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Speaker 1: I'm Nicole Perkins, and in my new podcast, The Godmother,

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Speaker 1: I'm inviting you to nineteen thirty six New York to

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Speaker 1: a Manhattan courthouse.

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Speaker 2: At the time, it was called the Trial of the Century.

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Speaker 2: They had snipers on the roofs in Foley Square. They

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Speaker 2: had police officers with riot guns in the hallway.

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Speaker 1: On the stand was one of America's most notorious gangsters,

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Speaker 1: a man named Lucky Luciano.

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Speaker 2: He is called sometimes the Boss of Bosses. NiCoT Father

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Speaker 2: was a great film based Paul on the Luciana legend.

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Speaker 1: At this trial, on a crisp spring morning, in the

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Speaker 1: middle of the Great Depression, Lucky would finally be.

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Speaker 2: Brought down or Old Luciano said, Holy Toledo, you're giving

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Speaker 2: me a life sentence. Everybody generally agrees that that was

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Speaker 2: the nail in Lucky's coffin.

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Speaker 1: But beneath the glitz, the glamour, the grime, and the

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Speaker 1: notoriety of this moment in American history, there's another story

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Speaker 1: that's being overshadowed, a name that's been left out of

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Speaker 1: the Hollywood retellings, Unice Carter.

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Speaker 2: There's a better story to be told, a more complex story.

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Speaker 2: But for Unice Carter. I don't know that Lucciana wouldever

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Speaker 2: have been convicted.

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Speaker 1: Unice Carter was a black female lawyer in nineteen thirties

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Speaker 1: America who took down one of history's most notorious gangsters.

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Speaker 2: Unice Carter was the spark that started the fire.

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Speaker 1: She was the one that said, this is how we

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Speaker 1: get it. So why hasn't she been remembered.

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Speaker 3: I just want people to know what she did.

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Speaker 1: I've been doing some digging, and what I found paints

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Speaker 1: a picture of a complex, fascinating woman.

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Speaker 2: This is a straight shooter who will say something and

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Speaker 2: mean it.

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Speaker 3: She intimidated a lot of people in real life. She

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Speaker 3: was just kind of a fierce person.

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Speaker 1: All around us. Today, Black American history is being erased,

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Speaker 1: especially the stories of black women.

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Speaker 3: It's not even just that not everyone remembers Unice, but

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Speaker 3: that people don't even believe she could have existed. The

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Speaker 3: idea that she could have existed seems like a fantasy

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Speaker 3: to people.

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Speaker 1: Remembering Unice Carter feels more urgent than ever. This is

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Speaker 1: a story of ambition, justice, and legacy. This is the

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Speaker 1: story of Unice Carter.

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Speaker 3: The influence that you have while you're alive matters, even

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Speaker 3: if after you're gone, everyone forgets about you. It doesn't

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Speaker 3: mean that it was all for nothing.

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Speaker 1: Listen to The Godmother with me Nicole Perkins, Launching on

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Speaker 1: January fifteenth on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcasts.