Valuetainment - Episode 324： Why the Italian Mafia Hated The Godfather Movie

00:00:00.000 30 seconds. One time for the underdog. Ignition sequence start.

00:00:07.000 Let me see you put them up. Reach the sky, touch the stars up above.

00:00:11.140 Cause it's one time for the underdog. One time for the underdog.

00:00:17.280 I'm Patrick Medevi, your host of ITIM, and today I have a special guest,

00:00:20.280 Gianni Russo, who's also known as Carlo Rizzi from The Godfather.

00:00:24.680 He's telling me stories about Marlon Brando.

00:00:27.220 He told stories about Al Pacino, stories about all of these other characters that were in Godfather.

00:00:32.700 And some of the stuff, some of the stuff you listen to in this interview,

00:00:35.420 you're going to say, there's no way in the world I believe this, but you'll be the judge of that.

00:00:39.480 Gianni, thank you, Manuel.

00:00:40.580 Good to have you on, ITIM.

00:00:41.520 No, it was my pleasure.

00:00:42.720 You know, I'm sitting here watching, getting ready to do this, you're obviously together,

00:00:46.280 and I'm telling myself, what you and I just talked about in the last hour, fascinating.

00:00:51.580 Thank you.

00:00:52.040 The amount of stuff you've experienced, it's crazy, it's like a hundred people's lives into one life.

00:00:57.700 Well, I started very young, it's 12, got the loyalty of so many people, and I'm still around, 76.

00:01:05.900 Look how many years I've been doing this.

00:01:07.500 That's unbelievable.

00:01:08.580 But I did interesting things.

00:01:10.400 I was not a person that, I'd get bored if I wasn't changing my occupation every seven years and doing something like that.

00:01:17.380 So, I say, you know, I'm trying to say what angles to go, but I say we start off with Godfather.

00:01:21.800 How about we do that?

00:01:22.760 We do Godfather, I want to go Godfather, and then we go back to upbringing, story, how that was, and then how it led to post-Godfather,

00:01:29.660 but I want to start off with Godfather.

00:01:31.380 So, I've heard a lot of stories about how it happened when you got the role, right?

00:01:36.420 You know, they're looking for different people to play Carlos, and Carlo, and they're thinking about who this guy's going to be,

00:01:41.480 and then somehow, some way, you come out of nowhere, and you start playing that role.

00:01:45.400 So, what is your version of the story, based on what I've heard?

00:01:48.440 I want to hear it from you.

00:01:49.160 Well, that's probably the cleanest version, because what I've heard is craziness.

00:01:52.840 No, I always, my ego, and I still have a tremendous ego, and a drive, and I always wanted to be an actor,

00:02:00.140 and I always heard, you know, your trials and tribulations, you've got to study, you've got to do this,

00:02:04.560 and I figured, how am I going to get in?

00:02:06.840 Then, they came out with the book, and I had someone read it to me, because I can't read it that time.

00:02:12.480 She read it, and then I knew they were having problems with, anti-defamationly, the Colombo family.

00:02:19.060 So, I, at the time, was, I had jewelry stores in Las Vegas, and I was doing, you know, all kinds of things down there.

00:02:25.820 So, I had, I was doing my own commercials.

00:02:28.600 So, I had the camera crew, so I shot a scene for Michael, a scene for Carlo, and a scene for Sonny.

00:02:34.640 You did all those three?

00:02:35.880 I did the three.

00:02:36.840 Got it.

00:02:37.320 And then, I played politics, and I got to meet Betty McCart, who was Al Ruddy's executive secretary.

00:02:46.780 So, her girlfriend got to meet her.

00:02:49.020 I said, I had this test, and I was figuring, everybody in the world must be sending tests.

00:02:54.520 How can I make this exclusive?

00:02:57.240 So, I said, what kind of cause is it like?

00:02:59.020 She said, oh, he loves Bentleys and Rolls Royces.

00:03:01.260 I just happened to have one.

00:03:03.100 I said, what kind of women?

00:03:04.440 She said, it was Chinese women.

00:03:05.600 This is who?

00:03:06.820 This is?

00:03:07.140 This is Betty McCart, Al Ruddy's secretary.

00:03:09.540 And you're asking who and how, what would attract him?

00:03:13.440 Got it.

00:03:14.380 So, I got my 16 millimeter reel of film that I shot, and I got the book cover, and I wrapped

00:03:23.140 it, and I got my Chinese chick.

00:03:25.960 I had to find one.

00:03:26.800 It was easy in Vegas.

00:03:28.120 I went to the Tropicana Hotel, and the line had every girl in the world.

00:03:32.140 I found this little Chinese girl.

00:03:33.480 I paid her $1,000, which was a lot of money, but I had so much cash.

00:03:38.260 I just had to get rid of cash at that time.

00:03:40.840 I said, three days, drive in, rest.

00:03:43.700 I bought her a wet look.

00:03:45.360 This material looked like leather, but it wasn't.

00:03:48.600 Made her a little uniform to match my car.

00:03:51.660 And then I had Betty McCart arrange for me to get a drive on.

00:03:55.640 I didn't want it left at the gate.

00:03:57.040 I said, I want to drive on for her to come in.

00:04:00.560 She said, I'll arrange it.

00:04:01.660 So, we had it all planned.

00:04:03.640 So, and I made her give me blow by blow by blow.

00:04:06.320 I was down the street.

00:04:08.160 And so, she pulls onto the lot, and when she pulls up to Ruddy's building, he was looking

00:04:14.320 at the finish of light, because they already told him, this car is great.

00:04:17.720 Did you see this chick come to your office?

00:04:20.420 He has no clue.

00:04:21.320 No, he didn't even know what he did, but she's delivering.

00:04:24.500 And then she delivers this to him.

00:04:26.560 They talk for a brief minute, and he leaves.

00:04:29.480 Unbeknownst to me, my test was shot on Araflex film, 16 millimeter camera with a mag stripe.

00:04:36.880 That's before tape, before all that stuff.

00:04:39.760 And I bought old film.

00:04:42.920 So, it had a sepia look.

00:04:44.640 The color was destroyed.

00:04:45.740 But unbeknownst to me, Francis Ford Coppola was trying to convince Paramount to shoot the

00:04:51.680 whole movie in a sepia look, antique look.

00:04:54.080 So, it wasn't my test that they liked.

00:04:57.100 They were sending it all around to see that's what it should be.

00:05:00.500 So, now they send me a letter, because I read in the newspaper that they were going to

00:05:04.480 use unknowns.

00:05:05.300 Like, so many people said they were going to, this guy, and it was all false.

00:05:09.940 And they sent me a nice letter saying, sorry, we misled you.

00:05:12.720 Obviously, you went to a lot of expense to make your test.

00:05:16.200 We're using actors.

00:05:18.340 I said, uh-oh.

00:05:19.420 So, now I knew that Columbo was using this book as the footstone to peel everything about

00:05:27.320 Italian-Americans, how they're shown in this country, and he's going to ban this movie.

00:05:31.900 Got it.

00:05:32.360 And he had a big rally.

00:05:33.940 I mean, thousands and thousands of people showed up at Columbo's circle to picket.

00:05:37.320 And he was picking the FBI building.

00:05:39.000 And they called him in.

00:05:40.080 Again, being on the sentence, understand one thing.

00:05:42.720 You're a head of a family.

00:05:44.120 You don't picket the FBI building.

00:05:46.100 They said, you better stop with all this bullshit.

00:05:48.260 Like so many other Dons, as we go through life, as I did, got out of order.

00:05:53.680 So, I, somehow or other, said, how am I going to get their attention?

00:05:58.520 And I didn't have to do any of that.

00:05:59.960 I was planning to do something.

00:06:01.600 Some idiots on the West Coast, Italian-Americans, were going to show Joe their support.

00:06:08.140 They blew up the gates of Melrose, of Paramount.

00:06:11.860 They're 20 feet tall.

00:06:12.720 They blew it up.

00:06:13.340 Blew them up on Sunday morning.

00:06:14.740 They were laying on the streets.

00:06:16.560 So, this is my opportunity.

00:06:18.020 So, I called Betty McCart.

00:06:19.340 I said, Betty, what's happening?

00:06:20.540 She said, it's all over the room.

00:06:21.520 She said, yeah.

00:06:22.240 I said, where's Ruddy?

00:06:24.180 Oh, she said, they're all leaving.

00:06:25.160 They're going to New York.

00:06:26.080 Bobby Evans, Stanley Jaffe, they all flew to New York.

00:06:28.920 They said, we got to stop this.

00:06:30.680 They thought these people were going to kill them.

00:06:32.800 It was an idiot that did that.

00:06:34.880 So, I took the advantage.

00:06:36.100 I got on a red eye.

00:06:37.640 I flew there.

00:06:38.940 And at the Gulf and Western Building, which is Trump now, I'm there, sitting there.

00:06:43.380 And the only reason they knew me, they all saw my test.

00:06:46.100 So, I'm sitting in the bench in the lobby.

00:06:48.560 And Ruddy looks to me.

00:06:49.600 He says, Johnny Russo.

00:06:51.000 I said, yeah.

00:06:51.500 He said, what are you doing here?

00:06:52.220 I said, you've got a problem.

00:06:53.260 I think I can straighten it.

00:06:54.400 He would have no problem.

00:06:55.680 I said, stop bullshit me on.

00:06:56.860 You've got a problem.

00:06:58.440 So, he went upstairs.

00:06:59.540 I don't know if he was going up to call the FBI, call New York.

00:07:02.340 I didn't know what he was going to do.

00:07:03.260 And they come down.

00:07:05.620 About a half hour later, I go up.

00:07:07.600 Everybody's in the room.

00:07:08.780 And they said, what do you know about what's going on here?

00:07:11.100 I said, well, the world knows what's going on here.

00:07:12.980 Italians are not going to make you make this movie.

00:07:14.720 Unless you do the right thing.

00:07:16.600 He said, and what's that?

00:07:18.000 I said, well, I know.

00:07:19.860 And I didn't know.

00:07:21.040 That was bullshit.

00:07:22.240 I said, I know what's bothering them.

00:07:24.680 And I think if we straighten that out, they'll let you make the movie.

00:07:27.940 If without them, you're not going to get the union cooperation.

00:07:30.360 You're not going to get any locations.

00:07:31.580 And this was already, when Francis was doing tests, they had a Cinemobile here.

00:07:37.020 And they were down on Mulberry Street.

00:07:38.740 They went into lunch.

00:07:39.700 They stole the truck.

00:07:40.840 It was like $2,000 worth of camera equipment.

00:07:43.000 They just took it.

00:07:43.820 Wow.

00:07:44.840 To let them know.

00:07:45.640 You don't come to our neighborhood without permission.

00:07:48.100 So, they really knew this is not just bullshit.

00:07:51.440 But the budget, by the way, was what?

00:07:53.380 Like a $5 million he asked for.

00:07:55.920 And he wanted 83 days.

00:07:57.100 They gave him like 50-something days.

00:07:58.420 I know.

00:07:59.060 It was crazy.

00:07:59.660 How are you going to get that done?

00:08:01.160 Well, we did it.

00:08:02.180 Well, then they started.

00:08:03.140 When they started seeing the dailies, what we're getting ahead of us up.

00:08:06.600 So, what happened?

00:08:07.420 So, I now go down the street, because the league had an office on Madison Avenue.

00:08:13.280 And this young attorney, who's still my attorney, Barry Slotnick.

00:08:16.080 He was here, local.

00:08:17.160 Yeah, he's still here.

00:08:17.800 He was a great guy.

00:08:19.220 And he was a really well-known mob attorney as he grew.

00:08:24.920 But this was a young kid at the time.

00:08:26.460 So, I go to the league.

00:08:29.160 And Joe didn't come in yet.

00:08:30.820 So, I go to Brooklyn to see Joe.

00:08:32.520 I said, Joe.

00:08:33.320 Because they were selling a buck a buck.

00:08:35.020 That's how they were raising money.

00:08:36.520 Italian flagging him a buck.

00:08:38.060 So, I see Joe.

00:08:38.780 I said, Joe.

00:08:39.480 This movie, you can make a lot of money.

00:08:41.800 He said, how am I going to make money with this?

00:08:43.640 I said, if you sit with them, I could arrange a meeting.

00:08:47.380 Bring Barry with us.

00:08:49.160 Let him read the book.

00:08:50.700 Whatever you don't like, let him straighten it out.

00:08:53.860 He said, how do I make money?

00:08:55.080 I said, I'm going to arrange.

00:08:56.080 And I didn't ask Paramount about this.

00:08:58.000 I said, I'm going to arrange for you to get the world premiere in every major city the night before it opens.

00:09:03.060 I said, you could sell tickets for $100, $150.

00:09:06.260 You could arrange for that?

00:09:07.260 I said, yeah.

00:09:07.880 I didn't know if I could or not.

00:09:09.980 So, now I go back.

00:09:11.480 He said, I set up the meeting.

00:09:12.940 I said, what's good for you?

00:09:14.040 He said, let's do 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.

00:09:15.620 I said, okay.

00:09:16.180 So, I go up there.

00:09:17.280 And I knew they all knew the book.

00:09:18.740 They all come together.

00:09:20.060 And I said, I arranged a sit-down for you.

00:09:22.740 They said, what?

00:09:23.880 I said, we're going to have a sit-down.

00:09:25.700 We ain't leaving there.

00:09:26.580 I said, no, they can come here tomorrow, 10 o'clock tomorrow.

00:09:29.460 So, I told Joe.

00:09:30.480 I said, bring people with them.

00:09:31.560 So, he brought Butter Rush to Chico with them.

00:09:33.720 He brought a crew.

00:09:34.980 It was like the original cast of The Godfather.

00:09:38.500 They come in.

00:09:39.360 So, now I talk to Joe.

00:09:40.800 I'm down the lobby.

00:09:41.380 I'm going to bring them up to the third, third, fourth.

00:09:43.300 I said, do one thing.

00:09:44.440 If we get the song, I play Michael, Sonny, or Carlo.

00:09:47.640 No problem.

00:09:48.680 So, we go up.

00:09:49.860 They talk back and forth, this, that, and the other.

00:09:52.620 And they brought out certain points that they don't like being referred to as guineas and

00:09:57.300 whops and this.

00:09:58.400 And they don't want to be used.

00:09:59.880 They don't want those names.

00:10:01.380 Were there any one of that going to be used anyways in the script?

00:10:03.720 Oh, yeah.

00:10:04.120 It was supposed to be.

00:10:05.260 And then, what's so funny, though.

00:10:07.400 Interesting.

00:10:07.880 Which is funny.

00:10:08.640 We'll jump ahead.

00:10:09.640 Being that you brought it up.

00:10:11.420 I was the only one that used, clean up, you guinea brat.

00:10:15.400 I shot that scene a week after Columbo got shot.

00:10:19.440 Because how could one be going to say, clean it up?

00:10:21.360 You've got to say what I said.

00:10:22.920 She was a guinea brat.

00:10:24.200 That's what we used to say in the neighborhood.

00:10:25.560 You know, it's like black people call themselves whatever they call themselves.

00:10:29.040 We called ourselves guinea.

00:10:30.260 He didn't want it in the book.

00:10:31.460 So, I used it right away.

00:10:32.360 Everybody went crazy.

00:10:33.180 I said, don't worry, buddy.

00:10:33.960 You just got shot.

00:10:34.780 You ain't going to say nothing.

00:10:37.720 So, now we have this meeting.

00:10:39.740 And they resolve it.

00:10:41.160 They said, we're going to read it.

00:10:42.440 We'll take out what you want.

00:10:43.640 They shake hands and that, so the other.

00:10:46.140 Everything's happening.

00:10:46.960 He's going to get the world premieres.

00:10:48.560 So, they're all getting up.

00:10:49.920 I said, Joe, what about me?

00:10:52.700 You looked around at me.

00:10:53.540 He goes like this.

00:10:54.340 Everybody sat down like he was gone.

00:10:57.460 Everybody sat down.

00:10:58.800 He said, what are we going to do for my boy here?

00:11:00.640 They said, oh, we're going to give a part.

00:11:01.780 I said, no, no, no, no.

00:11:02.680 I said, either I play Michael, Sonny, or Carlo.

00:11:05.600 So, they said, well, this is news to a lot of people in your audience.

00:11:09.800 They said, we already cast Sonny.

00:11:12.120 It's Carmine Caridi.

00:11:13.720 He's in a Broadway play, Man for La Mancha, big guy.

00:11:18.220 And James Conn is playing Michael.

00:11:20.260 I said, who's playing Carlo?

00:11:21.420 They said, no.

00:11:21.940 I said, I'm playing Carlo.

00:11:22.980 They looked at each other.

00:11:24.340 And Joe says, he's playing Carlo.

00:11:26.840 And that was it.

00:11:27.620 So, then they played another game on me.

00:11:29.520 They said, have your agent call?

00:11:31.140 I said, I got no agent.

00:11:32.520 You don't have an agent?

00:11:33.800 No.

00:11:34.480 He says, are you in the union?

00:11:36.240 I said, no.

00:11:37.300 I said, don't worry about it.

00:11:38.460 I did my homework.

00:11:39.620 This is a Taft-Hartley stay.

00:11:41.880 Right to work stay.

00:11:42.720 You give me the letter.

00:11:43.760 I'll go join the union now.

00:11:45.520 They gave me the letter.

00:11:46.340 I ran over there.

00:11:47.600 I played Carlo.

00:11:48.600 It changed my life.

00:11:49.760 Wow.

00:11:50.160 It's 50 years.

00:11:51.780 I mean, now our partners with Bicom.

00:11:53.900 It's unbelievable.

00:11:54.180 It's crazy.

00:11:55.280 So, that's pretty wild to think about that.

00:11:56.560 So, you've never acted before Godfather?

00:11:58.960 No.

00:11:59.560 Never done a movie.

00:12:00.900 Well, I'm a born actor, but I never.

00:12:03.040 But I'm talking like a feature film.

00:12:05.300 Nothing.

00:12:05.800 Nothing.

00:12:06.160 So, you closed and sold yourself into it.

00:12:09.360 Yeah.

00:12:09.800 Now, let me ask you.

00:12:10.580 Let's go prior to that.

00:12:11.480 Because now, I wanted to go to this part, how you got it.

00:12:13.780 And then, we're going to get to the Marlon Brando stories.

00:12:16.640 Let's go prior to that.

00:12:17.500 So, who were you in high school?

00:12:19.460 You and I were in high school.

00:12:20.180 High school?

00:12:20.680 I never went to high school.

00:12:21.660 You never went to high school?

00:12:22.500 When I got out of Bellevue, I hit the streets.

00:12:25.360 I was a gimpy at it.

00:12:26.420 See, what they did.

00:12:27.320 I had an incident.

00:12:29.220 I don't know if we'll get into that now.

00:12:30.740 I had an incident in the hospital.

00:12:32.340 Then, they moved me from the polio ward.

00:12:34.080 Let's talk about that.

00:12:34.940 To the insane war.

00:12:36.200 I went upstairs for 72 hours of observation.

00:12:38.620 But talk about that.

00:12:39.360 Talk about the fact on, you know, you're seven years old.

00:12:42.280 What happened there?

00:12:43.320 Just prior to me going to Bellevue and being quarantined, my mother, I got up.

00:12:49.860 My father's old school Italian.

00:12:51.880 So, I had two older sisters.

00:12:53.520 We're living in a two-bedroom flat down on Mulberry Street.

00:12:56.280 So, my sisters had a room.

00:12:58.480 My mother and father had that room.

00:13:00.160 So, where are they going to put me?

00:13:02.020 They had a utility closet, which they cleaned out.

00:13:05.480 They put a youth mattress on the floor.

00:13:08.240 And why I think I get away with a lot of things, we had a five-gallon kerosene thing that they

00:13:14.700 used to put to fuel the heat in the house.

00:13:16.680 And every five minutes, and the stench of kerosene, I think I'm brain damaged until today.

00:13:23.340 I'm going to use that sometime in a case.

00:13:25.220 So, I was there.

00:13:26.780 And the only way to get out of that bed was on the left side.

00:13:29.700 So, one morning I got up.

00:13:31.480 I couldn't get out.

00:13:32.260 I had no feeling.

00:13:33.840 I'm all outside.

00:13:34.460 How old are you at the time?

00:13:35.280 I was just seven.

00:13:37.100 Seven.

00:13:38.060 And, you know, nothing.

00:13:40.500 So, I called my mother, and my father was still home yet.

00:13:45.040 And he said, oh, no, give him some aspirin.

00:13:46.580 He'll be all right.

00:13:47.420 You know, maybe he's got a cramp.

00:13:48.640 You know, so my mother, being the mother that she was at the time, took me to a clinic down

00:13:52.520 the block.

00:13:53.820 I don't know what they're talking about.

00:13:55.220 You know, like any other kid at that year, I'm paying attention to that.

00:13:58.020 Then the next morning, the bell rings early, and I hear my mother crying.

00:14:02.240 And I thought my mother and father had another fight.

00:14:03.920 They were always fighting.

00:14:04.840 And two ambulance guys are there.

00:14:07.220 And they came for me, because they did the blood work, and I had polio.

00:14:10.640 And everybody was so frightened with polio in America at that time.

00:14:14.840 This was in 1849.

00:14:16.160 People were dying, thousands of people.

00:14:18.460 They thought it was the water.

00:14:19.560 They showed up all the fountains.

00:14:21.400 They had fire hydrants, everything.

00:14:23.100 No swimming pools, because they didn't know how to control it.

00:14:26.120 It was that contagious.

00:14:27.500 Wow.

00:14:28.020 And then I was a part of Jonas Salk's vaccine experiments, and that was a screw-up at first, too.

00:14:34.780 And I was already going to church every day with my grandmother.

00:14:38.180 So, and I'm saying to God, why did you do this to me, God?

00:14:41.680 I mean, I can cry about it now, because they took me out of there.

00:14:44.620 I couldn't believe it, man.

00:14:45.800 And you're seven years old.

00:14:47.320 And they brought a small stretcher upstairs, because we were a little tenement.

00:14:52.380 And they couldn't bring him on the stretcher, thank God.

00:14:54.140 So the guy put his arms underneath my arms and that.

00:14:57.060 I'm trying to hold my mother's hand.

00:14:59.460 They carried me down these steps and put me in an ambulance.

00:15:02.020 So now I go to the hospital, and I'm begging my mother, because she had to sign me in.

00:15:06.880 Please don't leave me.

00:15:08.140 She said, I'm not going to leave you in.

00:15:09.240 I didn't want to say the nurses were callous or not sensitive, but that's what they do.

00:15:13.660 They weren't worried about me.

00:15:14.660 And I'm praying, saying it, saying it, saying it, and my patron, saying it.

00:15:18.280 And after about a half hour paperwork, we went upstairs, and I remember I was on a gurney.

00:15:26.240 They strapped me in.

00:15:27.340 My mother took all my clothes.

00:15:29.040 They put me in a gown.

00:15:30.600 And then my mother was holding my hand, and the nurse said, you have to let his hand go.

00:15:34.900 I said, what do you mean?

00:15:36.140 No, your mother can't go here.

00:15:37.280 And I looked up, and I saw the biggest word in my life, quarantined, across the door.

00:15:44.200 You remember that vividly.

00:15:45.340 Oh, yeah.

00:15:46.540 I didn't know what it said, but I saw this, not like exit or something, like stop, quarantine unit.

00:15:53.900 That was it.

00:15:54.920 I went in there for five years.

00:15:57.300 Five years?

00:15:57.920 Did you see how often you saw mom and dad?

00:15:59.720 Never.

00:16:00.120 What do you mean never?

00:16:00.820 They were not allowed to visit yet.

00:16:02.060 Five years?

00:16:02.840 Five years.

00:16:03.300 Who did you see for five years?

00:16:04.540 Nobody.

00:16:05.300 I saw 20 kids in the ward.

00:16:07.280 You saw nobody for five years?

00:16:08.920 Nobody.

00:16:10.060 No family?

00:16:11.120 No family.

00:16:11.880 First of all, I think it got to be that my father wanted to come anyway, because, you

00:16:15.820 know, he's that kind of guy.

00:16:17.820 But my mother, but I saw even the other kids never had visitors.

00:16:21.840 But for the first three or four months, that was in August, and my birthday's in December.

00:16:26.440 What I'm about to tell you is probably one of the reasons I'm alive today.

00:16:31.520 There's two reasons.

00:16:32.480 One was Dolores Blone.

00:16:34.180 She was the candy striper when she got there.

00:16:36.480 She was Carlo Gambino's niece.

00:16:39.100 And he told her, there's a kid from the neighborhood, make sure you watch him.

00:16:42.980 They were always watching me, and I didn't know it, because of, you know, our relationship

00:16:46.820 in Sicily and all that.

00:16:48.300 Your uncle was connected to the Gambino.

00:16:50.840 Yeah.

00:16:51.160 Oh, no.

00:16:51.940 No, the Gambinos were connected to that.

00:16:53.940 Yeah.

00:16:54.340 Or the other way around.

00:16:55.200 Oh, yeah, the other way around.

00:16:56.400 They sent those guys here.

00:16:57.960 Because the real power is in Sicily.

00:17:00.020 Still is.

00:17:00.480 Still is.

00:17:01.800 Yeah.

00:17:02.180 Love it.

00:17:02.520 So what happened was she would bring me the Jell-O and, you know, the hug at night.

00:17:08.380 But now my birthday was coming December 12th.

00:17:12.040 I figured maybe they'll surprise me.

00:17:13.780 They'll come.

00:17:14.500 Nobody came.

00:17:15.200 I was hysterical.

00:17:16.560 I'm, you know, seven years old.

00:17:18.740 Just turning eight at that December.

00:17:20.980 And I heard on the radio.

00:17:22.960 This is going to sound very bizarre, but this is how my life cycles go.

00:17:26.420 I heard on the radio, WNEW, said, today is Frank Sinatra's birthday, chairman of the board,

00:17:33.840 Hoboken, Italian-American, and little skinny kid.

00:17:37.300 I was skinny, and I related to this guy.

00:17:41.100 I told Sinatra that story at the Copa four or five years later.

00:17:45.980 I was 16, so maybe a little more than that.

00:17:48.640 I told him the story.

00:17:49.420 He started crying.

00:17:50.580 I saw Sinatra cry twice in his life, personally, that day.

00:17:54.720 And I was backstage between shows at Caesar's Palace when his mother's plane was his plane,

00:18:01.160 but it was missing.

00:18:02.360 And she was supposed to be at the second show.

00:18:03.940 The table, the chairs were there.

00:18:05.420 And he's not a religious guy.

00:18:07.820 And at the end of the first show, he said, I'd like you all, if you would, please,

00:18:11.920 whatever your religious beliefs are, pray for my mother.

00:18:15.040 She's supposed to be sitting here.

00:18:16.380 I'm worried, because they didn't want to tell him.

00:18:18.780 The plane hit a mountain, which is ironic, because when he abused Dean Martin later on,

00:18:23.840 Dean's son hit the same mountain.

00:18:26.340 Get out of here.

00:18:27.020 Same mountain.

00:18:27.740 Get out of here.

00:18:28.560 Yeah.

00:18:29.120 Is that weird?

00:18:29.880 No.

00:18:30.260 Wow.

00:18:30.740 Yeah, I was like, pshh.

00:18:32.880 But, and I became close to Frank with that, you know, because of that.

00:18:36.360 From seven to 12, you don't see your parents.

00:18:38.940 Five years.

00:18:39.620 I mean, that's, that's...

00:18:41.860 An eternity.

00:18:42.520 That's an eternity.

00:18:43.600 Five years.

00:18:43.780 I didn't watch How Do You Do That.

00:18:44.900 I didn't do anything anybody else did.

00:18:46.460 If you went to that...

00:18:47.100 You get out, what happens, Tom?

00:18:48.420 When I got out, I went back to the neighborhood, the only thing I knew.

00:18:51.260 You know, the parallels, even with Marilyn, we'll get into it later.

00:18:54.520 That's how her and I connected.

00:18:55.960 She was in an orphanage in the valley, looking at Warner Brothers Studio, and she said, someday

00:19:02.260 I'm going to be there as an actress.

00:19:04.280 And I, when I finally got the bed, the window with the bed, like maybe took two years to

00:19:09.180 get to that window, and I finally saw what Uptown was.

00:19:12.560 I'm on 30th Street, but I'm still looking up.

00:19:14.800 I only saw Little Italy, the neighborhood.

00:19:17.860 That's crazy.

00:19:18.900 And that was my goal.

00:19:20.580 I'm going to be up here.

00:19:21.820 I'm going to do what I'm going to do.

00:19:23.240 I'm going to be Sinatra.

00:19:24.840 Now I had...

00:19:25.440 Sinatra, I mean, how ironic is that?

00:19:27.600 Sinatra was my only singing teacher.

00:19:31.240 And he wound up baptizing my last son, Luciano.

00:19:34.680 Crazy.

00:19:35.180 And you end up singing yourself.

00:19:36.480 You become a singer yourself.

00:19:37.540 You perform for a bunch of events.

00:19:39.100 Oh, my God.

00:19:39.540 You won awards.

00:19:41.200 You know, what awards did you win?

00:19:42.800 You won like six, you said?

00:19:44.560 Oh, not me singing, though.

00:19:46.340 I was producing.

00:19:47.240 Oh, producing, yeah.

00:19:47.980 But singing, I mean.

00:19:49.360 Trump would put parties here.

00:19:50.700 You would ask me to come and perform.

00:19:51.160 Oh, Trump did a big party for me.

00:19:52.640 I mean, yeah, I opened Trump Marina.

00:19:54.840 Let's go back to 12.

00:19:55.680 So did you see your parents post-12?

00:19:58.060 Did you go back and live with your parents?

00:19:59.320 No, no.

00:19:59.860 No, I used to go visit them.

00:20:01.520 I knew I couldn't be there.

00:20:03.120 My father was always abusive.

00:20:04.780 I mean, there was times my father, I could...

00:20:07.640 My father, as a young kid, even before I went to the hospital,

00:20:10.140 told me, when you see me on the street,

00:20:12.120 if I don't acknowledge you, don't say anything to me.

00:20:14.940 Because he was a player.

00:20:15.960 He wanted to pick up girls.

00:20:17.200 He didn't want nobody to know he had three kids.

00:20:19.000 He was a real buffoon.

00:20:20.220 A real jerk.

00:20:21.400 Until he died.

00:20:22.400 That's who he was.

00:20:23.460 And he always abused my mother.

00:20:25.200 But, you know, I...

00:20:26.920 To me, I wasn't bitter at them.

00:20:29.680 I was sad that they didn't have the courage.

00:20:33.620 I mean, you try to take one of my kids.

00:20:35.160 I got a lot of kids.

00:20:35.880 I got 11 kids.

00:20:36.940 Take one of my kids.

00:20:37.880 I'll grab that kid and go to Canada.

00:20:39.480 You know, like so many people did during the draft.

00:20:41.920 You don't take a kid and so...

00:20:44.080 But anyway, look where I am today.

00:20:45.420 Thank God.

00:20:45.840 Yeah, no doubt about it.

00:20:46.960 Sometimes you hear these...

00:20:48.220 You need that.

00:20:48.500 Yeah, that's what I think.

00:20:49.460 I think there's a big part of it where the bigger the pain, the bigger the upside.

00:20:53.660 You could have gone either way, by the way.

00:20:55.360 Oh, I was dead.

00:20:56.460 Yeah.

00:20:56.700 When I was younger.

00:20:57.920 I wanted to become an assassin.

00:20:59.500 I was so bitter.

00:21:00.200 But that's the part because you have an aspect of your life that is linked to the mob, a big part of it, life that's linked to the mob, and then the other side is entertainment.

00:21:09.820 Right.

00:21:09.960 I go to Delancey Street one day, and I see this new invention called ballpoint pens.

00:21:17.520 You don't need ink anymore.

00:21:19.580 And the store was 10 feet wide.

00:21:21.880 So I go in the store, and there's the man there.

00:21:25.240 And I said, you're the owner of the store?

00:21:26.560 He said, yeah.

00:21:27.540 And I introduced myself.

00:21:29.280 And he said, I'm Mr. Rabinowitz.

00:21:31.000 I said, Mr. Rabinowitz, I got something I think you're going to love.

00:21:34.480 I said, what's that?

00:21:35.900 He says, I'm going to become your partner.

00:21:38.760 And he looked at me, and he called his brother.

00:21:41.040 Leo, come here.

00:21:42.320 I want you to meet our new partner.

00:21:43.680 He's playing with a heavy Jewish accent.

00:21:46.220 And I said, no, I'm serious.

00:21:47.380 He said, so how are you going to be my partner?

00:21:50.140 Tell me.

00:21:50.680 Tell me.

00:21:51.500 I said, you're selling ballpoint pens.

00:21:53.800 He said, yeah.

00:21:54.920 I said, well, I'm going to expand your business.

00:21:57.100 He said, how are you going to do that?

00:21:58.320 I said, you're here.

00:21:59.060 You got 10 feet, 200 feet wide.

00:22:01.920 I said, you should be selling spaghetti, not ballpoint pens.

00:22:04.740 So he said, very funny.

00:22:06.460 He said, how are you going to do this?

00:22:07.800 I said, you're going to give me 50 pens.

00:22:09.700 Give.

00:22:10.060 I give nobody nothing.

00:22:11.360 Give.

00:22:11.720 How are you giving?

00:22:12.620 I said, listen to me, please.

00:22:14.660 I'll take.

00:22:15.520 Take?

00:22:15.940 You ain't taking.

00:22:16.760 I said, all right.

00:22:18.060 I'll leave here with 50 pens.

00:22:20.440 Tomorrow morning you come.

00:22:21.880 If 20 are missing, I pay you for them.

00:22:23.840 Give me the 50 again.

00:22:24.860 I'll do that every day.

00:22:25.840 He said, how do I know you'll come back?

00:22:27.480 I said, my grandfather told me, look a man in the eye, give him your word, and shake his hand.

00:22:32.640 That's it.

00:22:33.520 That's all you need in life.

00:22:34.740 He said, grandfather's a smart man.

00:22:36.320 He gave me the pens.

00:22:37.320 Then I asked, because I was seeing one.

00:22:39.260 I didn't have went to office space.

00:22:41.220 And I saw they got paid paychecks.

00:22:43.780 I walked to the bank, and they're filling envelopes.

00:22:46.200 Old man Pinto was full on a neighborhood.

00:22:48.420 I knew he was at Marine Medal and Bank.

00:22:50.740 So I go in.

00:22:51.400 I said, when is the payday here?

00:22:53.020 He said, we have to stagger them, because they're paying in cash.

00:22:55.260 I said, would you give me the list of when you're paying who?

00:22:59.160 He said, why, you want to rob them?

00:23:00.200 I said, no.

00:23:00.840 I said, I have an idea, because I wanted to go.

00:23:04.680 Once you got your envelope, let me show up 15 minutes later.

00:23:08.240 You had all this change.

00:23:10.360 Yeah.

00:23:11.200 So it got to be, months went by, that I'd walk into these places.

00:23:15.360 I knew their schedule.

00:23:16.180 Every day I was somewhere else.

00:23:17.640 But then it got to be, they just opened the drawer.

00:23:19.900 They had typewriter, small boy, Ben said, you didn't want no more.

00:23:23.360 So I come out.

00:23:24.440 I was disappointed.

00:23:26.400 And, you know, all the train stations are still the same.

00:23:29.560 So I'm on Broadway and Canal.

00:23:31.460 And I see N and R, and it says Uptown.

00:23:34.960 I always wanted to go Uptown from the hospital.

00:23:37.260 I said, I'll go it up.

00:23:38.480 So I got off of 59th Street and Fifth Avenue, and I made that my stop.

00:23:42.600 I stood outside of the Sherry Nellin's Hotel.

00:23:45.140 Van Cleef and Arpel, I had this gimp on that I was starting to pull it into my shirt,

00:23:49.340 because it was growing too fast.

00:23:51.240 My little cigar box, but I didn't take the typewriter races.

00:23:53.940 Just these little jewel pens that were coming out.

00:23:56.940 Everybody would come by, give me a dollar.

00:24:00.380 You know, and I saw, to me as a kid, I looked at everybody and I said,

00:24:04.500 every day is Sunday here.

00:24:06.300 Because I used to talk to the doorman.

00:24:07.880 I said, what do you mean?

00:24:08.680 I said, everybody has their Sunday best on, because they all dress to the nines.

00:24:12.760 My neighbor, nobody dressed, maybe Sunday to go to church.

00:24:15.980 That's how I met Costello.

00:24:17.200 He started walking down, he used to cross town every day.

00:24:20.140 He lived on the west side.

00:24:21.420 That's how you got connected.

00:24:22.260 And he walked down 59th Street, come to Fifth Avenue, go into the Sherry Nellins, get a shine,

00:24:28.640 come back out.

00:24:29.740 That's how I got to see him.

00:24:30.820 And then he touched my shoulder, says, kid, what are you doing here?

00:24:34.220 I said, I'm selling pens.

00:24:35.660 He looked at pens, open a cigar box, and he'd throw a dollar in, $5, never take a pen.

00:24:40.340 This went on for a couple of months.

00:24:42.300 Then one day, maybe he had more time, he always had somebody or two guys with him.

00:24:46.140 And he says to me, what's your name?

00:24:48.100 I told him my name.

00:24:49.200 He says, you're Italian.

00:24:50.180 I said, yeah.

00:24:50.740 He's Russo.

00:24:51.600 I said, yeah.

00:24:52.120 He says, who's Angelo Russo to you?

00:24:54.820 I said, Angelo Russo's my uncle.

00:24:56.300 He's Angelo Russo's your uncle.

00:24:57.860 I said, yeah, why?

00:24:59.460 He says, when's the last time you saw him?

00:25:01.020 I said, I never saw him.

00:25:02.420 I said, they hung him in London in 1948.

00:25:04.800 And he looked at Blackie.

00:25:05.960 Now he knew the guy's name now.

00:25:07.460 He says, this guy's telling the truth.

00:25:09.180 I said, I don't lie.

00:25:10.420 I said, I take offense to that.

00:25:12.540 And he looked at me.

00:25:13.920 He says, you know where the Waldorf clock is?

00:25:16.800 I said, yeah, everybody knows where it is.

00:25:18.520 In the lobby of the Waldorf on Park Avenue.

00:25:21.440 He's being there tomorrow at 11 o'clock.

00:25:23.460 I said, okay.

00:25:24.200 And he said, Blackie, take that cigar box home.

00:25:26.120 You'll never do this again.

00:25:27.340 I don't want to see you begging on the street.

00:25:29.000 Gave me two $100 bills.

00:25:30.640 I was with that man until 1973, until he died.

00:25:34.440 And I couldn't go to his funeral because they had a warrant on for my arrest.

00:25:37.240 So I went to the school across the street.

00:25:39.440 He was buried up on 86th Street in Park Avenue.

00:25:43.020 Campbell's a big, everybody gets buried out of there.

00:25:45.500 But I had to show my respect.

00:25:47.200 And then I called his wife that night.

00:25:49.340 And I described what she said.

00:25:50.600 Where were you?

00:25:51.600 And then she said, I shouldn't even ask you that because she knew they were looking for me.

00:25:55.180 I said, I just want to let you know you look gorgeous today.

00:25:58.320 And my respects, I've been praying for him.

00:26:00.660 And that was it.

00:26:02.420 But that's how long I was with this guy.

00:26:04.340 What did you learn in that period?

00:26:05.960 Oh my God.

00:26:06.520 I mean, you met every single mob boss in the U.S., right?

00:26:09.820 All of them.

00:26:10.360 Well, not only that.

00:26:11.240 At the time, unbeknownst to me, I was a kid.

00:26:13.120 I was just a messenger.

00:26:14.820 And, you know, he'd give me envelopes, go here, go there.

00:26:17.160 First, I stayed in the city for about two or three years.

00:26:19.600 I used to go to this apartment.

00:26:22.260 There was 24 phone writers here.

00:26:24.900 Blackboards, that accounting room here.

00:26:27.060 And then I'd pick up here at the end of the day.

00:26:29.460 Then I'd make all my stops.

00:26:31.220 Sherry Netherlands Hotel, the Plaza Hotel, all the hotels, all the barbershops is where they took the numbers and the horse beds.

00:26:38.700 I would take them, and I'd take them to the Wyndham Hotel on 58th Street.

00:26:42.960 And every day, I'd go there and take the elevator top floor, go there.

00:26:46.580 And they had people out there, and I'd go in.

00:26:48.900 I mean, it was like a bank.

00:26:49.880 Everybody had visors.

00:26:50.840 It was counting money.

00:26:51.460 It was doing this.

00:26:52.080 So I thought I was being cute.

00:26:53.280 Then he'd go to dinner every night, and if he needed me, this was before cell phones.

00:26:58.160 They knew how to get in touch with me.

00:27:00.200 And I'd come back, and I'd do errands for him at night.

00:27:03.340 He went to dinner every night home, Mr. Costello.

00:27:05.900 This guy, thank God it was him and not some crazy, like John Gotti or somebody.

00:27:10.940 This guy was a gentleman of a gentleman.

00:27:13.000 He would never know he was in the mall.

00:27:15.620 That's why when Vito J. Davies came out, and he wanted his family back, Frank couldn't be happier to give it to him.

00:27:21.760 Because Myelansky and the Alpha in Chicago, all over the world, put the syndicate together.

00:27:28.360 And that's what became now, it's the power.

00:27:31.460 That's why in Godfather 2, when Hyman Roth, who was Myelansky in the movie, he said,

00:27:38.220 we're going to be bigger than U.S. Steel.

00:27:39.980 And they were.

00:27:40.680 They were doing 10 million a week.

00:27:43.740 I mean, it was insane, the money he had.

00:27:46.380 And the buildings, I mean, the buildings that he owned, he owned 11 Wall Street.

00:27:51.180 I mean, him and Joe Kennedy during Prohibition, they said they made 50 million each.

00:27:56.860 Wow.

00:27:57.620 That's a lot.

00:27:58.540 Wow.

00:27:59.340 But how I met all the people, you're saying, the Waldorf Astoria, after the Appalachian Crime

00:28:04.940 Committee, that whole raid, they never did that again.

00:28:08.120 So they had their lawyers say, where can we meet?

00:28:10.940 We got to meet.

00:28:11.720 They all took hotel rooms in that hotel.

00:28:15.460 I was visiting.

00:28:16.400 I casually bumped into you.

00:28:17.700 Every mob family, I met every guy, and I was always the kid.

00:28:21.520 Always clean.

00:28:22.660 Then he gave me money.

00:28:23.580 He was going to clean up that outfit.

00:28:24.920 I said, whatever you want me to do.

00:28:26.120 He'd give me like $300, go buy clothes.

00:28:29.080 I'd buy enough and give him $200 back.

00:28:30.880 I don't know if he was testing me.

00:28:32.200 I never abused him.

00:28:33.600 I was with him all along.

00:28:35.280 Then, he said, in 1959, he said, why don't you start going to Vegas for me?

00:28:40.780 He said, okay, whatever you want me to do.

00:28:42.420 I always went by TWA.

00:28:44.060 I didn't know they had Howard Hughes.

00:28:46.520 Howard Hughes owned TWA.

00:28:49.460 That's another complete different angle.

00:28:52.780 Oh, my God.

00:28:53.980 So you were around them all the time?

00:28:56.120 You were around them all the time?

00:28:57.260 All the time.

00:28:57.900 All the time.

00:28:58.620 Only as a kid.

00:28:59.360 People would say, what's that name?

00:29:00.700 It's the kid.

00:29:01.320 Don't worry, you don't have to know his name.

00:29:02.580 Well, you never actually went in and joined a mob.

00:29:08.160 No.

00:29:08.400 Never, never.

00:29:09.660 They, out of Sicily, told him, hands off that kid.

00:29:13.340 A lot of people, you know, I got so close to the people in Chicago.

00:29:16.980 Tony Ocardo, I love Tony Ocardo.

00:29:18.400 He made a lot of business there.

00:29:20.700 And I'm still friends around.

00:29:21.840 I'm going to Chicago all the time now.

00:29:23.340 Did you ever hear of a guy called Frank Nitti?

00:29:25.260 No.

00:29:25.720 He was with Capone.

00:29:27.420 Frank Nitti.

00:29:27.840 He was a big legend.

00:29:28.980 Well, you were too young.

00:29:30.500 His son, Nick Nitti, and I were partners for years.

00:29:34.060 We were doing a lot of laundering of money through the Vatican, which hundreds of money,

00:29:38.600 and you can't even believe how much money.

00:29:40.120 Now his son, John Nitti, is with me now.

00:29:43.120 His son.

00:29:44.080 We're so crazy.

00:29:45.280 We're three generations of Nittis.

00:29:47.120 But in my book, there's pictures, nobody has.

00:29:50.440 There's pictures of Tony Ocardo, Nick Nitti, and I at the Trivia Fountain before we're going

00:29:55.240 to the Vatican.

00:29:55.680 Nobody has these pictures.

00:29:57.340 That's what's so insane.

00:29:58.700 Because you say, oh, this is so far-fetched.

00:30:01.280 And then there's a photograph.

00:30:02.700 And then there's, oh, there's a photograph.

00:30:04.760 How do you get these photographs?

00:30:05.940 Are you crazy?

00:30:06.580 And that's before everybody has a camera on their phone now.

00:30:09.720 I've been blessed.

00:30:10.840 I mean, it's so crazy.

00:30:12.240 There's a lot of stories about me, people I killed and all that.

00:30:15.940 But it's always self-defense.

00:30:17.420 So how did you get connected with Marilyn Monroe?

00:30:19.300 Where did that connection take place?

00:30:20.680 Oh, that's funny.

00:30:21.720 As the years were progressing, I was like 15, and I got caught a couple of times on the

00:30:25.740 street doing my collections.

00:30:28.120 And a tourn officer came up to me.

00:30:30.560 It was like May of that year.

00:30:34.180 And he says, come over here.

00:30:35.500 I said, yes, sir.

00:30:37.000 He said, why are you in school?

00:30:38.060 I said, school?

00:30:38.520 I don't go to school.

00:30:39.680 I had maybe like 10 grand in my pocket for clicking everything.

00:30:43.220 And I was saying to myself, this guy clicks his money.

00:30:45.800 How am I going to tell Frank?

00:30:47.360 So I'm being very polite.

00:30:48.640 He said, well, you've got to go to school.

00:30:50.120 I said, okay.

00:30:50.860 So he's writing me a ticket.

00:30:53.500 He said, what's your mother and father's name?

00:30:54.560 I gave him the name, gave him the address, one, two, one, all by receipt.

00:30:57.960 You give this to your parents.

00:30:59.540 If they don't turn this in within the next 10 days, we're going to come after you.

00:31:03.760 We'll put you in juvie.

00:31:05.160 I said, juvie?

00:31:05.760 What's juvie?

00:31:07.180 Juvenile home.

00:31:07.840 I said, okay.

00:31:09.000 So now I'm going to Tuchos.

00:31:10.540 I drop the money off to win them, and I go to Tuchos, that's where I go.

00:31:13.680 Because they let me in.

00:31:15.840 Joe DiMaggio's at the bar.

00:31:18.100 Everybody's there.

00:31:18.840 Jackie Gleason.

00:31:19.920 Jackie Gleason used to film at CBS Studio right now.

00:31:24.080 We have this guy at Colbert's show.

00:31:26.680 Steve Colbert.

00:31:27.540 Everybody's been there.

00:31:28.520 I used to go over there.

00:31:29.720 Everybody knew me.

00:31:31.180 So I used to see Gleason all the time, and he was fun.

00:31:34.100 I mean, I had fun with all these guys.

00:31:35.300 Sinatra.

00:31:35.740 They used to drink martinis like 2 o'clock in the afternoon all day.

00:31:38.700 So I go there, and here comes Costello.

00:31:42.740 He says, how's everything?

00:31:43.320 You look a little down.

00:31:44.300 I said, well, the guy gave me a ticket.

00:31:46.420 He looked at the ticket.

00:31:47.260 He started laughing.

00:31:48.620 He says, they gave you a ticket?

00:31:51.040 He says, you're making more money than them.

00:31:52.800 I said, I know.

00:31:53.680 He said, let me straighten it out.

00:31:54.960 I said, you're going to straighten it out?

00:31:55.920 I said, yeah.

00:31:56.300 I knew it, as he said.

00:31:58.040 So the next day, when I go to meet him all the time, he says, man, I just enrolled you

00:32:01.820 in the school.

00:32:03.080 I said, I don't want to go to school.

00:32:04.660 He said, don't worry about it.

00:32:05.540 You're going to go to Wilford Academy, it's on top of Lindy's, right on Broadway, between

00:32:10.380 52nd and 53rd Street.

00:32:12.760 You should go there and just check in.

00:32:14.260 He said, don't worry, it's all coming.

00:32:16.000 So I go there, check in.

00:32:17.940 I had to meet at 8 o'clock in the morning.

00:32:20.180 I didn't have to start anything with him until the afternoon.

00:32:22.260 So the girl shows me, and what I liked about it was, oh, fucking Broads.

00:32:26.660 So I said, wait a minute.

00:32:27.920 So I got my little schmock, you know, my thing, and they'd teach me how to scrub hair

00:32:33.180 and all that.

00:32:33.680 I didn't give a shit about any of that.

00:32:35.100 All these Broads.

00:32:36.600 I said, this is like a candy store for me to get.

00:32:39.800 And I had all the money in the world.

00:32:41.720 I'm making dates, because I can go to the Copa anytime I want.

00:32:44.380 I just tell them, you know, calm.

00:32:46.340 I took everything.

00:32:47.260 They couldn't even drink that.

00:32:48.140 They had soda.

00:32:49.100 They gave me booze.

00:32:50.140 They didn't care.

00:32:51.140 But I was dating these people, thinking about the Copa, seeing Sinatra.

00:32:54.200 I had it made.

00:32:55.740 And then I got close to the lady.

00:32:58.020 She said, you know, you don't have to come here every day.

00:33:00.380 I said, well, I'll just come for a couple hours.

00:33:02.140 I'm going to take it.

00:33:03.880 And I did that.

00:33:05.820 And then Mark Sinclair, who was a colorist for L'Oreal, one of those big companies,

00:33:11.460 and Kenneth.

00:33:12.540 And Kenneth, you may know the name now, became Jackie O's hairdresser.

00:33:17.780 And she opened a shop called Kenneth's in New York.

00:33:20.060 But they were working at Lily Dash Shea on 56th Street and Park Avenue, which every

00:33:25.940 society brought in the world.

00:33:27.820 So they came up.

00:33:28.760 They were looking for shampoo boys.

00:33:30.320 And me, I'm a clean freak.

00:33:31.580 Like Paul would tell you, before I got here, I'm hiding in my shirt.

00:33:34.400 My uniforms, I do in my own shirt.

00:33:36.920 Nobody touches my clothes.

00:33:37.960 So I'm always starched.

00:33:39.560 So as soon as these two idiots came in, they saw me, and they figured, oh, this guy, this

00:33:43.500 is a piece of candy.

00:33:44.640 And they said, you'll come with us.

00:33:46.380 I said, whatever they say.

00:33:47.460 And the good news is why I wanted to go, because the last hundred hours would count.

00:33:53.340 I could work and get paid and tips.

00:33:55.380 And the last hundred hours goes to me graduating.

00:33:58.340 They didn't know I didn't want to graduate.

00:34:00.480 As soon as I was December 12th came, I'm 16.

00:34:04.400 See you later with this stupid hair and doing all that.

00:34:06.640 As it would be, the fourth-hander, hair on the shampoo, you'd stand at attention to the

00:34:11.900 stairs.

00:34:13.000 She was a haberdasher.

00:34:14.620 One of the most famous Lily Dashers.

00:34:16.520 The second floor was the salon.

00:34:18.360 So I'd stand there.

00:34:19.300 Then they'd call me.

00:34:20.120 They'd give me a card.

00:34:21.260 Say, go to room four.

00:34:23.240 Never give you a lady's name.

00:34:24.600 What she learned to rinse.

00:34:25.740 They taught you, even there, procedure and all that.

00:34:29.100 I go into the shampoo basin.

00:34:31.960 It's a little room, private.

00:34:34.180 It's Marilyn Monroe.

00:34:35.160 Now, I just finished watching Marilyn Monroe at the New York Paramount.

00:34:40.040 Because when it was cold at night and I wasn't at the bakery, I'd go to the movie theaters.

00:34:44.140 They were open 24 hours a day.

00:34:45.520 And I had everybody who knew me, they'd give me free popcorn.

00:34:48.480 I'm watching Marilyn Monroe and some like it hot.

00:34:52.000 I must have masturbated 15 times.

00:34:54.100 I just said, oh, damn it.

00:34:58.900 We all wore those.

00:35:00.040 Why not?

00:35:01.300 She was on the cover of the first Playboy magazine.

00:35:03.900 I know.

00:35:04.420 She was amazing.

00:35:06.780 So now, that's Marilyn Monroe.

00:35:09.460 I pulled the drape.

00:35:11.020 I don't know how long I was looking at her.

00:35:13.180 But she said, is there someone in here?

00:35:14.800 I said, excuse me, please.

00:35:15.900 And then I had to go through the procedures, you know, about touching the water on her wrist.

00:35:21.660 Is that the right temperature?

00:35:23.000 And she's laying there like spread eagle with her head and showed her in the head.

00:35:27.320 You know, we all know.

00:35:28.480 And she had this smock on.

00:35:30.100 But her legs were all right.

00:35:31.020 I'm saying to myself, I can't believe this.

00:35:33.360 So now, I start massaging her hair.

00:35:35.840 And she's moaning.

00:35:36.940 And she's moaning.

00:35:37.640 Now, my mind's going crazy.

00:35:39.040 I gave her an erection.

00:35:40.160 I must be poking her in the ear.

00:35:42.020 Because she's there.

00:35:43.020 My three-piece set's on her shoulder.

00:35:44.520 Then she started requesting me.

00:35:48.000 Then, like, Christmas comes.

00:35:51.520 Costello says to me this weekend, don't make any plans.

00:35:54.000 I said, why?

00:35:54.680 He said, we're going to put Marilyn Monroe in the world off.

00:35:57.740 You know who she is?

00:35:58.460 I said, yeah.

00:35:59.900 Yeah, I know who she is.

00:36:01.540 I was downstairs with him.

00:36:03.100 I'm in the building.

00:36:04.880 They hid her out here for a year.

00:36:06.180 I don't know if you know that.

00:36:07.260 Marilyn Monroe came here for one year in New York when she was having problems with Daryl Zanuck and all this.

00:36:12.160 Everybody was abusing her.

00:36:14.100 So she came here, and they loved her.

00:36:15.900 And I went there.

00:36:17.820 Like, he told me to go.

00:36:19.240 I was there.

00:36:20.180 I brought my, how stupid I was, I brought my little shampoo kit.

00:36:23.080 I thought I was going to wash her hair.

00:36:25.900 So I'm there.

00:36:26.800 She comes out with this robe on.

00:36:28.960 I mean, she was gorgeous.

00:36:29.880 I mean, in today's world, she'd be voluptuous.

00:36:33.280 So we're talking.

00:36:34.980 I'm waiting for her to say when we're going to wash her hair because I saw a robe on it.

00:36:38.460 I thought she was going to, you know, she's going out.

00:36:40.040 And I didn't know what I was supposed to do.

00:36:41.160 He just said they were the, but I didn't know she wasn't going nowhere.

00:36:44.640 So then she ordered room service.

00:36:45.960 I never knew what room service was.

00:36:47.580 I'm in this room.

00:36:47.960 How old are you at this time?

00:36:49.040 I'm 16.

00:36:49.980 You are 16 years old.

00:36:51.580 16 years old.

00:36:54.120 16.

00:36:54.980 Just 16, actually.

00:36:56.380 This was maybe like January.

00:36:57.620 I mean, your blood is sponsored by Cialis at that time.

00:37:00.700 You're like, you bleed, you know, Viagra.

00:37:03.500 But that's what got this lady crazy.

00:37:05.960 Because now, she said, you like champagne?

00:37:09.720 I said, I've never had champagne.

00:37:11.480 They gave me little drinks, 7 and 7, at the Copa when I was, you know.

00:37:16.940 But now she's got room service.

00:37:19.500 And I'm here I am.

00:37:20.640 I'm sitting there.

00:37:21.400 I'm sitting there.

00:37:21.720 I said, my friends can already see me.

00:37:24.160 Look at this.

00:37:24.600 I got a mile on the road in this room.

00:37:26.080 She said, let's go take a bath.

00:37:27.960 I said, you want me to take a bath?

00:37:30.260 She says, yeah, come on.

00:37:32.360 So she gets to the draw and she just drops her a rope and walks like another 10 feet, gets

00:37:38.700 in the tub.

00:37:39.400 She's got the bottle of champagne, two glasses for her.

00:37:41.520 So I go, yeah.

00:37:42.780 I couldn't get my pants down.

00:37:44.000 My dick was so big.

00:37:45.900 I was like, how am I going to get on all this thing?

00:37:48.560 And she saw my erection.

00:37:50.240 She said like, duh.

00:37:51.900 And I go like an idiot.

00:37:53.640 I sit at the end of the tub.

00:37:54.940 I wasn't going to take anything for granted, but there was no way to hide it.

00:37:57.860 I had nothing to hide it with.

00:37:58.820 So I'm sitting in the tub, talking about everything in the world.

00:38:01.860 I didn't want to insult the lady.

00:38:03.360 And she starts playing with me.

00:38:04.900 And we're drinking champagne.

00:38:06.520 Wrong story short, I left Monday morning to go see him downstairs.

00:38:11.460 And he's looking at me.

00:38:12.540 He says, you didn't want to ask.

00:38:14.120 He's such a gentleman.

00:38:15.340 He said, you've been here all this while.

00:38:16.280 I said, you told me to stay.

00:38:18.040 We could have went home and slept.

00:38:21.300 That was the weekend.

00:38:22.340 That's the weekend I met her.

00:38:23.700 That may be the weekend of 99.9% of 16-year-old boys in the world.

00:38:29.780 You know, that's like a fantasy, right?

00:38:31.240 I couldn't even tell anybody.

00:38:33.120 The only person I ever told about that, and it came out later.

00:38:36.640 I have too much respect for women to begin with.

00:38:38.600 Spin forward.

00:38:40.620 I'm with Marlon Brando.

00:38:41.660 And we're talking.

00:38:42.660 We have every night now, him and I.

00:38:44.120 He loves me.

00:38:45.180 He didn't stay where we all stayed.

00:38:46.720 I had this apartment.

00:38:47.700 I stood at the Park Lane because I wanted the glamour of coming out every morning with paparazzi.

00:38:52.320 I was staying there.

00:38:53.060 I had a bigger room here than over there.

00:38:54.900 But I wanted to be there.

00:38:56.040 So I used to go to the Ilazai Hotel.

00:38:58.700 That's where he was staying.

00:38:59.800 He liked the Monkey Bar.

00:39:00.960 It's still there.

00:39:01.540 And we'd stay all night long.

00:39:03.000 This guy is nuts.

00:39:04.080 Because we had call.

00:39:04.700 You never.

00:39:05.380 We did from call times, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, whatever.

00:39:08.200 And we're talking about Marlon Monroe.

00:39:09.680 Him and Marlon had a big affair.

00:39:11.800 I don't know.

00:39:12.140 But she had an affair with everybody.

00:39:13.060 But especially when she was going to Stella Adley here, a great thespian teacher.

00:39:18.080 But he says to me, too bad you were never at Marlon Monroe.

00:39:21.660 And I looked at him.

00:39:22.540 He said, what was that look?

00:39:24.540 I said, I don't know.

00:39:26.240 He said, you were at Marlon?

00:39:27.980 I said, yeah.

00:39:29.660 I mean, me and you're talking about it.

00:39:30.900 I'll talk to you about it.

00:39:31.900 I was with him.

00:39:33.300 He says, I think you're lying.

00:39:35.720 I said, okay.

00:39:36.280 He says, tell me something that nobody would know about Marlon.

00:39:40.780 I said, okay.

00:39:41.760 Over her right leg, right in this cleavage, she has a scar.

00:39:47.240 He says, you fuck, you were with him.

00:39:51.280 Him and I bonded over that.

00:39:53.120 He's so crazy.

00:39:53.900 But I was told to go to Cal Neva three or four years later.

00:39:58.260 They commissioned Marlon to go there.

00:40:00.780 And I don't know what's going on.

00:40:02.720 I found out later, syndicate, everybody, obviously, John F. Kennedy.

00:40:07.060 I was hanging out with Senator John F. Kennedy for years when he came to the Sands Hotel.

00:40:10.920 I watched him do lines of cocaine off of Juliette Prowse's stomach.

00:40:14.600 He never saw a lady with a shaved pussy.

00:40:17.320 That was his big thing.

00:40:18.720 And Juliette Prowse, Ava Gardner, every night they were in that pool.

00:40:23.140 I mean, Ava Gardner did everybody.

00:40:25.240 Guys, girls, monkeys, anything.

00:40:27.220 She didn't give a shit.

00:40:28.200 She was nuts.

00:40:29.160 So I was just, I was allowed to be anywhere I wanted to be.

00:40:31.940 That was Jack and Trotter's building.

00:40:34.440 They built this on the property of Sands Hotel.

00:40:37.340 He had his own swimming pool, you know, walls around him.

00:40:40.180 How was he?

00:40:40.740 How was Jack?

00:40:42.360 Jack was a great guy.

00:40:43.480 I met him here earlier.

00:40:45.040 Then they shipped him down to Vegas when they opened the Coper Room.

00:40:47.800 And that's when Jules Baudel ran this for a while.

00:40:52.080 But Carmine always ran that.

00:40:53.480 But Jack was a great guy.

00:40:55.000 Great guy.

00:40:55.500 Easy going.

00:40:56.260 Easy.

00:40:56.680 Bond.

00:40:57.020 Oh, no.

00:40:57.580 Party guy.

00:40:58.560 And see, again, I wasn't realizing what they were doing.

00:41:02.760 That time they were equalizing the syndicate with Jews.

00:41:06.440 They'd want to put Italians in those deals.

00:41:08.660 See, and again, I don't know.

00:41:10.340 I never segregated myself of being a gangster because I'm Italian.

00:41:14.220 But they were that smart.

00:41:15.780 That's why Costello called himself Costello.

00:41:19.020 He wanted to be Irish.

00:41:20.380 He never used his name.

00:41:22.080 Because when he took over Tammany Hall, nice Irish guy.

00:41:25.760 You didn't know what he was, a big guy.

00:41:27.860 But, you know.

00:41:29.000 But that's what they were doing, man.

00:41:30.820 Interesting.

00:41:31.460 They had more Jewish beards, we'd call them, to run stuff.

00:41:36.140 And that was Meyer.

00:41:37.080 Meyer was a genius.

00:41:38.200 Meyer and Moe Daly.

00:41:39.140 Did you ever hear of Moe Daly?

00:41:39.860 No, but I did sit down with Oscar Goodman.

00:41:43.900 Oh, I love Oscar.

00:41:44.520 And you know, Oscar, you know, he has stories and a half.

00:41:49.060 Oscar controlled the mob.

00:41:50.780 He had Tony Spalatro.

00:41:52.060 Tony Spalatro, yeah.

00:41:53.320 Oscar Goodman, right to this day, okay?

00:41:56.700 You tell Oscar, you talk to me.

00:41:59.760 Oscar just hired me for April 16th to the mob museum about my book.

00:42:04.580 It's the 50th anniversary of The Godfather, real book.

00:42:07.140 I'm going there.

00:42:08.060 I love Oscar.

00:42:09.440 Oscar and I go way back.

00:42:10.500 He's another entertaining guy.

00:42:11.980 Oh, my God.

00:42:13.600 And a character.

00:42:14.860 I shot two movies in Vegas.

00:42:16.220 He had to be in each one.

00:42:16.940 He played the mayor of Vegas when I had Ed McMahon.

00:42:22.480 Ed McMahon was the governor in my movie.

00:42:25.340 And he played himself.

00:42:27.600 I love him.

00:42:28.240 He was in Casino.

00:42:28.960 He was in Casino as the attorney.

00:42:30.300 Oh, yeah, of course.

00:42:31.060 And he was.

00:42:32.000 He was Tony.

00:42:32.660 Yeah.

00:42:32.800 But I was saying with Oscar Goodman is he had a lot of things to say about Lansky and

00:42:37.760 the influence he had in Vegas.

00:42:39.720 Oh, my God.

00:42:40.280 And what he did.

00:42:41.040 Through Moe.

00:42:41.740 Oh, yeah.

00:42:42.260 Moe Daly was his man.

00:42:43.680 That's exactly it.

00:42:45.480 The amount of influence he had to create Vegas into what it is, and they went through Bugsy.

00:42:50.740 Because a lot of people think it's Bugsy.

00:42:52.280 It's Lansky who had the influence.

00:42:53.940 He used Bugsy as the front man.

00:42:56.220 Yeah.

00:42:56.720 And why Bugsy got not.

00:42:58.280 I mean, I know the guy that shot Bugsy.

00:43:00.300 They were at Beverly Hills.

00:43:01.220 Marksman shot him through the window, right through the eye.

00:43:03.560 That's where they got that thing in The Godfather.

00:43:05.860 The Moe Daly.

00:43:06.780 I mean, Moe Green.

00:43:08.180 Mm-hmm.

00:43:08.620 That was Bugsy.

00:43:09.520 They were supposed to.

00:43:10.500 They, $3 million went south on all that construction.

00:43:14.640 And everybody wanted to know why.

00:43:16.360 And then when he opened, he opened to a flop.

00:43:18.420 You know that.

00:43:19.240 They made no money.

00:43:20.020 But the foresight that they had.

00:43:23.140 See, you're talking to the wrong guy about Vegas.

00:43:24.880 I know everything about Vegas.

00:43:26.260 You had a club there for seven years.

00:43:27.460 Oh, yeah, man.

00:43:28.060 I'm long before that.

00:43:29.300 Frank Costello and Joe Kennedy owned the Tropicana Hotel.

00:43:32.860 I had the biggest nightclub in that way before my club called Tiffany's.

00:43:38.000 I had Elvis Presley open it for me.

00:43:40.080 Elvis Presley and Sammy Davis Jr.

00:43:42.720 Get out of here.

00:43:43.020 Opened my club, Tiffany's, in the Tropicana Hotel.

00:43:45.500 What year was that?

00:43:46.700 Jesus.

00:43:47.760 I don't even know.

00:43:48.980 Like, 1600.

00:43:49.920 How was Elvis?

00:43:51.260 I love Elvis.

00:43:51.940 Elvis is nuts, though.

00:43:53.020 What's his book?

00:43:53.520 How different was he than everybody else?

00:43:55.360 Was he unique in his own way?

00:43:56.900 Well, he was just unique because of who he was.

00:43:58.960 I mean, this guy was statuette.

00:44:00.960 I mean, I've seen him.

00:44:03.100 I had the privilege of seeing him.

00:44:04.420 Because my friends, Alex Shufi and all of them, and, you know, Kirk Kerkorian.

00:44:09.120 Of course.

00:44:09.540 When Kirk opened the hotel, yeah, but long before the MGM, he opened the International.

00:44:14.220 Opening week, 4th July weekend.

00:44:16.840 First two weeks, Barbara Streisand.

00:44:18.540 Second two weeks, Elvis Presley.

00:44:20.320 It's two shows a night.

00:44:21.420 No, Kirk and I were like this.

00:44:23.600 Speaking of money, I made with him.

00:44:25.400 He had the only showroom that sat 1,500 people.

00:44:28.000 Everybody's like, you're nuts.

00:44:29.640 The Sands Hotel, 400 people.

00:44:31.440 1,500 with a balcony.

00:44:32.960 What happened with your falling out with Sinatra?

00:44:35.580 You had a, so when you were about to do Godfather, he called you, right?

00:44:39.340 He had a phone call.

00:44:40.260 What was that all about?

00:44:41.500 Oh, he was nuts.

00:44:42.500 I mean, I did so many things with this guy.

00:44:44.480 I could tell you stories about him forever.

00:44:46.300 But he calls me up.

00:44:47.180 Dorothy calls me.

00:44:47.940 He says, the old man wants to talk to you.

00:44:49.540 So I get on the phone.

00:44:50.860 He says, I hear you got cast in the Godfather.

00:44:52.660 I says, yeah.

00:44:53.140 He says to me, you're a friend of mine, right?

00:44:54.700 I said, of course, Frank.

00:44:55.740 He says, I don't want you to do the movie.

00:44:57.380 I said, what?

00:44:58.020 He said, I really don't want you to do the movie.

00:44:59.900 You can't do it, okay?

00:45:00.920 And I just spontaneity.

00:45:02.440 I said, okay, and I hung up.

00:45:04.280 I'm saying to myself, is he fucking nuts?

00:45:06.500 So I waited a couple of days, and I played the game on him.

00:45:10.000 I called Dorothy.

00:45:10.700 He says, can I talk to you?

00:45:11.820 I mean, he got on the phone.

00:45:13.100 He started the conversation.

00:45:14.460 I'm so happy you're turning that movie down.

00:45:16.940 I said, can I ask you one question?

00:45:18.220 You're a friend of mine, right?

00:45:19.120 I threw his dialogue right back at him.

00:45:21.260 He says, yeah.

00:45:21.860 I said, can I ask you a question?

00:45:23.080 If I asked you not to do Here to Eternity, would you have done it?

00:45:25.980 And he hung up on me, because he knew where I was going.

00:45:28.000 Fuck you.

00:45:29.340 He talked to me for three years.

00:45:30.480 Who cares for you?

00:45:31.480 He tried to, one time, because he gets stupid, you know.

00:45:34.240 He's a bad drunk.

00:45:34.800 Do you have a temper?

00:45:35.460 Bad drunk temper.

00:45:36.600 Oh, okay.

00:45:37.300 So he's one of those kind of guys.

00:45:38.600 Hold me back.

00:45:39.240 Hold me back, and there's nobody holding him, and he's going to get his ass kicked.

00:45:42.080 I'm in the Galleria bar one night, and he's drunk.

00:45:45.140 It's like three o'clock in the morning, and he told me something, and I didn't pay attention

00:45:49.400 to him.

00:45:49.900 I mean, I don't have to pay attention to nobody.

00:45:52.860 I respect everybody, but don't call me, hey, kid, you.

00:45:56.740 I ain't a fucking cab.

00:45:57.920 So I go, and he says, you know, when I tell you to come here, I said, excuse me.

00:46:02.440 I said, you can't talk to me that way.

00:46:03.640 And he looks at Jilly.

00:46:04.660 I put Jilly in a grave in two minutes.

00:46:06.360 So he raises his hand like he's going to smack me.

00:46:08.540 I grabbed his little skinny arm.

00:46:10.460 I said, let me tell you something.

00:46:11.340 This is a warning.

00:46:12.420 Next time you raise your hand, I'm going to rip off your arm and shove up your ass.

00:46:16.480 And he looked at Jilly.

00:46:17.420 He says, Frank, because you can't, I mean, I'm an honorable person.

00:46:20.900 I'm not a tough guy.

00:46:22.320 Don't treat me like I'm some bar rag, because you're Frank Sinatra.

00:46:25.580 I will none of you.

00:46:26.200 That's one thing I would never let anybody know.

00:46:28.560 And that's why I got in some trouble sometimes.

00:46:31.320 But I had enough people to take care of things.

00:46:33.820 Well, you had to follow up with him again afterwards.

00:46:35.760 I had a lot of them.

00:46:36.740 What happened with him and Marilyn Monroe?

00:46:39.480 There's something about him and Marilyn Monroe.

00:46:42.120 Oh, my God.

00:46:42.440 That was in Caldiva.

00:46:43.760 Yeah, when he had him and you were kind of a, you know, the whole story was about to come out.

00:46:48.260 Marilyn was going to come out and talk about the Kennedys.

00:46:50.460 Oh, yeah.

00:46:50.840 What happened there?

00:46:51.940 What happened there was that Kennedys never kept their end of the bargain.

00:46:55.780 When Joe Kennedy went to Frank Costello and he said, I want my son to become president.

00:47:00.400 I need your help.

00:47:01.280 So they all got together.

00:47:03.520 Corky Civella with the Teamsters out of Kansas City.

00:47:06.620 Every month, I was traveling all over the place.

00:47:08.460 I'm not loving it.

00:47:09.240 I bring this message, that message, this message.

00:47:12.620 And obviously, primary is coming.

00:47:15.480 They still realize they don't have enough votes.

00:47:17.760 They had all the culinary vote, all the international law showmen.

00:47:20.760 With the Anastasias, Marcellus, and New Orleans.

00:47:23.220 You name every union.

00:47:24.500 Brotherhood, Teamsters, everybody.

00:47:26.520 And the thing was, he becomes president.

00:47:29.120 We're going to invade Cuba and give you all your casinos back.

00:47:32.360 It was a win-win.

00:47:33.880 And everybody went for it.

00:47:36.200 So now the guy becomes president.

00:47:37.840 John's mistake was he made his brother, Robert, attorney general.

00:47:41.580 Robert hated his father, his brothers, for what he stood for.

00:47:45.140 Robert was the baby.

00:47:46.540 He was mama's boy.

00:47:48.060 Joe Kennedy, I could tell you stories about Joe Kennedy.

00:47:50.140 You would not believe.

00:47:51.240 All those boys had to have a blowjob in the house when they were 16.

00:47:55.900 He'd bring people in and give them blowjobs.

00:47:57.440 Make them men.

00:47:58.020 You've got to be a man.

00:47:58.820 This guy was crazy.

00:47:59.920 I heard some stories about him.

00:48:01.520 Oh, it was crazy.

00:48:02.140 I mean, he...

00:48:03.080 And nobody knew him better than Costello.

00:48:06.060 Because they were partners during Prohibition.

00:48:08.080 So they were partners.

00:48:09.540 So what happens, he makes him attorney general.

00:48:11.880 No invasion of Cuba.

00:48:13.000 He said, there's no missiles there, none of this.

00:48:15.360 So they're waiting.

00:48:16.480 They got nothing.

00:48:17.660 Then I'm at Marcello's house in New Orleans.

00:48:21.100 Because they were family things.

00:48:22.520 I go like...

00:48:22.960 One thing about me, you invite me, I show up.

00:48:25.620 See, we're going to have this big barbecue.

00:48:26.900 I go.

00:48:27.540 And here come...

00:48:28.100 They raid his backyard.

00:48:29.540 All U.S. Marshals.

00:48:30.760 With Bobby Kennedy.

00:48:31.880 And they were arresting him.

00:48:32.740 They deport him.

00:48:33.560 And he told him right then and there.

00:48:34.880 He says, you're dead.

00:48:36.020 He says, oh, now you're threatening a U.S. Marshal.

00:48:37.960 He says, I ain't threatening you.

00:48:39.260 I'm killing you.

00:48:40.240 You're dead.

00:48:40.780 Just like that.

00:48:41.620 They took him out in handcuffs.

00:48:42.760 In front of his grandchildren and everybody.

00:48:44.500 That's what got him crazy.

00:48:45.460 He wasn't gone a week.

00:48:46.800 Then I was on another trip to Hollywood.

00:48:49.560 So then what happened with Monroe?

00:48:51.140 Monroe was commissioned to go to Cal Neva.

00:48:54.600 Okay.

00:48:55.020 And so was Joe Kennedy.

00:48:57.160 Bobby and John.

00:48:58.320 Because they weren't getting what they wanted.

00:49:00.500 So they were going to set up Marilyn Monroe.

00:49:02.960 With Bobby and John.

00:49:04.760 One more time.

00:49:06.020 Because they all love fucking her.

00:49:07.340 And they were going to film it like they did with Jay Hoover.

00:49:09.640 They had Jay Hoover in their pocket for years.

00:49:11.600 Well, no doubt.

00:49:12.120 Because he was a cross-rassist.

00:49:13.140 Of course, yeah.

00:49:13.540 They set up the party.

00:49:14.460 Yep.

00:49:14.940 So they were going to do the same thing now.

00:49:16.360 They had Marilyn.

00:49:17.360 The thing I didn't like.

00:49:18.560 And I was with Frank.

00:49:19.620 I had pictures.

00:49:20.640 That pictures around that pool.

00:49:22.400 With Sinatra laying there.

00:49:24.140 Another singer.

00:49:25.260 He was just up there playing.

00:49:27.220 But Sam Giancana was there.

00:49:28.980 Everybody was there.

00:49:29.820 And they were doing it.

00:49:30.580 Sam's crazy.

00:49:31.460 I love Sam.

00:49:32.080 But they had her so strung out, man.

00:49:34.160 She didn't know where she was.

00:49:35.380 Because she hated.

00:49:36.220 She was so in love with John.

00:49:37.660 John said he became president.

00:49:39.000 He was going to leave Jackie and marry her.

00:49:40.820 Are you crazy?

00:49:41.700 Then she fell in with Bobby.

00:49:45.300 So they thought.

00:49:46.260 And they had the room all rigged.

00:49:47.360 Not with the sophistication we have today.

00:49:49.440 But they had it.

00:49:50.540 John don't show.

00:49:51.480 Doesn't show.

00:49:52.340 He had business.

00:49:53.100 Couldn't come.

00:49:54.040 So at least they said, let's get Bobby.

00:49:55.660 Because he's the one busting balls.

00:49:57.360 Let's get Bobby.

00:49:58.260 Bobby and her have a conversation.

00:50:01.140 Unbeknownst to everybody.

00:50:02.820 She says, fuck you.

00:50:03.900 I'm going.

00:50:04.500 Your brother.

00:50:05.280 You and him.

00:50:05.840 I'm going to public.

00:50:07.480 They didn't know that she said that.

00:50:09.460 She calls Joe DiMaggio.

00:50:11.400 In San Francisco.

00:50:13.080 Joe, come and get me.

00:50:13.980 I got to get out of here.

00:50:15.340 Because she's a little fucked up.

00:50:16.980 Joe makes the mistake and calls Sinatra.

00:50:19.280 I said, what's going on there, Frank?

00:50:21.220 Just mind your business.

00:50:22.420 Don't come here and you're hung up.

00:50:23.960 If Joe.

00:50:24.300 Are they married at that time?

00:50:25.540 They were divorced.

00:50:26.420 They were divorced.

00:50:27.640 But if Joe came.

00:50:29.520 Who knows?

00:50:30.140 She may still be alive.

00:50:31.340 Or maybe she's a woman.

00:50:32.880 No.

00:50:33.500 He didn't come.

00:50:34.560 Bobby leaves.

00:50:35.300 Everybody leaves.

00:50:36.000 She leaves in a huff.

00:50:37.480 Two days later, she was dead.

00:50:38.700 Two days later.

00:50:39.280 No overdose.

00:50:40.200 She died of oxygen.

00:50:41.460 That's why I laugh.

00:50:42.440 They're going to exhume her body.

00:50:44.040 I mean, I know so many people.

00:50:46.540 I know the guy who does it.

00:50:48.180 They have a guy.

00:50:49.700 And he has her opium organ.

00:50:51.200 And she had pubic care.

00:50:52.380 So they kept pumping oxygen.

00:50:54.360 Threw her opium organ.

00:50:55.280 So she, that's it.

00:50:56.180 Had an aneurysm.

00:50:57.420 Wow.

00:50:58.120 Then they threw all this girl.

00:50:59.280 I mean, she had enough bills in her anyway.

00:51:00.900 How certain are you of this story?

00:51:02.140 Like how?

00:51:02.840 I'll bet on all my kids.

00:51:05.420 Are you crazy?

00:51:06.480 You bet on all your kids.

00:51:06.880 I would never say that.

00:51:08.680 I know what, I knew who they sent in.

00:51:11.640 This guy worked for everybody.

00:51:12.980 This guy worked for everybody.

00:51:14.500 The government, this.

00:51:15.600 He was a doctor.

00:51:16.220 He was a trained doctor.

00:51:18.080 Now, they used him a couple of times.

00:51:19.700 Is the name public?

00:51:20.620 No.

00:51:21.280 He is so respected with everybody.

00:51:23.300 Everybody used him.

00:51:24.820 CIA used him.

00:51:25.820 Mob used him.

00:51:26.780 How about Great Britain used him once?

00:51:29.420 Khrushchev used him.

00:51:30.580 All in the world.

00:51:31.200 Oh, yeah.

00:51:32.080 He was the master.

00:51:33.640 Lives in Switzerland.

00:51:34.560 So post that event, did you and Frank still have a relationship?

00:51:37.700 Oh, yeah.

00:51:38.320 At the end.

00:51:38.760 Oh, yeah.

00:51:39.160 We come back.

00:51:39.860 He always, where's he going to go?

00:51:41.080 He knows he's wrong.

00:51:42.660 He thinks he's Caesar.

00:51:44.320 The funniest story, I'll tell you, that the last time I saw him was right down the block.

00:51:50.900 Jimmy Weston involved John Gotti.

00:51:52.740 He's at Radio City Music Hall.

00:51:54.300 He's calling the world of John is, or some of his people.

00:51:57.860 He wanted 10 tickets from Sinatra.

00:51:59.860 John can get any tickets he wants in New York.

00:52:01.640 He didn't need Sinatra.

00:52:02.440 He's just busted.

00:52:03.600 Nobody's calling him.

00:52:04.440 We're in Jimmy Weston's.

00:52:05.520 I really didn't want to go.

00:52:06.660 Because, I mean, I like those guys, but I'm not that guy that goes, has dinner with them.

00:52:11.780 There's certain people I'll go with.

00:52:13.340 But, John was out of control already.

00:52:15.020 He didn't like me.

00:52:16.080 So, I said, Joe, Joe, I don't want to go.

00:52:18.460 Joe was trying to make amends all the time with me and him.

00:52:20.700 I didn't want to be bothered with him.

00:52:22.140 So, now, we're sitting at the front.

00:52:24.000 There was a little COVID.

00:52:25.480 The old Jimmy Weston to go down the steps.

00:52:27.160 There was a little sofa.

00:52:28.240 So, we're sitting here.

00:52:29.060 John liked to sit there.

00:52:29.940 So, you can look at the bar and the broads and all that.

00:52:31.740 This dumb, stupid waiter comes from behind.

00:52:34.400 John, you're not going to believe who's in the back.

00:52:36.100 Frank Sinatra and Don Rickles with their wives.

00:52:38.240 And, I could see John's whole demeanor change.

00:52:41.360 And, he's whispering to Joe Watts in his ear.

00:52:43.840 Next thing you know, the waiter comes with two bottles of Cristal from Sinatra to John,

00:52:50.160 which is the biggest insult in the world.

00:52:51.920 And, that's all John drank, you know, when he was out.

00:52:54.960 Why is it the biggest insult?

00:52:56.180 Because, you won't answer my calls.

00:52:58.000 Now, you want to buy me booze?

00:52:59.080 I don't need your booze.

00:53:00.180 So, he says to Joe, take those two bottles and go shove them up his ass.

00:53:05.800 Now, you could tell Joe.

00:53:07.480 Joe's very loyal.

00:53:09.300 So, Joe picked the bottles, dried them off, and walked back there.

00:53:13.680 And, I slide down to my seat.

00:53:15.480 I said, oh, no, man.

00:53:16.680 So, now picture this table.

00:53:19.000 Sinatra, Barbara Marks, Don Rickles, and his wife.

00:53:22.660 So, as we hear the story later, Joe goes back to it with two bottles, puts them on the table.

00:53:27.560 He says, what's that about?

00:53:28.560 He says, get up.

00:53:29.560 Come on.

00:53:30.080 He says, where are my kids?

00:53:31.040 I said, Sinatra.

00:53:31.800 And, he looks at Jilly.

00:53:32.740 Joe, without looking at Jilly, like where you're sitting, with the bottle.

00:53:36.580 Cracks him, guys down, full bottle of Cristal.

00:53:39.060 You get, and Joe, it's 200-something pounds.

00:53:41.780 Done.

00:53:42.060 Don Rickles pisses and shits his pants.

00:53:46.840 Like, you, everybody, you're going to be serious.

00:53:49.760 Even Joe, it's like, the odor, the stench, it's ridiculous.

00:53:54.360 So, he goes back, and people are running out.

00:53:57.380 Because, first of all, they see what's going on.

00:53:59.600 Everybody's running out.

00:54:00.460 So, John's sitting there like, Joe's doing that.

00:54:03.340 And, then you smell all of that.

00:54:05.240 You couldn't do it.

00:54:06.020 Everybody ran.

00:54:06.820 I mean, Don Rickles, everyone, you hear about that.

00:54:09.400 But, he literally did it right then and there.

00:54:13.260 I mean, Joe's a scary guy.

00:54:14.820 Did you ever see Joe?

00:54:15.540 No.

00:54:15.900 Look him up.

00:54:16.620 No.

00:54:16.920 Joe and I were together since we were 14.

00:54:18.860 I had a, I had a, was he just as tough at 14 as he, you know, later on?

00:54:23.000 He got worse.

00:54:24.260 I, I feel bad.

00:54:25.500 Because, he always saw me, and I know him.

00:54:27.840 And, he said, I want to get into what you're doing.

00:54:29.620 I said, he can't, I'm not doing anything, believe me.

00:54:32.380 He's, well, and then Matty the Horse owned all the nightclubs up here.

00:54:37.080 The Peppermint Lounge and all that.

00:54:38.500 And, he knew he was being robbed.

00:54:40.360 So, in a conversation, there was a conversation, because envelopes had to go out to people.

00:54:44.420 You didn't have those clubs.

00:54:45.840 And, they say, what's, we're a little light here.

00:54:48.320 Well, I don't know what's going on.

00:54:49.900 So, he wanted a non-Italian.

00:54:52.040 Because, he figured, if you knew Italians, they're going to know who the guy is.

00:54:55.160 So, Joe Watts was fresh.

00:54:56.820 Joe the German, but big.

00:54:58.160 So, he put him on the door.

00:54:59.360 And, in a week, two weekends, three weekends, Joe knew everybody that was robbing him.

00:55:03.780 So, Matty, you know Matty the Horse, don't you?

00:55:06.840 Mm-mm.

00:55:07.400 Matty the Horse is Matty Agnelli.

00:55:08.980 He owned Humberto's, when Joe Gallo got killed on his 40th birthday.

00:55:12.860 That's Matty.

00:55:13.500 Matty the Horse.

00:55:14.240 Got it.

00:55:14.340 Major guy.

00:55:14.900 Okay.

00:55:15.280 Owned a lot of clubs.

00:55:16.460 I mean, very mobbed up.

00:55:18.180 He says, you sure about this?

00:55:19.380 He says, I'm so sure.

00:55:20.460 I want you to call your doorman staff to a meeting in Humberto's.

00:55:25.440 So, he figured, this guy got him.

00:55:27.580 He's going to tell us.

00:55:28.520 So, he gets there.

00:55:29.660 He says, you know, gentlemen, we're all having problems with money missing.

00:55:32.620 And, I don't want to point a finger at anybody.

00:55:34.560 You know Joe the German.

00:55:35.500 And, they're all looking like, what's he doing here?

00:55:37.120 He says, Joe gave me an accounting.

00:55:38.740 And, he says, he has the answers.

00:55:40.400 And, now, they're all wiggling.

00:55:41.340 And, it was his nephew who led this group of skimming the money from his own uncle.

00:55:47.060 Matty says to Joe, do you see the guy here?

00:55:50.160 He says, yeah, it's him right there.

00:55:51.380 It was his nephew.

00:55:52.500 And, then, he made the mistake of calling Joe a liar.

00:55:56.220 He says, what did you just say?

00:55:57.720 You're a liar.

00:55:59.240 He says, you're dead.

00:56:00.740 Matty, can I kill him?

00:56:03.120 He goes, Joe will kill you right there.

00:56:04.660 He's done it.

00:56:06.160 You don't play with Joe.

00:56:07.720 He says, you can never call me.

00:56:09.080 I'm an honorable guy.

00:56:10.220 And, this kid, like, he was waiting for his uncle and said, you can't kill him.

00:56:15.320 His uncle said, you're going to learn the hard way.

00:56:18.620 They didn't kill him, though.

00:56:19.660 But, he was banned from the family forever.

00:56:22.520 Wow.

00:56:23.300 That's when it was.

00:56:24.460 What year is it?

00:56:25.120 70s, 80s?

00:56:25.580 Oh, my God.

00:56:26.220 Yeah.

00:56:26.700 70s, 80s.

00:56:27.300 Yeah.

00:56:27.800 So, let's go listen.

00:56:28.580 70s, actually.

00:56:29.500 Every one of these.

00:56:30.320 I mean, you acted in a movie.

00:56:32.080 You were in a movie that, the greatest movie of all time, many call it.

00:56:36.140 Right?

00:56:36.280 I mean, it's just crazy what happened with this.

00:56:38.300 That's my life.

00:56:39.340 How do I walk out of Pablo Escobar's torture chamber after three days?

00:56:43.640 I'm here.

00:56:44.360 Yeah, well, Dad.

00:56:45.180 How do I go see Saddam Hussein?

00:56:47.340 How do I, I mean, how do I flee from your country?

00:56:50.060 How do I leave your country with hundreds of millions of dollars?

00:56:52.500 Johnny, if half of these stories are true, they're crazy.

00:56:55.280 I told you earlier, 10% of these stories are true.

00:56:57.600 Well, the funniest thing, they're all true.

00:56:59.220 That's the funniest thing.

00:56:59.760 I'm just telling you.

00:57:00.680 I mean, if somebody's listening to this saying, come on, John, you cannot tell me these are

00:57:04.360 true.

00:57:05.160 But if, I'm telling you, 50% are true.

00:57:07.520 This is crazy.

00:57:08.400 Yeah.

00:57:08.660 With all the experiences you had.

00:57:10.240 But what happened with Marlon Brando?

00:57:11.580 You take the part.

00:57:12.700 You go.

00:57:13.900 He finds out you're playing Carlo.

00:57:16.280 Then what happened?

00:57:17.300 Apparently, you only made a conversation because it was Francis Ford Coppola's idea.

00:57:21.580 We went up to Patches, 119th Street.

00:57:23.740 He took the back room.

00:57:25.520 I mean, nobody's in the back room during the day because that's where they have the Zinginette

00:57:28.500 games at night after midnight.

00:57:29.980 So the whole cast is sitting around the table.

00:57:32.520 I've never, they said, we're going to have a cold reading.

00:57:35.300 I thought they were going to turn the air conditioning on.

00:57:36.800 I don't know what they were doing.

00:57:37.800 And I never read a script before.

00:57:39.220 First time I saw the script, I copied my lines from the book and I made these scenes.

00:57:43.240 Now I have an actual script.

00:57:44.360 I'm on a call sheet.

00:57:45.660 I see I'm really an actor.

00:57:48.300 And I go with my Chinese chick chauffeur.

00:57:51.040 I got a Brioni suit on and I'm waiting to see all these actors.

00:57:54.220 Sterling Hayden comes with his hair all messed up.

00:57:57.020 I mean, even Diane Keaton.

00:57:58.920 She had like combat boots on.

00:58:00.540 Everybody was scuzzy.

00:58:01.900 Nobody was dressed.

00:58:03.200 You know, I remember the great actors, Fred Astaire.

00:58:06.220 The way he looked.

00:58:07.280 Cary Grant, Aubrey Bogart.

00:58:08.940 These people look like my gardener dressed better than them.

00:58:11.280 So now we're all sitting around the table.

00:58:12.860 And Francis says, you know, I want you all to introduce yourselves.

00:58:16.360 We know who you are.

00:58:18.020 But let's just break that.

00:58:19.780 We're a family now.

00:58:20.820 And I want the Italians to exaggerate their mannerisms.

00:58:23.900 To teach the non-Atalians.

00:58:25.360 Like James Conner's Jewish.

00:58:27.320 Marlon Brando's Polish.

00:58:28.680 And we had all kinds of food.

00:58:30.020 And now everybody just read the script.

00:58:31.880 Just read it.

00:58:32.640 When it got to you about it, read your line.

00:58:34.140 So we got out.

00:58:35.120 Marlon Brando.

00:58:35.500 No acting.

00:58:36.240 It's just read your line.

00:58:37.140 No acting.

00:58:37.260 No, yeah.

00:58:37.740 Just to get familiar.

00:58:39.160 Yeah.

00:58:39.320 So Marlon Brando.

00:58:41.360 Then we all started laughing.

00:58:42.440 He was going to say, hi, I'm Marlon Brando.

00:58:44.120 But we didn't have to say nothing.

00:58:45.260 He got up and he sat down.

00:58:46.680 Then Pacino got up on Mal Pacino playing Michael and went around the whole table.

00:58:49.960 Came to me.

00:58:50.620 I said, I'm Johnny Russo playing Carlo.

00:58:52.300 And I'm dressed like their lawyer.

00:58:54.280 We go around.

00:58:55.080 We do the first read-through.

00:58:56.320 We have a break.

00:58:57.040 On the call sheet, it says in big letters, do not approach Mr. Brando.

00:59:02.520 So nobody went near him.

00:59:03.420 Let me ask you, at that time, he's God in Hollywood.

00:59:06.200 Marlon Brando's God at that time.

00:59:07.840 Oh my God.

00:59:08.460 As an actor, Marlon.

00:59:09.300 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:59:09.760 That's what I'm saying.

00:59:10.480 Yeah, I mean, on the waterfront.

00:59:11.880 Some call him the greatest of all time.

00:59:13.560 That's what they call him.

00:59:14.100 For like a 30-year-old.

00:59:14.940 Yeah.

00:59:15.260 Yeah.

00:59:15.520 Don't talk to him.

00:59:17.120 That's what it said.

00:59:17.840 Yeah.

00:59:18.220 Because he's that nuts.

00:59:19.640 I know everybody there because I go there.

00:59:21.740 So I'm at the bar talking this and the other.

00:59:24.260 I come back in and he comes over to me, Marlon Brando.

00:59:27.060 And I'm sitting there.

00:59:27.620 Why is this guy coming over to me?

00:59:29.900 He says to me, you're a big TV actor.

00:59:32.260 I said, no, I was like 26 at the time.

00:59:35.040 You got a big movie coming out.

00:59:36.380 I said, no.

00:59:37.220 He said, you're not on Broadway,

00:59:38.100 I know everybody on Broadway.

00:59:40.060 He said, who'd you study with?

00:59:41.500 I said, study what?

00:59:42.500 Witness he calls Francis over.

00:59:44.320 He says, Francis.

00:59:46.100 Francis Ford Coppola.

00:59:47.760 He says, do you understand who this guy is?

00:59:51.500 He said, I can't even tell you who he is.

00:59:53.420 He thought I was talking about, you know,

00:59:55.060 cause he knew I can't fire me.

00:59:57.240 You're the director, do anything else you want.

00:59:59.760 This kid, he's embedded for the reasons

01:00:03.000 I told you earlier.

01:00:03.840 That's right.

01:00:04.680 And I never broke down a script

01:00:05.840 of what my meaning is, my part, like people do.

01:00:09.640 He did it for me.

01:00:10.560 He marries my daughter.

01:00:11.920 He undermines my oldest son, Sonny, for the Barzinis.

01:00:14.920 He gets him killed at the Tollboots.

01:00:16.760 My son, Michael, tries to avenge his death.

01:00:19.400 He has to leave this country.

01:00:20.940 My whole family is destroyed by this guy.

01:00:23.660 You better get another actor, just like that.

01:00:26.320 I'm saying to myself, wait a minute.

01:00:28.820 I just had a big party.

01:00:30.440 I told everybody I was in this movie

01:00:32.200 and everybody was saying the same thing he's saying.

01:00:34.420 How are you gonna be in this movie?

01:00:35.480 You crazy, you're not an actor.

01:00:36.560 Get out of here.

01:00:37.340 Johnny, this is Edison, get out of here.

01:00:39.640 I said, I'm telling you I'm in the movie.

01:00:40.920 I had a big party.

01:00:41.740 I did, I had a party on 50, 60 patches.

01:00:44.000 So now I said, you know what?

01:00:45.820 If I'm gonna get fired, I'm gonna make my move.

01:00:48.440 So I don't know protocol that I can't dismiss the director,

01:00:51.960 even in the rehearsal.

01:00:53.180 He's the director.

01:00:54.680 So I said, Francis, go over there a minute, all right?

01:00:58.200 And he went.

01:00:58.980 Now the whole room is saying like, who the F is this kid?

01:01:02.500 Then I did the next sacrilege.

01:01:04.180 I put my arm on Marendo.

01:01:06.240 I said, come over here with me.

01:01:07.520 And I walked him to the back,

01:01:09.060 because I didn't want to embarrass the guy.

01:01:10.680 So as soon as we get out of earshot, I had my arm on him.

01:01:14.340 I said, let me just tell you something.

01:01:16.380 You fucked this up for me.

01:01:17.900 You hear what I'm telling you?

01:01:19.100 I will suck on your heart, right here.

01:01:21.440 Who the hell are you to destroy my opportunity?

01:01:23.720 Because you're Marendo?

01:01:25.220 He stepped back.

01:01:26.240 I didn't know what he was gonna do.

01:01:27.420 He said, that was brilliant.

01:01:28.580 He thought I was acting.

01:01:32.600 He came out of the room.

01:01:34.160 He told Francis, this kid's good actor.

01:01:37.160 This kid's a good actor.

01:01:41.000 I didn't even take him out.

01:01:42.020 Classic story, man.

01:01:43.980 And then from there, it started the relationship.

01:01:45.440 That was it.

01:01:46.280 He was with me every day.

01:01:47.120 I couldn't get rid of him.

01:01:48.180 Every day.

01:01:49.020 Because then he said, now we're talking.

01:01:50.920 And everybody really getting pissed now.

01:01:52.660 Talking about Jimmy Conn, his balls were like this.

01:01:54.520 Look at this guy.

01:01:55.200 How did he grow up?

01:01:56.040 And the fact that it's being shot in Staten Island,

01:01:57.800 which is where you grow up.

01:01:58.920 You know everybody, everybody was.

01:02:00.840 Half the people at my wedding were at my real weddings.

01:02:04.300 The band, Nino Morreale on the bandstand

01:02:06.940 played for two different weddings for me.

01:02:08.660 They wanted an Italian wedding band.

01:02:10.080 I said, I got him.

01:02:10.620 I'll call him up.

01:02:11.460 Come on.

01:02:12.600 How are you gonna get that?

01:02:13.640 So wedding cake, La Rose's Bakery made my wedding cake.

01:02:17.060 I said, what kind of cake?

01:02:17.880 He said, oh, we want this to see you.

01:02:19.000 Oh, with the Casaga filming.

01:02:20.120 How many tears?

01:02:20.620 Six.

01:02:21.120 I'll get the cake for you.

01:02:22.360 And I made money for everybody.

01:02:24.420 Get the cake, charge them $1,500.

01:02:26.100 I'll get $500.

01:02:27.180 They said, I made money.

01:02:29.400 How are they gonna get it done?

01:02:30.900 They couldn't get it done.

01:02:32.320 No, it was, I mean, insane.

01:02:34.040 What made his style of acting, like, what, like, was, did he have a role, like, did he have

01:02:39.920 a routine right before he was doing something?

01:02:41.720 Was there anything that to him was a routine?

01:02:43.700 Brando?

01:02:43.760 Yeah.

01:02:43.940 Yeah.

01:02:44.360 Brando becomes, don't forget, he's three, four hours in makeup.

01:02:47.880 Yeah, three, four hours of makeup.

01:02:49.000 Once he's in that makeup.

01:02:50.000 He's in that makeup.

01:02:51.000 Yeah.

01:02:52.000 As that transformation's coming.

01:02:53.500 The guy you were talking to when he walked in, I was in there a lot.

01:02:56.540 With Dick Smith, by the time of the transformation, and if it was a serious part, forget about

01:03:02.240 it.

01:03:03.240 This guy was major.

01:03:04.240 I mean, he taught me everything.

01:03:05.240 The closing scene, he says, you've never done this before, he says, you're gonna be projected

01:03:09.720 in a single shot 20 feet across the street.

01:03:12.540 You know you're gonna die.

01:03:14.160 And everybody in the audience is gonna know you do, that you're gonna die.

01:03:18.160 How are you gonna prove me at all?

01:03:20.160 If you know or you don't know.

01:03:21.160 How are you gonna prove that you know?

01:03:22.160 Don't know.

01:03:23.160 That you don't know.

01:03:24.160 Because you don't want the audience to know you're gonna die.

01:03:25.160 Yeah, when he says, get the hell out of my face.

01:03:26.160 Right.

01:03:27.160 Yeah.

01:03:28.160 I said, what should I do?

01:03:29.160 He says, I'm gonna give you some clues.

01:03:30.160 He says, when he does these scenes with you, first of all, whisper a lot of stuff.

01:03:34.160 You want this to be between him and you.

01:03:36.160 Don't let the rest of the guys hear, because you know they'll kill him.

01:03:38.160 He says, when he hands you a ticket, look down, make sure there's a ticket there.

01:03:42.160 Like, you really think you're gonna get out of there.

01:03:45.160 All those little nuances.

01:03:46.160 He did that.

01:03:47.160 I don't know how to act.

01:03:48.160 Wow.

01:03:49.160 He did.

01:03:50.160 When he hands you the drink, you're too nervous to raise it.

01:03:54.160 Let him push it up to you.

01:03:55.160 He did all that, because I was so afraid of Michael at that point.

01:03:59.160 See, up until that, when he walked in, when I got up and said, Michael, please, you got it all wrong.

01:04:03.160 I thought I could call him, too.

01:04:05.160 But at that point, he wanted to show that transition.

01:04:08.160 And people, you know, I got recognized in the Khan Film Festival as most promising newcomer.

01:04:13.160 They thought this was a great performance.

01:04:15.160 Wow.

01:04:16.160 I mean, there's two scenes that's crazy.

01:04:17.160 It's not just like, it's like one...

01:04:18.160 Oh, yeah.

01:04:19.160 The other scene is which scene?

01:04:20.160 The scene is where Sonny comes after you, right?

01:04:22.160 Oh, my God.

01:04:23.160 Throws a baseball bat at you.

01:04:24.160 Oh, my God, yeah.

01:04:25.160 That's a sick scene.

01:04:26.160 That's the garbage bill cover.

01:04:27.160 Yeah.

01:04:28.160 And he actually hit you with the bat, by the way.

01:04:30.160 Oh, my God.

01:04:31.160 He hit me on the bat.

01:04:32.160 Apparently, you guys had issues.

01:04:33.160 Oh, no, we had a lot of issues.

01:04:34.160 He almost got me killed.

01:04:35.160 He got me killed about the third week into the film.

01:04:38.160 He broke two ribs of yours?

01:04:39.160 What was that?

01:04:40.160 Oh, that was crawling out.

01:04:41.160 That was still in that scene.

01:04:42.160 Yeah.

01:04:43.160 He chipped my elbow, broke two ribs, hit me with the bat.

01:04:45.160 There was no bat when we rehearsed it two days in a row.

01:04:48.160 He came up with that improvising.

01:04:50.160 When he comes out of the car and throws the bat, and he hit me right on the head.

01:04:53.160 I mean, but then, thank God, we were behind the car.

01:04:56.160 But he thought I'd never get up.

01:04:58.160 No, he's a rat, that guy.

01:04:59.160 Rat.

01:05:00.160 Jimmy Conn is so jealous.

01:05:03.160 I mean, it's over now.

01:05:04.160 I mean, but...

01:05:05.160 Have you guys reconnected since then?

01:05:06.160 No way.

01:05:07.160 At all.

01:05:08.160 I've never talked to him.

01:05:09.160 You've never talked to him?

01:05:10.160 I'm not that guy.

01:05:11.160 He always got me literally killed.

01:05:12.160 Literally.

01:05:13.160 With Junior, Carmine Basica, who took over the Colombo family.

01:05:15.160 No, Junior, he set me up.

01:05:18.160 And thank God I was with Tommy Bellotti and Buzi Chico.

01:05:21.160 If I wasn't with those two guys, I don't think they would have killed me, but I wasn't going on the set Monday.

01:05:25.160 What was Pacino like?

01:05:26.160 Pacino was great.

01:05:27.160 Pacino, when we met Pacino, he was just such a humble guy.

01:05:30.160 Really?

01:05:31.160 Well, he was a true actor.

01:05:33.160 Wow.

01:05:34.160 And Pacino was young and wanted to do this.

01:05:36.160 Imagine playing Michael.

01:05:38.160 Look where his career went.

01:05:39.160 You know, Pacino's.

01:05:40.160 And I still love Pacino.

01:05:42.160 You know, he's got a lot of problems now.

01:05:44.160 Oh, I did Any Given Sunday.

01:05:45.160 You know that.

01:05:46.160 That's one of my movies.

01:05:47.160 You were in Super Mario Brothers as well, I think.

01:05:49.160 You did Seabiscuit, right?

01:05:50.160 You did Seabiscuit.

01:05:51.160 I did Seabiscuit.

01:05:52.160 Yeah.

01:05:53.160 We only got one Oscar nomination.

01:05:54.160 I thought we'd get more.

01:05:55.160 Seabiscuit?

01:05:56.160 Well, Jeff Bridges and Tobey Maguire were awfully good at that.

01:05:58.160 I thought it was a great movie.

01:05:59.160 Yeah.

01:06:00.160 I thought it was a great movie.

01:06:01.160 I mean, I nicknamed one of our sales guys Seabiscuit.

01:06:03.160 Really?

01:06:04.160 I used, I said, listen, your nickname is Seabiscuit.

01:06:06.160 Moving forward.

01:06:07.160 Every time he calls me, my phone would say Seabiscuit.

01:06:08.160 After that movie came out.

01:06:09.160 That's funny.

01:06:10.160 So Pacino stopped.

01:06:11.160 Did he have a routine?

01:06:12.160 Or would he just immediately, boom.

01:06:15.160 He was in it.

01:06:16.160 No, no.

01:06:17.160 You stayed away.

01:06:18.160 I actually was invited one afternoon where those three houses that were on the compound,

01:06:23.160 they took them.

01:06:24.160 They were our dressing rooms.

01:06:25.160 They couldn't have trailers up there.

01:06:27.160 The confines up there were so small.

01:06:29.160 So our base camp was those houses.

01:06:31.160 Everybody else was down in the community college and they'd bust them up.

01:06:34.160 But I used to watch these guys do improvisations and get into characters.

01:06:39.160 I mean, I saw Al Pacino, which I, even to today, and there was Jimmy Kahn in the room,

01:06:46.160 Robert Duvall.

01:06:47.160 These are all thespians.

01:06:48.160 They all studied.

01:06:49.160 Yeah.

01:06:50.160 I mean, this is legendary.

01:06:51.160 Legend.

01:06:52.160 They would compete against each other.

01:06:53.160 Al Pacino did an improvisation of a one-legged man queuing up his ball playing golf.

01:07:00.160 Come on.

01:07:01.160 And no ball, no club, put the tee in the ground, balancing himself one leg, and put the ball

01:07:07.160 on, then go back for the swing, and he'd fall over.

01:07:10.160 Get up again.

01:07:11.160 I mean, you had, I mean, for a while there you thought he had one leg.

01:07:16.160 He put the two legs together and kept them together, but that's what came that balancing.

01:07:21.160 Who's in the room when he's doing that?

01:07:22.160 All of you?

01:07:23.160 All of the actors are allowed in there.

01:07:24.160 And everyone's seen him do this.

01:07:25.160 And then they try to beat theirs and do...

01:07:27.160 Oh, I see.

01:07:28.160 It was a challenge.

01:07:29.160 It was a competitive deal.

01:07:30.160 It was an accident.

01:07:31.160 It was an exercise.

01:07:32.160 Wow.

01:07:33.160 I mean...

01:07:34.160 Who shocked everybody?

01:07:35.160 Was there anybody that was like, because Pacino, you're expecting him...

01:07:37.160 John Casale.

01:07:38.160 John Casale.

01:07:39.160 Brilliant actor.

01:07:40.160 What did he do?

01:07:41.160 Just the things they did.

01:07:42.160 You know, they'd read books.

01:07:44.160 There was no books.

01:07:45.160 They'd challenge each other.

01:07:46.160 Then they would become a part of it.

01:07:48.160 They were all doing...

01:07:49.160 Yeah.

01:07:50.160 Totally improvisation.

01:07:51.160 It's great to see that.

01:07:52.160 It was a great lesson for me.

01:07:54.160 What has that movie done to your life?

01:07:56.160 I don't think I have a life.

01:07:57.160 I don't know what I...

01:07:58.160 In fact, you...

01:07:59.160 And that's a great question, because sitting here now...

01:08:01.160 50 years.

01:08:02.160 50 years.

01:08:03.160 That's crazy.

01:08:04.160 What I have amassed...

01:08:05.160 I mean, I'm a businessman.

01:08:06.160 I own...

01:08:07.160 Not all.

01:08:08.160 I don't want to say that because of government.

01:08:09.160 I represent all the IPs.

01:08:11.160 I'm the ambassador.

01:08:12.160 Ambassador to the quarterly owned brands.

01:08:14.160 Jenko Olive Oil.

01:08:15.160 The company that I represent partnered with Greco Brothers in Chicago.

01:08:21.160 They do six billion a year in Italian food groceries without us.

01:08:26.160 We're about to go to 18,000 grocery stores.

01:08:29.160 It's the biggest launch ever because...

01:08:32.160 It's the Godfather.

01:08:33.160 It's a new product.

01:08:34.160 That brand is...

01:08:35.160 It's one of the oldest brands in the world.

01:08:37.160 I mean, listen...

01:08:38.160 Everybody knows this brand.

01:08:39.160 In Iran, we would watch Godfather.

01:08:41.160 I know.

01:08:42.160 Translated in Farsi.

01:08:43.160 I mean, Godfather was, like, required watching.

01:08:45.160 You know, you had to watch them.

01:08:46.160 It's so funny you just said that.

01:08:48.160 My two grandsons live in Italy.

01:08:50.160 And my one grandson sneaks calls to me.

01:08:53.160 I don't have a good relationship with a lot of my kids.

01:08:55.160 And he says to me,

01:08:56.160 Papi, how many languages do you speak?

01:08:58.160 I said, what are you talking about?

01:09:00.160 He said, I turned the television on.

01:09:01.160 You're talking Chinese.

01:09:02.160 You're talking Farsi.

01:09:04.160 The kid don't know.

01:09:06.160 He's eight years old.

01:09:07.160 What does he know?

01:09:08.160 He thinks I'm a genius.

01:09:09.160 Crazy, right?

01:09:10.160 But think about it.

01:09:11.160 This guy speaks 20 languages.

01:09:13.160 Yeah, because we watched Godfather translated in Farsi.

01:09:16.160 You've probably seen it to see what it looks like.

01:09:18.160 I liked looking at that, those kind of things.

01:09:20.160 Yeah.

01:09:21.160 Last story.

01:09:22.160 Last story.

01:09:23.160 I've interviewed Jim Jenkins.

01:09:25.160 Jim Jenkins was the guy that was one of the four guys in the autopsy room

01:09:29.160 that held JFK's brain in his hands.

01:09:31.160 I interviewed Clint Hill, who was a Secret Service agent for Jackie Kennedy.

01:09:35.160 He was a Secret Service agent, I think, for, like, five presidents.

01:09:37.160 And he was the first guy that jumped on the car when...

01:09:40.160 I know who they are.

01:09:41.160 So you know who Clint Hill is.

01:09:42.160 And a bunch of other guys that have to do with JFK.

01:09:44.160 What's your version of the story?

01:09:46.160 Two days prior, let me do that.

01:09:47.160 I went to New Orleans.

01:09:49.160 And I brought an envelope down, which I brought in envelopes for him.

01:09:52.160 And I go into Carlos' restaurant.

01:09:56.160 And I just came from New York.

01:09:58.160 And I ran into the bathroom, and he says, somebody in there.

01:10:01.160 So a few minutes later, a guy comes out.

01:10:03.160 I go, and I pee.

01:10:04.160 I go, and he just put down a big plate.

01:10:07.160 They knew I like pasta vongole.

01:10:09.160 Unbelievable.

01:10:10.160 And I sit down.

01:10:11.160 He says, don't get comfortable.

01:10:12.160 I said, what do you mean?

01:10:13.160 He says, you got to go back.

01:10:14.160 He says, you got something for me?

01:10:15.160 And I gave him the envelope.

01:10:16.160 I just want to get rid of the envelope to begin with.

01:10:18.160 I said, Mr. C wants to know.

01:10:20.160 He says, just tell him this.

01:10:21.160 It's on.

01:10:22.160 That's what he told me.

01:10:23.160 Go back to New York.

01:10:24.160 Right?

01:10:25.160 Go take a shower upstairs.

01:10:27.160 Come down.

01:10:28.160 I got to meet him at 11 o'clock.

01:10:29.160 Come in.

01:10:30.160 He says, what did he say?

01:10:31.160 He says, it's on.

01:10:32.160 He says, it's on.

01:10:33.160 OK.

01:10:34.160 He slides a manila envelope over to me.

01:10:35.160 He says, there's $15,000 in cash in there.

01:10:38.160 There's merchant marine papers.

01:10:40.160 And you're leaving the end of this week on the independence.

01:10:44.160 I said, OK.

01:10:45.160 He says, where are you going?

01:10:46.160 He says, you're going on a ship.

01:10:48.160 I says, that's all you got to know.

01:10:49.160 When you land in Barcelona, come off the ship,

01:10:52.160 a man will meet you at the pier.

01:10:54.160 They'll have a card, a name on it.

01:10:56.160 It's OK.

01:10:57.160 I said, then what?

01:10:58.160 He says, he'll tell you then.

01:10:59.160 Then what?

01:11:00.160 I did this so many times, you know.

01:11:02.160 Because I didn't want to know.

01:11:03.160 He didn't want me to know.

01:11:04.160 Thank God he didn't want me to know.

01:11:06.160 So now I go, get all my clothes.

01:11:08.160 They have $15,000 in cash for spending money.

01:11:11.160 Oh, and he said, you're going to go to Layton's.

01:11:13.160 I set you up at Layton's.

01:11:14.160 We weren't wearing Brioni yet.

01:11:16.160 He says, go to Layton's, get some clothes.

01:11:18.160 You'll be at the captain's table every night.

01:11:20.160 Captain Pennington's the captain of the ship.

01:11:22.160 It's OK.

01:11:23.160 So I get on board.

01:11:24.160 And I'm going through.

01:11:25.160 I have to go.

01:11:26.160 I had a crew deck.

01:11:27.160 I had to go where the crew was.

01:11:28.160 And they said, no, sir, you have to go.

01:11:30.160 You're a passenger.

01:11:31.160 I had Gucci luggage.

01:11:33.160 The reason he's, he got me on the ship as a hairdresser.

01:11:36.160 See, as a merchant marine, there's no passports.

01:11:38.160 There's nothing.

01:11:39.160 He didn't want anybody to know where I was going.

01:11:42.160 That's how much he protected me.

01:11:44.160 Wow.

01:11:45.160 I was gone 22 months.

01:11:46.160 I leave.

01:11:47.160 We're going under the Verrazano Bridge.

01:11:49.160 I can remember like yesterday on the loudspeaker.

01:11:52.160 They said, President Kennedy has just been shot.

01:11:55.160 Didn't say he was dead.

01:11:57.160 I'm getting chills even repeating it.

01:11:59.160 I said, oh, my God.

01:12:01.160 Because I just spent so much time with John F. Kennedy.

01:12:04.160 I went to the inaugural.

01:12:05.160 I was with Senator John F. Kennedy, watching him babysitting for years while they were grooming this guy.

01:12:10.160 That wasn't enough.

01:12:12.160 Now that night in the dining room, we could, I mean, because then now, later on, hours later, they mentioned he's dead.

01:12:19.160 And then I said, oh, this is insane.

01:12:22.160 Because I was with, I brought envelopes.

01:12:25.160 I went to Texas when they convinced Lyndon Bain Johnson to join the ticket.

01:12:29.160 Even though he had all these votes, they knew they needed Texas.

01:12:33.160 And Lyndon Bain Johnson, I hated him.

01:12:35.160 He couldn't stand the family.

01:12:36.160 But he knew.

01:12:38.160 They said to him, before his terms out, he'll be president.

01:12:42.160 Who told him that?

01:12:43.160 I can't tell you who told him that.

01:12:45.160 That's why he came along for the ride.

01:12:47.160 That's why he brought him to the Knoll.

01:12:49.160 He was the only guy that brought him there.

01:12:50.160 Nobody brought that out yet.

01:12:51.160 And they were street shooters.

01:12:53.160 That's why those guys, when they saw him, they knew he wasn't shot by Oswald.

01:12:57.160 And guess what happened to me now?

01:12:59.160 We go, the next morning I get up on a telex newspaper.

01:13:02.160 The guy that was in the bathroom, Louis Javier Oswald.

01:13:06.160 Marcellus hired him.

01:13:07.160 They wanted their own hitters.

01:13:08.160 They didn't trust anybody.

01:13:10.160 Three hitters.

01:13:12.160 The guy in the sewer?

01:13:13.160 I guarantee that someone was going to get him.

01:13:15.160 The guy in the sewer was the dead bullet.

01:13:18.160 That was the bullet that they can't figure out how it made lefts and rights.

01:13:22.160 A good friend of mine too.

01:13:24.160 And what they did to him, they found him in a barrel.

01:13:27.160 You know, 73 people died.

01:13:28.160 Since the Kennedy assassination, they took out 73 people.

01:13:32.160 Connolly, nobody's going to tell you that shit.

01:13:35.160 That's why then they did what they did, you know.

01:13:37.160 He was sitting in the front seat when that happened.

01:13:41.160 The governor.

01:13:42.160 Yep.

01:13:43.160 And he knew what was going to happen?

01:13:44.160 We don't know.

01:13:45.160 So what do you think about LBJ?

01:13:46.160 You don't know?

01:13:47.160 No.

01:13:48.160 You just know what you heard.

01:13:49.160 That's all I ever do.

01:13:50.160 Okay.

01:13:51.160 And I don't even know that.

01:13:52.160 You don't even know that?

01:13:53.160 Yeah.

01:13:54.160 It's only hearsay.

01:13:55.160 Got it.

01:13:56.160 Yeah.

01:13:57.160 You know, everybody's curious, man.

01:13:58.160 You would wonder, you would think like after all these years, you know, a guy like that,

01:14:02.160 when all these things coming out, someone's going to come out and tell the truth on what

01:14:06.160 took place.

01:14:07.160 Someone with the...

01:14:08.160 Well, there's a lot in my book, I'll tell you that.

01:14:09.160 Yeah.

01:14:10.160 I mean, I've...

01:14:11.160 Even when, you know, when we, when they, I was, I was devastated because, you know,

01:14:16.160 I really liked the guy and not, nor do I ever want to say I was part of a conspiracy.

01:14:22.160 But indirectly, all I did was bring envelopes like I always did.

01:14:25.160 And I was questioned by everybody, believe me.

01:14:27.160 And I waited 22 months.

01:14:28.160 I came back after 22 months.

01:14:30.160 I was gone.

01:14:31.160 You were in Italy?

01:14:32.160 I started in Spain.

01:14:33.160 The guy picked me up.

01:14:34.160 We took our time and I realized why.

01:14:36.160 And then I finally got to Sicily and I stayed with a very close friend of mine who just recently

01:14:42.160 passed on.

01:14:43.160 And that was it.

01:14:44.160 What a life you live, man.

01:14:46.160 I don't know so much.

01:14:47.160 All of these stories.

01:14:48.160 I said...

01:14:49.160 All of these stories.

01:14:50.160 They would say to...

01:14:51.160 And Costello would tell Ugo, Ugo Bufu, who was the boss of me of Sicily, he says, you

01:14:57.160 want to keep this guy happy?

01:14:58.160 Just get bruds.

01:14:59.160 You get his own food.

01:15:01.160 Get him women.

01:15:02.160 You?

01:15:03.160 Grace Kelly.

01:15:04.160 Anything with Grace Kelly or no?

01:15:05.160 Oh, I can't...

01:15:06.160 It's funny.

01:15:07.160 They did a story on me a couple of months ago why I didn't talk about Grace Kelly.

01:15:11.160 And I said, you know, talking about Grace Kelly is like talking about the Blessed Mother.

01:15:15.160 I knew Grace Kelly when she was staying here on 63rd Street in Lexington Avenue, the Barbizon

01:15:20.160 Hotel.

01:15:21.160 Her family from Philadelphia sent her here for fishing school.

01:15:24.160 Costello would give me an envelope to go to the floor monitor after 9 o'clock.

01:15:29.160 And this guy, we used to call her flowers for the table.

01:15:32.160 We were from Brons.

01:15:33.160 He said, go get me some flowers.

01:15:35.160 And I'd give the guy the money and then one night it was Grace Kelly with Audrey Hepburn

01:15:40.160 and two other socialites.

01:15:42.160 And I dropped them at the Copa or Latin Quarter.

01:15:46.160 They wanted to be with Earl Wilson and all these guys.

01:15:48.160 That's what it was all about.

01:15:49.160 And that's one thing about Costello.

01:15:52.160 He took care of everybody.

01:15:53.160 Newspaper people, police department, mayors, everybody.

01:15:56.160 Presidents, the amount of presidents they controlled, ridiculous.

01:16:00.160 Ridiculous.

01:16:01.160 How was Grace Kelly's personality?

01:16:03.160 What were the personalities then?

01:16:04.160 How was that?

01:16:05.160 Amazing.

01:16:06.160 Amazing lady.

01:16:07.160 And I was honored.

01:16:08.160 I went to her wedding.

01:16:09.160 I was at every year.

01:16:10.160 Every year.

01:16:11.160 Princess Grace Kelly.

01:16:12.160 Princess Grace.

01:16:13.160 Monaco.

01:16:14.160 Yeah.

01:16:15.160 But what's interesting, every year I was at the Red Cross Mall, sitting with Frank Sinatra,

01:16:21.160 everybody else, carrying, anybody that was alive.

01:16:24.160 I was there every year and everybody was standing like, who is this kid?

01:16:27.160 Last question.

01:16:28.160 Nixon mobbed up.

01:16:29.160 Was Nixon mobbed up?

01:16:30.160 Oh my God, yeah.

01:16:31.160 Nixon, Nixon wasn't, I mean there's so many that were.

01:16:34.160 But Nixon, and I can't figure out, people didn't figure this out.

01:16:38.160 We all know Jimmy Hoffa while he was in prison.

01:16:40.160 Yeah.

01:16:41.160 Found God.

01:16:42.160 Yeah.

01:16:43.160 And he was going to come out.

01:16:44.160 And this particular time, I was on the FBI wiretap all over the world.

01:16:47.160 They got me, they, I knew I was screwed.

01:16:49.160 I was screwed.

01:16:50.160 So, but the good news, indirectly, he got me out of that mess.

01:16:53.160 Because I just borrowed $72 million from the team system to build my hotel in Vegas.

01:16:59.160 So, and I was borrowing a lot of money, but you don't have papers.

01:17:02.160 What do you need to get it?

01:17:03.160 So he was going to come out and disclose Frank Fitzsimmons and all of them,

01:17:08.160 and what they did with the pension fund, and the Brotherhood would vote him in.

01:17:12.160 So, they called Nixon.

01:17:14.160 They said, I mean, yeah, Nixon.

01:17:17.160 They said, you got to pardon Jimmy Hoffa.

01:17:19.160 They said, what?

01:17:20.160 He said, pardon Jimmy Hoffa.

01:17:21.160 And he pardoned him.

01:17:22.160 So they could kill him.

01:17:24.160 That's the story.

01:17:26.160 Nobody ever could tell you that story.

01:17:28.160 He pardoned Jimmy Hoffa so they could kill him?

01:17:30.160 He pardoned Jimmy Hoffa so certain people could kill him.

01:17:33.160 Who killed him?

01:17:34.160 Jimmy Cooney?

01:17:35.160 Jimmy, uh, Jimmy, uh, James Cooney?

01:17:38.160 Something like that.

01:17:39.160 A name like that.

01:17:40.160 He's in prison right now.

01:17:41.160 Yeah.

01:17:42.160 Yeah.

01:17:43.160 It's, uh, apparently.

01:17:44.160 That's the story.

01:17:45.160 I mean, there's obviously a lot of different stories when it comes down to that.

01:17:47.160 Well, that's why I laugh all the time when they're saying,

01:17:50.160 oh, the FBI has a tip that is buried in a farm, and they go there and dig up farms.

01:17:55.160 Nothing comes down.

01:17:56.160 Yeah.

01:17:57.160 I'll tell you where Jimmy Hoffa is.

01:17:58.160 How's that?

01:17:59.160 That Buick, they took the axles out and the motor block out,

01:18:03.160 and they delivered it to friends of ours, and they crushed it.

01:18:07.160 The car crushing thing.

01:18:09.160 And mob guys were bidding on that pedestal.

01:18:12.160 It's a 4x4 piece of steel.

01:18:14.160 The friction, the heat, and all that, there is no DNA.

01:18:17.160 There's nothing.

01:18:18.160 And they say, oh, there's a couple of us that know the story.

01:18:22.160 That's why they said, oh, he was buried in the giant stadium, and he's buried.

01:18:26.160 They come up with all these stories where Jimmy Hoffa is.

01:18:29.160 Jimmy Hoffa is in a mob boss's basement game room with an 8-foot piece of plate glass over it,

01:18:36.160 and they put their feet up.

01:18:38.160 It's only so you guys know that, man.

01:18:41.160 That's nuts.

01:18:42.160 Let's talk about this book.

01:18:44.160 Mario, are you guys enjoying this?

01:18:45.160 You're just sitting here like...

01:18:47.160 We weren't talking about the book all the while.

01:18:50.160 Now, last thing here...

01:18:52.160 And this is a novel.

01:18:53.160 This is not a true story.

01:18:55.160 Based on many fictional stories here...

01:18:58.160 No, I'm just...

01:18:59.160 So, Nick Pelleggi from Goodfellas.

01:19:02.160 Gianna Russo has seen a lot, done a lot, and tells a lot.

01:19:05.160 Amazing.

01:19:06.160 Gay tellies.

01:19:07.160 Gianna Russo is a true character who has led a most colorful life.

01:19:11.160 So, what else can you tell us about this book?

01:19:13.160 It's coming out what?

01:19:14.160 It's coming out the next couple months.

01:19:15.160 It's coming out March 12th, yeah.

01:19:16.160 March 12th, okay.

01:19:17.160 What else do we know that's going to be in this book?

01:19:19.160 I know you talked about some stuff with Sha.

01:19:20.160 What else is in here?

01:19:21.160 The Vatican.

01:19:22.160 A lot of stuff about Hollywood.

01:19:24.160 A lot of ins and outs of movie stars, friends I've been with.

01:19:27.160 Great story about Joshua Gabor.

01:19:29.160 You've got to read that one.

01:19:30.160 It's amazing.

01:19:31.160 I can't tell you about it.

01:19:32.160 It happened in how he used his household.

01:19:33.160 There's so many great stories.

01:19:34.160 A lot of fun things.

01:19:36.160 A lot of stories of how the Godfather movie saved my life.

01:19:41.160 Especially with Pablo Escobar.

01:19:42.160 I thought I was dead.

01:19:44.160 Because, you know, I had a problem where two of his guys went there.

01:19:47.160 Because, you know, they believe in Santeria.

01:19:50.160 So, when I had an incident at my club in Vegas, State Street.

01:19:55.160 And I had to shoot this guy after he stabbed this woman.

01:19:58.160 And he slit my throat.

01:20:00.160 And I just took him out.

01:20:02.160 Only to find out he was an underboss with Pablo Escobar.

01:20:06.160 And they were just setting up a whole new thing in Vegas of drugs.

01:20:10.160 And his brother, Lorenzo Modiglia, was like this for Pablo.

01:20:15.160 And he has to avenge his brother's death.

01:20:19.160 They believe in Santeria.

01:20:20.160 So, I didn't know anything about this.

01:20:23.160 Oscar Goodman, we were talking about him earlier.

01:20:25.160 And different people at the time.

01:20:27.160 They got a girl from UNLV to tell me about the Santeria.

01:20:31.160 Because I came home, there was a whole thing on my living room floor.

01:20:34.160 And I live in a secured compound.

01:20:37.160 And this is on my rug.

01:20:38.160 And they had my daughter picture with salamanders and chicken and all this stuff on my rug.

01:20:44.160 Like six foot circle.

01:20:45.160 And she had to explain to me.

01:20:47.160 She said, well, you are marked for death.

01:20:49.160 But they're going to avenge anybody and anything.

01:20:53.160 Your pets, they'll kill.

01:20:54.160 You'll be the last to go.

01:20:55.160 So, I came to New York to meet Gotti.

01:20:58.160 He was the only one.

01:20:59.160 I figured I knew.

01:21:00.160 I didn't say it directly to him.

01:21:02.160 So, again, I got to say my good friend Joe Watts.

01:21:04.160 He's like this with John.

01:21:06.160 I said, I got to talk to John.

01:21:07.160 They arranged that I come here.

01:21:09.160 And I was wondering for the longest time.

01:21:11.160 Not a long time, a couple hours while I was waiting to get on the plane.

01:21:13.160 Why is he doing this?

01:21:14.160 He figured out if I got there, I'd never come back.

01:21:16.160 He thought, I'm done with this guy finally.

01:21:18.160 So, he arranged for me to go there.

01:21:20.160 I went to Bogota.

01:21:22.160 Because I figured, let me appeal to this guy.

01:21:24.160 I think that my kids killed and all this and friends of mine.

01:21:28.160 I had nothing to do with this.

01:21:29.160 And I said, if I had a minute to tell him, then let him kill me.

01:21:32.160 I don't care.

01:21:33.160 I don't want nothing to happen to my kids.

01:21:35.160 And I went.

01:21:36.160 And I met him in a church.

01:21:37.160 I felt good about that.

01:21:38.160 And then when I walked in church.

01:21:39.160 Met who?

01:21:40.160 You met Pablo?

01:21:41.160 Yeah, Pablo.

01:21:42.160 And he was in a church.

01:21:43.160 See the image of who I thought it was.

01:21:44.160 And he was praying.

01:21:45.160 And the closer I got to him, I smelled flesh.

01:21:47.160 He was burning his fingertips.

01:21:49.160 I don't know if it was some kind of penance.

01:21:51.160 He was burning his fingertips on the candles as he was praying.

01:21:55.160 And as I'm walking down the aisle to get to him.

01:21:59.160 Every time I walk 10, 15 feet, you hear creaking of the pews.

01:22:03.160 And guys were sitting up with guns.

01:22:05.160 So, I thought I was there alone.

01:22:07.160 There was about 10, 15 guys in the church.

01:22:10.160 So, all I remember is going there to him.

01:22:13.160 And I said, Mr. Escobar, I got to tell you.

01:22:16.160 And that's all I got out.

01:22:17.160 I woke up chained to chairs.

01:22:20.160 My clothes were stripped off me.

01:22:22.160 The seat had no bottom.

01:22:24.160 And there were body bags, blood all over.

01:22:27.160 I mean, the stench in that room.

01:22:29.160 And these guys were just having fun with me.

01:22:31.160 Then one day, a man, I'm sitting like I'm done.

01:22:34.160 I don't even know how many hours I was there.

01:22:36.160 A guy, neatly dressed, standing in front of me.

01:22:40.160 Talk about the Godfather and what it means to me.

01:22:43.160 He says to me, why don't you tell me you were calling him the Godfather?

01:22:47.160 And it was Pablo Escobar.

01:22:48.160 He said, take him upstairs and clean him.

01:22:50.160 So, I go.

01:22:51.160 He gave me some pills because I was in pain.

01:22:53.160 They had a chain and like a ball.

01:22:56.160 They were with rubber on it.

01:22:57.160 And they'd be hitting me in my groin area.

01:22:59.160 I mean, my rectum and balls.

01:23:02.160 I mean, I couldn't even move.

01:23:04.160 I walked like an old man at that time.

01:23:06.160 And he was very apologetic.

01:23:08.160 He gave me some pills.

01:23:09.160 They took me to the room.

01:23:11.160 I stayed there.

01:23:12.160 He says, sleep.

01:23:13.160 I don't know how long I slept.

01:23:14.160 Next thing you know, I'm all dressed in one of those white, beautiful clothes.

01:23:18.160 I've been having dinner with him.

01:23:20.160 And he says to me, I'm so sorry, but my people treated you like this.

01:23:25.160 I'm saying to myself, you did you, that's all.

01:23:28.160 Not your people.

01:23:29.160 And we talked for a long time.

01:23:31.160 And he says, tell me, why did you come here?

01:23:33.160 I said, I had nothing to do with this.

01:23:35.160 Your man, or whoever he was, because I didn't want to directly say, it's your guy.

01:23:39.160 I said, whoever you sent, he breaks a crystal bottle, sticks it in this lady's face.

01:23:45.160 I go to try to rectify it.

01:23:47.160 I told him, leave.

01:23:48.160 I did.

01:23:49.160 I said, you hear those sirens?

01:23:50.160 They're coming for you.

01:23:51.160 Get out of here.

01:23:52.160 If it was somebody in there, I don't want to be a witness.

01:23:55.160 I'm going to sit in a trial for two months for you.

01:23:58.160 I said, get out of here.

01:23:59.160 And he said, no, Mon.

01:24:00.160 I said, no, Mon.

01:24:01.160 Where's Mon?

01:24:02.160 Where's Mon?

01:24:03.160 Then I realized, you know.

01:24:04.160 But I didn't know he had the bottle yet at that time.

01:24:06.160 And that's when he went for my neck.

01:24:08.160 Yeah.

01:24:09.160 And I went back.

01:24:10.160 And that's why this chin was hanging.

01:24:12.160 So now I have the green light.

01:24:14.160 Now I can play with you, because once I know it's self-defense, that's all.

01:24:17.160 Anybody I killed was self-defense.

01:24:19.160 In fact, the last judge I was in front of, he said, Mr. Russo, I don't understand about all the self-defense.

01:24:25.160 He said, but if you kill another person, and you don't open your shirt, and there's a big S on your chest, you're going to jail.

01:24:31.160 Crazy things, man.

01:24:34.160 Crazy things, man.

01:24:35.160 And with that being said, Gianna Russo, it's been a pleasure sitting out here with you.

01:24:37.160 My pleasure.

01:24:38.160 Thank you.

01:24:39.160 Thanks, everybody, for listening.

01:24:40.160 And by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so.

01:24:44.160 Give us a five-star.

01:24:46.160 Write a review if you haven't already.

01:24:47.160 And if you have any questions for me that you may have, you can always find me on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.

01:24:53.160 Just search my name, Patrick MidDavid, and I actually do respond back when you snap me or send me a message on Instagram.

01:25:00.160 With that being said, have a great day today.

01:25:02.160 Take care, everybody.

01:25:03.160 Bye-bye.

Valuetainment - June 20, 2019

Episode 324： Why the Italian Mafia Hated The Godfather Movie

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