WEBVTT - Tempest in a Teacup 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:20.676 Pushkin. All right, what do you want to start with? 0:00:21.236 --> 0:00:23.636 We have to start with green, just like if we 0:00:23.636 --> 0:00:26.156 were doing wines would start with whites and then go 0:00:26.236 --> 0:00:28.956 to reds. I don't think we should blow out our 0:00:28.996 --> 0:00:32.796 palettes too early. I mean, do you want to get 0:00:32.836 --> 0:00:34.396 to most of this? Do you have time? 0:00:36.836 --> 0:00:36.916 Not? 0:00:37.036 --> 0:00:40.316 Long ago, a man named Tony Ghebli came to my apartment, 0:00:40.796 --> 0:00:44.116 young guy, dark hair, grew up in New Jersey. He 0:00:44.236 --> 0:00:48.076 runs something called tea Epicure, which does for specialty tea 0:00:48.196 --> 0:00:52.196 what Robert Parker did for wine, analyzes it and rates it. 0:00:53.116 --> 0:00:56.236 Tony had a big backpack with him and carefully unwrapped 0:00:56.236 --> 0:00:59.676 its contents, a thermometer to make sure we didn't overheat 0:00:59.716 --> 0:01:02.956 the water. A mini Chinese teapot called a guy Wan, 0:01:03.716 --> 0:01:10.476 some special Norwegian teacups and tea, six kinds green, yellow, white, Oohlan, 0:01:10.836 --> 0:01:15.796 black and fermented oh and a seventh kinde. We'll get 0:01:15.796 --> 0:01:17.796 to that. So this is called. 0:01:17.756 --> 0:01:22.076 Lubell Luball, and it's from Guang Sea Province, and it 0:01:22.276 --> 0:01:24.396 is this tea was produced in two thousand and nine. 0:01:25.076 --> 0:01:26.716 Do you have to steep from ented tea for a 0:01:26.716 --> 0:01:27.196 long time? 0:01:28.156 --> 0:01:33.276 No? Typically not. I mean it instantly colored. Look at that. 0:01:33.916 --> 0:01:38.716 You call that the liquor. The liquor, yes, And if 0:01:38.756 --> 0:01:41.436 somebody put milk and sugar in his tea, you would 0:01:43.436 --> 0:01:45.036 you would shoot them. 0:01:44.836 --> 0:01:48.116 I do not like tea snops like, I am against 0:01:48.156 --> 0:01:49.276 tea snobbery. 0:01:48.836 --> 0:01:51.036 But I was gonna say, this tea is special. It 0:01:51.076 --> 0:01:54.876 came from this famous collector. You're down to your last 0:01:54.916 --> 0:01:57.116 little bits of it. If I would have walked in 0:01:57.596 --> 0:02:02.836 and pour, like, you know, a big, a big chunk 0:02:02.836 --> 0:02:06.716 of half and half in it and a two two 0:02:06.876 --> 0:02:09.676 sugar cubes, you would you would feel upset. 0:02:10.836 --> 0:02:13.916 I would say, Malcolm, you're not fully appreciating this tea, 0:02:13.956 --> 0:02:16.396 but I respect your preferences. 0:02:16.956 --> 0:02:20.996 Tony inhaled deeply into his teacup, then looked thoughtful. 0:02:21.436 --> 0:02:24.076 All right, I'll let you you both just lift up 0:02:24.076 --> 0:02:25.356 the liden and sniff that. 0:02:29.396 --> 0:02:34.676 Ooh it's I'm getting a little bit of a spina 0:02:34.716 --> 0:02:36.636 gea feel from that. 0:02:40.956 --> 0:02:45.436 Oh yeah, almost like a Swiss chart or something. 0:02:45.516 --> 0:02:51.116 Yeah, never gotten that from a tea before. We had 0:02:51.156 --> 0:02:54.356 had a lot of tea by this point, me my producer, 0:02:54.436 --> 0:02:58.156 Jacob Tony. Tony says it's an actual phenomenon called being 0:02:58.236 --> 0:03:01.996 tea drunk. Jacob and I were definitely tea drunk. Oh 0:03:02.036 --> 0:03:04.756 it is interesting. Okay, tell me Tony. 0:03:05.356 --> 0:03:09.356 There's like a forest leaves, like a you know, a 0:03:09.476 --> 0:03:12.476 mat on the forest floor of brown leaves. I've that 0:03:12.556 --> 0:03:18.436 bit of earthiness with a there's like a roasted carrot 0:03:18.436 --> 0:03:20.236 going on in there. For me, that's the vegetable note 0:03:20.276 --> 0:03:23.836 I'm getting from it. And then a little bit of 0:03:23.876 --> 0:03:24.836 like tire fire. 0:03:27.836 --> 0:03:31.676 That's like that proves you're from Jersey when you drink 0:03:31.716 --> 0:03:40.916 some tea and you're reaching to tire fire. My name 0:03:40.956 --> 0:03:44.596 is Malcolm Bladwell. You're listening to Revisionist History, my podcast 0:03:44.636 --> 0:03:49.676 about things overlooked and misunderstood. This episode is a special 0:03:49.716 --> 0:03:53.196 production in honor of America's birthday, the fourth of July. 0:03:56.476 --> 0:03:59.636 It's about the Boston Tea Party, one of the first 0:03:59.716 --> 0:04:03.076 and most critical steps on the path to American independence 0:04:03.516 --> 0:04:08.956 December sixteenth, seventeen seventy three, when dozens of Bostonians dressed 0:04:09.276 --> 0:04:13.156 Mohawk Indians dumped three hundred and forty two chests of 0:04:13.196 --> 0:04:17.796 tea into Boston Harbor. Wait wait, wait, hold on, hold on, 0:04:18.756 --> 0:04:21.716 I know what you're thinking. The Boston Tea Party was 0:04:21.756 --> 0:04:25.636 a protest against British oppression. It was an act of principle. 0:04:25.876 --> 0:04:28.556 The gang that threw the tea overboard called themselves the 0:04:28.596 --> 0:04:33.356 Sons of Liberty. No taxation without representation, blah blah blah. 0:04:33.476 --> 0:04:35.996 We'll get to that, but let's start with a fact 0:04:36.236 --> 0:04:39.956 that is so glaringly obvious that it stuns me that 0:04:39.996 --> 0:04:43.156 so many Americans have overlooked it. It was the Boston 0:04:43.556 --> 0:04:48.596 Tea Party, not the Molasses Party, not the Pewter Mug Party. 0:04:49.116 --> 0:04:53.276 The whole thing was about tea. Wait, so we're gonna 0:04:53.276 --> 0:04:57.076 set the scene, Tony, I want you to be ready. 0:04:57.196 --> 0:05:00.556 It is. It is seventeen seventy. We are in Boston. 0:05:00.756 --> 0:05:02.636 We're on like Newbury Street or I don't know if 0:05:02.716 --> 0:05:05.316 Newbury was still around then. But we are having our 0:05:05.956 --> 0:05:09.076 We're at the home of like, you know, Governor Grove. 0:05:10.156 --> 0:05:16.636 We're having afternoon tea, and he's served up a little Boohee. Boohee, 0:05:16.956 --> 0:05:20.556 the dominant tea of colonial New England shipped in from 0:05:20.636 --> 0:05:24.156 Fujan Province in China from the wu Yee Mountain range. 0:05:24.716 --> 0:05:28.116 Boohee is what the Sons of Liberty dumped overboard on 0:05:28.156 --> 0:05:30.476 the night of the Boston Tea Party. Tony, like you 0:05:30.516 --> 0:05:34.276 to tell us what is that experience for the people 0:05:34.396 --> 0:05:39.876 in Governor Grovener's drawing room at three o'clock as they 0:05:39.876 --> 0:05:40.516 have their boohee. 0:05:40.876 --> 0:05:43.516 So everyone would be talking about the news of the 0:05:43.596 --> 0:05:54.956 day and sharing snacks various sweets and pastries, sweetmeats, preserved fruits, nuts, etc. Yeah, 0:05:55.476 --> 0:05:59.076 and sipping tea multiple cups of it. 0:05:59.516 --> 0:06:00.436 Tell me about boohee. 0:06:02.716 --> 0:06:06.756 This particular boohie is very heavy on the smoke. I 0:06:06.876 --> 0:06:09.476 do get in aroma of tea, though under that smoke, 0:06:10.076 --> 0:06:12.676 now that it's been steeped, I think I needed that 0:06:13.756 --> 0:06:15.676 water to hit it that I wasn't getting in the 0:06:15.756 --> 0:06:19.196 dry leaf after steeping it for that long, and I 0:06:19.236 --> 0:06:22.036 put a lot of leaf in there. You saw how 0:06:22.076 --> 0:06:25.476 much I put in this vessel. It's about half fool. 0:06:25.876 --> 0:06:28.036 It's much smoother than I thought it was going to be. 0:06:28.156 --> 0:06:29.556 I thought it was going to be much more bitter 0:06:29.636 --> 0:06:34.116 and astringent and really require some sort of addition of 0:06:34.156 --> 0:06:34.916 milk or sugar. 0:06:35.876 --> 0:06:39.076 Delicious, refreshing, addictive. 0:06:40.116 --> 0:06:46.436 There's a very deep leathery taste. And when I say leathery, 0:06:46.516 --> 0:06:49.956 I mean like that smell of like your mother's purse 0:06:50.276 --> 0:07:00.436 or something, a very earthy leathery, smell like dirty almost. 0:07:01.036 --> 0:07:04.516 So if you were drinking this Tony in seventy sixty, 0:07:04.516 --> 0:07:07.516 you're putting milk in it? Yeah, Are you putting sugar 0:07:07.516 --> 0:07:13.076 in it? Because they're loading it up with sugar? 0:07:13.276 --> 0:07:16.756 Yeah? Yeah, I yeah, back in that time, I would yes, 0:07:16.956 --> 0:07:18.516 if I was colonial Tony. 0:07:18.636 --> 0:07:21.076 Absolutely, colonial Tony drinks this with sugar. I don't know. 0:07:21.156 --> 0:07:24.276 I somehow think colonial Tony even then, has his standards intact. 0:07:24.956 --> 0:07:28.036 I'll tell you this about colonial Tony. He would not 0:07:28.116 --> 0:07:30.156 up put on war paint in the middle of a 0:07:30.156 --> 0:07:33.516 December night and dumped three hundred and forty two chests 0:07:33.596 --> 0:07:39.196 of Boohey into Boston Harbor. If you love tea, if 0:07:39.236 --> 0:07:42.996 you yearned for that deep, leathery taste, fortified by milk 0:07:43.076 --> 0:07:48.076 and sugar, why would you throw it overboard? Well exactly. 0:07:48.996 --> 0:07:55.436 It's for questions like these that we have revisionist history. 0:07:56.476 --> 0:07:59.996 You'll remember, I'm sure the history of the American Revolution 0:08:00.116 --> 0:08:03.756 that you were taught in high school. The British were 0:08:03.756 --> 0:08:06.236 spending a lot of money in North America. They had 0:08:06.236 --> 0:08:09.316 a big army defending their colonies against Native American and 0:08:09.356 --> 0:08:11.796 a French. They wanted the colonists to help with at 0:08:11.876 --> 0:08:14.356 least some of that burden, so they imposed a series 0:08:14.396 --> 0:08:16.676 of tariffs and duties over the course of the seventeen 0:08:16.756 --> 0:08:21.396 sixties and early seventeen seventies, the Stamp Act, the Navigation Act, 0:08:21.836 --> 0:08:26.956 and so on. But the colonists object, no taxation without representation. 0:08:27.436 --> 0:08:31.316 They start a boycott of all imported British products, principally tea. 0:08:32.236 --> 0:08:35.156 Because tea is big business in the seventeen sixties, the 0:08:35.196 --> 0:08:39.436 colonists are drinking extraordinary amounts of it oolong soushong, lots 0:08:39.476 --> 0:08:43.996 of green tea, and of course boohee, that deep leathery taste. 0:08:45.196 --> 0:08:48.716 They are addicted to it. In Boston, the boycott is 0:08:48.796 --> 0:08:51.556 led by some of the town's most prominent businessmen, and 0:08:51.636 --> 0:08:55.236 a few years ago a historian named John Tyler wonders, 0:08:55.596 --> 0:08:58.236 who are these merchants leading the fight against British tea? 0:08:58.756 --> 0:09:01.916 What is the nature of their business? So he goes 0:09:01.956 --> 0:09:05.116 to the Boston Athenaeum on Beacon Street, one of the 0:09:05.156 --> 0:09:09.036 oldest independent libraries in the United States, ornate, high ceiling, 0:09:09.316 --> 0:09:12.796 enormous leathered windows, founded in eighteen oh seven, full of 0:09:12.876 --> 0:09:16.316 all sorts of treasures, and Tyler starts digging through old 0:09:16.356 --> 0:09:19.316 insurance records in the Athenaeum archives. I mean, is this 0:09:19.396 --> 0:09:21.556 a bass set of boxes? I mean, what are we 0:09:21.596 --> 0:09:22.316 talking about here? 0:09:22.756 --> 0:09:28.516 We're talking about hundreds of policies that were written during 0:09:28.556 --> 0:09:31.836 that period by a man named Ezekiel Price. 0:09:32.156 --> 0:09:36.876 Tyler is an elegant, man cultivated patrician, just retired after 0:09:36.916 --> 0:09:39.796 thirty six years teaching history at Groton, one of the 0:09:39.876 --> 0:09:43.676 exclusive private boarding schools of New England. His theory is 0:09:43.716 --> 0:09:46.316 that insurance records are a pretty good way of finding 0:09:46.356 --> 0:09:50.196 out what someone's business really is, what they're buying, selling, 0:09:50.396 --> 0:09:53.036 where they're sourcing their goods, Because you may lie to 0:09:53.076 --> 0:09:55.836 the government or your competitors, but you have no reason 0:09:55.876 --> 0:09:58.076 to lie to your insure about what you're up to. 0:09:58.596 --> 0:10:01.236 So when you go in these insurance records, first of all, 0:10:01.356 --> 0:10:03.276 does this mean you're the first historian to have gone 0:10:03.276 --> 0:10:04.636 through the insurance records? 0:10:05.116 --> 0:10:06.476 Yes? Probably Yes. 0:10:06.956 --> 0:10:09.916 As Tyler works his way through Ezekiel price his policies, 0:10:10.316 --> 0:10:16.836 he notices something unusual at the time. If you were 0:10:16.836 --> 0:10:19.676 a colony of the British Crown, you had to import 0:10:19.756 --> 0:10:23.396 all of your products through England on English ships. But 0:10:23.476 --> 0:10:25.636 in Price's records it showed that a lot of the 0:10:25.636 --> 0:10:29.116 cargo coming into Boston hadn't stopped in England at all. 0:10:29.956 --> 0:10:33.636 Other times, the customs records would say one thing, this 0:10:33.756 --> 0:10:37.196 ship has all the right clearances, but the insurance records 0:10:37.236 --> 0:10:41.276 on the same ship would say something completely different. And 0:10:41.396 --> 0:10:45.076 sometimes the premiums were really high, way too high for 0:10:45.156 --> 0:10:49.476 what should have been routine voyages. The patriots of Boston, 0:10:49.756 --> 0:10:56.076 Tyler realizes, are smugglers tea smugglers. Historians had always suspected 0:10:56.116 --> 0:10:58.316 as much because there was a lot of smuggling in 0:10:58.356 --> 0:11:03.156 those days, but Tyler shows that it's everywhere everyone. Some 0:11:03.196 --> 0:11:05.796 of the biggest names in Boston. John Hancock is in 0:11:05.836 --> 0:11:08.556 the middle of it. They're shipping in tea from China 0:11:09.196 --> 0:11:13.756 via Amsterdam and then onto America through some circuitous route. 0:11:13.716 --> 0:11:20.836 You could touch at some remote port in the British Ailese. Oftentimes, 0:11:20.836 --> 0:11:23.756 when they're coming from Amsterdam they go to the Orkney Islands. 0:11:24.596 --> 0:11:28.796 They allege that they have declared their cargo there and 0:11:29.276 --> 0:11:34.196 so therefore it's now legal. They've found some obliging customs 0:11:34.236 --> 0:11:38.836 officer in the Orkneys who's willing to stamp it as okay. 0:11:39.316 --> 0:11:41.956 In a trove of old documents at Harvard business school, 0:11:42.436 --> 0:11:46.636 Tyler stumbled across another gold mine, a list made up 0:11:46.636 --> 0:11:50.196 by a big colonial era shipping company of every bribe 0:11:50.236 --> 0:11:53.676 and ruse they used to get tea into Massachusetts. In 0:11:53.716 --> 0:11:57.396 that case, they landed the cargo in Plymouth, just down 0:11:57.436 --> 0:12:02.036 the coast from Boston. Thomas Hutchinson, the governor of Massachusetts, 0:12:02.316 --> 0:12:03.476 was powerless to stop it. 0:12:04.276 --> 0:12:06.756 They run it ashore there and then bring it in 0:12:09.516 --> 0:12:14.316 into Boston. And there's really no way of telling them. 0:12:14.356 --> 0:12:18.396 The same thing happens if you could import things through 0:12:18.476 --> 0:12:22.156 RhoD Island, where Hutchinson refers to Rhode Island as that 0:12:22.316 --> 0:12:28.316 abandoned little colony still is where there's no regulation at all, 0:12:28.436 --> 0:12:34.996 and therefore it's this porous place where all sorts of 0:12:35.036 --> 0:12:36.956 spuggle goods can trick it in. 0:12:37.436 --> 0:12:40.316 Then came the big boycott of British imports. It was 0:12:40.356 --> 0:12:45.036 called the non importation movement, supposedly a principled stand against 0:12:45.036 --> 0:12:49.676 taxation without representation. But who's behind that many the same 0:12:49.716 --> 0:12:53.636 group of smugglers. And if I'm a smuggler, I'm delighted 0:12:53.636 --> 0:12:54.436 with non importation. 0:12:55.556 --> 0:12:58.956 Yes, yes, because you can sell more spuggle tea. 0:12:59.316 --> 0:12:59.516 Yeah. 0:13:00.276 --> 0:13:04.436 So during non importation, the amount of legit British tea 0:13:04.516 --> 0:13:07.876 must be shrinking to almost nothing, correct, so the smugglers 0:13:08.036 --> 0:13:10.836 have free reign at this point. Yes, the British are 0:13:10.876 --> 0:13:13.876 trying to raise money to defend the colonies by taxing 0:13:13.916 --> 0:13:17.716 the tea the colonists drink. But the colonists aren't paying attacks. 0:13:18.196 --> 0:13:21.796 They're all drinking cheaper illegal tea. So the British do 0:13:21.876 --> 0:13:24.836 the logical thing. They passed the Tea Act of seventeen 0:13:24.916 --> 0:13:27.916 seventy three, which cuts the cost of the tea imported 0:13:27.956 --> 0:13:32.196 through proper channels. Now the legal stuff is as affordable 0:13:32.276 --> 0:13:35.476 as the illegal stuff. So what do the Patriots do. 0:13:36.236 --> 0:13:40.036 They dress up as Mohawk Indians, sneak out into Boston 0:13:40.116 --> 0:13:43.116 Harbor and throw three hundred and forty two chests of 0:13:43.236 --> 0:13:47.636 perfectly good Boohey into the water. The Tea Act was 0:13:47.676 --> 0:13:50.676 an attempt to put the smugglers out of business. The 0:13:50.676 --> 0:13:56.556 Boston Tea Party was the smuggler's attempt to stay in business. 0:13:58.116 --> 0:14:01.236 Let me spell it out for you. Underneath the lofty 0:14:01.316 --> 0:14:05.916 rhetoric of the Patriots of New England was a criminal enterprise, 0:14:06.116 --> 0:14:10.196 a vast smuggling operation, illicitly so applying to residents of 0:14:10.236 --> 0:14:12.956 the New World with their drug of choice boohee, that 0:14:13.076 --> 0:14:16.436 deliciously addictive tea varietyl with a dark liquor and a 0:14:16.516 --> 0:14:20.636 deep leathery taste. The foundational myth of the American Republic 0:14:20.716 --> 0:14:25.156 is not righteous, freedom loving citizens rising up against oppression. No, 0:14:25.636 --> 0:14:29.996 it's drug dealers defending their turf. You know why this 0:14:30.036 --> 0:14:33.876 episode is airing July fourth, that day when Americans jump 0:14:33.956 --> 0:14:37.156 up and down and detonate explosives to celebrate their independence 0:14:37.196 --> 0:14:41.596 from Britain. It's airing July fourth because you Americans have 0:14:41.636 --> 0:14:44.476 a problem. The story you tell each other about your 0:14:44.556 --> 0:14:49.516 nation's independence is full of holes. You need a new story. 0:14:50.316 --> 0:14:52.796 So I'm going to do you a favor. I'm going 0:14:52.836 --> 0:14:57.276 to give you one. But first, I'm curious about whether 0:14:57.596 --> 0:15:00.316 in that era, in that sort of those first few 0:15:00.396 --> 0:15:05.316 generations and people are getting to know tea? Yeah, are 0:15:05.356 --> 0:15:07.676 they given instructions about how to make it? Are they 0:15:08.116 --> 0:15:10.196 how are they? Do we know how they're steeping it 0:15:10.276 --> 0:15:10.556 and how. 0:15:10.516 --> 0:15:14.396 They're so One account I read was that someone steeped 0:15:14.396 --> 0:15:19.716 the tea and threw out the liquor and then use 0:15:19.756 --> 0:15:21.316 the leaves and put butter and salt on them and 0:15:21.316 --> 0:15:24.436 eat them as a salad that was in like one 0:15:24.476 --> 0:15:27.156 of the prominent families diaries of the time. 0:15:27.396 --> 0:15:30.356 Really, yeah, have you ever tried that? That tastes good? 0:15:31.356 --> 0:15:40.796 So many questions? All right, I think we need to 0:15:40.796 --> 0:15:44.636 start over take two on the real meaning of the 0:15:44.676 --> 0:15:49.716 American Revolution. Let me introduce you to Francis Iani, an 0:15:49.756 --> 0:15:53.676 academic who had a theory about Americans and their criminal enterprises. 0:15:54.436 --> 0:15:59.036 Although calling Iyani an academic seems a little limiting. 0:15:59.156 --> 0:16:01.556 He decided, I guess this is after we've been there 0:16:01.596 --> 0:16:06.076 about six months. He decided to drive to Nairobi, and 0:16:06.196 --> 0:16:08.836 he it's I think I can't remember the exact eff. 0:16:09.116 --> 0:16:11.436 It might be six seven hundred miles. But back then 0:16:11.436 --> 0:16:14.396 there were places where there literally wasn't a road. There 0:16:14.636 --> 0:16:17.156 were I don't think there was any paved road, and 0:16:17.196 --> 0:16:19.436 you'd be driving along and all of a sudden, the 0:16:19.516 --> 0:16:20.196 road would. 0:16:20.036 --> 0:16:24.876 Just Standjaniani that's Francis Eani's eldest son, talking about how 0:16:24.916 --> 0:16:27.476 his father moved his family to Ethiopia in the early 0:16:27.556 --> 0:16:31.596 nineteen sixties and decided one day to drive to Nairobi. 0:16:32.236 --> 0:16:35.596 All they had was a Volkswagen minibus, which isn't exactly 0:16:35.636 --> 0:16:39.516 built for off road adventures. Back then, people who made 0:16:39.556 --> 0:16:42.876 the journey did it in a convoy. Eanni was like, 0:16:43.156 --> 0:16:47.236 why bother, Let's go solo. This is a tangent because 0:16:47.316 --> 0:16:49.716 Francis Iani is one of my favorite people that I've 0:16:49.756 --> 0:16:52.556 never met. We'll get back to Tea, I promise. 0:16:53.636 --> 0:16:55.796 So you'd have to go by dead reckoning to figure 0:16:55.796 --> 0:16:58.116 out where you were to come out on the other side. 0:16:58.156 --> 0:17:01.396 And so you wait a second, your dad has your 0:17:01.436 --> 0:17:03.676 parents have how many children? At this point? I have 0:17:03.716 --> 0:17:07.436 two brothers, so the three of you, you're the eldest. 0:17:08.036 --> 0:17:10.756 I'm the eldest. My brothers are eight and ten years 0:17:10.796 --> 0:17:13.316 younger than I am. At the time there were this 0:17:13.436 --> 0:17:16.836 was nineteen sixty, so they were five and three, And 0:17:16.876 --> 0:17:20.436 of course my mother was true, go ahead, No. 0:17:20.436 --> 0:17:24.116 I'm just I'm just imagining this in my mind. So 0:17:24.596 --> 0:17:26.836 a young couple with a twelve year old of five 0:17:26.876 --> 0:17:29.156 year old and a three year old, yeah, set across, 0:17:29.156 --> 0:17:34.796 set out to drive in a Volkswagen minibus from Addis 0:17:34.836 --> 0:17:37.676 to Nairobi in nineteen sixty. Yeah, it's like the most 0:17:37.756 --> 0:17:40.636 hilarious I've ever heard. Francis Eanni ended up as a 0:17:40.636 --> 0:17:43.836 professor at Columbia University. What he was a professor of 0:17:44.036 --> 0:17:46.436 is slightly unclear, since he was the kind of person 0:17:46.476 --> 0:17:50.316 who did whatever he wanted, but some combination of anthropology 0:17:50.516 --> 0:17:54.076 and sociology and stuff Francis Ianni thought was interesting. 0:17:56.956 --> 0:17:59.676 He had two wolves, well, he had several wolves, but 0:17:59.756 --> 0:18:01.076 he had two, and I think. 0:18:00.916 --> 0:18:02.676 I said actual the actual wolf. 0:18:02.996 --> 0:18:05.596 Did I sent you some pictures yesterday? There's one with 0:18:05.716 --> 0:18:08.356 him with the wolves. 0:18:08.476 --> 0:18:12.396 Actually, he called his wolves Romulus and Remus. 0:18:12.996 --> 0:18:16.316 In his apartment in New York, he had a monkey, 0:18:17.036 --> 0:18:21.076 a pet ofsalot, a baby alligator, and it used to 0:18:21.116 --> 0:18:24.436 be a huge point of contention between my parents because 0:18:24.676 --> 0:18:27.716 he would just bring these animals home anyway. 0:18:28.076 --> 0:18:31.316 One day in nineteen sixty four, Eanni is in Washington, DC. 0:18:31.916 --> 0:18:34.436 He's working for the Department of Education at that point, 0:18:34.796 --> 0:18:38.116 doing Francis Eanni kinds of things, and he runs into 0:18:38.156 --> 0:18:40.676 a man in a congressional waiting room who he would 0:18:40.716 --> 0:18:45.796 later call Uncle Phil, Philip Alcamo, a very wealthy, sophisticated 0:18:45.796 --> 0:18:50.076 man in his sixties. They start chatting. Uncle Phil tells 0:18:50.156 --> 0:18:53.796 Eanni that he's a lobbyist representing a group of Italian 0:18:53.836 --> 0:18:57.996 businessmen out of New York. Uncle Phil and Eanni become friends. 0:18:58.356 --> 0:19:01.876 They start spending time together, Uncle Phil introduces him to 0:19:01.916 --> 0:19:06.236 some of his clients, and Ianni realizes, Oh, the group 0:19:06.316 --> 0:19:08.956 of Italian businessmen out of New York that Uncle Phil 0:19:08.996 --> 0:19:12.156 is talking about is actually one of the big mafia families. 0:19:14.956 --> 0:19:17.956 Ianni is the man who drove his family from Ethiopia 0:19:17.996 --> 0:19:20.756 tonight Arobi on a whim, and who later kept wolves, 0:19:21.036 --> 0:19:24.956 ocelots and alligators in his apartment. Ten guesses what he 0:19:24.996 --> 0:19:28.956 did next. He said to Uncle Phil, can I meet 0:19:28.996 --> 0:19:31.596 your mafia clients? In fact, do you think that mind 0:19:31.596 --> 0:19:34.356 if I studied them, like join the family for a 0:19:34.356 --> 0:19:39.236 few years? And because Francis Eanni is Francis Ianni, Uncle 0:19:39.236 --> 0:19:45.156 Phil says, sure. He convinces, he convinces essentially a perfect 0:19:45.156 --> 0:19:49.876 stranger to let him infiltrate essentially, I mean iffilciate. Maybe 0:19:49.876 --> 0:19:52.116 he's too strong a word a crime family. 0:19:52.236 --> 0:19:54.316 And I don't know how he did it, but as 0:19:54.356 --> 0:19:57.236 I say, he could talk his way into or out 0:19:57.236 --> 0:19:58.156 of anything. 0:19:58.956 --> 0:20:00.796 And by the way, in the middle of his time 0:20:00.876 --> 0:20:03.636 hanging out with the mafia, Ianni talked his way onto 0:20:03.676 --> 0:20:05.996 the New York City Organized Crime Task Force. 0:20:06.676 --> 0:20:08.996 He became friends with a lot of the police who 0:20:09.276 --> 0:20:10.556 working on this stuff. 0:20:10.636 --> 0:20:10.916 You know. 0:20:11.076 --> 0:20:14.476 He knew a lot of cops in New York, spent 0:20:14.556 --> 0:20:17.516 a lot of time with them, and he would manage 0:20:17.556 --> 0:20:20.636 to talk to both sides and convince both sides he 0:20:20.676 --> 0:20:21.716 was on their side. 0:20:23.796 --> 0:20:26.876 Iani ended up writing a book about his experience, called 0:20:27.116 --> 0:20:30.476 A Family Business. He called the Family he was embedded 0:20:30.476 --> 0:20:34.716 with the Loopolos, a pseudonym. All identifying names in the 0:20:34.756 --> 0:20:37.596 book were changed. Back in the day, there was a 0:20:37.636 --> 0:20:41.196 lot of speculation among mafia experts about who the Lopolos 0:20:41.236 --> 0:20:44.316 really were. After a lot of digging, I'm now convinced 0:20:44.356 --> 0:20:46.956 that it was the Lucases, one of the largest of 0:20:46.996 --> 0:20:51.236 the five major New York crime families. Serious gangsters. They 0:20:51.276 --> 0:20:54.316 had a lock on the trucking unions, particularly those were 0:20:54.436 --> 0:20:57.956 in Kennedy Airport. Iani spent a lot of time out 0:20:57.996 --> 0:21:00.636 on Long Island with the patriarch of the family, a 0:21:00.676 --> 0:21:04.236 man he called Giuseppe. I'm pretty sure that's his pseudonym 0:21:04.476 --> 0:21:07.756 for the legendary mob boss Tommy Lucasey, who came to 0:21:07.796 --> 0:21:10.796 America as a young man in nightnineteen eleven from Palermo. 0:21:11.596 --> 0:21:15.636 A Family Business came out in nineteen seventy two. Nineteen 0:21:15.676 --> 0:21:17.636 seventy two by the Way is the same year that 0:21:17.676 --> 0:21:20.876 the Godfather movie comes out. It's like the high watermark 0:21:20.916 --> 0:21:25.156 of America mafia fascination. But Iani's book is nothing like 0:21:25.196 --> 0:21:29.516 The Godfather. Nobody gets whacked, nobody goes to jail, nobody 0:21:29.596 --> 0:21:33.276 goes to the mattresses, nobody betrays anyone. It's not a 0:21:33.276 --> 0:21:39.276 crime book. It's a book about business. By nineteen seventy, 0:21:39.556 --> 0:21:43.356 Iyani calculated that there were forty two fourth generation members 0:21:43.356 --> 0:21:46.276 of the family, and only four of those forty two 0:21:46.636 --> 0:21:52.996 were still involved in the family's crime businesses. The rest 0:21:53.196 --> 0:21:56.556 were all respectable members of the upper middle class. The 0:21:56.636 --> 0:21:59.836 kids went to fancy colleges. One daughter was married to 0:21:59.876 --> 0:22:03.436 a judge's son, another to a dentist. One was completing 0:22:03.476 --> 0:22:06.516 a master's degree in psychology. Another was a member of 0:22:06.516 --> 0:22:09.396 the English department at a liberal arts college. There were 0:22:09.436 --> 0:22:13.316 several lawyers, a physician, a stockbroker. Uncle Phil's son was 0:22:13.316 --> 0:22:16.076 an accountant who lived on an estate in the posh 0:22:16.156 --> 0:22:19.996 Old Westbury section of Long Island's north shore. His granddaughter 0:22:20.316 --> 0:22:23.916 rode horses and was a show jumper. His grandson was 0:22:23.956 --> 0:22:28.116 an up and coming yachtsman, and Uncle Phil himself lived 0:22:28.116 --> 0:22:31.996 in Manhattan collected art and was a regular at the opera. 0:22:32.636 --> 0:22:37.556 The Lucases had gone legit. Now does that surprise you. 0:22:40.916 --> 0:22:44.556 The signature line in The Godfather is Michael Coleone saying, 0:22:45.076 --> 0:22:47.276 just when I thought I was out, they pulled me 0:22:47.356 --> 0:22:50.756 back in. He wants to go legit and he can't. 0:22:51.276 --> 0:22:54.116 A lot of the mythology around crime says that's the pattern. 0:22:54.556 --> 0:22:58.236 Crime is addictive. Once you're in the underworld, you lose 0:22:58.356 --> 0:23:02.196 contact with the real world, you reject its values. But 0:23:02.236 --> 0:23:05.596 Iyanni's point is that the far more typical trajectory is 0:23:05.636 --> 0:23:16.316 the one he described with the Lucases. Here's another example 0:23:16.556 --> 0:23:22.116 of the lure of going legit. Salvatore Sammy the Bull Gravano, 0:23:22.436 --> 0:23:27.196 notorious mobster underboss of the Gambino family. Here he is 0:23:27.236 --> 0:23:30.436 being interviewed by Diane Sawyer in nineteen ninety seven on 0:23:30.516 --> 0:23:31.716 ABC Primetime. 0:23:32.076 --> 0:23:34.116 Look over the list of the murders you were involved in? 0:23:34.196 --> 0:23:35.156 Are there? 0:23:35.196 --> 0:23:42.596 How many nineteen serial killers don't have? Nineteen? Way worse 0:23:42.636 --> 0:23:43.236 than them. 0:23:43.436 --> 0:23:47.156 Gravano is totally matter of fact. You're half expecting him 0:23:47.356 --> 0:23:50.916 to count off all nineteen one by one on his fingers. 0:23:51.436 --> 0:23:54.556 Diane Sayer does the full double take then comes back 0:23:54.596 --> 0:23:56.916 at him again. One of the people on that list 0:23:57.156 --> 0:24:00.516 was Gravano's brother in law. How could you face yourself? 0:24:00.556 --> 0:24:04.036 She asks, how could you face your wife? Did you say? 0:24:04.076 --> 0:24:05.276 What have I become? 0:24:06.036 --> 0:24:09.116 What with that blood on my hand? 0:24:09.396 --> 0:24:12.476 What am I? 0:24:12.476 --> 0:24:13.116 I'm a gangster? 0:24:14.396 --> 0:24:15.636 That's exactly what I am. 0:24:15.836 --> 0:24:19.716 Gravano's not just a gangster. He's on TV admitting he's 0:24:19.756 --> 0:24:23.636 a gangster. Gravano had ratted out his boss, John Gotti 0:24:23.996 --> 0:24:27.156 in exchange for immunity for his crimes. He went into 0:24:27.196 --> 0:24:31.316 witness protection, but then he left witness protection and started 0:24:31.396 --> 0:24:34.436 up a drug trafficking ring with his wife, his daughter Karen, 0:24:34.476 --> 0:24:37.996 and his son. They grossed five hundred thousand dollars a 0:24:38.036 --> 0:24:41.356 week before it all came crashing down. In the middle 0:24:41.396 --> 0:24:44.556 of this, his daughter Karen meets a man named David Seabrook. 0:24:45.396 --> 0:24:47.996 So it was ninety six. I was at the China Club. 0:24:49.356 --> 0:24:52.316 This is Seabrook remembering the moment in an interview on 0:24:52.356 --> 0:24:54.396 the New York radio station Hot ninety seven. 0:24:55.156 --> 0:24:57.276