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Speaker 1: Novel before we begin, a content warning the following episode

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Speaker 1: contains difficult themes and violence. After making sure my little

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Speaker 1: brother gets on his bus, I walk a couple of

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Speaker 1: blocks up the hill to wait on mine. It's the

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Speaker 1: fall of nineteen eighty three and I'm heading into the

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Speaker 1: first grade throughout elementary school. Neighborhood. Friends and I meet

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Speaker 1: at the driveway of some stranger's house to keep an

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Speaker 1: eye out for the big yellow school bus that will

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Speaker 1: take us through Nashville.

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Speaker 2: For the next four years.

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Speaker 1: I always sit next to the window so I can

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Speaker 1: see the city go by. The morning journey starts in

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Speaker 1: North Nashville, near Jefferson Street, a black historic neighborhood. The

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Speaker 1: bus snakes through the streets of quiet homes where you

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Speaker 1: just knew someone's grandparents lived. There are chairs on front porches,

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Speaker 1: no matter how small, and carefully wild bushes of roses

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Speaker 1: or honeysuckle or whatever, bright colorful flowers bloom when it's

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Speaker 1: their time. Instead of taking the forty interstate that had

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Speaker 1: devastated the neighborhood with its arrival in the nineteen sixties,

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Speaker 1: the bus bounces over railroad tracks into the west side

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Speaker 1: of Nashville until we arrive in Sylvan Park, a white

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Speaker 1: part of town. The deeper we go, the denser the

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Speaker 1: trees grow, blocking the sun. Not in a menacing way,

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Speaker 1: in an undisturbed way. The houses range from quaint to

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Speaker 1: gingerbread to many country castles, and it's clear no one

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Speaker 1: is sending an inner state through this neighborhood. As the

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Speaker 1: bus glides into position in front of my elementary school,

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Speaker 1: I steal myself.

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Speaker 2: For the day ahead.

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Speaker 1: Inside I'll be separated from my bus friends and become

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Speaker 1: the only black girl in whatever they called gifted classes.

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Speaker 1: Back then, I only see my black friends at lunch

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Speaker 1: and pe and then again in the afternoon on the bus.

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Speaker 2: Ride back to North Nashville.

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Speaker 1: When I became an adult, I realized I'd been part

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Speaker 1: of a long term bussing program to help desegregate schools

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Speaker 1: in Nashville. The rhythms of my daily school year routine,

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Speaker 1: the long winding bus journey, days split between black friends

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Speaker 1: and family and white classmates and teachers, were all part

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Speaker 1: of a bigger political project to address a deep legacy

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Speaker 1: of discrimination and segregation. And though I didn't quite realize

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Speaker 1: it at the time, I was learning not just about multiplications, spelling,

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Speaker 1: and how to write incursive. I was also absorbing lessons

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Speaker 1: about what it meant to succeed as a black girl

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Speaker 1: in America. What was expected of you, what lines and

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Speaker 1: worlds you had to carefully walk between. When I started

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Speaker 1: working on this podcast, I recognized this part of myself

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Speaker 1: in Unice Carter, the need to be respectable, to be

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Speaker 1: able to move in white spaces. When we last left Unis,

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Speaker 1: she had been dreaming of making an impact and had

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Speaker 1: decided the law was the place she was going to

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Speaker 1: do that. By nineteen twenty eight, Unice left her writing

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Speaker 1: and the Harlem renaissance behind. When I was separated from

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Speaker 1: my black friends in school for advanced classes, I did

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Speaker 1: not enjoy being the only black person or the only

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Speaker 1: black girl in the room. I wondered if being singled

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Speaker 1: out for her intelligence and ambition was important to Unis

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Speaker 1: as she separated herself from her parents' legacy and the

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Speaker 1: rest of her community in Harlem. It seems like she

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Speaker 1: wanted more for herself, But did she worry what would

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Speaker 1: happen if she failed. I'm Nicole Perkins and from the

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Speaker 1: teams at iHeartRadio and novel This Is the Godmother, Episode three,

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Speaker 1: Breaking through.

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Speaker 3: The gold past a point out where a lot of

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Speaker 3: the like clubs were compass saying Phillips the Priscopal Church reading.

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Speaker 1: During my walking tour of Harlem, one of the stops

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Speaker 1: my guide was most excited to show me was Seventh Avenue.

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Speaker 3: One of start going down Seventh Avenue. Okay, we can

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Speaker 3: go by what Billie Holliday was discovered. We can go

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Speaker 3: to the home of Langston News. We'll cut across p

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Speaker 3: the avenue, go, of course of rankin Newser's house.

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Speaker 1: At the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Seventh Avenue was

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Speaker 1: the scene of some of its best night life, and

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Speaker 1: just a few blocks south of Seventh Avenue and one

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Speaker 1: hundred and thirty fifth Street was.

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Speaker 2: This large elm tree.

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Speaker 1: It had grown there for decades, and it was nicknamed

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Speaker 1: the Tree of Hope.

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Speaker 2: Or the Wishing Tree.

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Speaker 1: It gave Seventh Avenue the name the Boulevard of Dreams.

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Speaker 1: The story is that one day one of Harlem's actors

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Speaker 1: stood underneath this elm tree wishing for a job, and

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Speaker 1: then a producer walked up to offer him one. In

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty three, America is firmly in the midst of

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Speaker 1: the Great Depression, passers by are touching that elm tree

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Speaker 1: for good luck, placing their hands on this trunk, wishing

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Speaker 1: for work, and wonder if Eunice was superstitious at all,

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Speaker 1: if she ever made a wish on the tree trunk

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Speaker 1: as she passed by. Six years have passed since we

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Speaker 1: last saw Unice. As she's looking for somewhere to hang

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Speaker 1: the shingle for her own private law practice. She'd settled

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Speaker 1: on an office just a little way down from the

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Speaker 1: Tree of Hope. She'd graduated law school and passed the bar.

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Speaker 1: For all intentsive purposes, she'd succeeded in her plan to

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Speaker 1: escape a more traditional life as housewife and social life.

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Speaker 1: But if some of that elmtree luck rubbed off on

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Speaker 1: Unis her first couple of years as a private practice

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Speaker 1: attorney do not show it. It was a far cry

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Speaker 1: from what she imagined for herself when she entered law school. First,

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Speaker 1: let's go back in time a little bit to Eunice

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Speaker 1: Hunting Carter arriving at the Woolworth Building downtown Manhattan on

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Speaker 1: a bright September day in nineteen twenty seven. The Woolworth

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Speaker 1: Building at two thirty three Broadway is glamorous and Gothic

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Speaker 1: imagine Westminster Abbey, but slicker and as a skyscraper.

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Speaker 2: It's got a cathedral like.

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Speaker 1: Presence, all fifty eight floors looming over the city. Eunice

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Speaker 1: enters the lobby that day, full of hope and with

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Speaker 1: an ambitious plan. She needs to navigate her way out

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Speaker 1: of the monotony facing her. She's not just a writer

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Speaker 1: or a housewife and mother. She's not just missus Lyle Carter.

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Speaker 1: She is more, or at least she plans to be.

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Speaker 1: As Unice steps into that lobby for the first time,

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Speaker 1: she is surrounded by intricate gold latticework, mosaics, glossy marble stone,

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Speaker 1: shafts of light filtering through lead light windows. When she

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Speaker 1: enters the elevator, an attendant dings the button that will

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Speaker 1: take her up to the twenty seventh and twenty eighth floor.

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Speaker 2: Fordham Law School.

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Speaker 1: There's a library, three large classrooms, some offices for the

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Speaker 1: dean and the registrar. There's a smoking room, and the

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Speaker 1: most spectacular view the New York City skyline. It's around

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Speaker 1: six o'clock in the evening, long shadows cast by the

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Speaker 1: setting sun on the west side.

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Speaker 4: She was attending at night while still working as a

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Speaker 4: social worker. A lot of law schools made it difficult

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Speaker 4: to attend if you were working or had other obligations.

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Speaker 4: So women, black people, Jewish people, Catholics. Bar was trying

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Speaker 4: to keep all these people out of the practice of law,

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Speaker 4: and so Fordham was trying to be more inclusive by

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Speaker 4: allowing people to attend night classes.

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Speaker 1: Eunice's decision to attend law school probably came with considerable debate.

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Speaker 1: She had a toddler at home, a perfectly good career

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Speaker 1: under her belt already. Eunice's own mother, Addie, preached that

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Speaker 1: the best place for a black woman was by her

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Speaker 1: husband's side at home, not gallivanting around Manhattan at night.

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Speaker 1: A masterclass example of the do as I say, not

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Speaker 1: as I do lifestyle, Unice strikes me as a stubborn woman,

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Speaker 1: and as a stubborn woman myself, I wouldn't be surprised

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Speaker 1: if all the possible backlash against her decision made her

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Speaker 1: even more determined to earn her law degree. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: there were plenty of people who doubted her ability to

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Speaker 1: succeed her classmates. Is she stared at as she makes

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Speaker 1: her way to class do her peers wonder whether she

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Speaker 1: strolled in by accident.

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Speaker 2: She probably got that a lot in her life.

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Speaker 1: Surprised at seeing her in predominantly white spaces. I wonder

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Speaker 1: if anyone accused her of cheating, or how many times

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Speaker 1: she remained quiet so no one thought she was trying

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Speaker 1: to prove herself better than everyone else. Maybe she had

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Speaker 1: her own doubts. As smart and determined as she is,

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Speaker 1: She's only human despite it all. During that first term

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Speaker 1: at Fordham in nineteen twenty seven, Unice's marks are unsurprisingly good.

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Speaker 4: She liked the study of law a lot, found it

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Speaker 4: very interesting. She was very detail oriented.

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Speaker 5: Eunice's forte was doing you know, research, and she kind

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Speaker 5: of excelled in going through documents.

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Speaker 1: But she's not at Fordham too long when clouds appear

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Speaker 1: on the horizon and things start to slide to the left.

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Speaker 1: In her second year at Fordham, Unice takes a sabbatical. Publicly,

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Speaker 1: she tells people that it's because she's sick. Later she

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Speaker 1: would say it was actually her son, Lyle Carter Junior

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Speaker 1: who was ill. But there's some historical speculation over this.

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Speaker 1: From everything I know about Unice, the idea of her

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Speaker 1: taking a break from law school seems unusual. Maybe the

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Speaker 1: loneliness of being the only black person and the sea

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Speaker 1: of white men was getting to her. The only reason

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Speaker 1: I question it is that she wasn't even resting during

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Speaker 1: that time off.

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Speaker 4: And even during her time off for illness, she was

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Speaker 4: working still political activism and campaigning.

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Speaker 1: This is Unice's first foray into politics. She's working on

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Speaker 1: the campaigns of some Republican candidates. That was probably as

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Speaker 1: much of an education as law school. Unice's leave of

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Speaker 1: absence was eighteen months, but something must have drawn her

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Speaker 1: back because eventually she returns to her evening studies. She

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Speaker 1: doesn't have the kind of instant success she's probably used to.

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Speaker 4: So she did fail the bar exam the first time

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Speaker 4: that she took it and had to retake it and

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Speaker 4: passed on the second.

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Speaker 1: Try to be fair to Unice, her exam was on mortgages,

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Speaker 1: so she might have had trouble staying awake. In the end,

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Speaker 1: she does finally pass her exams. Between her education law

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Speaker 1: school and her foray into politics, Unice has to recognize

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Speaker 1: a theme. She's often the only black woman in white,

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Speaker 1: male dominated spaces. Is this what she thought she had

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Speaker 1: to deal with in order to be at the top.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty three, Unice becomes one of the first

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Speaker 1: black female qualified lawyers in New York. But what has

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Speaker 1: she sacrificed of herself to get there? Walking along the

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Speaker 1: Boulevard of Dreams, past the Tree of Hope and towards

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Speaker 1: her small private practice office in Harlem, Unice would have

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Speaker 1: been carrying the weight of the decisions she'd made. To

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Speaker 1: be a trailblazer sometimes means being so far ahead you

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Speaker 1: end up alone.

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Speaker 2: So when she.

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Speaker 1: Does finally open up her business, things were pretty slow.

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Speaker 1: There are no professional accolades and finalizing wills. No one

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Speaker 1: is going to write an article about her for handling

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Speaker 1: misdemeanor charges. It's not exactly prestigious work. Unice may have

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Speaker 1: been a lawyer, but she wasn't exactly setting the world

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Speaker 1: of law on fire.

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Speaker 2: But she sticks with us for nearly two years.

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Speaker 1: Did she ever worry she had flung herself in the

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Speaker 1: wrong direction? Did she have too much pride to turn

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Speaker 1: and back? Had she sacrificed too much to retrace her steps?

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Speaker 1: I know I've made some decisions that made me question

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Speaker 1: if I'd made the right move, But I kept moving forward.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes that's the only way to shake off self doubt.

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Speaker 1: This must have been the quote tale of long dark

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Speaker 1: years she'd imagined for others when she wrote that essay

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Speaker 1: of hers about blazing trails and breaking through. While she's

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Speaker 1: struggling to break through on her path, Eunice's former neighbor

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Speaker 1: from her Brooklyn childhood, Lucky Luciano, is succeeding beyond his

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Speaker 1: wildest dreams. He had chosen a very different route up

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Speaker 1: the mountain. Okay, so when we last left legendary New

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Speaker 1: York mobster Lucky Luciano, he was graduating too, through the

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Speaker 1: layers of the New York underworld hierarchy and in the twenties,

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Speaker 1: as Units had been making her way in Harlem during

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Speaker 1: her years as a czarina and social climber, Lucky was

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Speaker 1: doing a similar thing, making new friends, new friends with

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Speaker 1: a certain status.

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Speaker 6: They called him the Broadway mob. Frank Costello, Myra Lansky,

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Speaker 6: Benny Siegel.

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Speaker 1: Hip hop heads and fans of gangster movies alike should

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Speaker 1: recognize these names in a heartbeat. Lucky's new associates have

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Speaker 1: traveled through time to become some of the most well

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Speaker 1: known mobsters ever.

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Speaker 6: What distinguished Lucky's Broadway mob from a lot of other

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Speaker 6: gangs was that it was multi ethnic. Mayra Lansky was Jewish,

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Speaker 6: Benny Siegel was Jewish, Frank Costello was Italian. Unlike his

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Speaker 6: old fashioned mafia predecessors, what he called the old mustache beats.

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Speaker 1: By the nineteen thirties, Lucky and his crew are serious

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Speaker 1: players in the world of New York crime. And in

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty one, as Unice is arriving downtown at the

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Speaker 1: Woolworth Building each evening, struggling to finish law school, Lucky

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Speaker 1: is finding.

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Speaker 2: Things a little easier.

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Speaker 1: Soon He's headed out each evening from an equally impressive

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Speaker 1: Manhattan address, the Waldorf Astoria, the largest and tallest hotel

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Speaker 1: in the world. This is Lucky Luciano's new home. Those

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Speaker 1: who catch a glimpse of him riding down the elevator

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Speaker 1: from his thirty ninth floor suite and walking confidently through

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Speaker 1: the luxurious lobby will see an almost unrecognizable figure. He's

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Speaker 1: no longer the scruffy street urchin from Little Italy.

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Speaker 7: Lucky Luciano was known for silk underwear. Silk shirts, never

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Speaker 7: a suit off the rack, always tailored. Pinky ring in particular,

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Speaker 7: was gold The shoes were always, of course, Italian leather.

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Speaker 7: If they would wear a fedora, it was usually some

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Speaker 7: expensive fur.

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Speaker 1: Everything from head to toe, especially tailored.

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Speaker 7: This was the general dress of the guys that quote

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Speaker 7: unquote made it. Yes, there was vanity. Some could argue

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Speaker 7: it was narcissism.

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Speaker 2: But there was more to it than that.

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Speaker 7: They didn't want to look like gangsters. They wanted to

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Speaker 7: look like upstanding, high society citizens. They want to look

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Speaker 7: like the Rockefellers.

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Speaker 1: Eunice and Lucky Luciano. Their journey to respectability is quite similar.

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Speaker 1: Unis uses education and class status. Lucky uses a tailored

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Speaker 1: and expensive wardrobe to prove himself, and for now, at least,

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00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:03,280
Speaker 1: Lucky's methods seem to be the ones getting results.

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Speaker 7: It was New York high life, if there ever was one.

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Speaker 7: Traveled in the best cars, dined in the finest restaurants,

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Speaker 7: hobnobbed with celebrities, living high up in the Waldorf Astoria,

264
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Speaker 7: all the best trappings, the best parties.

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Speaker 1: For extra protection, he now uses bodyguards and uses frequent aliases.

266
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Speaker 1: But not all of Lucky's physical changes since those days

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Speaker 1: when he and Unice were kids in Brooklyn are deliberate

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Speaker 1: He's had his own years of struggle too. Just a

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Speaker 1: few years before he came to live at the.

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Speaker 7: Astoria, Lucky Luciano was abducted, taken to Staten Island, beaten up, scarred, bleeding,

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Speaker 7: passed out, and tossed out on a beach.

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Speaker 2: Abducted by police, so the story goes.

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Speaker 7: The reason they were beating him up, according to Lucky Luccianum,

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Speaker 7: is they wanted information on a criminal who was more

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00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:11,320
Speaker 7: infamous than he was at that time. He wouldn't give

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Speaker 7: it up, so they beat the hell out of him.

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Speaker 1: So by nineteen thirty one, Lucky's appearances also marked by

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Speaker 1: scars that line his face and a droopy eye.

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Speaker 7: From that moment on, the mythology of Lucky Lucciano's scars

280
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Speaker 7: was born.

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Speaker 1: You can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs,

282
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Speaker 1: and it's no surprise Lucky's rise to the Waldorf had

283
00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:38,880
Speaker 1: caused him to get into some scrapes. Ever since Lucky

284
00:19:38,920 --> 00:19:42,359
Speaker 1: had walked away from school, he was regularly in contact

285
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Speaker 1: with some of the underworld's most violent citizens, and not

286
00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:48,120
Speaker 1: just in Little.

287
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Speaker 7: Italy, across the country, from New York to Chicago to

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Speaker 7: Detroit to San Francisco. These people were all on the

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Speaker 7: same page.

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Speaker 2: And that page well.

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Speaker 1: While units had been riding high on the socialized scene

292
00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:10,399
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenties Harlem Renaissance, Lucky and his contemporaries had

293
00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:13,440
Speaker 1: been getting rich supplying all the booze that had been

294
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Speaker 1: helping Harlem swing. This is the era of Prohibition, when

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Speaker 1: religious Zealous convinced the federal government to ban the production, sale,

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Speaker 1: and transportation of alcohol during the twenties.

297
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Speaker 8: Prohibition is the best thing that ever happened to the

298
00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:37,720
Speaker 8: mob because we have something that is illegal, but for

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00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:41,480
Speaker 8: which there's still a very active and consistent market.

300
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Speaker 1: The government had created a gold mine for all kinds

301
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Speaker 1: of outlaws.

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Speaker 9: Prohibition makes an entire sector of the economy, the booze sector,

303
00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:55,959
Speaker 9: illegal overnight. That means if you want a glass beer,

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00:20:56,359 --> 00:20:58,639
Speaker 9: you're going to have to concert with criminals. All of

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00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:03,199
Speaker 9: a sudden need now to be more criminals to provide

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00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:04,600
Speaker 9: all this booze.

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00:21:05,119 --> 00:21:09,360
Speaker 1: Lucky isn't just any kind of outlaw. He has a

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Speaker 1: particular knack for making friends in useful places and keeping them.

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Speaker 8: There's so many little stories, not even major things, but

310
00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:22,960
Speaker 8: there's just many stories of both men and women coming

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00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,080
Speaker 8: in contact with him and singling him out for being

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Speaker 8: this very charismatic man.

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Speaker 1: His experience of striving for more in multi ethnic Little

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Speaker 1: Italy has given him a special appreciation for working across

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Speaker 1: different gangs.

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Speaker 8: He certainly wanted as much power for himself as possible,

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00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:45,520
Speaker 8: but if it benefited him, he did not see any

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Speaker 8: problem with crossing ethnic lines.

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Speaker 1: Lucky was able to make the kind of connections necessary

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00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:53,240
Speaker 1: when sourcing booze from across the country.

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Speaker 9: That's where you see the rise of modern organized crime

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00:21:56,920 --> 00:22:00,520
Speaker 9: starting to work across state lines, across city line with

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00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:05,399
Speaker 9: bosses beginning to collaborate. Because it's very expensive and very

324
00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:07,919
Speaker 9: difficult to move a lot of liquor, you need to

325
00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:12,400
Speaker 9: have really good connections.

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Speaker 2: To supply.

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Speaker 1: For example, a Harlem speakeasy where jazz pioneer Fletcher Henderson

328
00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:22,480
Speaker 1: might pop in to pass the time between sets. Maybe

329
00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:25,760
Speaker 1: he sweet talks a young legal student who stopped by

330
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Speaker 1: on her way home from her evening classes at the

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Speaker 1: Woolworth Building, so the rumor goes something to help them

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Speaker 1: both ignore that ring on her finger.

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Speaker 8: Prohibition provides the opportunity for mobsters to become millionaires. Literally,

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00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:44,560
Speaker 8: these are men in their twenties and thirties that are

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Speaker 8: making millions of dollars when the average salary is a

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Speaker 8: couple thousand dollars in the United States.

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Speaker 1: And that's how Lucky came to be living it up,

338
00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:57,240
Speaker 1: riding high on the boozy wave of Prohibition, a wave

339
00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:00,000
Speaker 1: that sweeps him as high as the thirty ninth floor

340
00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:07,840
Speaker 1: of the Waldorf Astoria in nineteen thirty one. He's far

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00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:12,040
Speaker 1: from done riding that wave, but all waves eventually break.

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00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:19,880
Speaker 1: Lucky's existence in the early nineteen thirties isn't all high life. Yes,

343
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:25,160
Speaker 1: there's the jewelry, the silk shirts, the opium parties, the showgirls,

344
00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:28,200
Speaker 1: but the scars that he sees on his face each

345
00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:32,639
Speaker 1: morning in the mirror are likely an unnecessary reminder. Lucky

346
00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:36,960
Speaker 1: operates in a high stakes business full of danger, death,

347
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:43,439
Speaker 1: and betrayal. At the start of nineteen thirty one, there

348
00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:46,120
Speaker 1: are still those above Lucky in the mob food chain.

349
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Speaker 1: Because New York is reaching the climax of an especially

350
00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:55,560
Speaker 1: bloody mob feud, something that will be known as the Castella.

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00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:56,000
Speaker 2: Maes A War.

352
00:23:57,480 --> 00:23:59,960
Speaker 1: Lucky is going to use that war to catapult himse

353
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:03,840
Speaker 1: to the top of the underworld food chain and unbeknownst

354
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:06,119
Speaker 1: to him, right into Eunice's orbit.

355
00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:12,160
Speaker 2: So this Caste La Maries War.

356
00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:17,480
Speaker 7: From nineteen thirty to nineteen thirty one, Lucky and many

357
00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:22,320
Speaker 7: of his brethren are fighting against each other in a

358
00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:27,639
Speaker 7: two pronged war between two would be mob bosses in

359
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:28,240
Speaker 7: New York.

360
00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:34,199
Speaker 1: Two prongs, two mob bosses, Joe Mazzaia and Salvatoria Marizano.

361
00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:37,399
Speaker 1: But you don't need to remember them. They're both about

362
00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:40,560
Speaker 1: to die. These two guys have been the main New

363
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:44,119
Speaker 1: York mob powers for quite a while, so gangsters know,

364
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:48,000
Speaker 1: if you're involved in crime in New York, you've generally

365
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,040
Speaker 1: got to be kicking up some of your profits to

366
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:51,120
Speaker 1: one of them.

367
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:57,240
Speaker 7: And Lucky he was working from Masorea and realized, as

368
00:24:57,320 --> 00:25:00,800
Speaker 7: did his brethren, Masoi was weak.

369
00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:11,560
Speaker 1: On an April morning in nineteen thirty one, Lucky heads

370
00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:14,000
Speaker 1: over to Coney Island for a spot of lunch with

371
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:19,320
Speaker 1: the boss Massaia. Legend has it he is at the

372
00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:24,399
Speaker 1: table when gunmen roll into the restaurant, aim their guns

373
00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:29,679
Speaker 1: at Joe Massaia and shoot, and.

374
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Speaker 6: That ended the cast On Larrazi War.

375
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:38,760
Speaker 1: You might be wondering how Lucky made such a lucky escape.

376
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:42,760
Speaker 1: From lunch that day. But don't worry, he actually organized

377
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:44,520
Speaker 1: the whole assassination himself.

378
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:50,760
Speaker 6: Lucky Luciano agreed to kill Joe the Boss Massarea and

379
00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:53,280
Speaker 6: throw his lot in with Salvatory Marenzano.

380
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 1: And now, in this act of Macavelian betrayal, Lucky Luciano

381
00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:02,639
Speaker 1: is an even more powerful mandebster. But he's not done there,

382
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:07,440
Speaker 1: especially when word reaches him that luck might not last

383
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:08,439
Speaker 1: with the new boss.

384
00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:12,640
Speaker 7: Marenzano put a nail in his own coffin when he

385
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:16,120
Speaker 7: wrote a list of all the people he wanted knocked off,

386
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:19,920
Speaker 7: and on that list was Lucky Luciano.

387
00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:25,280
Speaker 1: This mobster Marenzano had written down an actual hit list.

388
00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:28,399
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem like a very wise thing for a

389
00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:32,440
Speaker 1: wise guy to do. And in September nineteen thirty one,

390
00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:37,760
Speaker 1: Mafia lore says that associates of Lucky's disguised themselves as

391
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:38,920
Speaker 1: treasury agents.

392
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:44,880
Speaker 7: They entered Maronzano's office, stabbed and shot him to death.

393
00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:51,400
Speaker 1: Put yourself in lucky shoes. You've just portrayed your first boss,

394
00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:54,560
Speaker 1: and now the man you've done it for is journaling

395
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,320
Speaker 1: about having you killed. He might not have felt he

396
00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:00,480
Speaker 1: had any choice. Left, but to take some kind of

397
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:04,920
Speaker 1: action anyway. By the fall of nineteen thirty one, Lucky's

398
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 1: taken out two bosses of New York's underworld.

399
00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:12,320
Speaker 6: When the smoke cleared in nineteen thirty one, Lucky Luciana

400
00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 6: was a head of organized crime in New York.

401
00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:20,000
Speaker 1: But then, according to gangster Laura again, Lucky is said

402
00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:25,040
Speaker 1: to do something even more ambitious, something that a million

403
00:27:25,119 --> 00:27:28,800
Speaker 1: mob movies and self claimed mob informants will refer back

404
00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:30,359
Speaker 1: to for decades to come.

405
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:35,600
Speaker 10: Luciano decided it's not very safe to be a boss

406
00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:39,600
Speaker 10: of bosses, because somehow you don't last very long in

407
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:40,560
Speaker 10: that capacity.

408
00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:45,280
Speaker 8: What he really does is he creates a board of directors.

409
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:49,000
Speaker 1: Lucky is said to have created something called the Commission.

410
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:52,679
Speaker 1: He's going to be its head, a chairman of the

411
00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:53,800
Speaker 1: board of sorts.

412
00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:58,000
Speaker 8: He structures it so that everything, yes, kind of has

413
00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:01,360
Speaker 8: to go through him, but also has to go through

414
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:02,640
Speaker 8: every other leader.

415
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:07,760
Speaker 10: He developed a new job description for the boss of bosses,

416
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:09,000
Speaker 10: Lucky Luciano.

417
00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:11,800
Speaker 6: He's called the man who organized crime in America. For

418
00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:12,399
Speaker 6: that reason.

419
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:16,040
Speaker 1: That's how Lucky. We'll end up at the Waldorf Astoria

420
00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:20,480
Speaker 1: sleeping easily in his big featherbed each night. But remember

421
00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:24,760
Speaker 1: he is a mobster, and the quiet life can only

422
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:30,359
Speaker 1: last for so long. Just a few years later, in

423
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,480
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty one, as Unis sits in her Harlem law

424
00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:36,120
Speaker 1: office waiting for her next client to call with an

425
00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:41,280
Speaker 1: exciting will or mortgage application, alarm bells are going off

426
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:43,840
Speaker 1: across organized crime in America.

427
00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:47,920
Speaker 2: Prohibition is coming to an end.

428
00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:53,080
Speaker 9: All of a sudden, This huge illegal economy just goes away,

429
00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:56,960
Speaker 9: and you have all these bootleggers looking around thinking, what's

430
00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:59,640
Speaker 9: our next opportunity? Where are we going to go? They're

431
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:02,160
Speaker 9: not going to go get jobs in the insurance industry.

432
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:05,800
Speaker 1: It's time for Lucky and his crew to conjure up

433
00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:09,000
Speaker 1: some new ways to keep those silk shirts on their backs.

434
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 1: But these guys are professional opportunists, and all around they

435
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:15,960
Speaker 1: see a world.

436
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:17,360
Speaker 2: Ripe for exploitation.

437
00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 1: If you'd been to most speakeasies or jazz clubs in

438
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:39,240
Speaker 1: New York in the era of prohibition, you're likely to

439
00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:42,720
Speaker 1: have noticed a few consistent things. The music, of course,

440
00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:46,880
Speaker 1: free and flowing. This is the jazz age. After all,

441
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:51,240
Speaker 1: there's the booze illegal. But thanks to the likes of

442
00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:54,560
Speaker 1: Lucky and his networks, just as free flowing as the

443
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:59,120
Speaker 1: jazz around you. Then there's the crowd full of bright

444
00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:03,280
Speaker 1: light and inner people like Unice in her twenties and thirties,

445
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:08,680
Speaker 1: cool and glamorous, but linger a little longer, look a

446
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:12,720
Speaker 1: little closer, you might notice some others in the crowd,

447
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:17,440
Speaker 1: maybe looking a little bit more world weary.

448
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:20,320
Speaker 9: You are at all interested in the jazz age, that

449
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:23,640
Speaker 9: means you are probably interested in nightlife. It's like a

450
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:27,440
Speaker 9: three legged stool. You gotta have music, you gotta have

451
00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 9: some kind of stimulant, and you gotta have women. And

452
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 9: turns out there are not enough women to populate every

453
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 9: speakeasy and every jazz club, every dive in New York

454
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:46,120
Speaker 9: City unless you pay them.

455
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:49,600
Speaker 1: Okay, so we're back in the late twenties now, Prohibition

456
00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:53,040
Speaker 1: is still in full swing, so to speak. Unice was

457
00:30:53,080 --> 00:30:55,360
Speaker 1: having a harder time that she's used to at law school,

458
00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:57,680
Speaker 1: and Lucky is still just a man on the way

459
00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 1: up in the underworld. We're in a on the Upper

460
00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:03,880
Speaker 1: West Side, just a little farther downtown from the places

461
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:07,960
Speaker 1: Unis frequence in Harlem. And to be honest, the place

462
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 1: we're in is it the kind of spot unis would

463
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 1: likely choose to visit anyway. Across the room sits a small,

464
00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:18,240
Speaker 1: pale woman with scarlet painted lips, or at least that's

465
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 1: how the papers will come.

466
00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:20,000
Speaker 2: To describe her.

467
00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:28,560
Speaker 1: Her name is Florence Newman or Florence Brown or Cokeie

468
00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:33,280
Speaker 1: Flow Brown or just Cokie Flow. I'm going to stick

469
00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:36,840
Speaker 1: with Cokeie Flow, and she's had a pretty rough journey

470
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:38,400
Speaker 1: before arriving here this evening.

471
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:44,560
Speaker 9: There are, of course, vas swaths of women who are

472
00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:48,960
Speaker 9: in fact compelled, who are trafficked, who are manipulated or

473
00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:54,640
Speaker 9: beaten into being prostitutes. In many ways, it's a very difficult, stressful,

474
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 9: a dangerous job for a lot of people, but it

475
00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:01,320
Speaker 9: pays well and it can offer women amendous amount of autonomy.

476
00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 1: Koki Flow first came to New York in the nineteen twenties.

477
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:08,080
Speaker 1: By the way of Cleveland, Ohio, and Duluth, Minnesota, haven't

478
00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:12,200
Speaker 1: been taken in by a businessman at just fifteen years old.

479
00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:14,320
Speaker 2: By eighteen, Cooki Flow.

480
00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:16,400
Speaker 1: Has moved on to become a mistress to three different

481
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 1: underworld figures.

482
00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:20,200
Speaker 9: There are people who are using it just like a

483
00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:21,520
Speaker 9: stepping stone in their career.

484
00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:24,719
Speaker 1: By the late nineteen twenties. She's in New York and

485
00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:27,720
Speaker 1: running her own brothels on the Upper east Side and

486
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:28,680
Speaker 1: some across town.

487
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:32,080
Speaker 2: On the East Side, she operated as a madam.

488
00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:36,200
Speaker 9: You could really find sex at every price point.

489
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:40,160
Speaker 1: If you're looking to buy sex. It's not just Cokie

490
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 1: flows houses that you want to consider. New York City

491
00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:44,800
Speaker 1: provides a world of options.

492
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:49,640
Speaker 9: There are top dollar joints. They were like high end

493
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 9: speakeasies where they have the best food and they have cooks,

494
00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:56,840
Speaker 9: so you could stop by anytime for a night cap

495
00:32:56,920 --> 00:33:00,600
Speaker 9: and some free food and top flight booth and you

496
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:03,200
Speaker 9: could hang out. You could gamble. You could just come

497
00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:06,600
Speaker 9: and drink with your friends by backgammon with the madam

498
00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:09,400
Speaker 9: and maybe head off to the bedroom or maybe not.

499
00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:12,200
Speaker 2: From there, you moved down the scale.

500
00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:15,520
Speaker 9: There were ten dollar houses where you could show up

501
00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:18,120
Speaker 9: and it would be nice and you might get a

502
00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:19,320
Speaker 9: little rushed.

503
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:23,200
Speaker 2: And further down the scale two dollar houses where.

504
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 9: They would actually have a ticket that you would wear

505
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:30,920
Speaker 9: on your bathroom and as you service some man, the

506
00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:34,200
Speaker 9: housekeeper would click it so that at the end of

507
00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:36,880
Speaker 9: the night you would see how many people. And there

508
00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:40,480
Speaker 9: are women who were servicing thirty forty men a night,

509
00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:42,240
Speaker 9: they just move you through.

510
00:33:45,840 --> 00:33:48,760
Speaker 1: Sex Workers in the twenties also face the new challenges

511
00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:53,320
Speaker 1: because across America a general atmosphere of unspoken tolerance towards

512
00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:55,600
Speaker 1: the profession is now turning sour.

513
00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:01,680
Speaker 9: At the beginning of the two twentieth century, it was

514
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:05,760
Speaker 9: still super common for young men to lose their virginity

515
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:10,000
Speaker 9: in brothels. Most towns of any size had a red

516
00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:13,040
Speaker 9: light district where it wasn't legal, but it was sort

517
00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:17,000
Speaker 9: of tolerated. The problem comes for the people in the

518
00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:20,240
Speaker 9: business of the flesh trades around World War One, where

519
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:25,399
Speaker 9: there is an uproar over prostitution gaining visibility. You got

520
00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:30,000
Speaker 9: all these young boys joining the military, going overseas and

521
00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:33,920
Speaker 9: going to brothels with all kinds of sexually transmitted diseases

522
00:34:34,200 --> 00:34:38,920
Speaker 9: and all kinds of bad habits, and so the government

523
00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:42,919
Speaker 9: feels like we cannot be having all these young men

524
00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:47,719
Speaker 9: bringing home sexually transmitted diseases and bringing shame upon our

525
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 9: war and our army. So they require any town that

526
00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:55,840
Speaker 9: hosts troops to shut down all of their red light districts.

527
00:34:56,239 --> 00:35:00,080
Speaker 1: So by the early twenties, the madams running brothels, so

528
00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:01,560
Speaker 1: they have to be fairly discreet.

529
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:04,799
Speaker 9: Now, that doesn't mean there's no more prostitutes. They just

530
00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:06,160
Speaker 9: go under ground.

531
00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:08,279
Speaker 1: You might meet a woman like Koki Flow and a

532
00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:11,480
Speaker 1: speak easy, but her trade is usually carried out from

533
00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:12,640
Speaker 1: somewhere else nearby.

534
00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:16,000
Speaker 9: The women have to go into apartment buildings where they're

535
00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:18,879
Speaker 9: not going to be seen by cops as much, where

536
00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:20,160
Speaker 9: they're going to be able to hide.

537
00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:22,879
Speaker 1: Just as people sell dinner plates or do hair from

538
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 1: their homes, there are some women who run sex work

539
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:31,240
Speaker 1: operations out of these apartments. Think Airbnbs for sex. Scattered

540
00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:32,359
Speaker 1: across the city.

541
00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:35,400
Speaker 9: There were just places where you could do whatever you

542
00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:38,680
Speaker 9: weren't supposed to be doing out in public. So that's

543
00:35:38,719 --> 00:35:40,840
Speaker 9: where you start to see the rise of the booker.

544
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:43,400
Speaker 9: All you had to do is if you got a call,

545
00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:46,840
Speaker 9: you could say, okay, go to West seventy third Street.

546
00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:49,040
Speaker 9: The key is under the mat. There will be a

547
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:51,000
Speaker 9: girl waiting for you, or there will be a girl

548
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:56,440
Speaker 9: that arrives. In fact, real estate and prostitution are deeply intertwined.

549
00:35:57,040 --> 00:35:59,480
Speaker 9: One of the ways you could be sure to both

550
00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:03,799
Speaker 9: fill upon artment buildings during economic downturns and get top

551
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:08,759
Speaker 9: dollar for them is by renting them to madams and prostitutes.

552
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:12,200
Speaker 9: They would often pay triple. It also meant that your

553
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:15,080
Speaker 9: superintendent was going to get a bribe, because it's very

554
00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:19,120
Speaker 9: hard to keep that secret. Your doorman would often get

555
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:22,600
Speaker 9: a bribe. This is the era when elevators were not automated,

556
00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:25,439
Speaker 9: so there would usually be an elevator operator who would

557
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:29,120
Speaker 9: usually get a bribe. So it was an expensive business

558
00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:32,120
Speaker 9: to be a madam actually, but it was a lucrative

559
00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:33,640
Speaker 9: business if you were a landlord.

560
00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:38,600
Speaker 1: And it's not just dorman, superintendents, elevator operators, and landlords

561
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:43,280
Speaker 1: with their hands out taking money from sex workers during

562
00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:46,760
Speaker 1: the twenties. A specific kind of organized criminal is taking

563
00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:47,680
Speaker 1: money from them too.

564
00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:51,680
Speaker 9: It is, in fact, the government entities the vice ring

565
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:56,799
Speaker 9: of the nineteen twenties, which is not dominated by criminals.

566
00:36:56,880 --> 00:37:01,240
Speaker 9: It's not dominated by syndicated c that got other things

567
00:37:01,280 --> 00:37:04,120
Speaker 9: to do that are far more profitable. It's a ring

568
00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:08,440
Speaker 9: between the lawyers, the cops, the judges, and the girls.

569
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:12,600
Speaker 9: It is the law who are bleeding the prostitutes dry.

570
00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:16,480
Speaker 1: But as we move into the early thirties, as lucky

571
00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:19,319
Speaker 1: as playing both sides in the Castela Maries a war,

572
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:25,080
Speaker 1: something surprising happens. A whole bunch of these corrupt officials,

573
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:29,520
Speaker 1: the judges and cops profiting off the sex workers, start.

574
00:37:29,239 --> 00:37:30,040
Speaker 2: To get arrested.

575
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:33,840
Speaker 1: City Hall tries to clean house as part of sweeping

576
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:38,000
Speaker 1: anti corruption drives. It doesn't end corruption in New York politics,

577
00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:41,120
Speaker 1: far from it, but it does have an impact on

578
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:43,520
Speaker 1: sex work, and it means that at the start of

579
00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:46,959
Speaker 1: the thirties Koki flow in her colleagues into their own

580
00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:49,200
Speaker 1: strange kind of golden age.

581
00:37:51,320 --> 00:37:53,560
Speaker 9: Those early years in the thirties are kind of a

582
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,400
Speaker 9: free for all and a great time to be running

583
00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:59,759
Speaker 9: a house of prostitution because nobody's harassing you from the

584
00:37:59,840 --> 00:38:03,319
Speaker 9: vice squad. The dirty judges have been mostly kicked out.

585
00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:08,120
Speaker 1: But remember this is nineteen thirties America, and a woman

586
00:38:08,239 --> 00:38:11,840
Speaker 1: run unexploited industry was never going to last.

587
00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:18,360
Speaker 9: When prohibition ends, everything changes. You have all these bootleggers

588
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:21,200
Speaker 9: who are looking around thinking what's our next opportunity? Where

589
00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:23,359
Speaker 9: are we going to go? So the first thing they

590
00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:27,120
Speaker 9: do is they say, let's get in on this booking business.

591
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:32,480
Speaker 1: On the southern side of East Manhattan, you'll find Mott Street.

592
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:38,439
Speaker 1: It's a narrow, bustling thoroughfare. One of the streets where

593
00:38:38,480 --> 00:38:41,520
Speaker 1: Lucky Luciano grew up, and by the end of prohibition

594
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:48,440
Speaker 1: it's the headquarters of Italian organized crime. These headquarters are

595
00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:53,399
Speaker 1: run on Lucky's behalf by a bunch of well characters.

596
00:38:53,239 --> 00:38:55,520
Speaker 9: Real scumbags, if I may say so.

597
00:38:56,400 --> 00:39:00,440
Speaker 1: These gangsters from Mott Street were creatively known as the

598
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:01,680
Speaker 1: Mott Street Boys.

599
00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 9: Who had been working for Lucky Luciana for years, running

600
00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:10,319
Speaker 9: the liquor exchange, busting' heads, dealing drugs, whatever was profitable.

601
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:13,320
Speaker 1: The Mott Street Boys are led by a mid level

602
00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:14,720
Speaker 1: mob enforcer.

603
00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:17,319
Speaker 9: A guy named Tommy the Bold Pinocchio.

604
00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:19,400
Speaker 1: And at the start of nineteen thirty four, when the

605
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:22,720
Speaker 1: Mott Street Boys and other former bootleggers are still scratching

606
00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:25,680
Speaker 1: their heads for new ways of making money post Prohibition,

607
00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:28,640
Speaker 1: it's Tommy the Bull who has the bright idea.

608
00:39:29,160 --> 00:39:32,719
Speaker 9: Tommy thinks, look, there's a whole untapped industry here that

609
00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:34,480
Speaker 9: we could begin to shake down.

610
00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:38,240
Speaker 1: An industry that does not seem to be suffering. Despite

611
00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:41,080
Speaker 1: New York being in the midst of the Great Depression.

612
00:39:43,040 --> 00:39:46,360
Speaker 9: The taste for brothels and for prostitutes did not decline.

613
00:39:46,719 --> 00:39:49,120
Speaker 1: The mob hasn't had much of a connection to that trade.

614
00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:51,799
Speaker 1: Before at this point, because sex work is a bit

615
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:53,680
Speaker 1: of a cottage industry.

616
00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:56,799
Speaker 9: Individual women servicing individual men.

617
00:39:57,320 --> 00:40:00,520
Speaker 1: But the Mott Street Boys have an idea a way

618
00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:04,680
Speaker 1: for scaling up their involvement across lots of sex work operations.

619
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:08,839
Speaker 1: They start busting up brothels and once inside they give

620
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:13,440
Speaker 1: those businesses an offer they can't refuse to use their

621
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:15,959
Speaker 1: money as a kind of protection racket for the sex

622
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:18,160
Speaker 1: workers in case of trouble with the law.

623
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:21,560
Speaker 9: That is to say, pooling money to get women out

624
00:40:21,600 --> 00:40:24,080
Speaker 9: of jail when they get arrested, and that certainly helps

625
00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:26,879
Speaker 9: and you can have it. In terms of booking talent.

626
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:29,919
Speaker 1: These bookers have become a crucial component to the way

627
00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:31,600
Speaker 1: sex work in this era operates.

628
00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:36,000
Speaker 9: Prostitution bookers would treat it like a talent agency where

629
00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:38,440
Speaker 9: they had a roster of girls that they would send

630
00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:41,560
Speaker 9: out to different brothels around the city.

631
00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:44,520
Speaker 1: But as well as connecting the sex workers with customers,

632
00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:46,840
Speaker 1: bookers provide another service.

633
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:50,400
Speaker 9: The women pay the booker ten bucks a week and

634
00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:52,680
Speaker 9: then if you get arrested, he'll come bail you out.

635
00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:55,840
Speaker 1: So now Mott Street Boys are going to run the

636
00:40:55,880 --> 00:40:57,920
Speaker 1: bookers and the sex workers.

637
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:04,040
Speaker 9: They begin to encounter problems almost as soon as they start.

638
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:06,440
Speaker 9: Most of the women did not want to work with

639
00:41:06,560 --> 00:41:09,840
Speaker 9: Tommy the Bull and his gang as thugs, and it's.

640
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:12,080
Speaker 1: Not like sex workers have much spare money to start

641
00:41:12,120 --> 00:41:13,640
Speaker 1: handing out for this mob protection.

642
00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:17,000
Speaker 8: They worked twelve hour days, six days a week. They

643
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:20,720
Speaker 8: pocketed about forty dollars out of their roughly two hundred

644
00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:22,200
Speaker 8: dollars in weekly earnings.

645
00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:25,040
Speaker 2: But what choice do they really have?

646
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:29,560
Speaker 1: So the mob moves in and brings an end to

647
00:41:29,640 --> 00:41:33,839
Speaker 1: that ever so brief golden age of sex work. Under

648
00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:36,840
Speaker 1: the new system, the men working as bookers are making

649
00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:40,040
Speaker 1: money from the sex workers and the madams, but not

650
00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:42,040
Speaker 1: as much as those at the top of the tree,

651
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:48,760
Speaker 1: men like Luciano, who demand a cut of all the profits.

652
00:41:50,719 --> 00:41:53,400
Speaker 1: Sex work is not the only industry noticing an increased

653
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 1: mob presence since the fall of Prohibition. As New York

654
00:41:56,719 --> 00:42:00,520
Speaker 1: moves into the mid thirties, this model of diversification grows

655
00:42:00,719 --> 00:42:03,520
Speaker 1: and grows, and who was going to stop it?

656
00:42:04,480 --> 00:42:08,319
Speaker 6: Many suspected, as was the case, that New York politics

657
00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:11,160
Speaker 6: were deeply corrupted by organized crime.

658
00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:16,960
Speaker 1: Why were the police so ineffective when it came to

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00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:20,760
Speaker 1: curbing some of this organized crime?

660
00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:21,360
Speaker 2: Violence.

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00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:24,520
Speaker 11: I got. The first thing to do if you're going

662
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:26,600
Speaker 11: to be a good criminal is to start doing something

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00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:28,480
Speaker 11: with the police.

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Speaker 1: The mob is on the move across New York, which

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00:42:32,640 --> 00:42:33,960
Speaker 1: meant Harlem as well.

666
00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:36,160
Speaker 2: I imagine for unis.

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00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:39,920
Speaker 1: Part of Harlem's appeal is the community, the glitz, and

668
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:45,319
Speaker 1: the people. But the mob, of course has more nefarious motivations,

669
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:47,759
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to an industry.

670
00:42:48,200 --> 00:42:49,560
Speaker 2: My own family knows.

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00:42:49,320 --> 00:42:53,920
Speaker 1: A thing or two about that's coming up in episode

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00:42:54,000 --> 00:43:04,400
Speaker 1: four of The Godmother. On this episode of The Godmother,

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00:43:04,600 --> 00:43:08,520
Speaker 1: you heard Carolyn Johnson, my Harlem tour guide.

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00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:11,560
Speaker 3: Welcome to Harlem. That's the name of my company.

675
00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:13,760
Speaker 2: I'm still My name is Leah Carter.

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00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:19,080
Speaker 4: I am Eunice Carter's great granddaughter. Her son. Lyle is

677
00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:23,720
Speaker 4: my dad's father. Unis influenced my grandfather, and he influenced

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00:43:23,719 --> 00:43:25,640
Speaker 4: my dad, and my dad influenced me. Now that I

679
00:43:25,680 --> 00:43:27,720
Speaker 4: have a grand unified theory of that exactly.

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00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:31,239
Speaker 5: I'm Marilyn Greenwald. I'm a professor Emerita of journalism at

681
00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:35,480
Speaker 5: Ohio University, and I'm the author of five biographies, including

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00:43:35,520 --> 00:43:37,040
Speaker 5: one of Eunice Hunting Carter.

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00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:40,840
Speaker 6: My name is Chuck Greeves. Before becoming a writer. I

684
00:43:40,920 --> 00:43:43,680
Speaker 6: spent twenty five years as a Los Angeles trial lawyer.

685
00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:49,840
Speaker 6: My fourth novel was basically a fictionalization of the famous

686
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:54,080
Speaker 6: nineteen thirty six vice trial, in which Luckily Chiana was

687
00:43:54,120 --> 00:43:55,920
Speaker 6: prosecuted by Thomas Dewey.

688
00:43:56,360 --> 00:44:00,160
Speaker 7: My name is Christian Sipollini and I am an author

689
00:44:00,520 --> 00:44:04,640
Speaker 7: and a historian with a specialty in the fields of

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00:44:04,719 --> 00:44:08,400
Speaker 7: true crime, organized crime, and cartel history.

691
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:11,520
Speaker 8: I am Claire White and I am the director of

692
00:44:11,640 --> 00:44:15,440
Speaker 8: education at the Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas. I

693
00:44:15,520 --> 00:44:18,160
Speaker 8: grew up in Las Vegas, which kind of gives me

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00:44:18,520 --> 00:44:20,520
Speaker 8: a leg up in that regard.

695
00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:24,520
Speaker 9: I'm Debbie Applegate. I'm a historian and biographer, and I

696
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:28,919
Speaker 9: am the author of Madam, The Biography of Polyadler Icon

697
00:44:29,120 --> 00:44:30,320
Speaker 9: of the Jazz Age.

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00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:30,759
Speaker 3: Hi.

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00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:32,440
Speaker 9: My name is Ellen Paulson.

700
00:44:33,120 --> 00:44:38,840
Speaker 10: I research and I write books about criminal acts and

701
00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:42,520
Speaker 10: devis that took place during the nineteen thirties in the

702
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:47,360
Speaker 10: United States, and my focus so far has been women

703
00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:52,040
Speaker 10: who were involved with notorious gangsters and desperadoes.

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00:44:52,600 --> 00:44:54,160
Speaker 2: My name is Leshawn Harris.

705
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:58,080
Speaker 1: I am an associate professor of history at Michigan State

706
00:44:58,200 --> 00:44:59,920
Speaker 1: University in the Department of.

707
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:05,280
Speaker 11: My name is Robert Whalen, and I'm an Emerathus professor

708
00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:08,760
Speaker 11: of History at Queen's University of Charlotte here in Charlotte,

709
00:45:08,800 --> 00:45:13,640
Speaker 11: North Carolina. And I've written on both European and American history.

710
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:17,640
Speaker 11: I suppose the most relevant book is what I published

711
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:21,319
Speaker 11: on a Murder Incorporated, which involved people like Thomas Dewey

712
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:23,120
Speaker 11: and Junis Carter and so forth.

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00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:32,480
Speaker 1: The Godmother is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more

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00:45:32,520 --> 00:45:37,000
Speaker 1: from novel, visit novel dot Audio. The Godmother is hosted

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00:45:37,040 --> 00:45:41,720
Speaker 1: and written by me Nicole Perkins. Our producer is Leona Hamid.

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00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:47,920
Speaker 1: Additional production from Ajuajima Broumpong, Ronald Young Junior and Ziana Yusuf.

717
00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:52,600
Speaker 1: Our editor is Ajua Jima Broumpong. Additional story editing from

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00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:56,000
Speaker 1: Max O'Brien and Mitha Lee Raw and our researcher is

719
00:45:56,080 --> 00:46:00,440
Speaker 1: Ziana Yusuf. Additional research from Mohammed Ahmed. David wa Is

720
00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:05,000
Speaker 1: our executive producer. Field production by Tnito Romani and Pallas Shaw.

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00:46:05,520 --> 00:46:10,400
Speaker 1: Sound design, mixing and scoring by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempsen.

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00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:14,320
Speaker 1: Our score was written, performed and recorded by Jeff Parker

723
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:19,400
Speaker 1: Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander and David Waters. Production management

724
00:46:19,520 --> 00:46:24,600
Speaker 1: and endless Patients from Sharie Houston, Sarah Tobin and Charlotte Wolfe.

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00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:29,560
Speaker 1: Fact checking by Fendel Fulton and Dania Suleiman. Story development

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00:46:29,680 --> 00:46:35,120
Speaker 1: by Madeline Parr, Jess Swinburne Aseana Yusuf. Willard Foxton is

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00:46:35,160 --> 00:46:39,080
Speaker 1: our Creative Director of Development. Special thanks to Leah Carter,

728
00:46:39,480 --> 00:46:46,520
Speaker 1: Stephen Carter, Angela J. Davis, Andrew Fernley, Marilyn Greenwald, Sondra Lebedy,

729
00:46:47,120 --> 00:46:53,920
Speaker 1: Katherine Godfrey, Nadia Maidie, Amalia Sortland, Sean Glenn, Neil Krishnan,

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00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:59,600
Speaker 1: Julia Bromberg, Katrina Norvel, Carly Frankel, and all the team

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Speaker 1: at Day w Emmy

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00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:10,280
Speaker 2: Novel