In this episode, we discuss the life and times of George Remus who was famously dubbed, "The King of the Bootleggers" in the 1920's.

George Remus, born in 1878, was a German-born American lawyer who was probably most famously well-known as a bootlegger during the early days of Prohibition, and who later became even more infamous for the murder his wife Imogene, for which he was acquitted.

In popular culture, many believed that George Remus served as the inspiration for The Great Gatsby, and he was even famously portrayed on the HBO series, Boardwalk Empire.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Remus birth in Landsberg, Germany in the 1870's and his arrival in the United States in the 1880's

• The Remus family's beginnings in Chicago, Illinois

• Remus' early experience working at his uncle's pharmacy, as well as his attendance of the Chicago College of Pharmacy, where he became a certified pharmacist

• George Remus' collegiate attendance of the Illinois College of Law in which he gained admittance to the Illinois Bar, specializing as a defense attorney

• Remus' involvement in the 1914 murder trial of William Cheny Ellis, and the first successful use of the "transitory insanity" defense in the history of the United States

• Remus' beginnings as a bootlegger after he was able to exploit a loophole in the Volstead Act, allowing him to grow his bootlegging business on a technicality

• Remus' move from Chicago, Illinois to Cincinnati, Ohio and the growth of his bootlegging empire in the 1920's, run from his sprawling property on the west side of Cincinnati, dubbed "Death Valley"

• Remus' divorce from his first wife, and marriage to socialite Imogene Holmes (later Remus), as well as the extravagant mansion, "The Marble Palace"

• The eventual arrest of Remus for violations of the Volstead Act and his prison sentence

• The collapse of Remus' marriage to Imogene after a cheating scandal with a Bureau of Investigation agent, Franklin Dodge

• The murder of his wife Imogene in October of 1927, the subsequent trial in which Remus again pleaded "temporary insanity," and his acquittal after just 19 minutes of jury deliberations

• The remainder of Remus' life and his ultimate legacy in the annals of the underworld

• The truth of Remus' peculiar tendency to talk about himself in the third-person

• Remus' death in 1952 of natural causes in Covington, Kentucky

In this episode, we again discuss Joseph Barbara Sr., the mobster who famously hosted the ill-fated Apalachin Mob Meeting in Apalachin, New York. Part Three covers the events leading up to the disastrous Apalachin meeting in 1957 and the fallout. Part One: https://youtu.be/NGHgoGlYOgw Part Two: https://youtu.be/2h1ERPB0sCU In this final installment of a three-part series, we discuss: 00:00 Start 01:27 Opening Remarks 05:38 Events directly preceding the Apalachin meeting 13:12 Who ordered the Apalachin meeting 13:58 The Apalachin meeting gets raided by police 19:27 Law enforcement's previous suspicions of Barbara 26:32 The history behind Edgar Croswell's initial interest in Barbara 34:09 The "sick friend" excuse and real reasons for the meeting 38:18 Barbara's ill health and becoming a recluse 40:12 The law catches up with Barbara and his company 41:15 Barbara sells Canada Dry Bottling Company 41:55 Barbara sells famous estate 42:50 Barbara subpoenaed to testify in front of grand jury 43:40 Barbara indicted for tax evasion 44:34 Barbara's last public appearance 45:32 Barbara's death and funeral 51:10 Joseph Barbara's mob legacy 54:27 Closing remarks

We sat down to talk with Gary Jenkins, who is a retired Kansas City Police Detective, lawyer, as well as the host of the extremely popular mob podcast, Gangland Wire. In this episode, we discuss the following topics:

• His early years, family, and upbringing
• What made him want to join the Kansas City Police Department
• His promotion to Detective within the KCPD
• The composition of the Kansas City Mafia in the 1970's
• The key players in the Kansas City Mafia including Nick Civella, Carl "Cork" Civella, and Carl "Tuffy" De Luna
• His many stories of surveilling the Kansas City Cosa Nostra family
• Kansas City's involvement in the Las Vegas skim
• His work surveilling and the wiretaps related to the Las Vegas skim
• Comparisons of real life versus the movie Casino
• Bringing down the Kansas City mob
• The Spero-Civella war in the late 1970's and early 1980's
• Retiring and becoming a lawyer for 20 years
• Starting and running his popular podcast, Gangland Wire

Links to Gary's documentaries, podcast, website, and YouTube channel:

In this episode, we again discuss Joseph Barbara Sr., the mobster who famously hosted the ill-fated Apalachin Mob Meeting in Apalachin, New York.

In this second of a three-part series, we discuss:

• Barbara's move towards legitimate business and establishment of several bottling companies including the Endicott Beverage Company, the Mission Beverage Company, and the Canada Dry Bottling Company
• Barbara's ascension within the Northeaster Pennsylvania and Southern New York mob
• The changes in leadership of what would become the Bufalino Crime Family
• Barbara's relationship to top Pittston mob leaders Santo Volpe, Russell Bufalino, Anthony F. Guarnieri, Emanuel Zicari, as well Pat and Sam Monachino
• Barbara's issues with the State Liquor Authority (SLA) that nearly drove him out of business in the early 1950's
• The 1956 meeting between Barbara, Joe Bonanno, Frank Garofolo, John Bonventre, and Carmine Galante in Binghamton, New York

Part Three will cover the events leading up to the disastrous Apalachin meeting in 1957 and the fallout.

Part One: https://youtu.be/NGHgoGlYOgw

In this episode, we discuss Roy Marcus Cohn (1927-1986) with professional attorney, Tony Taouk of Magna Carta Lawyers in Sydney, Australia. Tony and I walk through Roy Cohn's history, and Tony brings an attorney's perspective to some of Cohn's vicious tactics, personal life, as well as areas where he displayed both pure brilliance and borderline diabolical evil. We cover:

• Cohn's upbringing and early life
• Cohn's involvement in the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg trial in the early 1950's
• Cohn's involvement in the McCarthy investigations of the 1950's during the Cold War and Communism scares
• Cohn's eventual fall from grace after his misconduct was discovered and re-emergence as a private practice attorney
• Cohn's legal representation of various mobsters including John Gotti, Tony Salerno, and Carmine Galante
• Cohn's representation of various celebrities including Donald Trump
• Some of Cohn's brilliant and vicious tactics
• We debate Cohn's legacy and a top mob lawyer

In this episode, we discuss Joseph Barbara Sr., the mobster who famously hosted the ill-fated Apalachin Mob Meeting in Apalachin, New York. In this first of a two-part series, we discuss the beginning of Barbara's mob career including:

• His birth in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Italy
• His immigration to the United States in 1921
• His first jobs in and around Endicott, New York as well as Old Forge, Pennsylvania
• His introduction to the Pittston mob of Northeastern Pennsylvania (more famously called the Bufalino Crime Family)
• How we gets started in the rackets during the 1920s
• His relationship to top Pittston mob leaders Santo Volpe, Charles Bufalino (the uncle of Russell Bufalino), Angelo Polizzi, and more
• His involvement in up to four murders in the Northeastern Pennsylvania area in the early 1930s

Join me as a make a significant announcement about the future of this show and discuss my plans for 2024 and beyond.

In this episode, we finish the series on the Cerrito Crime Family of the American Cosa Nostra who operated in and around San Jose, California, and who were a significant entity controlling organized crime in the San Jose area for many decades beginning around the 1940’s and were in existence until at least the 1990’s or early 2000’s.

While we covered the family's first two bosses, Onofrio Sciortino and Joe Cerrito in Part One, in this episode we'll focus the majority of our time on the man who allegedly became Boss after Joseph Cerrito's death in 1978, that being Angelo Marino.

We discuss:

• Recap of Cerrito era
• Angelo Marino's early years
• Salvatore Marino, Angelo's father
• The Marino's connection to the Pittsburgh LCN (John LaRocca)
• The Marino's connection to the Philadelphia LCN (The Maggio family)
• Angelo Marino's entry into the LCN and rise to Capo
• The founding of the California Cheese Company
• Angelo Marino's dissatisfaction with Joe Cerrito's leadership
• Angelo Marino's supposed rise to Boss
• The Marino vs. Figlia as Boss theory
• The 1977 Murder of Peter Catelli and the fallout
• Salvatore Marino Jr.'s involvement in the Catelli murder
• Angelo Marino's death in the early 1980's
• The decline of the Cerrito Crime Family

Part One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMtMn1NTK3A

In the second episode of this multi-part series, we cover Angelo Bruno, Boss of the Philadelphia Mafia during the "Golden Age" of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra from the years 1960-1969. We recap Bruno's ascension to Boss of the Philly Mob during 1959 when a dispute between himself and Acting Boss Antonio "Mr. Mig" Pollina, along with support from Bruno's good friend Carlo Gambino, resulting in Bruno taking the top chair in the Philadelphia underworld and joining The Commission as the first boss from Philadelphia to do so. From there, we also recap Bruno's underworld dealings leading up to his time as boss and his involvement as the top numbers man in Philadelphia during the 1950's and 1960's, as well as his illegitimate and legitimate business interests in several vending companies, the Maggio Cheese Company, and even companies down in Florida as well as an amusement park in the Dominican Republic. In the early 1960's, we cover the hierarchy of the family as well as a 1962 dispute between Bruno and his Underboss, Ignazio Denaro, which led to a major Commission beef. We also cover various arrests throughout the 1960's, some of which Bruno handled with great ease, and an extortion case from 1963 that caused Bruno to go on the lam to Italy and landed his trusted advisor Phil Testa in jail for over a year in the early 1960's. Once Bruno deals with the 1963 extortion case, which was taking place at the same time as the infamous Valachi Hearings, we walk you through the key members of the Philadelphia underworld and the various goings-on in the mid-to-late 1960's, including the death of Felix "Skinny Razor" DeTullio and the rise in Atlantic City of Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo. Bruno closes out the 1960's hitting his stride in the Philly underworld, batting away cases with ease as the Bruno Crime Family significantly expands it's influence and wealth. By the end of the decade, Angel Bruno is ranked as one of the Top 6 Costa Nostra bosses nationally by a Justice Department report. We cover all of this, with a lot of details and amazing stories in between. Watch Part One: https://youtu.be/7CpCcc2e_Ls

We cover instances of FBI wiretaps picking up mobster conversations related to both the FBI in the early 1960's and the Kennedy brothers pre-and-post JFK's assassination.

We share and help you interpret excerpts from the 1978-1979 Senate report entitled, "House Select Committee on Assassinations: Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy" which breaks down possible mob-involvement in the 1963 assassination of the 35th President John F. Kennedy, as well as other potential players and scenarios.

We briefly cover the mob's involvement in the election of the 35th president, and discuss his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, who was named Attorney General in the early 1960's, and who'd launched an all-out war on the American Mafia, spear-headed by advancements within the FBI focused on the outing Cosa Nostra in this country.

Robert F. Kennedy's efforts led to significant increases in legal action against the Mafia across the United States, and put immense pressure on many of the mob's key players.

We briefly touch on the findings of the 1964 Warren Commission, and then dive into the wiretaps, first sharing more well-known stories, but then sharing lesser-known conversations.

Mobsters mentioned in this episode include:

• Carlos Marcello
• Santo Trafficante, Jr.
• Sam Giancana
• Charles "Chuckie" English
• Tony Accardo
• Jackie Cerone
• Dominic "Butch" Blasi
• Stefano Magaddino
• Peter Magaddino
• Antonio Magaddino
• Sam Rangatore
• Fred Randaccio
• Anthony DeStafano
• Carlo Gambino
• Carmine Lombardozzi
• Mike Scandifia
• Peter "Petey Pumps" Ferrara
• Michelino "Big Mike" Clemente
• Angelo Bruno
• Charles "Pinky" Costello
• Salvatore Maggio
• Peter Maggio
• Mario Maggio
• Willie Weisburg
• Morris Schlitten
• Joe Magliocco
• Sal Profaci
• Joe Biondo
• Joseph Riccobono
• Joseph Valachi
• Russell Bufalino

Others mentioned:

• Ed Becker
• Frank Ragano
• James Riddle Hoffa
• Jack Ruby
• Lee Harvey Oswald
• Frank Sinatra
• Michael Fiorito
• John D'Arco
• Anthony DeTolve
• Madeline Costello
• Selwyn Raab
• Ben Golub
• Harry Zimand

So it’s clear that they, the Mafia, had the means and the motive to commit the crime. But did they actually play a part in it? My personal opinion is that maybe they were the primary executioners, but we’d be naïve to believe that they played no part at all.

That being said, we may never actually know the truth until the government releases every single record, many of which are still classified to this day, about the plot.

Until then, I’ll let you decide.