMATTEO: We had a lion
in the early '60s.
Some guy from New York.
I think his name Tony,
I think his name was.
He had at an exotic store
in Manhattan.
And he called up and said
that he had a lion, a cub.
So Joey and Larry said,
"Man, yeah,
that's what we want."
So they went to New York,
they picked him up.
They drove him
to President Street.
♪
In a short time, he got big.
♪
Someone was always...
wasn't paying something.
Always a problem
with people gambling
or lending money to degenerates,
didn't want to pay.
You gotta collect your money.
So Joey got the idea
of scaring people with the lion.
♪
Chain used to rattle
lion used to run up the stairs,
and these people used
to get scared right away.
These guys used to [bleep]
their pants.
TOM:
The lion's name was Cleo.
When the idea is that you got
a guy owes us a bit of money,
"What are we going to do
with this deadbeat?"
Well, you know,
you bring him down
to the basement
and introduce him to Cleo
and all of a sudden, you know,
he empties out his pockets.
This kind of became part
of the Gallo-lore,
turning these pretty hardened
hoods into bit of a carnival.
[growls]
"Don't mess with those Gallos.
They're crazy.
That crew's crazy.
Don't mess with them." You know?
The Gallos liked to march
to the beat of their own drum.
But they were still a part
of a larger organization.
They had a boss,
just like everyone else.
And in the late '50s
and early '60s,
their boss controlled
all of South Brooklyn.
From lone sharks to bookies
to traffickers
down on the docks,
everybody had to answer
to Joe Profaci.
♪
ALEX HORTIS: Joe Profaci was
an extremely long-tenured boss.
He is involved
in the South Brooklyn region.
He wasn't considered
a quote, unquote good boss.
He was considered
a little too isolated,
a little too, quote, greedy.
So that was
what his street reputation was.
I think...
Joey called him a prick.
♪
The Olive Oil King.
But in the small world
known as the Prick.
He was never very well liked.
Oh, yes, in his circle
they liked him
'cause they were making
a lot of money.
Gambling, lending money,
hijacking.
That was
their three main things.
Profaci was more South Brooklyn,
the docks,
and Joe Profaci actually had
some legitimate industries
there as well.
TOM: Again, his front is
being the olive oil company.
But Joe Profaci,
he's a tough nut,
and there's a tradition
in old mafia lore,
which is called
"Wetting the beak."
It's taking a piece
of your profits where,
let's say you hijack,
something or another.
"We're going to take 20%
of that."
Well, Joe Profaci
likes to take
more than what he
should be taking.
For Joe, it's his way
of keeping the troops in line.
But this starts to foster
a lot of resentment.
Profaci had this great manor
in Bath Beach,
and gave all his spoils
to his own little children.
I think Tony Bennett sang
at the Don's daughter's wedding.
The Profacis
living in splendor
and the Gallos are living
in their grandmother's
tenement on the edge
of the waterfront in Red Hook.
MICHAEL FRANZESE: My dad was
in the Profaci Family.
Dad liked Joe Profaci
and got along with him.
He said he was
a little bit greedy.
He said greed
is what kills bosses.
But he didn't
talk too much about him,
just that he was greedy.
It was excessive.
He was a hard guy
to get along with.
So the Gallos said,
"No, we're not doing it."
TOM:
So these Sicilian traditions
that Joe Profaci was bringing
in from the old country,
this just wasn't washing
with Joe Gallo
and the American-born generation
that he was part of.
ALEX HORTIS: Profaci was very,
very conservative and quiet.
He doesn't get along
with the Gallos.
And the Gallos have
their own brother-led unit.
And so Profaci
outgrew the era of the time.
He had overstayed his welcome.
♪
FRANK DiMATTEO: So they went
to try to go to the captains
and to outside
to force Joe Profaci
to do the right thing.
They wanted these guys
to go to Profaci
and make him give them
what they deserve.
That's what they wanted.
They wanted a piece of this,
they wanted a piece of that.
They thought they'd get
a piece of the book.
He never gave it to them.
So that was it, man.
♪
So Joey and Larry decided
to kidnap Joe Profaci.
♪
Ask not what your country
can do for you,
ask what you can do
for your country.
[cheering]
In February, 1961,
as Americans looked forward,
optimistically,
with a new president in office,
members of the mafia,
namely Profaci Family soldiers
Joey and Larry Gallo,
were becoming disillusioned
with the life they'd chosen
and the organization
they'd been a part of.
They wanted more money
and more autonomy.
And if their boss,
Joseph Profaci,
wasn't going to give it to them,
well, then they were going
to take it.
TOM: There's already a lot
of underlying resentment
among this younger generation
of mafia hoods
and the Profaci Family
and the Gallos boldly decide
that they're going to take
the Don and his men hostage,
make them submit
to their demands,
and either be k*lled
or they'll release him.
♪
The Gallo brothers
put a plan together.
They sent six, seven guys
out to a couple clubs
and they kidnapped
Joe Profaci's close guys.
♪
His underboss, brother,
Joe Colombo.
But they missed Joe Profaci.
The whole idea was to get
Profaci, but Profaci wind up
getting wind of this,
and went to Florida and checked
himself into the hospital.
♪
So they missed the Don.
The Don was
nowhere to be found.
They got all the Don's men,
but then
the Don himself escaped.
So the Gallos find themselves
with a total disaster
on their hands.
♪
So when the Gallo brothers take
Don Profaci's top men hostage,
there's an argument
between Larry and Joey.
The boys got
in this major shouting match.
Larry wants to negotiate
through the mafia Commission.
It's funny,
in the mafia Commission,
you were talking
about an establishment here.
This is the ruling body
of not just the Five Families,
but the national mafia.
There's rules.
CLAIRE: Joey Gallo
and his faction attempting
to kidnap his own boss
is a clear breach of etiquette.
The thing is, though,
with the mafia, you know,
there's always
breaches of etiquette,
and that's sometimes
the only way
that these Families
move forward.
♪
TOM:
Larry wants to abide
by the mafia Commission's
rules behind a coup.
He's like,
"If we get permission
"from the Commission about
what we're going to do next
and we work through them,
then they're gonna help us out."
And there's talk
from the top men
in the Commission,
there's murmurings like,
"Yeah, we'll help you boys out,
but just let them go."
♪
NARRATOR:
At the time of the kidnapping,
the five New York bosses
on the Commission
were Vito Genovese, Joe Profaci,
Carlo Gambino,
Tommy Lucchese and Joe Bonanno.
To have their coup approved,
the Gallos would need support
from at least two of these men.
But Profaci had tenure.
He was one of only
two remaining original bosses
on the Commission.
The other, his close friend
and ally, Joe Bonanno.
Bonanno's son had married
Profaci's niece back in 1956.
Bosses on the Commission
could entertain
the Gallo's request
all they wanted,
but no boss
in their right mind
would side against
Joe Profaci.
And Joey Gallo was well aware.
Joey, on the other hand,
is like, "Forget it, Larry.
We're going to k*ll him
right now."
He wants to k*ll them all.
Blood in the streets.
FRANK DiMATTEO: Somebody came
back with a package from Profaci
that, if he lets them go,
then he'll negotiate with them,
give them some territory
and stuff like that.
Joey didn't want
to let the guys go
because Joey didn't believe
Joe Profaci.
That's why he said,
"Let's just go k*ll them,
"and then they'll know for real,
we're going to go to w*r.
Let's go to w*r."
♪
Larry grabbed Joey in passion
and said, "We can't do this.
Listen to us.
Can't k*ll these guys."
A high pressure situation.
In this world that you're not
supposed to k*ll made guys,
and there was a lot
of trouble here.
♪
Joey's actions shocked even
the boldest underworld figures.
But Crazy Joe
wasn't one for the rules.
He kidnapped the higher-ups
without permission,
and if given the chance,
would k*ll without approval.
CHRIS COLOMBO: There's a story
that during the conflict
that was going on
within Brooklyn,
they had taken
my father hostage.
I guess he was
going to be ex*cuted.
And Larry spoke
like a gentleman.
He said, "He's not an enemy,
he's a friend,
"and he agrees with us,
but doesn't agree
with our tactics."
FRANK DiMATTEO:
Larry won the argument
because Larry was the boss.
He was more level-headed
and explained why he thought
it wasn't a good idea
to k*ll them.
My father said that Joey,
they call him crazy.
They call him this,
they call him that.
TOM: So the Gallo Brothers
let Joe Profaci's men go.
Commission says,
"Okay, you boys just be patient.
"We'll get you what's due.
"We're going to talk
to Profaci,
"and we'll make sure that...
you guys did good
for releasing them."
This goes on for months,
and the Gallos aren't really
hearing anything.
And, all of a sudden,
it's too quiet.
♪
And this is
when the Don strikes again.
♪
FRANK DiMATTEO: At the time,
no one knew that Joe Profaci
was full of [bleep].
No one knew that.
We know that now.
As soon as they released
the captains,
he put a hit on all of them,
the whole Gallo crew.
With his top men
kidnapped and threatened,
Joe Profaci felt he had
no other option
than to k*ll off the rogue
faction in his own Family.
But the Gallos
wouldn't go down easy.
What ensued was one
of the longest and bloodiest
sagas ever to be seen
on the streets of Brooklyn,
The Gallo-Profaci w*r.
MICHAEL: People that are not
in the know think
that Families
w*r against each other.
That doesn't happen.
That stopped in the '40s.
It's always a civil w*r.
w*r over a power struggle.
Well, my dad was
on Profaci's side.
We had been out in Long Island
at my grandmother's house.
My dad moved us out there.
He was gone for several days.
I didn't know why.
But I remember one day
he came home.
It was fairly early
in the morning,
and he walked
into my grandmother's house.
He had a full beard.
He hadn't shaved in a while.
And his right-hand guy,
Joey Brancato, was also
a made guy, was out on the porch
kind of watching guard.
And I'm sitting on the steps
as my dad came in.
He grabbed my mom.
He hugged her,
and then he came over to me
on the steps and hugged me.
How was I doing and all of that.
He was only there for a short
time, and then he left.
And that was during
the Gallo-Profaci w*r.
And it was serious.
Quite a few people
got k*lled during that time.
One of the horrors of that life,
you make a mistake,
your best friend walks you
into a room,
you don't walk out again.
[g*nshots]
♪
[g*nshots]
TOM: The Gallo-Profaci w*r
is like a crazy crime thriller.
The Gallo brothers, they're
holed up on President Street,
in their grandmother's tenement
by the Red Hook waterfront.
They've got that block.
The Profaci Family
has all of Brooklyn.
So, you basically
have all of Brooklyn
versus that one little strip
on President Street.
It's a siege mentality.
♪
FRANK DiMATTEO: Everybody went
on to the clubs on the block,
and you would just get together,
get all your stuff together,
stock up food,
and everybody pretty much
ate, drank, and slept there.
You threw mattresses on the
floor 'cause there was no...
Everybody didn't have a bed.
Joey, when sh**ting started,
told everybody,
"You gotta come in
and you hit the mattress."
They started the expression,
"Hit the mattress."
That's the first time
I heard of it.
That's how they lived
for that year.
Get money and food
and that's it.
Hang out until the guys
who were in the street
would do what they had to do.
♪
TOM: The Gallos top bodyguard,
he was a feared hitman
named Joe Jelly.
He was the Gallos' muscle.
And before the Profacis
wanted to strike
the Gallos, the idea was like,
"We gotta get rid of Joe Jelly,
"because if Joe Jelly's still
alive and we go after Larry,
"it's going to be over for us.
This guy's a one man force.
How do we get rid of him?"
FRANK DiMATTEO:
Joe Jelly was a bad dude.
Very loyal to Larry and Joey.
Very loyal.
Joe Jelly went
on a fishing trip.
♪
They wound up k*lling him,
taking his jacket and his ring.
TOM: That night, a car goes
past the Gallo family diner.
A package is thrown out.
Into the package is the last
suit that Joe Jelly wore,
and inside that suit, dead fish.
And that's how they know
Joe Jelly slept with the fish.
Right after that is
when they went after Larry.
TOM: Larry Gallo,
he goes to a bar.
Larry's at the bar,
and he's taking a shot...
♪
...and that's when someone
comes from behind
and starts to strangle him.
♪
They try to k*ll him,
and he lived through it.
TOM: The cops take him
to the precinct.
He's got this awful looking
purple rash across his neck.
The cops are like,
"Who did this to you?"
Larry keeps quiet.
He didn't say anything.
The Gallos had lost
all respect for their boss,
the Profaci Family, and
the antiquated ways of the life.
So they broke rules,
but never the golden rule.
Larry would stay silent and not
cooperate with authorities,
and the sh**ting would continue.
FRANK DiMATTEO:
I was with my mother.
We're coming out of a house
on Union and Fourth.
We were coming out the door,
got to the corner.
My mother looked up.
There was two people across
the street that she recognized.
I looked up, and all
of a sudden you hear pop pop.
[g*nshots]
Guy hit the floor. Boom.
With his crew under siege,
losing men
and strapped for cash,
Joey Gallo turned over
every stone in South Brooklyn
in the fall of 1961,
looking for money wherever
he could find it.
TOM: He sort of goes out
on his own.
He's like,
"I'm going to start making money
just the old classic way,"
which is extortion.
He finds this guy, and he starts
to begin to shake him down,
and he's like, "You're going
to give me part of your action."
"I don't have that much action
here at all."
But Joey becomes,
I think, increasingly obsessed
to the point where he's just got
to prove something to himself.
♪
So he sets up
a proper sit-down,
old Italian place
called the Luna,
a classic mob hangout
on Mulberry Street.
Joey basically tells this kid,
"Why don't I just put you
in the hospital?
Then you have a few months
to think about it."
And right then there's two NYPD
detectives at the next table.
And that's when they arrest
Joey Gallo.
FRANK DiMATTEO:
He got pinched for it,
and he really
didn't defend himself well.
Joey didn't want
to be represented.
We don't know why.
No one knows to this day why.
He really didn't give
And no one knows why.
And he winds up
getting convicted.
♪
TOM: All of a sudden,
the Gallo Revolution
has lost their Che Guevara.
Larry's lost his right hand.
These are dark times
for the Gallos.
The Gallos had failed
to overthrow Joe Profaci,
and when Joey Gallo went away,
they remained the pariahs
of the Five Families.
But despite
their public persona
and headline-grabbing antics,
the Gallos would never break
the organization's
most sacred rule: Omertà.
A member from a different
Family would soon handle that.
It had been five years of
turmoil for the Five Families.
Public slayings and shamings,
coups gone wrong.
By this time, the Families
were led by Joe Bonanno,
Tommy Lucchese, Carlo Gambino,
Joe Profaci and Vito Genovese.
Genovese remained
one of the most feared
and powerful bosses
on the Commission,
despite getting nabbed
on a drug charge back in 1958.
Those charges are fantastic
and ridiculous.
While in prison in Atlanta,
Vito Genovese feared
that a member of his own Family,
who was also serving
a lengthy sentence,
might be tempted to flip
and turn state's evidence,
to betray omertà.
The member's name
was Joseph Valachi.
SELWYN: Joe Valachi was
a two bit hood
in the Genovese Family,
and he got arrested
on a drug charge.
And it wound up
that he was in the same prison
in Atlanta with Vito Genovese.
And at some point
he either gets tipped off
or he gets the sense
that he's run afoul
of Genovese
and he's going to be k*lled.
ANTHONY:
The story is that Valachi
believes that Genovese had
fingered him for assassination.
♪
He said, "You know, sometimes...
"you buy a barrel of apples
"and one of these apples
is touched.
They're not all rotten,
they're a little touched."
He said,
"That apple has to be removed
or it'll touch
the rest of the apples."
Grabbed my hand
and he gave me a kiss.
This is a suspicious kiss...
"The kiss of death."
♪
Valachi suspected that he was
going to be set up for m*rder,
and he suspected
one guy in particular
was supposed to k*ll him.
I made one lap of the yard.
It was about,
I'd say, four block long.
Then I made another lap.
And then I made another one.
And then on my way back,
I spot Joe Beck.
♪
Well, he was
walking with another guy,
and right away I saw the pipe.
I grabbed the pipe
and I went to work on Joe Beck.
I... hit him on the head
with the pipe very hard.
And then I...
saw a couple of guys
running towards me.
They made about two attempts
before the officer come over,
see, all the way to
the associated warden's office.
He showed me a picture.
I said to him, "Who's this?"
He said,
"That's the guy you hit."
You could imagine how I felt.
I sank in the chair, you know.
I told him,
"Just locked me up."
ANTHONY: It turned out it was
a case of mistaken identity.
k*lled the wrong guy.
The person had nothing to do
with any planned hit.
Commit a m*rder in prison,
you're really going
to face a lot of trouble.
And so he goes
to the authorities and says,
"In exchange for protection
and keeping myself alive,
I'm willing to talk."
And so the FBI takes him in.
They interview him,
and before long, he is
before congressional committee.
REPORTER:
The story of Joseph Valachi's
testimony today before
Senator McClellan's
investigating subcommittee.
Valachi is going to commit
the greatest sin of a mobster,
which is to break
the code of omertà.
Omertà is the code of silence.
"We do not talk to the law.
We do not talk to outsiders.
All of our business is private."
♪
REPORTER: The convicted hoodlum
whose confessions to the FBI
have reportedly put a price
of $100,000 on his head.
ED:
And Valachi breaks that code,
yanks the curtain back on all
the secrets of what the mob is.
For more than 30 years,
law enforcement
and the American public had
extremely limited information
when it came to the mafia
and how it operated.
Now, for the first time,
their questions
would be answered.
MAN: Do you solemnly swear
the evidence
you should give before
this Senate Select Committee
shall be the truth, the whole
truth and nothing but the truth,
so help you God?
SELWYN: He actually disclosed
that there were
five Families in New York.
He put on the table
that the mafia
and Five Families existed,
and here were their names.
JOHN McLELLAN: Are you a member
of any such organization?
Yes, I am.
- What is the name--?
- I was.
JOHN McLELLAN:
What is the name of it?
It is Cosa Nostra in Italian.
JOHN McLELLAN:
Cosa Nostra in Italian.
"Our thing and our family,"
in English.
JOHN McLELLAN: "Our thing
and our family" in English.
We'll come back to that later,
but that is an organization,
is it,
that requires
absolute obedience?
- Yes.
- And conformity to its policy
as handed down
by those in authority?
Yes.
♪
JOHN McLELLAN: Why do you feel
like it should be destroyed?
Well, through the years,
I've, uh...
First of all, I want revenge.
Second of all, they've been
very, uh...
I say very bad to the soldiers,
and, you know, uh...
they've been thinking
for themselves
all through the years.
As the Senator put it before,
what did I get out of it?
- What'd you get out?
- Nothing but misery.
Misery was right.
And for New York's
Five Families,
there would be
much more of that to come.
♪
In the fall of 1963,
Joseph Valachi,
a soldier
in the Genovese Family
facing a m*rder charge,
cut a deal
with the Justice Department
and testified
on national television
before Senator John McClellan's
investigations committee.
ROGER MUDD:
Good afternoon.
What set off this latest
round of crime hearings
by the Senate's Permanent
Investigation Subcommittee was
the existence of one
Joseph Valachi, 60 years old,
convicted dope peddler,
convicted m*rder*r,
and one time member
of the mafia, or Cosa Nostra.
ANTHONY:
He testified about the mafia,
about omertà,
about the structure, who is who,
about Genovese,
and about all the stories.
JOHN McLELLAN: Well, we might
ask you this time,
what are the different
positions in that organization?
Starting at the top,
what do you have?
They used to have what we call
the boss of all bosses.
JOHN McLELLAN:
The boss of all bosses.
All right. You say now,
however, there is a Commission.
Does it now have
a boss of all bosses?
No, no more boss of all bosses.
We have what we call...
is a Commission.
Charlie Luciano,
Charlie Lucky put it in effect.
And we had the individual bosses
of the individual Family.
Then we have an underboss.
Then we have what
we call a caporegime,
which is a lieutenant.
Then we have
what we call soldiers.
- Soldiers?
- Soldiers.
ANTHONY: Joe Valachi created
a storehouse of knowledge,
facts, impressions
about the structure
of organized crime
in the United States.
ALEX HORTIS: Joe Valachi's
testimony to the United States
was a seminal moment
because he gave
concrete evidence of what
these Families actually were,
that he actually
names names of bars
that the mafia owns,
and so he makes it real.
And he also tells, you know,
about all their secrets,
the initiation ceremonies,
how somebody was made a member.
He talks about killings.
He really does not hold back.
JOHN McLELLAN: Well,
this is a secret organization.
How do you get to know,
that someone is a member
of the same Family?
He'll introduce them to you,
for instance,
as a friend of ours.
That means a member.
Now, if he happens to be
with someone that isn't
a friend of ours,
he would just simply say,
"Meet a friend of mine,"
which means nothing.
That's the code between us.
So there was a code
that enabled you
to identify other members
of the Family?
Yes.
MAN: Did you do
anything for the Family at all
in this time, or did they
just do things for you?
Just go out, k*ll for them.
MAN: You'd go out, what?
- k*ll for them.
ALEX HORTIS: And so,
the gangsters were, you know...
it's absolutely abhorrent
to them to have
all their secrets
spilled out into national TV.
♪
CLAIRE: Valachi really
does create this path forward
for any mob turncoats.
And what he does is shows
that there is a way
to become an informant
and still survive,
that there's a life after
for anyone who wants
to take that path.
And, you know, we'll see
that this continues to happen
after Valachi does it,
the, you know, floodgates
in a lot of ways are open
for the federal law enforcement,
and law enforcement in general,
to take advantage
of people who are willing
to break the code of omertà.
Joseph Valachi would die
in federal custody in 1971,
but his testimony would be
studied and scrutinized
by law enforcement
and journalists for decades.
From the outside,
Valachi's betrayal of omertà
provided the public
with a glimpse of what life
was like inside the mafia.
Amongst members
of the Five Families,
his testimony
was a grim reminder
of the looming existential
threat to their way of life.
♪
A life saturated in violence.
RITA GIGANTE: All I remember is
I'm underneath the table
and I remember
this guy hitting the floor
and his face was facing me
and he's bleeding.
I remember the hand coming down,
hitting him, coming up,
coming down,
hitting him, coming up.
And I knew it was my dad,
only because I remember
his pinky ring.
The last thing he did
was step on him,
and say, "Get him out of here.
I'm done."
A life far removed
from your typical 9:00 to 5:00.
I went on to college
for a couple of months
and I wound up walking away.
I had an argument
and I walked away.
And I guess you could say I took
the wrong train coming back.
Back when I was around
getting made,
you had to be part
of doing work.
Work meaning you had
to be part of a k*lling.
The night we k*lled Rick Mazzio,
my Uncle Al
was supposed to pick me up.
He was never there
to pick me up.
He said he got lost.
I got rid of the g*n,
found my way back
over the Williamsburg Bridge.
Did he do it on purpose?
I don't know.
A life of respect.
A life earned through silence
and adhering to the rules.
Omertà.
For a soldier,
as you all understand,
once you're in, you're in.
You can't get out.
♪
On the next episode
of "American Godfathers:
The Five Families"...
TOM: Mobster Joe Columbo.
He's on the "d*ck Cavett Show."
REPORTER: As one police mafia
expert put it,
a contract was fulfilled
this afternoon.
NARRATOR: A new generation
of mob bosses
come to rule New York City...
- Is there a mafia?
- No, there is not.
...with new strategies...
REPORTER: Joe Colombo
had organized a picket line
around FBI headquarters
in Manhattan.
NARRATOR:
...and new obstacles.
REPORTER: Galante was shielded
from photographers
by two of his daughters
as he arrived
at the federal courthouse
in Miami yesterday.
NARRATOR: The Families
continue to bend the rules
and evolve, as they move
through the 1960s and 1970s.
TOM: Joey Gallo starts to think,
"If the Black gangsters
"got organized,
they could team up with us.
We would really be
kings of the streets then."
Decades of change...
I walked 12 steps away.
And that's
when the shots fired out.
[g*nshots]
...for law enforcement...
REPORTER: Eight men were taken
into custody today...
NARRATOR: New York City...
CHRISTOPHER:
New York lost almost
a million people in the 1970s.
...and the criminal underworld.
FRANK DIMATTEO:
Joey never acknowledged
that Joe Colombo
was going to be boss.
He refused him as boss.
Sort of like,
"Grease the pistols,"
you know, "The w*r is back on."
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