WEBVTT - 2 - Shadows and Surveillance 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:06.560 You're listening to Law and Order Criminal Justice System, a 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:10.000 production of Wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts. 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:17.720 In the criminal justice System, landmark trials transcend the courtroom 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.560 to reshape the law. The brave men and women who 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.840 investigate and prosecute these cases are part of a select 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:27.640 group that is defined American history. These are their stories. 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:36.640 May fifth, nineteen eighty one, benson Hurst, Brooklyn. 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:42.239 A group of men waited inside an empty nightclub. The 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:46.040 nineteen seventy nine murder of Carmi Galanti two years before 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:49.080 had resulted in a power struggle at the top of 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:52.360 the Banano crime family, and these men were here to 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.920 sort it out. The man calling the shots was thirty 0:00:55.960 --> 0:01:00.520 eight year old Joe Messino, truck hijacker, ruthless killer, and 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:06.160 loyal ally of Banano boss Rusty Rostelli. Messino was also 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:10.600 one of the men responsible for Carmine Galanti's murder. On 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:15.520 the agenda for this so called administration meeting peace talks 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:19.080 with three ambitious captains buying for control of the family 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:23.400 in the wake of Galante's death. With one unassuming soldier 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:28.119 in tow, the three capos entered the club unarmed, expecting 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:34.240 a peaceful negotiation. As they neared, one of Messino's men 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:38.560 discreetly ran a hand through his hair. It was a signal. 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:42.840 Four masked gunmen burst out of a closet, armed with 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:50.120 pistols and a sawd off shotgun. The three capos they 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:54.000 didn't stand a chance. Power was once again restored to 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:58.600 Rusty Rostelli, while Joe Messino had amassed more influence than 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:02.440 ever before and he was far from finished. 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:16.200 You're not with the mob because you want to be. 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:19.320 It's the gangster that decides whether you're his associated on. 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:23.280 If you like your life, you will vote to acquit. 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:27.760 I'm Anethega Nicolazzi. My father should have been a dead man. 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:33.000 From Wolf Entertainment and iHeart Podcasts. This is Law and 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:43.360 Order Criminal Justice System. In our last episode, we brought 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:46.760 you the story of Carmen Gallanti, a one time hitman 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.239 who rose through the ranks of organized crime to become 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:53.840 the de facto boss of the Banano crime family. That 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.480 is until he was gunned down outside an Italian restaurant 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:01.280 in Brooklyn in July of nineteen seventy nine. His murder 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:04.240 would mark a seminal moment, and not just the history 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:06.560 of the mob. In New York, but also in law 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:11.800 enforcements approach to investigating and prosecuting the mafia. For nearly 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:17.040 a century, the Five Families had used bribery, blackmail, extortion, 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.919 and murder to control the city with little or no 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:24.520 opposition from law enforcement, and by the end of the 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:28.680 nineteen seventies their power had reached new heights. But after 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:36.160 Galante's murder, that was all about to change. Armed with 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:40.200 what was then cutting edge technology, the FBI knew that 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:43.000 the best way to crack a coat of silence was 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:47.120 to infiltrate the very homes and hangouts of mobsters, eavesdropping 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:51.520 on their conversations. To accomplish this, they would rely on 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:55.120 an array of hidden bugs and wire taps placed by 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:59.920 a team of fearless undercover operatives known as black bagging. 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:05.320 We did have black bags on occasion, but any bag 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:09.040 would work if you had to slip into some place. 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:14.080 My name is Joseph Canta Messa. I was a special 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.240 agent with the FBI for twenty two years. I retired 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:18.640 in nineteen ninety eight. 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.640 Joe was one of the bureau's most successful tech specialists, 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:26.760 whose work directly led to the incarceration of countless members 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:29.799 of organized crime, but at the time of the Three 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:33.160 Kappos murder in nineteen eighty one, Joe was a young 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:37.120 agent working undercover as a phone repairman in Little Italy, 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:39.080 known to locals as. 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:45.880 Joe Aquino a q U, I n complete identity, backstopped 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:52.560 if necessary, driver's license, vehicle registration, real true address if 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.000 you wanted to check it. Joe was a phone man, 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:57.279 but I could have been an electrician. I could have 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:02.040 been a TV repairman. I had different identity for different companies. 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:05.479 And much like a spy, before even attempting to bug 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:09.520 his prospective target, Joe took meticulous care in building his 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:14.239 backstory to establish himself as a believable and familiar member 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:15.040 of the neighborhood. 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:20.719 Little Literally, it's a pretty popular, touristy kind of place. 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:24.239 There are regulars there, and there were a few social 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:28.000 clubs there, and they pretty much pay attention to what's 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.520 going on unless you're a tourist. 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:34.919 These social clubs were members only, commonly used as a 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.160 base of operations for crime families. 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:42.719 For me to be recognized, I would show up on 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:47.720 a frequent basis in my telephone truck. I would find 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:51.279 the closest social club, and I would park right in 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:53.640 front of the door, and I would get out, and 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.719 I would walk the neighborhood, going in and out of 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:01.400 various front doors. You know, again, I've been ingratiating myself 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:05.800 to the neighborhood doing favors because back then the New 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:10.400 York Telephone and the Bell system owned everything. You leased 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:14.479 everything from the phone company. Here I am the gracious 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.839 guy who will occasionally throw a client the long cord 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:22.640 or whatever. It took weeks for me to get recognized 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:25.000 as somebody that belonged in the neighborhood. 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.440 The easiest part about fronting as a telephone repairman is 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.919 that for Joe it wasn't a lie because he actually 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:36.840 had the same job in high school. 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:41.160 Well, I was working for New Jersey Bell Telephone as 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:47.160 a telephone installer repairman. There were only two truly former 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:52.280 telephone installer repairman as FBI agents in the entire organization, 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:56.000 so we didn't have to like figure out how to 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.280 look like being a phone man. We were the phone man. 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:02.560 But given the kind of people he was up against, 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:06.279 he would also need the ability to improvise and stay 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:10.240 cool under pressure. One false move could mean his life. 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:13.840 I don't always know how it's going to play out. 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.120 I know what I want to try and accomplish. You 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.040 had to just kind of like take what came along. 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:23.920 Like the time Joe was installing a microphone behind a 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:29.000 telephone wall plate. His target became suspicious and started quizzing him. 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:31.880 The question came up as to where I was from, 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:34.600 and I said, East Broncx, you know, right off of 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:38.280 White Plains Road. And I started talking about, you know, 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:42.080 my aunt worked in the Vicaro's bakery, my other aunt 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:46.360 was a ticket taker at the Wakefield. And I'm explaining 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:50.040 all of this pretty confidently, and then he asked me 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.600 a question or make some statement about something that has 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:55.400 nothing to do with this neighborhood. 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.960 Luckily, Joe immediately realized he was being tested. 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:04.480 I get a glance of his wife, who was looking 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:06.800 at him, and I turned to him and I go, 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.360 what part of the Bronx are you talking about? You know? 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:13.200 He laughed, and that sort of like cleared it up 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:15.880 right away. He was throwing me a curve, and fortunately 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:17.040 I picked up on it. 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:21.960 Much of Joe's success as an agent was emblematic of 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.239 the changing strategy of the FBI in the fight against 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:28.440 the mafia. The agents of the bureaus passed just weren't 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:31.480 getting the results they wanted and that the public needed. 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.839 But Joe had a natural edge when talking to mobsters 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:37.160 because he grew up around them. 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:43.360 My grandparents on my father's side were very strong Northern Italians, 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:47.280 and most of my formative years were actually in New Jersey, 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:52.000 with regular trips back to the Bronx to see family members. 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.800 And while my father was a law abiding citizen, a 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.120 few of our other family members got to be a 0:08:58.160 --> 0:08:59.360 little sketchy at times. 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:02.600 After a stint in the army, Joe went back to 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:05.719 work with a telephone company, but one of his neighbors, 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.720 who happened to be an FBI agent, noticed Joe's natural 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.880 ability with tech equipment and convinced him to pursue a 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:14.120 career in law enforcement. 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:17.280 It was a gamble for me again because I barely 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:20.080 got out of high school, but I took a chance. 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:24.320 And that chance paid off. Joe immediately excelled at his 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.640 new gig, and it wasn't long before his unique skill 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:32.040 set led him to the FBI Special Operations Unit, and. 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:37.240 I became the technical supervisor for so one FBI Special 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:39.320 operations in New York City. 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:43.120 Joe was one of a select group of agents utilizing 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:46.880 the full resources and technology at the FBI to accomplish 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:51.320 one mission infiltrate and dismantle the mafia from the top down. 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:56.000 And over the next decade, the SO one Squad was relentless. 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:02.679 We did hundreds of surreptitious entries nights weekends when a 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:07.679 place was vacant. Surreptitious was always the preferred method to 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:12.880 install electronic surveillance or tracking, etc. But there were many 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:17.320 instances where the place was never vacant. When we were 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:23.040 confronted with that, I could create a scenario and fabricate 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:27.439 a problem that the subject would want to invite me in. 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:34.520 His targets some of the most dangerous and ruthless criminals 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:37.800 in America. But before we talk about all the ways 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.840 law enforcement infiltrated the Mob, I think it's important to 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.320 understand a little bit more about how the commission came 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:47.280 to be and why for so many decades authorities had 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:53.280 been so ineffective in stopping them. By the nineteen seventies, 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:54.320 New York was in trouble. 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:57.360 Every week you would see something in the paper, a 0:10:57.480 --> 0:10:59.520 shooting between mob guys. 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.920 That's Jim Kostler, a former FBI special agent, and he 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:05.559 witnessed the violence firsthand. 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.360 I was hired as a special agent with the FBI 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:13.000 in nineteen seventy I spent eight years in Newark investigating 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.640 organized crime. In nineteen seventy nine, I was promoted and 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.839 sent to New York. My role was the position of 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:25.160 Labor Racketeering Program Manager for the New York Office. 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:28.760 Jim was persuaded to join the FBI by an agent 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:31.520 he met at a party. Leaving behind his career as 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:34.480 a special education teacher, he chose to serve the public 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:37.840 in a new way. Back when Jim was starting his career, 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:41.040 joining the FBI was the dream of every young kid 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.480 interested in law enforcement. The image of the straight backed, 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:48.160 all American g man was seared into popular culture. But 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:51.880 the truth was that despite its reputation and resources, the 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:56.400 Bureau was woefully behind encountering the mafia. In fact, the 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:59.000 Bureau was still under the control of its first director, 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:02.280 a man who for decades refused to even acknowledge the 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:03.320 existence of the mob. 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:06.600 You know, at that time, jag Or Hoover was the 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:09.600 director of the FBI. It was much different than it 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:10.040 is today. 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:16.440 Obviously, during Hoover's first thirty years as director, not a 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:20.280 single agent was assigned to work organized crime. Hoover even 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:23.480 famously banned the use of the word mafia in internal reports, 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.720 publicly downplaying mafia's as a mere hoodlums and a nuisance 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:31.000 to be dealt with by local law enforcement. This resulted 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:33.360 in what you could call a bottom up approach to 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:38.200 enforcing crime, focusing on individual perpetrators rather than the men 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.240 at the top pulling the strings. It was a never 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:46.080 ending battle. Hoover's policy severely limited Jim's ability to fight 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:47.000 organized crime. 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:50.600 The mission of the FBI at that point in time 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:54.720 was every agent was given assignments to take responsibility for 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.800 and to achieve something in a given period of time. 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:03.760 The response ability of every agent was to produce statistics. 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:06.000 At the end of the year, when it came time 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.120 for your evaluation, they looked at how many statistics you 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:11.480 had for that year, how many people did you arrest, 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:13.960 how many people did you put in jail, how much 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:17.240 did you recover? You recover stolen goods, and so forth. 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:21.280 And while handfuls of low level gangsters might be locked up, 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:25.280 mob leadership went unscathed. At the heart of the problem 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:27.680 was the way the FBI was organized. 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:31.640 When I got into organized crime in New Jersey. Every 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:33.520 morning we would come in and we would say hello 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:35.920 to each other, and then every agent on the squad 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:39.600 would go their own way. It was disjointed in that sense. 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:43.040 We didn't have a plan, just a matter of go 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:46.440 find a gambler, go find a loan shark, and you'll 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:50.040 be successful. I came to realize that that was not 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:55.400 a good method, another good system, because organized crime is organized. 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:58.559 The folks that were involved in it at a structure, 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:02.520 and they've worked under our hierarchy. We didn't work as groups. 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:07.080 It turns out the FBI should have taken a lesson 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:23.400 from the very men they were chasing. Translated from Italian, 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:27.480 the term cosin nostra literally means our thing. But that 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:32.800 seemingly innocuous designation is a ruse because that thing, the mafia, 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:38.360 is actually a highly organized, highly regulated system of rules, ranks, 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:42.560 and rituals that go back centuries. Much like an army, 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:49.240 an organized crime family operates with a strict hierarchy, with soldiers, captains, underbosses, 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.920 all reporting to a top boss and then as overseers 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:56.880 of it all. The Commission, a secretive council composed of 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:01.480 the five New York bosses. The Commission and ensured unity 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:06.440 and coordination among crime families nationwide, usually under the threat 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:10.320 of their iron fist, and it was this historical cooperation 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:14.800 that gave the families their power, reach, and sense of invincibility. 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:20.280 The Commission's origins, however, were anything but civil, so. 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:23.720 When the Mob was first form around nineteen thirty, it 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.400 followed what it was called the Castell Maurici War. 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:30.680 That's former Prosecutor Ron Goldstock, who at the time was 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:33.800 the director of the New York Organized Crime Task Force 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:36.520 and fair warning, We're going to be throwing a lot 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:38.320 of names at you in the next couple of minutes, 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:42.120 but I promise there won't be a quiz. The Castela 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:45.960 Maurici War was a bloody power struggle between two rival bosses, 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:51.360 Joe Massarea and Salvator Marenzano, both born in Sicily, both 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:56.160 notoriously ruthless, but a cunning and ambitious young gangster by 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:59.400 the name of Charles Lucky Luciano had his own eye 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:04.400 on the topso in April of nineteen thirty one, Luciano 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:08.160 conspired with Marenzano to take out the competition, and so 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:12.240 at a card game in Coney Island, Luciano casually excused 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.840 himself from the table right before four gunmen entered the 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:23.480 restaurant and opened fire, leaving Joe Massaia dead on the floor. 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:28.520 As a result of the brazen hit, Luciano inherited all 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:33.080 of Masaria's rackets. Marenzana then called a meeting with Luciano 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.920 and the heads of the three other mafia factions to 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:43.400 establish the Five Families, but Marenzana wanted to retain ultimate power. 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:47.920 In order to deal with problems that came about because 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:51.440 of competing interests of the families. He created a position 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:55.600 for himself as Boss of All Bosses, the Boss. 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:59.200 Of Bosses, but Marenzano's reign was short lived. 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:03.840 Luciano then had him killed just as he was plotting 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:06.919 to have Luciano killed, but Luciano was quicker. 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:12.000 In a plot befitting of Marenzano's nickname of Little Caesar, 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:18.960 four men disguised as fedes raided his office and stabbed 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.359 the boss multiple times before shooting him in the head 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:26.560 for good measure. Now with an opportunity to reign over 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:30.560 the entire mafia, Lucky Luciano faced a critical decision. 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:35.440 Luciano recognized that the position of boss of old bosses 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:40.280 was problematic. He just created enemies because whenever you would 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:43.720 rule on anything, you are always going to rule against somebody, 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:49.800 and so you needed another vehicle for dealing with each 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.800 of the family's competing interests. And so what he did 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:54.760 was to create the Commission. 0:17:55.760 --> 0:18:00.560 Five seats, with each seat establishing equal representation, and to 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:04.600 prevent the war from continuing, Luciano offered a commission seat 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:08.600 to Marizano's underboss, Joe Banano, seeing it as the path 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:13.720 to peace. Banano accepted. Luciano held a national conference in 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.920 Chicago with the heads of the five New York families 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:19.960 and over twenty other mafia leaders from around the country, 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:24.440 and it was there in Chicago that Luciano instituted many 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:28.439 of the rules and traditions that would govern organize crime 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:29.680 for decades to come. 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:35.800 So he established the position of consolieri counselor, which meant 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.040 that the kap regime, if they had a problem with 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.320 the boss, could go to somebody as an ombutzman deal 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.199 with him, rather than having to confront the boss straight on. 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:49.360 As a trusted confidant to the boss, Consiglieri became one 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:53.520 of the top three administrative positions, usually equal in rank 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:57.160 to the underboss. With its rigid chain of command and 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:01.920 sworn oaths of fidelity, the modern American mafia was born. 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:07.440 It would enjoy unrivaled prosperity for decades. Crime boss Joe 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:10.879 Banano later described this period in his memoirs, writing that 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:14.480 and I quote. For nearly a thirty year period after 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:19.000 the Castella Morasi War, no internal squabbles marred the unity 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:23.159 of our family, and no outside interference threatened the family 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:28.920 or me. Everything would change in nineteen fifty seven, when 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:32.840 three major events thrust Cosinostra out of the shadows and 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:36.760 into the glare of the public spotlight. The first was 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:41.840 the attempted assassination of Luciano family boss Frank Costello by 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:46.520 up and comer Vincent the Chin Giganti. As Costello walked 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:50.080 through the lobby of his apartment building, Giganti snuck up 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:54.399 behind him and said, this is for you, Frank. A 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:59.440 hit that incredibly Costello survived the bullet just grazing his forehead, 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:03.439 but the real marvel is what happened next. Given the 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:08.080 opportunity to identify his shooter in court, Costello refused to 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:11.600 name Gigante Here's defense attorney, James Leonard. 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:15.400 During the trial, something right out of a movie. When 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:20.080 Costello was asked if he recognizes person's shot him, clearly 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:23.600 he knows who shot him, clearly, he knows who Giganty is. 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:27.800 Because Giganty is connected to Genevies, he says he can't identify. 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:32.560 It was a striking example of the Mafia's infamous code 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:36.000 of silence. But Omerta, as it was known, was not 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:39.520 just an oath of loyalty. It was the mafia's single 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:44.920 biggest defensive weapon against prosecution, denying law enforcement of cooperating 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.879 witnesses in any potential trial, and in the case of Giganty, 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:51.879 it likely saved him from a life in prison. In 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:55.879 another scene worthy of a movie, Giganty leaned towards Costello 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:59.600 while he was leaving the courtroom and whispered thanks a lot, Frank. 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.720 The second landmark event of Mobler from nineteen fifty seven 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:10.160 occurred a few months later, when mob boss Albert Anastasia 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:13.320 was shot and killed mid shave in a Manhattan barbershop. 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:18.359 It was more fallout from the Boch Costello hit, and 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:22.040 the very public midday murder was plastered all over every 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:26.639 front page in New York. Unwilling to retaliate for the headshot, 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.719 and perhaps fed up with a treacherous mob life fall together, 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:34.560 Frank Costello decided to go into early retirement, relinquishing full 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:40.120 control of the Lucciano family to his scheming underboss Vito Genovese. Then, 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:43.760 seeking to legitimize his power and rebrand the family name, 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:47.000 Genovis called for a national meeting to be held in 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:50.280 a sleepy farming town in upstate New York, which brings 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:53.240 us to the third major mob event of nineteen fifty seven. 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:58.240 Here's former prosecutor Guild Childers on what would prove to 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:01.080 be a devastating mistaken by mob leaders. 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:06.720 It was a national convention of lacos andostra at a 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:10.760 guy's house in Applelach in New York. Nice house in 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:13.320 a rural area if everyone thought it was out of 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:15.360 the way and safe and no one would find out 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:19.400 about it. But a couple of the local policemen, two 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:21.520 of them started noticing that there were a lot of 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:24.680 out of state license plates driving through town. 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:28.760 Authorities ran the plates on a bunch of expensive cars 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:32.800 and quickly learned that this convention wasn't your typical farmer's expo. 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:36.080 So they set up roadblocks and descended upon the appalak 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:36.879 And estate. 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:40.920 And they all fled like cockroach just wanted to turn 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:43.560 the light on in a New York City apartment. 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:48.840 Dozens of middle Agian elderly mobsters in suits and dress 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:55.680 shoes fled into the surrounding woods. Over sixty bosses, underbosses, consiglieries, 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:59.879 and capos were eventually arrested. Troopers found it embarrassed Joba 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:01.959 running through a nearby cornfield. 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:07.040 That scene was comically captured in the movie Analyzed This, 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:11.000 where it shows a couple mob guys writing a tractor 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:13.639 all the way back to New York City to escape 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:14.959 the cops from the time. 0:23:16.440 --> 0:23:21.800 But more importantly, the Appalachan meetings signified actual proof, both 0:23:21.840 --> 0:23:24.560 to the public and the government, the existence of a 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:28.920 nationwide criminal network. These were not just a random assortment 0:23:28.960 --> 0:23:32.040 of local hoodlums as Hoover had described them. This was 0:23:32.080 --> 0:23:34.840 an organization. Here's Ron Goldstock. 0:23:35.920 --> 0:23:40.679 Federal government was not involved in the investigation and prosecution 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:44.600 of organized crime until the seventies, and it was only 0:23:44.720 --> 0:23:49.719 after the Appalachian Meeting that the federal government first started 0:23:49.720 --> 0:23:50.720 to take a look at it. 0:23:52.160 --> 0:23:56.120 Soon, local, state and federal law enforcement agencies would launch 0:23:56.200 --> 0:23:58.760 a new line of attack against organized crime. 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:05.159 The FBI began to use electronic surveillance to investigate the mob, 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:08.679 and they began to learn through the taps and bugs 0:24:08.720 --> 0:24:11.600 they had put in a great deal about the mob structure. 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:16.600 Armed with modern technology and a deeper understanding of their 0:24:16.640 --> 0:24:21.080 opponents and their weaknesses, small and nimble teams of undercover 0:24:21.160 --> 0:24:25.359 officers and agents began to infiltrate the dark underworld of 0:24:25.440 --> 0:24:30.840 Cosa Nostra, heralding the biggest defensive against organized crime the 0:24:30.960 --> 0:24:43.359 nation had ever seen. After that almost laughable roundup of 0:24:43.400 --> 0:24:46.800 mobsters in Upstate New York, public awareness of the mafia 0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:50.520 had reached new heights. Here again, its defense attorney James Leonard. 0:24:51.480 --> 0:24:55.639 When we get to the Bobby Kennedy era, it's a 0:24:55.760 --> 0:24:59.760 very different time. Now we know about the mob, we 0:24:59.800 --> 0:25:02.879 know that the mob exists, and ironically, one of the 0:25:02.880 --> 0:25:06.959 main reasons that we know about the Mob is from 0:25:07.119 --> 0:25:09.840 a defector from within the Genevese crime family. 0:25:10.600 --> 0:25:12.840 What is the name of it. 0:25:12.840 --> 0:25:13.320 It is. 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:22.560 Causing in Italian, causing nostra in Italian, our thing and 0:25:22.640 --> 0:25:24.160 our family In English? 0:25:24.600 --> 0:25:26.000 That is an organization? 0:25:26.359 --> 0:25:30.760 Is it that requires The defector's name was Joseph Flacci. 0:25:31.280 --> 0:25:34.160 He was a Genevieve soldier who in nineteen sixty three 0:25:34.560 --> 0:25:39.199 became the first major violator of the Mafia code of silence. Oh, Marta, 0:25:39.480 --> 0:25:40.680 that's right, yeah. 0:25:40.440 --> 0:25:43.320 Why do you feel like it should be destroyed? First 0:25:43.400 --> 0:25:47.280 of all, I want revenge. The second of all, they've 0:25:47.280 --> 0:25:51.879 been very bad to the soldiers. They've been thinking for 0:25:51.960 --> 0:25:55.560 themselves all through the years. As the senator put it before, 0:25:55.640 --> 0:25:57.320 what did I get out of it? Why do you 0:25:57.359 --> 0:25:58.600 get out but misery. 0:26:00.080 --> 0:26:04.480 Lachi's testimony of mob life was unprecedented. He detailed the 0:26:04.480 --> 0:26:08.159 induction ceremony of new members. He confirmed the existence of 0:26:08.200 --> 0:26:11.720 the five families, their leaders, their structure, and he even 0:26:11.800 --> 0:26:13.040 name dropped the commission. 0:26:13.680 --> 0:26:17.640 What are the different physicians or ratings or ranked in 0:26:17.720 --> 0:26:22.359 that organization? Starting at the top, what do you have? 0:26:23.640 --> 0:26:24.080 We have. 0:26:25.640 --> 0:26:30.720 What we call agunliasium in English, she would express it 0:26:30.760 --> 0:26:31.520 as a commission. 0:26:34.240 --> 0:26:38.200 The hearings capture the nation's attention and the term Cosonostra 0:26:38.480 --> 0:26:40.840