Fed Explains How The Lucchese Crime Family Mafia Illegally Made Billions!
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 14 minutes
Words per Minute
155.73195
Summary
In Part 3 of our series covering the Lucchese crime family, we cover one of the most notorious organized crime families in the country. Tommy Lucchesse was a man who would kill you in a heartbeat if he thought you were going to get in his way.
Transcript
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And we are live just kidding guys, it's a premiere if you're watching this right now
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That means it's Thursday and more than likely you're watching part two
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Actually, no, this is gonna be part three of our Italian La Cosa Nostra
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Mafia series series La Cosa Nostra series basically as you guys know we're covering the Italian Mafia
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You guys been asking for this for months. So today we're gonna be covering the Lucchese crime family
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And I know we had said that we're gonna do Colombo
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But I'm waiting because I actually want to do the interview with Michael Francis first if possible
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Before we do the Colombo crime family, but uh without further ado we got Angie in the house Angie introduce yourself to the people
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Yeah, some people call it Cosa Nostra instead of La Cosa Nostra
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Apparently that's like the real name of the thing, but yeah, um, yeah, this is part three of
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The Italian Mafia series that we're covering every Thursday
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Lucchese crime family and actually it was you that found this documentary so you know good work on that one
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She's the one that actually found and recommended this one guy. So if it sucks, um, make fun of her
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No, it's not gonna suck. It's actually really good. I really enjoyed it watching it
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And the thing is that worries me is getting hit with the copyright as I told you but we're gonna we're gonna do something
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Yeah, we'll see what happens. Yeah, we'll see what happens. We'll do gonna do something about it. So this comes from
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Um, uh, let's see here from any guys, uh mobsters tell me Lucchese on the mafia full episode
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Let's go ahead and uh, we can go ahead and give them a like so we'll show them a little bit of love
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Um, and uh, yeah, let's and you got anything before we get into it? Nope. All right, cool
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This was an absolute criminal with a total criminal mind
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Tommy Lucchese saw there was a lot of money in corrupting unions in what were called legitimate enterprises
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Never saw such corruptness as when the mob was there
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The Lucchese crime family is one of the most significant organized crime families in the country
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Tommy Lucchese was a guy who would kill you in a heartbeat if he thought you were gonna get in his way
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And guys as you guys know, this is common with uh, the mafia they're involved in a multitude of different crimes that will earn the money
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You know taxing people gambling illegal gambling prohibition obviously selling alcohol when it was banned back in the 20s and 30s
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So anywhere that they can make a dollar they're definitely involved in it and back then guys they
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Ran the united states. Um, so let's get into it
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Popular violinist david rubinoff ducked into a restaurant for a bite to eat
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Inside he spotted a notorious diner across the room
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When the guy caught sight of lucchese he literally went white
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Rubinoff had a reason to be scared he owed lucchese ten thousand dollars in those days
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Oh lord, that's not good. Mamma mia ten thousand dollars back then
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A toothbrush cost five cents and a loaf of bread went for less than a dime
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Holy well, you can tell there rubinoff had borrowed the cash from lucchese to buy a stradivarius violin
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The russian-born musician knew he was in trouble. No one ten thousand dollars in 1930 guys the equivalent
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uh and purchasing power to 180 000 180 000 740 dollars and 12 cents holy wow my man owed 180k in today's day and age
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So yeah, they're definitely gonna they're they're definitely not gonna forget about it. You're gonna have to pay up
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Rubinoff told lucchese that he was having money problems, but would pay him back
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It was the wrong answer lucchese casually reached for rubinoff's hand
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And tommy said you know you've got beautiful hands
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What a shame it would be that anything would ever happen to those hands
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Lucchese told the violinist he wanted to talk it over in the back alley behind the restaurant. Oh boy
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And the guy said tommy i'll have your money tomorrow morning. I swear
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Sounds good. That's nice. See you tomorrow morning
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Rubinoff didn't waste time the next day. He paid his debt back in full
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Yeah, that guy would have lost his violinist career right there would have broke his hands man
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That's what he was gonna do. He's gonna take that boy out back and put the beats on him or shoot him
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And he wouldn't have been able to play violin anymore. So that would have been bad
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And just so you guys know one of the crimes that the mafia is notorious for is something called loan sharking, right?
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Please go back and watch episode one. We covered this last week on sunday
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Um, where we went up over the mafia's um origins how they got to united states
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All that stuff and we talked about loan sharking
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But just as a quick little summary for you guys and we went over hierarchies all that stuff in the terms all that
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Okay, so we talked about made guy we talked about a consigliere a couple blah blah blah
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We went over all that stuff so that you know, we cover the families you guys kind of know but anyway loan sharking
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Lending money out at a very high interest rate. Okay, a lot of times
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It's kind of like they lend the money out at a high interest rate knowing that the individual isn't gonna be able to pay back
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And what they're able to do is they say oh you can't pay back now
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We own your business, right? They say that the the famous quote use work for me now
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You know, you either pay it back with a super high interest or they basically get their tentacles into
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Your business and they now start to get a cut so it's a win-win for them either way
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The odd thing about tommy luke's his success was he didn't look the part
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And probably didn't and the boss of the car of the gambino family carlo gambino
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He was also very short and didn't look intimidating
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Way more than 105 pounds which we covered him last week as well guys
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If you want to get into the gambino family, which was probably the most powerful fam family of the five new york crime families
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But don't be fooled by appearances. He'd kill you in a heartbeat if he thought you were going to get in his way
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Ellis island new york in 1910 it was the gateway to america for millions of immigrants
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The masses included an 11 year old sicilian boy gaitano tommy lukezi
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The lukezi squeezed into an apartment in new york city's east harlem
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Italian gangs ruled the street guys in the early 1900s a bunch of italians came here from sicily right in italy
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And uh, this kind of uh, uh created a huge market for italian organized crime
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Especially with the emergence of prohibition which we're going to see here in a bit
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They'd shake down the local store owners for payoffs and if someone didn't play along all bets were off
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Immigrant stock the italian american gangs and this is the practice of extortion guys where basically hey
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You got to pay us a protection fee right and I say that with with air quotes here
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You got to pass protection fee or else we're going to mess your stuff up
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Which is hilarious because you're basically paying to protect yourself from them when they're supposed to protect you
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But yeah, you know, it is what is it forget about it
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You appear to be more violent and more more willing to commit murders and intimidate people
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Tommy's father earned an honest living hauling concrete day in and day out
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Each day tommy watched his dad work himself to death while thugs in the neighborhood earned an easy living through rackets
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As a teenager tommy ran with a band of young criminals they called themselves the 107th street gang
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Tommy got mixed up very quickly with these street hoods
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Anything that wasn't nailed down they would try to steal break into places
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Stealing goods off trucks anything where they could turn a fast buck
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Tommy answered to the gang's leader another sicilian named charles lucky luciano
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Lucchese's parents didn't like what they were seeing they pushed him to get a steady job and soon and guys lucky luciano is a critical
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Basically, they call him the godfather of organized crime
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Because he was instrumental in getting the five families set up and the commission in the united states after the um
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God damn it. How do I pronounce that that war that big war that they had sano?
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Yeah, but he was there you go. Yeah, the custom maria's uh war, um, which we go again
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We go into detail guys on that more in the first episode, please watch that
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So you guys truly understand the importance of lucky luciano how he was involved with a mayor lansky aka part of them boys
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But if you don't know who lucky luciano is pause this podcast right now go back and watch episode one
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Uh during which time there was a bad accident that sliced off the
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Thumb and forefinger of his right hand leaving him with three fingers
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The accident convinced him that no good would ever come from a respectable job
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Before long yeah, he said screw this i'm not working hard jobs no more man. I'm just gonna i'm just gonna rob people instead
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Very upset that he clearly was drifting into a life of crime
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The family was appalled because they were quite convinced that he would bring shame on them as a criminal
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He moved into a tenement apartment and joined up with his other family the members of the 107th street gang
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Tommy hit the streets hustling and stealing from anyone in east harlem
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It was a kind of juvenile crime that was very prevalent in the neighborhood and he was no exception
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Uh, but almost from the start, he seemed to be a little more clever than some of the other kids
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In 1917 18 year old lucchese came up with a scheme to shake down store owners an extortion racket disguised as a window cleaning business
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I have a window cleaning service that is superior to every other cleaning service you can use
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The idea was if you didn't go along with the scheme they'd break your window so it would cost you
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Talk about entrepreneurship. Hey, I got my window cleaning business
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If you guys don't participate in the window cleaning business, it's gonna be a window broken business for you. Okay
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Forget about it. Next thing you know the store owner's like, oh my god, mama mia
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Hundreds of dollars instead of uh, maybe fifty dollars a week
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And after a while people in east harlem got the message
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Which is that if you wanted to keep your windows intact and have them clean at the same time
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The lucchese window cleaning service was the way to go
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That's hilarious bro. You either you either get your windows clean or get your windows cleaned out, baby. Okay
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Young lucchese raked in the cash hand over fist
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It was his first foray into organized crime and a long way from his dad's job hauling concrete
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But tommy was not a common street thug. He used his brain to develop rackets for his gang
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And a racket guys is basically a scheme that they develop where they're able to earn money through some type of criminal activity
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So for example, if we got a gambling racket, let's say they got a house set up where they you know
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Take bets and they got bookies and all of this stuff. That's one racket then on the other side
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They're extorting people for the window cleaning businesses. You see that's another racket then they got you know
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Guys that are uh shaking down other crooks and maybe stealing their money or stealing their dope whatever. Maybe that's another racket
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So every criminal endeavor that they're involved in right where they're earning money
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That is considered a racket when it comes to the mafia
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By the early 1920s a powerful mobster named joseph masseria reached out to lucchese and to the leader of his gang lucky luciano
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Probably they might cover the war here with the customaries war
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Masseria ruled manhattan with an iron fist on the street people called him joe the boss
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Joe the boss could recognize criminal talent when he saw it
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He hired luciano and lucchese as hitmen and they went to work right away
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tommy committed an estimated 30 murders for his new boss
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lucchese had come a long way from window cleaning scams
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And keep in mind guys this is the 1920s pretty much there wasn't sophisticated police investigative techniques to be able to identify these individuals man
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Murder was really tough to solve back then you don't got forensics you don't got dna you don't got
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um the same crime scene investigate investigative capacity you know this is why
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uh a lot of criminals like their heyday was their early 1900s you know all the way up until the 2000s damn near
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Was from the 60s all the way up until the 90s right ending with i would say like the jeffrey dahmer era why
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Because dna became a huge thing after that point so it was very difficult to serve uh
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Sorry solve violent crime especially murders in situations like this and also keep in mind
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RICO laws were no not yet in effect those didn't come in until the 70s
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And it was because of the mafia the body count lucchese managed to avoid jail time
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He had a reputation for brutality and used that to intimidate witnesses
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In 1921 at the age of 22 the cops caught tommy stealing an expensive car a packard
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And with the arrest came a nickname from the police
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Booked he had to go through the usual process one of which was his fingerprints one of the
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Detectives or police officers who was fingerprinting him noticed that he had a mangled
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A right hand at the time there was a very uh celebrated terrific pitcher for the chicago cubs
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The cop nicknamed his suspect tommy three finger brown lucchese
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You imagine if he did that now they'd be like oh my god bullying ah
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They didn't give a shit back then in the 20s though the cops were like hey three fun good fuck forget about it
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Lucchese never liked that name, but he was stuck with it
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And for the first time in his life lucchese received a criminal conviction
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But prison time would do nothing to change lucchese
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He wanted money and power and was willing to kill anyone to get it
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In the early 1920s it seemed tommy lucchese could kill anyone in new york's east harlem at any time
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That is until the police caught him stealing a car and locked him up
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Until he got arrested for all of that mr lucchese got away with everything
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As it turned out that was the last time he was ever in prison for anything
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Sing sing prison on the hudson river north of new york city was one of the nation's oldest and toughest prisons
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The state sent some of the worst mobsters up the river to sing sing
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13 months later the state and this is sing sing prison right here guys uh famous prison up in new york
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all sing sing correctional facility is a maximum security uh prison operated by the new york's
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state department of corrections and community supervision in the village of
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us assining new york it is about 30 miles north of new york city on the east bank of the hudson river
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holds about 1700 inmates and housed uh the execution chamber for the state of new york until the uh
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abolition of capital punishment in new york in 2004. The name sing sing was derived from the sink uh
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sent sink native american tribe from whom the land was purchased in 1685 was formerly the name of the village in 1970 the prison's
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uh name uh name was changed to the os uh assining whatever correctional facility but it reverted to
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its original name in 1985 there are plans to convert the original 1825 cell back into a period uh
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museum that's crazy wow the prison property is uh
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uh bisected by the metro north railroads four-track hudson line
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so yeah i don't know does it still exist here let's see here
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hmm maybe this is in the beginning like right here like
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yeah so interesting very interesting yeah i mean anyone from new york that's a criminal has heard
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paroled lucchese tommy returned to new york the free man
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back in east harlem the roaring 20s had taken over lucchese's old neighborhood
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in order to clamp down on booze related crime the u.s government amended the constitution to include
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prohibition but on the streets of new york locals continued to drink alcohol and crime exploded
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lucchese saw an opportunity the government made liquor illegal but there was still a big demand for it
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but tommy worked for joe masseria an ill-tempered boss who had fought his way to the top taking out
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he had a stranglehold on power in the family and had no interest in working with gangsters that
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weren't italian tommy's generation called members of the old guard like masseria the mustache pete's
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masseria wanted to produce low-grade bathtub gin and sell it to the neighborhood drunks
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he treated bootlegging like a small-time con it frustrated lucchese and his fellow gangster lucky
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luciano they and guys keep in mind that he didn't want to work with other people and there are a bunch
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of other organized crime individuals at this point in new york that they could be making money with you
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had the jews you had the albanians you had russians etc and lucky luciano wanted to work with all these guys
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and make more money but masseria had issues because quite frankly it was a racist if you weren't
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sicilian he had an issue with you he didn't even like other italians a lot of the times he wanted
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straight sicilians so this created a lot of rift with luciano who was actually very close with who
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mary lansky and them boys you know who i'm saying um so he was making a lot of money with these guys
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and they didn't like that and um the other thing too is that prohibition guys created an enormous
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opportunity for the la costa nostra to make a bunch of money because people wanted booze
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so obviously he wasn't taking a business serious he's bootlegging like in the tub
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they could be making way more money and you know they're looking at it like bro you're in the way
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of us making money you're you're thinking way too small time there's way too much money to be made
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here and you guys are going to see if you watch back episode one lucky luciano is all about making
00:21:54.240
the money man okay that's why i got along with them boys so much if you know what i'm saying
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he's playing all this in the in the first episode yes knew it could be so much more
00:22:04.640
the young generation said this is stupid that's not where the money is people with lots of money
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who are accustomed to spending a lot of money on the finest possible whiskey and scotch they could buy
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do you think they're gonna drink this rotgut you're producing are you crazy look at your market
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the real market is downtown in manhattan masseria disagreed with lucchese and luciano he hated their
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philosophy but couldn't ignore the incredible profits to make their plan work lucchese and luciano
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convinced masseria to smuggle high quality foreign liquor into the u.s and sell it to the speakeasies
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everybody drank the general public viewed it as just a silly law and it was not a big deal to break
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this law as a result liquor was big business and lucchese would work with jews in the city
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not just italians he would work with any ethnic group he had no prejudice against working with jewish
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gangsters people like he said look the jews are teaching us certain finer points of organized crime
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in the late 1920s masseria declared war on rival mobster salvatore maranzano and this my friends
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is the beginning of that war that we told you guys about the customary's war each man wanted to control
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new york new york's underworld by himself nearly 100 gangsters died in street battles tommy lucchese
00:23:48.800
and lucky luciano sided with their boss masseria but wanted the bloodshed to end luciano saw this
00:23:56.400
as bad ad really bad for business advertising you couldn't have bodies strewn all over the streets
00:24:01.840
and not expect somehow the city and the city government and the police department to respond
00:24:06.880
luciano knew blood was bad for business masseria had to go lucchese and luciano drew up a cunning
00:24:16.480
plan for a hostile takeover of the new york underworld taking out masseria first then his rival
00:24:23.760
maranzano oh double cross man but they looked at it like these guys are bad for business because
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both these dudes are super hard-headed they're both from the old city they're both from you know the old
00:24:34.960
land and have an old school mindset with how um organized crime should be very racist didn't
00:24:41.840
want to work with anyone else very stuck in their ways not open to making a lot of money more open
00:24:46.320
to doing things the old school way which obviously deals with violence and hurts business so they're
00:24:51.280
like fuck this shit get let's get rid of both of these guys these guys have in common that their
00:24:55.280
greediness street was that how do you say greed when a person is like greedy yes their greediness yeah
00:25:01.600
that like they all want us to be like the bosses exactly exactly so yeah and and i think the
00:25:07.200
biggest thing with these guys is they wanted to be the boss at any cost they don't care if it like
00:25:11.680
makes them lose money whereas like someone like lucky luciano didn't care at all because luciano
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ends up getting power yeah and he says you know what i'm gonna delegate the power to the commission
00:25:20.480
i got my family i'm i'm the boss of my family but i'm gonna delegate the power to the rest of y'all
00:25:24.880
and you guys are gonna see that here in a bit and i go into more detail on this on the first episode
00:25:28.720
which i really think you guys should go see it if you haven't seen it already
00:25:31.600
lucchese was in the middle of it playing off one side against the other pretending he was allied
00:25:36.720
with somebody while double crossing them at the same time the plan was flawless lucchese would
00:25:43.680
secretly meet with maranzano and pledge his allegiance luciano would then take out masseria
00:25:49.680
clearing the way for maranzano to become the most powerful mobster in new york city
00:25:54.240
on april 15 1931 at a restaurant on brooklyn's coney island four gunmen burst in on joe masseria
00:26:13.520
and they put the ace of spades there on him crime scene photos show masseria with the ace of spades
00:26:26.240
so they betrayed their boss of the way lucchese and luciano moved on maranzano
00:26:39.760
it was up to lucchese to find a way to knock him off
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lucchese was very intelligent and he snooped around found out what was going on
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posing as a disaffected member of luciano's group lucchese infiltrated maranzano's organization
00:26:57.120
tommy learned that maranzano worried about a possible audit from the irs
00:27:04.320
tommy's great strength as an organized criminal was his ability to read people
00:27:09.840
and to find out where you were vulnerable maranzano was told his bodyguards in the office
00:27:15.760
uh at the grand central tower not to carry guns anymore because he didn't want them to be busted
00:27:21.920
on gun charges when the irs guy showed up on september 10th 1931 four men showed up at maranzano's
00:27:31.520
office in grand central station they said they were with the irs without any announcement three
00:27:38.720
people claiming to be from the irs walked into the office and strangely enough
00:27:44.080
uh three finger brown lucchese was there the men weren't irs agents they were lucchese's
00:27:53.680
everybody was lined up these guys pulled out guns and lucchese had a pre-arrangement with these killers
00:28:01.200
he'd made a nod of his head to who was maranzano they knifed him and shot him and he was finished
00:28:08.320
and just so you guys know luciano lucchese used who them boys to help uh carry out these hits them
00:28:17.520
boys were absolutely involved in helping kill these individuals with masseria and maranzano out
00:28:25.520
of the picture lucchese and luciano could build a criminal empire the deal was simple get in line with
00:28:41.440
in 1931 tommy lucchese and lucky luciano took out their biggest competition in new york
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an older generation of monsters called the mustache peeps
00:28:52.000
lucchese luciano sat atop the criminal underworld
00:29:01.760
they were now in a position to rewrite the rules of organized crime in new york city
00:29:06.800
it would pave the way for lucchese's rise to power
00:29:26.160
he urged the city's top mobsters to stop fighting and work together
00:29:31.600
he had a simple strategy give each family autonomous control over different criminal enterprises
00:29:40.560
traditional italian bam and that my friends was the beginning of the um five crime families of new
00:29:48.880
york it actually started with uh maserati uh but the thing with him is that he wanted to be called
00:29:54.960
the boss of all bosses and that obviously put a target on his back so when luciano took power instead
00:30:01.280
of him saying oh i'm the boss of all bosses and being a pompous prick he said no i'm gonna just
00:30:06.080
have my family the rest of y'all run your families and then we're gonna meet every couple of years
00:30:10.720
with the commission to make big decisions whether there's a fight in the family or whatever it may
00:30:14.240
be and handle it that way that's how luciano did it because he didn't want to get in the way of the
00:30:18.160
money and he was smart enough to understand that if i become the try to claim boss of all bosses
00:30:23.840
i'm gonna end up where they're gonna put a target on my back he was smart enough to understand
00:30:28.240
they didn't want that target that was a very smart decision yes very smart decision by lucky luciano
00:30:34.400
organized crime as we know it today was formed in 1931 when luciano created the five organized
00:30:39.600
crime families in new york luciano said the best way for our survival is by not drawing attention to
00:30:47.200
ourselves and to expanding our economic empire luciano took his business model one step further each
00:30:55.440
family had a chain of command with a boss at the top the structure of organized crime is very very
00:31:02.480
simple you have a boss you have an under boss a consigliere soldier and the soldier has a lot of
00:31:10.000
associates the bosses were virtually uh immune from prosecution because they never pulled the trigger
00:31:16.560
then and we go into more detail guys as far as the mafia hierarchy in episode one where i actually show
00:31:21.840
you a chart and we go over each individual how people become made aka become uh you know a soldier
00:31:29.200
so to speak for the family and um you know the rituals all that stuff we go into and we go over
00:31:34.080
the definitions and terms timestamps are there go back to refer to episode one if any of these terms
00:31:39.520
confuse you uh and we go into detail there and show you guys a visual of how the structure is actually
00:31:44.400
set up for la cosa nostra never roughed up anybody for the most part uh trying to prove a conspiracy
00:31:51.200
case against it would have been impossible for a low profile mobster like lucchese the families
00:31:57.680
provided an ideal shelter for his rackets the other mobsters respected luciano and he in turn
00:32:05.680
respected his old right hand man eluciano rewarded tommy lucchese by giving him a very top role in one
00:32:13.360
of the five gangs tommy lucchese became the number two man in a very important family known as the
00:32:20.480
gagliano family at the age of 32 tommy lucchese took his place as one of the top mobsters in the city
00:32:28.560
but unlike luciano who lived in a suite on park avenue lucchese and his family lived in a modest
00:32:37.760
home in new jersey he didn't want to draw attention to his business
00:32:48.000
then in the early 1930s lucchese and luciano looked ahead to a time after prohibition
00:32:54.880
we're gonna have to have something to replace it and it's gotta be something big because
00:33:02.880
this is a lot of money we're getting in from prohibition hundreds of millions of dollars
00:33:08.560
in 1933 their prediction came true which by the way guys equivalent today's dollars
00:33:15.360
they were making billions on prohibition by bootlegging and providing alcohol and providing
00:33:20.400
the liquor for these speakeasies prohibition ended
00:33:30.960
lucchese didn't miss a beat he used his connections with jewish mobsters to make money on the side
00:34:14.240
highly specialized union at the heart of the business
00:34:18.400
unlike mainstream slaughterhouses kosher chickens have to be butchered by hand
00:34:27.920
they were the kosher qualified butchers who did the actual work preparing the chicken
00:34:33.440
it was a father's son meaning it took you 20 or 30 years to master this
00:34:42.800
so if they went on strike you're in trouble because you can't simply say okay you know call
00:34:49.040
the employment agency and get me a couple of coke now doesn't work that way okay and what will that
00:34:54.320
do create a lot of opportunity which creates what money guys them boys you know what i'm saying and
00:34:59.920
the other thing too guys just you know um you know whether it's the islamic faith whether it's the
00:35:06.640
jewish faith keep in mind guys that a lot of people prefer to have their meat kosher it's not just jews
00:35:11.920
jews that eat kosher meat muslims as well eat kosher meat so uh that's just the way it is man so
00:35:18.480
obviously this is a very lucrative business to get into is he secretly took control of the union and
00:35:25.600
very religious christians as well right uh uh angie really religious christians as well i mean you
00:35:31.040
tell me you prefer to eat kosher or what um for chicken or meat or whatever it may be
00:35:38.080
or does it not matter for you guys no doesn't kosher doesn't matter okay no but for muslims and jews
00:35:43.920
it does uh that's why uh you know you know if you're uh if you're muslim you can always eat at a uh
00:35:50.080
you know at a kosher you know location if they if it's kosher that means it's good for you as well
00:35:54.560
or halal in this oh you ask like as in like in religion yeah no it doesn't matter it doesn't matter
00:35:59.600
for y'all right okay well yeah you guys eat pork too so that's different yeah versus uh muslims and
00:36:04.080
jews don't eat pork it does matter when it's like easter like an easter week uh-huh that's when we
00:36:09.440
can like not eat meat most like we cannot eat meat okay mister but that's it but as far as it being
00:36:15.680
kosher it's irrelevant yeah okay okay but yeah for for jews and muslims it's a big thing uh kosher meat
00:36:23.120
is considered halal in the islamic base noon the entire industry he moved in in effect created a
00:36:29.920
cartel in which every aspect of the kosher chicken business would be controlled by him uh the
00:36:37.920
slaughtering of the distribution the transportation lucchese set prices and controlled the contracts
00:36:46.720
ironically the manufacturers appreciated lucchese's efforts because he promised them a portion of the
00:36:52.880
market they're not unhappy about it because at one time you could get wiped out in a season
00:37:02.000
if your competitor came and undercut you by two cents a pound now you are guaranteed a certain portion
00:37:07.920
of the market as long as you cooperate he benefited everybody he thought he benefited the uh the
00:37:14.320
merchants the slaughterers uh the transporters and mostly himself lucchese's scheme did not benefit
00:37:22.320
his customers what happened was the cost was passed along to the consumer people who wanted kosher
00:37:28.720
chicken he said fuck the customers y'all want kosher chicken y'all want to be religious okay get this
00:37:35.760
chicken baby we've had no choice now did he worry about a price for gold to consume no of course not
00:37:42.720
devout jews where else are they gonna get chickens muslims too where you're gonna get your chicken
00:37:47.760
you know i remember as a kid growing up guys uh remember this vividly um when i lived in brooklyn
00:37:54.880
we used to go to the jewish part of uh brooklyn i think it was like 13th avenue or something like
00:37:59.520
that correct me if i'm wrong guys for any of you guys that live there now um and that like it was all
00:38:04.400
a bunch of um jewish markets over there and we used to go there to get our meat our chicken etc because
00:38:09.040
it was kosher and we can eat that it was it was it was a halal so that's where we used to go to get
00:38:13.280
our our meat and produce so yeah i mean it a lot of people eat kosher only guys it's a big market
00:38:20.400
especially back then with all the immigrants that were in in new york at the time they gotta buy kosher
00:38:25.040
chickens okay they paid the price and it was the first big mafia tax
00:38:34.240
but tommy lucchese wasn't satisfied he wanted control of one of new york's biggest businesses
00:38:52.800
new york mobster tommy lucchese had a knack for business
00:38:58.080
during prohibition he turned bootlegging into a full-scale operation and now in
00:39:03.680
1933 he controlled the kosher chicken industry lucchese used brains instead of brawn to get his
00:39:11.520
way for decades new york city's garment district has been the nation's center of fashion design and
00:39:19.520
manufacturing at one time the 40 square block area of midtown manhattan shipped more than a third of the
00:39:27.120
clothing sold in the united states and in the 20s and 30s tommy luke the gambino family guys if you
00:39:35.040
are set episode as well we're also really big into the garment district as well casey found it ripe for
00:39:40.880
tommy lucchese always had a connection with the garment industry
00:39:55.760
first during prohibition lucchese could be counted on to supply clothing manufacturers with booze
00:40:01.680
you went to see tommy who said listen i got a couple of buyers coming in do me favor tommy can
00:40:09.440
you get me liquor and i gotta have the top stuff a number one top stuff lucchese would oblige and the
00:40:17.760
profits he made from bootlegging allowed him to venture into another mob business loan sharking
00:40:22.800
on the heels of the stock market crash americans were left desperate for money many of them turned
00:40:34.160
to mobsters for help the shylocking your loan sharking business just blocked because the mafia were the
00:40:43.520
only ones that were heavy in cash they had more money than the banks so of course they could go ahead
00:40:48.720
and lend out loans on super high interest assumed in the great depression because it was an easy
00:40:55.120
source of money for people that didn't have access to banks the loan and no credit check just a kneecap
00:41:03.920
check once came with exorbitant interest rates but lucchese wouldn't hesitate to use violence or threats
00:41:13.120
the depression hit businesses just as bad they needed money to bail them out the banks were shutting
00:41:22.160
down businesses needed money they didn't necessarily have the type of collateral that a bank if the bank
00:41:30.400
was able to even lend out money with cash saved up from his prohibition rackets lucchese could bail out
00:41:37.760
any business in the garment district he also figured out almost every season or a couple of times a year
00:41:46.160
many of the garment center manufacturers were short on cash they had sold say the spring line and they
00:41:52.160
were trying to bring out the summer line or the winter line but they needed money and there's tommy saying
00:41:59.520
hey i have a solution for you need money i've got the money i've got plenty of money these guys had
00:42:05.840
like all the money in new york and they wanted like more money pretty much and and it's funny because
00:42:12.800
it's like it's crazy because like if these guys had just put a little bit of effort in and weren't
00:42:17.120
criminals they have like some entrepreneurial mindsets like they're making money from the
00:42:20.640
kosher chicken they're making money from the alcohol they're making money from the garment stuff
00:42:24.480
and they're just reinvesting it right back into their businesses now they're good now they're basically
00:42:28.320
lending money out they're a bank now so uh you know entrepreneurial mindset but obviously they had to be
00:42:34.080
criminals they wanted all their money yeah they wanted all the money exactly no everyone is broke
00:42:38.400
as hell but you know what we got money y'all need your new line it's okay we got you just go ahead and
00:42:43.280
pay us this tax and he becomes the number one loan officer for the garment industry my man called it
00:42:51.280
became a loan officer lucchese preyed on the district with so-called knockdown loans short-term loans with
00:42:58.720
sky-high interest rates tommy knew most people couldn't pay him back right away and the interest
00:43:05.680
would pile up it was one of the most lucrative loan shocking deals ever invented the repayment
00:43:13.520
conditions were stringent on the clothing manufacturers in order to ensure no credit score
00:43:19.120
check just a kneecap check break your kneecaps forget about it a hefty return for the lender tommy lucchese
00:43:28.960
often these people could never pay you off right away so he doubled his money and it continued for
00:43:34.080
a long time at the height of the depression in the 30s what's what's a high interest um
00:43:40.720
oh i mean i want to be surprised if he wasn't like lending them this money on like 20 to 50
00:43:45.920
interest rate something crazy like that whoa yeah okay yeah yep and it's like he's lending them this
00:43:52.080
money because they're desperate and they can't get it anywhere else of course and he knows he's taking
00:43:55.600
advantage exactly and here's the other thing he knows they're not going to be able to pay him back
00:43:58.720
so what does he do oh well now i own a portion of your business oh that's another way
00:44:04.240
that they would get involved wow yep yep it's actually a really easy way to get in because you
00:44:08.400
know they're not going to pay you back now you own a portion of their business of course in a very smart
00:44:11.680
way too exactly yep heading five million dollars a year lucchese five million dollars a year doing
00:44:19.360
this bro extort basically loan shark let's see what that is exploited the loan sharking racket to get
00:44:24.400
inside garment businesses and to take control eventually a lot of these businesses couldn't
00:44:31.280
pay the money back as a result they got a new partner and they got a very dominant partner that
00:44:38.320
started calling the shots he's known as the calmest loan five million dollars in the 1930 in 1930 is
00:44:45.040
the equivalent to 90 million three hundred seventy thousand and fifty nine dollars and eighty nine
00:44:49.040
eighty eight cents today wow bro this guy was out here robbing them clean
00:44:55.360
i can't even press this either overtly or secretly uh in the garment industry lucchese had already used
00:45:20.480
his loan sharking operation to muscle in on the fashion industry but his next move grabbed the
00:45:27.040
garment district by the throat he infiltrated the clothes cutters union a powerful group that could
00:45:32.960
shut down the entire garment industry by going on strike in controlling this union lucchese could
00:45:39.520
charge his competitors any fee at any time this is another very common tactic guys with the mafia
00:45:46.880
they infiltrate unions and they're able to control the labor force when you're able to control the labor
00:45:51.280
force you're able to control everything else pricing wages uh contracts etc and the mafia was notorious
00:45:58.640
for doing this guys whether it was uh labor unions in construction in um in the political world in the
00:46:05.280
garment district and meat as you guys saw with the kosher situation uh the kosher meat situation they
00:46:11.920
would infiltrate unions like nobody's business man i'm pretty sure you explained this in the first
00:46:16.800
video but can you remind me what a union is basically it's a a union is like uh think of it like it's a
00:46:23.840
union literally a union of all the workers right of all the workers and what it does is allows them
00:46:30.080
protection across the entire spectrum of all the employees and they get certain rights and privileges and
00:46:35.920
oh okay and certain you know um you know certain accesses like you know they get a pension all these
00:46:41.920
things they like they basically fight for workers rights together so like you if you're going to try
00:46:46.160
to fire this guy then you got to go through the union so what it does is it's like strength in
00:46:50.320
numbers and it helps protect everyone's job and benefits yeah i remember i do think i think yes you
00:46:54.640
did explain it in the first video yeah yeah and a lot of these like you know blue collar jobs or unionized
00:46:59.440
jobs and if the mafia is able to infiltrate them bam now they control that industry because the unions
00:47:05.120
run the industry because if they go on strike they're and you can't really fire them because
00:47:09.040
they're protected by who the union so the mafia was smart and infiltrated it from the workers
00:47:14.160
perspective with the unions versus infiltrating it from the top sometimes they'll do both they'll close
00:47:18.320
it at the at the middle it infiltrate the top and then also infiltrate the unions like like you see
00:47:22.720
lucchese doing right now and bam now they got a stranglehold on that industry so they're able to
00:47:28.560
split it to the highest degree tommy lucchese who saw there was a lot of money if you could take them
00:47:36.160
over you could have a steady stream of money if they went on strike what would happen everything comes
00:47:43.920
to a halt you can't do without these people you cannot replace them as in the kosher chicken racket
00:47:50.320
lucchese controlled a key part of the assembly line manufacturers paid tommy to keep the factory moving
00:48:04.320
the manufacturers didn't complain why because tommy said you're not going to pay these extra costs
00:48:10.880
you're going to pass that price on to every american who buys clothes but after lucchese stepped in
00:48:17.200
he also gained control of the trucking union whose drivers shipped the clothing guess what
00:48:23.200
there's only one trucking firm you were allowed to use at one set price
00:48:34.080
get a whole see how these guys just muscle in on all these different industry now they got
00:48:37.440
the trucking union they got the garment union they got all they got the kosher chicken union
00:48:42.400
like bro these dudes are just controlling all these different industries making all this money
00:48:46.880
yeah they had all the power loan sharking all this stuff and this is why the guys the united states
00:48:51.840
especially new york city etc these cities were built on the back of la cosa nostra this is terrifying
00:48:58.480
yeah they had they had a lot of power back then it seemed that lucchese could corrupt any type of
00:49:03.360
business even city hall oh next tommy lucchese would use his influence on new york politicians
00:49:16.480
bribery was a big thing back then too during the great depression while most americans just
00:49:23.680
managed to scrape by mobster tommy lucchese raked in the cash running rackets in the new york garment
00:49:31.680
district and he did it all from behind the scenes no one kept a lower profile than tommy lucchese
00:49:40.320
it was hard to trace it was nice if you could walk down the street
00:49:44.800
and see a sign in the window of a garment center firm that said we're now mafia controlled so much of what was
00:49:52.240
happening was invisible lucchese steered clear of trouble he paid off the cops to keep his rap sheet
00:49:59.680
clean these mobsters could walk into a police station and pay off these cops that were making ten dollars
00:50:07.600
a week for walking a beat and they could pay off politicians who were not under the same kind of
00:50:15.120
ten dollars guys back then was uh hundred in 1930 was 180 today
00:50:30.160
tommy lucchese admitted so they weren't getting paid maybe like six hundred dollars a month
00:50:37.520
but he knew today's dollars of course politicians could be manipulated just as easily
00:50:42.800
like tommy understood that you cannot have organized crime without corruption
00:50:48.720
very simple can't do it and so he was known for his assiduous courting of people
00:50:56.160
that he knew he could corrupt and who are in a position to be very very helpful
00:51:02.720
and remember guys i want to make this very clear back in the 1930s this is way before rico
00:51:07.040
laws and organized crime this is before kennedy got in office and wanted to you know get serious on
00:51:12.080
organized crime which is a big part of the reason why he got killed by the way we'll talk about
00:51:15.200
that with ryan dawson with john f kennedy and what ended up getting him killed it was a combination
00:51:18.720
of organized crime them boys and uh some other things that got kennedy killed but this is way before
00:51:26.240
all of this organized crime was going crazy in the 20s all the way up into the 70s when they created
00:51:32.880
rico laws and they didn't really take take them into full effect until 1985 when they arrested uh members
00:51:39.280
of the commission so it took damn near 60 years for not even like seven years for the united states
00:51:46.240
to figure this out and come up with laws that can attack organized crime uh on a more on a more robust
00:51:53.200
basis where they can actually take these guys down and keep them down versus them getting pinched here
00:51:58.080
and there and then being able to intimidate witnesses and pay politicians off all that other crap
00:52:01.680
in 1945 tommy flexed his political muscle in the race for city council president he backed vincent
00:52:11.600
impelitari an unknown law clerk sicilian born impelitari didn't have a chance
00:52:19.360
he wanted the post and didn't even know if he could get on the ballot but he had one thing going for him
00:52:25.280
lucchese in the end impelitari won the seat lucchese now had the city council president in his back
00:52:33.680
pocket the guy could barely run and he ends up winning the freaking thing bro forget about it you
00:52:40.320
know you you know he was beating up some people to get that freaking thing running people over and all
00:52:44.560
types of shit man breaking kneecaps making people swim with the fishes mama mia in 1950 a police corruption
00:52:52.320
scandal forced mayor william o'dwyer to resign impelitari then won a special election and took
00:52:59.600
his place as mayor wow he turned out to be one of the worst mayors new york ever had he was totally
00:53:04.480
incompetent nevertheless it didn't matter it mattered to the mob they still had this pipeline to city hall
00:53:10.640
one night reporters caught impelitari at dinner with lucchese the mayor of new york was breaking bread
00:53:17.680
with a mobster and it didn't look good when they went over to impelitari later and said you know who
00:53:23.360
he is he said all i know is he's a dress manufacturer the mayor played dumb ah smart
00:53:31.680
the story never turned into a scandal lucchese yeah i definitely i bet it didn't because he told them
00:53:38.640
boys hey you guys want to go out and publish that story that's cool we'll see what happens to you
00:53:43.040
and then they're gonna forget about it you motherfucker
00:53:50.320
then had the police in his corner tommy paid them to look the other way allowing him to run his
00:53:56.480
rackets without fear of repercussion now with that how active do you think the new york city police
00:54:03.760
department was in pursuing one tommy lucchese for any crimes not very much i can guarantee you but
00:54:10.240
that's how he protected himself could you imagine like ah let's just go after the black people
00:54:18.640
yeah we're just gonna go after the black people okay don't don't mess with these
00:54:21.280
italians let's go get uh jerome and jamal and all them oh my god by 1951 lucchese had been
00:54:28.160
underboss of the gagliano crime family for nearly 20 years as underboss tommy oversaw the day-to-day
00:54:35.920
operations of the family's crews and rackets in february of that year gagliano died of natural causes
00:54:44.320
after his death lucchese stepped in as the next crime boss he was the obvious choice he was among
00:54:51.600
the most uh admired people uh within the mafia nobody brought in money like tommy lucchese
00:54:58.000
his performance in places like the garment center and the kosher chicken industry made him
00:55:05.680
a much talked about man within the mafia and shout out to him for taking over the kosher chicken with
00:55:11.200
them boys right and that comes off of him working with uh lucky luciano who had a very tight connection
00:55:16.720
with uh mayor lansky and all them other boys if you know what i'm saying so they were able to go ahead
00:55:22.000
and muscle in on that industry and make quite a bit of money and on top of that what were they able to do
00:55:26.240
make the money for the industry people pass that cost on to the um to the customers
00:55:30.960
and they made a ton of money guys lucchese celebrated the promotion by upgrading his lifestyle
00:55:39.360
he and his wife concetta left the new jersey suburbs and built a custom home in upscale lido beach
00:55:45.680
on the south shore of long island his neighbors took notice of his unusual guest list
00:55:51.600
it seemed rather odd the strange parade of politicians police officials and all judges
00:56:00.560
all kinds of prominent people into lucchese house then in the early 1950s the walls began to close in on
00:56:08.960
the mob and this time tommy couldn't rely on payoffs to skate by in washington u.s senator estes
00:56:18.320
kefauver launched a series of hearings into organized crime calling prominent gangsters like frank costello
00:56:28.400
you must have in your mind some things you've done that you can speak off your credit as american
00:56:36.720
so guys they're calling them in right to testify under oath because they can do that um and you know
00:56:44.320
obviously la costa no sure doesn't want this right there the costa no sure means our thing and
00:56:49.680
they're supposed to take a code of silence called omerta so them talking about any type of organized
00:56:54.240
crime is a big deal and they shouldn't be doing this obviously in front of all these people under
00:56:59.760
oath so you guys are going to see some creative answers that these guys come up with here when asked
00:57:03.920
about uh the mafia thanks the hearings aired on national television thrusting mobsters into a place
00:57:22.880
they wanted to avoid at all costs the national spotlight will you state to the committee uh where
00:57:29.920
you have been for the past six months have you been in remember guys he could take the fifth
00:57:36.720
amendment and not answer these questions even though he's being subpoenaed to testify
00:57:45.120
as usual lucchese's carefully maintained low profile served him well the key father committee never
00:57:52.720
questioned him in 1952 however lucchese was called to testify before the new york state crime commission
00:58:03.120
now 53 years old lucchese repeatedly cited his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination
00:58:10.960
but five years later lucchese was unable to preserve his low profile
00:58:15.520
in november 1957 in apple lack in new york a state trooper followed up on a tip that dozens of mafia
00:58:25.200
bosses were meeting in town the group included tommy lucchese as the cop pulled in the driveway
00:58:32.880
everyone was there guys the traffic contest from florida the five crime families of new york they got
00:58:38.400
uh capone from uh from chicago like everybody was there man all the mob bosses from all over the country
00:58:44.480
were there so this was a huge hit for law enforcement lucchese and many others fled the scene on foot
00:58:52.000
still the discovery confirmed once and for all the existence of a national crime syndicate
00:58:58.640
the new york city police and other city police had to recognize there is a structured organization
00:59:06.240
for nearly four decades lucchese had prided himself on his ability to keep a low profile
00:59:12.320
but his anonymity was now slipping away in 1963 joe velacci dealt lucchese in the italian mafia another blow
00:59:25.200
he went before a senate committee and broke the mafia pledge of omerta the code of silence by providing a
00:59:32.080
and who was pushing this john f kennedy and his brother robert f kennedy killing inside look at the mob
00:59:38.960
velacci identified the lucchese family as one of the five new york mafia families oh breaking it open
00:59:55.200
still the feds didn't have enough to go on lucchese was free to continue his rackets and even rick fights in
01:00:01.760
the ring but lucchese wasn't in the clear a boxing scandal would soon make national headlines for the
01:00:13.040
so you guys can see here that the tentacles of organized crime are literally touching all you
01:00:20.720
know reaches of american culture sports meat clothes alcohol booze gambling everything these guys are
01:00:29.440
involved in man lending money god damn it holy in the 1960s new york mobster tommy lucchese operated a
01:00:41.840
number of successful rackets his next hustle would bring the house down
01:00:58.000
for decades mobsters had loved the rough and tumble sport of boxing
01:01:02.160
fighting and boxing and the mob were first cousins tommy lucchese was no exception he had been involved
01:01:16.400
in boxing for years his neighbors in long island took notice they were always surprised that when
01:01:23.200
there was a fight major fight going on they had a conversation with him uh he would always give them a
01:01:28.640
tip on who would win and naturally they never lost a bet if they uh followed lucchese's advice he knew
01:01:36.480
beforehand who was going to win he knew the winner because the mobsters rigged the fights there was
01:01:44.560
always a talk about maybe this fight is fixed maybe that fight is fixed betty a lot of betting on box
01:01:53.680
frankie carbo ran the boxing racket for lucchese he maintained control over managers trainers and
01:02:02.320
promoters carbo and his associates used intimidation to get their way if you defy them they kill you
01:02:10.720
beat you up or break your knees you had no choice and that's what happened to promoters and boxing managers
01:02:16.880
in 1960 you better win or else forget about it we're breaking your kneecaps then that's what they
01:02:23.840
did man infiltrated even professional sports before carbo arranged a heavyweight title fight between
01:02:30.080
reigning champion sonny liston and olympian cassius clay lucchese associates had been managing liston's
01:02:37.600
career for years bookies and reporters picked liston as the favorite people said that
01:02:46.800
liston was going to annihilate them newspaper men picked them i i picked liston by a knockout most of us did
01:02:58.000
there was talk that carbo used his influence to fix the fight
01:03:04.560
on february 25th 1964 the pair took to the ring in miami
01:03:09.840
for six rounds they fought a clean fight but then liston shocked the crowd
01:03:23.440
he refused to return to the ring after the sixth round
01:03:26.880
he knew he had to lose that fight and if he got up off that stool and went to the center of the ring
01:03:35.680
again there was a very real danger that he was going to win by betting on the seven to one underdog
01:03:44.640
cassius clay the mob cashed in on his win clay's camp denied any impropriety and called for a rematch
01:03:54.880
the next year on may 25th 1965 the pair faced off in lewiston maine this time there were even sharper
01:04:03.760
allegations that the fight was fixed in the first round clay who had since changed his name to muhammad ali
01:04:10.960
jabbed liston with a quick right while backing away listen now is head bobbing
01:04:16.400
and goes to his knees from a punch it seemed like a harmless punch but liston unconvincingly fell to
01:04:26.080
the ground rolled over climbed to his knees and then fell again
01:04:36.320
even to this day there is controversy whether the fights were fixed
01:04:40.320
sonny got hit he fell down the best way he could and just lay there so he went from
01:04:49.280
you know sitting up vertically to lying down horizontally and to the paycheck and that was it
01:04:56.240
the people who said that that was a tag job i disagree with 100 i've been in many ringsides and i
01:05:04.480
saw that fight as clear as i could ever see it in person my eyes saw a very good boxing performance
01:05:14.560
of one man over the other there was no dive there following the fights lucchese insulated himself from
01:05:23.920
the front lines of illegal activity as he had done for years in the mid-1960s lucchese started to feel
01:05:32.800
his age he complained of chest pains dizzy spells and chronic headaches
01:05:40.240
tommy withdrew from day-to-day mafia operations and spent an increasing amount of time at his home in
01:05:45.760
florida the 66 year old mobster then paid his doctor a visit the doctors had devastating news
01:05:55.040
lucchese lucchese had a brain tumor they gave him a year to live despite all his money despite everything
01:06:05.920
he had there was nothing medical science could do for him lucchese beat the odds and hung on for nearly
01:06:14.000
two years but he couldn't overcome cancer on july 13 1967 tommy lucchese died at his home in lido beach
01:06:24.640
long island he was 68 years old on his deathbed um lucchese indicated he really didn't regret anything
01:06:34.720
more than a thousand people attended his funeral wow that tells you right there and then a thousand
01:06:40.000
people that means he had quite a bit of respect versus when other mob bosses that a lot of times
01:06:44.160
people don't show up carlo gambino also had a bunch of people show up to his uh funeral as well so but
01:06:51.200
of course he didn't regret none he made all that money he killed all those people you know you see
01:06:54.640
like cancer doesn't forgive money doesn't see money doesn't see anything like that's facts
01:07:02.240
the fact that he was able to continue on for another two years is crazy including monsters judges and
01:07:08.480
powerful politicians in the wake of lucchese's death confusion surrounded his successor tommy had
01:07:17.520
never officially named an heir to the family throne in his absence bosses of the other mafia families met
01:07:24.880
and chose the next boss tommy's former protege tony ducks corallo one problem corallo was serving the last
01:07:33.840
few years of an extortion charge in the interim the families asked carmine tramunti to step in and
01:07:41.200
maintain tommy's rackets following in the footsteps of tommy lucchese corallo's men set up rackets at john
01:07:48.960
f kennedy airport in 1978 lucchese crime family associates staged an incredible robbery at the lufthansa
01:07:57.440
airlines cargo terminal they made off with six million dollars in cash at the time the lufthansa
01:08:05.200
heist was considered the biggest robbery in american history it wasn't until the 1980s that the feds were
01:08:18.400
and this guy as you can see here uh like i told you before they didn't implement rico laws until the 70s
01:08:23.440
and they actually didn't put it into effect and go after these guys until the 80s and then bam see
01:08:28.240
the uh the commission of the costa nostra and then they got each of the families organized they got
01:08:33.680
the bosses identified acting boss under boss right consigliaries all these guys identified and that's
01:08:40.320
how they're able to go ahead and go after them with such hard charges because of rico laws being able
01:08:45.520
to charge people through an organization versus charging people individually to the top leadership of
01:08:52.160
the lucchese crime family through electronic surveillance a bug aka wiretaps planted in
01:08:57.920
corallo's car recorded more than 70 hours of incriminating conversations federal prosecutor
01:09:05.440
rudy giuliani the future mayor of new york used the tapes to go after the city's five families
01:09:13.200
he indicted all of the administrations of the five families as well as the other bosses and
01:09:19.600
conciliaries and captains or whoever he could sweep into this uh indictment in all six high-ranking
01:09:27.520
mobsters received convictions of extortion labor racketeering and murder for hire they were all
01:09:34.480
convicted and they all were sentenced to uh basically 100 years in prison the verdict removed the top
01:09:42.480
leadership of the lucchese family from the streets and marked the end of an era this new generation of
01:09:49.360
bosses was a bit more aggressive yeah really street thugs today it's an organization that garners
01:09:57.280
headlines and stiff convictions hardly worthy of the low profile mobster who revolutionized
01:10:05.040
racketeering if tommy lucchese could arise from the grave and come back today i think he would be
01:10:12.560
absolutely stunned at what happened and here is the luft uh lufthansa heist right here guys um
01:10:23.920
right here you guys can see here um it was uh december 11 1978. the uh lufthana heist was a robbery
01:10:31.280
at new york city's john f kennedy international airport on december 11 1978 estimated 5.875 million
01:10:36.960
equivalent to 24.4 million in 2021 was stolen with 5 million in cash and 875 000 in jewelry making the
01:10:43.280
largest cash robbery committed in american soil at the time and this was later beat but guys by um
01:10:49.840
the uh armored car robbery which actually covered on this channel uh if we go back here actually let me
01:10:57.600
pull it up for y'all all right you guys and you know real quick i'll show you guys the playlist that we
01:11:04.080
got here we got all kinds of content for you all over here fed it man right like the video like the
01:11:08.560
video guys subscribe to the channel if you haven't already so here i got all these different playlists
01:11:13.440
right so obviously you got all your most recent to oldest then you got your sunday vids which is the
01:11:17.600
live streams then you got the thursday vids which all the mafia videos are going to begin here but this
01:11:21.440
was the episode one that kind of gives you guys the background i'm going to go ahead and create a
01:11:24.720
mafia playlist for you and then obviously we got the famous serial killers and then we got um and then if
01:11:30.400
you look at thursday videos because it's a thursday pre-recorded videos
01:11:34.080
the video that covers the biggest bank heist in u.s history is this one right here the dunbar
01:11:43.120
robbery of 18.9 million in los angeles in 1997 man so uh and i reacted to a documentary fbi files which
01:11:51.520
i really like this this show um but yeah yeah go ahead and uh you know check it out man i got all
01:11:56.800
kinds of videos for y'all man but this actually ended up being the biggest heist in history and this
01:12:01.440
actually ended up beating uh beating the lufthana heist uh done by the mafia but uh yeah hope you
01:12:08.000
guys enjoyed that little trip down memory lane here uh angie what's your final thoughts well i just
01:12:15.280
find it good documentary by the way for picking this one shout out to you i'll give you down to mark
01:12:18.640
i really like that i was watching it the other day while doing my nails and i really liked it i really
01:12:25.200
enjoyed it um i find it crazy how they managed to have that amount of power that even they they yeah
01:12:33.360
they managed to monopolize the polit the politicians in new york and everything i mean yeah they took over
01:12:40.080
everything i think if that guy had a night of cancer he will have you know like made it to president to
01:12:46.640
like with his admission it's just crazy he was clever i mean he was so smart he could play his
01:12:52.320
like monopolio it's just crazy it's and and he never really he didn't die in prison or die through
01:12:58.480
violence he's one of the few carlo gambino also was one of the few most other mob bosses ended up dying
01:13:03.440
or going to prison so yeah which is like make yeah exactly that makes him different from all the
01:13:08.480
bosses that we've seen already we haven't seen that many but it's just crazy yeah i mean when we
01:13:12.720
did the gambino one game uh god he got like life in prison pretty much yeah right he he beat a bunch
01:13:17.920
of cases but when the feds got him he wasn't as smart yes he was reckless yeah and he loved the clout man
01:13:25.840
the next you know fbi came up and got him you know went from the teflon don to the incarcerated don so
01:13:32.480
um yeah cool guys check us out fed it dot 1811 on instagram uh and guys hope you guys enjoyed
01:13:38.240
this one shout out to angie for finding this documentary actually that was the first time i
01:13:41.680
watched it alongside you guys so it was great uh commentary don't forget to like the video
01:13:46.480
well wrong sound effect don't forget to like the video subscribe to the channel
01:13:57.920
i was a special agent with homeless investigations okay guys hsi the cases that i did mostly were