The Debrief With MyronGainesX - Fed Explains How The Lucchese Crime Family Mafia Illegally Made Billions!

00:00:00.000 And we are live just kidding guys, it's a premiere if you're watching this right now

00:00:04.440 That means it's Thursday and more than likely you're watching part two

00:00:07.840 Actually, no, this is gonna be part three of our Italian La Cosa Nostra

00:00:13.000 Mafia series series La Cosa Nostra series basically as you guys know we're covering the Italian Mafia

00:00:18.380 You guys been asking for this for months. So today we're gonna be covering the Lucchese crime family

00:00:22.380 And I know we had said that we're gonna do Colombo

00:00:24.620 But I'm waiting because I actually want to do the interview with Michael Francis first if possible

00:00:29.000 Before we do the Colombo crime family, but uh without further ado we got Angie in the house Angie introduce yourself to the people

00:00:35.280 Hi guys, um

00:00:37.320 Yeah, some people call it Cosa Nostra instead of La Cosa Nostra

00:00:41.260 I don't know why

00:00:42.640 Apparently that's like the real name of the thing, but yeah, um, yeah, this is part three of

00:00:49.440 The Italian Mafia series that we're covering every Thursday

00:00:54.020 So tonight we're gonna do

00:00:57.080 Lucchese

00:00:58.340 Lucchese crime family and actually it was you that found this documentary so you know good work on that one

00:01:03.580 She's the one that actually found and recommended this one guy. So if it sucks, um, make fun of her 0.93

00:01:07.820 No, it's not gonna suck. It's actually really good. I really enjoyed it watching it 0.95

00:01:13.580 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

00:01:19.520 Yeah, we'll see what happens. Yeah, we'll see what happens. We'll do gonna do something about it. So this comes from

00:01:23.520 Um, uh, let's see here from any guys, uh mobsters tell me Lucchese on the mafia full episode

00:01:29.520 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

00:01:33.740 Um, and uh, yeah, let's and you got anything before we get into it? Nope. All right, cool

00:01:38.800 Nobody brought in money like Tommy Lucchese 0.91

00:01:42.300 This was an absolute criminal with a total criminal mind

00:01:48.000 Tommy Lucchese saw there was a lot of money in corrupting unions in what were called legitimate enterprises

00:01:56.960 There were fixed fights boxing

00:02:00.000 Never saw such corruptness as when the mob was there

00:02:05.520 The Lucchese crime family is one of the most significant organized crime families in the country

00:02:09.600 Tommy Lucchese was a guy who would kill you in a heartbeat if he thought you were gonna get in his way 0.99

00:02:14.240 This was a stone-cold killer 0.79

00:02:21.760 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

00:02:28.320 um extortion rackets, um,

00:02:32.160 You know taxing people gambling illegal gambling prohibition obviously selling alcohol when it was banned back in the 20s and 30s

00:02:39.120 So anywhere that they can make a dollar they're definitely involved in it and back then guys they

00:02:44.240 Ran the united states. Um, so let's get into it

00:02:48.480 New york city

00:02:52.800 Popular violinist david rubinoff ducked into a restaurant for a bite to eat

00:02:58.240 Inside he spotted a notorious diner across the room

00:03:02.720 It was mobster tommy lucchese

00:03:05.200 When the guy caught sight of lucchese he literally went white 0.96

00:03:11.600 And tommy invited move to the table

00:03:15.680 Rubinoff had a reason to be scared he owed lucchese ten thousand dollars in those days

00:03:21.440 Oh lord, that's not good. Mamma mia ten thousand dollars back then 1.00

00:03:27.280 Ten grand was a lot of money

00:03:29.280 It was the great depression

00:03:31.280 A toothbrush cost five cents and a loaf of bread went for less than a dime

00:03:36.160 Holy well, you can tell there rubinoff had borrowed the cash from lucchese to buy a stradivarius violin

00:03:41.920 But never paid him back in full

00:03:44.400 The russian-born musician knew he was in trouble. No one ten thousand dollars in 1930 guys the equivalent

00:03:50.240 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

00:04:02.000 So yeah, they're definitely gonna they're they're definitely not gonna forget about it. You're gonna have to pay up

00:04:09.120 Welched on tommy lucchese

00:04:13.520 Rubinoff told lucchese that he was having money problems, but would pay him back

00:04:17.760 It was the wrong answer lucchese casually reached for rubinoff's hand

00:04:26.080 And tommy said you know you've got beautiful hands

00:04:29.840 What a shame it would be that anything would ever happen to those hands

00:04:34.400 Lucchese told the violinist he wanted to talk it over in the back alley behind the restaurant. Oh boy

00:04:40.960 Rubinoff was terrified

00:04:46.400 And the guy said tommy i'll have your money tomorrow morning. I swear

00:04:51.440 Sounds good. That's nice. See you tomorrow morning

00:04:56.320 Rubinoff didn't waste time the next day. He paid his debt back in full

00:05:01.840 As usual, tommy lucchese got what he wanted

00:05:05.440 Yeah, that guy would have lost his violinist career right there would have broke his hands man

00:05:09.200 That's what he was gonna do. He's gonna take that boy out back and put the beats on him or shoot him 0.99

00:05:15.040 And he wouldn't have been able to play violin anymore. So that would have been bad 0.99

00:05:18.160 And just so you guys know one of the crimes that the mafia is notorious for is something called loan sharking, right?

00:05:23.280 And I really guys real fast

00:05:26.000 If you didn't see episode one

00:05:28.000 Please go back and watch episode one. We covered this last week on sunday

00:05:33.600 Um, where we went up over the mafia's um origins how they got to united states

00:05:38.960 uh, the crimes that they're involved in

00:05:41.120 All that stuff and we talked about loan sharking

00:05:43.040 But just as a quick little summary for you guys and we went over hierarchies all that stuff in the terms all that

00:05:47.200 Okay, so we talked about made guy we talked about a consigliere a couple blah blah blah

00:05:51.200 We went over all that stuff so that you know, we cover the families you guys kind of know but anyway loan sharking

00:05:56.080 But guys is basically

00:05:57.440 Lending money out at a very high interest rate. Okay, a lot of times

00:06:01.120 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

00:06:05.680 And what they're able to do is they say oh you can't pay back now

00:06:09.040 We own your business, right? They say that the the famous quote use work for me now

00:06:13.520 That's basically what it comes down to so

00:06:15.920 They loan the money

00:06:17.200 You know, you either pay it back with a super high interest or they basically get their tentacles into

00:06:21.040 Your business and they now start to get a cut so it's a win-win for them either way

00:06:28.160 The odd thing about tommy luke's his success was he didn't look the part

00:06:33.200 Uh, he was uh five feet two inches tall

00:06:36.720 And probably didn't and the boss of the car of the gambino family carlo gambino

00:06:41.200 He was also very short and didn't look intimidating

00:06:44.560 Way more than 105 pounds which we covered him last week as well guys

00:06:48.560 If you want to get into the gambino family, which was probably the most powerful fam family of the five new york crime families

00:06:55.040 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

00:07:00.160 Ellis island new york in 1910 it was the gateway to america for millions of immigrants

00:07:19.920 The masses included an 11 year old sicilian boy gaitano tommy lukezi

00:07:30.640 The lukezi squeezed into an apartment in new york city's east harlem 0.90

00:07:37.600 Italian gangs ruled the street guys in the early 1900s a bunch of italians came here from sicily right in italy 1.00

00:07:45.360 And uh, this kind of uh, uh created a huge market for italian organized crime

00:07:50.400 Especially with the emergence of prohibition which we're going to see here in a bit

00:07:54.960 They'd shake down the local store owners for payoffs and if someone didn't play along all bets were off

00:08:01.680 They were preying on their own

00:08:03.920 Immigrant stock the italian american gangs and this is the practice of extortion guys where basically hey 1.00

00:08:10.160 You got to pay us a protection fee right and I say that with with air quotes here 0.72

00:08:14.560 You got to pass protection fee or else we're going to mess your stuff up

00:08:17.680 Which is hilarious because you're basically paying to protect yourself from them when they're supposed to protect you

00:08:24.080 But yeah, you know, it is what is it forget about it

00:08:27.920 You appear to be more violent and more more willing to commit murders and intimidate people

00:08:32.880 Tommy's father earned an honest living hauling concrete day in and day out

00:08:42.240 Each day tommy watched his dad work himself to death while thugs in the neighborhood earned an easy living through rackets

00:08:51.120 As a teenager tommy ran with a band of young criminals they called themselves the 107th street gang

00:08:58.080 Tommy got mixed up very quickly with these street hoods 1.00

00:09:05.120 Uh kids would run around robbing peddlers

00:09:08.720 Anything that wasn't nailed down they would try to steal break into places

00:09:13.680 burglary

00:09:15.600 Stealing goods off trucks anything where they could turn a fast buck

00:09:19.760 Tommy answered to the gang's leader another sicilian named charles lucky luciano

00:09:29.200 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

00:09:37.600 Basically, they call him the godfather of organized crime

00:09:40.320 Because he was instrumental in getting the five families set up and the commission in the united states after the um 0.97

00:09:47.200 God damn it. How do I pronounce that that war that big war that they had sano?

00:09:52.480 Yeah, but he was there you go. Yeah, the custom maria's uh war, um, which we go again

00:09:58.640 We go into detail guys on that more in the first episode, please watch that

00:10:03.520 So you guys truly understand the importance of lucky luciano how he was involved with a mayor lansky aka part of them boys

00:10:09.840 You know what i'm saying?

00:10:11.120 uh with with the dem boys mafia

00:10:13.760 um

00:10:14.800 But we explain all that in the first place

00:10:16.880 But if you don't know who lucky luciano is pause this podcast right now go back and watch episode one

00:10:22.640 Okay, so that this all makes sense for you

00:10:26.640 Lucchese went to work

00:10:31.280 He got a job in a machine shop

00:10:34.320 Uh during which time there was a bad accident that sliced off the

00:10:38.960 Thumb and forefinger of his right hand leaving him with three fingers

00:10:43.440 The accident convinced him that no good would ever come from a respectable job

00:10:52.400 Lucchese quit and returned to his gang 0.87

00:10:55.600 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 0.86

00:11:00.640 Rumors of his criminal deeds

00:11:02.720 That's his parents

00:11:05.360 They were

00:11:07.200 Very upset that he clearly was drifting into a life of crime

00:11:12.000 The family was appalled because they were quite convinced that he would bring shame on them as a criminal

00:11:17.920 Lucchese's dad

00:11:19.440 Lucchese's dad kicked tommy out of the house

00:11:23.200 He moved into a tenement apartment and joined up with his other family the members of the 107th street gang

00:11:29.600 Tommy hit the streets hustling and stealing from anyone in east harlem

00:11:33.600 It was a kind of juvenile crime that was very prevalent in the neighborhood and he was no exception

00:11:40.160 Uh, but almost from the start, he seemed to be a little more clever than some of the other kids

00:11:45.680 So he he was almost automatically a leader

00:11:50.080 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

00:12:00.240 He would go to a merchant

00:12:03.520 Got a big beautiful storefront window and say

00:12:06.640 I have a window cleaning service that is superior to every other cleaning service you can use

00:12:12.720 The idea was if you didn't go along with the scheme they'd break your window so it would cost you

00:12:20.640 Talk about entrepreneurship. Hey, I got my window cleaning business

00:12:23.280 If you guys don't participate in the window cleaning business, it's gonna be a window broken business for you. Okay

00:12:27.760 Forget about it. Next thing you know the store owner's like, oh my god, mama mia 0.77

00:12:32.000 All right, i'll pay up

00:12:36.000 Hundreds of dollars instead of uh, maybe fifty dollars a week

00:12:42.160 And after a while people in east harlem got the message

00:12:44.640 Which is that if you wanted to keep your windows intact and have them clean at the same time

00:12:50.080 The lucchese window cleaning service was the way to go

00:12:53.920 That's hilarious bro. You either you either get your windows clean or get your windows cleaned out, baby. Okay

00:12:59.760 Young lucchese raked in the cash hand over fist 0.80

00:13:03.680 It was his first foray into organized crime and a long way from his dad's job hauling concrete

00:13:10.880 But tommy was not a common street thug. He used his brain to develop rackets for his gang

00:13:16.080 And a racket guys is basically a scheme that they develop where they're able to earn money through some type of criminal activity

00:13:27.360 So for example, if we got a gambling racket, let's say they got a house set up where they you know

00:13:32.480 Take bets and they got bookies and all of this stuff. That's one racket then on the other side

00:13:36.640 They're extorting people for the window cleaning businesses. You see that's another racket then they got you know

00:13:42.480 Guys that are uh shaking down other crooks and maybe stealing their money or stealing their dope whatever. Maybe that's another racket

00:13:48.640 So every criminal endeavor that they're involved in right where they're earning money

00:13:53.360 That is considered a racket when it comes to the mafia

00:13:58.160 Absolute criminal with a total criminal mind

00:14:01.840 By the early 1920s a powerful mobster named joseph masseria reached out to lucchese and to the leader of his gang lucky luciano

00:14:13.600 Okay, so now we're going to get into um

00:14:16.960 Probably they might cover the war here with the customaries war

00:14:21.520 Masseria ruled manhattan with an iron fist on the street people called him joe the boss

00:14:27.600 Joe the boss could recognize criminal talent when he saw it

00:14:32.960 He hired luciano and lucchese as hitmen and they went to work right away

00:14:38.480 tommy committed an estimated 30 murders for his new boss

00:14:41.920 oh lee what the what 1.00

00:14:44.800 Tommy out here murking people what the fuck 0.99

00:14:47.280 lucchese had come a long way from window cleaning scams 1.00

00:14:51.280 Now he was a killer

00:14:54.880 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

00:15:05.600 Murder was really tough to solve back then you don't got forensics you don't got dna you don't got

00:15:10.320 um the same crime scene investigate investigative capacity you know this is why

00:15:16.320 uh a lot of criminals like their heyday was their early 1900s you know all the way up until the 2000s damn near

00:15:22.560 i mean the serial killer golden era

00:15:24.560 Was from the 60s all the way up until the 90s right ending with i would say like the jeffrey dahmer era why

00:15:29.520 Because dna became a huge thing after that point so it was very difficult to serve uh

00:15:35.360 Sorry solve violent crime especially murders in situations like this and also keep in mind

00:15:41.200 RICO laws were no not yet in effect those didn't come in until the 70s

00:15:46.320 And it was because of the mafia the body count lucchese managed to avoid jail time

00:15:51.680 He had a reputation for brutality and used that to intimidate witnesses

00:15:59.520 In 1921 at the age of 22 the cops caught tommy stealing an expensive car a packard 0.99

00:16:07.840 And with the arrest came a nickname from the police

00:16:11.600 And when it came the time for him to be

00:16:14.560 Booked he had to go through the usual process one of which was his fingerprints one of the

00:16:19.840 Detectives or police officers who was fingerprinting him noticed that he had a mangled

00:16:24.640 A right hand at the time there was a very uh celebrated terrific pitcher for the chicago cubs

00:16:32.240 Known as mordecai three finger brown

00:16:36.000 The cop nicknamed his suspect tommy three finger brown lucchese

00:16:43.520 You imagine if he did that now they'd be like oh my god bullying ah 0.99

00:16:47.520 They didn't give a shit back then in the 20s though the cops were like hey three fun good fuck forget about it 0.99

00:16:54.000 Lucchese never liked that name, but he was stuck with it 0.99

00:16:57.840 And for the first time in his life lucchese received a criminal conviction

00:17:03.680 But prison time would do nothing to change lucchese

00:17:06.560 He wanted money and power and was willing to kill anyone to get it

00:17:16.880 In the early 1920s it seemed tommy lucchese could kill anyone in new york's east harlem at any time

00:17:27.200 No one dared to testify against him

00:17:30.560 He got away with everything

00:17:33.200 That is until the police caught him stealing a car and locked him up

00:17:38.880 Until he got arrested for all of that mr lucchese got away with everything 0.99

00:17:43.840 As it turned out that was the last time he was ever in prison for anything

00:17:58.320 Sing sing prison on the hudson river north of new york city was one of the nation's oldest and toughest prisons

00:18:05.840 The state sent some of the worst mobsters up the river to sing sing

00:18:09.760 Tommy fit in just fine

00:18:16.240 13 months later the state and this is sing sing prison right here guys uh famous prison up in new york

00:18:23.120 uh sing sing correctional facility formerly uh

00:18:26.080 all sing sing correctional facility is a maximum security uh prison operated by the new york's

00:18:31.840 state department of corrections and community supervision in the village of

00:18:34.800 us assining new york it is about 30 miles north of new york city on the east bank of the hudson river

00:18:41.440 holds about 1700 inmates and housed uh the execution chamber for the state of new york until the uh

00:18:46.480 abolition of capital punishment in new york in 2004. The name sing sing was derived from the sink uh

00:18:51.840 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

00:18:59.360 uh name uh name was changed to the os uh assining whatever correctional facility but it reverted to

00:19:07.360 its original name in 1985 there are plans to convert the original 1825 cell back into a period uh

00:19:12.880 museum that's crazy wow the prison property is uh

00:19:16.320 uh bisected by the metro north railroads four-track hudson line

00:19:19.920 so yeah i don't know does it still exist here let's see here

00:19:26.000 hmm maybe this is in the beginning like right here like

00:19:29.520 yeah so interesting very interesting yeah i mean anyone from new york that's a criminal has heard

00:19:35.440 of sing sing so

00:19:38.720 paroled lucchese tommy returned to new york the free man

00:19:49.280 back in east harlem the roaring 20s had taken over lucchese's old neighborhood

00:19:54.800 in order to clamp down on booze related crime the u.s government amended the constitution to include

00:20:01.040 prohibition but on the streets of new york locals continued to drink alcohol and crime exploded

00:20:10.000 lucchese saw an opportunity the government made liquor illegal but there was still a big demand for it

00:20:16.400 but tommy worked for joe masseria an ill-tempered boss who had fought his way to the top taking out

00:20:24.320 everyone in his way

00:20:25.360 he had a stranglehold on power in the family and had no interest in working with gangsters that

00:20:32.880 weren't italian tommy's generation called members of the old guard like masseria the mustache pete's

00:20:40.720 masseria wanted to produce low-grade bathtub gin and sell it to the neighborhood drunks 0.89

00:20:48.960 he treated bootlegging like a small-time con it frustrated lucchese and his fellow gangster lucky

00:20:54.880 luciano they and guys keep in mind that he didn't want to work with other people and there are a bunch

00:20:59.280 of other organized crime individuals at this point in new york that they could be making money with you

00:21:03.600 had the jews you had the albanians you had russians etc and lucky luciano wanted to work with all these guys

00:21:08.000 and make more money but masseria had issues because quite frankly it was a racist if you weren't

00:21:13.360 sicilian he had an issue with you he didn't even like other italians a lot of the times he wanted

00:21:16.720 straight sicilians so this created a lot of rift with luciano who was actually very close with who

00:21:22.640 mary lansky and them boys you know who i'm saying um so he was making a lot of money with these guys

00:21:27.840 and they didn't like that and um the other thing too is that prohibition guys created an enormous

00:21:32.720 opportunity for the la costa nostra to make a bunch of money because people wanted booze 1.00

00:21:38.000 so obviously he wasn't taking a business serious he's bootlegging like in the tub

00:21:41.680 they could be making way more money and you know they're looking at it like bro you're in the way

00:21:45.680 of us making money you're you're thinking way too small time there's way too much money to be made

00:21:49.760 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

00:21:57.600 he's playing all this in the in the first episode yes knew it could be so much more 0.96

00:22:04.640 the young generation said this is stupid that's not where the money is people with lots of money 0.98

00:22:12.720 who are accustomed to spending a lot of money on the finest possible whiskey and scotch they could buy 1.00

00:22:18.240 do you think they're gonna drink this rotgut you're producing are you crazy look at your market

00:22:24.320 the real market is downtown in manhattan masseria disagreed with lucchese and luciano he hated their

00:22:35.360 philosophy but couldn't ignore the incredible profits to make their plan work lucchese and luciano

00:22:44.960 convinced masseria to smuggle high quality foreign liquor into the u.s and sell it to the speakeasies

00:22:51.040 everybody drank the general public viewed it as just a silly law and it was not a big deal to break

00:23:00.480 this law as a result liquor was big business and lucchese would work with jews in the city

00:23:06.960 not just italians he would work with any ethnic group he had no prejudice against working with jewish

00:23:14.400 gangsters people like he said look the jews are teaching us certain finer points of organized crime

00:23:21.280 we need them and they need us

00:23:25.840 in the late 1920s masseria declared war on rival mobster salvatore maranzano and this my friends

00:23:33.600 is the beginning of that war that we told you guys about the customary's war each man wanted to control

00:23:39.920 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 1.00

00:24:23.760 maranzano oh double cross man but they looked at it like these guys are bad for business because

00:24:30.160 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 0.99

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 1.00

00:24:55.280 greediness street was that how do you say greed when a person is like greedy yes their greediness yeah 1.00

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

00:25:15.360 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

00:26:08.880 they riddled masseria he was killed instantly 1.00

00:26:13.520 and they put the ace of spades there on him crime scene photos show masseria with the ace of spades

00:26:21.840 in his hand a sign of bad luck in some circles

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

00:26:44.320 lucchese was very intelligent and he snooped around found out what was going on

00:26:48.480 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 0.62

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

00:28:33.280 lucchese or get wiped out

00:28:41.440 in 1931 tommy lucchese and lucky luciano took out their biggest competition in new york

00:28:48.400 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

00:29:22.240 luciano had a new take on crime

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 0.99

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 0.84

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 0.99

00:33:41.040 in of all things the kosher chicken business

00:33:44.240 lucchese discovered a very small

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

00:34:23.120 and only by a select group of certified rabbis

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 0.98

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 0.99

00:37:28.720 chicken he said fuck the customers y'all want kosher chicken y'all want to be religious okay get this 0.99

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 1.00

00:37:42.720 devout jews where else are they gonna get chickens muslims too where you're gonna get your chicken 1.00

00:37:47.760 you know i remember as a kid growing up guys uh remember this vividly um when i lived in brooklyn 0.88

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 1.00

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

00:38:44.400 and he would take it by force

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 0.89

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 0.97

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 0.99

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 0.99

00:41:11.600 when people didn't pay him back

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 0.59

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 1.00

00:47:50.320 lucchese controlled a key part of the assembly line manufacturers paid tommy to keep the factory moving

00:47:57.680 now here's what made it beautiful

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

00:48:29.280 don't like the price carry them yourself

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 1.00

00:50:07.600 a week for walking a beat and they could pay off politicians who were not under the same kind of

00:50:13.280 scrutiny that politicians are today

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

00:50:34.400 aim for himself by controlling businesses

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 0.92

00:52:33.680 pocket the guy could barely run and he ends up winning the freaking thing bro forget about it you 0.82

00:52:40.320 know you you know he was beating up some people to get that freaking thing running people over and all 0.98

00:52:44.560 types of shit man breaking kneecaps making people swim with the fishes mama mia in 1950 a police corruption 0.98

00:52:52.320 scandal forced mayor william o'dwyer to resign impelitari then won a special election and took 0.99

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 0.96

00:53:23.360 he is he said all i know is he's a dress manufacturer the mayor played dumb ah smart 0.87

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 1.00

00:53:43.040 and then they're gonna forget about it you motherfucker 0.99

00:53:50.320 then had the police in his corner tommy paid them to look the other way allowing him to run his 0.99

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 0.92

00:54:10.240 that's how he protected himself could you imagine like ah let's just go after the black people 1.00

00:54:18.640 yeah we're just gonna go after the black people okay don't don't mess with these 1.00

00:54:21.280 italians let's go get uh jerome and jamal and all them oh my god by 1951 lucchese had been 0.99

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 0.83

00:55:05.680 a much talked about man within the mafia and shout out to him for taking over the kosher chicken with 0.83

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

00:56:32.480 citizens if so what are they

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

00:59:50.880 mommy as boss of the operation 1.00

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 0.85

01:00:01.760 the ring but lucchese wasn't in the clear a boxing scandal would soon make national headlines for the

01:00:09.120 once low profile crime boss the fix was in

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 0.90

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

01:08:12.640 finally able to get

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 1.00

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

01:13:50.240 i will catch you guys on the next one

01:13:57.920 i was a special agent with homeless investigations okay guys hsi the cases that i did mostly were

01:14:02.800 themed scenes

01:14:13.680 hsi the case

01:14:14.320 hsi the case

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The Debrief With MyronGainesX - April 28, 2023

Fed Explains How The Lucchese Crime Family Mafia Illegally Made Billions!

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